Jump to content

Star Wars: The Old Republic – State of the Game


CourtneyWoods

Recommended Posts

Heres a thought that tells anyone who is playing the State of the Game (being its crap)....

 

How about you friggin geniuses don't drop a bugged Cash store and major game changing patch 2 days before a vacation week?

 

No one in your company should be having a light week....you should all be fearing for your jobs and working your asses off to make sure the ship doesn't keep sinking faster.

 

It is inconceivable that they did what they did with this patch and subsequent total Dev drop off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 356
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Sadly, I can't disagree with a lot of this. I still believe in this game and I have faith that things will improve. I don't think it is dying or that it will be going anywhere for a while. I think the biggest problem is EA. Bioware is one of my favorite gaming companies ever and I feel that EA has is basically the Wal-Mart of the gaming industry. Trying to take as much as they can and suck the tree dry.

 

I have a good community and a good guild but who made the awful decision that if the guild leader goes free 2 play that they lose their guild leadership. This is an awful decision for those who have school or work, family, whatever it may be that wants to take a week, a month or longer to sort things out. It used to be that their subscription could lapse and they just come back. Not a huge deal but now Bioware has made it one. I am still enjoying the game but I am disappointed in what has happened.

 

I will ask that people stop comparing things to WoW not because I don't see why but because WoW caught a market and caught it in a very unique time frame. WoW was AWFUL in the beginning. It had some of the worst lag and crashes that I have ever seen but they improved and changed. Now, I admit that they are stretching things a bit now but I don't think that something like WoW will ever happen again. It was a fluke and we should look at games based on their individual pros and cons. SWTOR has a lot of both for sure. I just hope that EA doesn't keep trying to suck money from wherever and tries to let Bioware really listen to the players and actually give them a staff to make it happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well ftp is out the the server population on the oceanic realms are still so low its not funny, especially the pvp realm, we need the oceanic realms merger to go ahead asap.

before more existing people leave and the ftp leave also as no one to play game with.

also you still have way to many problem with game that need fixing. ps hears a option start a list of the problems with game, and try something different from your past approaches and actually fix them.

And tell us what you are planing on fixing next, and fix at least one or two problems a week

I feel for you. I don't know if it's a difference in tastes or what, but the stateside servers (at least on Harbinger and Jedi Covenant) are packed pretty much 24x7. F2P has added almost an additional instance worth of players on the planets and in fleet. :( Edited by GalacticKegger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are plenty of reasons why people left the game. I doubt 15$ monthly fee was anywhere near the most important one for most people.

 

Having been here since the start I think one of the major ones was that the game was released too early and too buggy. I am guessing that there was some "hard deadline" because no-one with any sense is going to release a mmorpg few days before christmas unless they really have to. The game has become a lot smoother and visually better but there are still some annoying bugs that have been since the launch and I doubt they are going to be fixed any time soon. I'll just mention a few as an example:

 

- Loading screens. Why do I have to stare that same loading screen for 5-10 seconds every time I alt-tab or change instance. Alt-tabbing is a very common activity in mmorpgs and all your competitors can switch to desktop and back without loading the whole graphics system from the disk/net/wherever.

 

- Related to alt-tabbing, why does the engine still not honor the desktop refresh-rates. For example, I set my desktop to 60hz (old flatscreen). I set the game to 60hz. I make sure from monitors info that it is running on 60hz. Then I alt-tab from a game to desktop and check the monitors info. Now it shows that refres has changed to 75 hz, which is the maximum of my monitor. Earlier when I had to play with a crt monitor the game took the graphic cards maximum refresh in this situation and showed a black screen since it was way over the monitors capabilities. I have complained about this since the beginning. This game was supposed to run on older hardware, yet if you plug in an old monitor the game gets broken. What is even worse it messes the desktop resolutions permanently and you need some computer tech skills to change them back. Plenty of people used to complain about this in tech support forums. I am sure most have gone away to other games which just work.

 

I'll better stop now or this becomes full rant :)

 

Anyway I got about 1500 cartel coins left after buying some things. What am I supposed to buy with them exactly? I dont have a ship or house to decorate so I dont see much point in buying any decorative items. There are no clothing slots (appearance or whatever they are called in other games) so I dont see point in buying more clothes. I dont need unlocks since I got subscription. Pets? Lotteryboxes? I guess I will save the coins in case I need them later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyway I got about 1500 cartel coins left after buying some things. What am I supposed to buy with them exactly? I dont have a ship or house to decorate so I dont see much point in buying any decorative items. There are no clothing slots (appearance or whatever they are called in other games) so I dont see point in buying more clothes. I dont need unlocks since I got subscription. Pets? Lotteryboxes? I guess I will save the coins in case I need them later.
I bought a Pathfinder gear set for one of my alts, and extra account-wide inventory modules & cargo bays. Have about 1,000 left over after this month's stipend. My wife bought inventory modules and cargo bays, pets (she collects them) and Cartel Packs for a chance at more pets & mounts. There are plenty of things in both the game and the Cartel Shop that appeal to many, just not all. Such is life.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Devs, you stated this in your recent state of the game...

 

 

"Topic #2: Bugs: How does testing work? Why do bugs get through? Why did Game Update 1.4 have so many of them? What are we doing to improve the process?

 

Answer: MMOs are undoubtedly one of the most complex games on Earth. We employ hundreds of QA professionals to ensure that our game is high quality, but sometimes bugs get through. We test every step of the way as we develop the game or change to the game. We have many, many development environments that work in a sequence to push updates from initial construction, to code and content integration, to internal end-to-end testing, to player facing testing on Public Test Servers and then on to the Live servers. Sometimes (like in Game Update 1.4) we make changes that have unintended (and undiscovered) consequences on completely different parts of the game (the performance issues that showed up in the update are a great example of this). These unintended changes happen more often than you would think (or we would like), though we usually catch them before they go live. We have recently put new measures in place both on the development teams and in QA, as well on Public Test Server (where we should find many of these types of issues), to catch things like this in the future. I am not saying it will not happen again – bugs will always happen – but we will strive to give you the best, high quality, bug-free experience that we can. As a side note, we finally got a lock on the last of the major issues from Game Update 1.4 and appreciate your patience with that one."

 

 

This is fine and all, but what I want to know is, why do bugs that are even reported on the Test Server Forums not looked in to and fixed before that patch goes live?

 

I know for certain I myself have even reported bugs on the the test server, then that patch goes live anyway with the very bug I reported still being in the patch. What's going on here?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When and will you guys create & make the card game Pazzaak into the game? will you guys eventually add the ability to have your character become drunk after enough drinks? Will you guys ever make Swoop Racing? Are you guys ever going to make guild ships which can be bought by guilds and possibly run in a instance vs another guild group in space. So basically a new way to fight in space which would be players vs players. Will you guys ever add the option to choose the color's to have on our ships? and to also add paint designs to them? Are there any mini things you are going to add for end game that isn't new flash points, planets, operations, war-zone's or gear? Are you guys ever going to add some incentive's to encourage being social and hinging around Cantina's?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Devs, you stated this in your recent state of the game...

 

 

"Topic #2: Bugs: How does testing work? Why do bugs get through? Why did Game Update 1.4 have so many of them? What are we doing to improve the process?

 

Answer: MMOs are undoubtedly one of the most complex games on Earth. We employ hundreds of QA professionals to ensure that our game is high quality, but sometimes bugs get through. We test every step of the way as we develop the game or change to the game. We have many, many development environments that work in a sequence to push updates from initial construction, to code and content integration, to internal end-to-end testing, to player facing testing on Public Test Servers and then on to the Live servers. Sometimes (like in Game Update 1.4) we make changes that have unintended (and undiscovered) consequences on completely different parts of the game (the performance issues that showed up in the update are a great example of this). These unintended changes happen more often than you would think (or we would like), though we usually catch them before they go live. We have recently put new measures in place both on the development teams and in QA, as well on Public Test Server (where we should find many of these types of issues), to catch things like this in the future. I am not saying it will not happen again – bugs will always happen – but we will strive to give you the best, high quality, bug-free experience that we can. As a side note, we finally got a lock on the last of the major issues from Game Update 1.4 and appreciate your patience with that one."

 

 

This is fine and all, but what I want to know is, why do bugs that are even reported on the Test Server Forums not looked in to and fixed before that patch goes live?

 

I know for certain I myself have even reported bugs on the the test server, then that patch goes live anyway with the very bug I reported still being in the patch. What's going on here?

 

^QFE.

 

Indeed. Well said. :cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Topic #2: Bugs: How does testing work? Why do bugs get through? Why did Game Update 1.4 have so many of them? What are we doing to improve the process?

 

Answer: MMOs are undoubtedly one of the most complex games on Earth. We employ hundreds of QA professionals to ensure that our game is high quality, but sometimes bugs get through. We test every step of the way as we develop the game or change to the game. We have many, many development environments that work in a sequence to push updates from initial construction, to code and content integration, to internal end-to-end testing, to player facing testing on Public Test Servers and then on to the Live servers. Sometimes (like in Game Update 1.4) we make changes that have unintended (and undiscovered) consequences on completely different parts of the game (the performance issues that showed up in the update are a great example of this). These unintended changes happen more often than you would think (or we would like), though we usually catch them before they go live. We have recently put new measures in place both on the development teams and in QA, as well on Public Test Server (where we should find many of these types of issues), to catch things like this in the future. I am not saying it will not happen again – bugs will always happen – but we will strive to give you the best, high quality, bug-free experience that we can. As a side note, we finally got a lock on the last of the major issues from Game Update 1.4 and appreciate your patience with that one.

 

Three letters: L. O. L.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Oceanic populations still suck and are so low its not funny, we need the server merger now, asap. before we loss more people. And your maintenance times suck for Aussies they are at our guilds raid times so when you bring down the servers at this time you stuff up 3 ops groups runs just in our guild, it is so frustrating. oceanic realms server maintenance should not be at main stream Aussie time for our servers, you need to make one nite a week to do maintained on, not what day suits you. We need Constancy. so only do patches on Tuesday night not any nite you want as you stop us running operations. pls no maintenance from 5PM AEDT to 11PM AEDT on the oceanic realms except Tuesday
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back during release I leveled to 50, cleared NM EV and KP and eventually quit when it became apparent that I'd be stuck repeating those two raids for quite some time.

 

I've since recently rejoined the game. The option for limited F2P has meant that several of my friends, a few who also previously subscribed, have started the game to give it a shot and while we're having fun leveling. I know as soon as I hit cap the same problem will happen again. That being a lack of sufficient content to keep us entertained.

 

So I had an idea.

 

Let us reset our Class Story so we can do it again without leveling a new character. You could think of it as a new game + mode even. Boost the instanced parts to 50 and let us repeat it as many times as we want and while it might take a bit of work, maybe change the quest rewards from their previous items to something in line with normal EV or KP. That way you hit two birds with one stone, people who like the story and actually enjoy replaying content get satisfied and people who want to raid have an easy (It's already incredibly easy but that's neither here or now) path to achieve it.

 

I can't speak for everyone but the reason TOR was a big deal for me in the leadup to release was the promise of that fourth pillar of story. The big disappointment for me was how the final act felt like it was setting the stage for an even bigger one only for it to fizzle out and leave us hanging.

 

Act 3, for all the classes, should have ended with a monumental endgame style encounter and a short series of epilogue quests (even just talking it over with your crew would've been nice). The duels against Thanaton, Baras and Tormen were all fine but as final bosses they left a bit to be desired. We're talking multi-stage fights with terrain flying left and right, all your class abilities being pushed to the limit and the sum of all your actions taking effect. Even without that, by being able to repeat the story quests would give many of us a significant chunk of content without radically increasing the teams workload and while I can't speak for everyone, I'm sure many others would thoroughly enjoy repeating the class story.

 

The other large problem, and probably the hardest one for either EA or Bioware to accept is oddly enough their attitude and it's something so ingrained into corporate culture that talking about it is probably pointless. That's the inability to own a mistake. No matter what choice you make, you'll still have idiots posting **** on forums all the time, either from genuine stupidity, not understanding the systems at play or in attempts to stir trouble. When you brush aside valid complaints, the issues that caused them don't suddenly go away and ignoring your own customers will only serve to engender resentment and disgust.

 

The singular truth is that everyone, no matter how rich, famous, skilled, talented or positioned they are is capable of mistakes and only by owning up to them, by admitting to and acknowledging them, are you capable of learning from them. Your customers can survive content delays, they can endure the failure of the fourth pillar in the final moments, the cause of their discontent, what they objected to, was their treatment in those early days.

Edited by WatchTheGrass
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah...

 

Update on when we can expect Same Gender Romances.

 

An open to explore world.

 

Real Housing.

 

Night and day cycles.

 

Events and minigames.

 

That's what I want.

 

Great you like warzones, Jeff, I couldn't care less.

Edited by Lent_San
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is beyond time for a QOL patch. BioWare needs to address the lag issues and the disconnects that many players experience. This I believe is the #1 problem within the game. The #2 problem that also needs addressing is the lack of mini games and the lack of chat bubbles. We want to be entertained! When we finish the class stories we are left to raid or to stand around the fleet looking at each other.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bad!

 

And getting worse.

 

Instead of getting more experienced and able to help, CS is getting worse by the month. Fixes that are not related to CM get side tracked.Tickets not working. Phone support is there only as an idea. Communication is non existent.

Old bugs are still rampant, new ones are resolved in weeks instead of days without any official words or help to those that suffering them.

 

The state of this game is terrible and future looks very bleak. Cash shop alone cannot save it. Quality is needed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We want to be entertained! When we finish the class stories we are left to raid or to stand around the fleet looking at each other.
Indeed, especially since many of us are interested in and have subbed the game for story, character growth, companions, all the things that made Bioware games great in the past for a lot of us. If all that's taking the back bus, at least give us something that entertains. Edited by Lent_San
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've found the following items need some help:

 

LAG - gotten worse since F2P and during OPS with 1 sec casts to interrupt its become VERY FRUSTRATING. Try to do Nightmare Pilgrim with 50+ on that Voss instance. Doesn't work very well, have to pray instance 2 is open. This is quickly becoming a game breaker for me and kinda less attractive to keep playing. Cut your instance head counts in HALF please.

CS - or lack of - repeat of many, but it could be either lack of staff or lack of process that lets them fix things. (Open up your free hand outs bucket and stop being cheap). "Innocent until proven guilty" is common concept in USA, but it's just reverse when trying to get missing things replaced or corrected.

COST - its obvious you are testing the waters on "Pay for Content" even for SUB's. We are not stupid and have noticed this via 1.6 as well comments during interviews. I personally think you are reaching into SUB's pockets a little TOO much and apparently plan to continue to do that. Be CAUTIOUS here, your PR already sucks with many SUB's (Those still left). How about some "Cartel Coin DISCOUNTS for SUBS?" like 10% off across the board or Cartel coins at the end of the month like Discover Card cash back?

- Canthar = Cartel Coins I'm sure is going to happen (bad idea, but I can see why).

- Makeb = Cartel Coins is VERY BAD IDEA. That to me is a slap in the face to SUB's that have been faithful in sticking around. Those you didn't lose in 1.6 will most likely bail if that happens.

- Space ship upgrades = Cartel Coins (A lot of them or $$) I thought was also a slap in the face and I won't be buying them. Even making them or buying have crazy materials and costs. You can't play the new ones w/o dying very quickly, so that's a little overboard.

- SSSP = Cartel Coins (Understandable, but could be argued Sub's get for free). Personally, if it's WAY Better and practically a new game then it should have some feedback from the masses and not just the bean counters. If the prices are worst than the Grade 7 Gear then I'll have to pass on that one as well.

- Life in Day = Cartel Coins and "Limited Time" was a complete fail 100% by you guys. WOW, you looked really bad on that and showed everyone it's no longer about having fun or the game, but pure profit. If they had been like 1/4 the cost I might have thrown in a few coins for the silly Holiday stuff, but no way am I'm burning 4-5 months of coins or $15 real money for that crap that should have been an Event.

Schematics - How about moving them to BIND on LEGACY. I've a ton from OPS that just get sold at the vendor and a waste. Why in the world would you make Tionese Schematics craft a BOP item? Silly.

Account wide ACCOUNTS - bank would be a great change and make a LOT of people happy. Followed by a Cargo Bay that is shared. (Those both would be great Cartel Coin purchase items - That has value in my mind)

Edited by dscount
Link to comment
Share on other sites

First, I am a casual player. I have been subscribed since early access and my highest character is 44. I have quite a few alts (spread on 3 servers in an attempt to play with friends and to leave dead servers). I pretty much enjoy everything about this game. The leveling is the best I have ever played. The PVP is actually fun, and I don't normally like PVP. Space missions are a nice break and beat the heck out of sitting by a pond fishing (something that still boggles my mind that people actually do it in an mmo). Crafting is good, gives me items I can use, and I like the addition of the companion quest skills (diplomacy, investigation, underworld trading).

 

So lots of good things.

 

Things I would like to see in the future.

 

First, tone down the over-the-top excitement. I mean, the game is good, but it isn't Wild Stallion bring-about-world-peace good. Seriously you are conveying the feeling that your game couldn't possibly get any better than it is and that is just not true.

 

Chapter 4 with 8 individual story lines. I have a few alts and it would be nice to have a different story for each as I level them. If it is going to converge into one story then you have obviously given up on making a "story driven" mmo. Class stories is one of the most unique, innovative, and most successful parts of TOR. To abandon them would be foolish.

 

Social activities. More events like the Rakghoul Plague is good, but you need other things that are more constant.

 

Pazaak should be a very simple mini-game that can be introduced. Just be careful about adding too much of it to the Cartel shop.

 

Swoop racing in KOTOR was a rail game similar to the space game you have now. How hard would it be to import the space game programming to a swoop racing game? Just change the ship to a swoop bike and the back ground from space to a swoop track and you are done. People would be thrilled! :)

 

Last, and maybe more important. Talk to your players! People spout doom and gloom, make baseless predictions, and you just let them. Usually they are wrong, but sometimes they are right. Then you don't explain why an unpopular change was made. People can be very understanding if they can relate to the issues you are facing. Keeping us in the dark does not help anyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Subscription did not force me away. The lack of players around to run with did.

 

The Free to Play is a nice offer and all but some of the restrictions are so frustrating and the cartel logo is way to in your face. I feel it will frustrate players more than bring them to the game. Also, the hidden things in the restrictions are annoying. You need to adjust the setup to make it less frustrating. Any why havent you put character slot unlocks on the Cartel Market yet? This is money in your pocket if you do. Worst thing to overlook ever in a f2p game.

 

I let my sub lapse for one day and grabbed my third crew skill slot and was astounded that even though I unlocked it, I could deploy one less companion and you took away the crafting queue. Free players will find crafting very tedious with this being the case.

 

I subbed again because I like the game and the story and would like to finish it out on all the story lines. It is sad that several months later there are several bugs I remember from my previous time playing. LoS issues in Taral V still, broken codex entries, still no cathar (wasnt that mentioned in 1.2?), no new story content or quests (sure you added dailies and ops, but the story is thebest part of you game, why not invest in it?).

 

I fear that when I get bored I will unsub, maybe to come back and continue my quest for completion, but I doubt I will play in preferred status. The only thing preferrable about it is that I would prefer to play another game than play this one without subbing. I consider this a P2P game, Free and preferred are a broken game. Fix the game, dont just find ways to milk more money out of people with your falsely advertised "features".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I honestly don't think there's enough hours in a day to write down all the things that should be done to this game to improve it.

 

There was so much hope before the game launched. Now the main priority for Bioware seems to be the cash shop.

I don't really think anyone actually believes any feedback will truley be considered by BioWare.

 

Why am I so totally pessimistic about this? And I am. History has a way of teaching and showing you so much. For once, I wish it were different. Being a fan of Starwars, I do. I really do.

Edited by RikHar
Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...