With the level cap being raised to 55 i wonder if anyone knows if new Class story has been added?

The only thing any non-EA/BW person knows is this:

Cartel Shop Chapter 4 Unlock.

Here's my question: WHEN! WHY ARE YOU MAKING US WAIT SO LONG - I WANT NOW!

*whew* had to get my entitlement rant out of the way so I could put on my big boy pants.

*puts on glasses" Now since they're raising the level cap to 55, I suspect that Chapter and the level 55 cap are linked, so that people who don't purchase the new content will still only level 50.

They are calling future story content "Avengers" style, meaning chapters 1-3 were about the individual "heroes" and future chapters are more about those heroes coming together as a team. Which I think is just a fancy pants way of saying that the "class story" content moving forward is going to be exactly the same for all classes of the same faction (and possibly even the same for both factions). On the positive side players will be able to do the story together as a group since everybody will be doing the same missions (hence "Avengers"), but on the negative side you lose the variety of having 8 completely different story-lines and the feeling that the story is written specifically for each character.

It's a bummer, but I have to admit it does make sense. I think some part of me always knew that they could never keep all 8 individual story-lines going on forever, with all of the writing and voice-over and cinematic work that would be required for that. And the 1-50 story is kind of a single-player game which an MMORPG really isn't supposed to be. I just hope they can still make the characters' personalities stand out enough even though they are going through the same story as all of the other classes. Maybe they will mix in several companion story missions along the way so each class still has some unique content at least. I'm hopeful for that. We'll see... One thing is for certain: Makeb is going to be a critical expansion that will tell us a lot about what the future of SWTOR story content is going to be like, so I really hope it doesn't suck.

So basically what you're saying is if you play this game by your self and cant find a team for Ops you don't get to see most of the new story.

Thats kind of how it is now. If you cant find a team for ops, you cant experience the story of the dread masters, which has been happening at least since KP, if not EV. (Dread masters were hinted at being the reason Karagga was so aggresive in taking territory from the republic and empire)..... That being said, the "story" for ops esssentially goes like this:

1) Introduction -- why you are entering, whats going wrong, need empire's/repbulic's finest, gather comrades, blah blah blah

2)actual Ops --boss after boss goes down, you end threat. yyaaaaaaaaayyy....

3)Conclusion -- Congratulations, count on you again, clear up something, raise more questions, this is not the last weve seen, blah, blah, blah

Of course, actually playing through it all is a far more interesting and fun experience, at least for me

So basically what you're saying is if you play this game by your self and cant find a team for Ops you don't get to see most of the new story.

No I think they will still have solo-friendly story content in future updates like Makeb, but the missions will be the same for every class.

They are calling future story content "Avengers" style, meaning chapters 1-3 were about the individual "heroes" and future chapters are more about those heroes coming together as a team. Which I think is just a fancy pants way of saying that the "class story" content moving forward is going to be exactly the same for all classes of the same faction (and possibly even the same for both factions). On the positive side players will be able to do the story together as a group since everybody will be doing the same missions (hence "Avengers"), but on the negative side you lose the variety of having 8 completely different story-lines and the feeling that the story is written specifically for each character.

 

It's a bummer, but I have to admit it does make sense. I think some part of me always knew that they could never keep all 8 individual story-lines going on forever, with all of the writing and voice-over and cinematic work that would be required for that. And the 1-50 story is kind of a single-player game which an MMORPG really isn't supposed to be. I just hope they can still make the characters' personalities stand out enough even though they are going through the same story as all of the other classes. Maybe they will mix in several companion story missions along the way so each class still has some unique content at least. I'm hopeful for that. We'll see... One thing is for certain: Makeb is going to be a critical expansion that will tell us a lot about what the future of SWTOR story content is going to be like, so I really hope it doesn't suck.

Of course, in the Avengers everyone has "their part" to play, not "the same part." The Avengers isn't made up of multiple Iron Mans. They are all unique, and still go off on their own quite often. Probably not a great example from BioWare, but I'm sure they just wanted the cheap pop-culture reference to make people think, "Avengers was cool! These new stories must be cool, too!"

-Macheath.

Of course, in the Avengers everyone has "their part" to play, not "the same part." The Avengers isn't made up of multiple Iron Mans. They are all unique, and still go off on their own quite often. Probably not a great example from BioWare, but I'm sure they just wanted the cheap pop-culture reference to make people think, "Avengers was cool! These new stories must be cool, too!"

 

-Macheath.

You could look at it that way if you're just taking the "Avengers" analogy out of context, but in that interview (on torwars.com) Hall Hood specifically explained his Avengers analogy as being "one huge epic plot where we have to get the team together." And it's pretty obvious that the real-world situation is that they can't afford to write and produce 8 unique stories again because the game just doesn't have a massive budget anymore.

Hall also said that even within the big plot there are lots of little character moments, so that makes me hopeful at least. I just hope they do enough to make the "huge epic plot" still feel relevant to each character/class. It could end up being hours of questing that feels like a giant side-mission if the player's character and companions are mostly irrelevant to the story.

Where has it been mentioned that level cap is being raised?

It's been mentioned all over the place. When the planet Makeb comes out the level cap will increase to 55.

It's been mentioned all over the place. When the planet Makeb comes out the level cap will increase to 55.

Right, so sometime in 2015 then..

Hall also said that even within the big plot there are lots of little character moments, so that makes me hopeful at least. I just hope they do enough to make the "huge epic plot" still feel relevant to each character/class. It could end up being hours of questing that feels like a giant side-mission if the player's character and companions are mostly irrelevant to the story.

Yeah. I would immediately lose interest in the game and just not bother. All you have to do is play some alts through the planet story quests to get a good idea of what they mean by "Avengers style". And I'm sorry, that's just not good enough. If there were other things about the game that made it worth playing, then yeah maybe. But as it stands, the class stories are it (at least for me). If I want good MMO mechanics, I go elsewhere, to companies that quite frankly do it better. No one does class stories better than BioWare, they shouldn't lose focus on their strengths in an attempt to shore up their weaknesses.

I don't pretend to know how much SWTOR cost or how much of that budget was eaten up in the voice overs and writing (I suspect not nearly as much as most people assume). All I know is that's my line in the sand, and BioWare needs to be honest about it if that's not something they're going to continue to support.

Yeah. I would immediately lose interest in the game and just not bother. All you have to do is play some alts through the planet story quests to get a good idea of what they mean by "Avengers style". And I'm sorry, that's just not good enough. If there were other things about the game that made it worth playing, then yeah maybe. But as it stands, the class stories are it (at least for me). If I want good MMO mechanics, I go elsewhere, to companies that quite frankly do it better. No one does class stories better than BioWare, they shouldn't lose focus on their strengths in an attempt to shore up their weaknesses.

 

I don't pretend to know how much SWTOR cost or how much of that budget was eaten up in the voice overs and writing (I suspect not nearly as much as most people assume). All I know is that's my line in the sand, and BioWare needs to be honest about it if that's not something they're going to continue to support.

^This.

Right, so sometime in 2015 then..

Confirmed for 2012. Read more, assume less.

P.S: “When you assume, you make an *** out of u and me.”

Confirmed for 2012. Read more, assume less.

I will buy you a corellian ale if the gap increase comes before the year is over. Regardless what they "confirm".

Yeah. I would immediately lose interest in the game and just not bother. All you have to do is play some alts through the planet story quests to get a good idea of what they mean by "Avengers style". And I'm sorry, that's just not good enough. If there were other things about the game that made it worth playing, then yeah maybe. But as it stands, the class stories are it (at least for me). If I want good MMO mechanics, I go elsewhere, to companies that quite frankly do it better. No one does class stories better than BioWare, they shouldn't lose focus on their strengths in an attempt to shore up their weaknesses.

 

I don't pretend to know how much SWTOR cost or how much of that budget was eaten up in the voice overs and writing (I suspect not nearly as much as most people assume). All I know is that's my line in the sand, and BioWare needs to be honest about it if that's not something they're going to continue to support.

i have to agree i would hate for them to abandon the unique class story's in favor of a all rounded style i mean wow does that and i ended up only bothering to lvl one character with this game i have lvl 6 to 50 simply because i have enjoyed the class story's so much and if they gave up on that i would walk away.