Preface

This post originally appeared as two different Reddit threads (Part One; Part Two). I had hoped it would gain traction there because I rather like the ability to upvote and respond to individual replies or suggestions, but alas it did not. It is thus replicated here with only minor edits; many things, including the reference of time (4.0.4 with 4.1 imminent), remain preserved for future consideration.

We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete.

Some may remember a post I wrote on the forums in August of 2012. The original idea was to convey some thoughts for improving the game. As I started to list the things that frustrated me about SW:TOR, I was reminded of a similar situation with EVE Online. What was intended to be a few suggestions quickly caught fire. Unfortunately, I was unable to keep up with it. As it is often wont to do, Real Life intervened, and that meant not just having to step away from steering the thread like a would-be Muad'Dib, but pulling back from video games entirely.

It's been almost a year since I've returned to SW:TOR, and while much has changed over the last 4 years, much has sadly remained the same. With the new year, a new expansion, and the varied moods of a fractured community, I thought it prudent to reflect on where we were, compare it with where we are, and just maybe with where we could be.

Preface: I enjoy this game. I subscribe. This comes not from a place of malice. I believe that we must be critical—not only of the things causing our discontent, but also of the things we love. So I've spent the last two weeks scribbling down notes and checking as much as I can so as to be thorough. This is the result.

Aware of posting limitations, I will split this up into two posts—Part One will, as the title suggests, look back at the old thread and compare it with the game's current incarnation (Patch 4.0.4 at the time of this writing). Part Two will address mostly new issues and attempt to offer solutions to them, or at least spark thoughtful discussion. I will also, eventually, look into the future of the game and its potential, suggesting loftier long-term goals in a cogent manner.

Addendum: If you'd like to skip ahead to Part Two, where I discuss current issues and attempt to offer solutions for most of them, click here.

Part One: A Retrospective

To know where we're going, we must first remember where we've been. I've done my best to make proper attributions. Unattributed text, unless otherwise stated, was written by me. I can't promise perfection, so I encourage you to read the original thread.

My Original List

Inquisitor head mesh clips through hood mesh under certain circumstances.

4 years later, and my Sith Pureblood (body type 1) wearing the Saber Marshal’s Robe still suffers from this issue. In fact, many hooded robes suffer from it, including Cartel Market items. Furthermore, some other armor meshes do strange things in some cutscenes; for instance, Malak’s Shadow Armor set’s metal neck brace stretches as the character moves, as if one of the vertices just happens to be stuck in space.

Inquisitor and Consular hoods don't stay up with any non-circlet style headgear.

Less of an issue now thanks to the introduction of new headgear and the Outfit Designer making ubiquitous access to helmets like Force Sentinel Headgear. Helmets like Kallig’s Countenance remain affected, however.

Many styles of armor, especially level 50+ pieces, are too elaborate or unrealistic for the purposes of combat.

Many outfits of simpler design have been introduced, along with more weird and overly elaborate designs. People like what they like, and as long as there’s room for the development of both styles, I’m happy.

As an Inquisitor (or Consular), I am tired of wearing robes and dresses!

With the introduction of more designs through vendors, crafting, and the Cartel Market, there’s trousers-a-plenty.

Limiting armor pieces and styles to certain classes or factions often seems pointless and can be limiting to the point of frustration.

This has been solved, by and large, through adaptive armor from the Cartel Market and packs, and through the Outfit Designer, though I think there are still a handful of old designs that are class-specific and thus unable to be slotted into the Outfit Designer.

Even though it’s been 300 years, I’m sure there have to be some Sith Trooper armor pieces from KOTOR floating around the galaxy.

My wish came true, but what we got in the Restored Triumvirate armor set doesn’t look quite as good as it did in KOTOR. It seems bulkier.

Some lightsaber handle models look awfully brittle or unwieldy, and not very practical.

While a matter of personal taste, there have been introduced a much wider variety of lightsaber styles. However, most newer designs, including those from the Cartel Market, are much longer than the old ones and hang awkwardly when holstered, especially many of the doublesabers.

Lightsaber beam meshes can disappear when viewed head-on (i.e. from the top down).

A limitation of the beam’s mesh that still persists, though it no longer disappears completely due to added glow.

The textures of planets in the ship approach cutscenes are blurry, no matter how high graphics settings are set.

When I came back just after Shadow of Revan, I noticed that some of the earlier planets had been updated with improved cutscenes featuring new planet meshes, stars, and ship traffic. Not all of the planets have been updated to this quality. It would also seem that going back to one of the updated planets, like Nar Shaddaa, reverts to the old approach cutscene if you’ve started KotFE.

A Legacy Wallet would be awesome and of immense help (shared currencies, Legacy bank).

We now have Legacy Stronghold Storage, and that’s fantastic. However, shared currencies are still not a thing, and there are now even more currencies to keep track of, and many of them take up valuable inventory space.

Sending my companion out to sell all my grey junk is fine and well, but clicking through every single item at a vendor is tedious at best.

You can’t select multiple items to move, trade, or sell, but they did give us a Sell Junk button.

It’s not easy to determine the level of a given item’s augment slot.

This has thankfully been fixed through UI and tooltip changes.

Game text is sometimes illegible.

Text size and color can be adjusted, but no font customization. There is still a bug where text in a chat window will randomly change font smoothing, blurring text.

The /r reply system for whispers is annoying, confusing, and sometimes broken.

It chimes when your name is typed in chat, but still no separate tabs or windows for chatting privately with each individual, whispers aren’t color-coded to differentiate users, and /r still seems to randomly default to whichever person happens to whisper you last, even while you’re still typing.

Mailing items and currency between characters in my legacy is cumbersome and annoying.

Legacy Stronghold Storage fixes the item transfer issue, and 4.0 introduced auto-complete in the Send To line of a mail message for characters in your Legacy and members of your guild. Transferring credits and other currencies is still cumbersome, however.

What do I do with all of my planetary commendations now that I’m level 50?

Planetary Commendations were eventually merged into Basic Commendations, which are now Common Data Crystals, and that was very much for the better. And there are now options for converting Data Crystals into credits, though more wouldn’t hurt.

NPCs (Sith, Jedi, Troopers, etc.) should drop items associated with their appearance or class/faction.

Usable loot from the majority of NPCs is still random, and some of the few fantastic and rare or unique armors have sadly been removed from loot tables.

Vibroblades should not sound like lightsabers (except when clashing with a lightsaber).

Many vibroblades and training blades still have the same movement sounds. And we still don’t have any Echani weapons.

Addendum: We do now thanks to the Anarchist's Pack.

Why does the entire website, including the index page and forums, need to be unavailable during a patch deployment, server-side hotfix, or rolling server restart?

This still occurs. So much for reading the forums or patch notes, or doing anything else on the site during downtime.

Even when active in using the GTN terminal, I still go idle if that’s all I’m doing.

Still an issue. Sometimes I can sit for an hour shifting my attention between browsing the GTN and glancing at Collections.

A more advanced and gear-independent character styling system.

I cited DC Universe Online’s outfit styling system when writing this suggestion, and while we didn’t get something quite as robust, the Outfit Designer is a step in the right direction.

An NPC and player-driven contracts system; NPC and player bounties organized and issued through the Bounty Hunter’s Guild, and acquisition/delivery contracts issued through a black market system.

Truly a lofty idea to suggest, and Bounty Contract Week takes us halfway there. I didn’t think they’d ever implement it, but kudos to BioWare Austin for doing so. Still, there’s room for improvement, and plenty of ways to expand this to include players, as per my original suggestion.

Where’s the API? Like Spice, the data must flow.

We never got an API, and outside of its potential for mobile apps for the GTN, mail, crew skills, etc., I guess it’s somewhat pointless.

Visually, the game looks a bit long in the tooth. The periodic implementation of graphical improvements would be welcome.

To this, MaximusRex responded:

I see people make mention about the visual quality of SWTOR often, but I guess I wonder what specifically you think is dated about the art style? It’s not meant to look photo-realistic, and never will, so I assume there are other features you are talking about, such as shadows and lighting or the level of anti-aliasing offered? I ask because these comments always confuse me, so I would assume they might be confusing to the devs as well when it comes down to understanding exactly what is being asked for. I know planets could look better from space, as an example.

My response, which I think remains relevant (and I see no way to improve upon besides):

As I said in the OP, I don’t think that the general lag behind other games, graphics-wise, is to SWTOR’s detriment, because most of the focus is on story. It’s certainly a better looking game than WoW, for example. (Or rather it was at the time.) However, I put it at the end of my Lofty Ideas list as sort of a suggestion for future development roadmaps, so as to prevent a certain visual staleness to take over the game.

 

I cite EVE Online as my primary example, and the changes they’ve implemented over the years to the graphical capabilities of their game. All of those changes they’ve made haven’t been purely to make things look pretty, although it certainly does. But it also increases the capabilities of their art department to realize grander and more complex visual styles to immerse the players within the world. And the underlying mechanics are also changed, performance improvements are introduced, reliance upon the CPU has reduced, production pipelines are streamlined, and overall production times as it relates to art or other content creation are reduced. Ultimately, those things are much more important for the game’s longevity than its appearance, but the work can afford you having the cake and eating it too (in EVE’s case).

They’ve added little things last 4 years, but it hasn’t improved as dramatically in that span of time as has EVE Online, or even World of Warcraft. KotFE made the jump toward more realistic-looking NPCs, but old content and player characters are made stale and cartoonish by comparison (though certain NPCs, like Malgus and Satele Shan, are now much higher quality). Furthermore, what few appearance improvements that have been made have been too costly in terms of performance; overall performance has greatly worsened since 1.3.

The UI needs work; feels incomplete and unintuitive.

While the UI could still use some polish and (especially) performance enhancements, the recent updates to UI customization were long overdue.

Companions are always staring directly at you, regardless of their position and orientation, which looks terribly unnatural.

They still stare directly at you, but at least they’re not weirdly contorting themselves to do so (unless you jump or are really high).

WoW may be old and tired, but it does have a couple of interesting and relevant ideas, and being able to set macros and hotkeys would be one of them.

No macros, but we finally have hotkeys. At least we don’t have selfies, Instagram filters, and Twitter integration being the main features of a point release instead of actual content. (Merlin’s beard…what were Blizzard thinking?)

Thus Spoke the Community

The companion unit frame likes to move all the way to the left of my screen when I join groups.

For bounty hunters, when you zone into your ship, you’re facing the exit door.

This small complaint is to all the Miraluka players out there who may feel my pain about not being able to wear certain head gear[…]

Please allow us to toggle nameplates for NPCs we cannot interact with.

[Wanted] a toggle for displaying companion helmet slots.

On the note of datacrons, shared between Legacy please. Except the matrix shards obviously.

The above have been addressed, perhaps most recently Legacy-wide datacrons.

Pureblood Sith and Kaleesh faces clip through chestpieces.

If I have my inventory open before I talk to a vendor, it should remain open after I close the vendor window.

 

[No searchable] inventory and bank.

Space missions that are in the quest log are not easily identifiable on the galaxy map.

The above issues persist.

[…] Quick Travel to ship.

A great suggestion that has thankfully been implemented.

Load times are too long, and too frequent.

Recent improvements have been made to help with that, but even with a solid-state drive it’s kind of ridiculous at times.

FPS freezing when opening various UI elements […]

Sadly, this still happens. In fact, it almost seems worse now in some cases.

Logging in and having broken animations until restarting the game. Usually during peak population hours.

Probably due to network synchronization issues, intraserver lag, or perhaps a combination of both, but it still happens.

Linked mounts […] ame can be done with pets […]

My reply at the time:

That’s the whole point of Legacy, isn’t it? Partly to allow your other character ‘descendants’ to inherit your property. […] Seems only natural that other Legacy characters ought to have access to them, too, since you can only play one character at a time.

The Collections feature covers most of this, though there are a few outliers.

[i feel] as though [companions] stop mattering at [level] 50.

Companions being reworked has helped a lot in keeping them relevant, and with the new content provided by KotFE, they certainly play a much more important role. My follow-up comment to Cindikle’s post seems rather prescient:

DCUO implemented an interesting idea a while back in their instances and raids—if a player of a certain type (i.e. tank or healer) isn’t in the group, a small buff/bonus is temporarily applied to defer the loss in said ability. […] With some tweaks to the idea, and in concert with a buff to companions, I think this would help considerably.

It appears BioWare’s response to this was to introduce Tactical Flashpoints, with which I have a love/hate relationship where GF is concerned. And, of course, companions were eventually (recently) buffed.

After a companion gets to maximum affection, they should get the best possible gear you can have for them—may sound strange, but the gear would be even better than the player gear—since companions aren’t smart enough to make a major difference anyhow. Ofc, players couldn’t wear it.

The recent reworking and buffing of companions has quite precisely accomplished the intent here, in addition to obviating the need for gearing.

Also, bobmcbob! <>

One of my main complaints: The cooldown on /stuck

It’s still easy to get stuck in terrain and between random objects. The cooldown is still ridiculous, but sadly necessary. There’s a random invisible wall on Zakuul, but no invisible barriers in troubling /stuck spots.

It is very expensive to remove mods […]

Prices were reduced, and now that credits are both easier to earn and retain (goodbye skill costs), this is no longer such an issue.

Certain social armor is gender restricted. This is both pointless and sexist […]

Still present, but with all of the skimpy and revealing armor available through the Cartel Market, far less of an issue. Also, no one got my Eddie Izzard reference.

The “canned responses” you get from companions when you click on them do not change, regardless of their affection level or relationship status.

In some ways it’s improved, but in others (i.e. romance status) it hasn’t.

On that note, I think the crafting UI could use some serious attention […]

This was done within the last year, and it was disclosed in the recent developer stream that more changes are coming. More improvements are always welcome.

Addendum: The additional crafting window changes referenced came in 4.1.

I would like to see a “backstory” entry area on the Legacy tab that others could see on a tab when they inspect you.

Nothing like this was done, and outside of its use for roleplaying on RP servers, I don’t see it being used for much other than spam.

Another minor thing that bugs me: An “Unavailable at this time” error that randomly happens while on the Fury.

Strangely, this still happens at random on the approach to Belsavis, Voss, or Illum.

Elevators need to be synchronized so that at the same time one reaches the top, another reaches the bottom […]

I think most of them are like this now, but still randomly desynchronize.

No ready check, despite promises in March.

We have Ready Check now.

Ashara Zhavros reputation gain bug from gifts, despite reports in January and community team responses in May.

While these have been fixed, and now that female Inquisitors can finally give her gifts she Loves, courting gifts remain useless due to a bug. Apparently someone forgot to reflag courting gifts from Affection to Influence.

Schematics are difficult to manage in SWTOR. I’d suggest an easy to read, highlight or otherwise in the tooltip, the schematics that a character already possesses.

Schematics icons are now dimmed out if you already know them, but also if you can’t yet learn them or they aren’t for your profession. The tooltip should be changed to function similarly to those for Cartel Market armor, which now show green text for completed set pieces.

[…] if no one in the party as the applicable crew skills, seeing [boP schematics] drop is a waste of a roll and the group’s time. […] Dynamic party composition based loot lists are great and should be utilized at every opportunity.

I don’t think this has ever been implemented for schematics, but that boss loot in Flashpoints and Operations now have per-character class-specific drops (er, most of the time) is a welcome change.

Addendum: And now, in most cases, each party member gets their own loot—a product of changes in 4.1.

Dual Spec.

They’ve removed talent trees, and added vendor and field respec, but still no toggle to switch between two pre-selected specs. Reorganizing your hotbars after changing specs is tedious. Shame, really; puts a lot of people off from changing specs or trying out new ones without rolling a new character.

When approaching a mission hub, there is no way to differentiate Heroic missions from normal missions. Solution: Mark the heroic missions with a different icon or color.

4.0 thankfully changed this, along with recoloring story missions, and it was one of those simple changes that makes you wonder why it wasn’t implemented when first suggested.

Implement a toggle feature [for hoods on robes].

Long was there talk of it being worked on, but after 4 years nothing has come of it.

Hubris of the force; [more variety in companion types]

Knights of the Fallen Empire has given us a plethora of companions, many of which are and are not Force users. Plenty of variety now to be had, though I fear the impending option paralysis, as Einstein once put it.

Unification of weapon types […] Why is there such a tight restriction on weapon use between classes? Especially regarding the utility of the Armstech crew skill. […] Bounty hunters, troopers, smugglers, and Imperial agents should all be able to use blaster pistols and rifles as a default; with class specialization branching off to the other special weapon types.

Agents pull out a pistol for every Dark Side kill option, that is permanently glued to their thigh in every cutscene, but we can’t use one? […] A bounty hunter and a trooper, masters of heavy armor and all tech equipment…are stuck using certain blaster types (either one or two pistols, or a rifle or cannon)?

Bounty hunters still can’t use rifles, operatives can’t use pistols in spite of having them magically appear in cutscenes, and only one class out of all 8 can use assault cannons. As for the viability of bounty hunters using assault cannons, as I said in the OP I would suggest reading what Boba Fett does in K.W. Jeter’s Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy...

Inconvenience of party size […]

Kragshot wanted to allow for a larger combination of players and companions; now moot with companion buffs in 4.0.

XP penalties against lower level characters getting assistance from higher level characters […]

It was understandable to have kept it that way for so long when it could be exploited to rapidly assist low-level characters in leveling. KotFE’s deployment changed everything about the leveling process, I think for the better.

[…] Just make everyone identifiable by their Legacy. Make the friends list work with Legacy while you’re at it.

Unchanged. In the time since writing the original thread, I have sampled other MMOs, and there are some that handle this sort of thing quite well; specifically Star Trek Online which uses accountname@Character Name, and this has the added benefit of freeing up names for others to use.

Addendum: Quality of life changes slated for 4.3 include the ability to use spaces in a name and an increase in the maximum character limit in a name to 20.

[…] usable chairs, chat bubbles, opposite faction being able to see custom emotes, etc.

I haven’t seen any new usable chairs outside of the ones on our ships, but there is at least a /chair command, although that rarely looks good. Opposing factions can see emotes and read things said with /say. Chat bubbles have been discussed but never shipped; understandable due to engine limitations and performance issues.

I’d also like the map to be more comprehensive.

Though some small improvements have been made, the map window could use more work. I originally suggested an interactive 3D holographic map, adjusting the level of detail based on viewable distance and whether an area has been explored. Certainly sounds more Star Wars-y.

Keybind profiles.

Keybind profiles.

Thankfully added with the launch of 4.0.

[...] a special quickbar that pops up when using Heroic Moment;

[...] adaptive mount speed;

[...] a ship mannequin for displaying gear

I pointed out that the Chevin event (ongoing at the time) introduced the first adaptive mount, and suggested that this feature be applied retroactively. Patch 4.0 introduced a special hotbar that pops up when using Heroic Moment. We don’t have display mannequins, but they make sense for strongholds now that we have those.

A “hairstylist” where you could drop credits on changing hair/makeup/beard. I like my hair but want to mix it up once in a while.

The Appearance Modification Station addresses this, though it uses Cartel Coins rather than credits. I had suggested my preference for DC Universe Online’s implementation (that everything from armor and weapons to hair has a style you can learn, and then change at will).

armor dyes

I again deferred to DCUO’s color choice methods as an example. We didn’t get that, but dyes are in. The system needs some refinement, however, and I will outline suggestions in Part Two.

[…] mounting and unmounting speeders cause a small graphical lab due to the game summoning and unsummoning the companion (it doesn’t happen if the companion is away on crew skill tasks).

This issue persists, though it had once been improved for a time.

“ridiculous amount” of stuns

As I recall, it was a bug in Patch 1.3 that was later fixed. However, stuns are a thing again thanks to level sync, and that’s one of the scant few issues I have with the feature.

An easier way to see ones own ability procs and monitor ones HoT’s on fellow targets would be nice. Maybe some way to isolate them, and/or bring them into the forefront visually or audibly?

While I haven’t noticed the ability to monitor heals over time, ability procs now light up on the hotbar.

[custom companions]

Jtobias wonderfully and expertly presented the lofty idea of custom companions.

Dat post, doe. It’s wonderfully detailed. Still a rather lofty goal, but one I’d love to one day see in the game. I encourage everyone, especially the developers, to read that fantastic post.

When you jump to the fleet in your ship, the animation of the fleet approaching after hyperspace appears, and then there is a huge jerk where the fleet is repositioned backward.

The fleet approach cutscene was completely redone and is much better for it. Armandeus made mention of other immersion-breaking cutscene glitches; some were fixed, others persist.

I want PVP ship battles.

BioWare responded with Galactic Starfighter, which has largely remained untouched since deployment. Of all the complex requested features to implement—to say nothing of the long list of things to improve and fix—it is my opinion that GSF was a misuse of development resources better allocated to other areas of the game; an opinion further reinforced by GSF’s stagnation and disuse.

Addendum: This opinion was somewhat controversial to a Reddit user, but I stand by it. It is not meant as a personal attack on those who enjoy GSF (and I am among them, however infrequently), it is simply an opinion.

Wearing [robes with hoods|head slot armor] removes all hair […] This looks especially weird on females.

This still happens due to limitations of the character meshes. Vaylin doesn’t have this issue because she was designed with unique armor.

I’ve always had an issue with my mouse movement[…]

It still occurs from time to time, and it’s annoying, and adjusting mouse sensitivity and speed does nothing to fix it.

Solo/Duo Dungeons or challenges[…]

We now have a few solo Flashpoints for story purposes, and you can still partner with a friend if you so desire, so long as they’ve also selected solo mode.

The speeders on Dromund Kaas do not connect.

They do now, even if you haven’t yet been to some of the speeder destinations.

There is simply not enough mission slots. 25 is just such a TINY tiny amount.

We’re still stuck with a limit of 25.

Speeders need to be speedier […]

I don’t notice a difference in speed, but I love how speeders are handled on Yavin and Makeb. While I do enjoy the scenery at times, sometimes I just want to get to where I need to be. Thankfully we can now reduce or remove the time on our Quick Travel ability, so I guess that makes up for it.

More more more taxis. Traversing Alderaan is a nightmare.

Alderaan is a thorn in the side for a whole host of reasons, but the taxi situation hasn’t improved.

Not so much day/night cycles, but more so weather things. Rain, storms…anything really.

I commented on the absurdly static feel of most of the planets and my desire for day/night cycles, detailing how it could be different on a planet-by-planet basis. Sadly, save a refactoring of the game engine code (or a new engine altogether), I don’t see this happening (anytime soon, at least) for two reasons:

1. The developers have said that day/night cycles would interfere with intended lighting in cutscenes (which does change to fit the camera angle in some cases, which makes this reason against so baffling, but whatever).

2. Weather impacts performance (which is why you can’t quite see the rain on Dromund Kaas anymore), and the engine struggles as it is.

More platforming and exploration rewards. The datacrons are awesome to get […]

Not only did they add more platforming puzzles for finding datacrons, they added achievements for exploration. I still think the game controls and potential lag aren’t conducive to platforming, but it is what it is.

scullzomben’s suggestion of Legacy-shared datacrons brought to my mind the idea of merging Codex entries across Legacy characters, giving players incentive to create characters for both factions and try out all the classes.

While the Codex is not shared between characters in a Legacy, the achievements system, which is Legacy-based, does a lot of this.

Reward high Legacy players with cosmetic/utility rewards that increases incentive to level up alts/do dailies/play the game in general - the thing you want to achieve.

There have been a few small things, but we could do with a lot more. Legacy in general needs a review and an update, but that’s for a follow-up post.

Legacy quests[…]

An interesting idea I don’t think has yet been explored. Something to consider when addressing the stagnation of the Legacy system.

[F]loating lightsabers in cutscenes.

It almost never happens anymore, but when it does (like in the Warrior story on Korriban), it’s awkward.

More [love interest] options. Females only have one heterosexual LI option. Most males only have one as well. More LIs so we can have choice should be implemented, and people who want [same gender romances] should have them.

The expansions have given us this, perhaps none more so than KotFE.

End of story feels like the end of the story. […] Please don’t neglect story in your updates. Provide small things (like letters, small branching conversation quests with companions, exploration dailies that send us to odd little spots, class specific dailies, minigames, etc.) over time.

They’ve delivered more story and a lot of those little things. It’s been at times good and at others mediocre. There’s room for improvement, and I will delve into my thoughts on that subject in a follow-up post.

Develop more content that rewards the community. something to fight for. Whether world pvp controlled sectors[…]

I think they tried to address this desire with Conquests, but is rather limited in scope and only rewards larger guilds. My response was a suggestion to include planets dedicated to being open PVP warzones for the purpose of story that would shift the balance of power between opposing factions, similar to the star systems in EVE Online’s faction warfare mechanic.

[W]hy not offer us a choice of symbols for armor instead of branding them with the Havoc logo or what-not. Heck, let us choose the symbols from a preset group.

While a cool idea, especially for guilds, it’s never been addressed.

Hyperbole Wars. […] I can fly across the galaxy for fewer credits [than some speeder paths]. NPCs constantly offer me a reward of ‘riches’ and ‘every penny’ etc. and these end up being a commendation and a handful of credits. I recently finished an Empire quest on Belsavis where I was promised “technology not seen since the fall of the Infinite Empire;” this reward turned out to be…a choice of commendation, mystery box, or armor mod that was worse than the mod given for the heroic I’d finished earlier.

Quest rewards have undergone a review, and while equipment rewards tend to remain meager for earlier quests, direct credit and experience rewards from quests (not mailed credits) scale with level thanks to Level Sync; Heroic rewards scale in brackets.

Lack of branching story lines. If there is an option to save or let die an NPC, this choice should have REAL consequences to your story. Right now they don’t, but wouldn’t it be cool if these became optional companions? […]

With the release of Knights of the Fallen Empire, this seems to be addressed, or is at least in the process of being addressed. As we advance closer to the last chapter of the season, we’ll see if it actually plays out. Unfortunately, the story for KotFE have very few differences per class, if any.

[imperial] Troopers and […] Republic SIS Agents[…]

It remains a lofty goal due to cost, but it would be really cool to see someday, not to mention it would allow at least one more class to utilize assault cannons. And Rogue One could fuel desire for an Imperial Agent-like spy thriller on the Republic side.

[A] colorblind mode would be really helpful for people like me (red-green colorblind). TBH I didn’t really have any problems until the Chevin event with the matching lights, but a colorblind mode would be really helpful!

There have been small changes to assist with this, but far too few. Consult a usability expert, or at least give designers this article to utilize as a reference. While it is focused on Web usability, most of these guidelines can apply to UI development.

ome semblance of a social profession?

An interesting idea with potential, and likely Forgettableone was just longing for the various features of Star Wars Galaxies. There haven’t been any new professions introduced, however.

When the taxi vehicle is a two-seater, I’d love to see my companion riding shotgun instead of just having an empty seat there. It would be sweet to be rollin’ deep with Khem Val in the two-seater hooptie.

The feature remains both a cool idea and sadly absent.

Promise to never, ever, ever again create quests that 30 people stand around while one person does the quest (I’m looking at you, Grand Acquisitions Race).

Sadly still an issue, the most notable example being the Dromund Kaas Heroic Possessed Hunter, for which many people simply refuse to group out of common courtesy.

Skimpy clothing for the male characters. And something pretty for the gay community as well. (Sparkle powder only goes so far.)

There are several options now available in the form of Cartel Market armor shells, and dyes add a variety of vibrant color combinations.

Need - Companion - Greed - Pass loot rolls. And don’t let Inquisitors roll need on Warrior saber tokens, only “need” on your class items if it’s better than a green item.

Loot rolls have been improved, and some bosses in Flashpoints and Operations now drop loot specific to each character (and at least gives correct loot for a given class, though not always the advanced class of a given character). Some loot still drops the old fashioned way, and my suggestion at the time of adapting DCUO’s limitations on Need rolls remains a viable alternative, though I’d love to see others.

Addendum: Since 4.1, all players within a group get their own loot in most cases.

Bring in the Gray side, not just light or dark side goodies.

There had been talk of benefits and effects for staying neutral, and even a Legacy unlock reward on the PTS if I recall, but nothing’s ever come of it.

When opening the crew skills window, I always have to sort by level before I can start to do anything since it’s automatically sorted by rating, which is useless most of the time.

This is still the default. However…

Ability to hide crew skills recipes, it’s starting to become quite a long list to scroll through, what about collapsed list by default?

It now does exactly this, which makes things much easier. Still, sorting by level by default would be better.

I often find myself aborting cutscenes and dialogue to maximize my companion affection, while it is effective it really takes away from the immersion, the music, the mood of the entire dialogue. I want a slight color on the wheel choice which will affect my current companion, kinda like dark/light but not so glaring. That way I can enjoy the whole scene a lot more.

An interesting idea, but one that hasn’t been implemented. I’m not sure if it’s something that should be changed, so I instead invite the community to weigh in. That said, you don't quite lose Influence (née Affection) anymore, but choices still have other repercussions in KotFE.

Managing your sales via another tab on the GTN[…]

While it could be more robust, there is now such a tab.

Right-click to search for an item should work from inventory[…]

I’m assuming Neloth meant for the GTN search, which does work, though with a shift + left-click instead of a popup menu from right-clicking an item.

Customizable speeder like we can customize our starship components, with things like stronger knock down resistance, more speed, higher jump distance, new set of grills and other appearance [modifiers].

If I recall, things like this have been discussed, but that’s as far as it’s gone. I reference this in Part Two below.

Thana Vesh’s entire outfit[…]

I wanted this as well, and our request was fulfilled. Took me forever to get it, but it’s mine. Now for Tulak Hord’s armor set…

Many people suggested Legacy-based ships.

I think Strongholds have filled this need in a sense.

[More] alien species options for character creation.

We now have access to the Cathar and Togruta, but there are many more I’m sure we’d all like to see; the Star Wars universe is quite diverse, after all.

Another thing I thought of that really REALLY irks me: For every character that wears robes/skirts/kilts, when they walk, why does the model bend in the back with their legs? Material doesn’t behave that way and it makes it look as if everyone is suffering from an extreme case of static cling. (Okay in the case of an Inquisitor, maybe they are.)[…]

This hasn’t changed, and I think it’s a limitation of the asset templates in addition to the game engine itself. As Pairaka said, there are armor pieces with fabric that flows semi-freely, but as is known there are moments when it just bugs out, and this is likely why it isn’t used more often. I would like to see this rectified, however, but it remains a pipe dream.

We're at Now, Now...

There are many more ideas in that old thread. It’s an interesting treasure trove of information, a little slice of time in static text. It’s amazing that players still dig it up to post in it.

This is where we’ve been. Things have changed and other things are the same. Now that we’ve looked back, where do we go from here?

When Will Then Be Now?

Part One, above, took a look back at the state of SW:TOR as it was in the summer of 2012, and compared many of the thread’s suggestions and requested quality of life changes with the game in its current state. For those that took the time to read it, it’s clear to see just how much has changed and just how much has remained the same.

In Part Two, I’d like to continue in the spirit of the old thread; to point out issues both minor and major, and provide creative solutions to them. While I’m sure there are many more issues I could list, they’re not always easy to keep track of or remember, and perhaps most importantly there are some problems for which I can’t quite figure out solutions. It is to that area that I would invite the rest of the community to engage themselves.

The burden of change isn’t entirely on SW:TOR’s developers; as the consumers of their product, we have our own role to play. But it’s difficult to cut through the noise when things get toxic. One can understand why BioWare Austin relies on its metrics so much, when constructive criticism and good ideas are drowned out by a very loud and pernicious minority.

While I feel voting with your wallet is a perfectly legitimate method of participation, it will only go so far in addressing your grievances and desire for change. Say you manage to cripple SW:TOR’s generated income enough that the developers get handed down from on high EA’s disapproval; they start to scramble. What will they scramble towards first? Most likely to their metrics. What will get changed? Probably not the thing you were after them to fix. Or perhaps EA pulls the plug on BioWare Austin’s funding altogether, and that game you kind of enjoyed but really wanted to love, “if only it would change,” just goes away instead.

Once again, I would beseech participants to comport themselves with due civility. We all have our frustrations, but if we’re to see change we’ll have to work together at it. Screaming and sniping at the developers and at each other solves nothing. Try to remember that there’s a real human behind that username.

Addendum

With Patch 4.1 a mere few hours away, and details on the impending changes to crafting having been released, I considered editing out some of my suggestions because they are similar to what we’re getting today. However, I think I’ll leave them in for posterity and grey them out instead.

Part Two: Another Thousand Papercuts

Communication

There are a plethora of disputes we all have with SW:TOR, but this is perhaps one of the biggest issues that has long plagued the game. Community relations and general outward communication seemed to get better after August of 2012, but declined to near silence in the lead up to KotFE’s release. And while communication seems once again to be on the uptick, there’s a long way yet to go.

Developer / Community Team Outreach

Too little was known about KotFE from its announcement until just days before release. The reason given for this lack of communication was the desire not to spoil the story, but much could have been conveyed that didn’t spoil anything, such as: mainstat consolidation, crafting changes, the removal of custom gear vendors, the conversion of Affection to Influence and other companion changes, et. al.

Developers don’t blog nearly enough and should be much more proactive communicating their plans and ideas to the community, whether directly or through the Community Management team (preferably both). If the Community Managers’ hands are bound by whatever draconian rules are in place for communicating more often and in greater detail with players, then this needs to be rectified.

Biweekly developer streams are a great idea, and I greatly approve of it, but what little information we get from them usually echos that which has already been released—either in blog posts, in interviews, from the dreaded D-word, or from simple deduction. People who are most likely to watch these streams already know of these changes and what has transpired in the story. Furthermore, a significant portion of time is devoted to recapping what you’ve done with the game and what’s happened in the story.

Considering the time it takes from the development schedule to interact with players and fans on a livestream—and all time is valuable—they should be much bigger events, and the content discussed of greater depth and value. Use this time to excite players and fans instead of boring them; disseminating information they already have when they are so hungry for new things isn’t a tease, it’s filling dead air and padding out what little is actually being provided. If you want to have fun with it and stretch out your time on the stream, consider giveaways and a longer Q&A.

Addendum: Developer streams are now just monthly. The time devoted to recapping what's already been released has been lessened, however.

Metrics vs. Community Engagement

Fun is not a quantifiable metric. At least, it isn’t quantifiable to the dumb wetware we call a brain. Perhaps machine intelligences will be able to quantify what makes a thing fun through the use of Big Data, but it’s hard for our tiny minds to conceive of such a revelation from that gargantuan amount of information.

Metrics are important, and a great deal of information can be derived from them, but like all tools it is but one of many to rely upon. Use your other tools, i.e. the community. Ask players what they want, and not just in forum posts—actively ENGAGE us. I emphasized this a great deal in my original forums post and it must be reiterated. Greater engagement by BioWare means players care more about the game and engage more with BioWare.

Have a cool idea that’s been simmering for a while? Release a video discussing it, take the opportunity to show what you’ve thus far created for it, and then ask us our opinion on the matter while there’s still time to pivot on the development side. Don’t just release a video after-the-fact, detailing or taking us behind the scenes of what’s just been delivered, give us a glimpse of what’s coming; surprise us; engage us.

Waiting until the last minute to gauge the playerbase does not ensure a quick turnaround or proper statistical results. Instead, it only engenders discontent and anger on the part of players. It makes your jobs that much harder, and it causes release delays. Being forced to respond after the fact only amplifies these drawbacks (i.e. 4.0 companion changes, subsequent over-nerfing and un-nerfing).

Draw a consensus from our responses, be it forum posts, surveys, polling, or some combination thereof, and weigh this data with the same importance you place on recorded game metrics. Collating all of this data, while a larger task, yields much more fruitful and, more importantly, more accurate results.

The Subscription Rewards Survey

This was a good idea, but poorly executed and greatly limited in scope. It should have been done shortly after KotFE and its subscription rewards were announced (since the survey in question was about the next round of rewards). Instead, it was sent out just before the announcement about the January to August 2016 Subscriber Rewards program.

I find it hard to believe that most, if not all, of these rewards were not already decided upon and approved ahead of the announcement. If you’ve already made the decision as to what we’re being given, asking us what we want is ultimately without meaning. If simply a misunderstanding, it only further defines the need for better communication.

Addendum: It is now apparent that the survey was most likely in regards to the potential subscriber rewards for Season 2 of KotFE. Nevertheless, such a minor lack of clarity in communication is partly responsible for the current unrest with regard to the HK-55-themed rewards. Also responsible are those members of the community who could not conceive of the fact that these things have already been made (or are in the process) and have been decided upon, and that it is simply too far into the release cycle to pivot on this matter. This example no less illustrates the need for better communication and engagement with the community.

Going Forward

There is an axiom that states that to be a good writer one must first be a good reader. This is absolutely true, no matter what you’re creating. You must continue to expose yourself to new and interesting things so that you remain inspired and your art remains relevant. Look to other successes to see how their approach to community interaction has helped their success and fostered a closer bond with their respective players. EVE Online and Final Fantasy XIV are the most notable examples, with Marvel Heroes 2015 receiving an honorable mention for their openness in the past.

The brilliant Andie Nordgren, Executive Producer of EVE Online at CCP, has given several lectures regarding user participation and player-focused design. I implore you to mine them, and the rest of CCP’s keynote speeches and developer blog videos, for useful and vital information to apply to SW:TOR and your interactions with the community.

Performance, Performance, Performance!

Story is important and one of the game’s best features, but if the game performs poorly (and it does), existing players will eventually grow frustrated or lose interest over this, and new player retention is less likely.

When one with limited knowledge or experience must troubleshoot why SW:TOR struggles to provide consistent performance, but any random game purchased on Steam with far more complicated visuals does not, there’s a huge disconnect; and not everyone is patient enough or knowledgeable enough (or both) to deal with that, so it’s easier to just move onto something else. And let’s face it, if not for the fact that it’s a Star Wars game, a lot of these folks wouldn’t put up with it at all.

Users disconnect with a program or device, or in this case a game, if feedback is not near instantaneous. If your miracle of technology, the smartphone, freezes everything to a halt for a second or more when you tap to bring up a menu list, is your experience not negatively affected? Does this not tarnish the brand in your eyes? There’s a reason why smartphones as a product didn’t really stick until the iPhone: in spite of the greater number of features and utility, Windows Mobile/CE was a terrible OS with horrendous performance.

(On this matter, I defer to this excerpt from Jakob Nielsen’s book, Usability Engineering.)

While changes have been slowly implemented over time, such as the changes to asset storage and allocation, current game performance (Patch 4.0.4 as of this morning) compared to that of Patch 1.3 is far, far worse. Furthermore, the performance cost for the visuals we get at maximum settings isn’t worth it, though the latter is a topic for another discussion.

Hearing that there’s a team that is almost entirely dedicated to performance is heartening, however, and I can only hope that their work will soon start to bear fruit.

Customer Service

I realize that these brave and hard-working souls are few and overburdened by the volume of incoming requests, many of which could be avoided if some players would bother reading and paying attention to the information provided by the game. However, a one month response time for a well-written ticket during the holidays, and just after a new and extensive expansion—a crucial time in which it is to be expected, especially given prior experiences in the game’s four year tenure, that there will be a large volume of tickets and many unforeseen bugs—is simply unacceptable. Won’t someone please think of the overtaxed and ailing customer service droids?

The Public Test Realm

The PTS is woefully underutilized. Whilst one can sympathize about not wanting to spoil the upcoming storylines and chapter events, public playtesting remains a vital step in the QA process and must not be left to wilt on the vine. You have to decide which is more important: potential story leaks and spoilers, or game-breaking or otherwise frustrating bugs that turn away new and/or returning players.

Addendum: The PTS is active again and has been testing some new features and PVP maps and modes, and the Eternal Championship is headed there soon as well. This is good. More of this, please. I still maintain, however, that all aspects of the game and its content, which includes elements of the story and its mechanics, should benefit from further public testing.

The Cartel Market

The Cartel Market should be improved to encourage and entice F2P and Preferred players—a group which data would seem to suggest is in the minority where transaction volume is concerned. Reducing the nickle-and-diming or cash-grab perception of the current market might make them more willing to spend money. Give a little, make it more enticing; perhaps not as much for F2P as for Preferred players.

And speaking of, Preferred status wasn’t always so restrictive, and the barrier to entry was much higher (i.e. requiring to have been a former subscriber).

Embargoed Packs

The newest Cartel Market pack shipments have done away with the inclusion of reputation items and Cartel Certificates, and in light of the coming changes to Cartel Market pack functionality in Patch 4.1, the trend would seem to indicate a near-permanent embargo of the old Cartel packs, thus negating the usefulness of Reputation and Cartel Certificate vendors for players that have not had access to these packs in sufficient quantities to merit their use.

Old packs, which are embargoed and have been reintroduced a scant few times in the last year, are at present the only source for reputation items from these associated organizations, and are still the primary method by which one obtains Cartel Certificates to purchase items from these unique reputation vendors.

There is, of course, a single exception: the Contraband Slot Machine. Unfortunately, this decoration provides reputation for only one organization. Worse still, I have read that drop rates of Cartel Certificates from this device were significantly reduced (to a dismal 0.05%). The reasoning was understandable for the time, given the regular rotation and proliferation of embargoed packs and the unintended market consequences for Jawa Junk, but no longer.

I suggest to first replace Jawa Junk payouts with something else; something useful and with some value, but only to individual characters or Legacies; something that isn’t likely to have a far-reaching impact on the in-game economy. Win/payout percentages should then be improved. Given the state of pack Reputation and Cartel Certificates, chances should be much more reasonable than they are; this device is practically worthless in its current incarnation. This should then be followed up with the introduction of slot machine variants for the remaining Cartel Market pack reputation vendors.

An alternative suggestion, which might be a little crazy, is to take a page out of Star Trek Online’s book and use Lock Boxes.

For those that haven’t played it, in Star Trek Online, Lock Boxes (their version of Cartel Market packs) randomly drop as a separate loot entity and are bound to the character credited with the kill. The player can then loot the crate separately from the mob corpse. These crates can then be opened with special Master Keys which are purchased from the in-game store with real money, or purchased from other players with credits. Players who choose not to open Lock Boxes can sell them to other players through the Exchange (GTN equivalent).

The types of Lock Boxes vary from time to time, or depending upon the current promotions. During previous special events and promotions, just a certain cross-section or even all of these Lock Boxes would be available to drop, giving newer or returning players access to old items. Old embargoed Cartel Packs could be reimagined to function in a similar fashion, with a special master key available as a Cartel Market purchase at a reasonable price, with discounts for volume purchases.

As previously stated, this is a crazy potential solution that I’m just throwing out there. I’m uncertain about how well such an idea would function in practice, let alone be received by players, so I invite the community to comment on it further.

Itemization & Crafting

Note: Please bear in mind that I’ve been writing down these notes off-and-on for the last few weeks, ahead of the announced crafting changes that will come with today’s patch (4.1). Some of these suggestions are mirrored in Patch 4.1’s changes to crafting, but will remain for posterity.

Crafting is still in need of further refinement. Some of the recent changes leading up to and within Patch 4.0 were well overdue, but more could be done to improve it.

The fast pace of leveling combined with the very awesome armor crate rewards from heroics negated the improved utility of crafting in 4.0. This could be due to poor oversight, a lack of communication between development teams, or both. Granted, only subscribers are given access to the aforementioned boxes awarded by heroics. Nevertheless, an heirloom-type system, mentioned in detail later in this post, would help with the tedium some players experience when gearing whilst leveling.

Some of the crafting changes coming in 4.1 would better address some crafting utility, though more so at endgame rather than whilst leveling. The new crafting tier, complete with schematics and materials, is a logical progression. Nevertheless, some underlying issues will undoubtedly remain.

I believe the introduction of the Appearance Designer has helped the armor crafting professions become a little more useful, but there are still too many pieces, to many schematics that go unused, and many styles have been removed altogether. While it’s good that some of the missing styles (as a result of the removal of many vendors/quest rewards and the changing of loot tables) are returning, many of us would also like to see the remainder come back.

Augment Kits

It is my personal experience that Augment Kits other than MK-8 (soon to be MK-9) go unused. With leveling as fast as it is, and gear in the leveling process transient, it is far too tedious and costly to produce or purchase augments and the appropriate kits prior to the MK-8 series. And now that a MK-9 series will be introduced with [today’s patch], the MK-8 schematic will soon fall into disuse with the rest.

I suggest combining the lot into a single universal Augment Kit schematic that’s compatible with all tiers of augments, allowing the continued option for those that desire the detailed and frequent re-customization that some find repetitive.

Artifice

My main character has Artifice as a profession, and therefore this is the area I feel the most comfortable discussing in this post. It also remains one of the least profitable crew skills, even though recent changes have made minor improvements to its usefulness. Most of its long-term utility come from the crafting of decorative items, such as dyes and color crystals, and there’s room there to grow it.

Addendum: Artifice will be receiving an update in today’s patch, but as previously stated I’ll be leaving my pre-announcement suggestions as-is, followed by further codicils.

Dyes should be expanded and the underlying system tweaked.

• More craftable dyes with greater variety. Yes, even black dye. $15-20 for a single-use dye is shambolic.
  
• Perhaps remove paired dyes, or introduce schematics to craft for specific dye slots (Primary, Secondary, etc.)
  
• Give the dye slot in an armor piece multiple sub-slots, not only to give greater variety in color combinations, but to give separate Primary and Secondary dyes greater utility.
  
• To avoid controversy, allow the Primary slot to be used by dyes with Primary and Secondary components whilst retaining the functionality of said dyes.
  
• Introducing a Tertiary dye slot would allow for the coloring of certain armor pieces which are currently unable to be fully transformed by dyes as is desired by many players.
  

Color crystals should be reworked and their functionality expanded.

• With the ubiquity of color crystals from the Cartel Market and their use as early as level 10, stats on crafted color crystals rated below Item Level 136 are now pointless, resulting in level 1-49 saber crystals going unused, and thus moved into obsolescence.
  
• Color crystals should simply be an affectation, like dyes, with stat bonuses derived from one of the other four slots (hilt/barrel/armoring, mod, enhancement, and augment). Should this change be made, removing the level restriction is only logical.
  
• Addendum: The developers seem to have reached a similar conclusion with the above and some of these changes to color crystals will be introduced in Patch 4.1.
  
• To add further utility with this change, allow color crystals to recolor the glowing parts on a given armor piece, functioning similarly to dyes. Understanding that prior assets may not function in this fashion and may be too costly to reconfigure, this feature could be implemented into future armor designs to conserve development resources.
  
• Mentions have long been made by developers of the potential to craft color changes for a speeder’s special effects, and there’s room to provide that for future mounts by implementing the preceding changes.
  

Addendum: Indeed, crafted color crystals no longer have level requirements, and the schematics for obsolete crystals have been removed. However, there is still slight disparity in that the Cartel Market crystals still require level 10 or higher, but I am uncertain if this is as intended.

Armor & Appearance

I had some rather crazy ideas to revamp armor and armor appearances, but I felt them too complex to address in the short term. Perhaps it would be best to relegate the suggestions to a future post.

Legacy

Legacy has barely been touched since its introduction (though Legacy-wide Datacrons are greatly appreciated). New features and unlocks should be introduced, and there’s a huge gap after Legacy level 25 that should serve as an excellent place for them.

Birthright and Inheritance

These items were designed before the ubiquity of Custom, Adaptive, and Legacy armor shells, and are now essentially useless. Re-engineering these items to function similarly to World of Warcraft’s Heirlooms would return Birthright and Inheritance tokens to relevance whilst also reducing the annoyance of many players when faced with keeping new characters properly geared as they’re leveled.

Some suggestions:

• Inheritance items could scale from levels 1 to 50. They should feature stats similar to or better than fully modded Custom armor shells.
  
• Birthright items could scale from levels 1 to 64, or a level or two behind current and future level caps. These items should also be endowed with slightly better stats than Inheritance gear.
  
• As with WoW’s Heirlooms, Birthright and Inheritance items could come with special boosts akin to armor set bonuses, which would be useful and more powerful than armor acquired through the usual means (i.e. crafting, rewards, or direct vendor purchases), but not as powerful as endgame set bonuses.
  

Legacy Armor

The prices of Renowned and Exalted armor sets from Legacy vendors could do with a reduction, or perhaps change the currency with which they’re purchased to Common Data Crystals—a currency by which most characters at level cap are overburdened. They’re just empty shells, after all. And perhaps remove their class restrictions.

Legacy Wallet

This was a suggestion I made before and it bears repeating. The previous exploit of Warzone Commendations before the introduction of the Legacy-bound requisitions illustrates the need for this feature. Such exploits, and indeed many black markets, are often utilized because of a need not being serviced by existing systems. Requisitions are only a stop-gap measure that doesn’t address the underlying problem.

To allay concerns, the Legacy Wallet should come with certain restrictions for lower account tiers so as not to alienate subscribers.

HK-51

While I love this droid, his acquisition can be a nightmare by the third or fourth go round. It’s a neat idea, in theory, but digging for parts gets tiresome. The Burba Seismic Excavator/Scanner doesn’t function as well as the Seeker Droid. Tweaking the system to use the latter device would keep the process of acquiring HK-51’s parts challenging while reducing frustrations.

Treek is far easier to acquire by comparison, and is also much cheaper to unlock for other characters on a given Legacy. Perhaps HK-51’s Legacy unlock price could be adjusted.

Even though it’s been nearly a year, I still feel a little slighted that the quest chain got reset in my absence when I was but a single piece away from activating HK-51, though perhaps more because of Customer Service’s response time and lack of assistance on the matter (I understand the quest had likely been reset many times in my absence, but the items were nonetheless there). Thankfully, a sympathetic player helped me do it all over again in a single night. Thanks, Malcia of The Harbinger.

Speaking of HK-51, I also miss his unique Assassinate ability that got lost in the 4.0 companion revamp. It would be nice to have that back.

Side Quests

The Sith Inquisitor is on a quest for ancient power through the acquisition of relics and ancient knowledge. More emphasis on this would be nice. Although this is perhaps less a want of side quests and more a desire to see more of my class-specific story.

WoW’s Archaeology feature was a great idea that felt half-finished on release, and has all but been abandonned since Cataclysm. The Star Wars universe is huge, and I think there are opportunities for side quests, to expand lore, and to actually use your Crew Skills for something other than making credits. For example, I loved the recruitment mission for Talos, and I went through with it even though I could have immediately demanded his return on my Inquisitor. Archaeology-related quests—not an event—would be a very welcome addition.

Preview Window

The character preview window has been bugged for quite some time. Drawing a weapon or previewing a crystal on characters that use a lightsaber doesn’t work. The current workaround is to first preview a lightsaber.

It also used to show muzzle flash and blaster bolts when previewing ranged weapons, or previewing color crystals on characters with ranged weapons equipped. What happened to this? Please bring it back.

Heroic Missions

Since the revamp of Heroic missions, they now auto-complete when the primary objective has been completed. While this is very convenient, new players (or old forgetful ones who like to go back over old content every once in a while) will miss out on the cutscenes, and I find that somewhat unfortunate. The bigger problem with this, however, is not being able to complete bonus objectives and receive their rewards if you complete the primary mission objective first.

[Heroic 2+] Possessed Hunter

The objective, Valen Korik, has a respawn timer of 5 minutes. The site is camped almost constantly, sometimes by upwards of 20 players, and those that wait often refuse to group up. Switching map instances is of limited help. My suggestion would be to simply cordon off the area as a Group Phase. Those that wish to continue to solo the mission may do so, and those that wish to group can; both parties are thus able to complete the heroic quickly and efficiently.

[Weekly] Defending Voss-ka

Voss heroics were bugged after Patch 4.0, though the causes have varied. At first there were no Voss heroics; the reputation mission terminal in the cantina was removed, but its associated dropbox was conspicuously still there. In the patch that followed, the cantina dropbox was removed and Heroic missions for the planet returned, but without reputation gains or the associated Weekly; though if you had the Weekly before 4.0, it remained in your mission log, but the Voss missions didn’t count towards the objective.

Reputation rewards for the Voss heroics have since been reintroduced, but completing the Voss heroics still doesn’t count towards the Weekly objective.

Addendum: Fixed in 4.1a.

Events

The Chevin Grand Acquisitions Race

For all its bugs, the Chevin event was a lot of fun, and next to the Gree event, one of the best in this or any other game. While it is appreciated that the vendors have returned, and now sell the old rewards in exchange for a combination of newer event currencies, some of us still have many Tokens of Enrichment and would like to spend them. As an event, it’s pretty special, and if I remember right even the lore of it suggests it’s a rare occurrence, so it could perhaps be limited to a yearly event if brought back.

Star Wars Movie Hype

Whilst most of the EU materials are now “Legends” (though are likely to be mined by Lucasfilm for new content), and SW:TOR’s own status between canonical and non-canon is currently ambiguous, the game felt largely disconnected from all the buzz and excitement surrounding the new films and series.

To celebrate the ushering in of a potential golden age of storytelling in the Star Wars universe, across all media, with the premiere of The Force Awakens, SW:TOR’s promotion was…Double XP. No movie-inspired outfits, mounts or weapons (even though one of those weapons explicitly references “ancient Sith designs” and the Great Scourge of Malachor).

Considering the success of TFA, now is the time to get serious about cross-promotion.

Addendum: The Arbiter's Unstable Lighstaber and Dualsaber, whose blades mirror Kylo Ren's lightsaber, have been added with the Anarchist Packs.

New Events

During the live stream on the 14th of January, Producer Ben Irving said in response to a question about new events that those currently in the game still had “plenty of mileage” to them. In some respects I don’t think this is the case, but in others, such as the Gree event, I can understand. My concern with making events more frequent is that they’ll become less desirable to participate in to a much larger section of players. While it could also be that the comment was made with the idea that increases in event frequency would be a stop-gap measure until new events could be built (or an old one re-engineered), a wider variety of new content to keep people playing the game is a must.

Sadly, ideas for this topic have been fleeting, but I’d like to hear what other users have to say, specifically those with greater knowledge of the Old Republic-era EU.

Subscriptions

Subscriber Rewards

Unique aesthetic rewards are a nice incentive, but I worry they don’t go far enough. While Niko’s Blasters were an altogether new item with a unique appearance, Niko’s Duster was a recolor of an item that’s been in the game forever. And speaking of Niko’s Blasters, while they are original and do look cool, they don’t look nearly as awesome as the concept art used to actually sell the items (and let’s not mince words here, that is precisely what the promotion was for—to sell subscriptions).

Limited-timed, paywalled story content seems to go too far in the wrong direction. Playing a slice of the backstory from HK-55’s perspective is a neat idea, but I wonder if putting the game’s universal selling point (i.e. story) behind a series of special conditions may be to the concept’s detriment. Furthermore, I think most people would agree that Darth Marr would have been a far more interesting subject, as much as we enjoyed HK-55. In any case, I’d like to see more discussion from other players on the core of this concept.

Daily Login Rewards

Several games now have it, including another Star Wars game from EA (Galaxy of Heroes), and some implement it quite well (Marvel Heroes 2015). It’s an interesting feature that would be sure to keep many players coming back. I’ll allow others to weigh the pros and cons of allowing access to login rewards to all three tiers, but would like to say there should be greater rewards unique to subscribers.

Veteran Rewards

Rewards for subscription length is, I suppose, more of a prestige thing, but Star Trek Online has a decent implementation of the feature, and their Lifetime Account unlocks all rewards (and it damn well better, considering the price). I'm sure many players can cite other games that have implemented a form of rewarding players for the length of their subscription, and it would appear to have an effect on retention.

Lifetime Accounts

There are a few games that have a Lifetime Account feature, but the only one I have had any experience with has been for Star Trek Online, and so I must defer to their design as a reference.

From what I’ve been able to gather, Collector’s Edition codes are now expired and are thus useless, even if you do somehow manage to find one that’s been unused. The features and rewards of the Collector’s Edition of SW:TOR could return by way of this interesting vector.

PLEX for SW:TOR

Player tradable game tokens were a feature I thought at first would be a good one, and I’ve seen many people recently make the case for it, but I’m of mixed mind on the matter. On the one hand, it would open up new economies and allow new avenues for player entry into Subscription Land; on the other, the current model does make some sense, though the nickle-and-diming of individual game features at Preferred level is frustrating and exhausting for some.

If something like this were to be implemented, I’m rather fond of WoW’s model, which allows users to purchase a market-regulated token with gold from all characters on the account. Furthermore, said token should ignore credit caps altogether and draw from escrow from all (or selected) characters on a given account.

Endgame & PVP

I think this horse has been beat to death; from recent announcements and the lack of new content in recent releases, there has been much to say by many players far better versed than me, so I shall leave it to them. The new PVP map on Odessen looks fun, though.

The Future

Where does BioWare see SW:TOR two to five years from now? In what direction should the game go, and for how long will it continue? These are questions to be considered, and I feel there is much soul searching left to be done by the development team (if they are not already doing so).

However, given the length of this post, perhaps I shall save this topic for another day. Although a quick list of lofty, pie-in-the-sky things I’d like to cover in the future:

• More individual class stories.
  
• Old content needs a visual revamp (compared to KotFE it looks cartoonish).
  
• Refactoring or replacing the game engine, possibly funded through Kickstarter if necessary.
  

"While I feel voting with your wallet is a perfectly legitimate method of participation, it will only go so far in addressing your grievances and desire for change. Say you manage to cripple SW:TOR’s generated income enough that the developers get handed down from on high EA’s disapproval;"

Here's what I personally feel a vast majority of people don't get. At all. The multitude of minor unfixed glitches in the game and the increasingly frayed and shabby look to the game are almost certainly not due to lack of effort on the developer's parts. "On high EA" people are almost certainly responsible. I personally am all but convinced they won't let them have the time, money, and staff to clean these things up.

The EA On Highs...do....not.....care. Only keeping budget costs stringently under control and milking the CM. I could be wrong entirely, but I think I'm very close to bullseye on this. No dev will dare, for their job's sake, confirm or deny my hunch.

The EA On Highs...do....not.....care.

That may or may not be true (and as EA is the parent company with a history of certain behaviors, it probably is), but we can only try. I think part of the reason that it feels to so many that nothing ever gets done is because the community is scattered, fractured; each focusing on a different thing and unwilling to cooperate or compromise with other members of the community. Better that we work together and push for change and fail than for each of us to remain in our little bubbles, talking over and arguing and sniping with each other and the developers, and never making a real concerted effort.

As I stated above, the onus for change isn't solely on the developers--we also have a role to play.

That's a lot of typing. Very few people but you are going to read it. We have a phrase to describe mental activities people engage in simply for their own enjoyment, and its initials are "mm."

I'm addressing the past, comparing it to where we are now, and also addressing my current concerns with the game. I'm not doing this because I "enjoy it," as you say. It is because there are aspects of the game and its state that I don't enjoy that I am doing this. I want a better game, and I think everyone else does, too. Surely we can work toward a common goal.

As for verbosity, I never had a problem with the first thread. If you wish to overlook it because it's too much effort for you to read it, that's your right, but I think most people can get the gist of the thread by reading the first two sections, which should be easy enough for anyone.

OK, so i took the time to read the long af post on both where we were and where we are(im not insulting you, im just acknowledging how much time it must have taken you XD haha) and i must say you hit the mark buddy. As you said there might be a ew things you missed, im not entirely sure tbh, but i think you tackled whats important. In regards to that i feel the BIGGEST issue for me is the performance. I dont talk about it in the forums and you can check my posts, but the reason i dont is because ill get flamed with "stop playing" or "get a better computer/internet connection" but i have a computer that can run console games no problem, SMITE, DCUO, and many other games that the minimum require less than what i have for graphics, cpu, etc. Also i agree with you, the community does play a big role with how this game evolves, and sadly its the minority as well as misread projections(from BW and EA) that make the game not fun.

I mostly play solo because im playing the story, but the performance, and many other issues that get to me, make me play less time a day, and sometimes not at all. And all i hear from the community is angry shouts of how they got cheated in the CM or how they dont have LGBT relationships, or how the GTN is unfair in pricing, and many other, as you call them, bubbles. Ive complained about the staggering amounts of stuns that make the game not fun, but that feels like more of a gameplay issue than a "im entitled to cool stuff b/c i pay so i deserve compensation".

I also feel that the development team should do a better job in their advertisements. A LOT of fine print there. "Subscribe by X date and receive this" only to discover that there are further conditions to be met, or that its not and immediate thing making us expect things at a certain date only to have to wait because there was a fine print in the promotion hidden away in a blog or forum posts that only a few follow(actually thanks to situations like that ive learned to keep an attentive eye on the forums for **** like that).

I strongly believe that if we band together and express things like you did will help the development team realize that they arent doing good with the game. And they do need to be more proactive with their customers. There is a plethora of games out there that are extremely proactive with their customers hence making their games last longer and be better in the long run. Sure some games are MOBA's and rehashed card games(HearthStone). But look at diablo 3, people complain about imbalances and they respond. There is a problem, there they are ready to tackle it. What im saying with this is that it feels like BW doesnt care much about us with this game, EA obviously dont give a flying **** considering their capitalist ways and the fact that they are a money hungry company that feeds off the tears of our wallets. Proactivity from devs, better performance, and acceptable RNG's with CM packs as well as in game drops and many other things that people complain about. I truly think like you that we need to make a move and express it as a community rather than our own little bubbles of entitlement. And yes i am admitting that some of my posts feel like im being entitled, and i probably am, but its mostly out of anger and disappointment from a great game turning into a chore/not fun game.