Star Wars: The Old Republic is a pretty fun game, but I'm concerned about it's "end game" viability. Keep in mind that I am not a hard core raider, so this is not going to be a complaint about how my guild of professionals breezed through everything in 2 weeks and want more. I'm a pretty casual player, although I play frequently.

One of the things that was a big draw to me for this game was the importance of story for your character, and it really delivers on that front. Playing through the levels, its nice to feel like you are truly taking part in something big, and not just one of twenty other players turning in your collection of rat pelts for a new helmet.

That is, until you hit 50. Bioware essentially abandons the strongest part of the game (story telling) and forces you to either grind flashpoints and operations, or PvP. I sense in a missed opportunity in the force...

I have compiled a list of ideas for alternative "end game" content that I think would not only be very possible with the current game design, but also provide a positive direction for future updates.

Alternative endgame suggestions

1. Class quests. Every 3 or 4 months, release a new quest arc for each class. It wouldn't have to be too long or as grand in scope as the 1-50 class quests, but something that might take 5 or 10 hours to finish. We could be reintroduced to old NPC's that we worked with. Have the story change slightly depending on our previous choices, so if we chose to spare someone in the past, we might catch a glimpse of how they are doing now. Maybe circumstances find us working with a previous enemy for a common goal, if only temporarily.

Rewards for completing these quest lines should be influenced by the choices you've made during them, or even before. Maybe that random guy you saved back on Planet XYZ while leveling up turns out to be a possible new companion. Maybe a unique or otherwise rare color crystal can be had. The point is, it would be great to see decisions you make as a character translate somehow to the end game, and these class quest updates would provide a great vehicle for doing just that.

2. Global quests (2+HEROIC) Every 6 months, release a new Global Quest. Global quests would be kind of like planet quests, in that everyone on the faction would be able to do them, except that they should lead up to an eventual expansion. The difference would be in the story-telling, and scope. Where as class quest updates should take 5 to 10 hours to complete, Global quests should be doable in under an hour, and repeatable once per week. Here's the key to them though: The exact quest story depends on the combination of player classes in the group. So, a Jedi Knight paired with a Jedi Consular would have a slightly different quest line compared to a Jedi Knight and a Trooper. The differences wouldn't have to be major, but could influence dialogue choices and reasoning for being there. Make the max party size at 2, plus companions, and you have a fun take on the "Daily Quest" paradigm. Rewards could also be dependent on the class composition, so there would be additional incentive to run them with different people.

Conclusion: Both of these ideas might seem like major undertakings, but I believe that they are likely very doable. Operations and PvP can be fun, but I really believe neither represent the real potential for this game, in terms of what to do at the max level. Does anyone else have any ideas or criticism for my suggestions?

I like your ideas although I appreciate if Bioware can't enact them in the kinds of time frames described.

I think the global, shared story missions are more likely than expanding each class story, and that would be fine with me. I know I've gotten excited about the shared story as seen through various flashpoints and it wouldn't hurt my feelings to see that spill over into more areas of the game.

Something else I've suggested elsewhere is the ability to do a replay of your class story missions, with little or no reward, just to see the story again at a faster pace (like a "holo-journal" or something). Others suggested a heroic or hardmode replay of your class story, which I think is great too.

I like your ideas although I appreciate if Bioware can't enact them in the kinds of time frames described.

 

I think the global, shared story missions are more likely than expanding each class story, and that would be fine with me. I know I've gotten excited about the shared story as seen through various flashpoints and it wouldn't hurt my feelings to see that spill over into more areas of the game.

 

Something else I've suggested elsewhere is the ability to do a replay of your class story missions, with little or no reward, just to see the story again at a faster pace (like a "holo-journal" or something). Others suggested a heroic or hardmode replay of your class story, which I think is great too.

I would like the option to be able to replay your class questline, maybe retuned for level 50.

As for the time frames suggested, they are a bit aggressive, but I do believe frequent content updates will be needed to keep people interested in the game. I don't feel that dumping the story-driven questlines in favor of standard instances and raids will work well for this game.

Im just curious have you ever tried end game? I mean I am not trying to be a troll I think you have a valid point but this is a mmo. Operations are the backbone of great mmos in my opinion. You do things in them that you could never do in any other game I can think of. Why would they put in new story arch type things if we are at level cap? You should just play Xbox or ps3.

In all honesty for most people I think the quests and stories in this game are just a grind to finally beable to do cool things like ops and pvp and hard modes.

Im just curious have you ever tried end game? I mean I am not trying to be a troll I think you have a valid point but this is a mmo. Operations are the backbone of great mmos in my opinion. You do things in them that you could never do in any other game I can think of. Why would they put in new story arch type things if we are at level cap? You should just play Xbox or ps3.

 

In all honesty for most people I think the quests and stories in this game are just a grind to finally beable to do cool things like ops and pvp and hard modes.

So this game is but a race to you? Where 1-49 is nothing but an obstacle to you?

Tsk tsk tsk. That's a bit sad.

I completely support this idea!

I am a bit conflicted with the argument of lvl 1-49 being a race. I currently wish my lvl 50 shadow was a sage and my sorcerer was an assasin. releveling through the same story to be lvl 50 just to switch sides and lightsabers would be a huge pain in the ***.

That could be solved with the level 50 holo journal hard mode. it would mean having to play for a few hours to switch your advanced class and I'm not sure if I'm even for it yet but it came to mind and I figure it's worth discussion.

Back to the OP I love the idea of class specific quest lines coming out frequently. IMO they dont even need to be very lengthy so long as they are a sort of check up on the situation. If the sceduled maintenance had One Class and One companion getting an update each week. for maybe a 1-2 hour quest line I would love it.

classes would argue over when they go next or wich companion they want updated. but since it wouldnt be a fixed time event like rakghoul outbreak eventually everyone gets more content.

that sounds like I came up with the holo journal idea and obviously I didnt.

The part I mean to have come to mind is that the holojournal concept would mean the option of changing your advanced class. Would it also undo your LS/DS? or simply add more LS/DS to your total?