The mood about this xpac should be causing you (BW) to reevaluate the whole thing

[Floplag]

I posted in the PTR forum a suggestion that they give us the content, without the revamp.

I know its probably not realistic but would anyone really mind?

[WNxAbaddon]

The only way BW can fix the player base worrys is to do the following.

 

At 80 give the player 75 billion credits, a full set of gold 4 billion ilvl gear to all toons on your account and lastly a guy comes to your home at 8am to play your swtor account who leaves at 7:59 the next morning, so you never have to put any effort or miss a single moment of swtor.

 

Ill never understand why people can't, you know progress there toons. Why do people want everything handed to them, I know its a unpopular opinion, but really if you want the best gear go join a progression Ops guild. Experance the content and enjoy it. Swtor is a MMO (massively multiplayer online game) if you want to play a single player game then am sure theres some fantastic ones out there. May I recommend the Balders gate games

Edited January 18, 2022 by WNxAbaddon

[SeCKSEgai]

I find it amusing to compare what people "defending" what's to come versus what people are expressing disatisfaction with.

 

Defense for changes -- lets wait and see what happens

 

Dislike for changes -- often including various reasons for why frequently coupled with much more thorough analysis

 

Last time I was included to test upcoming changes we had a whole nda to agree to. Virtually all the negative feedback was ignored, and thus they're finally changing what we warned them about all along.

 

The next xpac requires us to level up to essentially get weaker to grind out inferior gear to meet unrealistic new thresholds.

 

Dxun has been buggy since I came back about a year ago. I think they hit hm or nim a while back because of how maras were being utilized, but other than that its still buggy. Dxun came out quite a while before I came back, yet still not fixed over a year later. First EVHM I did when coming back Soa fell through the ground in last phase, and that's at least been around for a few years. Point being --- we've been taught not to expect expedient bug fixes.

 

I last subbed to hit the renown titles and be an active sub when xpac hit. Having spent quite some time on PTS, I'm really glad it didn't. I've basically tried to enjoy as much subscriber content with raids and such because from what I saw of 70 I will have absolutely no desire to stay for that mess. Players can struggle with basic sm content even in their perty 306 as is - the new gear means most aren't gonna bother augmenting and will be well below the 110% acc so all that missing and damage per second loss, no thanks.

[Pricia]

The only way BW can fix the player base worrys is to do the following.

 

At 80 give the player 75 billion credits, a full set of gold 4 billion ilvl gear to all toons on your account and lastly a guy comes to your home at 8am to play your swtor account who leaves at 7:59 the next morning, so you never have to put any effort or miss a single moment of swtor.

 

Ill never understand why people can't, you know progress there toons. Why do people want everything handed to them, I know its a unpopular opinion, but really if you want the best gear go join a progression Ops guild. Experance the content and enjoy it. Swtor is a MMO (massively multiplayer online game) if you want to play a single player game then am sure theres some fantastic ones out there. May I recommend the Balders gate games

 

I never saw anyone asking for everything to be handed to them.

 

They just want to be able to enjoy the game the same way they have been enjoying it, without being forced to do activities/missions that they don't enjoy with nerfed characters with nerfed abilities and nerfed gear.

[WNxAbaddon]

I never saw anyone asking for everything to be handed to them.

 

They just want to be able to enjoy the game the same way they have been enjoying it, without being forced to do activities/missions that they don't enjoy with nerfed characters with nerfed abilities and nerfed gear.

 

Oki tell me how are people being forced? who as a gun to your head. You can do conquest to get gear to do any story content and then from there you run ops to get gear for END GAME no matter what content you do you get gear to do that content. How hard is it to understand? Please read https://vulkk.com/2021/11/03/how-endgame-gearing-will-work-in-swtor-7-0/

 

With this updated flow in mind, let’s expand on what’s known as the gearing ceiling. New and more powerful gear will be released with each new major update, but game balance will remain the same throughout 7.0 patches. Content that may have been too difficult or intimidating at launch will eventually be out-geared, giving players an opportunity to level up to higher difficulties and also learn the mechanics of the content at their own pace. As expansion updates get released, we will also raise the “floor,” or the power of base gear, so new players who happen to join the expansion at a mid-way point aren’t left behind by this power growth.

[ChaosIsGolden]

The fact is Austin Bioware is coming out with a new expansion that will have a new host of bugs, gearing, and the whole shebang to distract players from the simple fact that they will likely be releasing bare minimal content with this new "expansion."

 

Notice the quotes for my sarcasm.

 

Initial release to 1.0- 3 operation, class stories and planetary content, 17 flashpoints, and 5 PVP areas.

2.0- 4 operations, the Hutt cartel expac and the start of Revan questline, seven flashpoints, arenas, and quesh huttball.

3.0- 2 operations, Reven questline leading Emperor questline, two flashpoints, and I think some arenas, not sure, stopped doing ranked PVP by this point.

4.0- 0 operations, KOTFE questline, Star Fortresses which I don't find all the entertaining and have only done on a few toons, Odessen Proving Grounds, along with a couple of arenas.

5.0- 1 piecemealed operation, rushed KOTET questline, traitor arc, and the start of onslaught questline, two flashpoints, Yavin Ruins, and more arenas.

6.0- I have not played that much; I know there's one operation and at least one flashpoint released during this time, along with the end of TVV.

 

I may have missed some stuff like daily areas and such, but I haven't been an active player that logs in every day to raid or PVP since before 5.0.

 

Covid can excuse some lack, but not everything because it merely seems like another reason why SWTOR has continually seen a downgrade with every expansion. This new expansion will release a new system that only adds to the old bugs, which never get fixed if they're not game-breaking. Likely one operation instead of a couple of operations and FPs that challenge raiders, little to nothing for PVPers. Dribbles of story content and lots of Cartel Market content to keep solo-players subscribed. There you go, that will be 7.0 in a nutshell.

[Xhuuyaa]

Oki tell me how are people being forced? who as a gun to your head.

 

A gun? Wait until your parents show up and force you without any gun to bring the garbage outside. Wanna discuss thesubject really on such level? The new "expansion" force you into certain kind of stuff - ie to upgrade a piece of gear. You know this.

 

 

How hard is it to understand? Please read...

 

Have you read it? Even if its true - "Major updates" - could be 4 Month, 6 Month, maybe 12? Why should people wait? What offers this expansion to make it worth the wait? There is only one thing i'm looking forward this far and this is some new haircuts... thats it. Thats the "expansion" at least for me atm. :/

[TrixxieTriss]

https://mmo-population.com/r/swtor

Make of it what you will, but it's difficult to get an idea of the population at the time of 6.0

 

Note that there's around 180K players per day. The 10-20 people posting on here (about 7.0 doomsday) are indeed just a small percentage of the playerbase.

So if every one of the people complaining were to quit, there'd still be ~180K per day. 😏

 

I need to ask where do these people pull their data from? Because there are no publicly available numbers of players outside of Steam, which wasn’t a thing when 6.0 was launched.

I would take those numbers with a big grain of salt because they don’t seem to include any of players who still login now outside of Steam.

And they don’t have any public way of getting the data from 6.0 players before Steam access was added.

Which is obviously why I’m not linking any numbers because they’d be just as suspect. But you only needed to play the game from before 6.0 to now to see that player numbers in the actual game are down.

Edited January 19, 2022 by TrixxieTriss

[TrixxieTriss]

I posted in the PTR forum a suggestion that they give us the content, without the revamp.

I know its probably not realistic but would anyone really mind?

 

That would be my preference too. No combat revamp, no gear revamp, no UI revamp and no Conquest point changes would suit me just fine.

 

My preference would be they keep the current gear setup, but remove 70% of the different numbered types that are totally useless. And allow you to also buy the BiS ones directly from vendors (for exorbitant amounts for a good credit sink). At the same time increase the amount of RNG protection by not dropping stuff you already have.

[WNxAbaddon]

*Sigh* I give up I really do, why is it when BW try to change things up ppl lose there minds? I mean at this point people would just be happy to forget 7.0 and stay in 6.xxxx forever. Is it any wonder why BW just farm the cash mules? this is how I see BW HQ.

 

 

BW "Hey lets try adding new" forum users "NO! DONT TAKE MY GEAR"... BW " ok we wont change gearing, but hey lets add some new ski..... forum users "NO DONT CHANGE MY SKILLS" BW ok.....erm lets add some new ops and flashpoints... forum users..." NO MORE MULTIPLAYER CONTENT"... BW ok what the hell do you want? forum users... " BW NEVER LISTENS"... BW......ok we quit.

[Toraak]

*Sigh* I give up I really do, why is it when BW try to change things up ppl lose there minds? I mean at this point people would just be happy to forget 7.0 and stay in 6.xxxx forever. Is it any wonder why BW just farm the cash mules? this is how I see BW HQ.

 

 

BW "Hey lets try adding new" forum users "NO! DONT TAKE MY GEAR"... BW " ok we wont change gearing, but hey lets add some new ski..... forum users "NO DONT CHANGE MY SKILLS" BW ok.....erm lets add some new ops and flashpoints... forum users..." NO MORE MULTIPLAYER CONTENT"... BW ok what the hell do you want? forum users... " BW NEVER LISTENS"... BW......ok we quit.[/QUOT

 

Got a good laugh out of this, thank you. Nothing BW does will ever satisfy the playerbase. People complain about everything.

[TrixxieTriss]

*Sigh* I give up I really do, why is it when BW try to change things up ppl lose there minds? I mean at this point people would just be happy to forget 7.0 and stay in 6.xxxx forever. Is it any wonder why BW just farm the cash mules? this is how I see BW HQ.

 

 

BW "Hey lets try adding new" forum users "NO! DONT TAKE MY GEAR"... BW " ok we wont change gearing, but hey lets add some new ski..... forum users "NO DONT CHANGE MY SKILLS" BW ok.....erm lets add some new ops and flashpoints... forum users..." NO MORE MULTIPLAYER CONTENT"... BW ok what the hell do you want? forum users... " BW NEVER LISTENS"... BW......ok we quit.

 

Because 7.0 will be total rubbish. You would know that if you’d spent 10’s hours testing on the PTS.

 

You’ve totally missed the point with you’re rant because they didn’t need to make major changes to any of the current systems to add new content.

 

They could have then spent those resources on making new flash points, operations, story, revamping pvp and fix bugs and class balance.

 

Instead they’ve spent the majority of their resources on stuff that didn’t need major changes. They only needed to tweak a few things to balance classes better and a few tweaks to reduce the RNG, they didn’t need to reinvent the wheel yet again!

[DWho]

That's true of the General Forums perhaps, but what gets posted on the PTS forums generally comes from people with a lot of experience in the game and a desire to see it improved. People who really care about the game and its future. Waiting to see how bad it is and then complaining is like shutting the barn door after the cattle have already left. There has been a lot more negative feedback on the PTS forums than I have ever seen before. A lot is about broken systems and balance issues which are important things to have fixed before a release.

[Rolodome]

I need to ask where do these people pull their data from? Because there are no publicly available numbers of players outside of Steam, which wasn’t a thing when 6.0 was launched.

I would take those numbers with a big grain of salt because they don’t seem to include any of players who still login now outside of Steam.

And they don’t have any public way of getting the data from 6.0 players before Steam access was added.

Which is obviously why I’m not linking any numbers because they’d be just as suspect. But you only needed to play the game from before 6.0 to now to see that player numbers in the actual game are down.

Yeah, I would say the most inarguable factor about pop is the amount of content. You'd think if pop was doing well, the funding for content would reflect that as they'd want to reinvest to maintain the pop. Instead, as someone illustrated in detail in another post, it has only declined over time.

 

KOTFE appears to have been the last time they did major investing in content and they made a lot of choices causing it to do poorly and now a couple of expansions later, there's so little being added that opening up combat styles is almost a kind of content. We can also see how the only way to make sense of some of the system rewrites they have in progress as a rational decision is if it's to stretch what is left of the game even further, in lieu of not having the budget for fresh content. They should really have gone to upper management at the beginning of the expansion pitch and said that they need more funding, or they aren't going to be able to make something that keeps people playing. I really get the sense this game is hitting its limits on squeezing something out of nothing and it has already been pushing that in various ways for... I would say, for some years.

 

Maybe I'm misreading the situation, but if they don't have the budget to keep people interested, I would much rather they just officially declare the game in maintenance mode and have whatever team is left for maintenance work on bugs than slowly destroy what's left of the game trying to squeeze content out of more system rewrites for combat scaling and gear. I realize that's prob not something a lot would agree with me on, but I don't like being strung along and if they continue on a path of trying to force content out of nothing for another year or two of updates, I can't see them having much of the original game intact by the time they're done.

Edited January 19, 2022 by Rolodome

[WNxAbaddon]

Because 7.0 will be total rubbish. You would know that if you’d spent 10’s hours testing on the PTS.

 

You’ve totally missed the point with you’re rant because they didn’t need to make major changes to any of the current systems to add new content.

 

They could have then spent those resources on making new flash points, operations, story, revamping pvp and fix bugs and class balance.

 

Instead they’ve spent the majority of their resources on stuff that didn’t need major changes. They only needed to tweak a few things to balance classes better and a few tweaks to reduce the RNG, they didn’t need to reinvent the wheel yet again!

 

What experance of mmos are you drawing on? I mean you must have a vast knowledge of what works and what won't to make the clame that it will be "total rubbish" or most lightly you think it will be rubbish as it changes things you and a small amount of people like you like.

 

BW is doing nothing so crazy that means 70% / 80% of the player base will leave, all they're doing is freshen the game up its been stale for awhile now. BW is trying to make the game enjoyable for ALL not just a few vocal few, putting the focus on operations as a knock on effect that can only help the game grow... let me show you.

Having a focus on raiding will mean players need to now roll healers and tanks to make things easier, so that means you will see more of said classes in flashpoints, guilds will start to recruit for raiding rather than conquests. That means smaller guilds rather than a few big cesspool conquest guilds, more guilds means more players get to do content they wouldn't normally do. Having a smaller skill set means classes are easier to balance and then it's easier to add new skills later on as BW can focus more on skill / class balance...., this will mean more class diversity

 

Remind me how any of that is a bad thing?

[Rolodome]

What experance of mmos are you drawing on? I mean you must have a vast knowledge of what works and what won't to make the clame that it will be "total rubbish" or most lightly you think it will be rubbish as it changes things you and a small amount of people like you like.

 

BW is doing nothing so crazy that means 70% / 80% of the player base will leave, all they're doing is freshen the game up its been stale for awhile now. BW is trying to make the game enjoyable for ALL not just a few vocal few, putting the focus on operations as a knock on effect that can only help the game grow... let me show you.

Having a focus on raiding will mean players need to now roll healers and tanks to make things easier, so that means you will see more of said classes in flashpoints, guilds will start to recruit for raiding rather than conquests. That means smaller guilds rather than a few big cesspool conquest guilds, more guilds means more players get to do content they wouldn't normally do. Having a smaller skill set means classes are easier to balance and then it's easier to add new skills later on as BW can focus more on skill / class balance...., this will mean more class diversity

 

Remind me how any of that is a bad thing?

a small amount of people like you like.

That's what you're describing when you talk about trying to make raids the focus of everything.

[WNxAbaddon]

That's what you're describing when you talk about trying to make raids the focus of everything.

 

Your evidence? remember theres 3 levels of ops so unless there is a lot of content no one is doing or more people run ops every week then you care to admit.

[Rolodome]

Your evidence? remember theres 3 levels of ops so unless there is a lot of content no one is doing or more people run ops every week then you care to admit.

Your evidence? I can do that too. This is a varied game with story, PvP, FPs, ops, RPers, achievement hunters, fashion enthusiasts, etc. It was a built on a foundation of huge sprawling story campaigns, it was never a raiding game at its core. I would never say they should be dismissive of raiders or ignore them, or fail to make new content for them; KOTFE made clear how bad of an idea that is. But to say they should be pandered to above all else, that they should be the center of gravity of the game, is absurd.

[DWho]

What experance of mmos are you drawing on? I mean you must have a vast knowledge of what works and what won't to make the clame that it will be "total rubbish" or most lightly you think it will be rubbish as it changes things you and a small amount of people like you like.

 

BW is doing nothing so crazy that means 70% / 80% of the player base will leave, all they're doing is freshen the game up its been stale for awhile now. BW is trying to make the game enjoyable for ALL not just a few vocal few, putting the focus on operations as a knock on effect that can only help the game grow... let me show you.

Having a focus on raiding will mean players need to now roll healers and tanks to make things easier, so that means you will see more of said classes in flashpoints, guilds will start to recruit for raiding rather than conquests. That means smaller guilds rather than a few big cesspool conquest guilds, more guilds means more players get to do content they wouldn't normally do. Having a smaller skill set means classes are easier to balance and then it's easier to add new skills later on as BW can focus more on skill / class balance...., this will mean more class diversity

 

Remind me how any of that is a bad thing?

 

If a focus on raiding worked the way you think, it would be a good thing for the game. Unfortunately, it has been tried before and failed each time. Raiders come in, get to max gear then leave or start complaining there is nothing to do even though they haven't touched 99% of the game (maybe they need to make changes so the "raiders" try content they wouldn't normally do). The expansion won't drive 70% of the playerbase away, it would have to be truly atrocious for that and even what was on the PTS before Dec 15th wasn't bad enough for that (though it was pretty bad). There is a good chance it could drive 10 or even 20% of the playerbase away and draw in much less than that on a permanent basis. People will grumble about it but 4.0 (which had lots of story and updates to all of the flashpoints and operations) was the most successful expansion in the game yet they did not follow it up with another story based expansion and the game has been bleeding subs ever since.

[Xhuuyaa]

... all they're doing is freshen the game up its been stale for awhile now. BW is trying to make the game enjoyable for ALL ..

 

I don't know how pruning of core abilities "freshen the game".

 

Having a focus on raiding will mean players need to now roll healers and tanks to make things easier, so that means you will see more of said classes in flashpoints, guilds will start to recruit for raiding rather than conquests.

 

Or maybe they pick simply a second combat-style as healer or tank on an existing toon?

[WNxAbaddon]

If a focus on raiding worked the way you think, it would be a good thing for the game. Unfortunately, it has been tried before and failed each time. Raiders come in, get to max gear then leave or start complaining there is nothing to do even though they haven't touched 99% of the game (maybe they need to make changes so the "raiders" try content they wouldn't normally do). The expansion won't drive 70% of the playerbase away, it would have to be truly atrocious for that and even what was on the PTS before Dec 15th wasn't bad enough for that (though it was pretty bad). There is a good chance it could drive 10 or even 20% of the playerbase away and draw in much less than that on a permanent basis. People will grumble about it but 4.0 (which had lots of story and updates to all of the flashpoints and operations) was the most successful expansion in the game yet they did not follow it up with another story based expansion and the game has been bleeding subs ever since.

 

You see I disagree, look at historicly the one of most successful MMO's out there, wow. go back to the start what made wow fantastic, was communaty cooperation and end game raiding. what the wow devs realised early on was that you needed a chain of events to make each part of there game to grow and not only that the players needed to be on borde. Early wow caterd to everyone, singplayer questers, crafters, achev hunters, dungons and raiders everyone. everyone in a symbiotic relationship.

 

Now take swtor..... Everyone can agree crafting is pointless, apart from a few things ( that your alt can make ) crafting is dead, singleplayer content is the focus NOT down to the devs, but down to the playerbase being so small, flashpoints are a joke and very easy to do (down to the fact healers / tanks are not needed) so you see BW focused on story mode for so long as it was to keep the game alive. But to use your argument once you have done the story most players just quit till more story comes along. swtor isnt growing its slowly resting in a shallow grave theres nothing to keep players playing long term.

 

Your evidence? I can do that too. This is a varied game with story, PvP, FPs, ops, RPers, achievement hunters, fashion enthusiasts, etc. It was a built on a foundation of huge sprawling story campaigns, it was never a raiding game at its core. I would never say they should be dismissive of raiders or ignore them, or fail to make new content for them; KOTFE made clear how bad of an idea that is. But to say they should be pandered to above all else, that they should be the center of gravity of the game, is absurd.

 

My evidence is look at the fact BW is making more end game content, trying to support raiding (that to be fair as been neglected for a long time) Back when swtor was in beta players wanted end game content, you have to remember eternity vault was the only raid back then, up untill the rise of the hutt cartel, swtor was growing very fast, but a few PR blunders and bugs / glitches back then drove players off in there droves, the focus switched from large story content to a smaller story than again pushed people away, to the point swtor was a zombi game. it was only down to the fact it was the only really good star wars game and it had / has a loyal fan base are we even able to play it now.

 

The truth is, swtor is dying as been for awile now. BW needs to attract more than story players, more focus on end game content will bring more people back, a fresh new look with a simpler skill set, won't put people off and, new and fun end game content will keep people longer, sure solo story players will be angry. but a new thriving end game will IN TIME bring back crafters (as raiders will need meds and stims) in time am sure BW will start adding in more crafting. bw will then be able to balance classes better ( this will make pvpers happy ) that means more of a range of classes theres no downside.

[DWho]

You see I disagree, look at historicly the one of most successful MMO's out there, wow. go back to the start what made wow fantastic, was communaty cooperation and end game raiding. what the wow devs realised early on was that you needed a chain of events to make each part of there game to grow and not only that the players needed to be on borde. Early wow caterd to everyone, singplayer questers, crafters, achev hunters, dungons and raiders everyone. everyone in a symbiotic relationship.

 

Now take swtor..... Everyone can agree crafting is pointless, apart from a few things ( that your alt can make ) crafting is dead, singleplayer content is the focus NOT down to the devs, but down to the playerbase being so small, flashpoints are a joke and very easy to do (down to the fact healers / tanks are not needed) so you see BW focused on story mode for so long as it was to keep the game alive. But to use your argument once you have done the story most players just quit till more story comes along. swtor isnt growing its slowly resting in a shallow grave theres nothing to keep players playing long term.

 

Well I guess we will have to disagree then. This game isn't WOW and considering what WOW is going through now (bleeding subs like crazy after several lackluster expansions - sound familiar?) I wouldn't want this game to copy it. The game has always been more of an online multiplayer RPG than an MMO and that was it's draw. Each time Bioware has taken away part of the RPG elements (such as making pretty much all story into flashpoints and daily areas) it has shed subs.

 

Having played on the PTS, gearing is going to be an issue when 7.0 launches. I play a mix of content so it won't be so bad for me but there are a lot of players that don't do any group content for a variety of reasons. The rate at which you will be able to gear outside group content (which is pretty much only conquest) is pathetically slow (a few commendations an hour at most and none of the required matrix components if you don't hit your conquest goal - and it's easier to fail to get there than you think if it isn't your focus).

 

What I would like to see is a filling out of the story content on all the planets while producing flashpoints and Operations that build on that story but are not instrumental to the storyline making sense. Oricon is a good example of that issue. Without doing the Operation, there is no closure to the Dread Masters storyline. There should at the very least be a cutscene of the battle to close out that story arc. By expanding on the story on existing planets you can re-use models and cut development time. Adding post KOTFE/KOTET areas to each planet would require few new resources and could add dozens of hours of new story content extending the time people play. One thing I think they should do is not allow people full access to all the new story content just for subscribing for one month (that really destroys revenues). I'm not sure what the right answer is there, maybe going back to DLCs with more content.

 

I'd also like to see KotET and the Traitor arc restored to what they were supposed to be, 16 chapter stories. While KotFE was fabulous story when played as a unit (instead of 1 chapter a month). KoTET felt rushed and incomplete and the "Story" flashpoints of the Traitor arc were a poor way to deliver story. Heck, I'd even be willing to write the replacement content for free if that was something Bioware would be open to.

[juliushorst]

BW "Hey lets try adding new" forum users "NO! DONT TAKE MY GEAR"... BW " ok we wont change gearing, but hey lets add some new ski..... forum users "NO DONT CHANGE MY SKILLS" BW ok.....erm lets add some new ops and flashpoints... forum users..." NO MORE MULTIPLAYER CONTENT"... BW ok what the hell do you want? forum users... " BW NEVER LISTENS"... BW......ok we quit.

 

Not very accurate...

BW "Hey lets try adding new"

Forum: OK, add it but don't remove what we have and like.

 

BW " ok we wont change gearing, but hey lets add some new ski.....

Forum: Thank you for scrapping that awful gearing but dear BW, you are not ADDING skills, you are REMOVING SKILLS.

 

BW ok.....erm lets add some new ops and flashpoints...

Forum: OK, add them, we'll take any new piece of story. Just don't mess up balancing like you did with solo modes of Copero and Spirit of Vengence. And we don't want to be forced to play harder versions of them, some of us like story mode.

 

BW ok what the hell do you want?

Forum: Good gear for all playstyles like it was in 6.0, no forced quest resets, reasonable balancing, conquest targets as they are now.

 

BW: Nah. RAIDING, BABY! We will make you love it.

[WNxAbaddon]

Well I guess we will have to disagree then. This game isn't WOW and considering what WOW is going through now (bleeding subs like crazy after several lackluster expansions - sound familiar?) I wouldn't want this game to copy it. The game has always been more of an online multiplayer RPG than an MMO and that was it's draw. Each time Bioware has taken away part of the RPG elements (such as making pretty much all story into flashpoints and daily areas) it has shed subs.

 

I only bring wow ( vanilla to wotlk ) up to show what happens when multiple parts of a game work togeather, when you neglect one or more aspects of the game it falls like a house of cards, thats where swtor is now.

 

Having played on the PTS, gearing is going to be an issue when 7.0 launches. I play a mix of content so it won't be so bad for me but there are a lot of players that don't do any group content for a variety of reasons. The rate at which you will be able to gear outside group content (which is pretty much only conquest) is pathetically slow (a few commendations an hour at most and none of the required matrix components if you don't hit your conquest goal - and it's easier to fail to get there than you think if it isn't your focus).

 

See this is what Ill never understand, when your in this odd limbo of not being one thing or another you leave out a part of your playerbase, if BW said tomorrow there ONLY focusing on SP content I could get behind that, am a solo player myself. As there is very little at end game BW is maing other aspects of the game longer to keep players subbed and playing, with out players its dead.

 

What I would like to see is a filling out of the story content on all the planets while producing flashpoints and Operations that build on that story but are not instrumental to the storyline making sense. Oricon is a good example of that issue. Without doing the Operation, there is no closure to the Dread Masters storyline. There should at the very least be a cutscene of the battle to close out that story arc. By expanding on the story on existing planets you can re-use models and cut development time. Adding post KOTFE/KOTET areas to each planet would require few new resources and could add dozens of hours of new story content extending the time people play. One thing I think they should do is not allow people full access to all the new story content just for subscribing for one month (that really destroys revenues). I'm not sure what the right answer is there, maybe going back to DLCs with more content.

 

I agree with 90% of what you said, I would argue that a good way to end a story segment would be with a flashpoint or ops, but I agree it would need to be done in such a way it did't leave you hanging if you didn't do that content, you sould NEVER be forced into a ops or flashpoint or pvp or anything to finish content only to expand on it or as another means of finishing a area, yavin 4 springs to mind.

 

I'd also like to see KotET and the Traitor arc restored to what they were supposed to be, 16 chapter stories. While KotFE was fabulous story when played as a unit (instead of 1 chapter a month). KoTET felt rushed and incomplete and the "Story" flashpoints of the Traitor arc were a poor way to deliver story. Heck, I'd even be willing to write the replacement content for free if that was something Bioware would be open to.

 

Alot of gated content is used as a time sink, most of the time this is bad. But for swtor it's needed to keep things moving due to the lower player base numbers and player retention numbers, BW use gated content to keep subs flowing. I agree with the rest to a point however, story mode flashpoints (if used correctly) can be a good mode to keep the story moving and give players who are scared of group content a way to dip there toes in, but in the manner your talking about however I agree thats just bad.

 

My aim here isn't to bash solo players (am one of them) but to show that group content in a MMO is needed, you can find a balance and both aspects of the game can and sould be treated fair. But Ill never understand this (I want the best stuff on day 1 point of view) Just like playing the story your toon can and sould be free to progress, you sould have all the doors open to you, never closed. I don't see this new system as a bad thing, just the start of something new, remember all good things need to start somewhere, am sure as 7.0 progresses, more and more things for all players will be added, throwing your toys out of the pram at this point when you have 10% of the picture seems silly.

Edited January 19, 2022 by WNxAbaddon

[Xhuuyaa]

BW needs to attract more than story players, more focus on end game content will bring more people back

 

You really do think that one new raid & one new flashpoint will bring such people back? Bring back to pruned toons they have to gear up in a grindy gearing process... for one raid?

 

 

a fresh new look with a simpler skill set won't put people off

 

Thats just not true. The new skillset is not simpler, its only worse. Ill give you an example: most new players learn fast how the hardstun works und how to use it. They get it somehwere between level 9 – 20.

In 7.0 the hardstun will be removed ecxept you choose/trade it for a really good dcd on level 73.

But the hardstun is a very effectiv and easily to understand tool ecspecially for lower levels and it helps them sometimes a lot to survive.

 

And this goes on - if new players start doing group content fps raiding and so on, it will be a lot harder for them because they have 2-3 dcds less than today. They will die more often and much quicker. What makes it not more fun.

 

And classes with weaker dcds will stop grouping with low levels in fps, because there are good chances the will die with them. Its a lose lose for everyone.

 

Just Simpler doesn't mean better. Not better for new players, not for vets, not for the game.

 

 

Btw there are some heroics on Hoth where you get kicked and stuned ~30 times – in ONE heroic. Its a bad joke that classes lose their only hardstun, while they get stunned in a row doing heroics.

 

 

... but a new thriving end game new thriving end game will IN TIME bring back crafters (as raiders will need meds and stims) in time am sure BW will start adding in more crafting. bw will then be able to balance classes better ( this will make pvpers happy ) that means more of a range of classes theres no downside.

 

again, with one new raid we get a whole new thriving endgame? Youre making things up here,

- crafting will not even be touched with 7.0

- nobody knows how and when any craftig changes will be implemented and how they will affect endgame content

- and since when have crafting changes ever led to better class balance?

 

 

I think you really believe this because you want it to be true. But I can see no clue that it will go this way in a foreseable future. All Ive seen are the thing on pts. And they aren't looking very promising.

Edited January 19, 2022 by Xhuuyaa