Is it Time for a Big New Story Drop?

[SoyElSenado]

12 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

It wonders if some of the posts from other people are plants or red herrings from within Broadsword to gauge player response to cutting VA. Or preparing the ground for that to happen 🤷🏻‍♀️

Ah, see here is where the conspiracy theory sputters out, they’d never go that much effort. They’d just delete it.

[JakRoanin]

<sigh>

[imporat]

A new Story Drop would be fine by me. I wanted a KotoR 3 and what i got was a SWToR. Don't care about PVP aand Ops. But stayed ever since because of the Story. 

[JakRoanin]

Sing it! I will never not be sad my Revan doesn't or didn't exist in-game! 😥 Still, the saga (ignoring Revan) is fantabulous 😍😘!

[TrixxieTriss]

35 minutes ago, SoyElSenado said:

Ah, see here is where the conspiracy theory sputters out, they’d never go that much effort. They’d just delete it.

True 👍

[Stradlin]

5 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

After playing on it since Friday, I have a deep seated concern gnawing at the back of my mind, that it’s a red herring or false flag operation to shut up APAC players for good or an economy experiment. I really hope I’m wrong. But here’s why this thoughts developed in my mind.

They made no real lead up announcement, not even any hype in the recent live stream. All they did was tell us about it on the forums 24 hours before it was going live.

To my knowledge, they haven’t done any interviews with gaming media & are relying on a handful of Social Media influences to get the info out to all of APAC. None of these influencers are known by the old APAC players because they weren’t doing it back when we had the APAC servers. And only 1 is from APAC anyway. So these guys aren’t connecting with any of the old APAC players who left after the servers closed. 

They’ve also done no advertising at all or done any email outs to old APAC players inviting them back (something I’ve suggested they do & still might 🤷🏻‍♀️).

It’s not even being promoted on STEAM 🤦‍♀️

The handful of old APAC players I’ve reached out too have ALL said to a person, “why hasn’t BioWare reached out to us with an email inviting us back” (they didn’t know it was Broadsword now). Some of them commented that they thought swtor had been shuttered long ago 😞

Broadsword may have opened the APAC server & lm so grateful that they have. But they seem to still doing what this game’s management has always done, the absolute bare minimum to promote it.

This is really sad & it feels like they are setting it up to fail. Add that they aren’t opening up legacy/character transfers for old APAC players who’ve been stranded on US servers for 10 years & it feels more like an experiment to track the progress on economy fixes than actually accommodating APAC players. 

I really truely hope I’m just being paranoid. But I’ve this itch at the edge of my mind that’s getting stronger each day I play & see the numbers not representing what I feel they should if old players knew we had an APAC server again 

I’m imploring any Broadsword employee whose reading this please prove me wrong. Please 🙏 do some emails out to all the old accounts we used to have in APAC. Please do some media coverage in Aussie gaming mags or Aussie gaming news sites or straight up MMO gaming sites. Just reach out to them & let them know.

Like: 

 

 

Interviews...Brand new APAC server is big news for a life long Australian SWTOR fan. Meanwhile in the wider world, almost nobody reading pc gamer or kotaku or whatnot finds that even little bit interesting.  I bet some Australian gaming sites might tho, ig localized MMO servers been a rare thing over there. Assuming some potential interviewer is even a somehwat reputable actual journalist, they might wanna ask all kinds of TOR related questions BS isn't comfortable answering while at it though. It takes some very specific gaming site with very specific audience to build an interview or article around "SWTOR opens a new server for australians!" 

I think it def was a right move to disable  server transfers for now.. Gives the server that  unique fresh start vibe. In same vein, it is too bad people can buy insta lvl up tokens, could have kept the server untainted by  those too while at it. I bet xfers come available in good time.

They def should have send a round of emails, was an unfortunate oversight. That's little to no effort and costs nothing. Same thing was mentioned during the previous top secret PCVA Erasure Project board meeting as well, but to no avail

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Stradlin

[Jazulfi]

@TrixxieTriss - to allay your fears maybe? It's from 15 Nov.

"Star Wars The Old Republic is finally launching an Australia-based server – tomorrow - Massivelyop"

[TrixxieTriss]

49 minutes ago, Jazulfi said:

@TrixxieTriss - to allay your fears maybe? It's from 15 Nov.

"Star Wars The Old Republic is finally launching an Australia-based server – tomorrow - Massivelyop"

I went looking on that exact website before suggesting it and didn’t see this story. Not sure why it didn’t show up 🤷🏻‍♀️

[JakRoanin]

Seriously a bit of positivity isn't unrealistic in this instance. A new APAC server is fantastic news.

[Jazulfi]

37 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

I went looking on that exact website before suggesting it and didn’t see this story. Not sure why it didn’t show up 🤷🏻‍♀️

It was nagging at me - I was certain I'd seen a news item somewhere on MOP. Like you, I went to look and couldn't find it either, so decided I was having (yet another) brain fart of some sort. But I happened to click on the games list at the very bottom of the page and there it was.

No idea why it's disappeared from the search results on the site, but it's a shame it's not easy to see or easily discovered.

I wasn't trying to prove a point or anything, I just knew I'd seen something somewhere, and I hoped it would reassure you they did at least try to get the word out, even if it wasn't terribly successful.

[TrixxieTriss]

39 minutes ago, JakRoanin said:

Seriously a bit of positivity isn't unrealistic in this instance. A new APAC server is fantastic news.

No one is really being negative. Just a few concerns that they aren’t doing enough to promote or get the message out to old APAC players. If you have a look at the other thread that specifically deals with the Shae Vizla server, you’ll see that I’m suggesting ways to increase their reach to old & potentially new APAC players.

[JakRoanin]

I understand, but there's a difference between a publicists and a Community Manager. Maybe there's a way to contact Broadsword directly???

[BulbulusTheGreat]

On 11/18/2023 at 7:25 PM, JakRoanin said:

Okay, so we all agree the game needs more players and cash. that's a start. Now, let's take inventory about what we know...

EA is still the cash source.

BroadSword now decides how the money is spent.

Story is the most Popular content so far. It's all over YouTube, and the Main Advertised element of the game, in other words, SWTOR is banking on its unique worldbuilding and immersive experience! This is what the established identity is and has always been. 

OPS and PvP need major help! Yes, even me the Avowed Story Player acknowledges and wants OPS and PvP people to enjoy themselves. Shocking I know! However, many in that Community assert that the money going into the VA and cutscenes drain too much money from that goal.

 

me too, especially when it comes to OPS, after all lets not forget that ops are stories too, for ops you literally start a conversation (many of them are very well made conversation with your own decisions like with the gree or karaggas ambassador-slave evocii guy who you can spare or kill as a message), i did almost all most basic ops for the story becuse they add more story and achievements to my character and in wider universe they (in game obviously) are very important events, gree for example will be ally as well as trading partner to either empire or republic depending on who you do it as, and Gree are mysterious and very powerful, do i even need to menton whole dread masters arc on darvannis and oricon? very well put stories.


so yeah while much of ops is actually go here and bash this for tech frags at the end of the day ops are stories too and i as avid story player whole heartedly support more opses and will gladly play them on SM mode, this game is a story driven game and amazing story teller and it shows through many things including most operations.

[JakRoanin]

I wish I could play them truly I do. But the hardest content I'm physically capable of are VET FP's!

[BulbulusTheGreat]

the most im mentally capable of is SM ops and even then not all of them (ahem R4), mostly becuse i love story and want to have fun, not beat my ahead over having highest gear, ill admit though i'd love to have some rewards from harder opses like karaggas hat but not enough to bother with it, for now at least.

Edited November 20, 2023 by BulbulusTheGreat

[SoyElSenado]

On 11/13/2023 at 9:09 PM, BulbulusTheGreat said:

idk did you do Voss story yet since you said you didn't do voss fp, but within voss instance story there is a change, you walk with rivix and there are notable changes in everything that go to pretty much fully imperial base but yeah non instanced areas like odessen spawns is still alliance flags and republic soldiers since that area is for everyone and i don't think that'll sadly change just like how for example Emperor statues will never really be changed or removed from DK, as thats area for every story instance, from new players to us that finished everything.

Finished the voss story and FP recently so I can finally reply to this. So for me the weird thing is, the non-instanced area of Odessen is different, but the instanced one isn't... my non-instanced odessen has a Hand of the Empire flag in the cantina behind the stage, no more alliance flags and the NPC makeup seems different. Again this is in the non-instanced area. But then the instanced one it's all alliance flags everywhere still.

Seems very odd that it changed in the non-instanced but the instanced it's still the same. I can share some screenshots if you are curious.

Edited November 20, 2023 by SoyElSenado

[BulbulusTheGreat]

8 hours ago, SoyElSenado said:

Finished the voss story and FP recently so I can finally reply to this. So for me the weird thing is, the non-instanced area of Odessen is different, but the instanced one isn't... my non-instanced odessen has a Hand of the Empire flag in the cantina behind the stage, no more alliance flags and the NPC makeup seems different. Again this is in the non-instanced area. But then the instanced one it's all alliance flags everywhere still.

Seems very odd that it changed in the non-instanced but the instanced it's still the same. I can share some screenshots if you are curious.

wait so your entire non instanced area including odessen spawning point platform doesn't have alliance flags anymore? im not all that weirded out about imperial flag behind a stage i mean it could of very well been something that was added ages ago but different NPC makeup and no alliance flags in non instanced area is indeed weird, are republic soldiers still there? i still have them in my non instanced, as far as instanced one goes i can't remember were flags changed but i definitely remember personnel was changed, admiral aygo was replaced by imperial woman and there were two NPC's (instance exclusive) talking about how few republic personnel that stayed will have to get used to taking orders from imperials or something like that, i think one NPC was rep and one imp and they argued but my memory on these things is usually foggy so im not 100% sure.


 

[DWho]

Well, this topic has wandered all over the place so let me take a shot at summarizing some of the major points:

1) A lot of people would be happy to pay for an expansion if it was significant in size and brought in new content for everyone.

2) We need a new storyline. The Malgus storyline has become worn out (and is just another take on the Emperor storyline)

3) more extensive and involved storylines based on missions and judicious use of VA (particularly PCVA)

4) Two ideas for a new storyline have been offered up:

    a) an extra-galactic invasion where both sides are initially attacked independently. (sort of like the Yuuzhan Vong invasion)

    b) a resource rush type storyline perhaps along the lines of the Outbound Flight novel

Any other thoughts on other storyline directions?

[OlBuzzard]

1 hour ago, DWho said:

Well, this topic has wandered all over the place so let me take a shot at summarizing some of the major points:

1) A lot of people would be happy to pay for an expansion if it was significant in size and brought in new content for everyone.

2) We need a new storyline. The Malgus storyline has become worn out (and is just another take on the Emperor storyline)

3) more extensive and involved storylines based on missions and judicious use of VA (particularly PCVA)

4) Two ideas for a new storyline have been offered up:

    a) an extra-galactic invasion where both sides are initially attacked independently. (sort of like the Yuuzhan Vong invasion)

    b) a resource rush type storyline perhaps along the lines of the Outbound Flight novel

Any other thoughts on other storyline directions?

I did like the ideas you and I were kicking around!  I also agree that it lays the foundation for the rest of the activities as well.  Heck even WoW is doing this big time with Dragon Flight.  They are also moving towards some ideas from SWTOR with a Legacy vault (They will be calling it something else).

[/Two thumbs up]

[JakRoanin]

See, I don't have an issue with the story we have! Except Manaan that was just bad! I just want more details, I want to see the impact of everything in the "average people's lives" they did a fairly decent job of some of that in Onslaught, but with no exploration missions it felt flat.

[Thepyrethatburns]

To address the original topic after sleeping on it, if we were to do a big story drop with a third faction, I would prefer a gradual lead-up rather than just a huge chapter dump.  Especially now because, despite what this board seems to think, I have been on both sides of spin-offs like the "Bioware to Broadsword" spin-off.  Getting spun off into a subsidiary has a lot more changes than this board seems to think and the team needs time to adapt to changes.

I will use the Rakghouls as an example.

First, have something on the scale of the Rakghoul event.  Something that seems innocuous but, whether through a bonus mission or a log entry, hints at something greater.

Then a few extra missions on Taris that build on said Log entry/bonus mission which start building towards this being something more than just an outbreak.

Then an FP or two where we find there is a driving force.  Except, by the end of the second FP, it turns out that Dr. Lorrick was working for a mysterious someone else.

Then the big event (Rakghoul Rampage) where the mastermind comes out of hiding and the plan/threat is actually a big enough existential threat to justify taking away from the Pub/Imp War.

(Note to people reading this:  Don't get hung up on me using Rakghouls.  I'm just using them as an illustrative example of building up to an enemy rather than a genuine desire to see a Rakghoul-centric storyline.)

Edited November 20, 2023 by Thepyrethatburns

[SoyElSenado]

5 hours ago, BulbulusTheGreat said:

wait so your entire non instanced area including odessen spawning point platform doesn't have alliance flags anymore? im not all that weirded out about imperial flag behind a stage i mean it could of very well been something that was added ages ago but different NPC makeup and no alliance flags in non instanced area is indeed weird, are republic soldiers still there? i still have them in my non instanced, as far as instanced one goes i can't remember were flags changed but i definitely remember personnel was changed, admiral aygo was replaced by imperial woman and there were two NPC's (instance exclusive) talking about how few republic personnel that stayed will have to get used to taking orders from imperials or something like that, i think one NPC was rep and one imp and they argued but my memory on these things is usually foggy so im not 100% sure.


 

Yeah, it is exactly as you described for me lol. I’ll shoot you a pm to reply to the rest so we don’t clog this thread up with a (mostly) off topic convo.

 

31 minutes ago, JakRoanin said:

I want to see the impact of everything in the "average people's lives" they did a fairly decent job of some of that in Onslaught, but with no exploration missions it felt flat.

I’m way more interested in this kind of stuff. We already had third party invader with zakuul. We also had resource rush already in the form of hutt cartel isotope 5 and now with kolto on manaan.

Onslaught was excellent story imo and it felt like original vanilla stories again in a lot of ways. They should focus on the fundamentals of republic vs empire. Having regular people mixed in is great, I think everyone loved the class story quest on rishi where orgus has you help out normal people and that’s sort of mixed in to “also saving the galaxy.” Even though it’s already been used a ton of times, resource rush type things can work for that so it’s not just a simple “here’s the war again.” Maybe darth nul’s research is discovered by patch 7.6 and the next xpac starts with the two factions fighting for control of it. Whatever, I’m not a writer nor am I very creative but all I know is I want more story like onslaught and less like kotfe/kotet and legacy of the sith where everyone is against the same boogeyman. 

Edited November 20, 2023 by SoyElSenado

[OlBuzzard]

35 minutes ago, SoyElSenado said:

I'm way more interested in this kind of stuff. We already had third party invader with zakuul. We also had resource rush already in the form of hutt cartel isotope 5 and now with kolto on manaan.

Onslaught was excellent story imo and it felt like original vanilla stories again in a lot of ways. They should focus on the fundamentals of republic vs empire. Having regular people mixed in is great, I think everyone loved the class story quest on rishi where orgus has you help out normal people and that’s sort of mixed in to “also saving the galaxy.” Even though it’s already been used a ton of times, resource rush type things can work for that so it’s not just a simple “here’s the war again.” Maybe darth nul’s research is discovered by patch 7.6 and the next xpac starts with the two factions fighting for control of it. Whatever, I’m not a writer nor am I very creative but all I know is I want more story like onslaught and less like kotfe/kotet and legacy of the sith where everyone is against the same boogeyman. 

If a 3rd party were used I agree that it would not be one like KotFE / ET.  NO ... this time the 3rd party is setting up BOTH sides an framing each other leaving just enough "evidence" behind to do a proper job.  Both sides are eager to go to war (as it stands Onslaught is still in full swing).

No more everyone against the bad guy (one size fits all dialogues.) 

This time total chaos !   It could even be a well-organized band of mercenaries who would profit (in a huge way) as long as the Empire and the Republic are at war.

(So long as we say a FINAL farewell to Malgus)

😉

Edit:   I also think it would be a great idea to see some forward progress in some of the planets that are recovering from previous disasters / wars ... etc

Edited November 20, 2023 by OlBuzzard

[DWho]

34 minutes ago, SoyElSenado said:

Whatever, I’m not a writer nor am I very creative but all I know is I want more story like onslaught and less like kotfe/kotet and legacy of the sith where everyone is against the same boogeyman. 

That is certainly a legitimate position. I liked KotFE/KotET and wish they had been completed to their potential and I hated Onslaught. Yet, I can see how someone would feel the opposite. The issue with Onslaught and on really for me is there is too little meat to them. I'm a grand story sort of person and the Onslaught arc feels very linear and at times forced (7.0 is worse in that regard).

I think you could have an invasion themed expansion that covers all the bases so to speak. As I stated in an earlier post, if you divided up the expansion into three parts, you could have both an invasion "working together" arc and an at "empires at odds" arc. That also allows for a lot more variation for the light sided Sith and the Dark Jedi. I played a Light sided Sith Warrior through to the end of the current content and it always felt kind of wrong (probably would have felt better if at some point they could switch sides, but there are all kinds of problems there - the ability to switch to light side powers helps but the Imperial missions are all pretty "dark".)

Thanks for posting your thoughts though.

[TrixxieTriss]

16 hours ago, DWho said:

Well, this topic has wandered all over the place so let me take a shot at summarizing some of the major points:

1) A lot of people would be happy to pay for an expansion if it was significant in size and brought in new content for everyone.

2) We need a new storyline. The Malgus storyline has become worn out (and is just another take on the Emperor storyline)

3) more extensive and involved storylines based on missions and judicious use of VA (particularly PCVA)

4) Two ideas for a new storyline have been offered up:

    a) an extra-galactic invasion where both sides are initially attacked independently. (sort of like the Yuuzhan Vong invasion)

    b) a resource rush type storyline perhaps along the lines of the Outbound Flight novel

Any other thoughts on other storyline directions?

Let me add that the story is the foundation. But they also need to do a lot of work on the subsequent content that is already in the game to make it work better. Ie PvP, operations, GSF.

Edited November 21, 2023 by TrixxieTriss