I believe the direction of the game is for a type of players that BW doesn't have

[commanderwar]

Long Post

 

I'm not hear to insult the devs or anyone, this is just my opinion. I just here to talk about the direction the game has taken this past year. I love this game, I have been playing it for years and will keep playing. I'm not saying my opinion is the correct, anyone is free to disagree. This is how I see things.

 

I believe the changes this past year is aim at dedicated players that play daily, love challenging group content, and hard operations. A player base that I think is small in swtor, one bW doesn't have. Some changes these past year convince me of the direction there taking.

 

 

1. Uprisings, when they came out, the massive problem with them was that they were over tune and gave very low rewards, and required a sub, making them die out. When 6.0 launch uprisings would not scale you down to level 70, meaning a level 75 player could out level them. I queue for them when this change was made and had a fun time. Come later down the road they would be scale for level 75, with their goal of making them challenging, as stated in an article. Majority of their playerbase was not interested in challenging group content, and after an hour of queueing for them after 7.0. I fond out uprising died out again, because I believe the majority don't want to play challenging group content.

 

1. PVP weekly wins, only. Making weeklies and dallies require pvp wins for unrank, going for the all or nothing route for hardcore players. I only played PVP once in a while, but when I play I would finish the daily at least. then when this change was made, as a causal player I knew I would rarely finish the weekly, but I would keep the weekly with me. And then 7.0with the weekly resets. Now am not aiming to ever complete that weekly. However I am not going to try to finish it, it is only for actual PVP players, who play pvp often.

 

Weekly resets: forcing players to finish a weekly, even if they don't have time. I say this is terrible. I don't have time to try to get 4 wins in pvp. or to get all three world bosses. No reason to do dallies areas a day before reset if I can't finish the weekly. Sometimes I like to play other things in the game, so I don't finish the weekly at the end, now I being force to. This is for the hardcore, for players who play dailies and pvp very often every day.

 

gearing: we all know 5.0 introduce the concept of solo players who can gear to max gear rating, and despite it's terrible execution with RNG, I did like the casual solo gearing concept. However in 6.0, gearing in solo content or casual group flashpoints, was executed perfectly. And it was fast.

 

come 7.0, we now have 5 or 6 gearing currency, and a slower and confusing gearing system. where only hardcore ops players can max, and with the only route being old content I did years ago. I get anxiety when do operations, so I don't do them.

 

I been playing the game for years I have done each heroic on planets dozens of time. With 6.0 gearing I did the Mek-sha and Ondereon dallies, with the Shipyard flashpoint. And I would do short group flashpoints. Now with only Elom for gearing if you want to only grind in new content, but Elom long, and for some reason newer content does not give out more currencies than old content, so it is slower. And it's broken and long for a group, and their a possibility it's overtune for level 53 players, like nathema currently is, so I am not going to queue for it. It's get boring being force to play this slow and unfun gearing system on old content, where in 6.0 it was fun and free.

 

It's like one day being offered 10 flavors of ice cream one day, and the next day you are only one flavor and you dislike that flavor.

 

BW wants player to group for ops no matter what, they want so badly for this game pillar to also be ops or PVP, despite all the those things, be meh in comparison to other MMOs. So they try to force players to play ops and pvp, to justify future production of Ops and such, leaving and unfun experience.

 

 

Are PVP players having fun doing master Ops for max, are mostly casual players having fun playing ops. Are veterans having fun playing old content they did already. Where before people did as they wanted.

You know before 6.0 then killed off bug hunt because people did them to get the most XP and they removed because it was unfun. Well is that not the same thing as forcing players who don't want to do ops, they might be having an unfun experience. Not to mention making new operations extremely difficult and not something for random groups.

 

I believe operations should offer the fastest route to max gearing, decorations and mounts. 6.0 dxun officered players a mount and tacticals, if that was not enough to get players to get operations, with the rewards, maybe the majority don't want to, but at least were having fun and not being force to do something they don't want.

 

There were some good changes for the game, such as bonuses on implants, less abilities, switching advance classes. Changes that work for this game.

 

How do I see the game?

 

All in all the game has always shine in story. in 4.0 devs and EA said it was the most subs they had since Makeb, The problem with 4.0, is that it didn't give solo or casual players anything to do except for old heroics for RNG cosmetic crates, and alliance alerts. Which meant a lot of those players leaving after the story. 5.0 gave them a terrible gearing system, that solo players could do, and uprisings that were over tune and bad rewards, with no solo version. Which meant players also left.

 

I love 4.0, I think the story was amazing, despite me hating killing off companions and killing characters, and me being the chosen one, I love it.

 

I think 4.0 understand what the game actually was, meh mmo, that can't handle 16 people fighting, but with amazing story content. it was lack of content outside of story solo players and small group players could do, that was its downfall. Despite some vocal players on forums not liking the direction at the time, however I do think majority love it, and were quite vocal when the story focus direction was over.

 

I guess the perfect expansion for me is 4.0 story content, 6.0 gearing, with seasons pass, with mini games, with at least 1 small czerk like daily area, and czerk-198 like flashpoints, meaning short but fun flashpoint, with some side quest in kotor style, with 7.0 class changes and allowing player to switch advance class. With uprisings just as easy as flashpoints, and PVP and ops are optional. With no PVP required wins and no weekly resets.

Edited March 18, 2022 by commanderwar

[juliushorst]

I fond out uprising died out again, because I believe the majority don't want to play challenging group content.

 

Very much this. Many times I queued for random vet fp only to get one of the new ones (Umbara, Copero, Nathema, Corellia, SoV) and half of the group leaving before we even had a chance to start. Sometimes without saying anything, sometimes with some variation of "sorry, too hard for me".

[iphacles]

Very much this. Many times I queued for random vet fp only to get one of the new ones (Umbara, Copero, Nathema, Corellia, SoV) and half of the group leaving before we even had a chance to start. Sometimes without saying anything, sometimes with some variation of "sorry, too hard for me".

 

True... with Copero and Nathema people will only usually stay if there is a stealth character that is willing to run to the boss / bosses. Umbara is annoying because the train section can be laggy for some and buggy (those turrets with stealth detection that force the team to suicide if someone doesn't know you can't stealth around them stink). SoV is just long and people generally want to do quicker flashpoints. At least that's been my experience doing a lot of the vet flashpoints via groupfinder.

[Pricia]

I wish there would be a way to see how many players play for what, but from a Reddit poll, 60% or more played for the story. And it's something that's unfortunately has really taken a back burner in favor of gear grinding.

 

As a soloer with alts, I'm absolutely not happy. Next week will be better when I can do weeklies for every planet and get drops (for my alts, soloers don't deserve upgrade drops I guess) while working on CQ. But still. Such a downgrade from 6.0 when I could run solo FPs and get an upgrade or at least enough fragments for one. Now I'd get enough for 1/5 of an upgrade or something. Ridiculous.

 

So I've had to do GSF for gear/tech fragments, but you can't really mix/match gear because you'll run out of ARMs and medals. I bought maybe four pieces of gear this week (one thyrsian, three solo ones) and upgraded them to 326. I capped on all the currencies after 4 days. I didn't have enough medals left to buy a legendary, let alone upgrade anything, and I'm left with close to 800 thyrisan parts, 280 ARMs or something... and 25 medals.

 

Meanwhile conquest is taking 6 times as long or something as we've lost the CQ points for every heroic after the first one on each planet. But yeah, doing it is still the best way for me to get tech fragments when I'm sick of running GSF (which is getting to be most days).

 

Because of that I have no desire to ever start a new character - it's already hard enough to play all the ones I have.

 

But yeah, I'm sure people who always run ops on one character are happy.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Pricia

[OlBuzzard]

To OP: there has been several things that were done right over time. KotFE did have some good points (though I hated the gearing system).

 

5.0 had a few things that were right too

6.0 ... loved the gear

7.0 ... (hmmm ... I'm working on it !! )

 

Point is that there are plenty of good things if they were utilized to focus on a more positive direction in the midst of the transformation that we see unfolding.

[eabevella]

Long Post

I guess the perfect expansion for me is 4.0 story content, 6.0 gearing, with seasons pass, with mini games, with at least 1 small czerk like daily area, and czerk-198 like flashpoints, meaning short but fun flashpoint, with some side quest in kotor style, with 7.0 class changes and allowing player to switch advance class. With uprisings just as easy as flashpoints, and PVP and ops are optional. With no PVP required wins and no weekly resets.

 

Pretty much this.

 

The funny thing is, the developer didn't even manage to make new super awesome very difficult Operations for their "target audience" in 7.0.

 

11 Operations in 10 years? Come on, who are you gonna please with that lol

[Muckbeast]

It is incredibly obvious that SWTOR is "the story MMO." That primarily means the class stories, planet stories, and the overall macro story that has been added to over time.

 

Story is what this MMO is known for.

 

Story is what people talk about.

 

Story is what keeps people playing, re-playing, making alts to re-play story, etc.

 

Whoever at Bioware thinks this is a gear grinding, raiding game has utterly failed to pay attention to the player base and what they love about this game.

 

If you want to raid or grind gear, there are numerous MMOs that are vastly superior at that.

 

The devs need to dump about 80% of the stupid upgrade currencies, unify the gear/upgrade paths, and simplify the gear system.

 

Then they need to fix the scaling when level syncing on planets, the companion scaling/influence/presence, and give us back our cosmetic weapon skins.

 

That's the stuff people love about this game. That is what has kept it alive for 10 years.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Muckbeast

[lord-angelus]

It is incredibly obvious that SWTOR is "the story MMO." That primarily means the class stories, planet stories, and the overall macro story that has been added to over time.

 

Story is what this MMO is known for.

 

Story is what people talk about.

 

Story is what keeps people playing, re-playing, making alts to re-play story, etc.

 

Whoever at Bioware thinks this is a gear grinding, raiding game has utterly failed to pay attention to the player base and what they love about this game.

 

If you want to raid or grind gear, there are numerous MMOs that are vastly superior at that.

 

The devs need to dump about 80% of the stupid upgrade currencies, unify the gear/upgrade paths, and simplify the gear system.

 

Then they need to fix the scaling when level syncing on planets, the companion scaling/influence/presence, and give us back our cosmetic weapon skins.

 

That's the stuff people love about this game. That is what has kept it alive for 10 years.

If you want stories there are tons of mmo's offers not 30 min stories but 6 -30 hours per expansion go play them

 

What you people don't understand is this : SWTOR had tried only story route twice and it failed miserably. People wanted end game content ( whatever ita ops pvp dailies evets) and they left at the beginning of the game because there was nothing to do. Nobody wanted run the same story again nobody wanted play a different class nobody watched cutscenes or dialogs and just skipped it to the end game.

 

4.0 was the same thing it failed miserably. People subbed once then left the game,again.

 

Stories are hardest and most expensive content on any game can develop. Especially for this game, you need 16 voice actors, different animations for the comp scenes etc etc. That's why they canceled class stories at 1.3 because there wasn't ENOUGH SUBBED PLAYER to justify or run the class stories.

 

This is the fact and I still don't understand how you don't see it. Do you know why ffxiv has x20 times more story per expansion than in this game?because they have x30 has more end game content to do than this game. Story is icing on the cake, cherry on the cake even. It's nice to have, great complimentary to the cake, not the cake itself. You play story the once, then it's over. End game is cheaper to develop it is replayablate many years,times to come.

 

Would I want more engaging, long story?suree definitely.i enyoj a good story. But the reason we don't have there wasn't enough end game content. Simple as that.

[Kendaric]

If you want stories there are tons of mmo's offers not 30 min stories but 6 -30 hours per expansion go play them

 

What you people don't understand is this : SWTOR had tried only story route twice and it failed miserably. People wanted end game content ( whatever ita ops pvp dailies evets) and they left at the beginning of the game because there was nothing to do. Nobody wanted run the same story again nobody wanted play a different class nobody watched cutscenes or dialogs and just skipped it to the end game.

 

4.0 was the same thing it failed miserably. People subbed once then left the game,again.

 

Stories are hardest and most expensive content on any game can develop. Especially for this game, you need 16 voice actors, different animations for the comp scenes etc etc. That's why they canceled class stories at 1.3 because there wasn't ENOUGH SUBBED PLAYER to justify or run the class stories.

 

This is the fact and I still don't understand how you don't see it. Do you know why ffxiv has x20 times more story per expansion than in this game?because they have x30 has more end game content to do than this game. Story is icing on the cake, cherry on the cake even. It's nice to have, great complimentary to the cake, not the cake itself. You play story the once, then it's over. End game is cheaper to develop it is replayablate many years,times to come.

 

Would I want more engaging, long story?suree definitely.i enyoj a good story. But the reason we don't have there wasn't enough end game content. Simple as that.

 

Endgame gear grind only keeps a very particular set of players engaged. Many, if not most, more casual inclined players aren't interested in that.

Story has always been what SWTOR did best and what attracted the majority of it's playerbase (and the fact that it's Star Wars of course). That doesn't mean that they should skip repeatable content entirely, of course, but neither should they focus on it to the degree they currently do. The current focus on endgame gear grind doesn't make the game enjoyable and engaging for many players, causing them to unsub.

[Pricia]

If you want stories there are tons of mmo's offers not 30 min stories but 6 -30 hours per expansion go play them

 

What you people don't understand is this : SWTOR had tried only story route twice and it failed miserably. People wanted end game content ( whatever ita ops pvp dailies evets) and they left at the beginning of the game because there was nothing to do. Nobody wanted run the same story again nobody wanted play a different class nobody watched cutscenes or dialogs and just skipped it to the end game.

 

4.0 was the same thing it failed miserably. People subbed once then left the game,again.

 

Stories are hardest and most expensive content on any game can develop. Especially for this game, you need 16 voice actors, different animations for the comp scenes etc etc. That's why they canceled class stories at 1.3 because there wasn't ENOUGH SUBBED PLAYER to justify or run the class stories.

 

This is the fact and I still don't understand how you don't see it. Do you know why ffxiv has x20 times more story per expansion than in this game?because they have x30 has more end game content to do than this game. Story is icing on the cake, cherry on the cake even. It's nice to have, great complimentary to the cake, not the cake itself. You play story the once, then it's over. End game is cheaper to develop it is replayablate many years,times to come.

 

Would I want more engaging, long story?suree definitely.i enyoj a good story. But the reason we don't have there wasn't enough end game content. Simple as that.

 

You're not wrong but you're wrong about the story part. All other MMO's I've played had a crappy story, no voiced dialogues, no choices. Here we can play the same story 4 times and it's still a different experience (I haven't played FF14 because you have to group, although Secret World Legends's story is cool - the game is just dead).

 

The problem is that they basically changed the game, going from solo and alt friendly to forcing people to group/pvp to get gear and making alts worthless. THAT's my issue here. This isn't the game I came back to in 2020.

[Sethenon]

*snip*

 

Why rent the cow when you get the milk for free (or almost free)? Bioware basically gives the story away so you will never see the people that sub (or who would sub) for the story have any noticeable impact on the profits. Most other games charge a larger fee for an expansion, which I would be willing to pay providing the quality is there - as it stands right now LOTS isn't quality or quantity.

 

Add into the previous reason, that there's almost no replayability to most of the post 50 story content, it makes no difference on any decision you make - only a few mildly interesting lines of dialog. At least with the 1-50, you can play through it a bunch of times on many classes, or LS/DS, or male/female if you are into the romances. None of the post 50 story content has any of that, which is why people spacebar past them. Play it 3-4 times and you've seen everything - there's nothing to keep people subscribing. Why would people pay for a sub for that?

 

FF14 is successful because they do both, they didn't focus on one or the other like Bioware is. They used the story to gradually hook people into Ops, they realized that there is money to be made by catering to both camps and are willing to devote the resources to make that happen. I wish I could say I believed that was happening here but we all know it's not.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Sethenon

[gregordunbar]

I believe the changes this past year is aim at dedicated players that play daily, love challenging group content, and hard operations. A player base that I think is small in swtor, one bW doesn't have. Some changes these past year convince me of the direction there taking.

 

Not only is it for a minority, its for a minority of a minority as most that play daily, do not do OPS. Ops are for the elitists and is not content done by many players. I doubt you could combine OPS and PvPers and even reach 10% of the playerbase.

 

This update was an attempt to make the game into something it is not.

[Ghostius]

Not only is it for a minority, its for a minority of a minority as most that play daily, do not do OPS. Ops are for the elitists and is not content done by many players. I doubt you could combine OPS and PvPers and even reach 10% of the playerbase.

 

This update was an attempt to make the game into something it is not.

 

That is pure speculation and guessing. Noone knows what most players actually do.

[Damask_Rose]

If you want stories there are tons of mmo's offers not 30 min stories but 6 -30 hours per expansion go play them

 

What you people don't understand is this : SWTOR had tried only story route twice and it failed miserably. People wanted end game content ( whatever ita ops pvp dailies evets) and they left at the beginning of the game because there was nothing to do. Nobody wanted run the same story again nobody wanted play a different class nobody watched cutscenes or dialogs and just skipped it to the end game.

 

4.0 was the same thing it failed miserably. People subbed once then left the game,again.

 

Stories are hardest and most expensive content on any game can develop. Especially for this game, you need 16 voice actors, different animations for the comp scenes etc etc. That's why they canceled class stories at 1.3 because there wasn't ENOUGH SUBBED PLAYER to justify or run the class stories.

 

This is the fact and I still don't understand how you don't see it. Do you know why ffxiv has x20 times more story per expansion than in this game?because they have x30 has more end game content to do than this game. Story is icing on the cake, cherry on the cake even. It's nice to have, great complimentary to the cake, not the cake itself. You play story the once, then it's over. End game is cheaper to develop it is replayablate many years,times to come.

 

Would I want more engaging, long story?suree definitely.i enyoj a good story. But the reason we don't have there wasn't enough end game content. Simple as that.

 

This is your opinion, not a fact. At the beginning the developers for SWtOR came out and flat out said the fully voiced stories were not that expensive to make. Raids are very difficult content to develop. All content is ymmv depending on what interests you. What is one and done for you is infinitely repeatable for me, where as what is infinitely repeatable for you is one and done for me, if that. 4.0 failed for multiple reasons, not just it's reliance on a mediocre at best story. 4.0 was badly implemented all the way round and alienated people from all play styles.

 

This is an interesting discussion on the place of raiding in MMOs. This one is topical about trying to force raiding by gating gear.

[eabevella]

Not only is it for a minority, its for a minority of a minority as most that play daily, do not do OPS. Ops are for the elitists and is not content done by many players. I doubt you could combine OPS and PvPers and even reach 10% of the playerbase.

 

This update was an attempt to make the game into something it is not.

 

A minor correction: it's for those elitists NiM raiders who hole up in their little high-end discord club.

 

7.0 slapped and spitted us "dirty casuals" on the face by only giving green 322 gears for doing SM OPs.

I do SM OPs because the early ones have fun story, are fun to play, are beginner friendly.

It's mostly fun group experience, especially when you're with a group of people who are willing to help each other.

But apparently, we are just lowlifes looked down by those "real gamers". We don't deserve decent gears because iTs sTorY MOdE!

 

PS: I can't remember the times there were some elitists NiM raiders who pug SM OPs for whatever reasons and being all snobby and "SM is brainless anyway" when the others are explaining the basic mechanic to new people.

[Darthmoriquendi]

A minor correction: it's for those elitists NiM raiders who hole up in their little high-end discord club.

 

7.0 slapped and spitted us "dirty casuals" on the face by only giving green 322 gears for doing SM OPs.

I do SM OPs because the early ones have fun story, are fun to play, are beginner friendly.

It's mostly fun group experience, especially when you're with a group of people who are willing to help each other.

But apparently, we are just lowlifes looked down by those "real gamers". We don't deserve decent gears because iTs sTorY MOdE!

 

PS: I can't remember the times there were some elitists NiM raiders who pug SM OPs for whatever reasons and being all snobby and "SM is brainless anyway" when the others are explaining the basic mechanic to new people.

 

I was really disappointed that the green gear didn't even have upgradeable to blue and purple at least. No they left casuals with the worst of the worst stats. This was a huge slap in the face for a lot of players and shows exactly where bioware places this part of the community.

 

I spent a lot of time gathering and crafting on my older moddable sets back in the day. Non of it was OPs Ievel IR, but it was nice gear for casual play. I took a break before crisis at umbra so missed out on the easy mode of getting top gear. That was fine and never cared if I had max gear.

 

But this now? It's a disgrace to those that dedicated the last ten years in this game. And the amount of resources to craft anything? What is up with that? Why all the isotopes, ops resources for such mediocre pieces? Crafting is a disaster.

[eabevella]

I was really disappointed that the green gear didn't even have upgradeable to blue and purple at least. No they left casuals with the worst of the worst stats. This was a huge slap in the face for a lot of players and shows exactly where bioware places this part of the community.

 

I spent a lot of time gathering and crafting on my older moddable sets back in the day. Non of it was OPs Ievel IR, but it was nice gear for casual play. I took a break before crisis at umbra so missed out on the easy mode of getting top gear. That was fine and never cared if I had max gear.

 

But this now? It's a disgrace to those that dedicated the last ten years in this game. And the amount of resources to craft anything? What is up with that? Why all the isotopes, ops resources for such mediocre pieces? Crafting is a disaster.

 

They only care about their elitists private NiM raider club, never mind the casuals or NiM raiders who actually want more players to join them.

 

I joined a good guild in GS1. They carried me through SM OPs. Not just a bunch of NiM raiders carrying newbie guildmates by brute force even though that would already be a great help. They taught me proper mechanics even though it's SM and the penalty for doing it wrong is often pretty forgiving. Why? Because they want more new people be interested in OPs and may one day progress to do more difficult things.

 

I have max gear in 6.0 because I like neat stats. It makes my solo play easier. MY NIM RAIDERS GUILDMATES DON'T CARE THAT I HAVE MAX GEAR LIKE THEY DO BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT ELITISTS JERKS WHO THINK THEY ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO DESERVE THE BEST GEARS. They wanted me to try HM OPs and if better gears made me feel more comfortable, it's cool!

 

Punishing "casuals" by only allowing them to have terrible gears because they play the "wrong" contents will only make LESS people want to even try group contents. But I guess that's what the developers want and it showed on the massive decline of player numbers before they even release their first major patch.

 

Good luck keeping the game alive by your little elitists club!

[AdjeYo]

A minor correction: it's for those elitists NiM raiders who hole up in their little high-end discord club.

 

7.0 slapped and spitted us "dirty casuals" on the face by only giving green 322 gears for doing SM OPs.

I do SM OPs because the early ones have fun story, are fun to play, are beginner friendly.

It's mostly fun group experience, especially when you're with a group of people who are willing to help each other.

But apparently, we are just lowlifes looked down by those "real gamers". We don't deserve decent gears because iTs sTorY MOdE!

 

PS: I can't remember the times there were some elitists NiM raiders who pug SM OPs for whatever reasons and being all snobby and "SM is brainless anyway" when the others are explaining the basic mechanic to new people.

 

I think there's very few who think you don't "deserve" decent gear. Having gear tiers only drop from hm/nim ops is still nice, because it means gear progressions doesn't end before I ever set foot in a nim (in 6.0 every group required full 306 for nims, becsause how easily farmable it was.

That said, gear from sm ops especially is very low rated and poorly distributed. Conquest gear does get to a higher tier but could definitely do with a better stat distribution.

 

I'd make all gear of the same iRating have the same distribution. Allow sm gear to go up to 326, hm gear up to 328 and nim gear to 330 as it is right now.

 

That way everyone can achieve solid gear, but it still allows some gear progression from doing hm ops or nim ops.

[eabevella]

I think there's very few who think you don't "deserve" decent gear. Having gear tiers only drop from hm/nim ops is still nice, because it means gear progressions doesn't end before I ever set foot in a nim (in 6.0 every group required full 306 for nims, becsause how easily farmable it was.

That said, gear from sm ops especially is very low rated and poorly distributed. Conquest gear does get to a higher tier but could definitely do with a better stat distribution.

 

I'd make all gear of the same iRating have the same distribution. Allow sm gear to go up to 326, hm gear up to 328 and nim gear to 330 as it is right now.

 

That way everyone can achieve solid gear, but it still allows some gear progression from doing hm ops or nim ops.

 

Judging by the amount of people who said "but you don't need 330 gear" to solo players, that number might be more than you think. And it's not about their intention, the fact that solo and SM OPs players can only have crappy gears tell them/make them feel like that they don't deserve better blue/purple gears.

 

I think your way is better. Gears with the same stats but allows NiM OPs to drop the highest rating gears are a good in-between way to satisfy most people. Solo and SM OPs players don't feel like they are crippled and treated as lesser beings, HM and NiM players can have an edge for doing the tough contents.

[Muckbeast]

The problem is that they basically changed the game, going from solo and alt friendly to forcing people to group/pvp to get gear and making alts worthless. THAT's my issue here. This isn't the game I came back to in 2020.

 

^^ Bingo.

 

SWTOR is not a raid-centric, group heavy game. There are raids and there is group content (which is nice) but that is clearly not where the game excels and it is not the primary activity of its players.

 

Story (and mostly solo story) content is where this game shines. It is where this game is still superior to most/all other MMOs. It is what people do more than anything else as indicated by surveys, polls, and lets be honest, what we all know from just observing the game/talking to people who play it.

[Darkbloom]

To the OP:

 

That was a good post. Very thorough. Only problem is that it's so obvious what has gone wrong, that if Bioware can't see it then it's because they adamantly want to not see it.

 

Also, if anyone is interested, SWTOR's weekly steam numbers have now dropped below the absolute lowest point the game ever reached in 6.0. Kind of sad.

[LordVajra]

To the OP:

 

That was a good post. Very thorough. Only problem is that it's so obvious what has gone wrong, that if Bioware can't see it then it's because they adamantly want to not see it.

 

Also, if anyone is interested, SWTOR's weekly steam numbers have now dropped below the absolute lowest point the game ever reached in 6.0. Kind of sad.

 

Will you be that kind and show the graph and how exactly you know what the lowest weekly steam numbers was in the past?

[Loc_n_lol]

Will you be that kind and show the graph and how exactly you know what the lowest weekly steam numbers was in the past?

https://steamcharts.com/app/1286830#All

(it doesn't support that this is the lowest point, although the trend isn't good either)

Edited March 23, 2022 by Loc_n_lol

[Darkbloom]

https://steamcharts.com/app/1286830#All

(it doesn't support that this is the lowest point, although the trend isn't good either)

 

My phrasing was sloppy. I'm looking at the peak players per week, and yes it's the lowest point since they started on Steam.

[Sarova]

Very much this. Many times I queued for random vet fp only to get one of the new ones (Umbara, Copero, Nathema, Corellia, SoV) and half of the group leaving before we even had a chance to start. Sometimes without saying anything, sometimes with some variation of "sorry, too hard for me".

This actually happened on the PTS whenever we got any of the new or newer Vet FPs and was fed back, yet they ignored us. Me and another player decided to continue with our companions in the Elom one on the PTS, we had no idea what we were doing and took absolutely ages to complete it. Neither of us had any desire to repeat that flashpoint ever again, even though we knew we'd have to in live to progress the "story"

 

OP's observations regarding PvP, flashpoints and Uprisings are accurate. One huge change would be to put the PvP unranked weekly back to having losses count (even if they need to increase the number of warzones required). Forcing a win to complete the weekly was and still is a terrible idea. While they are at it, they can removed 4v4 from unranked too. It's basically 330 pre-mades vs casual players in 318-324 gear who have no chance. The balance from PvP was lost very quickly, if I queue for unranked and get an arena, I'm taking the deserter debuff every time now.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Sarova