What do people think of 7.1?

[Sarova]

Despite the bugs, and the droid excavator of doom (those who know, know) I really enjoyed both the new Manaan dailies and the mini story update. My main is a Sith Inq, so it was nice to see Talos Drellik had a part in it. I was pleasantly surprised to see

all the current story threads included - Mandalorian, Arcann, Malgus, Darth Nul & the Children of the Emperor and a little note from Theron for those who romanced him is nice

 

I'm really looking forward to more of the story. I hope it comes this year. And the new rep decorations are excellent. I definitely going to be re-doing my Manaan stronghold with them.

 

One comedy note: is Sana Rae getting taller each story update? At this rate she'll be 20ft tall next time!

[SoonerJBD]

Valance changes that do little to nothing to address the poor balance. The worst Marauder/Sentinel spec got a tactical that does nothing whatsoever to improve the spec and is now worse in energy management. No love whatsoever for Sharpshooter/marksman despite it being one of the worst performing specs in the game. Honestly, it’s hard to tell if they just don’t pay attention to balance or don’t know how to actually fix it, or what. Advanced Prototype still has no usable single target tactical. I just don’t get it.

[TonyTricicolo]

So far I love the Daimyo pack. It has a bust and helm of Mandalorian armor. Closest thing we have so far in terms of displaying outfits as decorations in our strongholds. Also of note, you can now fully extend your chat box as large as you want. Edited August 3, 2022 by TonyTricicolo

[JakRoanin]

Well aside from the odd way of getting to the Manaan Dailies, the irritating state of Conquest Gear, and of course the occasional graphic wonkiness... I approve! Despite only having a teacup's worth of story it was good, my only real wish...

 

 

I wanted my JC to have more warmth and empathy with Kira, especially giving her a hug.

 

 

Loved the callbacks to certain class stories and the way the Mando Arc stopped being an add on to the main plot.

[MishaCantu]

The bit of story was nice, and it brought into play some older story lines, so overall I liked it. I just hope they don't wait too long to continue. And yes, the little note from Theron was a nice touch.

 

As for Manaan, it's great to do once for the story, but I won't be doing it on every character. Once is enough. Other daily areas give tech fragments or matrixes to help with the gear grind, which we have another one now. So, it's not worth my effort.

 

I do have to ask, what's with this green systech gear that falls from heroics instead of extra tech frags or those purple things for upgrades? I don't get the point. You can't do anything with them but sell or deconstruct unless I'm missing something.

 

The other stuff I haven't messed with yet and doubt I will.

Edited August 3, 2022 by MishaCantu

[Anysao]

I was extremely impressed with Manaan’s Republic story. I vocalized my disappointment in the lackluster expansion earlier on, and I even said that BioWare should actually “try again” on a Manaan story.

 

And you know what? They really did superbly with this one. The Manaan environment was beautiful, the characters were likable, there were unique (and helpful) rewards, the choices required consideration, and the story was reminiscent of KOTOR. And best of all, it was pretty long! I expected it to be done after the first mission, making it about the same length as Dantooine. Instead we got a satisfying arc that explored Manaan history and current events, making interesting new friends along the way.

 

I think that Manaan is now the best non-expansion planet since Oricon.

 

The only drawback was the lack of voice acting for the protagonist character. But it worked surprisingly well. It reminded me of KOTOR.

 

Do this again for future planets. I would gladly take more compelling story at the cost of working with no voices. Plenty of aliens to blather on with.

[BloodDollx]

I was extremely impressed with Manaan’s Republic story. I vocalized my disappointment in the lackluster expansion earlier on, and I even said that BioWare should actually “try again” on a Manaan story.

 

And you know what? They really did superbly with this one. The Manaan environment was beautiful, the characters were likable, there were unique (and helpful) rewards, the choices required consideration, and the story was reminiscent of KOTOR. And best of all, it was pretty long! I expected it to be done after the first mission, making it about the same length as Dantooine. Instead we got a satisfying arc that explored Manaan history and current events, making interesting new friends along the way.

 

I think that Manaan is now the best non-expansion planet since Oricon.

 

The only drawback was the lack of voice acting for the protagonist character. But it worked surprisingly well. It reminded me of KOTOR.

 

Do this again for future planets. I would gladly take more compelling story at the cost of working with no voices. Plenty of aliens to blather on with.

 

I sit even worth soloing? i usually don't look at new content unless it is.

[Sarova]

I was extremely impressed with Manaan’s Republic story. I vocalized my disappointment in the lackluster expansion earlier on, and I even said that BioWare should actually “try again” on a Manaan story.

 

And you know what? They really did superbly with this one. The Manaan environment was beautiful, the characters were likable, there were unique (and helpful) rewards, the choices required consideration, and the story was reminiscent of KOTOR. And best of all, it was pretty long! I expected it to be done after the first mission, making it about the same length as Dantooine. Instead we got a satisfying arc that explored Manaan history and current events, making interesting new friends along the way.

 

I think that Manaan is now the best non-expansion planet since Oricon.

 

I can't wait to do the republic side after reading this!

Usually with a small story update, I can run 2-3 characters through during the time I play, however this time the story and Manaan were engaging enough that I spent the whole time on just my main (doing Empire side story). I'm a mad altoholic and after 7.0 felt quite deflated as the whole expansion seemed anti-alts, however with this new story and Manaan I shall be dusting off my alts to play through the story on the different classes.

 

EDIT: Another thing I really like are the extra abilities you can get that are for use in Manaan only, such as speed, stealth shield. They're fantastic.

 

We've not given you a lot of love lately, however GOOD JOBS DEVS!!

Edited August 3, 2022 by Sarova

[LittleEwina]

I was extremely impressed with Manaan’s Republic story. I vocalized my disappointment in the lackluster expansion earlier on, and I even said that BioWare should actually “try again” on a Manaan story.

 

And you know what? They really did superbly with this one. The Manaan environment was beautiful, the characters were likable, there were unique (and helpful) rewards, the choices required consideration, and the story was reminiscent of KOTOR. And best of all, it was pretty long! I expected it to be done after the first mission, making it about the same length as Dantooine. Instead we got a satisfying arc that explored Manaan history and current events, making interesting new friends along the way.

 

I think that Manaan is now the best non-expansion planet since Oricon.

 

The only drawback was the lack of voice acting for the protagonist character. But it worked surprisingly well. It reminded me of KOTOR.

 

Do this again for future planets. I would gladly take more compelling story at the cost of working with no voices. Plenty of aliens to blather on with.

 

Same opinion for me, I did Manaan's story as an imperial saboteur and I absolutely loved it. The fact saboteur have some specific dialogue options is great, I was worried it wouldn't matter anymore but BW delighted me. And Manaan's decor is gorgeous, I loved everything about it, dailies included, being able to use the seeker droid was super nice too.

[ReveredDead]

The new operation is a complete nightmare. I have wasted hours on the first day and only gotten through one boss. And this is the only way to get 340 gear now. Remember 6.0 where people could play ANY content and still get a pathway to the best gear? You didn't feel forced to play ONE specific kind of content that makes you want to rip your hair out literally. Not only did Bioware ignore all of our complaints on 7.0. But they actually doubled down and amplified the pain by making R4 the ONLY way to get 332, 334, and 340 gear. No implants are not included cause it's TWO pieces of gear. That does not count at all. I give up. I am cancelling my subscription. I waited 8 months after 7.0 to see if Bioware would get it right but it seems they only know how to make things worse. I'm out. There are dozens of other games more worth my time to play and this is not one of them. Good bye Bioware. I hope you learn a painful financial lesson on what happens when you ignore your playerbase.

[Crystal_Mind]

I still need to run through things on pubside, but overall I was impressed. Story-wise I was expecting little more than a 2 minute "go talk to your alliance people" cutscene, so I was pleasantly surprised by having some additional required interaction.

 

The daily area uplifted the extreme disappointment that was Manaan at launch, and has been polished and bug-free in my experience. Most are fast, and in sensible order. Respawn rates on objects are very quick. The seeker-droid daily goes very smoothly if you just drop it on the yellow cordoned areas. By contrast, the "go loot 15 medallions" daily made me want to claw my eyes out. But the rep decos are nice, at least.

 

My one complaint is... why bother with them? Part of the reason I was looking forward to Manaan was to add some fresh air to the DRM grind. But all they give is credits and rep! And I wouldn't mid that except that we have to run OLD dailies for mats. Where are the DRMs? Where are the tech frags? Where's the green crate for the solo-conquest folks? I'm really, really hoping this was an oversight...

 

There have been some operation bugs that I'm not pleased with. And of course there's the UI and QoL changes, which are welcome. But overall, I'm fairly pleased with 7.1.

[ReveredDead]

I have so many words I could type a whole article but in short. My anger is directed at this new operation and the continuing failure of a gearing system. This entire update takes everything we hated about 7.0 and compounds it. Bioware literally doubled down on their entire freaking plan for this update. Despite all of our grievances or complaints. They don't care. And thus I don't care. I am going to let my sub run out and then I will probably only hear about this game when it finally is shut down for good. Like putting a poor beloved animal down after it's been abused by it's owner for years. Edited August 3, 2022 by ReveredDead

[JediQuaker]

I haven't done much 7.1 stuff yet. I only did the Alert leading up to the R4 operation, and I spacebar'd through most of it. (I'm not that into the 'story' personally.)

 

I don't like the changes to outfitter, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. 😏

 

The first major thing I did was unrelated to 7.1 - EV veteran operation - which of course is fubar'd. (see the Bug Report forum)

It is nice that the OP drops some 330 gear now, though.

 

How they can manage to screw up things that are seemingly totally unrelated to the 'new' content is a constant mystery. It would be like if you bought new tires for your car and then your radio stopped working.

[OlBuzzard]

Aside from gearing mechanics ... I think VERY highly of 7.1

(Positives)

** The story is starting to form up very well (for the most part). There are a couple of concerns .. but overall, nicely done.

** I do appreciate the artwork done. Overall (from what I've seen/experienced) it's well laid out. I could have been over a slightly larger area ... but still good.

** The open area combat "daily area" has both good and bad. But overall, I did like it. I like offering a helping hand to someone struggling (from time to time)... that's always fun.

** There's more I'm certain. I'll run it a couple more times and update later on.

 

(Negatives)

** Lana's attitude is more negative than normal. Almost like they are getting ready to turn her to dark side only. (I really don't like that). IMO we should have the "option". While she might never become a Jedi ... It's obvious that in the past she has had a lot better attitude. (Just my own personal observation).

** Mostly mechanics of getting gear. It stinks ... and could easily be resolved.

** Companions are still pretty much predetermined throughout the story. Weekly combat companions: at least we have a choice there (so that's good).

** Still no interactions with companions AND EVEN when our companion is a part of the story (her) reactions to my character are cold and almost sterile.

 

Overall, I liked it!!

[JakRoanin]

Lana seems to hate any other character offers an opinion on planning missions except her and sometimes Theron. It's annoying. I did notice her eyes are a slightly darker yellow. I'm not sure she's 'darker' than before, but she's always been super-possessive. It makes no sense to anyone who didn't romance her.

[Galbsadi]

Only one boss into the new raid (only dabbled with it a bit), but it seems pretty fun.

 

New story: haven't tried yet, will judge later. I heard there's only about 15m of it, so I'll save it for when I'm done with other stuff.

 

Manaan dailies...I'm a little irritated that they ONLY drop reputation tokens and NOTHING else. Not even the aquatic...er, daily fragments. It's literally better for progression to go to starter planets than it is the new content. That's...sad.

 

Nar Shadaa nightlife is a decent credit sink, although we'll see how well it holds up for doing that.

[OlBuzzard]

[/snip]

 

Manaan dailies...I'm a little irritated that they ONLY drop reputation tokens and NOTHING else. Not even the aquatic...er, daily fragments. It's literally better for progression to go to starter planets than it is the new content. That's...sad.

[/snip]

 

 

One this we are agreed!!

[Sarova]

(Negatives)

** Lana's attitude is more negative than normal. Almost like they are getting ready to turn her to dark side only. (I really don't like that). IMO we should have the "option".

Spoilering this just in case I'm right:

 

I wonder if Lana will turn out to be Darth Nul, especially after Rivix commented that there's almost nothing known about her. At least Theron has a background; in game Lana doesn't.

 

[Jdast]

My thoughts:

 

Story

 

I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the interaction with some of the old companions and only expected about 20 minutes or so, which was what we got.

 

What surprised me, though, was the engaging storylines on Manaan. I thought there would be a 2 minute cutscene and then would go straight to dailies. As it turns out, there is a pretty engaging storyline for Republic and Imperials -- both of which take much longer than I anticipated.

 

Gameplay

 

I didn't encounter any meaningful bugs other than some graphical ones. In my case, for several years now, depending on which character I play, Theron appears only in his underwear and sometimes wearing a gas mask looking helm right out of a cheesy BDSM movie (not that I'm an expert ). I don't know what accounts for the variation.

 

Like others, though, I was disappointed the new daily area doesn't drop Tech Frags or DRMs. Not to knock on other players and what they like as we all have different preferences, but I only dabble in decorating Strongholds. I have bought enough for the 150% Conquest bonus, but have only really decorated one (Manaan if anyone cares). And while the new gear and weapons are okay, they are nothing spectacular IMHO, particularly in comparison to ones I've already acquired on the Cartel Market or GTN.

 

While I enjoyed the daily quests and thought they were well structured and bug-free, I see little reason to go back to Manaan dailies. Which brings me to...

 

Gearing

 

We can get into a lengthy discussion about the 'psychology of progression' in MMORPGs, but everything has already pretty much been said from all angles. And, no offense, but (sorry, Jackie, I know you hate that expression) I neither need nor desire other players telling me how to enjoy progressing my characters.

 

I've been playing MMORPGs since 2004 and I've seen all different types of gearing. I feel very comfortable saying this is one of the worst from my perspective. It harkens back to retrograde gearing systems from MMORPGs circa 2006. The weekly currency caps, the stovepiping in terms of vertical progression in certain lanes, etc. I could go on but it's all been discussed ad nauseum.

 

Suffice it to say, I feel I got my money's worth for 7.1 given it's the price of a movie ticket, and I look forward to having a few more characters wrap up the storyline. But it makes little sense not to go back to preferred at the end of the month barring a change in philosophy from the dev team. I respect their right to design the game they want to, just as I'm sure they respect my right to switch exclusively to other games until 7.2, an approach I have followed for most of the past 20 months.

 

 

Dasty

Edited August 5, 2022 by Jdast

[Darkbloom]

Hi Everyone,

 

I strongly agree with the other comments about the new Manaan area and the new story. I was not expecting any new story at all, and I was gleefully shocked when, not only did I get new story, but I got tons of interaction with old companions.

 

Talos has always been one of my favorite companions, and I'm thrilled to see him show up again. He is the sort of character that makes SWTOR feel "real". If there really was a Star Wars, Sith and all these ancient ruins, there would definitely be characters like Talos. His attitude is refreshing too.

 

I also felt like the writing for Kira was better than the writing for any companion has been for a long time. She is a favorite for a reason. Finally, I was happy to see Lana and Theron play real roles again. I hope the story-telling moves more in this direction in the future.

 

I was not surprised at how good the daily area was. I knew it would be graphically incredible. But I was surprised that the story was good. It all made sense. It fit.

 

Now I have to say that, ever since getting addicted to GSF, I have quit doing group PvE. For group content now I only do PvP and GSF. So I won't have anything to say about raids or flashpoints any more. Also, since I can't figure out how gearing and bolster work together anyway, I've given up on caring about gear.

 

That said, I wish the team would go back to the (quite successful, by the way) 6.0 philosophy that all content is end-game content. I can't think of any reason other than self-sabotage why they abandoned what worked.

 

I also don't understand their class balance choices but I hope those improve in the future. Now that PvP is so drastically improved, I would love to go back to the old days where I could feel comfortable bringing, not just any class, but almost any spec into an 8v8 warzone and know that I can be successful. Sure, it's fun playing the best specs. And the new ability to add a second class to any character does mean that I can bring any character I'd like into PvP. But still.

 

Overall, though, 7.1 is a huge success in my book. I look forward to where the story is going now and I'm excited to log on every day.

[Ergecrs]

I love 7.1.

 

The new operation is challenging. It requires you to do mechanics. Over I think it is a win.

 

For those still complaining about gearing I love it. We are back to our SWTOR roots on how to get gear via ops. Certain bosses drop certain gear and I love it. Thank you BioWare. Give us a reason to complete the operation not just farm one boss over and over and over.

 

To those that hate gearing sorry it’s not longer super say. MMO’s are designed to be played for long periods. Making gear obtainable in a week is stupid imo.

 

The nerf to the old ops seems a bit drastic. Some may have needed reduced but when you can run a SM op in 12 minutes and get 2k tech frags it’s a little ridiculous.

[JakRoanin]

I To those that hate gearing sorry it’s not longer super say. MMO’s are designed to be played for long periods. Making gear obtainable in a week is stupid imo.

 

<sigh> Please don't lump us all into "we want our BiS gear in a week" and "we want it all easy" categories. That's not it. For various reasons, (mine is health) we VET and MM content is impossible, and PvP is also not an option. Yet good gear helps us have more fun playing. Is it really so wrong to ask for more DRM's?

[sharpenedstick]

I can't even install the patch, so for me right now, it's a fail.

[Ardrossan]

I love 7.1.

 

The new operation is challenging. It requires you to do mechanics. Over I think it is a win.

 

For those still complaining about gearing I love it. We are back to our SWTOR roots on how to get gear via ops. Certain bosses drop certain gear and I love it. Thank you BioWare. Give us a reason to complete the operation not just farm one boss over and over and over.

 

To those that hate gearing sorry it’s not longer super say. MMO’s are designed to be played for long periods. Making gear obtainable in a week is stupid imo.

 

The nerf to the old ops seems a bit drastic. Some may have needed reduced but when you can run a SM op in 12 minutes and get 2k tech frags it’s a little ridiculous.

 

Ah, finally we meet someone from BW's target demographic. They're hard to find.

[Balameb]

Manaan dailies...I'm a little irritated that they ONLY drop reputation tokens and NOTHING else. Not even the aquatic...er, daily fragments. It's literally better for progression to go to starter planets than it is the new content. That's...sad.

1000% Agree with this.

 

After playing the 'story' (meh, btw) i went to Manaan and this was my experience:

0-The place is just there, why not give a 10 sec intro cutsecene of a Holo asking you to go there because of....

1-Again with the silent MC, i hate that.

2-Went to the terminal and found that the only reward is reputation.

3-Thought to myself: manaan is not important in the current main story, it does not provide a reward i need or want, it will be there when sub lapses to play as f2p....

4- Moved away from terminal and switch toon