A farm? Really?

[Advocatis]

The farm event completion will be needed to unlock the tractor beam ability down the road.

[Darkestmonty]

I'm excited about a new seasonal event. I love those. I'm not really interested in another daily grind area I'll finish in 3 weeks and never look at again because those daily grind areas never get updated.

[SteveTheCynic]

23 hours ago, BallisticKaine said:

LOL, they are making SWTOR into SWTOR Animal Crossings behind a paywall.

I was thinking Harvestella myself, but yes...  At least it's only an event, not a permanent game feature.

[Setta]

5 hours ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

That's what happens when devs disregard them for so long. So many people left not because they disliked the game but because the devs disregarded what they like. So many people left when rav and tos nim was canceled, when they forgot about ops in 4.0, when r4 nim was canceled, and the slow drip of 3 ops in 10 years. So many people left with gsf being forgotten, so many people left with pvp being mismanaged and then removal of ranked.

Maybe if they do things for that they can bring some of the millions that already left. Instead of catering to the dwindling population that will not attract anyone to come back.

Sure people have left because of that, and other reasons as well.  I won't argue that.  But even if you take a game like WoW, which constantly has new raids, new dungeons, new pvp maps, new zones etc (everything we wish we got).  The majority of the player base is still very much a solo casual player base. Which is odd since it's not even a story driven mmo, it has no housing, and it does focus on content for like 1-5% of the player base.  Most of their players will try out the easy mode dungeons, maybe a raid (generally one that's not up to date so like a few tiers behind as they out gear the content, and ignore mechanics, or just go to really old raids for cosmetics).  They might pvp every now and then, but not regularly, etc.  They don't generally do mythics, even very low key stuff.  Instead they quest, chat, craft, gather, do out dated dungeons that you can solo with your eyes closed, play events like DMF, Octorberfest etc.  Stuff that takes 0 effort.   IIRC FF14 was also in a similar same boat, where the majority of the actual player base is very casual. They enjoyed the story, the wide array of mini games, housing, etc, but when talking about doing pvp, or harder raids well all of a sudden the amount of participants in those fields hits rock bottom.  

MMOs survive on the casual player base.  Which is what this patch is marketing towards.  I can't hate them for that, even when it offers me very little.  Of course, I want new combat styles, new pvp maps (also preferably a 12 v 12, and siege tanks or other interesting mechanics, rather than say another hutt ball). New ship types for GSF would be great.  I mean targeting telemetry has said remove cloaking effects within 3000m since like the launch of GSF.  Where are these cloaking effects?  We replay raids that have been around since the original version of the game. Believe me I understand the frustration.  The removal of ranked, DvL, ability pruning, are also steps backwards.  I remember when I was annoyed that they removed turning in heroics, and getting the cut scenes that came along with that. Instead just giving you a reward, skipping the dialogue in a story driven MMO.  Like What the heck? Yet it got so much worse as time went on, but that's the game.  Gotta take it for what it is, and if we want it to survive at all, gotta cater to those super casuals, like this patch is doing.

[cloneofdax]

Not really something that interests me. So won't be doing it myself.

Nightlife I do enjoy mainly to get extra cartel certs for black dyes from the vender. so look forward to that event, if not bothered about the farm.

 

The problem with far too many of you is you think the world revolves around you, only you and no one else. I won't be doing this but many will. For those that do Enjoy. 

[eabevella]

7 hours ago, Setta said:

Sure people have left because of that, and other reasons as well.  I won't argue that.  But even if you take a game like WoW, which constantly has new raids, new dungeons, new pvp maps, new zones etc (everything we wish we got).  The majority of the player base is still very much a solo casual player base. Which is odd since it's not even a story driven mmo, it has no housing, and it does focus on content for like 1-5% of the player base.  Most of their players will try out the easy mode dungeons, maybe a raid (generally one that's not up to date so like a few tiers behind as they out gear the content, and ignore mechanics, or just go to really old raids for cosmetics).  They might pvp every now and then, but not regularly, etc.  They don't generally do mythics, even very low key stuff.  Instead they quest, chat, craft, gather, do out dated dungeons that you can solo with your eyes closed, play events like DMF, Octorberfest etc.  Stuff that takes 0 effort.   IIRC FF14 was also in a similar same boat, where the majority of the actual player base is very casual. They enjoyed the story, the wide array of mini games, housing, etc, but when talking about doing pvp, or harder raids well all of a sudden the amount of participants in those fields hits rock bottom.  

MMOs survive on the casual player base.  Which is what this patch is marketing towards.  I can't hate them for that, even when it offers me very little.  Of course, I want new combat styles, new pvp maps (also preferably a 12 v 12, and siege tanks or other interesting mechanics, rather than say another hutt ball). New ship types for GSF would be great.  I mean targeting telemetry has said remove cloaking effects within 3000m since like the launch of GSF.  Where are these cloaking effects?  We replay raids that have been around since the original version of the game. Believe me I understand the frustration.  The removal of ranked, DvL, ability pruning, are also steps backwards.  I remember when I was annoyed that they removed turning in heroics, and getting the cut scenes that came along with that. Instead just giving you a reward, skipping the dialogue in a story driven MMO.  Like What the heck? Yet it got so much worse as time went on, but that's the game.  Gotta take it for what it is, and if we want it to survive at all, gotta cater to those super casuals, like this patch is doing.

Well, as a semi-casual player who wants story, my characters that I'm really attach to lost all their personalities in the recent years. Not even that, the main plot lost all its charm due to how stretched and watered down it is. There are companions I love, but they were either completely fridged or semi-defrozed, and the lucky ones who actually romance Theron get a 2 min Date Night (I'm very glad they actually made it and is hopeful that they will make more, but you can't deny that it's short).

Us "casuals" praise the vanilla stories and make yt video about the dialogue options and voice acting, that's what attracted new players to this game, but BW/BS cut corners to their pretty much only edge over other MMORPG games and the dialogue and voice acting were reduced to silent protagonists and AI alien noises even during the main story.

Farm event is fine on its own IF there are actual meat that serve as the main focus. Why would I as casual player care about the Farm event when it's just a grind littered with silent protagonist and AI alien nonsense? I'll just spacebar the whole thing and do whatever clicking missions to get the new decorations and be done with it, just like how I don't bother to do any of the other event save the casino one, mostly because I can sit there clicking slot machine while waiting for pug groups to form.

There's simply nothing new to the back bone of the game for casual players to get attached and subscribe, and that's just a sad thing because it's just a vicious cycle at this point.

[Setta]

4 hours ago, eabevella said:

Well, as a semi-casual player who wants story, my characters that I'm really attach to lost all their personalities in the recent years. Not even that, the main plot lost all its charm due to how stretched and watered down it is. There are companions I love, but they were either completely fridged or semi-defrozed, and the lucky ones who actually romance Theron get a 2 min Date Night (I'm very glad they actually made it and is hopeful that they will make more, but you can't deny that it's short).

Us "casuals" praise the vanilla stories and make yt video about the dialogue options and voice acting, that's what attracted new players to this game, but BW/BS cut corners to their pretty much only edge over other MMORPG games and the dialogue and voice acting were reduced to silent protagonists and AI alien noises even during the main story.

Farm event is fine on its own IF there are actual meat that serve as the main focus. Why would I as casual player care about the Farm event when it's just a grind littered with silent protagonist and AI alien nonsense? I'll just spacebar the whole thing and do whatever clicking missions to get the new decorations and be done with it, just like how I don't bother to do any of the other event save the casino one, mostly because I can sit there clicking slot machine while waiting for pug groups to form.

There's simply nothing new to the back bone of the game for casual players to get attached and subscribe, and that's just a sad thing because it's just a vicious cycle at this point.

2 Things

1)  I don't disagree with your premise, but the story has never been as good as the original story lines at any point. So it's not really fair to compare the current stuff to that, when even SoR and KotET and KotFE weren't as good, despite being a lot better story content than anything else in the game (I know some will disagree that's fine). I also don't disagree that the further we go into the story the more generic it seems to become, especially lately.  I think by giving us so many options, kill or not kill people, become a saboteur or not, etc they've painted themselves into a corner where in order to cover all their bases, (depending on your choices) you get a lot less story over the same period of time as they have to make minor adjustments to the same story line, and which companions show up, who says what etc.  So a bit more programming, voice acting etc, for the same thing then they would have to do otherwise.  And yea 2 hours of story content over 2 & 1/2 years is really bad, no one will disagree. But you also missed my point that I was making.  Even without story in say games like WoW, most people are casuals. Who do the grinding solo content that you space bar through. It's still content that a lot of casual solo players like, even if you, yourself are an exception to it.

2) My overall hope is, now that they've gotten a bunch of useless stuff out of the way.  Pvp overhaul, UI overhaul, graphics updates, GTN overhaul, last seasonal events, w/e else I'm missing that this expansion seems to have been focusing on, that with no more useless projects (or at the very least a very dwindled down list left) they will use that development time to actually start making more story, more warzones, more flash points, combat classes, and other things people want to see.  I'm not a prophet, but I can't imagine much else left for them to revamp for the sake of revamping, they've just about covered it all. Few exceptions, but I'm not going to give them any bright ideas on useless stuff to focus on.

[GuigeekRhadamant]

On 5/2/2024 at 8:55 AM, Hrafnhildur said:

Why are you people so angry? Is ok to cook during Feast of Prosperity, but is not ok to work in a farm during this new event? 

It was not

[JohnnyGatt]

On 5/2/2024 at 5:05 AM, YaddleTwo said:

Why is this game devoting resources to a farm, on Dantooine, when we just want more story-line and expansions?

We want a new ops, more balanced gear, payout on class story lines and choices, not to mention resetting pvp back to just before 7.0 and starting again.

But that live stream was just for announcing space stardew valley?

I appreciate and understand you devs work hard but you're working hard on things that aren't going to retain subscribers and won't be pulling in people by the thousands i just don't understand it?

Also in Star Wars cannon, sending Jedi to a farm is what happens when padawans aren't chosen by a master, imho it's a cruel fate and not something that should be in a celebrated mmorpg

Heck just roll everything back to before 7.0

...And not even any new date night announcement

as somebody who lives on a farm in real life I guarantee you the last thing I'm going to be doing is farming in a computer game. And I definitely won't be spending anytime collecting farming, clothing for my jedi..... It may not be as bad as the date night with all the characters I've killed Option in the last patch, but it's pretty bad...

Edited May 3 by JohnnyGatt

[eabevella]

2 hours ago, Setta said:

2 Things

1)  I don't disagree with your premise, but the story has never been as good as the original story lines at any point. So it's not really fair to compare the current stuff to that, when even SoR and KotET and KotFE weren't as good, despite being a lot better story content than anything else in the game (I know some will disagree that's fine). I also don't disagree that the further we go into the story the more generic it seems to become, especially lately.  I think by giving us so many options, kill or not kill people, become a saboteur or not, etc they've painted themselves into a corner where in order to cover all their bases, (depending on your choices) you get a lot less story over the same period of time as they have to make minor adjustments to the same story line, and which companions show up, who says what etc.  So a bit more programming, voice acting etc, for the same thing then they would have to do otherwise.  And yea 2 hours of story content over 2 & 1/2 years is really bad, no one will disagree. But you also missed my point that I was making.  Even without story in say games like WoW, most people are casuals. Who do the grinding solo content that you space bar through. It's still content that a lot of casual solo players like, even if you, yourself are an exception to it.

2) My overall hope is, now that they've gotten a bunch of useless stuff out of the way.  Pvp overhaul, UI overhaul, graphics updates, GTN overhaul, last seasonal events, w/e else I'm missing that this expansion seems to have been focusing on, that with no more useless projects (or at the very least a very dwindled down list left) they will use that development time to actually start making more story, more warzones, more flash points, combat classes, and other things people want to see.  I'm not a prophet, but I can't imagine much else left for them to revamp for the sake of revamping, they've just about covered it all. Few exceptions, but I'm not going to give them any bright ideas on useless stuff to focus on.

Well, to me the story quality is a down spiral since the vanilla stories, especially the steady dismantle and butcher of class-specific flavor, but at least up to Kotxx there were relatively semi-consistent story release. Not that it's a compliment, but it's better than 40min of main story content for a major expansion.

I don't mind the farm thing, I'm all about more decorations and I'm a fan of nature scene decorations like trees and fruits and stuffs, but that thing ain't going to keep people subscribe.

[Traceguy]

I feel everyone skipped the live stream and just went running with the word "farm" without understanding this is nothing more than the Spring Event.

Again, the farm is not a new side mechanic to the game like you see with Strongholds. It's just an event that takes place on a farm. As an event, it's no different than other things like Feast of Prosperity, Gree, Rakghoul.

During the Spring season, you'll go to an event area - (i.e. The Farm). Access a mission terminal, complete the dailies, earn event currency, buy event items from a vendor. It's not Animal Crossing, sims, Stardew Valley, etc. It's simply just an event with "farm festival" themed missions. Outside of the Spring Event, this farm ceases to have any relevance. If doing missions on a farm makes this game Animal Crossing, then the Swoop Event makes this game MX vs ATV Legends

I wouldn't even call it a grindy mechanic either. If you wanna know what a grindy mechanic is, that's called Night Life. How many thousands of Emperor's Tokens have you all used to get those Nightlife Shades? How many of you have yet to find them?

 

Edited May 3 by Traceguy

[Setta]

6 hours ago, eabevella said:

Well, to me the story quality is a down spiral since the vanilla stories, especially the steady dismantle and butcher of class-specific flavor, but at least up to Kotxx there were relatively semi-consistent story release. Not that it's a compliment, but it's better than 40min of main story content for a major expansion.

I don't mind the farm thing, I'm all about more decorations and I'm a fan of nature scene decorations like trees and fruits and stuffs, but that thing ain't going to keep people subscribe.

Ok different take then, since I'm going around in circles with you.....

I said patch is for casuals to have more stuff to do, more decos, armor styles, BESI, etc.  Your take is you like or at least don't mind the stuff, but it won't get people to continue to subscribe.  Ok fine.... how many posts do you see about people saying their going to unsub because of this?  Cause last time I checked, there weren't any, and we had like 3 to 4 different threads going about the stupid stealth nerf to conquest with the reputation gains like a month or two ago, which is the most trivial thing ever.  Oh and those people claiming they were going to quit because of it, guess what they're still here.  How do I know?  Cause I still see a thread or two, rep stealth nerf still around when will it be fixed.....

Yea people are going to keep subscribing cause that's what they do.  Unless the dev team majorly F's up (which happens way more than it should), nothing changes.  By your logic, since we only get like 1 raid every few years (one of the few contents you actually need to be subbed for)  no one is going to be subbed.  Cause I mean why would you right?  You can do like almost anything else without subbing, and old raids aren't enough to keep people around.  So it's new OPs or GTFO by your logic.  Is that what we're going with?  No, cause that stupid AF, and doesn't make any sense. 

People sub cause they want access to their credits, they want the GS & PVP track rewards, they want the 2nd combat style, they want to have access to old content that's restricted otherwise.  This patch is not a bad patch, people really gotta stop pretending that it is.  You all just mad, that we haven't been getting much from the devs, and taking it out on a farm (an aspect of the spring event mind you, and not the whole thing).  It's even funnier that with the track record the devs have had, you all are expecting some major content release giving everyone what they wanted.  Like seriously?  After all this time you all still aren't used to dribbles of content?

[Pirana]

48 minutes ago, Setta said:

People sub cause they want access to their credits, they want the GS & PVP track rewards, they want the 2nd combat style, they want to have access to old content that's restricted otherwise.  This patch is not a bad patch, people really gotta stop pretending that it is.  You all just mad, that we haven't been getting much from the devs, and taking it out on a farm (an aspect of the spring event mind you, and not the whole thing).  It's even funnier that with the track record the devs have had, you all are expecting some major content release giving everyone what they wanted.  Like seriously?  After all this time you all still aren't used to dribbles of content?

Only going to highlight this part of your post because of how accurate it is, not that the rest it isn't, but this stands out. I've been here since beta, played the first nine years, and now I come and go. What is mentioned in this quote is exactly why I sub when I do decide to play. Anyone here, knowing the history of this game, should have known a patch like this was coming. To see so many people up in arms over something like this is laughable. The game was passed off to a company whose claim to fame is UO, the game also has a skeleton crew now. Anyone expecting any major content release is naive or has not been around this game long enough to see what has slowly happened. 

I'll mention it again, as I've mentioned so many times over the last few years, if you're not happy with the game, then simply move on. This is entertainment, not some life altering experience, it's a video game. lol Assuming this game lives on for another year, two, maybe five, who knows, don't expect any major expansion to hit again, it will be small patch releases with CM purchases, something that helped to save this game.

[Jett-Rinn]

On 5/1/2024 at 2:05 PM, YaddleTwo said:

Star Wars cannon

There is no Star Wars Canon

[xxSHOONYxx]

On 5/2/2024 at 5:23 PM, Setta said:

Sure people have left because of that, and other reasons as well.

To not make it a big quote.

Sure, mmos as the whole gaming industry shifted their way to make games. Here it was just taken to the extreme compared to other mmos.
Games now just aim for different way to make money. It's no longer the days of the "make a good product so people buy it", now most of the games are aimed with an in game shop in mind. You don't get most of the money coming in from the game being sold (many don't even requiere a purchase) or from subs, they come from the in game store. Some companies even go as far as placing in game stores in single players.
F2p here is less restrictive each time because sub money or how sub exclusive content is being open to f2p, and sub money it's probably small change compared to what some people give them when they open their wallets for that new shiny CM item that will make them look good.

And i can't blame the devs, BW or EA for it, less investment for more profit. They just take advantage of some people.
Content like ops, gsf, pvp or group content requieres actual work with small return in investment (compared to work on the store and that revenue). In contrast you can do the bare minimum on that regard and shower whales with things to spend money on.
Compare the work an amazing game like bg3 (aprox 1b revenue) and all the work it took them to make it to something like candy crush (that has earned 20b) and how much easier it is to make. 

Games, like this one, are like a shopping mall. Where paying subscribers (and f2p) that want group content are the entertainment that sings or plays music (and get paid in crumbs so we don't starve to death, 7 years since last gsf update, 3 ops in 10 years, removal o ranked. While many others already "died" because the crumbs were not enough for them), so those that open their wallets see the world as "alive" and are more inclined to go into the shop and buy stuff.

I wish gaming would go back to making a good and functioning game as a standpoint to making money, instead of this in game store nonsense or make the game broken with the promise of ixing it up "later" while bugs start to pile up one under the other. But maybe i'm just starting to become old, and the new youth loves this kind of predatory and low effort products

Edited May 6 by xxSHOONYxx

[Shayddow]

Quote

as somebody who lives on a farm in real life I guarantee you the last thing I'm going to be doing is farming in a computer game.

it really is quite obvious.  Most People who work on farms don't play "farming games" (migrant laborers can't afford them), people who work in Mines don't play "minecraft" (check suburb income vs the average income of a coal miner's family in WV). Most gamers aren't people who fit that demographic. 

[Setta]

7 hours ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

Compare the work an amazing game like bg3 (aprox 1b revenue) and all the work it took them to make it to something like candy crush (that has earned 20b) and how much easier it is to make. 

 

While this is true, I still feel like you're comparing apples to oranges here. Mobile games, in general make more money than anything else in general by a long shot. Mobile game revenue is about 50% between all platforms (plus or minus a percent or two depending on the year you look up).  Which means the other 50% is divided between several consoles and PC, compared to mobiles.  Why are they so successful compared to better games?  1) Accessibility.  Not everyone is going to have a high end gaming PC, a PS5 or w/e x-box code we're on.  To the contrary almost everyone will have a phone, because of how much it's needed for everyday life.  The phones also not need be top of the line by any stretch of the imagination for most of the mobile games, which isn't necessarily true for the other platforms.  2) The F2P model. Aside from not having to shell out thousand+ for a high end gaming pc, or hundreds for a new console, you gotta shell out for a games as well.  Where as the mobile I can download, and if I don't like it, I can delete it from my phone without any issue.  3) The time investment.  People are much more likely to spend 15m playing a game on the bus, train, lunch break etc, than having the ability to sit down for a few hours and enjoy themselves at home, when they have busy lives. 

There are still a number of other reasons as well (depending on the game & region of the world etc, but this is a long post, and I don't need to write a book) that contribute to mobile game's popularity but those are the 3 main ones in my opinion.  When you have a much larger player base, you're going to have more revenue.  You'll have more people who have no self control, and will spend like crazy in both games, but chances are you'll have more whales given more players, and you'll also have a lot more people contributing a buck or two here and there as well.  I get that BG3 doesn't have micro transactions, (and good on them for that) but this is about other games as well on PC & consoles that are well made, but lose out to cheap mobile garbage. Last but not least there is less of a stigma spending on mobile games than there is with the other systems.  Probably because those are all free, and they do need to make money somehow, but also probably because folks like you & me don't want to be nickled and dimed when we've already paid for a product on none mobile platforms.

To bring this all back to SWtoR. 

Quote

Games, like this one, are like a shopping mall. Where paying subscribers (and f2p) that want group content are the entertainment that sings or plays music (and get paid in crumbs so we don't starve to death, 7 years since last gsf update, 3 ops in 10 years, removal o ranked. While many others already "died" because the crumbs were not enough for them), so those that open their wallets see the world as "alive" and are more inclined to go into the shop and buy stuff.

WoW or FF14 (maybe some other games as well) can make a huge profit by making a new mount, putting a $20 price tag on it, and walla millions in revenue.  SW can't do this.  For one, we don't really have the player base for it. We have a tiny fraction of their player base.  Yea we have some whales that will buy new costumes and what not but I can't imagine that's a massive revenue boost. Secondly if this was not a SW IP, I think this game would be long dead.  We have a number of veteran players who are still around, only because it's SW.  Which while great presents a different problem for the devs.  See there's only so much stuff in the shop.  Most of the vets, have purchased everything we need for our outfits, decos, and what not.  Sure a new stuff may come along, but it's not really pressing anymore. A lot of people are probably not spending like they used too, when the CM launched, and it was making money hand over fist, because everything back then was shiny and new. Back then they made up for the revenue and then some of the declining subs. There was so much stuff to buy. Now meh.  A few things may appeal to certain people but by enlarge it no longer has the same appeal as it did, or enough new players to go after it all.  Worse yet, cause so many people have so many things unlocked, you can get a number of bronze & silver weapons, armor, and decos at bargain basement prices on the GTN.  Hell you might not even need to go past the 1m credit limit of preferred for some of those things, especially on tech classes who's weapons could be bought with 1 heroic mission revenue. 

I think if you really look at the new structure of the game you'll realize a few things.  Start with 7.0.  They got rid of hammer spam, so that people would have reason to raid for that gear.  What do you need in order to raid?  A subscription. Hey how bout them galactic seasons?  Pretty cool huh? They have nifty rewards, we promise.  Please sub and give us money.  We'll give you shiny loot and stuff.  Hey you guys like pvp right?  It's toxic? No worries we'll remove that toxicity by removing ranked (it makes sense if you don't think about it).  Hey guess what we also made pvp better by giving you a track to follow here too, oh and more rewards, you guys like that right?  Bet you that sub is looking might tempting right now doesn't it?  What pvp has problems with premades, afkers, and other issues?  No worries, just sub you'll progress faster and it'll all be over soon, you as you finish the weekly & track and don't worry about it till next time.  Bet you'd like an unlock for your toons to swap combat styles wouldn't you?  I mean there's an unlock for just about everything else in the game.  But you know what would be even better than an unlock?  If you sub. 

I think the days of SWtoR making bank on the CM and not worrying about subs are over, at least that's what their business practice implies to me.  They've done a revamp of a lot of things (graphics included) to get people to stay. Revamps upon revamps to modernize their game, and give new or returning players the illusion that it's still going strong, and is worked on just like other MMOs.  Which leads me back to the start of our conversation, and the patch for 7.5.  Again it's made for the biggest player base the solo casuals.  They want to continue retaining these players hence the patch. The more people they retain the more likely some of them will sub, or spend $ on CC.  Where as if they focused on other areas, let's look at OPs, what like 5% or less cleared R4? Well that's not helpful.  PvP? Idk what the % of players are for this, but given how bad people are at pvp, I imagine they don't do it often.  FPs? Oddly enough (or not) because newer FPs are a little bit more difficult, people tend to ignore them for the older ones.  No IMHO the devs are doing what they need to be (at least with this patch).  That's not to say I don't think they're bad at their job, and have piss poor priorities. I think I could train a chimp to prioritize better than them  (if you look at some of my other posts I dig into them) but I think I can understand where they're coming from at least. So all things considered I still stand by that this is still a good / decent patch.

That said, my apologies for the very long winded post.  If you made it this far, you're amazing and here's a cookie 🍪
 

Edited May 7 by Setta

[YaddleTwo]

On 5/2/2024 at 7:36 AM, Setta said:

I actually have to disagree with you as a whole.  I agree that I'm not a fan of this patch, though at least they're not removing stuff here, like some other patches so could be much worse.  However if I take my own bias out of it, it's a patch for solo players.  You have the last quarterly event to go with the Night life, Feast of Prosperity, and Life Day events.  This will probably have things like additional decos, cheesy armor set etc, for those same players to work on their strongholds some more. Some extra customization via CM to customize your Barbie a bit more as well (also see previous note about cheesy armor sets from Spring event to further customize your Barbie). BESI is a solo player's grind.  A little bit of story content in Hutta, and w/e else I'm missing or they haven't told us.  

Now solo players generally make up the biggest portion of the player base by far, it's why MMO games are way more casual than they ever used to be.  They know the people their aiming for, for their revenue stream.  Raiders & PvPers (and in our case GSF players) are a tiny minority overall.  So while I'm with you, that the patch doesn't do much for you, or me, and some others.  I would argue that it does go out of it's way to retain player count by focusing on the largest player population. If we're being honest, the patch as it stands is not bad.  You're just mad (understandably so) that progress is slow and the previous patches have been garbage with little content offered and you were hoping for more.  Sadly we're probably going to be in this state of slow content for a while.

I never said anything abut them removing things however I DID say they will be playing with this instead of fixing existing problems or giving us other fun and useful things. Also the devs refusal to give us a couple clothing things we've been asking for for ages, hair with the hoods, and some more  sensible clothing choices or at least stop putting a damn flap down front that never acts right with movement and the camera for instance

To your second paragraphs point i also already addressed. People who are enticed by this wont' be staying and paying. They will go back to other cozy games.

I have played mmo's since Everquest, the original, I have been though that and Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft (though i quit that before they redesigned a lot of things), Lord of the Rings Online, and Star Wars The Old republic obviously, and probably more i'm forgetting but mmorpg's are my fav type of game because of the variety, the stories, and the social interactions when i want them. I've seen stuff like this before, they will leave when there is nothing "new" quicker then the rest of us who are too stubborn to quit. 

 Also good pvp is a great enticement, does everyone like it? No also, no one should be forced to play it that isn't what i'm saying at all but if a new person comes in, trys it, likes it, trust me those people are more apt to dig deeper in their pockets for the game then someone who is just looking for space farmville.

[YaddleTwo]

On 5/3/2024 at 8:33 AM, Traceguy said:

I feel everyone skipped the live stream and just went running with the word "farm" without understanding this is nothing more than the Spring Event.

Again, the farm is not a new side mechanic to the game like you see with Strongholds. It's just an event that takes place on a farm. As an event, it's no different than other things like Feast of Prosperity, Gree, Rakghoul.

During the Spring season, you'll go to an event area - (i.e. The Farm). Access a mission terminal, complete the dailies, earn event currency, buy event items from a vendor. It's not Animal Crossing, sims, Stardew Valley, etc. It's simply just an event with "farm festival" themed missions. Outside of the Spring Event, this farm ceases to have any relevance. If doing missions on a farm makes this game Animal Crossing, then the Swoop Event makes this game MX vs ATV Legends

I wouldn't even call it a grindy mechanic either. If you wanna know what a grindy mechanic is, that's called Night Life. How many thousands of Emperor's Tokens have you all used to get those Nightlife Shades? How many of you have yet to find them?

 

 

I watched the stream live just fyi

 

[YaddleTwo]

On 5/3/2024 at 4:59 PM, Jett-Rinn said:

There is no Star Wars Canon

 

As much as i loth to quote cbr it's more succint then explaining "the Jedi Service Corpes." which were a form of slave labour if you ask me.      Spoiler explination how Obi-Wan was almost shipped to be slave labor for the Jedi

[Setta]

3 hours ago, YaddleTwo said:

I never said anything abut them removing things however

I know.....  I said at least they're not removing things.  In reference that the patch could be much worse because the devs have a horrible habit of removing stuff.  Remove dialogue for turning in heroic quests.  Remove the class choice at lvl 10 missions on the fleet.  Removing abilities, with ability pruning.  Removing DvL. Removing ranked pvp etc.  I'm not even talking about temporary systems like Renown, amplifiers, and many other things.  That's all I was saying.
 

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To your second paragraphs point i also already addressed. People who are enticed by this wont' be staying and paying. They will go back to other cozy games.

Completely wrong.  People have been putting up with sub par patches for several years now. The whole of 7.X has been a disaster and yet people are still tuning in.  You really think there's going to be some exodus of people going to their other cozy games, cause we got another seasonal event that has to do with farming?  Lol no. People know what to expect by this point.  If what you were saying is true, this game would have died many years ago due to lack of content. It is what it is.

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I have played mmo's since Everquest, the original

I've been around since Mud, and played several dozen mmos.  Is this a competition? What are we doing here?

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Also good pvp is a great enticement, does everyone like it? No also, no one should be forced to play it that isn't what i'm saying at all but if a new person comes in, trys it, likes it, trust me those people are more apt to dig deeper in their pockets for the game then someone who is just looking for space farmville

Sigh... except it isn't space farmville.  They added a seasonal event, with other content.  Did people quit in droves when they added feast of prosperity, and serving tables, or cooking food?  OMG oh no everyone left.  JFC get a grip it's a new event, with other content added aside from farming stuff.  A new player won't have a clue as to what's going on, they'll be drowned is hours, upon hours of story content, and other things to do.  The fact that they have 1 less pvp map due to them having an extra seasonal event is not going to mean jack.  Stop being angry for the sake of being angry.

Edited May 7 by Setta

[SteveTheCynic]

11 hours ago, Shayddow said:

it really is quite obvious.  Most People who work on farms don't play "farming games" (migrant laborers can't afford them), people who work in Mines don't play "minecraft" (check suburb income vs the average income of a coal miner's family in WV). Most gamers aren't people who fit that demographic. 

Yes, but not just that.  I work as a developer in my day job.  I have Steam, and in my daily discovery queue I occasionally see games where the premise is, in some way, based on being a developer or running a development studio.  There's no way I'd play such a game in my time away from work, even though I could easily afford it.

[xxSHOONYxx]

8 hours ago, Setta said:

That said, my apologies for the very long winded post.  If you made it this far, you're amazing and here's a cookie 🍪

Candy crush or any other game really, lol is a 15 year old f2p pc game and to this day still makes 1.5-2b annually. Not really a mmo so not a 1 to 1 comparison but doubt any mmo will go ahead and say "we get this with subs and this on the shop". But the trend is there, games now make more in shops than on the purchase of the game itself. I don't even want to imagine how much take two made with gta online.

As for swtor, i don't think you know how much some people are willing to spend, and i don't know exactly the numbers either just a guesstimate by interactions in the game i had. When 7.0 came out inflation was so high sale runs went from paying on credits to hypercrates. I don't recall some of the prices but the most expensive ones were gods 16 and r4 hm around 40 hypercrates each think it was?
Most/majority that i know of just stashed the hypercrates and had/have several legacy tabs filled with them, while some sold them back to other buyers for credits. On average there were 100-200 hypercrates traded on a weekend on just one server for sales. You can buy hypercrates from other players that is true but the only way for a hypercrate to "spawn" in the game is by being bought with CC. The price of that in money is 4k to 8k each weekend on sales on one server. 
If people are willing to spend that much money on a deco/title or gear in the case of r4, imagine how willing they will be for things that are easier to see like weapons or armors. 
That's why they aim content for that sort of players, you can go back when they announced date night and see how some people were saying they had to get their companions new outfits so they look good on the date.
Funnily enough with them giving the middle finger to r4 nim, i'm 100% sure their hypercrate sales on the CM took a sharp dive.

About the graphics revamps, imo that is just eye candy for the same population of the game. If they wanted to actually improve the game they would have fixed the desynch the game has, or find a way to fix how the game is unplayable when there are more than 10-16 people in the same place. Graphics imo, should not be an area to work on while there are several bigger issues into the game ranging from lack of content to stability and bugs.
 

[Stradlin]

It is so cool what  the other Broadsword game, Ultima Online, has been able to do when it comes to farming.   We speak of an MMO here that runs with code written in mid 90's. Yet, tons of its features are such that people of SWTOR, TESO, WOW etc would consider em incredibly innovative, if they ever encountered em in a modern game!

 

Firstly, the whole process isn't tied to quests, events and stuff. It actually "works". Ie you get seeds, plant them in souil on your yard. You water them, nurture them and eventually(lets say 1-2 rl weeks iirc)( stuff grows. Then you can cross pollinate  flowers and such, to get a version that suits your needs. 

You harvest some wheat for whiskey,  or grapes for wine. Mix the incredients and then through fermenting, distilling and aging it gradually turns into final product in a suitable oaken barrel. You can name your brand  as you please, and it always shows the year it was made on.  So Ultima players can actually get hyped about old in-game wines like one could irl! "Ooh, this was made in 2009..nice. " All of this is very useless beyond some RP sphere, but also extremely cool!  Then you can take your self made wine bottles to your own little self build, self decorated shop, give them to merchant npc who works for you, define the price and see if players want to buy your obscenely overprized RP wine. Good stuff.

 

Basically, small time busywork such as this can be very cool and welcome and  as an experience, it can grow much larger than its size. Shame it is " just" an event in SWTOR, rather than something more ever present.  Regardless,  I consider this up and coming farming event  like 1000 times more interesting than 90 seconds in map room with same freaking mandos talking about same freaking stuff they were on about  like four  years back!!? 

When everybody&every classs story  is so special that sith lords and jedi masters fall to ground as you half attentively swing a wet noodle at them, then special becomes not really that special. Then, maybe it is the mundane things like farming  that need to grow  into epic proportions instead.

 

Edited May 8 by Stradlin

[Setta]

18 hours ago, xxSHOONYxx said:

Candy crush or any other game really, lol is a 15 year old f2p pc game and to this day still makes 1.5-2b annually.

I don't play CC so I had to look into it a bit more.  Your right it started on PC and then was made for mobile, and also available on X-box it seems.  So going back to that accessibility thing, yea you're comparing apples to oranges of MMOs being on a single platform in almost all cases, and CC being available on multiple platforms, one of which is mobile, which by itself has a 50% market share.  Furthermore it seems there's CCS, CCSS, CCJS, & CCFS.  I'm not sure if the 20b is between all versions of CC, or just 1 of them.  It would seem it's accounting for all of them, because by itself CCS does not break the 1B mark a year (close though) but all combined does reach 1.25B for last year.  So again while impressive, this is a bit misleading still as you're taking in the numbers for all 4 games.  Though I do admit that CCS by itself does have the majority of that revenue, by a wide margin (about 70% by itself) with the other 3 combined barely making 30%.
 

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As for swtor, i don't think you know how much some people are willing to spend, and i don't know exactly the numbers either just a guesstimate by interactions in the game i had. When 7.0 came out inflation was so high sale runs went from paying on credits to hypercrates. I don't recall some of the prices but the most expensive ones were gods 16 and r4 hm around 40 hypercrates each think it was?

Not sure if you realize this but there were exploits that allowed people to generate a lot of credits.  I mean a lot of credits, and Bioware never did a roll back. It's why inflation has been so crazy out of control for a while. You had people with 100s of billions of credits.  So yea it's not that unbelievable that people had storages full of hypercrates.  I'm not denying that SWtoR has whales, but I also realize how broken the economy was due to exploiters and how much money people had.  I know some people also made a ton of money by playing the GTN as well. 
 

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If people are willing to spend that much money on a deco/title or gear in the case of r4, imagine how willing they will be for things that are easier to see like weapons or armors. 

R4 was new content that you couldn't get stuff from unless you had a dedicated group to learn the mechanics of it, and you yourself had to not suck as well to clear it. It also offered top of the line gear at release for VM.  So yea people would pay a lot to get carried through it. Because the few that could run you through it could charge w/e they wanted since the pool of players able to do it was so small.  Idk how this equates to well if you're willing to get run through R4, you're willing to spend thousands on useless GTN stuff as well.  I guess yea sure someone out there fits this mold, but to suggest that everyone who got carried is also a whale and spends thousands upon thousands on the CM seems like a hell of a stretch, given how many people had money from Bioware failing to do their job right, or just playing the GTN right.  I had over 60b at one point from playing the GTN for several months and I was still the small dog in my guild still cause by the time I came back to the game people were way, way ahead of me in terms of accumulated wealth. So yea /shrug

Edited May 8 by Setta