Make the game harder during class stories

[Stradlin]

5 hours ago, LD_Little_Dragon said:

Is your companion set to heal?

If yes, then it is a YOU problem.

Stop using a heal companion.  Better yet, stop using a companion completely.

Game being more difficult vs players making the game more difficult for themselves via some arbirtary  handicaps. Ofc,latter can be fun just aswell.   Usually it is oddly unsatisfying though. Games have always been about coping  with internal logic and boundaries established by the rules of that game. If the game&its rules& reward systems know  nothing of your "im playing with my eyes closed!"-stunt then it is you making your  life more difficult, rather than game being more difficult.

Ie,if there were an achi&legacy title for playing without a companion, it'd feel like a hard mode game challenges its players to complete. As it is, doing this is unsupported and game activately makes it frustrating by  automatically resummoning companion at every turn.

Ultimately I agree though, players are stuck with coming up with  these little challenges themselves. Most of the self imposed  challenges  are rooted in utter lack of interest towards game mechanics,since no game mechanic matters in class stories. Ie  I always do "care nothng of your gear " challenge. It isn't some conscious decision, just that it truly doesnt matter what I wear.  It could be bit more effective dps  to care even a  token amount..Travelling from easy boss to another is the timesink,not the combat so it truly doesn't matter.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Stradlin

[Spikanor]

16 hours ago, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

 

Thank you both for responding. I was out of reactions for the day but didn't want it to go unsaid.

Everyone's opinion is important. Everyone's opinion counts.

yw

and to give feedback about things is something we most do as communety to let the developers know if we like it or not.

but the sad part is that bug fixing and story contant is for a lot off people the nummber 1 and 2 spot since that are 2 off the things a lot off people have been asking for a long time.

and we all know BW give notting about the players feedback we have see it a lot on the PTS and the live servers when people disagree with some chance's like the new armor system or chance to the UI that have become to big or the story line from the expension was so short.

and 7.0 was the only expension i know that got a lot of bad feedback about it and we all see there give notting about it.

from bad armor system to the crap short stoy contant.

and not forget that the 7.0 expension got a 2 month's delay for the trailer only.

[Toraak]

8 hours ago, Shayddow said:

for me I have companion 99 % of the time heals. Except for a very few exceptions.

For instance, the quest on Oricon for the mission at the extreme north of the map, I try to use Kira or Xalek as DPS (depending on which side I'm playing), throw on heroic and go. That's the only way i've found to be able to take out the tenacles before the boss self-heals, plus using my interrupts.  But that was found out mostly by trial and error until I got it down to a system.

Interupt the bosses channel, and you don't need to worry about it healing.

 

For me at least as long as I interuppt that channel that thing dies in mere second's. I never have to finish a rotation.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Toraak

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

6 hours ago, Spikanor said:

and we all know BW give notting about the players feedback we have see it a lot on the PTS and the live servers when people disagree with some chance's like the new armor system or chance to the UI that have become to big or the story line from the expension was so short.

Sad but true.

The poll was just for us.

Honestly, I'm not worried about them considering whether or not to increase the difficulty of story. They're not gonna do that for the same reason they don't do 95% of what people suggest they do on the forums.

We have a whole category dedicated to player suggestions to the Devs (Suggestion box). When was the last time anything anyone suggested in  Suggestion box was ever actually instituted in game?

I doubt even 1 full % of the total suggestions ever made in the suggestion box section were ever instituted or even actively considered by the devs.

Sometimes they listen to suggestions regarding class balance, rarely, but sometimes. It's the only instance I can recall at the moment at any rate.

Edited May 25, 2023 by WayOfTheWarriorx

[Diamaht]

11 hours ago, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

But soloing flashpoints, without a healer companion, I'd definitely die alot. I'd stand no chance against bosses.

 

Oh I don't mean soloing veteran flashpoints.  What I meant by the no use for healers and tank comment is that often times its just 4 dps classes that do runs using the solo group finder to do the content.  You don't need healing or tanking for that.  The mobs are ineffective enough that they can be burned down long before they wipe a group of players.  However, that's group content, where this thread is supposed to be about solo story, so I suppose that could confuse the issue.

As for the player feedback, that's what these conversations are for.  But the arguments need to be genuine.

[Stradlin]

7 hours ago, Spikanor said:

 

and to give feedback about things is something we most do as communety to let the developers know if we like it or not.

but the sad part is that bug fixing and story contant is for a lot off people the nummber 1 and 2 spot since that are 2 off the things a lot off people have been asking for a long time.

 

 

Its not like somebody in Bioware/EA reads feedback like this, slaps their forehead and goes "Oohh  heureka! they want more Story content?! Who knew!!! Well gosh darn it, lets give them some!" Its not like they " don't care" that you want more story content. They'd like nothing more than launch  some 400 hour long massive continuation of each class story.

 

...They know.  They've always known. It has been clear since before the release of this game that people would always like more and more and more story content.

 

It is pretty clear BW doesn't have the funding to do much of story stuff  anymore.  This has been the case since KOTET.  Small wonder:  It takes contribution  of 48(!!!!)  different voice actors to do player chars' dialogue. That alone is pretty insane a number for any game that isn't in the busiest spot of its development cycle.  Srsly , It is a total let that sink in-type of a moment. If  script has Player Char wisely saying  "Sup Lana?", BW needs work from 48 different voice actors until that " sup Lana?" is ready to be thrown in-game.  Besides obvious monetary woes, issues having to do with  scheduling, contracts  and logistics of VA stuff alone are surely an endless nightmare.

 

 

Story content is a total catch-22 even at the best of times. Most people are " here for the story" and expect more, so BW understandably feels they need to invest major part of whatever budget they have left to story content  and just see where most of that little takes them.  Story stuff  is expensive content to create. Despite its cost, story content has very little longevity and replay value. It burns out quickly. Give somebody who likes GSF an new map, or a new game mode and it might be relevant,  fun content for years. Even decades.   Give a story enjoyer a tiny  two hour story  expansion  and it lasts for two hours.

 

I remember I made a thread like two years back, asking people if they'd be willing to ditch voice acting(or PC voice acting) if it meant more frequent story updates. Mere proposal made people angry. At least back then, folks were ready to embrace these awesome two hours/year story drops rather than entertain the thought of a silent PC VA.

 

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Stradlin

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

13 minutes ago, Diamaht said:

As for the player feedback, that's what these conversations are for.  But the arguments need to be genuine.

Sure. But I doubt Bioware much cares what we think here in this string. It's worth discussing, there's certainly no harm in it and we get some social interaction with people who share some of out interests.

And I'm sure every once in a blue moon maybe someone in BW sees something on the forums and maybe floats the idea to the devs, but that would obviously be rare in the extreme.

Regarding genuine arguments, once again, that's subjective. We disagree with each other, but is one of us being genuine and the other not being genuine?

I think we're both genuine in our arguments in all likelihood.

[Spikanor]

26 minutes ago, Stradlin said:

It takes contribution  of 48(!!!!)  different voice actors to do player chars' dialogue.

if that cost a lot of money then stop with it then.

since using voice actors in a mmorpg game is more blowing money away when it can be use in a other way like developing new contant faster.

sure its something good to have but then you need a lot off money from the game it selfs.

now its only hurting the game more.

 

31 minutes ago, Stradlin said:

I remember I made a thread like 4 years back, asking people if they'd be willing to ditch voice acting(or PC voice acting) if it meant more frequent story updates. Mere proposal made people angry. At least back then, folks were ready to embrace these awesome two hours/year story drops rather than entertain the thought of a silent PC VA.

there are always that type people that not like it.

there think that its unice to have voice acting in a MMORPG game but there not understand at all how much money it cost and how worse the developing for new contant is hurting.

thats the reason a lot off MMORPG game developers are not going to start with voice acting's in there game since its costing a lot off money and the new contant developing is going to hurt from it.

a normal MMORPG game get new contant and i mean with new expension's or episode after each 6 month's if any game's get it after 1 full year each time thats really low since each 6 month's is the min there is and lower then that is only worse.

and here is also something some people already know is that bioware only gets a lower budget each time and its not getting up at all.

so that make's it for the new contant more worse then it was look at the 6.0 expension and 7.0 expension you see all a big diffrend in the new story contant.

[Diamaht]

40 minutes ago, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

Regarding genuine arguments, once again, that's subjective. We disagree with each other, but is one of us being genuine and the other not being genuine?

I think we're both genuine in our arguments in all likelihood.

I'm not sure how to phase general statements in way that it is not taken as a personal and specific attack without an overabundance of disclaimers.

As to voice over, its a bit off topic for this thread however we may have reached that point.  I think if it's holding them back from making meaningful content then yes they should steer away from it for now.  It appears they are doing just that with the season companions.  They all use the generic "alien dialect" voice over and non radial dialog choices, that might the easiest way they can produce the content.

Making improvements to the base game and it's experience could bring in more players, thereby increasing their ability to produce high quality VO dialog so I think they should focus on that for now.

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

5 minutes ago, Diamaht said:

They all use the generic "alien dialect" voice over and non radial dialog choices, that might the easiest way they can produce the content.

Making improvements to the base game and it's experience could bring in more players, thereby increasing their ability to produce high quality VO dialog so I think they should focus on that for now.

Some of the alien voices are annoying as hell. I don't mind PH4, I know some people do, and that just may be because I like female humanesque driods (like Scorpio, the Borg Queen, etc.), but Amity, Amity drives me up the wall. I can't stand him and it's in large part due to his voice.

I think they do the digitized voices alot because I think at this point (and for several years) the VA are cost prohibitive for BW, but I really don't think that Bioware is thinking in terms of the base game, which by and large, and I think you'll agree if you take a look at the general consensus about how people feel about the vanilla stories (and not just in this string, I mean in general) there is a lot of reverence for the vanilla stories and many people think its the best part of the game.

I just don't see Bioware spending a whole lot of time and resources on the base game. I think expanding the game is more of a priority because there's a good amount of subscribers, like us, that have been playing the game for a long time, and so they also need to consider long time players, ,many of whom have done the vanilla stories ad nauseam at this point.

And for new players, there is a ton of story that already exists in this game, and if you are new or newish, you got years of play with what is already in place.

Again, I'm not at all adverse to them making a higher difficulty track for story as an optional feature. I would like that and if I ever did story again, I may well use it.

I would rather get expansions and new stories that I haven't done. I been playing the same character for 10 years and so I'm always happy when I finally get to play some new story with him and beyond that, I'm an end gamer.

And more generally, I mean, how many times can you play the same story over and over, and let's face it, it doesn't last all that long anyways. What do you get from Vanilla story, a month maybe? And I can't help but think that expanding the game is more important than brushing up 12 year old content.

But, that's just my take on it,  just my opinion.

 

[OlBuzzard]

5 hours ago, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

Sad but true.

The poll was just for us.

Honestly, I'm not worried about them considering whether or not to increase the difficulty of story. They're not gonna do that for the same reason they don't do 95% of what people suggest they do on the forums.

We have a whole category dedicated to player suggestions to the Devs (Suggestion box). When was the last time anything anyone suggested in  Suggestion box was ever actually instituted in game?

I doubt even 1 full % of the total suggestions ever made in the suggestion box section were ever instituted or even actively considered by the devs.

Sometimes they listen to suggestions regarding class balance, rarely, but sometimes. It's the only instance I can recall at the moment at any rate.

I've been reading your stuff lately!  Do we always agree?

Are you nuts???  Of course not!  But I DO see a lot of good stuff that I do agree with and like!  And if I can figure out how to quote that pole ... and add a couple comments I'll follow up on that later.

Maybe I can do this.  Here's a few priorities (for me at least): IN order:
** Fix the BUGS !!!!! Some have been around for a LOOOONG time!
** Add a new class (complete with story line).  I have made a suggestion to that affect some time back and STRONGLY like the idea.  IMO it is a natural progressive outlet for a LOT more content!
** Fix the gearing system!  I get the idea of upgrading being something of a grind (a LOT of the larger MMO's do that).  Heck WoW has to be one of the most GATED games I've ever ran across.  Their new crafting system has more gates to it that the entire Stargate TV series!
** Adding more content for the rest of the game (plus the new class) MORE frequently!
**PvP apparently still needs some work!  I really am not directly a part of that aspect of the game so I'm really not sure what I could or SHOULD comment regarding that situation.  BUT IMO the PvP community is still a viable part of the SWTOR community!  Period!!
** More companion interactions / flirts / fun ... just good clean fun and maybe a party or two.  (Don't tell me that a 71 year old man is the only one who knows what that means without being .. well .. rude!)
** Making the game harder.  IMO the real answer to that is found in two different suggestions:
1).  Three levels of difficulty whenever possible (no need to go into a lot of detail in this point of the thread).
2).  A scaled level of difficulty based on the physical location of activities on any give map.  Meaning.. the story line area might not be real agressive .. but as a player moves around on the map there are "pockets" of difficult to play / roaming elite mobs random and even world bosses (some might even have group locater options when needed).
** Update crafting .. self explanatory!  I hate listing this at the bottom of the list .. but the other items a just a bit more pressing!
** Updating some of the planets that we first visited??  IMO this might help the overall story progression.  It should be possible.

If can think of anything else I'll drop by later!

BTW...  @WayOfTheWarriorx nicely done !!  

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

33 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

If can think of anything else I'll drop by later!

I always welcome the wisdom of the Old Man on the Mountain! (with respect.)

You have a keen intuition and the ability to think impartially and consider things that aren't even necessarily an area of your own personal interest.

33 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

** Add a new class (complete with story line).  I have made a suggestion to that affect some time back and STRONGLY like the idea.  IMO it is a natural progressive outlet for a LOT more content!

I remember and I liked it. You did a good job with that spread.

I can't imagine an new class, (especially if they could also do a complete new story line to go with it) wouldn't generate massive excitement in the player base and likely bring some old players back to the fold. Hell, I might even give it a whirl and break my one character only Modus Operandi.

33 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

1).  Three levels of difficulty whenever possible (no need to go into a lot of detail in this point of the thread).
2).  A scaled level of difficulty based on the physical location of activities on any give map.  Meaning.. the story line area might not be real agressive .. but as a player moves around on the map there are "pockets" of difficult to play / roaming elite mobs random and even world bosses (some might even have group locater options when needed).

That sounds like a good way of doing it if they were going to.

33 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

** Updating some of the planets that we first visited??  IMO this might help the overall story progression.  It should be possible.

This is probably the most realistic way they could add new content at a faster pace. Why re-invent the wheel. Alot of the planets we really don't end up spending much time on them anyways before the story wisks us off to some other rock.

Plus some of the full areas on a planet really aren't all that much so be nice to have some more areas to explore on some fan favorite planets.

Bioware would do well to listen to some of the wisdom from The Old Man on the Mountain!

🧙‍♂️ (<~~ sorry I couldn't resist. =p)

P.S. If we all agreed about everything all the time, be a really dull world!

Edited May 26, 2023 by WayOfTheWarriorx

[Bigfallenstar]

10 hours ago, Spikanor said:

if that cost a lot of money then stop with it then.

since using voice actors in a mmorpg game is more blowing money away when it can be use in a other way like developing new contant faster.

sure its something good to have but then you need a lot off money from the game it selfs.

now its only hurting the game more.

 

there are always that type people that not like it.

there think that its unice to have voice acting in a MMORPG game but there not understand at all how much money it cost and how worse the developing for new contant is hurting.

thats the reason a lot off MMORPG game developers are not going to start with voice acting's in there game since its costing a lot off money and the new contant developing is going to hurt from it.

a normal MMORPG game get new contant and i mean with new expension's or episode after each 6 month's if any game's get it after 1 full year each time thats really low since each 6 month's is the min there is and lower then that is only worse.

and here is also something some people already know is that bioware only gets a lower budget each time and its not getting up at all.

so that make's it for the new contant more worse then it was look at the 6.0 expension and 7.0 expension you see all a big diffrend in the new story contant.

The voice acting is what makes the TOR different from the others. Not many MMORPG's had that going for them at the time. Plus, it's Star Wars, and everybody wants to live out their Jedi/Sith fantasy. If they wanted to play a silent character that mows down everything that gets in there way, they'd go to WoW, Halo Reach, Doom, or Cod pre Black ops.

[TriceraNL]

Some of the NPC's are abit easy when it comes to defeating them, yes, But some of them are still quitte "challenging" and no offense meant but you make it sound like it's terrible. Like... really, really terrible. Atleast, in my eyes. Personally... i think you're overreacting abit 'coz it's not THAT bad.

[Spikanor]

2 hours ago, Bigfallenstar said:

The voice acting is what makes the TOR different from the others. Not many MMORPG's had that going for them at the time. Plus, it's Star Wars, and everybody wants to live out their Jedi/Sith fantasy. If they wanted to play a silent character that mows down everything that gets in there way, they'd go to WoW, Halo Reach, Doom, or Cod pre Black ops.

first question have you ever play halo reach or Cod since i have and there have voice acting in there and for the record all the halo main game's have voice acting also since i have play then all also same for the cod game's i have play a lot of cod game's back in good old day's.

and if you not trust me look at my achievements i have unlock on trueachievements

 

now we go back to the topic.

since i can do the same thing also what you do.

other MMORPG game's have there bugs fix on time and not have a lot of bug's that are still around since the first launch.

other MMORPG game's have better contant flow since there get each 6 month's new contant from new stuff/systems and new missions each 6 month's.

other MMORPG game's get at some point new class to play with.

 

the one thing that make's SWTOR so unice from the other MMORPG game's is making the other importent things you need to have only making worse.

you cant compare SWTOR to other game's like halo or cod since thats compleet diffrend.

halo and cod are no MMORPG game's in the first place so to compare then with SWTOR is something you cant do.

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Spikanor

[OlBuzzard]

17 hours ago, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

I always welcome the wisdom of the Old Man on the Mountain! (with respect.)

You have a keen intuition and the ability to think impartially and consider things that aren't even necessarily an area of your own personal interest.

I remember and I liked it. You did a good job with that spread.

I can't imagine an new class, (especially if they could also do a complete new story line to go with it) wouldn't generate massive excitement in the player base and likely bring some old players back to the fold. Hell, I might even give it a whirl and break my one character only Modus Operandi.

That sounds like a good way of doing it if they were going to.

This is probably the most realistic way they could add new content at a faster pace. Why re-invent the wheel. Alot of the planets we really don't end up spending much time on them anyways before the story wisks us off to some other rock.

Plus some of the full areas on a planet really aren't all that much so be nice to have some more areas to explore on some fan favorite planets.

Bioware would do well to listen to some of the wisdom from The Old Man on the Mountain!

🧙‍♂️ (<~~ sorry I couldn't resist. =p)

P.S. If we all agreed about everything all the time, be a really dull world!

I appreciate the kind words...  On the other hand:

** There is (and has often been in the past) a number of really good ideas that has come across the forum boards from a broad spectrum of people who are quite passionate about SWTOR.  I get it that most can't be used (and some that SHOULDN'T even be looked at) 😉  On the other hand there is something to be said for recognizing solutions that actually work!  MAKING those ideas their own is something that the development team should consider as just being smart about the business of building a successful game.
** There is so much potential right now still within this game!  Good grief!  The story with the Mandos is at the top of the list.  

OH!  While I'm thinking about it! ...  Somehow .. I don't see there ever being a dull moment with the two of us around! 🤣

QUPLA'

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNTVzwjEyb4

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by OlBuzzard

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

14 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

QUPLA'

HIja! (Yes!)

There's that's keen intuition I was talking about right there.

How cool are you?

I get it, WayOfTheWarrior = Klingon.

I play a Klingon Warrior in STO. DS9 Ruled.

[xxSHOONYxx]

On 5/25/2023 at 2:55 PM, Stradlin said:

...They know.  They've always known. It has been clear since before the release of this game that people would always like more and more and more story content.

Since before the release? That's a pretty broad statement, i'd say what is left from the millions of subs this game once had are the people that care about the story more than the mmo aspects of it.
 

On 5/25/2023 at 2:55 PM, Stradlin said:

It is pretty clear BW doesn't have the funding to do much of story stuff  anymore.  This has been the case since KOTET.  Small wonder:  It takes contribution  of 48(!!!!)  different voice actors to do player chars' dialogue.

Game probably has 2 or so years in advance of story written and voice acted. Is usually how things go, and probably maybe a year more on scripts waiting to be approved by lucasart/disney. 
 

On 5/25/2023 at 2:55 PM, Stradlin said:

I remember I made a thread like two years back, asking people if they'd be willing to ditch voice acting(or PC voice acting) if it meant more frequent story updates. Mere proposal made people angry. At least back then, folks were ready to embrace these awesome two hours/year story drops rather than entertain the thought of a silent PC VA.

Most of people that are on the forum are casuals, no wonder. Idk if "awesome" is sarcastic or not, but everyone was sh*ting on bioware 10 year celebration that had 2 hours worth of content in 7.0. Which to me was 10 minutes of reaching lvl 80 and not touching anything more


The first mmo that adds AI to VA and npcs will win the "race" and will be able to launch more endgame content

Edited May 26, 2023 by xxSHOONYxx

[OlBuzzard]

2 hours ago, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

HIja! (Yes!)

There's that's keen intuition I was talking about right there.

How cool are you?

I get it, WayOfTheWarrior = Klingon.

I play a Klingon Warrior in STO. DS9 Ruled.

** SFC-2 :  UFP: 9th Fleet / Vulture Squadron 
** SFC-3:  UFP: 9th Fleet / Vulture Squadron
** STO:  UFP / Independent fleet (with a LTS)
** WoW:  Alliance Warrior (main... two alts but I don't play them that often)  And yes ...I'm in a guild (grand daughter twisted grandpas arm.  Not going to resist!)

SWTOR:  Republic 99% of the time.  I do like the independence of the alliance.  Main character:  Gunslinger!  You have no idea just how bad I would love to see the idea of the new class we came up with!  AND (BTW) it could still be done and fit in quite well post KoTFE/ ET especially with the rise of new threats / Malgus and other elements could prove the necessity!  Couple that with a multiple level of difficulties in the game!  IMO it couldn't hurt to give it a shot!
 

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

2 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

SWTOR:  Republic 99% of the time.  I do like the independence of the alliance.  Main character:  Gunslinger!  You have no idea just how bad I would love to see the idea of the new class we came up with!  AND (BTW) it could still be done and fit in quite well post KoTFE/ ET especially with the rise of new threats / Malgus and other elements could prove the necessity!  Couple that with a multiple level of difficulties in the game!  IMO it couldn't hurt to give it a shot!

You should post that class idea again here. It's been a while since you did it and I'm sure a lot of people in this string and newer players and peeps new to the forums haven't seen it and on the off chance that some BW personal might come across this string now.

Certainly couldn't hurt. =]

[TriceraNL]

I know it's not exactly a class story, but if you want to do challenging missions...
Try doing that heroic quest on Ilum as a character on the republic side with an item level of around 323.
I'm trying that myself and i already died 3 times in a row.

[Stradlin]

13 hours ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

 

Game probably has 2 or so years in advance of story written and voice acted. Is usually how things go, and probably maybe a year more on scripts waiting to be approved by lucasart/disney. 
 

Most of people that are on the forum are casuals, no wonder. Idk if "awesome" is sarcastic or not, but everyone was sh*ting on bioware 10 year celebration that had 2 hours worth of content in 7.0. Which to me was 10 minutes of reaching lvl 80 and not touching anything more


The first mmo that adds AI to VA and npcs will win the "race" and will be able to launch more endgame content

 

 

Yes..just that ever since KOTET, that two years worth of story has amounted to what,  20 mins of dialogue? Distributed across like 4 content patches, released six months apart. Each patch has an FP or maybe a zone, plus 5 mins of spoken story content. Maybe 45 mins of playable new content.

It must be very difficult for BW, they feel they are "stuck with" constant story updates: Many people "are here for the story!" and would become quite angry if these were ditched. They can't stop doing these. On the other hand,they clearly don't have the budget to do anything very ambitious when it comes to story. So we get to enjoy these sad five minute burbs of dialogue  every six months. It is both necessary for BW and extremely wasteful way to burn the modest budget they have. 

And it is all so relative..budget that yields pretty modest results when it comes to quantity of dialogue might be a budget that buys quite a bit when it comes to GSF game modes, fun solo challenge mode FPs, new OPs..etc. 

 

TIL KOTET was almost 8 years back...holy sith where does the time go.how can that beD:

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2023 by Stradlin

[xxSHOONYxx]

7 hours ago, Stradlin said:

On the other hand,they clearly don't have the budget to do anything very ambitious when it comes to story.

With whatever budget they have they can't be ambitious because of voice acting itself, 48 paid VA for any "self thought" the player has, and make that 3 more for every npc they interact with.

Let's assume is a small patch that adds 2 hours of voice acting and is the 48 plus 10 npcs (30 total more VA), so maybe 30 minutes/1 hour of story if lucky?

Pulling numbers out off my a** (aka google) "$451 (one hour, one voice), according to a SAG-AFTRA rate sheet" is the average for VA. So taking out of the equation that famous VA also work for swtor like nolan north and jennifer hale and probably earn more than that, to round up +/- 70k dollars (Rates of VA vary and if they voice more than one the price goes down as if it was a new person so it might be more or less)

Plus the studio (50-500 dollars an hour), 2 hours each of the 48 plus lets assume 30 minutes for the 10 npcs, it would be 106 hours that would be between 5.3k to 53k dollars more.

If those numbers are anywhere true you can quickly see how much money is wasted in VA and why the game at release with 200m dollars development back then and now there is no budget for endgame and everything is spent in drops of content that have no retention. 

 

7 hours ago, Stradlin said:

It must be very difficult for BW, they feel they are "stuck with" constant story updates: Many people "are here for the story!

It's their own fault really. VERY ambitious an mmo fully voiced with 8 different stories, but very poorly planed out. If then want to put that much emphasis on story with such a big investment at the beginning they should have foresaw they needed an equal investment for endgame and content that gives player retention. If they didn't they should have just released kotor3 instead of an mmo. It seems they are stuck though, from millions to the low thousands of subs, whatever is left is the "we're here for the story!" and the only way to grow is with an investment to bring the people that want an mmo and not "here for the story!!".

Covid was awful for everyone but was great for mmos and games in general and it was a life line for swtor multiplying their player base by 2/3 times. People couldn't leave so gaming was the only way to escape. But looking at 7.0, idk where the money they made from covid went to. Maybe 64 bit?

[Stradlin]

1 hour ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

 

 VERY ambitious an mmo fully voiced with 8 different stories,

Yeah, for sure. I bet they figured it'd be sustainable (ie, a trajectory where 8 x class stories eventually get get 8 x expansions and so on)  if they held on to millions of subscribers after the  launch window. They didn't. So game's been on plan B or plan C ever since. According to my /tinfoil, they maybe  kinda planned to turn 8 class stories into 4 class stories come the first expansion, what we got in KOTFE and KOTET is something that was initially written to become the  the JK and Sith War class  story of a much bigger expansion.

It'd  be so good for TOR if they invested bit more on aspects of the game that come with more  replayability and longevity. GSF and any pvp in general last years, even decades for those who like it.  Beyond that, they'd do well to figure out a way to tell stories that doesn't cost an  arm and a leg and is still engaging to players.

 

 

 

[denavin]

I don't agree for the same reasons I posted in another thread...

 

Quote

 

The PVE side of SWToR is all about the story not the FIGHT. It is EASY MODE. It is not supposed to be hard nor difficult. The missions and all the mobs are supposed to be able to be completed and killed by the worst geared and lowest skilled players in the game. It is NOT designed for the HIGHEST geared RAID experienced players to find a challenge.

Without even knowing or seeing the OP, I can guess they are decked out in MAX gear with everything Boosted and with every perk a player can have and has a maxed out companion (which is always and only used for HEALS). Raids every week or more with their alts. But this is just speculation.

HINT: don't wear the maxed out gear and use a healer companion. Use the GREEN garbage non raiders have and a DPS or TANK companion instead. Using a HEALER companion is self imposed EASY MODE.

PVE is not "too easy", in higher levels, unless you are totally decked out in BIS gear the mobs do 10x more damage to the player than the player can do to the mobs. Mobs also have very CC there is and can use them every few seconds. Where the player, if they have any CC's can only use them once every 15 to 30 seconds per fight. And the player can get swarmed by 8 to 10 mobs at a time in many scenarios making survival for squishy classes extremely difficult to do.

The main thing is that "STORY Mode PVE is supposed to be EASY Mode PVE".

NEWS FLASH: Being DEAD all the time, IS NOT FUN!