One thing I'm curious about. I Had just come back for the expansion just getting a few characters through story stuff for the sake of story.

I had chosen to side with the Republic with my Bounty Hunter because it felt right for his character.

Did that choice just not matter at all now? I went into the first conversation expecting a similar scenario as my Jedi Knight but I'm still a part of the Empire?

Did I miss something?

I generally do no longer have any expectations for movies, games, etc., and yet I am still disappointed.

I haven't played the expansion on the republic's side yet, but the empire one almost felt insulting.

Did I mention that the amount of story content also is underwhelming?

In short: My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

While i wanted more im not forgetting that for the first time in years they are working on separate content for each faction so while the single faction content isnt that much overall it adds up. I'd say im content with each faction having 3 original storyline planets worth of content and with the premise of whats to come. I'm assuming 6.1 or 6.2 will be a Flashpoint dealing with a post ending conversation (yall know what im talking about but spoiler free and everything).

The one thing im extremely happy with is that im back to being a foot soldier for my faction, saboteur or not i like being back on the ground level instead of a leader of my own Empire

I generally do no longer have any expectations for movies, games, etc., and yet I am still disappointed.

I haven't played the expansion on the republic's side yet, but the empire one almost felt insulting.

 

The first seconds after the intro credits already pissed me off. Why is the (former) emperor of the galaxy taking part in a random space battle as a starfighter pilot?

Then I am further and further humiliated when I keep getting degraded to some errand boy, first for a retarded king and then for criminal scum.

Why is no one showing respect? - 'I mean, yeah, it's just the most powerful force user in the entire galaxy (and former emperor) with the second most powerful force user in the galaxy (and also former emperor) at his side. You two exchange guys sure that you want to take on these titans with nothing more than tiny blasters in a head-on confrontation? Just because your actual target didn't show up?' - Did everyone just forget about the entire Eternal Empire and Alliance thing?

 

Of course light side empire loyalists get ****ed over now since you are degraded to a front line foot soldier and almost have no say at all. I stayed loyal to the empire in the hope that I could gain tremendous power/influence and stop the war in diplomatic ways and not by total annihilation of the other party. Instead I have to commit atrocities and light side choices are like sabotaging light.

 

And are we seriously doing that Malgus thing again? Couldn't they have come up with something more interesting than old characters and the same pointless power plays and wars?

Indeed, the only interesting thing in the entire expansion was the first confrontation with Scourge and the huge cliffhanger after-credits conversation.

 

Did I mention that the amount of story content also is underwhelming?

In short: My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

Agreed. I'm totally willing to accept I'm likely in the minority that's mainly playing for the story and RPG part rather than for the MMO part, but this expansion felt *extremely* lackluster on that front. Think of the KOTFE/KOTET expansions what you will direction wise, but they were proper expansions that provided double digit hours of storydriven content to enjoy. Now we've been waiting the last few years for... 2, maybe 3 hours worth of story? If that. I suppose that not entirely fair as there's both imperial and republic side to consider, but even then I feel like it doesn't hold a candle to the effort put into the last 2 expansions.

Agreed. I'm totally willing to accept I'm likely in the minority that's mainly playing for the story and RPG part rather than for the MMO part, but this expansion felt *extremely* lackluster on that front. Think of the KOTFE/KOTET expansions what you will direction wise, but they were proper expansions that provided double digit hours of storydriven content to enjoy. Now we've been waiting the last few years for... 2, maybe 3 hours worth of story? If that. I suppose that not entirely fair as there's both imperial and republic side to consider, but even then I feel like it doesn't hold a candle to the effort put into the last 2 expansions.

We did get the traitor arc (inc Iokath) new gear levels and Ossus in that time though.

We did get the traitor arc (inc Iokath) new gear levels and Ossus in that time though.

True, and it's probably unfair to entirely discount that, but considering this is specifically marketed as an expansion and considering the weight that has held in the past, I still feel like it's not unreasonable to have expected more than something that's just about equivalent to interim content drops.

I also realise there's a lot of work that went into overhauling the gearing system etc., which seems to be very much the focus of this expansion, but that is exactly my issue with it. To me, the story content feels tacked on alongside what they really wanted to push out, a systems update.

Yeah it was pretty quick. Decent expansion. I think the rng gearing isn't as bad as it seemed. I'm gearing fairly quick and I only played around four hours last night. I think my Gunslinger's item rating is 270, somewhere around there. The overall expansion did seem a bit quick though, I think that's why most people in this thread chuckled at the thought of this being a 'soft relaunch'.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=969419

Yeah it was pretty quick. Decent expansion. I think the rng gearing isn't as bad as it seemed. I'm gearing fairly quick and I only played around four hours last night. I think my Gunslinger's item rating is 270, somewhere are there. The overall expansion did seem a bit quick though, I think that's why most people in this thread chuckled at the thought of this being a 'soft relaunch'.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=969419

i dont get why people had a problem with the gearing, by the end of the flashpoint you'll be mostly 270

I finished the story Rep side, and I did it in around three hours calmly solo.

It is not bad. A bit longer to Ossus, and the story is good. I am sure they will do as Exp 4. and a patch will be coming at about three a year, possibly the first around or after the Xmas holidays.

New gearing and crafting sounds very complicated for my taste. I will do a run of dailies today and then return to the usual PvP and do an Imp, possibly my Slinger. The problem is not the RnG or the grind alone, I can actually live with that, the problem is that you do not really know what gear to take as yet. Hopefully some guides will clear that.

I saw them mentioned in previous posts but as far as I know Amplifiers do not work in PvP and in end Game PvE.

But Tacticals will make it very complicated to balance, if they ever managed that.

You got new mail box icons.

I want to up-vote this so badly!

i dont get why people had a problem with the gearing, by the end of the flashpoint you'll be mostly 270

Nor I. I'm sure things will get a little more intricate at higher gear levels, but I'm liking the gearing so far. Without even playing my Tank yet, I've looted four level 70 pieces she can use.

i dont get why people had a problem with the gearing, by the end of the flashpoint you'll be mostly 270

Because there's 13 tiers? To tier up you have to have all of the next ilvl in your slot even if the stats are worse on top of once you get to 306 its pure rng? Gee I can only wonder what the problem is.

I generally do no longer have any expectations for movies, games, etc., and yet I am still disappointed.

I haven't played the expansion on the republic's side yet, but the empire one almost felt insulting.

 

The first seconds after the intro credits already pissed me off. Why is the (former) emperor of the galaxy taking part in a random space battle as a starfighter pilot?

Then I am further and further humiliated when I keep getting degraded to some errand boy, first for a retarded king and then for criminal scum.

Why is no one showing respect? - 'I mean, yeah, it's just the most powerful force user in the entire galaxy (and former emperor) with the second most powerful force user in the galaxy (and also former emperor) at his side. You two exchange guys sure that you want to take on these titans with nothing more than tiny blasters in a head-on confrontation? Just because your actual target didn't show up?' - Did everyone just forget about the entire Eternal Empire and Alliance thing?

 

Of course light side empire loyalists get ****ed over now since you are degraded to a front line foot soldier and almost have no say at all. I stayed loyal to the empire in the hope that I could gain tremendous power/influence and stop the war in diplomatic ways and not by total annihilation of the other party. Instead I have to commit atrocities and light side choices are like sabotaging light.

 

And are we seriously doing that Malgus thing again? Couldn't they have come up with something more interesting than old characters and the same pointless power plays and wars?

Indeed, the only interesting thing in the entire expansion was the first confrontation with Scourge and the huge cliffhanger after-credits conversation.

 

Did I mention that the amount of story content also is underwhelming?

In short: My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

Almost all of this except my day was not ruined; it just gave me the incentive I needed to finally cancel my sub. And before anyone says it, yes you may well get my stuff. I have nearly a billion credits & tonnes of crafting mats that I might give away on the fleet later...that's if I cba to log in!

Because there's 13 tiers? To tier up you have to have all of the next ilvl in your slot even if the stats are worse on top of once you get to 306 its pure rng? Gee I can only wonder what the problem is.

13 tiers, oh no, such a big scary number!

You can easily get from one tier to the next one in just a couple of days. Did you expect to get max gear in a week? If you did, what's the point of playing an MMO? Clearly, not a game genre for you. Grind is in the nature of MMOs. And this new system is totally reasonable to me.

The story was very short. And sadly from an Imperial point of view a little repetitive goals and role on both new planets.

The two new companions at the end was nice, but does hammer home how Swtor lite this has become, where the initial class story built both these characters up and pretty much for every companion made their addition impactful and meaningful, now they get a short little chat and then gone to the pool of 50 or so companions you can pull out to hear them say something generic as they heal you.

By far the worst thing though is the new gearing, pulling out green mods to stick in armour so you can keep using augments, getting something that maybe one level or in many cases the exact same level is just painful. While disintegrating it is often worth credits? Less credits that it would be worth if you took it and sold it?

And just to clarify, one extra level on one mod, does not make you the next level, you need it on every mod in every piece of gear. The idea that there are only 13 levels is disingenuous, as you need to improve every piece of gear to get your item rating up. Going up one point here or there keeps your item rating at the same level.

With so little content, likely to be even less going forward as I can see the new gearing being the kick people need to say its been a good run but if I have to restart the grind on old content I'll go do something else, I can't see what the appeal of those that don't go off to pastures new will get out of it. Lets say its 400 hours to max out and get the gear you want. If we do see any new content going by this we can only guess that it will be made junk to restart the grind again. So it wont even be much use in the new content.

I can't see how you can offer so little new content and reset the gear grind in such a massive way and hope anyone but an addict you are hoping to exploit will see that as an enjoyable and good way to spend their free time.

I get it, this game doesn't have much of a budget.....but that story only took me like 2 hours to finish, and it wasn't even that good......and I was level 75 in like 20 minutes lmao.

 

 

The only part that got me even remotely excited was getting Kira back. Also, lmao at Malgus AGAIN being a FP boss. This dude gets no respect.

 

 

So after all that wait, we get a roughly 2 hour story expansion and all we have left afterwards is a crappy rng gear grind......Meanwhile the FFXIV expansion Shadowbringers was a phenomenal story that took me nearly 30 hours to get through.

 

I was hoping for more.....something to keep me around, but I refuse to tolerate an RNG grind thats worse than what we had with galactic command. I'll probably run the story one more time on the imp side and I'm out. Sad to see this game turn into what it has.

This would be OK if we were getting another similar "expansion" in 3-4 months. Sadly, I know from SWTOR history that this is probably going to last until December ... 2020.

I get it, this game doesn't have much of a budget.....but that story only took me like 2 hours to finish, and it wasn't even that good......and I was level 75 in like 20 minutes lmao.

 

 

The only part that got me even remotely excited was getting Kira back. Also, lmao at Malgus AGAIN being a FP boss. This dude gets no respect.

 

 

So after all that wait, we get a roughly 2 hour story expansion and all we have left afterwards is a crappy rng gear grind......Meanwhile the FFXIV expansion Shadowbringers was a phenomenal story that took me nearly 30 hours to get through.

 

I was hoping for more.....something to keep me around, but I refuse to tolerate an RNG grind thats worse than what we had with galactic command. I'll probably run the story one more time on the imp side and I'm out. Sad to see this game turn into what it has.

Sadly, while FF XIV has a great story and decent group PvE, it is severely lacking in the PvP side of things, which is where I spend most of my time in games.

Just finished the Republic version, about to take a crack at the Imp side now. I must say I agree with the sentiment that this 'expac' seems rather short.

To me, it feels as if the content we got leading up to the events of Onslaught were more fleshed out and numerous than what receieved for the expac itself. This just feels like Ossus to keep us going till the next batch. And its been what? Almost 3 to 4 years since the last expansion started? As much as I disliked the Fallen Empire stuff, it feels vastly larger and richer than what is shown here.

Im not saying its a total disaster, just that its completely laking in what made Swtor, well...Swtor. Interactions are minimal, the story feels rushed and unpolished and the changes to gear and the like simply feel like an attempt to keep things fresh or current when really, its not.

Onslaught for me is the true indication that the game is little more than an aferthough at this point, this expac promised to bring back Swtor to its origins and while it has gone to its roots of R vs. E, the magic of it seems to be totally lacking.

Ossus was the lead up to this xpack.

 

Then there is this xpack with story across 2 planets, like there was in SoR.

There wasn't a ton of story quests across Rishi and Yavin either. About the same + dailies for faction.

Minus some flashpoints there really isn't much difference. Ziost wnd Ossus are roughly the same contenr. Yavin and Rishi + Onderon and the other one with a odd name also roughly the same.

Missing the lead up flashpoints and one 'during the middle' flashpoint, instead we get it at the end.

lolwut? What are you talking about? This 'expansion' was absolutely nowhere near close to the size that SOR was, with or without any flashpoints. SOR was huge compared to this. Ziost also has quite a bit more content than ossus. If you really think the two new 'planets' are anywhere near the size or content of yavin and rishi you have to be crazy. This supposed expansion was tiny. and for a supposed restart of a galaxy wide war barely anything actually happened involving actually fighting the opposite faction. The hype they dumped into this one makes the whole thing look embarrassing

13 tiers, oh no, such a big scary number!

 

You can easily get from one tier to the next one in just a couple of days. Did you expect to get max gear in a week? If you did, what's the point of playing an MMO? Clearly, not a game genre for you. Grind is in the nature of MMOs. And this new system is totally reasonable to me.

No, I expected content with a purpose. I don't want to be forced to wear a higher tier gear with worse stats just because I have to or else the system wont drop the next tier. I also don't want to spam content over and over because RNG refuses to give me the item I want only for me to go to the vendor WHO'S ALSO RNG for the chance to get an item I want.

The nature of MMO grind has changed over the last decade. End game content in most MMO's have purposeful design where you did said content and knew exactly what would drop. None of this "well maybe what I need will drop this run." RNG is lazy and pure BS and it blows my mind that you think its reasonable. SWTOR is going backwards.

Sadly, while FF XIV has a great story and decent group PvE, it is severely lacking in the PvP side of things, which is where I spend most of my time in games.

Which is why I played both. I enjoyed FFXIV story and PvE, but I stuck with swtor for pvp for quite awhile, but even that is garbage now a days, especially with the loss of pvp gear. We get 10 matches per toon now so I might pop in here and there to mess around in regs as preferred status, but I'm more or less done with swtor.

Story wise - 7/10

Size wise - 3/10

Game changes overall -10/10

I finished the republic side this am ( I am going to wait on the imperial side for a bit -- till I see if someone comes back or not )

I liked it -- it was fun -- it was entertaining -- I have played the JK, will play the smuggler later ( got spouse agro and that is never fun ! Better wait a bit to play again )

Overall, I thought they did a good job -- I was pleasantly surprised -- and I thought it was plenty long story wise ( getting interrupts from RL, DOES change your perspective; but that is the way I see it ... )

Thanks BW ! I am glad you came through ...

The UI changes will take me a bit to get used to -- but that is with all games I've played -- they aren't bad really

And thank you a bunch for the gear -- story folks like me will appreciate it -- my gear was awful !! I was worried I wouldn't be able to play, but it was fine -- even with my old gear at the start

Only Played Rep side on an ALT so far. I agree with several of the things already said, so i may be repetivive.

Things i do not like so far:

* First scene showing me as a simple pilot, in a ship that is not even mine. Wasted chance to show you in YOUR ship with whatever crew you have left (or fillers), like the start of Kotfe.

* Onderon seems a decent but SHORT story for a Trooper.

* Menk-sha seems a decent but VERY SHORT story for the Smuggler.

* Final battle seems oriented to Force User

* All three together: one (not even big) pile of nonse.

* Story Mails: Some mails are nice after you finish things. But getting mails for what should be conversations is just lazy. And what is the point of getting in the middle of Onderon a mail from Tau that is mean to be read before you even go there?

* Too many characters, almost ZERO development. We got a couple lines of background and interactions and that is it. With just that we have complex desicions, actions, and opinions without a real built or grow. I like having multiple characters to interact but having so many diminish the time of each one to a point of we never getting enough of anyone.

* New FP: Who did this thing? It is just.....i can't even describe my disapointment with this. FPs and Ops design are usually the best thing from this game. What happend? It does not feel engaging, it just feels off.

* The technical issues does not help with that. Please stop programming against your own engine. It has been a real problem since a LOT of time that when you move fast UP/Down companions get stuck (always), why put a boss fight that automatically starts after needing to jump down? Passive/active did not work. Then the fight was some poorly balanced in dificulty that by the time i managed my comp down one of the bosses was dead (do they destroy each other in aoe?, because i wasn't even trying to kill them) and the other half way there. The difficulty in story was just so low that everything was dead before i got a glimps of mechanics (i'm not a NiM raider so its not that i was too good).

* Nice to have the option of joining or stay independant. But i do wonder: what would that change? They put that desision in front of you as if it were just a simple dialogue choice but we don't know what will happen with that. As this has the potential to be a game changer i think it deserves a little more explanation, and it should have been as something OUT of the FP ending and be part of the START of something so you can cancel if you feel like you are not ready to decide.

What i do liked:

* Jakarro/D4: 9/10 on this. It would be 10/10 if it was influence 10 instead of 1. Really wanted them back, be a real companion and i really liked their lines. Thank you for This.

* Lana: While not that many, her lines were fantastic. I like that side of her that shows how she changed with your influence and makes her staying with you (even you are Rep) belivable.

* I like the visuals of both new planets/areas. A little laggy for my laptop but is still nice.

* I like the characters and setting in Menk-Sha. While its mostly smugler like, I hope we see more of that.

* Nice to get called by your class title again.

No, I expected content with a purpose. I don't want to be forced to wear a higher tier gear with worse stats just because I have to or else the system wont drop the next tier. I also don't want to spam content over and over because RNG refuses to give me the item I want only for me to go to the vendor WHO'S ALSO RNG for the chance to get an item I want.

 

The nature of MMO grind has changed over the last decade. End game content in most MMO's have purposeful design where you did said content and knew exactly what would drop. None of this "well maybe what I need will drop this run." RNG is lazy and pure BS and it blows my mind that you think its reasonable. SWTOR is going backwards.

 

 

 

Which is why I played both. I enjoyed FFXIV story and PvE, but I stuck with swtor for pvp for quite awhile, but even that is garbage now a days, especially with the loss of pvp gear. We get 10 matches per toon now so I might pop in here and there to mess around in regs as preferred status, but I'm more or less done with swtor.

Yeah, I quit a few years ago but just recently came back.