What's the difference between an EXPANSION and a PATCH ?

I call it an Xpac because of the level cap increase & the expanded skill trees. I think that's only real difference. In the last 12 monthes patchs have given us the BH and Section X land areas ~ so land area isn't really a distinction.

The whole purpose of the announcement is so BW can get feedback on what the community expects for their money for an Xpac. If players would pay $40 for a 5 level cap increase and nothing more - we'd have to pay $40 to get it. Bottom line is RotHC probably isn't even closed to complete yet. I'll be VERY surprised if it goes live before March.

While I think the Op is more than a little cray-cray if they think we'll get all that for $10 or $20, for that price I would expect to see the following.

1) Makeb
2) 5 levels, 5 new skills per tree, 5 new levels of blues/greens, and ONE new tier of PVE gear
3) Thunderca... I mean Cathar (just because that content is probably already finished)
4) 1 new WZ ~ just to give the PvP crowd a reason to buy
5) IF they are feeling generous maybe 1 new SM FP -
6) IF BENEVOLENT AND LOVING GREMLINS HAVE OVERRUN BW - we'll get a SM OP or a HM of the new FP

I doubt very seriously there will be any OPs or space missions in the xpac. Hopefully NiM content will be enough to keep people busy once they hit BiS gear. At least until they produce another OP.

Sometime in 2013 patches will probably include HM versions of hammer station, athis, mandalorian raiders, or red reaper.
We we probably also get 1 more OP, a nightmare mode, and a WZ. Otherwise everything else is going to be cartel shop items.

Keep in mind that a chunk of Makeb is going to be a dialy area, and that at least 30% of area will be inteded for use by the oposit faction. Even a big planet shrinks dramatically when you never go to a third of it, on any particular toon.

The answer to this question is different for everyone, but we have all seen what a PATCH is in TOR, and I think we all can agree that an EXPANSION should be a lot larger in scope then a PATCH.

Now what do I mean by Larger ? I mean Content. Not, man hours, budget, or size of the world. I am talking about GAMEPLAY FEATURES that allows the players to do something fresh and new. Not just a single feature mind you, but many features are required when you throw the word EXPANSION around.

Now the Developers can choose to expand Horizontally (New Ideas..<Hard>) , or they can choose to expand Vertically (Build on what you got..<Easy>)

But most times, an EXPANSION incorporates BOTH.

So based on what I have seen so far with the last several PATCHES ( Update 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc ) here is what I am expecting for an EXPANSION.

- At least 2 War zones (We normally get a War zone in a Patch, such as our latest one Hypergate.)
- At least 2 Operations (We normally get a Operation in a Patch, such as our latest one HK-51.)
- At least 1 New Race (Normally any expansion in a MMO, offers a new race.)
- At least 1 New Planet ( Depending on the size of the planet and how many objects are recycled.)
- At least 1 New Class ( Normally any expansion in a MMO, offers a new class or offers new ACs for existing class. )
- At least 3 New Skills to existing Classes (Normally any expansion in a MMO, offers new skills that expand class.)
- Including a New Playable Faction ( Without going into the vast SW lore, a third Criminal Faction is doable.)
- Level Cap Increase (This is a staple in MMO expansions and is nothing fancy, new missions are to be expected.)
- New Loot and Gear ( This a staple in MMO expansions, and we are not talking texture palette swaps.)

Now that is what I would call a decent $19.99 Expansion Pack. Anything short of that, is a PATCH.

EDIT # 1: Let's clear the air, everyone saying it's only 10 dollars. No. It's 10 dollars if your a subscriber. If not, the content is valued at 19.99. So Bioware considers the amount of content to be worth $19.99. Most Expansions are $19.99 to $29.99.

EDIT # 2: if your a subscriber paying $15.00 a month and purchase the "Expansion", you will pay an additional $10.00 making your monthly total for that month, $25.00. Meanwhile, if your not a subscriber you will only pay $20.00 for the month. So not only are you not getting the expansion for free for being a subscriber, you will pay $5 more then a person who is not paying for the game.

Your using some big genralizations there, lord of the rings has had 2 new classes and 0 new races in 4 expansions eve online has had 0 new races in 11 expansions age of conan has had 0 new races in 1 expansion.

I imagine there will be a new op and probleys another one a few months after and a new warzone maybe even 2 new warzones. New loot and gear i agree and disagree with at the same time new "loot" is what is required to do certain content the skin shouldnt matter a whole deal, what your talking about is cosmetic for me.

New faction is a good idea but i dont see it being done, to many man hours to re-write storys to fit them in.

1. I am using Star Wars Galaxies as my primary comparison for Expansions, which is another MMO, designed by Lucas Arts, and released 3 Expansions, "Jump to Lightspeed", "Rise of the Wookiees", and the "Trials of Obi-wan" each was approximately 29.99, and for the most part, radically changed the game with gameplay features, new races, missions, and loot. That to me is a proper measuring stick.

2. Since this is all microwavable material ( content that was created awhile ago, put on ice, and now being brought out 6 month later ) being created from back in June, nobody knows how far along a third faction story writing could of gotten. We also don't know how much VO was done by the actors. So while we have 8 stories created now, the story writers could of made more while they were hashing out ideas.

posted this in another thread but it has more relevance here...

A fully fledged SWTOR expansion for 40 bucks if in-line with most other MMO's expansions would include:

5-6 Full Planets
Continuation of story quests including new companions
1 New Op at start with at least 2 free ones to come in patches
1 - 2 new WZ's
5-6 new Flashpoints
5-10 more levels
New Class or a New Race
A bunch of minor fluff stuff.

This would be bare minimum for an "official" Fully fledged xpac for SWTOR imo. This would be what I would call a "Decent" sized xpac - It is in no way a large xpac nor is it a small xpac (as I have said plenty of both over the last 13 years).