Clarification on SWTOR's Development

[Pirana]

2 minutes ago, DarthNillard said:

 

 

Limited areas to post for non-subs is barely a step above not being able to post.  The sentiment behind my post remains: the people who post "HERE" (the main forums) are your paying customers and should be listened to first!!!!!!!

All of this is irrelevant anyway, as Biosword has been showing us for 10+ years that they do not listen to our feedback.  They think telling us repeatedly "we hear and appreciate your feedback" counts for something.  IT. DOES. NOT!  Your constant actions year over year show the truth....

I had access to all areas of this forum to post in while not subbed.

[DarthNillard]

2 hours ago, Pirana said:

I had access to all areas of this forum to post in while not subbed.

I have a 2nd account I created a long time ago, even had it as a sub once upon a time (so its a Preferred account).  I just logged in as it and it won't let me post.  Says I have to be a subscriber.....

Edited July 11 by DarthNillard

[Pirana]

6 minutes ago, DarthNillard said:

I have a 2nd account I created a long time ago, even had it as a sub once upon a time (so its a Preferred account).  I just logged in as it and it won't let me post.  Says I have to be a subscriber.....

Yeah, I don't know then. I got into a discussion roughly a year ago with someone and I couldn't post once I un-subbed and cleared the cookies, where that person mentioned they could still post... If it's changed since then, no idea. Over these last 6-7 months, I've only been subbed up a couple of months and can still post regardless. I'm no expert on this stuff, only providing personal experience. lol Seems to be random at this point. 
 

[SteveTheCynic]

3 hours ago, DarthNillard said:

Limited areas to post for non-subs is barely a step above not being able to post.

Regardless, the *absolute* statement that non-subs cannot post on the forums *isn't* true.  To be sure, their ability to post is very sharply limited, but it *isn't* zero.  That's all I wanted to say.

[cannibithobbal]

8 hours ago, Danevol said:

Because if the choice is between that and a mute character, I'd rather my jk say "jedi's limit's always be put to the test" for the hundredth time.

Honestly same.  😂

[svartalfimposter]

On 6/20/2024 at 5:50 PM, AshleyRuhl said:

Our second scene type is "KOTOR" style. These scenes have voiced lines for the NPCs, but player lines are unvoiced and only appear as dialogue choices. The dialogue choices in these scenes are expanded beyond the 3 choices in a Standard scene, giving the player more response options. The staging and cameras are simplified, which puts less pressure on our cinematic team, and means scenes can potentially be longer/more branchy since they reuse much of the staging setup. This means KOTOR scenes can have MORE conversational depth than if they were built as Standard scenes. We use KOTOR scenes when we have conversational interactions, and we leverage this design to include additional player lines specific to the player's class, romance, and previous choices.

While I appreciate an effort to spin a positive onto the KOTOR-style, voiceless scenes, I'm disappointed that they still exist at all. They're a 21 year old relic that should remain in the past.

 

The future is an automated actor-less game. I've seen amateurs put voice into old games, just imagine what the professionals can do, if they get the support they need.

Until that future arrives there are several things we can do to put cheap voice onto the KOTOR-style scenes, not least utilising a combination of old lines and editing. I've done it myself the hard way, with chinagraph pencils, razor blades and quarter-inch tape. It should be much easier these days. 

[JulianAjax]

2 hours ago, svartalfimposter said:

Until that future arrives there are several things we can do to put cheap voice onto the KOTOR-style scenes, not least utilising a combination of old lines and editing. I've done it myself the hard way, with chinagraph pencils, razor blades and quarter-inch tape. It should be much easier these days. 

Well It may not necessarily be that they can't, but rather the costs to use original voices under whatever original license agreement was made when the game was launched. For our main characters voices I mean.  Maybe cutting and pasting new sentences without the designated compensation for the voice actor becomes the obstacle. Perhaps there is a legal boundary they cannot cross... like not allowed to substitute a different voice actor.  There are some pretty interesting celebrity voices for the companions. It wouldn't surprise me if they gave away ownership copyright to them to get participation at launch. (I dunno how any of that stuff works.)

Truth be told it all comes down to the budget which I think is what everyone here is saying anyway.  Spend more money and give us interactively voiced scenes. 

[Yeebo]

If I have to pick between my guy speaking in cut scenes or 3-4x the new content, I am happy to read.  

[WaffleQwop]

15 hours ago, Yeebo said:

If I have to pick between my guy speaking in cut scenes or 3-4x the new content, I am happy to read.  

This has probably been said before but, why not re use some dialogue? there are tens of thousands of voiced lines throughout all cutscenes in the game. 

[Toraak]

17 hours ago, WaffleQwop said:

This has probably been said before but, why not re use some dialogue? there are tens of thousands of voiced lines throughout all cutscenes in the game. 

If I had to guess there is probably some Clause in the VA's contracts which either won't allow that, or that will make Broadsword pay them for using the voices like that regardless if it's using what was already recorded in old content.

[arunav]

6 hours ago, Toraak said:

If I had to guess there is probably some Clause in the VA's contracts which either won't allow that, or that will make Broadsword pay them for using the voices like that regardless if it's using what was already recorded in old content.

Just a guess, but I think the problem is much more significantly weighted toward making the actual cutscenes than paying voice actors. 

The team didn't have this problem before it moved to Broadsword, for main story updates. At least as of the transition, a little over a year ago, SWTOR's team was roughly cut in half to 40, compared to what it was at BioWare. It's possible more people have left since for job opportunities elsewhere, in the games industry or something else entirely. 

[ADarklore]

While I think the devs trying to reassure people is appreciated, you cannot say losing 50% or more of your development team is 'largely the same team'.  It's pretty clear that it's not.  However, even before the transition to Broadsword, based on my research, that the content had already started to diminish.  So players saying it's a direct result of a downgrade or transfer is incorrect.  It's a result of severe budget cuts, obviously, and EA no longer sees a need to make SWTOR a priority.  While not in 'maintenance mode', the small dev team is definitely not able to produce larger content as had previously been introduced into the game.  I'm also sure there is no longer a budget for 'voice actors' and the sound team that would have to be involved in creating voice content- and most players don't understand the details behind the large effort it takes to get voice acting into content. 

So where does SWTOR go from here?  Based on what I've been hearing, we'll continue to get smaller content but nothing grand- due to not having the large development team or budget for it.  Also, don't expect the devs to tell us the full details of what's going on behind the scenes, because I'm sure HR and the legal department would not allow them to post about how EA's budget cuts and dev loss is actually impacting the game's future.  They want players to continue paying subs and playing, and if they said, "we're going to be offering much less content from now on" many players would stop investing time and money into the game and just cut their losses and walk away.  EA wants money, they are a 'for profit' company afterall, so saying anything that might cause players to leave is not acceptable.  Thus, we get half-truths or silence from the devs because they don't want to lose their jobs. 

[WaffleQwop]

5 hours ago, ADarklore said:

So where does SWTOR go from here?  Based on what I've been hearing, we'll continue to get smaller content but nothing grand- due to not having the large development team or budget for it.  Also, don't expect the devs to tell us the full details of what's going on behind the scenes, because I'm sure HR and the legal department would not allow them to post about how EA's budget cuts and dev loss is actually impacting the game's future.  They want players to continue paying subs and playing, and if they said, "we're going to be offering much less content from now on" many players would stop investing time and money into the game and just cut their losses and walk away.  EA wants money, they are a 'for profit' company afterall, so saying anything that might cause players to leave is not acceptable.  Thus, we get half-truths or silence from the devs because they don't want to lose their jobs. 

Yeah that seems to be the case. Might not ever come out and directly say it but that is likely the reality. I wish that the god of the bottom line wasn't the key to everything. From here on out, is all we have to look forward to just some story bits here and there, and continual galactic and pvp seasons? I am hoping for some kind of change. Maybe one day they will surprise us and announce 8.0 lols

[SteveTheCynic]

8 hours ago, ADarklore said:

I'm also sure there is no longer a budget for 'voice actors' and the sound team that would have to be involved in creating voice content

Yes, indeed, because clearly the most recent patches contained ***NO*** new voicing at all.

Er.

Not even for story NPCs in those KOTORish conversations where the NPC speaks and we don't.

Hmm.  How *did* they get those NPCs to speak if there's no budget for voice actors?