An update on the development of SWTOR

[JakRoanin]

Oh, that was meant for someone else. 😁

[ReKabNad]

3 hours ago, JakRoanin said:

Oh, that was meant for someone else. 😁

Then perhaps you should have quoted the post you were replying to, so as to make it clear? 🤔

[JakRoanin]

I was going to bed and messed up, I apologize.

[darkalabax]

I strongly doubt the games dying. "End is nigh!" the crowd screams as they wave their signs around. People- way back when- were saying the game would die off in 2018. Honestly? I feel confident about this new studio. Even if they run it to the ground, we could still end up getting the CoH treatment.

[JakRoanin]

Hey I'm getting tired of all the "The Devs are awful, the game is dead, I can't kill Shae when I wanna," blah blah blah. Then stop paying, it's so simple. Just stop. What is so fun about calling people who disagree names? Is it really so cool? 

[DIVAvonFarstar]

🔮... just wait, time will tell what innovations the game will receive in the future.

[SteveTheCynic]

Wow.  Twice on the same thread:

On 6/25/2023 at 10:15 AM, SteveTheCynic said:

Do I have to post this again?

(Originally posted on the GW2 forums)

"game is dying" is (or should be) a generic meme in all MMORPG forums, even to the extent of things like

• Game released today: "Game is dying."
• Game released yesterday: "Game is dying."
• Game just released a new expansion, all the servers are jam-packed with players: "Game is dying."
• Game will release in two weeks: "Game is dead."

[OlBuzzard]

5 hours ago, SteveTheCynic said:

Wow.  Twice on the same thread:

LOL!  You definitely need to find a bouquet of flowers or some such emote to share with those kind folks who insist that it's dead and done!

IMO ... the only thing that's really dead and done ...  is the broken record that some of them continue to play ...over and over and over and over ...  AND OVER AND OVER (again... and again!)

[/facepalm]

Good grief !!

[kcirevamnalyd]

Sorry if this is out of place, but has Broadsword distributed any info. As to their "new" role within the SWTOR community?  

[JakRoanin]

No, it isn't; and no they have not unfortunately they have not.

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

2 hours ago, kcirevamnalyd said:

Sorry if this is out of place, but has Broadsword distributed any info. As to their "new" role within the SWTOR community?  

I think that might be a bit premature. They're probably just being a bit cautious and want make sure everything is order before they start making any definitive statements. It might also being part of the deal that Bioware wants to be seen a sole authority on the game while it is still in their possession and they don't want to have any conflicting communications.

That's just speculation on my part however.

I must admit, I myself am anxious to hear from Broadsword myself, and I think a lot of us are. Hopefully that will be forthcoming before too long.

[OlBuzzard]

I would personally think it would be helpful to see a post from a senior representative from Broadsword.  Yet ... in a way several of the team members have that logo on their signatures.  But I think we all know what's being said.  And I agree!  As long as the posting was a sincere posting of future expectations.  I think that would be good.  

We need a weeklong party of some sort!  I mean it!  There's been enough doom and gloom umm ...  "stuff" ... to last for a few months.  That may sound a bit crazy to some ... but that's just where this crazy old man is coming from about right now!

(That crazy old coot is just plain nuts)

[Traceguy]

13 hours ago, kcirevamnalyd said:

Sorry if this is out of place, but has Broadsword distributed any info. As to their "new" role within the SWTOR community?  

Yes https://forums.swtor.com/topic/930077-follow-up-on-swtor-development-update/#comment-9766042

And so it's clear, The top SWTOR devs moved to Broadsword. So it's not like Broadsword employees took over

[krackcommando]

12 hours ago, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

I think that might be a bit premature. They're probably just being a bit cautious and want make sure everything is order before they start making any definitive statements. It might also being part of the deal that Bioware wants to be seen a sole authority on the game while it is still in their possession and they don't want to have any conflicting communications.

That's just speculation on my part however.

I must admit, I myself am anxious to hear from Broadsword myself, and I think a lot of us are. Hopefully that will be forthcoming before too long.

ahem. Jackie et al. didn't wait long to start branding their posts with Broadsword. which leads me to....

14 hours ago, JakRoanin said:

No, it isn't; and no they have not unfortunately they have not.

nothing has changed in the way of communication/transparency.

keith said 7.3-7.4 were already laid out. that's not changing either. so if you want to cling to hope that BS will be different from BW (despite having the same team with fewer ppl working on it?), then you can look to whatever happens after 7.4.

that said, the lack of communication (or meaningful communication) doesn't bode well. BW kept their plans and rationales tight to the vest, treating them like trade secrets even when they did "reveal" things. That doesn't seem to have changed since Jack-o et al. changed their branding. /shrug

Edited July 14, 2023 by krackcommando
typos

[JakRoanin]

Ugh, come on give a little grace, have you thought about all the meetings, and logistical work going on?

[casirabit]

20 minutes ago, JakRoanin said:

Ugh, come on give a little grace, have you thought about all the meetings, and logistical work going on?

Were you not the one that said "Therefore, we are all entitled to have our own likes and dislikes" and if so then you should apply it to others as well.  While you may be willing to wait not everyone is and you should take that into consideration.  Is arguing with those who disagree with you going to change their minds?  If not, why continue the bickering back and forth?

[JakRoanin]

I'm not saying anyone has to wait! I'm saying that the constant trashing of the people who make this game is ridiculous. People in this thread are targeting people. I am defending the people, not attacking others likes or dislikes!

[krackcommando]

3 hours ago, JakRoanin said:

Ugh, come on give a little grace, have you thought about all the meetings, and logistical work going on?

can you please use the quote feature so A) ppl know who you're replying to and B) when you reply to me, I'll get a notification.

thanks.

[krackcommando]

3 hours ago, JakRoanin said:

Ugh, come on give a little grace, have you thought about all the meetings, and logistical work going on?

in any case, the "update" from keith kourage cited below can be summarized quite succinctly (and in his own words): nothing is changing. I believe he said those exact words, if not a phrase with identical meaning, multiple times in his long post of saying nothing specific. well, there was an exact-ish date for the new GS. so there was that I think?

 

4 hours ago, Traceguy said:

Yes https://forums.swtor.com/topic/930077-follow-up-on-swtor-development-update/#comment-9766042

And so it's clear, The top SWTOR devs moved to Broadsword. So it's not like Broadsword employees took over

so "nothing is changing" means the incredibly slow drip of new content. bug fixes. you name it.

on the plus, there was confirmation that cloud servers were still happening. again. nothing new. nothing has changed. that was on the agenda before the BS switch was made. I'll extend that to same people. same game. if you were hoping BS would be an improvement over BW, nothing to see here. If you were happy with BW's oversight, then you'll continue to enjoy it under BS.

edit: is there anything unfair or misrepresented in my assessment/summary of kaptain keith's announcement?

Edited July 14, 2023 by krackcommando

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

4 hours ago, krackcommando said:

keith said 7.3-7.4 were already laid out. that's not changing either. so if you want to cling to hope that BS will be different from BW (despite having the same team with fewer ppl working on it?), then you can look to whatever happens after 7.4.

Keith also said plans for new content include 2025, which would be well after 7.4., which at that point the game will almost certainly have already been under Broadsword for quite sometime so there may be some content plan interaction between the two companies on that already.

Also, and I'm sure this is just an oversight on your part, but, we're already in 7.3.

Keith was speaking about 7.4 and beyond. - I say "there may be some content plan interaction between the two companies on that already." because the devs already have Broadsword listed under their names, not Bioware.

•  
• Broadsword

• Author
• Dev Post

Posted June 7

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

Edited July 14, 2023 by WayOfTheWarriorx

[JakRoanin]

The people who make this game are not the Corporate entity. That difference is important.

Quote

What does EA remaining the publisher on record mean for the game? 

Similar to what we have said a few times now, it means nothing changes. The SWTOR team continues to be in control of the development and direction of the game with EA providing publishing and player support.

 

This only means we will play the game as we do now. It doesn't mean that post 7.4 things won't change.

[krackcommando]

3 minutes ago, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

Keith also said plans for new content include 2025, which would be well after 7.4., which at that point the game will almost certainly have already been under Broadsword for quite sometime so there may be some content plan interaction between the two companies on that already

again. 7.4 was already planned and prepared. 7.3 was not released when keith kourage first posted almost a verbatim message, btw. hence my inclusion of 7.3.

and the point of my post (to which you replied) is that you won't know what BS is/isn't changing until after 7.4 b/c 7.4 is the only thing that was "locked in" so to speak, but had not yet been released. does this make sense? (not being pedantic. asking if i"m making sense)

Edited July 14, 2023 by krackcommando

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

12 minutes ago, krackcommando said:

and the point of my post (to which you replied) is that you won't know what BS is/isn't changing until after 7.4 b/c 7.4 is the only thing that was "locked in" so to speak, but had not yet been released. does this make sense?

Yes, that makes perfect sense and I don't disagree.

No one can be sure what's going to happen in the future under Broadsword.

I personally don't have a stance on what's going to happen persay, I can only work with what they are telling us and whether that is true or not remains to be seen.

What I will say with a bit more confidence, I don't think the game is going into maintenance mode, but you don't appear to be suggesting that anyways.

I see the potential for improvement or change, that's a possibility because it's new management, they might take a different view on things.

A small ass company like Broadsword, getting their hands on one, if not the, biggest IP out there, which is a gold mine, might see a massive opportunity here to build and grow.

Keyword there is might, than again, they might not. I also agree with you that, even if they do make some changes and increase content, I'm not expecting any of that to be apparent before 6 months to a year.

But, I'm not expecting any massive changes, I just have hope for that.

Edited July 14, 2023 by WayOfTheWarriorx

[krackcommando]

46 minutes ago, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

No one can be sure what's going to happen in the future under Broadsword.

I personally don't have a stance on what's going to happen persay, I can only work with what they are telling us and whether that is true or not remains to be seen.

What I will say with a bit more confidence, I don't think the game is going into maintenance mode, but you don't appear to be suggesting that anyways.

I see the potential for improvement or change, that's a possibility because it's new management, they might take a different view on things.

A small ass company like Broadsword, getting their hands on one, if not the, biggest IP out there, which is a gold mine, might see a massive opportunity here to build and grow.

yeah well...it's a new steward company (BS), but it's the same dev/design team that were in BW. literally the same. supposedly fewer. so...uh...not a lot has changed. I think that's significant evidence that...nothing is going to change. if you liked the direction things have been going under BW (I do not), then you'll prolly be honky dory. if you did not like BW's M. O. with this game, then you prolly will be pessimistic (I am). as in I'm pessimistic about the idea of this game continuing down the same silly rabbit hole of CM, solo story mode, and /faceroll grind centered content.

iunno how else to say this, other than end game in this game is trash. absolute trash. the game engine is garbage. game designers/devs come up with abilities and maps that the engine literally cannot handle. you need a divine connection to the server with the absolute latest bleeding edge CPU in order to play a glitch free (rubber banding) game. a TWELVE YEAR OLD GAME. that's just not acceptable. at all.

you've got content drops slower than molasses in january. and I'm gonna be honest here, story content...that isn't content. that's story. that's the crap you play through once and the hit the esc key 100x more times during the xpack. this game might have as many raids as it does xpacks. that's pathetic.

new FPs are only slightly better than new frequency of new OPs. and the FPs are trash. not the runs themselves but you do them once at each level and they're done. there's just no point. it's MM and then they're done.

this game's feature form of end game content is to do GS, Conquest, and PVP seasons. those are the lowest common denominator exercises. dailies in which you /faceroll your way through story mode content and that slap each others back for doing the most mind-numbing grind possible every day. these hamster wheels exist as a substitute for actual content. they're designed to keep ppl busy with decade's old "content." it's such a transparent and pathetic ploy, I'm kind of beside myself having to think about it.

PvE is so bad in this game, it's the first one I PvP'd in more than a couple matches. now pvp is all I do b/c everything else is old, stale, and catered to moronic, faceroll, hamster wheel grinds. and in 7.2, they even turned pvp into a hamster grind. because that's what this game is. it's just new ways to "trick" players into doing the most monotonous, faceroll, story mode crap with decade-old "content."

the only good thing. I mean the only good thing. to come out of this game (imo ofc) is that there's now a separate arena queue. so as badly as BW has botched WZs and rated WZs/arenas. at the very least there is still one queue in this game that I can just play where most ppl most of the time are actually trying to win. and pvp is the one mode in the game where new "content" isn't required. except now it sort of is, b/c the queues die w/o the seasons. because now 70%? 80%? of the population that PVPs doesn't even like to PVP. they're just space barbie lemmings chasing after cosmetics that are only offered by dying X-times per week during the season so as to get their precious token or seasonal armor piece.

yeah. I want BS to be different pretty desperately. but like I said, same design team. same devs. same community manager. same dev-speak in kk's posts. very very very low expectations at this point.

Edited July 14, 2023 by krackcommando
typos

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

40 minutes ago, krackcommando said:

yeah well...it's a new steward company (BS), but it's the same dev/design team that were in BW. literally the same. supposedly fewer. so...uh...not a lot has changed. I think that's significant evidence that...nothing is going to change. if you liked the direction things have been going under BW (I do not), then you'll prolly be honky dory.

I'm not a big fan of the direction and vision Bioware has adopted in this game. I've expressed quite often that I am unhappy that Bioware doesn't respect Lucas's Vision and canon more. I've also said many times, I don't consider this real Star Wars, because quite honestly, it simply isn't. It goes against things Lucas established in his canon. 'Grey Jedi' stupidity. Jedi getting married, having families, using Force Lighting as Lightsiders. They purport 'Balance in the Force' to mean an equal balance of Light and Dark which it totally isn't. It goes against the movies and The Clone Wars series themselves. And these are just a few examples. There are many others. - Not everyone may care about that, and that's fine, people are entitled to their opinions, but that's how I feel about it.

This is a major reason why I am happy about the prospect of the game going under new management.

I will, however point out that you are forgetting that there are going to be people who already work for Broadsword who will also be working on the game, so it isn't just all the same people, it some of the old people from Bioware, and some of the new people who work at Broadsword and have never worked for Bioware. Also, there is a different management that will be overseeing the game and all those former Bioware employees will be answering and taking their orders from them. It will be Broadswords vision that the old Bioware employees will be taken their directives about the game from. So that's where some difference may be found.

40 minutes ago, krackcommando said:

iunno how else to say this, other than end game in this game is trash. absolute trash. the game engine is garbage. game designers/devs come up with abilities and maps that the engine literally cannot handle. you need a divine connection to the server with the absolute latest bleeding edge CPU in order to play a glitch free (rubber banding) game. a TWELVE YEAR OLD GAME. that's just not acceptable. at all.

There is some truth to this. I personally don't feel that the end game is complete garbage, I more agree with you in the respect about the abilities and the engine. But, I have managed to have some fun anyway doing end game content over the years. But, that's your opinion on it, and there are no wrong opinions. If you feel end game is complete garbage, that's certainly your right.

Class balance has been a bigger issue for me.

40 minutes ago, krackcommando said:

you've got content drops slower molasses in january. and I'm gonna be honest here, story content...that isn't content. that's story. that's the crap you play through once and the hit the esc key 100x more times during the xpack. this game might have as many raids as it does xpacks. that's pathetic.

I do consider story to be new content, but, I agree, it's transitory, you play it once and than that's it and there isn't much of it that they put out to begin with. You wait 6 months or longer for anything new, and in an maybe hour or so it's all over.

I do think that they should put some more emphasis on realizing new content that's repeatable. Operations for example. People can spend weeks, maybe even months working on and playing new Operations and even once cleared, they're still replayable, can be enjoyed repeatedly (if you like them that is) and can still gain things from them for the time (gear potentially).

But,you have to remember that a very large segment of the game population are story players, so that's where they get the bulk of their business, player base wise, so they have to, and they should not overlook their wants and needs.

40 minutes ago, krackcommando said:

new FPs are only slightly better than new frequency of new OPs. and the FPs are trash. not the runs themselves but you do them once at each level and they're done. there's just no point. it's MM and then they're done.

I generally agree with this. I do repeat some of them because I make a lot of in game credits selling decos, so I tend to Solo veteran FPS repeatably that drop a lot of them. Not sure you could consider them new, but they're not the older ones either. I kinda enjoy Nathema Conspiracy. But, not really group content because I solo them so I can get all the deco drops.

40 minutes ago, krackcommando said:

this game's feature form of end game content is to do GS, Conquest, and PVP seasons. those are the lowest common denominator exercises. dailies in which you /faceroll your way through story mode content and that slap each others back for doing the most mind-numbing grind possible every day. these hamster wheels exist as a substitute for actual content. they're designed to keep ppl busy with decade's old "content." it's such a transparent and pathetic ploy, I'm kind of beside myself having to think about it.

I agree with this. It's just about the hamster wheel and it keeps people busy by giving them a carrot at the end of the stick to chase after because they're not putting out any where near enough new content to keep people busy.

Raiders and PVPer are out an outspoken lot and may seem to make up a big presence on the forums, but compared to the overall player base, we make up a small minority, I think.

40 minutes ago, krackcommando said:

PvE is so bad in this game, it's the first one I PvP'd in more than a couple matches. now pvp is all I do b/c everything else is old, stale, and catered to moronic, faceroll, hamster wheel grinds. and in 7.2, they even turned pvp into a hamster grind. because that's what this game is. it's just new ways to "trick" players into doing the most monotonous, faceroll, story mode crap with decade-old "content."

A little before my  my third  and last Raid group ended I had started doing some PVP on the side just fill in the time between raid nights, and I had some fun with it, but when it ended, I was a little fed up with the raid scene and didn't want to start all over again with a new group and than I got really into PVP and I stopped raiding entirely. I do it everyone once in a while, but mostly just if a friend asks for some help. And I agree with you, they even ruined PVP. - Among other reasons, they turned that into a hamster wheel as well.

 

40 minutes ago, krackcommando said:

yeah. I want BS to be different pretty desperately. but like I said, same design team. same devs. same community manager. same dev-speak in kk's posts. very very very low expectations at this point.

Well, we're in agreement on wanting BS to be different.  And quite honestly, like I said, I'm hopeful, but I am  also keeping my expectations low. I'm a bit surprised (and that may be just by me having misinterpreted some of your message in some of the posts) and happy to hear at least you are hopeful as well.

Edited July 14, 2023 by WayOfTheWarriorx