Dear Broadsword,

[OlBuzzard]

On 8/7/2023 at 6:22 AM, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

Fair enough. 👍

Everyone's entitled to their opinion.

It's not looking good. My hopes for a change by Broadsword are starting to evaporate. Broadsword really should have said something at this point.

I know it hasn't been long yet, and maybe I'm being a bit hasty, but if they have officially taken over, even if it's just been a week, they should have said something. Anything. It wouldn't even need to be a lot, or give a definitive statement on the direction of the game, or cited examples, just something.

An opening statement, or introduction, or a welcome to post, that's something that should have already been prepared before they officially took over, knowing it was coming from the business side of things.

The logo also should have been changed on the website.

 

There are several things that have been pointing to a somewhat concerning disturbance!

To borrow one of the more notable lines from the genre:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-0JlpH8R80

[Char_Ell]

8 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

Just lack of communication in general. Surely they can see player numbers are dropping significantly. Now would be a good time to try and reassure the player base with more communication, not less.

It's not that I'm against more communication from devs but I'm not sure what you want them to say.  I don't recall the devs responding with more player communication after previous population drops, like what happened shortly after the delayed and disappointing launch of 7.0.  "Hey folks!  We want you to know that we really meant it when we said we will have two more releases in 2023!  Stick with us for lots more fun!"  Perhaps you're expecting the same devs now under the Broadsword banner instead of BioWare to change their stripes?  Eric Musco did provide a fairly in-depth explanation for what happened with the Regal Apparel legs piece and I thought that was out-of-the-ordinary behavior.  Jackie Ko also got the events calendar added to forums.swtor.com so that was a nice post-studio transition add.  Maybe the devs are expecting/hoping 7.3.1 and GS 5 will bring players back like GS 4 did and that will sufficiently reassure players they are delivering what they said they would for new content.

 

8 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

If we are looking at actual calendar seasons, then September is in fall, not Summer.  August is the last Summer month in the calendar year. So I would expect 7.3.1 to be released this month if it’s supposed to be late summer. 

As far as I know the devs haven't said which seasonal calendar for the northern hemisphere they adhere to, meteorological or astrological.  I suspect it's whichever one is more convenient for them at the time.  The current Galactic Seasons 4 ends on August 14.  I guess you expect them to roll out 7.3.1 and GS 5 on 8/15, 8/22, or 8/29.  It's certainly possible.  I developed my personal expectation of September based on the gap between GS 3 and GS4 which as I recall was about 3 weeks.

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

19 hours ago, Ardrossan said:

I would not expect a broadsword post until september. bioware seems to take summers off and the same seems to be true for broadsword. 

Somebody's got to be working there even during the summer. I mean, do businesses really take the summer off? How would their employees pay the bills during the summer than? Or are they giving them a paid summer vacation?

Even if they do take the summer off, I would think that someone under those circumstances would have at least had the forethought to say to themselves :

"Well, we just took over this new management of this online game, the change is going to coincide with our time off for the summer, so let's prepare a statement before we leave for the summer that we could post for the players saying hello and welcome, let them know we are going to be on summer vacation so they shouldn't expect much from us during the summer and let them know we will be picking up things in earnest at the end of the summer."

Not to do at least do that would be, at least IMO, terribly unprofessional, to say nothing of terribly rude to your new paying customers.

I don't expect any changes to the game whatsoever for at least 6 months. Of course there is a transition phase, people have to learn the game, an overview of the coding and I'm sure several other facets of an online game that would need to be understood and assessed. I wouldn't hold that against them at all, that seems perfectly reasonable.

But at least say hello. heh

20 hours ago, DWho said:

One thing to remember is that EA is still the publisher so everything has to be approved by them (and probably Disney as well) for anything to be said. The game will have to survive on whatever EA decides to give Broadsword to run the game. Think of Broadsword as a sub-contractor with no other clients (they only run EA "MMOs")

Absolutely. They can only work with what they are given, and ultimately it all goes back to EA. Broadsword, like Bioware was, is middle management.

18 hours ago, Char_Ell said:

EA.com has also been updated to shows SWTOR's developer as Broadsword.

Well, at least that confirms for certain that the change has already occurred and Bioware is officially out of the picture. Thanks for sharing that piece of info.

15 hours ago, Char_Ell said:

and I'm of the opinion that the transitioned dev team should be given the chance to show they can deliver under the Broadsword banner.  I hope they do deliver but I'm not confident enough to bet on them.

I share in your sentiments here. And even though I feel they should have at least made a public statement here on the forums of them officially taking over and at least a sort of welcome post, I am certainly willing to give them a chance to see what they can do with the game. My expectations for the game remain as they have been for a long time, small. I'm not in the "all hope is lost" category.

12 hours ago, Kazuone said:

Broadsword is taking the same way than bioware with lack of communication but mabye there's some contractual terms that stop them for now, mabye Broadsword wants swtor team to finish what they planned till 7.4 and will begin to work on the game only for 8.0. 

There's so much possibilites...and as players, we only can wait and hope for now.

That's certainly a possibility and a fair consideration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OlBuzzard]

33 minutes ago, Char_Ell said:

It's not that I'm against more communication from devs but I'm not sure what you want them to say.  I don't recall the devs responding with more player communication after previous population drops, like what happened shortly after the delayed and disappointing launch of 7.0.  "Hey folks!  We want you to know that we really meant it when we said we will have two more releases in 2023!  Stick with us for lots more fun!"  Perhaps you're expecting the same devs now under the Broadsword banner instead of BioWare to change their stripes?  Eric Musco did provide a fairly in-depth explanation for what happened with the Regal Apparel legs piece and I thought that was out-of-the-ordinary behavior.  Jackie Ko also got the events calendar added to forums.swtor.com so that was a nice post-studio transition add.  Maybe the devs are expecting/hoping 7.3.1 and GS 5 will bring players back like GS 4 did and that will sufficiently reassure players they are delivering what they said they would for new content.

 

As far as I know the devs haven't said which seasonal calendar for the northern hemisphere they adhere to, meteorological or astrological.  I suspect it's whichever one is more convenient for them at the time.  The current Galactic Seasons 4 ends on August 14.  I guess you expect them to roll out 7.3.1 and GS 5 on 8/15, 8/22, or 8/29.  It's certainly possible.  I developed my personal expectation of September based on the gap between GS 3 and GS4 which as I recall was about 3 weeks.

It's not about what is (or has been) said ... It's about what is NOT being said (as in nothing at all).

And IMO .. that silence is actually saying a lot more than Broad Sword thinks it is!

Edited August 8, 2023 by OlBuzzard
error!! (oops)

[Spikanor]

14 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

Just lack of communication in general. Surely they can see player numbers are dropping significantly. Now would be a good time to try and reassure the player base with more communication, not less.

its not only lack of communication in general what is the problem but also the lack of keeping the promice's there not do at all thats is also a big problem.

how many time's i have not read on the bug report section that the team is still working on the fix for that type bug and weeks later you hear notting and its still not fix.

its not become a big surprise if i go look in to some of the bugs that there promice to fix it that there are still not been fix at all.

 

[OlBuzzard]

23 minutes ago, Spikanor said:

its not only lack of communication in general what is the problem but also the lack of keeping the promice's there not do at all thats is also a big problem.

how many time's i have not read on the bug report section that the team is still working on the fix for that type bug and weeks later you hear notting and its still not fix.

its not become a big surprise if i go look in to some of the bugs that there promice to fix it that there are still not been fix at all.

 

Ya know ... there was a time when I would have (respectfully) disagreed with your statement.  But the simple fact is that the REAL BIG surprise would be if a large number of the tougher BUGS were in fact actually FIXED !!!!

[Spikanor]

1 minute ago, OlBuzzard said:

Ya know ... there was a time when I would have (respectfully) disagreed with your statement.  But the simple fact is that the REAL BIG surprise would be if a large number of the tougher BUGS were in fact actually FIXED !!!!

i remember it good with the Taris bonus serie's bug that has chance a lot people view about the development team and there promice keeping.

first there ignore it for 5 years and then there post on it for the first time there going to tell the development team about it and then it needs 2 more years to fix is so in total it took 7 years to fix it.

and its not only bugs but also the feedback players give about things like back then about the amplifier sheet that has no close option and was to big on your screen that it was all told on the PTS section when it was on the PTS first but there compleet ignore it and when it was on the live servers the hate feedback about it only has become more worse since some people have been thinking what is the point to test things first and ignore the feedback there give about it.

[Darev]

On 8/4/2023 at 11:25 AM, OlBuzzard said:

You have no idea how many times me and @TrixxieTriss  (and a couple of others) have said this!!

A +10 to you as well.

Hmmm ... come to think of it ... Seems like there was a pretty good suggestion on a couple of new classes (one for the Republic and the other for the counter part in the Empire).

I don't know if I've participated in those conversations, but I absolutely agree.

[Darev]

On 8/4/2023 at 7:57 PM, TrixxieTriss said:

It’s not just specific to one person in the team like Kieth. It’s an ingrained part of their old corporate DNA to never apologise.

Do you ever remember anyone at BW ever admitting to making a mistake & apologising to their customers. They don’t ever do that. They double down on bad decisions & if they make changes, they make it sound like it’s their idea & they’re doing us a favour. It’s never their fault even after they ask for player feed back & still go with bad design decisions. 

Unless Broadswords management directly breaks them of that culture, I doubt we’ll see any real change on that front. 

It wasn't BioWare, but in 20 years of playing the only two Star Wars MMOs, I've only seen a company say "ok, that was maybe a bad idea" (paraphrasing a bit) once.    It was with a change that was going to dramatically change crafting, they put it on test center, everyone REVOLTED in the forums, and they said they wouldn't do it.   They "had" to release it on patch day, changed, and planned, in advance, to roll it back the next day.   

All publically via the forums, several days before the patch.

 

I wish there was more of that.

[Darev]

So, more to the thread in general, I'm still subscribing via monthly, even at the slightly higher rate, than springing for the 6 month at a time option because I don't really know what to expect.    As everyone has said, it's been kinda quiet.

I'm not worried yet, just like in the real world with the writer's and actor's strikes, there *should* be enough content for this game already "done" that can be rolled out for a few months.   Whether that's limited to the weekly CQ cycles, PVP seasons...whatever.   Little stuff that still takes a little work to keep everything going smoothly.

As for 7.4 and whatever's next in that story, again, I'm hoping it's all but done and waiting on a back burner to be implemented.

Looking *far* into the future for 8.0  -  presuming they keep the same numbering system - that's where it starts to get a bit murky for me.

I don't believe they're going to suddenly become flush with $ to throw at voice over actors for brand new content...once the strikes are over anyway, and even if they do, that would also take what...6-12 months to be paired with the programming/animating to be put into the game?

I can only see lots of "little" stuff over the next year or so.  GS5, more pvp seasons, etc.

 

But....the video game industry is not the one I work in, so...what do I know?

[Beyrahl]

12 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

BW should have continued ranked. They could have used the new grind seasons as a way to bring in fresh blood to the PvP community. They could have then added a WZ version of ranked back into the system in the future. This would have grown the population & not diminished it. 

Even if ranked was still here it was already on a decline, I think that decline would have furthered due to pruning and general lack of an interesting meta. Sure it's better than nothing and ultimately should have been reworked if anything but it really goes to show they didn't give much of anything thought. Pruning was done so unevenly and is definitely part of why there's an even larger difference between meta and non. 
Not to mention the lack of healing changes for nearly two expansions now. Sure it has some things, but look at their tacticals and implants going into 7.0, basically nothing, for sorcerer the best implant you have is the NERFED version of the set bonuses heals used to run the last expansion, which prompted a set bonus swap after the nerf.
Meanwhile, DPS gained a ton of damage last expansion while heals relatively stayed the same, closing the gap and making TTK a bit faster - but we also gained more defensives which helped with that. Going into 7.0 we lost some of those defensives and a lot of utility, for example, Pacify, Pull DR, Electrocute DR, Sapped strength, Force bound (justified), Force speed absorb, and so on including the forced choices of what to take and what to not. You get the point. So not only did the damage go up in 7.0 it also gained a ton of AoE options and some new burst options that were previously not available. All while healers got very little, it's hard to think this meta would be fun in the arena and would restrict T/H compositions even further than before, not that it wasn't already. This would also make it even more brutal and probably gatekept as if someone isn't up to par they would legitimately die in a matter of a few globals as it still oftentimes happens in the regular arena now. I don't think it would grow like this if was still here, but rather continue the decline. 

The S13 population was low, S14 was even lower, they should do something new if they ever are going to. But with the current state of PvP, I feel we're just at the point of setting it and forgetting it. 
Jackie did a post on Twitter saying they'll have some news coming soon - whether PvP will have anything to do with it we will have to wait and see. 

I think they just really need to decide if they want to dumb down the game or not, as we still have far too many complicating factors, for example, our gearing. Marauder/Sentinel is a decent example of being pruned into being something extremely basic to play, sniper is basically there too. Other classes while some are close to it aren't entirely there, nor are their ability / defensive kit comparable. For example, carnage versus madness, if carnage's passive DR was half as strong as madness's it'd be way more of a threat. This is just an example mind you I don't think changing things like this is a good way of "fixing" things.
I made this post ages ago talking about it and it's not for the lack of feedback I feel as I am not the only one coming into 7.0 saying pruning was bad, we pushed back hard on Guardian & Juggernaut but not hard enough on other specs. Shortly after the rest of the pruning was skipped/rushed and it's been a problem ever since. 

tl;dr
They have a lot more on their plate to do to fix pvp, ranked was already in a huge decline and pvp is in shambles compared to any other expansion. 

[TrixxieTriss]

1 hour ago, Beyrahl said:

Even if ranked was still here it was already on a decline, I think that decline would have furthered due to pruning and general lack of an interesting meta. Sure it's better than nothing and ultimately should have been reworked if anything but it really goes to show they didn't give much of anything thought. Pruning was done so unevenly and is definitely part of why there's an even larger difference between meta and non. 
Not to mention the lack of healing changes for nearly two expansions now. Sure it has some things, but look at their tacticals and implants going into 7.0, basically nothing, for sorcerer the best implant you have is the NERFED version of the set bonuses heals used to run the last expansion, which prompted a set bonus swap after the nerf.
Meanwhile, DPS gained a ton of damage last expansion while heals relatively stayed the same, closing the gap and making TTK a bit faster - but we also gained more defensives which helped with that. Going into 7.0 we lost some of those defensives and a lot of utility, for example, Pacify, Pull DR, Electrocute DR, Sapped strength, Force bound (justified), Force speed absorb, and so on including the forced choices of what to take and what to not. You get the point. So not only did the damage go up in 7.0 it also gained a ton of AoE options and some new burst options that were previously not available. All while healers got very little, it's hard to think this meta would be fun in the arena and would restrict T/H compositions even further than before, not that it wasn't already. This would also make it even more brutal and probably gatekept as if someone isn't up to par they would legitimately die in a matter of a few globals as it still oftentimes happens in the regular arena now. I don't think it would grow like this if was still here, but rather continue the decline. 

The S13 population was low, S14 was even lower, they should do something new if they ever are going to. But with the current state of PvP, I feel we're just at the point of setting it and forgetting it. 
Jackie did a post on Twitter saying they'll have some news coming soon - whether PvP will have anything to do with it we will have to wait and see. 

I think they just really need to decide if they want to dumb down the game or not, as we still have far too many complicating factors, for example, our gearing. Marauder/Sentinel is a decent example of being pruned into being something extremely basic to play, sniper is basically there too. Other classes while some are close to it aren't entirely there, nor are their ability / defensive kit comparable. For example, carnage versus madness, if carnage's passive DR was half as strong as madness's it'd be way more of a threat. This is just an example mind you I don't think changing things like this is a good way of "fixing" things.
I made this post ages ago talking about it and it's not for the lack of feedback I feel as I am not the only one coming into 7.0 saying pruning was bad, we pushed back hard on Guardian & Juggernaut but not hard enough on other specs. Shortly after the rest of the pruning was skipped/rushed and it's been a problem ever since. 

tl;dr
They have a lot more on their plate to do to fix pvp, ranked was already in a huge decline and pvp is in shambles compared to any other expansion. 

I can’t disagree with most of that. Thank you for saying what most of us have already been thinking 👍

[OlBuzzard]

18 hours ago, Darev said:

So, more to the thread in general, I'm still subscribing via monthly, even at the slightly higher rate, than springing for the 6 month at a time option because I don't really know what to expect.    As everyone has said, it's been kinda quiet.

I'm not worried yet, just like in the real world with the writer's and actor's strikes, there *should* be enough content for this game already "done" that can be rolled out for a few months.   Whether that's limited to the weekly CQ cycles, PVP seasons...whatever.   Little stuff that still takes a little work to keep everything going smoothly.

As for 7.4 and whatever's next in that story, again, I'm hoping it's all but done and waiting on a back burner to be implemented.

Looking *far* into the future for 8.0  -  presuming they keep the same numbering system - that's where it starts to get a bit murky for me.

I don't believe they're going to suddenly become flush with $ to throw at voice over actors for brand new content...once the strikes are over anyway, and even if they do, that would also take what...6-12 months to be paired with the programming/animating to be put into the game?

I can only see lots of "little" stuff over the next year or so.  GS5, more pvp seasons, etc.

 

But....the video game industry is not the one I work in, so...what do I know?

The only real question that might be out there (regarding possible release dates being delayed) ... might be as a result of the writers strike affecting any portion of 7.4 or other related parts of said content.  That seems to be sort of a gray area right now.  Anything else beyond 7.4 will simply get here when it gets here!  (Meaning that there really hasn't been that much discussed beyond 7.4  so getting any sort of time frame on that would be very difficult at best.)

I also agree ... 8.0?  That would be assuming that the same system is kept after 7.4

[TrixxieTriss]

2 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

The only real question that might be out there (regarding possible release dates being delayed) ... might be as a result of the writers strike affecting any portion of 7.4 or other related parts of said content.  That seems to be sort of a gray area right now.  Anything else beyond 7.4 will simply get here when it gets here!  (Meaning that there really hasn't been that much discussed beyond 7.4  so getting any sort of time frame on that would be very difficult at best.)

I also agree ... 8.0?  That would be assuming that the same system is kept after 7.4

I don’t get why the writers & actors strike for film & Tv should be carried over to gaming. This industry is totally different to theirs 😞

[OlBuzzard]

Just now, TrixxieTriss said:

I don’t get why the writers & actors strike for film & Tv should be carried over to gaming. This industry is totally different to theirs 😞

They all are somewhat interconnected ..  unions ... etc. particularly the VA aspects and script writers.  They each respect the other.  This last strike others (related somewhat in the industry) supported the strike.

[TrixxieTriss]

1 minute ago, OlBuzzard said:

They all are somewhat interconnected ..  unions ... etc. particularly the VA aspects and script writers.  They each respect the other.  This last strike others (related somewhat in the industry) supported the strike.

It’s still weird to me.

By their logic, no TV advertisements should be made either. No journalists should write for any TV news or current affairs shows or magazines. No novels should be written.

The only things that should be available to consume are reruns of those things already made or printed. 

[Spikanor]

1 hour ago, OlBuzzard said:

They all are somewhat interconnected ..  unions ... etc. particularly the VA aspects and script writers.  They each respect the other.  This last strike others (related somewhat in the industry) supported the strike.

that means if i understand it good more.

that the writers that are working for the game company's like making the story line for this game as good exemple support the strike for the TV and films industry more?

[Otowi]

I think I saw a YT vid once from another MMO developer, and they said that stories are usually written 6mos to 1 year ahead of time, which makes sense as they have to have head time to develop and code with the script in mind, not to mention get the VO for this game ahead of time, so I would have to think that they have story content penned out for a little while longer.

How far ahead they have content for is anyones guess, and I doubt they will tell us.

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Otowi
Made part of the post more readable.

[OlBuzzard]

1 hour ago, Spikanor said:

that means if i understand it good more.

that the writers that are working for the game company's like making the story line for this game as good exemple support the strike for the TV and films industry more?

I'm not sure I can explain it correctly.  BUT what I  can tell you is that the last time there was a writers strike it did affect the game / production.

I also agree with what @Otowi is saying ... a lot of this is done in advance.  How much?  For SWTOR that would be hard to confirm.  So I would be speculating at best.  I do know that some of the TV series here in the US (such as Star Trek Strange New Worlds) had already finished recording / editing their season.

Bottom line:  That is why I said that "might be"  a question.  IMO this is also where someone from SWTOR development team could easily post a brief statement with accurate information as opposed to someone like me just taking a stab in the dark (based on bits and pieces of what has been made public regarding the strike).  I would be the first to admit that there is a HUGE gray area where we really don't have all of the information to provide a more definitive answer.  For whatever it's worth, I'd be more than happy to share anything else of real value if and when I happen to get my hands on it!

BTW ...  I hope this helps a little.  I really do wish I could provide you a better answer.

Edited August 9, 2023 by OlBuzzard

[Darev]

23 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

I'm not sure I can explain it correctly.  BUT what I  can tell you is that the last time there was a writers strike it did affect the game / production.

I also agree with what @Otowi is saying ... a lot of this is done in advance.  How much?  For SWTOR that would be hard to confirm.  So I would be speculating at best.  I do know that some of the TV series here in the US (such as Star Trek Strange New Worlds) had already finished recording / editing their season.

Bottom line:  That is why I said that "might be"  a question.  IMO this is also where someone from SWTOR development team could easily post a brief statement with accurate information as opposed to someone like me just taking a stab in the dark (based on bits and pieces of what has been made public regarding the strike).  I would be the first to admit that there is a HUGE gray area where we really don't have all of the information to provide a more definitive answer.  For whatever it's worth, I'd be more than happy to share anything else of real value if and when I happen to get my hands on it!

BTW ...  I hope this helps a little.  I really do wish I could provide you a better answer.

I saw a cast member interview on that Wil Wheaton "after show interview" thing he does for Star Trek Shows.   Strange New World season 2 was "in the can" before season 1 even aired.

[OlBuzzard]

2 minutes ago, Darev said:

I saw a cast member interview on that Wil Wheaton "after show interview" thing he does for Star Trek Shows.   Strange New World season 2 was "in the can" before season 1 even aired.

Oh wow!!  I didn't know that!  OK ....  makes sense!

BTW... Anyone who understands the details of the strike and how it could affect the game ... accurate information would be deeply appreciated.

[Spikanor]

9 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

Anyone who understands the details of the strike

the only thing what i know about the strike in the US from hearing things in my country is that there are more scared to lose there job and that there be replace with AI's by using there face's and voice's more so thats all what i have hear in my country and there is no news comming after that anymore since its not that big deal at all in my country.

[Darev]

On 8/9/2023 at 6:53 PM, OlBuzzard said:

Oh wow!!  I didn't know that!  OK ....  makes sense!

BTW... Anyone who understands the details of the strike and how it could affect the game ... accurate information would be deeply appreciated.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/writers-strike-rules-wga-what-to-work-on-1235478494/

 

Most comprehensive article I've seen about it.

Apparently video game writing isn't covered by the strike.

[TrixxieTriss]

7 minutes ago, Darev said:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/writers-strike-rules-wga-what-to-work-on-1235478494/

 

Most comprehensive article I've seen about it.

Apparently video game writing isn't covered by the strike.

How about voice actors?

[Darev]

2 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

How about voice actors?

Looks like it's OK to do that.   Well, for Video games & Commercials

 

https://www.polygon.com/23800505/actors-strike-video-games-mocap-sag-aftra-rules-faq

Edited August 12, 2023 by Darev