Nothing you have said in the previous post or in this one disprove anything that I said so once again my point stands uncontested so please come back when you actually have something to disprove the actual facts I presented.

Have I stumbled upon the strawman club around here or something? Are you and Zion the same person or something?

I've never mentioned "disproving" anything - I asked you a simple question.

In other words, nothing new here. He does that a lot - glad I'm not the only one to notice.

Yet another example of ad hominem on your behalf as opposed to engaging in the argument you were presented (which you then went and turned into a complete strawman), please try again.

Yet another example of ad hominem .

I am done with you, however Inigo Montoya would like one final word with you.

For what it is worth, I think desperation could be a motivator. The Republic had already made its move; however, she should have sent a heads up or something. Nevertheless, I have a similar complaint with regards to Malcolm.

 

After all I've done for the republic and working with him personally on Alderaan, he comes to me with emotional blackmail and invasion. Worse yet, we don't get the chance to remind him that the Senate voted to abandon us first. I chose Acina because she was there for me.

 

He acted like I betrayed the republic when it felt like the only reason to side with the republic was for sentimental reasons. I mean Saresh came and did some shady stuff too. I've been getting a lot of trouble out of the republic as of late.

 

It's not that I'm not enjoying Iokath, it just feels like the characters were bent. On that note, did anyone else get the impression that Theron broke character and suddenly stopped sulking and refusing to refer to Malcolm as his father? I mean before the incident at the control machine.

I can indeed find plenty explanations of why she acted like this but, to my knowledge, none of them where mentioned in the script. There lies the issue. That being said your explanation could have worked for sure though it needed to be explained of hinted.

I did not pay a pub toon on those, only one empire and closed the book ; so I can't really comment on the last part but that the way you bring it, I would not have liked it either..

Charles Boyd, thank you for posting.

Please understand that I respect the effort, skill, and creativity required to write a single story for eight different classes, adding to that each class having a variety of past story choices shaping that character. I just want to express why I'm not a fan of KotFE -ET, and to a lesser but still significant degree not a fan of Iokath. I'm still a fan of SWTOR though.

One last note about numbers: it's commonly asked how we balance feedback against data and metrics, so this is a great place to use as an example. Numerically speaking, KOTFE and KOTET were our most successful expansions by a very significant margin.

There's a difference between being popular because players enjoy doing it, or being "popular" because it's the fastest way to get a particular reward. Two different reasons impacting an uptick in the player participation metric. Similar to Heroics becoming very "popular" after 4.0 without factoring in that they are the primary source of Locked Supply Crates. If CXP wasn't a reward for replaying KotFE and KotET chapters, I think that would impact their seeming success.

edited for clarification: I am not suggesting the removal of CXP when replaying KotFE and KotET chapters.

Story is a personal and emotional experience by design ...

I don't think this is true in KotFE and that is a significant part of why I do not like KotFE. Main characters stopped being unique and personal to a player. A player’s character previously tailored by their story choices became a generic character -- the Outlander. The player choices in KotFE pretty much only impacted which companion might appear in a cutscene (was the companion exiled or killed?) and Influence gain. Otherwise the KotFE story is identical – and the dialog nearly so -- on all classes. Whether it's the Imperial Agent who forgives all, or the Smuggler who kills at every opportunity.

That is addressed to a minor degree in Iokath. I appreciate that effort.

I understand that completely separate class stories are not feasible at this time. Fingers crossed for the future! For now, I want to feel like I’m doing more than just one story. Feel like it, even if I’m not actually doing more than one story. KotFE, KotET, and to an extent Iokath so far, do not provide this, in my opinion.

It's not that I'm not enjoying Iokath, it just feels like the characters were bent. On that note, did anyone else get the impression that Theron broke character and suddenly stopped sulking and refusing to refer to Malcolm as his father? I mean before the incident at the control machine.

Glad you mentioned this. There was no reason for Theron, a seasoned SIS operative to be acting like a high school teenager. Furthermore, you should not have shown any emotion when Malcolm died. You told him that he'll have his revenge then you told him to take the shot and now he's acting all teary-eyed? Seriously?

What would have been better is for (romanced) Theron to have a scene at then end where you talk to him and he shows his emotions, to you his lover. Other than that he should have been stoic.

If you made people able to q with a partner for solo queue, you are de-facto killing solo queue and turning it into another group queue, as those who queue alone won't be able to compete against premade that know what they are doing and are in voice comms.

 

You can kind of get the same effect by queueing on pub side on most servers anyway, but to make it an actual option is a bad idea.

Duo q'ing isn't a HUGE advantage like you think it is... It exists in plenty of other games that still allow you to que into solos. You still only make up 50% of the team... If someone really thinks it is that big of a deal, they can duo themselves.

Great question! The most important thing you can ever put in feedback is why. Saying that you do or don't like something is helpful, telling us why is invaluable. This way when I am passing feedback on to the team I can highlight not only just sentiment (positive or negative) but also give supporting context for that feeling.

 

-eric

While the posts of the combat team are reasonable, two points:

- How that did not happened before 5.0? If that methodology existed then ->

- What is your response after 5 months of QQ for merc OP? What have you been doing for 5 months?

For what it is worth, I think desperation could be a motivator. The Republic had already made its move; however, she should have sent a heads up or something. Nevertheless, I have a similar complaint with regards to Malcolm. .

I have to disagree. The "betrayer" sent the same information to the Alliance that it sent to the Empire and Republic. Each party thought, it was the sole recipient of that information: the Alliance did not know that the Empire and Republic had the information; the Republic did not know that the Empire had the information; the Empire did not know that the Republic or the Alliance had the information.

They just all happened to converge on Iokath at the same time. The writing is epic-ly bad. There was no accounting for the scouting party that remained in the Iokath System. There was no accounting for the Alliance declaring the System off-limits. How did Lana arrive on Iokath and did not see the Empire and Republic, who, based on the dialogue, had arrived before Lana?

There was no way the Empire and Republic should have dozens of ships orbiting the planet and Lana only knew of their presence when she actually say the troopers in the scene. And why would Lana, go to Iokath alone? This would have been a perfect mission for an alliance recruit like Master Ranos, Xalex, Sargent Rusak, etc. Not the Alliance's 2nd in command.

Should these things have been fleshed out in the brainstorming session at BW ?

There was no reason for Theron, a seasoned SIS operative to be acting like a high school teenager.

I don't think he did act immaturely. In fact, I found his reaction extremely level and restrained. I dislike many aspects of the Iokath story, including how Jace/Acina and Elara/Quinn are written, but I think Theron's written well when you consider that the stuff he's reacting to isn't all that great or consistent...

I don't think he did act immaturely. In fact, I found his reaction extremely level and restrained. I dislike many aspects of the Iokath story, including how Jace/Acina and Elara/Quinn are written, but I think Theron's written well when you consider that the stuff he's reacting to isn't all that great or consistent...

He's trained to keep his emotions in check; coupled with the fact that Malcolm was never a father to him and they barely had a relationship, I didn't find the whole teary-eyed thing to be in character. For a romanced Theron, it would be okay. But for a 2nd highest ranking person in the Alliance, serving an Emperor, it was definitely bad.

This whole thing is just for you to play a Light side Jedi knight. Everything else just do not add up, at various points.

He's trained to keep his emotions in check; coupled with the fact that Malcolm was never a father to him and they barely had a relationship, I didn't find the whole teary-eyed thing to be in character.

But... at least in the version I saw, in which Theron wasn't romanced and the main character was a jerk to him at pretty much every possible chance... he did keep his emotions in check. Very strongly and closely in check. I've read the Annihilation novel and I understand that Malcom wasn't a father to Theron - but, to be absolutely fair, that was Satele's choice, not Malcom's. At some level, in a mixed up and ambivalent way, Theron did still care about Malcom - and I don't think he showed that care in a manner that was out of proportion.

He's trained to keep his emotions in check; coupled with the fact that Malcolm was never a father to him and they barely had a relationship, I didn't find the whole teary-eyed thing to be in character. For a romanced Theron, it would be okay. But for a 2nd highest ranking person in the Alliance, serving an Emperor, it was definitely bad.

 

This whole thing is just for you to play a Light side Jedi knight. Everything else just do not add up, at various points.

Just because someone wasn't a father to them doesn't mean that person isn't going to become upset when something happens. That shows a person is human and I don't see it out of character for him. My Empress didn't think it was out of character for him.

Glad you mentioned this. There was no reason for Theron, a seasoned SIS operative to be acting like a high school teenager. Furthermore, you should not have shown any emotion when Malcolm died. You told him that he'll have his revenge then you told him to take the shot and now he's acting all teary-eyed? Seriously?

 

What would have been better is for (romanced) Theron to have a scene at then end where you talk to him and he shows his emotions, to you his lover. Other than that he should have been stoic.

Have you read Annihilation? Theron, for an agent has always been a bit passionate, he's not the sort with ice water in his veins. He's effective, but he's also a little bit 'crazy' in the way he achieves his ends. I don't think he was out of character at all. He might have had some Jedi training, but I don't think it stuck. He's a bit headstrong and I could totally see him being affected by that scene. He was affected by the Outlander's disappearance as well, and confessed as much in the letter he sent after the chapter, I think it was 12 was resolved. I'm glad they had that bit of emotion in the scene, better than the robotic stuff where everyone is super and no one feels anything. If anything I think it made his character more realistic and more in depth. And for the record I play a dark side V Jedi Knight and the scene was great, because even though she's dark, she was sensitive to him and his feelings because she loves him.

I've never read the novels he's from but nothing revealed in the game indicates that he was that emotionally invested before now. I can see him reacting, but

He referred to Malcolm as "father" more in the Iokath segment than in any other appearance. Even when it's a less critical scene. He hasn't even show that much emotional investment, good or bad, with Satele whom he has presumable interacted with much more. Not to mention it was specifically stated those two talked and worked through some of their family issues, after Yavin I think.

Now had it been a concern for just another human in a bad situation, it wouldn't have seemed odd. Obviously Theron cares about people getting hurt, it's just that his reaction marks a change in closeness that kinda comes out of nowhere. Not bad or wrong but there wasn't much built up to it.

I thought Theron was the only well done character in KOTFE. I didn't do KOTET, so cannot comment.

There is some back story on Theron somewhere on the SWTOR website that was put up as teaser ahead of some expansion, couldn't tell you where. A lot of what he does makes sense because of it.

Theron is a solid character but overall rather bland.

And I think people are starting to have enough of Theron and Lana. They've been the main NPCs since Forged Alliances.

We need more variety.

Regarding some posts here, both from players and devs alike, thought it would be interesting to highlight a couple of points so to dig into SWTOR past,

At first BioWare has been pushed by EA to move ahead the launch of SWTOR and double take on the development. speed. Among other things It lead to the infamous "Death Star" meetings.

Some would blame EA. Thing is the game was in no way as close to be finished as what was pitched to EA.

Initially EA added quite fresh cash into the game though when it became apparent they needed like one more year to finish the game they said no.

At launch there were two main issues, the first was the decision takers where totally taken off guard seeing the players burning through the V.O. story content that fast. They had no end game ready and thought they had months after launch to work on it.

The second and IMO biggest issue was the attitude of the studio. They thought they knew better than the players what they needed and refused to start fixing the major issues with quick wins.

Along the line the studio took a couple of wrong decisions. Among them a too restricted housing system, an half baked multi player space sim and more disturbing wasting much development time on changing the class systems again and again.

In regards of the story in the last X-Packs they went with a one fit all story for the following main reasons:

The first being they don't have anymore the budget to develop one story line for each class.

The second, tied to the first, is the replay-ability of the story content is very low.

Rest assured, would they have the budget, they'd be more than pleased to bring back full V.O. single class story content. I'd also take with a grain of salt the mention that the story was too long in the last chapters. What was indeed too long is going thought the trash mobs. Again a matter of lack of proper budget or would I say properly allocated budget.

In regards of OPS their data shows them only a small part of the population do them. Mostly because of the required organization, the requirement of a VOIP system and the gear. Hence they put this on hold and either let go the people working on them 1+ year ago or moved them to... multitasking teams.

What they forgot is OPs players run guilds and carry many other types of players and when they leave they more or less all leave together to new horizons.

Not sure about PvP, no pun intended... remember the devs mentioned a couple of times they are impressed by what some players can get from their classes and too often the results of balance are way off. Sometimes is looks like the classes are non balanced on purpose as incentive to have them rotate through them.

You'd guess the CM team has more legroom than the other team. Which is kinda true, though look at all the reused assets and barely tweaked meshes or textures and you'll notice it's not that fun for them either.

The UI... the engine suffers from the poor treatment the UI inflicts it. No wonder you still don't have chat bubbles. And please don't bite to the concept that addons are an issue for a MMO. They aren't as long as you restrict what players can do.

Communication: at some point, I dare saying BioWare communication was that close to be as bad as SOE in SWG.

So that being said, let's look at the future.

#1 this game needs cash, so players, and players need content and bug fixes.

As Keith mentioned they have to delve into all type of content simultaneously as a MMO player is a mix of multiple aspects of gaming (single player, multiplayer, PvP, PvE, crafter, socializer, RPer, explorer, decorator...) in various proportions. Good thing is they finally got that.

For that again they need cash (lots of cash) and increase drastically the size of the dev team to publish in timely manner.

Now even if they are able to create enough content they have to improve the game engine drastically or ahem change it. Cash again.

Now let's speak of the elephant in the room... EA isn't at all betting on SWTOR right now but Battle Front and the other upcoming SW based games, Anthem and its sport games. Consider more SWTOR as a sunk cost. Less cash...

As many I still want this game to finally shine but as many I"m starting to loose hope.

While Keith is doing great in terms of communication and look like leading the game with a direction that finally makes sense, I don't see any hints of a proper budget. Still slowly distilled 1 OP content, no other content announced, no paid X-Pack in the line of sight.

At launch there were two main issues, the first was the decision takers where totally taken off guard seeing the players burning through the V.O. story content that fast. They had no end game ready and thought they had months after launch to work on it.

so true i was there with the early release and i managed to run the inquisitor story twice and the warrior story and the bounty hunter story before the early access was over. same for most of the guild members of the guild i was in back then. they all left after 2 months when they ran out of content. i still ask them now and then to comeback. but they never do. even i left the game for 2 years came back when a friend asked me to play it again. it took me a couple of weeks to catch up with the content made in those 2 years, the friend that invite me back to the game has stopped playing a year ago. i am one of those no lives who can play as much as i want, but the past couple of months i have found my self mostly online doing nothing at all, but jumping and running circles on the fleet.

but i found a new hobby in game, i am now going to rp spots on the server and watch people roleplay. it's fun to do and it last about 15 minutes per episode cause then that annoying afk system that is in the game kicks me out of the game while i reading the chat. this happens because as an observer i do not interact with the species called roleplayer, to observe the roleplayer in his/her natural habitat you need to blend in with the npc's and a not move or talk. jumping and moving around can scare the roleplayer away or at least disrupt it's normal behavor.

also it is best not to carry weapons that are visible, past observations while carrying weapons, proved to me that the creature know as roleplayer sometimes has issues with them and will stop acting naturally.

Yea overall the biggest mistakes were made at launch.

Overall I think it was a mistake to have so many companions and 8 class stories. There was simply no realistic way for them to continue that after launch.

And let's not talk about the "We thought it would take players 5 months to reach endgame."

I mean I not wanting to push myself as an experct on MMOs. I am just making an observation. We all make mistakes but I would think that investing so much money in an MMO there would be someone who actually knows about MMOs and understood that MMO players can chunk through content extremely quickly and they should have invested more into solid endgame (there is now but there wasn't at launch) and not into so many class stories.

Yea overall the biggest mistakes were made at launch.

 

Overall I think it was a mistake to have so many companions and 8 class stories. There was simply no realistic way for them to continue that after launch.

 

And let's not talk about the "We thought it would take players 5 months to reach endgame."

I mean I not wanting to push myself as an experct on MMOs. I am just making an observation. We all make mistakes but I would think that investing so much money in an MMO there would be someone who actually knows about MMOs and understood that MMO players can chunk through content extremely quickly and they should have invested more into solid endgame (there is now but there wasn't at launch) and not into so many class stories.

Yeah, completely agree with this! Now people also always compare current content with vanilla as they expect it to be just as big or want it to be!

Current content doesn't have to be as big as vanilla but the quality can always be better or at least on par when it comes to story and choices.

So you make it sound like our feedback is actually read these days and the dev team then actually acts on said feedback. If true, then this is a welcome and long overdue change. Does this mean that if we now give you bug reports for the billionth time, sometimes on glaringly obvious issues dating to pre-launch even, these bug reports will be taken seriously and acted upon?

I would so love if the Saber Marshal hood was finally fixed, if companion customizations worked properly in scenes and their outfits didn't revert to default when using Covert Energy armour, and if weapons being stuck in hand after using mission glowies was no longer a thing, to mention just a few things off the top of my head.

Theron is a solid character but overall rather bland.

And I think people are starting to have enough of Theron and Lana. They've been the main NPCs since Forged Alliances.

We need more variety.

Agreed. I also think that people are starting to get a bit bitter too. All this talk of companion returns, yet none of the returned compaions take part in cutscenes. I can have Gault as my companion, but when a cutscene is triggered it's Lana in the scene. That's what's getting some people riled up over companions. As long as it's Lana and Theron in the cutscenes and not our companion of choice, companion return stories are pointless. I mean, sure, we all have Lana and Theron as available companions, but who actually uses them?