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What do you think were missed opportunities for Swtor?


Magnusheart

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Obligatory keep it nice, I am being very serious.

 

 

 

 

-Sith in the Sith Eradicator's Armor on Korriban, Dromund Kaas, Fleet etc as the symbolic attire for sith like the Knights are in the Eternal Empire

-Jedi in the Temple Guard outfits in Tython

-Huge lacking of Male/Mauarader style companion

-The KotET has rendered the playership useless, it would be nice to own another's

-Player Ship Decos cannot be entered.

-Black and Medium Red / White and Medium Blue dyes (sith trooper and republic trooper) dyes not existing

-Jet Boost being a force themed ability for Force Using Classes

-Lord Scourge not getting any story relevence in Shadow of Revan +

-Revan and Valkorians Original Body form (pure black eyes etc)not being seen in the Cpt 9

-HK-47 and T3-M4 skin for Kotor anniversary

-Full Body Darkside Corruption

 

 

and to quote another thread of mine, actual items that currently exist in the game files.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=951128

Black-White Crystals

Pure Black (and their crafting schematics) Color Crystals

Ship Droid Hoth, Envoy, Black, Black Sun Graffiti customizations.

CM leveling Relic procs Revans Cowl, Bastila's Shaw and Gauntlet of Tulak Hord. Chance on X to summon X force ghost to assist you in combat for X seconds.

HK-51 Dread Watchtower Customization. White Dread robot customization requires oricron rep.

HK Corrupter Zero Customization. Legacy bound.

Edited by Magnusheart
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Missed opportunities:

 

1. Not using Vulkan for its graphics engine

2. Lack of multiple factions rather than just imp and pub. Underworld would have been a nice 3rd

3. Lack of facial / body sliders

4. Lack of SSRs in original class stories

5. Lack of more versatile outfits (hoods)

6. Lack of dynamic day/night cycles / independently-sourced lighting (see #1)

7. Lack of high quality textures

8. Not hiring a decent graphics designer who knows how to wrap UV maps around meshes properly

9. Not shelling out more $$$ to incorporate more of the Legacy universe content (any 3K years prior to TPM?)

10. Not using another streaming service / streaming technique other than Bit Raider

Edited by xordevoreaux
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1. Ability to reject companions in vanilla stories

2. Companions with all roles from beginning to allow point #1

3. More customization for player ships (placing companions)

4. Three full seasons of KOTFE

5. Exploration, planetary arcs and side missions on Zakuul, Odessen, Copero and Rishi

6. SSR in vanilla stories (scripted but not done)

7. Original plan for different class stories in KOTXX

8. Exploration and stories on interesting areas seen in flashpoints such as Kaon, Cadimimu and Althiss

9. More done with the solo starship battles

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1. Could have picked a better engine

2. No free flying with Personal Starship

3. No free flying with GSF which you own

4. Guild Flagship battles and free flying from fleet to GS etc

5. No Hood up/down options

6. Missing third or 4th faction (Smuggler, Gangster, Underworld, Cartel....)

7. No specific class stories in expansions

8. Bounty Boards on players

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In general? A studio with at least some experience with mmos...including the professional attitude and love for details, bug tracking and fixing, not buying a non-supported and updated alpha version as a game engine and whatnot else. Edited by Khaleg
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In general? A studio with at least some experience with mmos...including the professional attitude and love for details, bug tracking and fixing, not buying a non-supported and updated alpha version as a game engine and whatnot else.

 

I think we can summarize it all and just blame the Game Engine.

 

If that would be fine you could solve all of the issues of the game. you can always hire new developers, coders, story tellers and add anything if its compatible with the engine and the coding is possible. Now very little is possible due to the engine and coding, so that's pretty much it.

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I think we can summarize it all and just blame the Game Engine.

 

If that would be fine you could solve all of the issues of the game. you can always hire new developers, coders, story tellers and add anything if its compatible with the engine and the coding is possible. Now very little is possible due to the engine and coding, so that's pretty much it.

 

That is at least a very important part and I can't f... understand why anyone would think that it is a good idea to buy a non-supported Frankenstein of an engine (and be cheap regardng this core aspect of a game while the whole game is said to had a production budget of 300 Millions or something) for a usually long standing game genre like mmos...it's unbelievable. It's like beating yourself with a baseball bat.

Edited by Khaleg
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I think we can summarize it all and just blame the Game Engine.

 

If that would be fine you could solve all of the issues of the game. you can always hire new developers, coders, story tellers and add anything if its compatible with the engine and the coding is possible. Now very little is possible due to the engine and coding, so that's pretty much it.

Yeah the engine is a big issue for this game. It's such a strange thing in a way to do something they've never done before like making an MMO and then use an unfinished, untested engine and then go mess about with it themselves.

 

But I have to say that true as that is, it's not the only main issue. One thing is also their communication and if they'd done a better job at that from the start instead of this "we know what we're doing" attitude, they might have made some improvements earlier on and had a lot more patience of players. I mean to lose 80% of the starting player base in less than 6 months is quite a feat and not a positive one.

 

To me that was a combination of three things: poor communication, engine issues (like Ilum PvP) and a way too low standard for endgame content and QoL. That last one is also a big issue because a new MMO has competition from existing MMOs. And even though you can't have the same level at start, it should've been better. Things like legacy banks took years to make it into the game. And it was such a staple item in other games it's just unforgivable to not have it. Also think of things like guild options which were virtually non-existent and well there's a lot more.

 

They banked too much on the IP and their self-perceived awesomeness and a bit of humility would've gone a long way I think.

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-- Lord Scourge not being part of KotFE/ET.

-- More female Smuggler romance options with NPCs.

-- Always Makeb-style story post vanilla: one for each faction -- complimentary but different.

-- Being able to pick up all planet arc stories again after they are Abandoned.

-- Not having the Ilum story arc auto-appear on mission logs, yet cannot be Abandoned.

-- Female JC romance option for Zenith.

-- Option to kick one class companion to the curb at the end of the vanilla story.

-- Ability to do non-class missions on accessible starter worlds. Why wouldn't a JK help out on Ord?

-- Sliders for character faces. Sometimes I can name the ingame NPC with the same face as the available options.

-- Also with character creation -- wrinkles for faces of both genders.

-- Easy, Veteran, and Master mode variations for class stories. Instead of easy only.

-- Port Nowhere not being a regularly used locale for Smugglers.

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Yeah the engine is a big issue for this game. It's such a strange thing in a way to do something they've never done before like making an MMO and then use an unfinished, untested engine and then go mess about with it themselves.

 

But I have to say that true as that is, it's not the only main issue. One thing is also their communication and if they'd done a better job at that from the start instead of this "we know what we're doing" attitude, they might have made some improvements earlier on and had a lot more patience of players. I mean to lose 80% of the starting player base in less than 6 months is quite a feat and not a positive one.

 

To me that was a combination of three things: poor communication, engine issues (like Ilum PvP) and a way too low standard for endgame content and QoL. That last one is also a big issue because a new MMO has competition from existing MMOs. And even though you can't have the same level at start, it should've been better. Things like legacy banks took years to make it into the game. And it was such a staple item in other games it's just unforgivable to not have it. Also think of things like guild options which were virtually non-existent and well there's a lot more.

 

They banked too much on the IP and their self-perceived awesomeness and a bit of humility would've gone a long way I think.

 

I agree totally. And QoL is what I meant with "love for detail". Quality control is an additional topic.

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- Setting the story so far in the SW past.

a 100-200 years BBY would make just as much sense - and enabled them to have tie-ins with the latest bunch of movies - with assets such as BB8 droids, R2 units, YT-1300 ships and some long-lived characters from the movies - Jabba, Chewie etc.

  • Evolving climate and cause/effect for the planets.
     
  • Not concentrating on individual storylines. - I can see why they went one-story fits all ( budget) but it has very little replay ability. - even if they went force tech LS and force tech DS it would be a bit more relevant.
     
  • Having one villain in the KOTFE KOTET story was also a big mistake. They should have had some other faction(s) vying for power during the sith/jedi conflict.
     
  • Dumbing down the game.
     
  • Upping the level cap several times, then adding GC - meaning another grind for top-end stuff - and tying it to RNG.
     
  • Several revamps didn't need endless tweaking. - Put it on the PTS and playtest it, get feedback then do one lot of developing - rather than thinking you know best and spending a year messing with it takes a huge amount of resources.
     
  • I'm no developer, but the choice of game engine seems to be a recurring theme.
     
  • Not hiring a good team of writers to keep the story ongoing and fresh. - Okay every story has a few holes, but ones big enough to drive a megafreighter through are inexcusable.
     
  • - Not keeping everyone onside - People leave if their niche isn't catered for every few months. A year without an operation is 10 months too long. ( for instance)
     
  • Not communicating is the biggest loss. - Look at other media companies and their community leaders. - Who are al over all media/ social media/ at conventions/ meeting fans/ corresponding daily/ making podcasts....... What does SWTOR get ? A yellow post about 2-3 times a week, mostly to do with issues and announcing server downtime.

I could go on, but a lot of this has been covered in depth in many other posts.....

Edited by Storm-Cutter
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poor communication, engine issues (like Ilum PvP) and a way too low standard for endgame content and QoL.

 

Yes, the start was very bad as the Devs seem to have had totally different ideas of why people would play the game in the first place. Yet as I said, content is something you are able add on later IF the engine goes with it. They could have added many interesting things like flying mounts, free flying personal ship from fleet etc. Even content the operations it would have been all easier to code and add to the game if the engine was different.

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Trying to enter the MMO market with game mechanics similar to World Of Warcraft instead of being a Bioware MMO with inspiration from SWG ( instead we got simple crafting, character development, cookie cutter talents etc)

 

Voice acting everything rather than just the main class & planetary missions causing massive costs ( i love that its VO'd everywhere but in hindsight money could have gone elsewhere)

 

Deciding on a limited unknown untested DX9 hero engine that has limited the developers scope for future proofing its own game.

 

Bioware caving to the hatchet men of EA instead of standing their ground and insisting on keeping staff on to develop future content and trusting the Star Wars IP sells and keeps players, especially if its the only SW MMO available.

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Yeah the engine is a big issue for this game. It's such a strange thing in a way to do something they've never done before like making an MMO and then use an unfinished, untested engine and then go mess about with it themselves.

 

May I deliver some nerdiness out of the book I own:

[The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic . By Frank Parisi and Daniel Erickson]

"We were following the 80/20 rule: If we could license an engine that did 80 percent of what we want, we could build the other 20 percent. [...] The real play for us was to find a working engine so that we could actually have the content people going early, because this BioWare game had some new ideas about what an MMO could be, " says former technical director Bill Dalton. (p.149)

 

So they were aiming for a quick fix rather than planning for the future and laying out great, innovative ideas for this MMO. They were in KOTOR mode all along, I guess.

 

Anyways, things I cry about before going to sleep:

 

1) Absolute failure of implementing the suprisingly good GSF into the core/base game. No (real) tutorial, no PVE, etc...

(yeah I know they said "problems with 3D movement of the AI" - they could've at least have it move on rails for target practice...)

2) Not connecting KDY in any gameplay way to GSF.

3) No implementation of space to any OPS (except for the beginning of EV). Even a 2 minute on-rails-thingy could have done the trick for me.

4) Housing is nothing more than show&tell - that part is delivered quite well imho though

(don't tell me minigames like Pazaak wouldn't work with HeroEngine)

5) Casino-Event is a joke, comports kinda with 4)

6) Taking too long for the PVP fix.

7) No Huttball League / Teams.

8) Planetary Conquest could've had meningfull planetary combat/events whatever instead of braindead grind.

9) Ilum OPvP <.< :(

10) Ancient Tome on Tatooine.

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Very good topic. So good that I can write pages but I won't. Instead I'll just name a few things that kinda irked me.

 

Space without space battles

Forced classes and weapon restrictions

No third neutral faction

No ability to refuse/kill companions

Static state npc environment

No day/night and weather cycle

Invisible walls, exhaustion zones, fake expansiveness, and narrow corridor pidgeon toed linear exploration

Limited character customization

Hook placement approach for player housing

Decorations locked behind pay wall....

 

 

I can go on but that's enough.

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-Having companions being able to be killed in the vanilla story

-Having JK get the General Title DS and SW get the Wrath instead of the Darth title.

-Continuing the class stories

-Not expanding more on the Zakuulan culture, an example is how is the Knights of the Zakuul hierarchy? When did Valkorion founded the Eternal Empire? ETC.

-Uprisings in general were a missed opportunity.

-I have no idea on anything computer related but I can tell that SWTOR's engine isn't very good, especially at 16-man operations or Warzones where I lag as if I was playing this on a toaster.

-Giving a few daily areas before going into the Umbara/Copero flashpoints, those places are beautiful and I'd love to explore more of them as well as expand upon the Umbaran and the Chiss cultures.

-No cutscene whatsoever with the Scions after you complete their mission on Iokath, while the cutscenes with the gods were nice I was hoping to get some closure with the scions but all you do is kill Tyth and get the rewards, not immersive, it's like if you never went back to Lord Hargrev after finishing DP.

-Lack of companion conversations during KOTFE/KOTET, this would've helped with a lot of character development as well as give us a few ideas about what our companions think of the current situation of the galaxy and all.

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Good topic, though i think many people are nitpicking a bit. For me, ill keep it simple:

 

#1. Bad engine, and still using the same bad engine all these years later. when a game runs poorly and has graphical issues, such as dsync, it kills the immersion.

 

#2. Failure to continue individual stories. This is what set the game aside from other MMOs, the Bioware story capability. They should never have gone away from that

 

#3. Lack of a third non force using faction. Ive always found it absurd that non force using classes, such as my merc, were basically forced to align with force users, their motivations would be completely different on every possible level.

 

#4. Lack of more regular updates. Games always have balance issues, but when they go on for a year at a time, thats not really acceptable.

 

#5. Content. Im the last few years it has been a trickle at best, which is why ive spent as much time in other games as i have this one. MMOs live and die on that, and SWTOR has felt like it was on life support in that regard.

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In a word. Launch.

The game was mismanaged from the beginning. Choosing a half finished engine and sticking it with poor design decisions & to many servers.

Keeping the 2 factions completely separate with no interaction.

Focusing on attacking 3rd factions instead of utilizing the primary conflict of Star Wars.

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I think the limited world exploration is a bit loss for them. I'm not just talking about where we can go on individual planets, but also the fact that there are so few of the planets/moons mentioned in the movies. The story is set very far in the past, but planets like Naboo, Mustafar(sp?), Bespin, etc, etc would have existed even that far back. There are a lot of places where the canon universe coud be more incorporated in this game.

 

I kind of feel like canon inclusion in general is a little scant. I mean, we have the bare bones, Sith/Jedi, Republic/Empire, some of the planets, but there are a lot of things that just aren't utilized and would make the game feel more Star Wars. For instance, they should make more armor pieces that reflect the costumes in the movies, all the movies, good or bad. Seriously, flaws aside, the prequels had some AMAZING outfits. Yes, fashion is something that is changed by the passage of time, but this is Star Wars, people want to have those looks.

 

Strongholds are fantastic and I love decorating mine, but the hook system is so limiting . I think they should have gone with a better system that allowed players more freedom. Also, the variety of decorations is a bit limited in some areas. I'd love to see greater variety in that area.

 

Every companion return since they stopped using the chapters to return them. While I'm not saying we should go back to the chapter format, although there are things I like about the chapters, I do think the scant one shot, two minute returns are an absolute waste of the companions and story telling that people liked about this game. I still have not run my main through anything past Ziost because I don't want her to lose Vector and then get an only partially functioning Vector back. Bad returns aside, the returning companions don't even work the way they originally did. Their mouths don't move when they speak, their ambient lines are missing in a lot of places. I'm not going to trade down, so it kind of keeps my main in a holding pattern.

 

All of that being said, this is still my favorite game, but I do see places where they could have done so much more.

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Good topic, though i think many people are nitpicking a bit. For me, ill keep it simple:

 

#1. Bad engine, and still using the same bad engine all these years later. when a game runs poorly and has graphical issues, such as dsync, it kills the immersion.

 

#2. Failure to continue individual stories. This is what set the game aside from other MMOs, the Bioware story capability. They should never have gone away from that

 

#3. Lack of a third non force using faction. Ive always found it absurd that non force using classes, such as my merc, were basically forced to align with force users, their motivations would be completely different on every possible level.

 

#4. Lack of more regular updates. Games always have balance issues, but when they go on for a year at a time, thats not really acceptable.

 

#5. Content. Im the last few years it has been a trickle at best, which is why ive spent as much time in other games as i have this one. MMOs live and die on that, and SWTOR has felt like it was on life support in that regard.

 

I agree with everything in your list except number 1.

 

While the engine gets a lot of flack from players... largely due to the poor implementation all the way back to Illum at launch... I also see that players fail to realize this is basically a custom studio developed engine, which used an early alpha release of Hero as it's starting foundation. They have in fact done a lot of performance improvements on the engine over the years, and there are few actual real engine derived issues these days. Yes. the particular approach will always make said engine prone to FPS fluctuations (and that bothers some players immensely), but for an MMO and a moderately good PCs.... it really is not noticeable in most cases unless the player is fixated on fluctuation free FPS and high FPS (which is not realistic, even for WoW). The only real persistent fault I see in the engine is the artifact of it being very processor intensive, and hence not using higher end GPUs efficiently and to maximum effect.

 

I would add one key missed opportunity to your list:

The failure to expand game content, and even alternate rule sets via introduction of new planets on a regular basis. And I mean real planets... not snippets as we typically have seen for the last several years. With real planet additions, you could for example make special rule sets that are specific for that planet... like a planet that is simply sandbox (for the sandbox lovers), or a planet that is specifically designed for open world PvP in a manner that avoids the mistakes of Illum, or a planet that is a crafters paradise of resources and unique recipes for design, or a Role Play centric planet, or how about a retro planet that offers a lot of the old unstructured style of SWG, etc. etc. etc. The natural break points in content that a planet offers is a huge missed opportunity to cater to special interests in a manner that does not destroy the other foundations of the game. If I were leading development for SWTOR, I would make all content expansion (being a big patch, or a full on expac) planetary focused, which would allow me to have specific dev teams working on each planet and to a particular "interest goal" of said planet. I would have sold this hard with upper management as a way to progress content in a manner that is modular, serves special interest groups that are of notable size, and be able to retain older content "as is" for the nostalgic by not stomping all over every feature or rule already in the game in order to make something that expands the content in a new direction (like sandbox, or ranked competitive PvP on a planetary scale). A true planet based approach to content progression would provide an actual way to expand the player base and retain more veteran players. But I also think this kind of opportunity went into sunset a long time ago.

Edited by Andryah
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One word: Spaceship.

 

This is a space theme MMO. From day one, it has been lost on BW. From day one, it is competition with WOW that blinds BW to the potential of developing depth into spaceship (which later they still fail to see it but went off to develop stronghold, again copying and competing with other MMO's housing which in space theme MMO, could be a spaceship which we can put decoration and perhaps also built and customize the ship itself.).

 

Eveonline has no such tunnel vision because they started off without having to or wanting to compete with anyone and they see where their core competence is in terms of their MMO theme.

 

That is the single big missed opportunity for SWTOR.

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- Starting something new then not finishing/polishing it.

----- Housing with bugs, inconsistencies, poor hook placements/options & scant few easily acquired decorations.

----- Dye system for primary/secondary but most armor has tertiary colors. Low level gear not given dye slots and the outfit designer workaround was removed last year. Not enough readily available color selections.

----- Outfit designer without a hood toggle or weapon slot. No outfit designer for companions.

----- Reputation, event & special vendors rarely, if ever get new items.

----- Character selection getting so few new additions. Clipping issues & color issues totally ignored.

----- GTN interface not getting updated despite whole categories being removed. And still no toggle to filter out collected cartel items.

 

- Summaries of cut content would be lovely. The datamined teases I've seen about ch. 4 class content are fascinating!

- Regularly added new planets rather than just instanced zones. **cough** Darvanis **cough**

- Utilizing existing Star Wars planets/species/things instead of creating brand new stuff.

- Continuing companion conversations.

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Free roaming space and the ability to decorate your ships and maybe even have a personal capital ship as a stronghold

 

Day/night cycle and more free roaming planets.

 

Sand, dust, fog and weather on planets. The deserts of Tatooine feel stale. Some sand movement and audio would go a long way to feel more immersive. A low lying fog on Taris would be more creepy and immersive.

 

Dantooine, Kashyykk and Onderon have still not appeared. They exist and they played a part in KOTOR.

 

Dark side and light side abilities. A dark side Jedi should be able to use abilities like force choke and just have them on the same timer as the mirror ability.

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