Will day ever end, will the weather ever change?

This. Unless they customize every single planet to fit the established lore of Star Wars it will come across as a cheap gimmick that sucked money away from new quests, planets, and other content we want. On planets like Hoth (as someone previously mentioned) weather and day/night would have to restrict when you quest (read the planet is so inhospitable you would freeze to death at night and thus can't quest) or else come across as a shoddy job that makes the world just as "sterile" as some people perceive it now.

I for one would rather have more quests, planets, and content than something that is visually interesting but would suck up so much time to do right that we would have to go through a serious drought of any new content we could actually play.

I think it's funny that they think they went "all out" in the worlds they have. Visually, I think SWTOR is very boring. Sure, the planets all look different from each other. But one part on a planet looks pretty much like any other part on that planet.

Day / Night cycles would make it more interesting. It would break up the monotony of seeing the same scenery over and over again every day while you're on a planet.


I keep hearing about the "Art Department" and how so many ideas came from there. It seems to me that's where BW screwed up. The art department would paint some pretty pictures of what the worlds were SUPPOSED to look like, with the proper lighting for their paintings and such. Then, they passed the drawings on to the actual programmers, who had to work with the game's restrictions to try to make the game look like that painting, which didn't work. Whatever minor details were evident in the paintings got lost in translation.

It's like the game only has 16 colors, but they hired an interior decorator who decided to paint a room using 256 different shades of Taupe, Ivory, Desert, and whatever. Then, when that art got put in, it all just turned into one dull beige blob.

For those who haven't played LOTRO, you should try it. Check out the graphics (which can look good on pretty much any computer), day/night cycles, interesting variations in landscape, shimmering water, the lighting (especially at night, like the swamps with flickering flames), and so many other things. It's just beautiful. I like SWTOR for its playability, the companions, the cutscenes, and the stories, but visually it can't hold a candle (pun intended) to LOTRO.

Do it like how CoH did - the day was greatly compressed. It took about an hour (perhaps a touch less) for it to completely cycle from day to night and back again.

Can you imagine this, they add Dathomir and it's broad daylight and sunny? *UGH* Oh and for the record, I do know what would be involved. I sit waste deep in code daily.

There's no performance hit with day/night cycle - every MMORPG has it (but SWTOR).

So is that actually the REAL reason they didn't do Day/Night cycles (dispite every MMORPG having it)?

Because the engine couldn't handle it? I'm beginning to wonder if there actually IS anything this engine CAN handle.

Although I would LOVE to see this added, it adds more atmosphere to the game, it is definately NOT gamebreaking, there are other things in this game that I would imagine need to be attended to first.

Where did you get that vibe from my post?

Please don't twist my words.

You don't need to get that vibe from your post, you can tell that we are suppose to enjoy their story and not ours simply because nothing we do affects the story at all. No matter what choices you make, you get the same exact questline as every other person who played that class. You are experiencing their story and can't change it at all.

If weather and day/night cycles are added, a group of people will complain that it isn't accurate and leave, and then more people will leave because they feel insecure about people leaving.