An update on the development of SWTOR

[krackcommando]

1 hour ago, jedimasterjac said:

Bro what

watching anime with subs vs. dubs. did you read the prior post? 😉

[sithBracer]

12 hours ago, arunav said:

What additional monetization approaches would you expect from Broadsword? I'm not familiar with their other 2 games, or what might happen when a game like SWTOR moves to a studio like Broadsword. 

If they just leave the game as is, I'd still play from time to time, even if it doesn't get real updates like, say, Ruhnuk this past December, or the occasional new FP (basically what SWTOR story updates have been in recent years). I'm kind of expecting those to either stop, or become much less common, perhaps 1 every year or 18 months. Ideally, they'd at least finish the Malgus/Darth Nul story properly. 

I assume Broadsword would want to continue with CM items, as that's what's most profitable about SWTOR, but would they, say, add pay-to-win gear? Or other things like it (BiS augments?) to the CM BioWare always kept off it?

Pretty much. They add more barriers for f2p players, sell reskins but add to them BiS stats, ramp up the micro transactions and might even increase grinds to sell shortcuts. They might make some original armors for the cartel market in the beginning, but it will devolve into reskins more than likely. If there is one thing they might actually continue to develop is new outfits for the cartel market, which is probably why they are trying keep some of the BW devs, but even that is something I'm not sure about.

[LeMage]

On 6/10/2023 at 3:05 AM, TziganeNZ said:

My first MMO was Matrix Online - I was there from beta to the end when the servers shut down, and it was heartbreaking.  If only Warner Bros had not sold it to Sony, who promptly stuffed it up so badly people left in droves, it might still be going.  

I loved MxO it was my 1st MMO also. I still miss it hard.

[DIVAvonFarstar]

15 hours ago, arunav said:

I could imagine them dropping German and French as supported languages, though. That would at least cut player character voices to 16 people instead of 48. Frankly, I'm surprised BW hadn't already done that years ago. Perhaps they are obligated contractually somehow to provide content in German and French. 

A reduction to 16 dubbing voices, a discontinuation of the languages German and French, will lead to a loss of interest in the game and thus to fewer paying players in the countries affected by the cancellation. A quick poll in my guild (all members are from Generation X) revealed that no one would continue to play the game without the native language support.

[ReKabNad]

21 hours ago, jedimasterjac said:

Their Ultima Online team has six whole people. 

To Be Honest, that's pretty damn good for a 26-YEAR OLD GAME that less than 5,000 people worldwide still play! 

According to a Google Search, there's a player base of 4,355 for that game.  After 26 years.  So I think a team of 6 is all it actually needs!

[Stradlin]

1 hour ago, ReKabNad said:

To Be Honest, that's pretty damn good for a 26-YEAR OLD GAME that less than 5,000 people worldwide still play! 

According to a Google Search, there's a player base of 4,355 for that game.  After 26 years.  So I think a team of 6 is all it actually needs!

 

It is a bit more complicated than that! UO began getting highly sophisticated unofficial pirated servers like 20 years back or more. Most of the life..hype and so on happens among the unofficial servers. At most 50% of people playing UO play on Broadsword's official live server.  I'd guess amount of players is idd like 4k or so. I'd also guess those 4k players pay for 10-12k subscriptions.(due to player housing and whatnot,everybody has more than one active account in UO..crazy, I know)

More over, not a single Ultima Online official server has ever been shut down  down or merged. It has as many servers as it did at peak of its popularity in early 00s. Closing down or merging servers is  is just another Tuesday for Instance heavy MMOs like WoW or TOR..but due to player housing, Ultima Online can't really just merge or close any of them, ever. As a result, there's WAY too many official live servers. Way too many unofficial pirated servers too. irony here being? UO would unironically be astonishingly busy for its size and age, if its community gathered on just 3-4 servers.

 

I made a thread about UO for those curious!

https://forums.swtor.com/topic/929833-ultima-online-by-broadsword/#comment-9763810

Edited June 11, 2023 by Stradlin

[JayForerunner]

On 6/6/2023 at 5:37 PM, KeithKanneg said:

Hi all , 

No doubt you’ve read the reports that Electronic Arts is evaluating opportunities to give the game and the team a new home, which includes conversations with Broadsword. Unfortunately, we can't answer any questions you may have at this time.

Game Update 7.3’s June release will remain unchanged and patch notes will be released a day before per usual. 

All future content updates are also moving forward as planned, including 7.3.1 and 7.4. We are looking forward to the future of Star Wars: The Old Republic and its continued growth.

–Keith
 

Keep up the hard work, Keith and team. And, as some others here have hinted at, congratulations to the longevity of this particular game.

 

Jay

[Stradlin]

23 hours ago, jedimasterjac said:

DAOC and UO are very different styles of MMO from SWTOR so I think it’s hard to map 1:1. But expect more micro transactions and expect little to no updates. 
 

Unless, again, Broadsword has some plan to really expand and revolutionize themselves. But the studio as it stands is going to be nothing but a maintenance mode steward. 

 

Well, if the deal indeed happens as IGN leak suggests(with 40 ex BW people moving over), it immediately completely transforms Broadsword into like 4 x larger than it is now. I would guess their independence is mostly for show and in truth, in practical terms, they are quite controlled by EA. Surely this whole merge isn't  their idea or initiative, but that of EA. EA beancounters are prolly extremely satisfied with Broadsword: Tiny studio hosting tiny MMOs that get fairly rare updates, cost very little to run and make so much more money than they drain. Too bad formula UO and DAOC use can't really work with SWTOR, TOR is prisoner of its costly VA'd  storylines.  I've been wishing it'd break free of that since KOTFE/KOTET launch.

 

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by Stradlin

[jedimasterjac]

10 minutes ago, Stradlin said:

I've been wishing it'd break free of that since KOTFE/KOTET launch.

I'm with you there. I think it'd be great in the long run - but I think you'd lose too many current players. The whole casual end is really fond of the VO and whatnot. People seem more concerned with having a fully voiced visual novel/dating sim than a functional and vibrant MMO.

Edited June 11, 2023 by jedimasterjac

[Stradlin]

47 minutes ago, jedimasterjac said:

I'm with you there. I think it'd be great in the long run - but I think you'd lose too many current players. The whole casual end is really fond of the VO and whatnot. People seem more concerned with having a fully voiced visual novel/dating sim than a functional and vibrant MMO.

Yes, sadly it is very true. People been getting..what, 10 mins worth of PC VA a year for 7 years now,. Or..less than that, right? Even so, even now  " if they drop PC VA I QUIT!!" is a common thing  to hear in here.

"Ok, we are down to like 10 mins/year  of voice acted story content. I  wonder if some mold or another should be broken in here.."  is  writing on the wall neither players nor devs have wanted to consider. it has been right there, on the wall, with   capsed letters, for  most of TOR's life. It is very difficult and costly to do PC VA when a single word by PC takes 48 voice actors to speak.

 

 

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by Stradlin

[Mzuta]

On 6/7/2023 at 11:53 AM, TrixxieTriss said:

Sadly, none of them are Star Wars 😞

yeah if they had a star wars mmo that played like eso that i could use a controller with. Maaan. I think I'd become a shut in.

[krackcommando]

6 hours ago, Mzuta said:

yeah if they had a star wars mmo that played like eso that i could use a controller with. Maaan. I think I'd become a shut in.

yeah. no. please no. I'm not against it actually. but I want something that requires a kb and mouse. I hate eso's interface. i'll just go play shadow of mordor or kotor and any one of a million "on the rails" or FPS games if all I need is 4 buttons and a few triggers.

Edited June 12, 2023 by krackcommando

[jedimasterjac]

3 hours ago, krackcommando said:

yeah. no. please no. I'm not against it actually. but I won't something that required a kb and mouse. I hate eso's interface. i'll just go play shadow of mordor.

I’m similar. I like MMOs that give you more than four abilities. 

[cool-dude]

12 hours ago, Stradlin said:

 

(with 40 ex BW people moving over).

 

 

Only if all of them given the offer want to move from Austin to Virginia.

Edited June 12, 2023 by cool-dude

[ronin_chi_lao]

2 hours ago, cool-dude said:

Only if all of them given the offer want to move from Austin to Virginia.

But doesn't everyone at broadsword already work remotely? So they don't all have to physically move. 

Wouldn't that be why it didn't seem like a big concern with @KeithKanneg?

(I'm only guessing it would happen with everyone/or most of.. from bioware over there)

[JayForerunner]

13 hours ago, jedimasterjac said:

I'm with you there. I think it'd be great in the long run - but I think you'd lose too many current players. The whole casual end is really fond of the VO and whatnot. People seem more concerned with having a fully voiced visual novel/dating sim than a functional and vibrant MMO.

I'll keep saying this, the game here could easily be repackaged as KotOR 3 if it'd just gut all the MMO elements. Maybe I'm a weirdo about that, but Bioware is certainly playing to its strengths with writing and trying to make dynamic choices (even if the impacts of those are actually small).

 

Only reason I'd play MMOs over traditional single-player games is to meet new people, but most of the chatter in General Chat is not what I would call "interesting".

[Whykara]

5 hours ago, JayForerunner said:

I'll keep saying this, the game here could easily be repackaged as KotOR 3 if it'd just gut all the MMO elements.

No, SWToR is not KoTOR 3 and never will be.

5 hours ago, JayForerunner said:

but Bioware is certainly playing to its strengths with writing and trying to make dynamic choices (even if the impacts of those are actually small).

Bioware hasn't been able to produce a compelling story since at least 2015. They are only Bioware in name, all the talented writers are long gone. 

5 hours ago, JayForerunner said:

Only reason I'd play MMOs over traditional single-player games is to meet new people, but most of the chatter in General Chat is not what I would call "interesting".

You meet new people in guilds, not in the general chat ^^

[jedimasterjac]

5 hours ago, JayForerunner said:

I'll keep saying this, the game here could easily be repackaged as KotOR 3 if it'd just gut all the MMO elements. Maybe I'm a weirdo about that, but Bioware is certainly playing to its strengths with writing and trying to make dynamic choices (even if the impacts of those are actually small).

 

Only reason I'd play MMOs over traditional single-player games is to meet new people, but most of the chatter in General Chat is not what I would call "interesting".

I’m not trying to be dismissive, but I really struggle to understand the appeal of the game as a single player RPG. I know a lot of people play it like one. 
 

But I mean, to me, the game’s storytelling uses all the bad habits of modern BioWare with very, very few of the strengths. 
 

I don’t find any of the dynamic choices all too interesting, and no doubt it would be far easier to have more complicated, interesting, and dynamic choices if the game wasn’t fully voiced b

[jedimasterjac]

7 minutes ago, Whykara said:

Bioware hasn't been able to produce a compelling story since at least 2015

The Inquisition DLC The Descent is pretty interesting. Shame the rest of the game isn’t. 
 

I don’t think any BioWare story has pulled me in since ME3, and even then…

 

Personally I think the focus on character companions and romances is prioritized way above the narrative itself and interesting decision making. Which gives you some interesting moments like the Citadel DLC but mostly just makes the games not very interesting. 
 

I dunno. I used to be a big BioWare fan; I’ve soured a lot on their approach to storytelling as I’ve played other RPGs by other developers. 
 

That said, there are still definitely competent and talented writers in BioWare. I really love a lot of the short stories posted here for example, and I think they do have a very strong sense of character, even if I wish the game’s narrative went in a different direction. Honestly, most of the issues are less about the quality of writers and much more about the constraints imposed by their own “identity.” Fully voiced player characters more than anything. It’s a novelty but it severely limits player expression and storytelling. The Witcher 3 does it so well because it’s using a defined character, in my opinion; the gimmick works a lot better when we’re merely influencing what sort of character Geralt is, rather than being asked to turn a blank slate into something of our own. 

Edited June 12, 2023 by jedimasterjac

[TonyTricicolo]

6 hours ago, JayForerunner said:

I'll keep saying this, the game here could easily be repackaged as KotOR 3 if it'd just gut all the MMO elements. Maybe I'm a weirdo about that, but Bioware is certainly playing to its strengths with writing and trying to make dynamic choices (even if the impacts of those are actually small).

You know, I can agree with this to an extent. Arguably, the best part of this game, at least in my opinion, were the Origin stories. So we can sort of stretch the lines here and say that it could be an extension of Kotor but perhaps not a part 3. They should have kept to their strengths per se but you know the rest is history and need not explained.

 

41 minutes ago, jedimasterjac said:

I’m not trying to be dismissive, but I really struggle to understand the appeal of the game as a single player RPG. I know a lot of people play it like one. 

Well Jac, I guess it's because almost everything is instanced thus creating this pseudo single player game that has MMO aspects. You can have a very enjoyable time without really interacting with people in this game. Some, like myself, prefer the ambiance of people around them but don't necessarily want to engage with them until there is a need to.

Edited June 12, 2023 by TonyTricicolo

[FlameYOL]

On 6/7/2023 at 5:20 PM, KeithKanneg said:

Whoa whoa everyone... I was hoping me telling you about the upcoming releases would help you understand this is a new beginning, not the end.

We have more stories, modernizations, and MMO content already being planned out beyond 7.4.  While details are being discussed and finalized behind the scenes, let's not spin this into incorrect theories.  I am asking you to hang tight and we'll follow up later with more details when we can.

-Keith

I understand you're in a difficult position, Keith. And can't reveal much as a result, however considering how little information we have about the future of the game its understandable that we assume the worst in this situation. It'd be helpful if we had a roadmap of what Bioware plans to do with the game with 7.3.1 and 7.4 as well what lies beyond, I think that would help calm down everyone's nerves especially people like myself who are worried about the possibility of the story no longer being voice acted once the game moves over to Broadsword. At the very least, having a roadmap about what we can expect in the next few months should calm down the forums a bit.

I'm willing to wait to hear more details about these news as soon as the team is able, but understand that for us as players this move completely blidesinded us. There are so many questions like:
-Can we expect Broadsword to continue to update the game in a regular basis? Considering their studio is small, lots of players are worried they might not be able to.
-Can we expect Broadsword to continue to add story missions with voice-acting and cutscenes? Neither of the MMOs they maintain have extensive voice-acting like SWTOR does.
-Obviously concerns pertaining to how the switch might affect our accounts, cartel coins and subscriptions being the main concerns. I figure that shouldn't change much considering the publisher is EA, but it'd be nice getting confirmation that from our end nothing will have to be changed and we can just subscribe and buy CC without real concern. 
-Considering how small the studio is, is EA planning on expanding the studio so it can continue producing content for SWTOR? I understand you have plans for what lies beyond 7.4 but I find it hard to believe a small studio like Broadsword could make said plans come to fruition.
Questions like these need to be answered, obviously not now since the deal isn't even finalized but eventually once you do a press release on the matter we need to know what to expect. Its good to hear you still have plans beyond 7.4, but we need to know what those plans are and how they'll be implemented. 

[Otowi]

I agree. The questions that @FlameYOL have is very important for the player base to get answered .

I really hope that @KeithKanneg or @EricMusco can answer us, and update us when they have the ability to do so. The sooner the better for all of us.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Otowi
Corrected a minor typo.

[OlBuzzard]

14 hours ago, jedimasterjac said:

I’m similar. I like MMOs that give you more than four abilities. 

I think most of us are looking for a lot more than a console game.  IMO that is one the current points of contention. (WAY TOO casual).  In that same context ...  IMO .. there is also something to be said for MMO game development to include VA / Story telling in the game.  That element helps with progression and connects the player with the content (as in the case of SWTOR).

Providing the added mystery of a dating service??  I hadn't heard that line before ... BUT I can understand why someone might come to that conclusion.  LOL !!  My wife and I just celebrated our 49th anniversary a couple of weeks ago!! That being said ...I wouldn't eliminate interactions with companions (given that opportunity to make that sort of decision).  BUT I don't think I would necessarily provide intimate relationships as an intricate part of the game.  There's still tons of other ways to have fun with a companion, include them into the story... AND have a choice of what kind of companion (or person) to travel with us.
** Droid  (Military type or other)
** Wookie
** person
** undefined entity (???) .

The point is that the game itself should not be overly simplified (that's console type game style) ... nor should we expect less and less and less from a game.   MMO's are changing.  Change is something that many of us have seen over the last 15 (+) years now.  A lot of those changes are good changes.  Change for the sake of change .. not so much!  Adding companions to me adds that personal touch to the game.  And ... (to a degree) our own personal connection to that game.  (That makes it a little more difficult to grow itchy feet and leave)  It could be said that in some cases adding strong holds combined with companions ... was probably a good thing (in more than one way).  Both of these were items in SWTOR.  Add to that the Star Wars genre.

But things change. Playing SWTOR has been fun.

I genuinely feel for those at BW caught up in this dramatic change who really were trying to provide us with a game.  Certainly, HOW things progressed in the last few days has not quite what those who are in charge had predicted. 

Time now to see how this unfolds the next few days!

Edited June 12, 2023 by OlBuzzard
clarification

[Pirana]

If I were some of you still paying a sub, go month to month or preferred, don't purchase anything from the CM other than from the coins you already have, and just play the game, some of us already know how this is going to play out. 

[Nee-Elder]

22 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

Time now to see how this unfolds the next few days!

Well, at least we know  a bit about how SWTOR tomorrow will unfold--> https://forums.swtor.com/topic/929791-timeline-update-on-73-old-wounds/#comment-9764103

( re:  'Patch Notes' are UP  ^  )