This was an idea that hit me...time is the biggest enemy for class story advances it seems. But I think a line of quests could be created for top level folks in each class, one class at a time, to further the story using companions.

The rewards could be horizontal with no level increase...class specific armor, mods, implants, relics, etc....perhaps other goodies that would be for your class only.

If they work on each set one class at a time, using a specific companion, they could provide story advancement without a level increase requirement.

Any thoughts? Thanks for reading.

I would be onboard, but I know the majority won't because it would always be the complaint that their class is not the next, that also makes it a bad idea

Yea, that is one caveat....only one class at a time.

It does have the benefit of actually making it happen, if it could happen this way, as opposed to never happening.

I would be onboard, but I know the majority won't because it would always be the complaint that their class is not the next, that also makes it a bad idea

Doesn't a lot of the player-base have at least a main and a few alt classes at this point?

This is a decent idea, but I still think we should encourage incorporating class missions into future planets, even if they aren't on the same scale as the original 3 chapters.

Makeb felt hollow and flat because there were so few voiced-quests on the first play-through (almost everything was on a terminal except for the main arc), and then subsequent times through were tedious because it was basically identical.

Though some would disagree, I'd buy the story-expansions on the CM.

I do think this is one way around the time problem.

You pick out one class, then set a development schedule with say an arc of 5 missions per set. Something directly tied to the class story to advance it further, but not to increase level....the rewards would run horizontal.

You attach it to a companion...could be main, but would be nice if it was an alternate. That also gives you an opportunity to build affection with that companion.

So, you set up an arc of 5 missions, add rewards appropriate to the class, then repeat for the other classes over time.

It might be one way to further the story and keep the cost/time on the low side. Also a plus that no level cap increase is needed, and they could continue to expand level the way they plan on doing it now without the amount of negativity, since they are feeding the class stories.

I love the idea due to the fact that I've already thought of the exact same thing!

My suggestions:

- new planet:

Dantooine (skale shoud be like tatooine and nice fully spoken quests etc etc.)

- new class stories not increasing the levelcap (just on dantooine planet)

--- sith inquisitor

You have heard from an ancient jedi-ritual allowing you to seperate body and mind

(main goal is go seperate zashs mind from khem val and get her as a companion)

--- sith warrior

The emperor is calling you from his last fortress on dantooine, telling you that you, the wrath of the emperor, must help him regain his power and rule the galaxy! After a few quests he is trying to kill you but you can barely escape - since then my next point is to be implemented...

- a new operation (eternity dread)

On the planet dantooine - the emperor united a few sith, a few dark jedi, monsters and stuff and is getting ready for a final blow against the known galaxy to completely annihilate it. You and your squad have to stop the emperor ending in an AWESOME battle between the creatures of the dark side under the control of the emperor and you!

(the most awesome part of this operation is that this operation will be scaled difficultywise reffering to how well geared the group is, making it a challenging adventure for everyone!

I would love to see that being implemented! <3

Level increase requirement? There is no such thing strictly from developers POV. The 5 lvl increase they added for Hutt Cartel was completely artifical; they just wanted to force everybody into buying it. Reason we never again get relevant advances to class story has to do with it being incredibly expensive. EA wants to make it's easy money by monetizing gullible SW fans who literally start throwing money at them soon as they add something with name " Revan" to cartel shop. This is SO much better business than hiring Jennifer Hale to whisper sweet nothings for 2 hours.

I personally don't mind this much. Good MMO needs vast amounts of talking heads and uninteresting spoken dialogue as much as fish needs shoes. I'd love to see heavy investment on turning this into a better, deeper and more exiting MMO. Instead, focus is firmly on Cartel Shop and MONETIZING players.

Well, there are other time costs involved with adding levels to the game...namely designing new abilities and making sure they remain balanced.

Lets do a basic compare of developing a horizontal 5 mission arc companion based story advancement and a level cap increase based story advancement. This is VERY basic mind you, and there are certainly more factors involved, but this can be a good measure of comparison....

Horizontal story arc - companion based

Set up framework for one class

Design mods for armor or use current mods as rewards, with class specific benefits

Write storyline for one class mission set, generate voice over and script required

Set up triggers for companion affection

Set up proper rewards

Vertical story arc - level cap based

Set up framework for ALL classes

Design proper mods and/or gear as rewards

Write storyline for all class mission sets, generate all voice over and script required

Set up companion affection triggers for ALL companions across all classes

Set up proper rewards for all levels, all classes and balance it all

Design new abilities to fit into new levels for each class, balance all of them

Redesign AC interface to accommodate new abilities at the top

I can go on, but it's plain to see that raising the cap to add to the storyline is a monumental effort time and money wise, where providing a small arc of 5 missions or so for one class at a time with horizontal progression saves both time and money, and still pushes the story forward.

This was the idea...find a way to provide story advancement using the minimum amount of time and development resources possible. You can do one class at a time if you do it this way, as opposed to a level cap change that requires ALL classes to get work.

I love the idea due to the fact that I've already thought of the exact same thing!

 

My suggestions:

 

- new planet:

Dantooine (skale shoud be like tatooine and nice fully spoken quests etc etc.)

 

- new class stories not increasing the levelcap (just on dantooine planet)

 

--- sith inquisitor

You have heard from an ancient jedi-ritual allowing you to seperate body and mind

(main goal is go seperate zashs mind from khem val and get her as a companion)

 

--- sith warrior

The emperor is calling you from his last fortress on dantooine, telling you that you, the wrath of the emperor, must help him regain his power and rule the galaxy! After a few quests he is trying to kill you but you can barely escape - since then my next point is to be implemented...

 

- a new operation (eternity dread)

On the planet dantooine - the emperor united a few sith, a few dark jedi, monsters and stuff and is getting ready for a final blow against the known galaxy to completely annihilate it. You and your squad have to stop the emperor ending in an AWESOME battle between the creatures of the dark side under the control of the emperor and you!

(the most awesome part of this operation is that this operation will be scaled difficultywise reffering to how well geared the group is, making it a challenging adventure for everyone!

 

I would love to see that being implemented! <3

Interesting. Id love to see a few more writeups like this from folks.

Though some would disagree, I'd buy the story-expansions on the CM.

I wonder how players would feel about this. I had played with this idea before, but rejected it because I felt it would be received well by the populace.

I think the forums would go into melt down if the developers tried to integrate content for one class and left others out.

That is one of the lasting legacies they have from implementing a system that placed so much emphasis on story connected to class. It really has to be all eight at the same time or none.

The next issue would be which companion do you focus on for each class? I think the way companion stories already unfold it was the original intention to have a quest or two associated with each one. Most companion stories culminate with a big lead up to an away mission... and then for the player it just fades to black and you get the result. A bit disappointing. Except for the one 'main' companion, the first one you get if I recall, that has little missions as you gain affection with them.

It's also a big let down that when you hit 10,000 affection that's it with the companion. You've cleared all the conversations you'll get with them, played any of the missions (if it's the main companion) and now they'll just stand static on your spaceship unless you poke them.

I would have liked to have seen a far more dynamic companion system, allowing a player to choose which companion join them, a series of quests tied to a companion affection (reputation like system) as affection raised you also unlocked companion appearances and companion specific orange gear. Alas with companions so integrated into the class-planet storyline it is unlikely this could happen for the current batch of companions. It would also have been nice to have a conversation tree remaining at the end that you could repeat letting you recall some of the previous content.

It would probably be less work just to create new class story content than trying to tie it back to companions, given the need to try and cater for all the companions.

The recent NYC cantina Q&A suggests that the devs are not against adding more class story content but it is time consuming (long lead time) and costly (game has to be doing well to warrant the spend).

I could see a new companion added as content. As you raise affection with them it unlocks new quests to do. These quests could be scattered across the available planets. The quests could be tailored slightly to the class of the character and to their Lightside/ Darkside rating.

This game needs new game systems and technical improvements, not more story

Look how story turned out to work for this MMO. Right, so, no more story, please get new things to do into this game. If I want story I can watch the old trilogy once more

. It really has to be all eight at the same time or none.

yeah, how about none

This game needs new game systems and technical improvements, not more story

 

Look how story turned out to work for this MMO. Right, so, no more story, please get new things to do into this game. If I want story I can watch the old trilogy once more

It was shoehorning systems that are done better elsewhere simply for the sake of emulating other games that brought SW:TOR to where it is, now - story was its only saving grace. If they had focused on story as other MMOs focus on raids, SW:TOR would be a very different beast. Story was the unfulfilled niche in the genre that SW:TOR touched on, yet abandoned post-release. I started playing with a group of two dozen or so - only two of us are left. And every single one of them would come back if story was still coming, or at the very least, the intent was there.

things to work on before wasting time with "companion stories":

1. The Engine

2. Pazzaak, Swoop Racing, Casino

3. A space Sim like JTL was

4. Day/Night change on planets

5. Housing

6. NPC AI

..

.

.

.

.

83. Companion stories

things to work on before wasting time with "companion stories":

 

1. The Engine

2. Pazzaak, Swoop Racing, Casino

3. A space Sim like JTL was

4. Day/Night change on planets

5. Housing

6. NPC AI

..

.

.

.

.

83. Companion stories

I'm not saying that any of those are bad ideas, but seriously... SW:G is dead.

story was its only saving grace.

oh yeah? Story of Makeb took me 3 days playing casually. How does story content for 3 days save an MMO? Elaborate please

oh yeah? Story of Makeb took me 3 days playing casually. How does story content for 3 days save an MMO? Elaborate please

Who is to say that SW:TOR needed to emulate other life-sucking entries in the genre? An MMO doesn't need to be defined by the ability to consume your time. Unfortunately, EA didn't understand that. And I'm guessing you probably don't either. All I'll say is that people are willing to wait a long while if they know the wait is worth it. Most MMOs are akin to snacking all day on junk food, whereas SW:TOR could have been that Thanksgiving dinner you prepare all day for.

An MMO doesn't need to be defined by the ability to consume your time. Unfortunately, EA didn't understand that. And I'm guessing you probably don't either.

I understand that people don´t stay subbed for months to get 3 days worth of story content which takes half a year or longer to produce. You want single player games, go play´em.

I understand that people don´t stay subbed for months to get 3 days worth of story content which takes half a year or longer to produce. You want single player games, go play´em.

I did. Many in my guild did. Only reason my group stopped playing was because of the stated intent not to develop story anymore. There are many MMOs that do the "MMO"-thing better than SW:TOR and have been doing it a lot longer. SW:TOR was marketed and created to deliver story. You want that generic content? It's out there already. I'm here for what SW:TOR does uniquely, although I do admit that they seem disinterested in playing to their own strengths.

They're catering to a playerbase that simply doesn't play their game anymore, if they ever did. And that's bad news for the both of us.

Today I finished class story quests on Balmorra in about 1,5 hour. And same on all other planets.

Do you really believe its worth making story for such small time we actuallly spend doing it? And yes, I like the story too, but I understand its just not worth the effort from BW

Today I finished class story quests on Balmorra in about 1,5 hour. And same on all other planets.

 

Do you really believe its worth making story for such small time we actuallly spend doing it? And yes, I like the story too, but I understand its just not worth the effort from BW

Other than the franchise name, what else does SW:TOR do better than other entries in the genre? Again, I don't understand why people equate time consumed with quality of content. Honestly, I've replayed many a story simply because the quality is there - not because a mechanic forced me to repeat content as an artificial barrier to other aspects of the game, but because the narrative, and more importantly my and my group's engagement with it, is great.

give it up. Not going to happen.

As much as I want more Class Story content. Doesn't change that fact.

And sorry but this is a terrible idea. A lot of poeple, whether they have alts or not, only play ONE character mostly....and don't care much for their alts (if they even have them outside bank mules)

the one-class at a time thing would NEVER work from any standpoint...ESPECIALLY from a return-of-investment standpoint....try and convince yourself otherwise if you must...but that is a FACT.

-IF- they were to continue class stories it would HAVE to be in a paid-for expansion that would be more expensive than Makeb's....and it would have to be all-inclusive.

even then the RoI just isn't there. This game would have to have a sharp SHARP upswing on increased subs for them to work on individual class stories again.

Oh and....no offense...but you're (not OP but people in general) a special snowflake...any "idea" you have...they've already thought up...You're not going to magically come up with some idea and have them go "yah! that'll work!"