Game Update 7.2: Showdown on Ruhnuk launches December 13th!

[ErraiSenkar]

Jackie, 

Just a quick question... were any of the KotET writers or anyone at a story meeting remember that a certain companion could be killed off?  I see "dead people."  

[Nee-Elder]

9 hours ago, OlBuzzard said:

 exactly what makes you think that you're the only one who knows how to mess with someone's head?

Quick point-of-order:  i wasn't trying to "mess with someone"  in my earlier post ^^ prediction.

I was trying to settle down the community into trusting that BioWare,  in all their many flaws,  was worth waiting just a few more days patiently for the official announcement.

Thankfully,  i was right.

However,  the unfortunate (and baffling) downside to 7.2  still remains:  Why merge Ranked with Regs  (a good thing, imo) but not maintain  SOME new type of  'leaderboard' ?!?!  (using existing  SH's 'prestige' public listing terminal on Fleet , for example)

Edited December 8, 2022 by Nee-Elder
Reason: 7.2 steps forward BioWare, but 1.oh-ugh step backward?

[codydmaan]

Can this update have a fix to people being dead in the raid frames after a wipe. It's such a nuisance. 

 

Please and thank you

[OlBuzzard]

3 hours ago, Nee-Elder said:

Quick point-of-order:  i wasn't trying to "mess with someone"  in my earlier post ^^ prediction.

I was trying to settle down the community into trusting that BioWare,  in all their many flaws,  was worth waiting just a few more days patiently for the official announcement.

Thankfully,  i was right.

However,  the unfortunate (and baffling) downside to 7.2  still remains:  Why merge Ranked with Regs  (a good thing, imo) but not maintain  SOME new type of  'leaderboard' ?!?!  (using existing  SH's 'prestige' public listing terminal on Fleet , for example)

Shhhh

(I won't tell anyone if you won't!)

ROFL !!!  Good to spar with someone from time to time and lighten the mood!!

[AshleyRuhl]

 

5 hours ago, ErraiSenkar said:

Jackie, 

Just a quick question... were any of the KotET writers or anyone at a story meeting remember that a certain companion could be killed off?  I see "dead people."  

SWTOR has a lot of impactful choices that can affect who's in your story, especially companions. It's impossible to show one "true" version of SWTOR's narrative, because each story experience is unique. That said, we're choosing to include conditional characters in marketing material and key art, to emphasize that while these characters may not be around for everyone, we are still invested in furthering their stories.

[seba-]

21 minutes ago, AshleyRuhl said:

 

SWTOR has a lot of impactful choices that can affect who's in your story, especially companions. It's impossible to show one "true" version of SWTOR's narrative, because each story experience is unique. That said, we're choosing to include conditional characters in marketing material and key art, to emphasize that while these characters may not be around for everyone, we are still invested in furthering their stories.

I finished Knight of the Eternal Throne today, I was happy to find out that Arcann was a permanent companion, a bit more disappointed that I cannot, like most companion, make it wear every armor that I want. So I found out that he had customization items that I could get, two of them, light and dark side. And then I found out that I needed dark or light side token, which aren't available anymore, a thread from Bioware was saying that they will come back, but in the mean time those marketing material that you offer, I cannot enjoy them.
I do love this game, the stories are ...

[ReveredDead]

34 minutes ago, AshleyRuhl said:

 

SWTOR has a lot of impactful choices that can affect who's in your story, especially companions. It's impossible to show one "true" version of SWTOR's narrative, because each story experience is unique. That said, we're choosing to include conditional characters in marketing material and key art, to emphasize that while these characters may not be around for everyone, we are still invested in furthering their stories.

I have been very critical of how the story is going and lack of significant story expansions. People mostly play this for the incredible story content. If you guys want to reinvigorate MMO community interest in SWTOR. Create a KOTFE sized story expansion with a well written and deep story spread out across monthly story updates like it was when KOTFE and KOTET came out. Potentially in 8.0 down the line. Monthly story updates culminating in a big storyline would keep people coming back to play every month rather than coming back for two to three weeks for these "updates" and then getting off again for months. These small story updates are not relighting the fire. If I had a recommendation: Return to the Jedi vs Sith aspect that sold this game in the beginning. The lines between friend and foe between the Republic and Empire has gotten muddy. The focus on the Mandalorians is wearing on a lot of players who don't think Heta Kol can even hold a candle to Malgus with respect to an antagonist. Maybe bring back Darth Jadus? Take inspiration from the original stories to create a brand new story expansion. 

Edited December 8, 2022 by ReveredDead

[Sarova]

Did the Devs forget about the best view in swtor II?  7.2 is out next week and there's not been a thread on the winners (not one I could find).  Is this happening this patch or in the New Year?

[Char_Ell]

1 hour ago, ReveredDead said:

People mostly play this for the incredible story content. If you guys want to reinvigorate MMO community interest in SWTOR. Create a KOTFE sized story expansion with a well written and deep story spread out across monthly story updates like it was when KOTFE and KOTET came out.

I suspect you are not qualified to represent most of the people that play SWTOR.  Nobody is.  There are certainly a segment of players that play SWTOR for the story.  I just don't know how large that player contingent is compared to others player categories that are primarily focused on other parts of SWTOR besides story. 

I think the KOTFE/KOTET were interesting creative risks that BioWare took but they didn't pan out for me.  Speaking for myself I would not like to see a return to KOTFE/KOTET style of story telling.

[magnasolaris]

Will we be able to gain alignment points for snowballing over heated droids like last year during Wintersday? Since Light V Dark was removed, I wasn't sure if this still works.

[phalczen]

34 minutes ago, magnasolaris said:

Will we be able to gain alignment points for snowballing over heated droids like last year during Wintersday? Since Light V Dark was removed, I wasn't sure if this still works.

Those points were tied to mission completion.  Since L/D points were removed from all “no conversation” mission completions (except Diplomacy crew skill missions) they’ll be gone from the auto-completing missions for snow covered parcels and decos as well.  And the Wookiee-hugging one too.

[phalczen]

2 hours ago, ReveredDead said:

I have been very critical of how the story is going and lack of significant story expansions. People mostly play this for the incredible story content. If you guys want to reinvigorate MMO community interest in SWTOR. Create a KOTFE sized story expansion with a well written and deep story spread out across monthly story updates like it was when KOTFE and KOTET came out. Potentially in 8.0 down the line. Monthly story updates culminating in a big storyline would keep people coming back to play every month rather than coming back for two to three weeks for these "updates" and then getting off again for months. These small story updates are not relighting the fire. If I had a recommendation: Return to the Jedi vs Sith aspect that sold this game in the beginning. The lines between friend and foe between the Republic and Empire has gotten muddy. The focus on the Mandalorians is wearing on a lot of players who don't think Heta Kol can even hold a candle to Malgus with respect to an antagonist. Maybe bring back Darth Jadus? Take inspiration from the original stories to create a brand new story expansion. 

As was evidenced by KOTFE and KOTET, doing a KOTFE/KOTET-sized, fully voice acted, cinematic story pretty much excludes development for any other gameplay area.  These are the so-called “MMO bits” talked about during those years, including but not limited to: flashpoints, operations, daily areas, pvp, etc. etc.  Basically if they created another KOTFE-length story you can kiss the rest of the game goodbye.  The dev team has a difficult time getting content out on time as it is, it’s much smaller than it was in the 3.x era.  I loved KOTFE/KOTET but the game lost a lot of people when 4.0 happened and the rest of the game features suffered.  That kind of loss of experienced players who create content, like class guides or operation guides, is unsustainable with the game already bleeding from 7.0 as it is.  Making another KOTFE/KOTET would be a disaster, not a reinvigoration.

[lightningseven]

PLEASE BRING BACK the Dark vs Light (DvL) event again, please!!!! -- EXCEPT NOT starting at level 1 all over again please.  DO REWARDS and Legacy stuff and Achievements and the WHOLE NINE YARDS!!!!!!

I would LOVE to see KOTFE/KOTET type of xpacs but EA has to LOOSEN THE PURSE STRINGS FIRST.  The game needs some BIG VENTURE CAPITALIST money again!!!!!

AND A DAMN GRAPHICS OVERHAUL to non-forked HERO engine + DX12 or VULKAN with FULL 64-bit, DANG IT!!!!

[JamaicanCastle]

3 hours ago, AshleyRuhl said:

That said, we're choosing to include conditional characters in marketing material and key art, to emphasize that while these characters may not be around for everyone, we are still invested in furthering their stories.

And for people like me who maybe haven't been paying too much attention to story news lately, it's a good reminder that "hey, I should do this content on someone who has X".

Granted, this is a pretty obvious case, but if hypothetically there was a story update where Kaliyo or Senya or someone was important, I would hope for a little heads-up of that nature.

[OlBuzzard]

5 hours ago, AshleyRuhl said:

 

SWTOR has a lot of impactful choices that can affect who's in your story, especially companions. It's impossible to show one "true" version of SWTOR's narrative, because each story experience is unique. That said, we're choosing to include conditional characters in marketing material and key art, to emphasize that while these characters may not be around for everyone, we are still invested in furthering their stories.

I've always like KotFE/ET  (check my previous threads...  I think you'll see that's shooting straight).  And yes ...  I believe the team when they said that choices made a difference and affected the outcome.

There were only four things I really didn't care for ...
** Some of the mechanics ...  (but just some)
** The gearing system (Ugh ... I really hated it)
** Narrowing the story down from 8 to one 
** Killing off ALL of our companions (that choice was made for us)

I really did love the story behind it!  While some folks may not have realized it ... the stage was being set even before The Shadows of Revan took place.  I also know that telling the story of SWTOR must be a real challenge (given the number of variables).  Which I would suppose that is why we see another new companion on each planet for each story (Although there are a couple of them, I might utilize as simply a long-term contact with reoccurring roles as opposed to a new companion.)  

IN any case I'm really curious as to where this next story takes us!

[cosmicchar]

6 hours ago, seba- said:

I finished Knight of the Eternal Throne today, I was happy to find out that Arcann was a permanent companion, a bit more disappointed that I cannot, like most companion, make it wear every armor that I want. So I found out that he had customization items that I could get, two of them, light and dark side. And then I found out that I needed dark or light side token, which aren't available anymore, a thread from Bioware was saying that they will come back, but in the mean time those marketing material that you offer, I cannot enjoy them.
I do love this game, the stories are ...

iirc Arcann is the only major companion who’s not completely customizable. I’m mostly okay with this because the design of his robes is one of my favorites in the entire game (devs please make more armors with runes or gold)

And please bring back the tokens soon, lots of cool stuff is unobtainable now. Hmmm…I just had a flashback to when I spent a month grinding my Light 5 character to Dark side so I could get the tokens for both of Arcann's customizations lol

I hope he’ll someday get a 3rd customization, like an Alliance look or more casual clothes.
 

[DarthCasus]

5 hours ago, AshleyRuhl said:

 

SWTOR has a lot of impactful choices that can affect who's in your story, especially companions. It's impossible to show one "true" version of SWTOR's narrative, because each story experience is unique. That said, we're choosing to include conditional characters in marketing material and key art, to emphasize that while these characters may not be around for everyone, we are still invested in furthering their stories.

My hopes of a certain double-tail headed queen getting their own expansion are sparked once more! But I do hope we see more related to characters in this pickle as well. There were some that absolutely got the short ends of the stick and I felt were needlessly discarded despite being part of a whole picture that is Star Wars. Skadge, for example, is one of the companions I really warmed up to because in the context of a BH's crew, mindless trash talking muscle makes (the most) sense, though his introduction and the lack of player agency in vanilla instilled a significant amount of hate toward him. You get a shot to change that later on, and I feel that it was handled super well, but I have faith that more can be done with characters who don't enjoy the same likeability as the typical Council of Waifus.

[cosmicchar]

6 hours ago, ReveredDead said:

People mostly play this for the incredible story content. If you guys want to reinvigorate MMO community interest in SWTOR. Create a KOTFE sized story expansion with a well written and deep story spread out across monthly story updates like it was when KOTFE and KOTET came out.

 

7 hours ago, AshleyRuhl said:

 

SWTOR has a lot of impactful choices that can affect who's in your story, especially companions. It's impossible to show one "true" version of SWTOR's narrative, because each story experience is unique. That said, we're choosing to include conditional characters in marketing material and key art, to emphasize that while these characters may not be around for everyone, we are still invested in furthering their stories.

Count me as one of those who mainly play for story. I find KOTFE and KOTET to be the peak of the SWTOR story. Well written characters and worldbuilding of Zakuul, and it looked way more cinematic than everything else. Playing through those was when I had the most fun in the entire game, and I would love another expansion like that. Just a detailed story with frequent updates would be the ideal for me. But at the end of the day, this is an MMO and not a movie, so I'll just accept the balance between updating the story or game elements.

I like where the story’s going so far, with Mandalorian politics and the Nul mysteries. Excited for next week!
 

[Gwena]

31 minutes ago, cosmicchar said:

iirc Arcann is the only major companion who’s not completely customizable. I’m mostly okay with this because the design of his robes is one of my favorites in the entire game (devs please make more armors with runes or gold)

And please bring back the tokens soon, lots of cool stuff is unobtainable now. Hmmm…I just had a flashback to when I spent a month grinding my Light 5 character to Dark side so I could get the tokens for both of Arcann's customizations lol

I hope he’ll someday get a 3rd customization, like an Alliance look or more casual clothes.
 

Paxton and Nico Ocarr are also not customizable (though really should be IMHO).

That said, I kinda get why Arcann isn't, but there is absolutely no excuse for how difficult/impossible it is to get customizations for him. I actually have DvL tokens on a couple of my characters, but they aren't ones that have/use Arcann and the customizations are BoP (unlike everything else on the vendor). 

More on topic, I am really excited for 7.2 and Life Day! Can't wait to snag some shiny new snowglobes for my Strongholds and get silly holiday speeders for my newer characters. I'm really happy that it wasn't delayed, the 13th is just perfect IMHO.

[ReveredDead]

6 hours ago, phalczen said:

As was evidenced by KOTFE and KOTET, doing a KOTFE/KOTET-sized, fully voice acted, cinematic story pretty much excludes development for any other gameplay area.  These are the so-called “MMO bits” talked about during those years, including but not limited to: flashpoints, operations, daily areas, pvp, etc. etc.  Basically if they created another KOTFE-length story you can kiss the rest of the game goodbye.  The dev team has a difficult time getting content out on time as it is, it’s much smaller than it was in the 3.x era.  I loved KOTFE/KOTET but the game lost a lot of people when 4.0 happened and the rest of the game features suffered.  That kind of loss of experienced players who create content, like class guides or operation guides, is unsustainable with the game already bleeding from 7.0 as it is.  Making another KOTFE/KOTET would be a disaster, not a reinvigoration.

It would be a monumental risk. Which is why they need EA to help fund it. The time between updates and lack of quality thereof is reminiscent of one thing. Not enough money and not enough people. Sadly it seems EA threw SWTOR Bioware to the side like some toy they got tired of playing with. If EA would just freaking gave Bioware a blank check, reach out to former employees who worked on SWTOR in the early years to try to get them back and they hired more staff and motivated them properly. It would pay off for the game. The formula is there. It just depends on if Bioware is prepared to take risks. Or if they'll take the safe and easy route up until the game dies and servers shut off. 7.0 was a bold step in the wrong direction. Personally I would love for a game company to make an entirely new Star Wars MMO. However, this is the last standing bastion of legends Star Wars content out there. If they made a new MMO. It would likely be based on Disney's crappy "canon". So SWTOR is it. It either thrives and revives itself or it'll remain mediocre on the stage of other MMO's and fade with a whimper. 

[Dekibra]

8 hours ago, Sarova said:

Did the Devs forget about the best view in swtor II?  7.2 is out next week and there's not been a thread on the winners (not one I could find).  Is this happening this patch or in the New Year?

was wondering about that too!

iirc they said it will be announced around the 11th year anniversary - so I am guessing either with 7.2 or at the 20th

[Nee-Elder]

13 hours ago, OlBuzzard said:

 Good to spar with someone from time to time and lighten the mood!!

uhh , looks like the "sparring" is happening over on PVP forums....  https://forums.swtor.com/topic/926287-follow-ups-on-pvp-in-72/  ... And i guess now i get the answer i previously pondered above ^^  (about leaderboards  idea ) .

[Darthmoriquendi]

17 hours ago, ErraiSenkar said:

Jackie, 

Just a quick question... were any of the KotET writers or anyone at a story meeting remember that a certain companion could be killed off?  I see "dead people."  

Fortunately Bioware isn't writing these characters off anymore. Arcann and Theron are two more examples that can be killed, but are still participating in content as of now. I'm glad they made this decision honestly. I hate missing out on some of my favorite companions not being included because some chose to make dark side choices in the game. Everyone shouldn't have to suffer because of it.

[Darthmoriquendi]

11 hours ago, seba- said:

I finished Knight of the Eternal Throne today, I was happy to find out that Arcann was a permanent companion, a bit more disappointed that I cannot, like most companion, make it wear every armor that I want. So I found out that he had customization items that I could get, two of them, light and dark side. And then I found out that I needed dark or light side token, which aren't available anymore, a thread from Bioware was saying that they will come back, but in the mean time those marketing material that you offer, I cannot enjoy them.
I do love this game, the stories are ...

This has been an ongoing issue with Arcann. Trust me I am right up there with you about this situation and the DvL tokens. As far as armor slots for him, I don't know if that will ever happen because of his unique 2.5 body shape. That being said, there is no reason Bioware can't create a package of a select few nice sets of clothing and armor that can be tailored strictly for Arcann alone. I would throw money at the CM and I know a lot of other people that would also gladly pay for this. 

The fact that they keep the only  customizations locked behind this DvL vender is getting ridiculous now.  If they aren't planning anything in the near future, just move them somewhere else. Or hey, how about just adding DvL tokens as loot drops in the game. This was something I suggested recently.  I keep hoping that they just surprise us one of these days and bring them back. I hope sooner than later. But yeah I think it was about a year ago  where they mentioned that they are working on it........

[bluehufsa]

12 hours ago, AshleyRuhl said:

 

SWTOR has a lot of impactful choices that can affect who's in your story, especially companions. It's impossible to show one "true" version of SWTOR's narrative, because each story experience is unique. That said, we're choosing to include conditional characters in marketing material and key art, to emphasize that while these characters may not be around for everyone, we are still invested in furthering their stories.

OK, does that mean Arcann, Senya, Theron, Torian, Vette & Kalyio will still appear in the future expansions for the ones that saved them and replaced with other NPCs/companions for the ones who did not?