Game hangs 100% on splash page and never load beyond it. Graphics driver is current, and my system is more than powerful to run this old relic. AMD Ryzen 3800X on X570 Gaming X board / 64 GB DDR 4 RTX 2060 6GB Never had a problem before it moved to broadsword. no idea what to do at this point. I am not going to try dev mode editing to try and make this run. Maybe it's just time to forget the account and leave it at that.

Haven't played in many years and decided to start fresh. It's interesting to see we can basically choose whatever class we want and no longer any restrictions based on which side you choose. That said, I rolled a new Commando Sniper and noticed that sniper shot is not 1 shot killing starting enemies, yet when I rolled my Scoundrel Sniper, that character was 1 tapping them with sniper shots. Why is there a noticeable difference? Is it because the trooper can wear heavy armor and the scoundrel cannot? Overall, just trying to understand the pros / cons in selecting a different battle class that you normally wouldn't have been able to prior to 7.0

Single threaded, 32 bit gaming experience in 2022... why? Is their game engine that debilitating that they are simply unable to move things over or upgrade to a 64 bit platform? All the talk EA did on how profitable SWTOR was even in current times, just surprised they haven't pulled the trigger to build swtor 2.0 with a more robust engine, though I can only imagine the undertaking that might take knowing what game engine this was built on originally.

I took a break, a big one, and came back to try things out and check on the lvl 60 content. So far I have completed a handful of the new missions, haven't gotten to lvl 56 yet and found myself logging out in the middle of an instance. Why? I walk into a boss fight, have my doc and some NPC bot with me, and just stand there... the entire fight, while letting this NPC bot and my doc take care of business (took about 15 min). I feel no sense of urgency in anything that happens, no sense that I am going to be defeated...ever. Maybe I got use to action style combat from Neverwinter Online and Tera which I was playing for a while recently and really enjoying. Perhaps the tab-targeting system no longer appeals to me or the fact that this story line just doesn't feel important at all. Perhaps its the server I am on (Jung Ma) with practically no one on it even over the weekend during prime time. I sure don't feel anyone should be required to pay for any kind of server transfer to a more populated server, and EA/Bioware has made it pretty clear that's not something they are willing to do for paying subscribers. Combination of things overall, I mean, who just quits in the middle of a solo instance during a main story quest? It must mean something, right? Perhaps this is really the end for my desire to continue on, hell I spent more time in the "dress up" holo thingy just checking things out, or at the GTN clicking to see how some of the new gear looks, and for what? Ah well, I gave it a fair shake again, they got a few more dollars out of me for 1 more month, maybe this is finally it for me. Focus on other things until Fallout 4 and then wait for The Division.

Well I can say the toxicity of a lot of players in PvP is a big reason why many players just don't play PvP anymore. This is a story narrative / PvE game with some PvP elements sprinkled in. Unfortunately there are quite a few players who treat others with open hostility and bully them to leave the match because they aren't optimized in some form of dps rotation, or, these toxic players "refuse to play with newbs" and bail on the entire team when the first 30 seconds of a match isn't executed to perfection. It's the elitist behavior that puts off a lot of potential players who are interested in PvP but don't put up with toxic, childish bullying, so they leave to find something else to do.

Good point, however I do believe it can make a difference if the lead has the correct team of programmers / designers to work with. Some of the game design elements we learned and applied with other students taught us this. If you are lacking in programming, then find someone who knows it well and can follow direction. I believe that it comes down to having too many commanders and not enough grunts, such was the fate of Warhammer Online. This is why I firmly believe that Bioware had unfortunate outcomes because they simply lacked a quality leader in some departments, and / or quality system design / programmers / engineers which also dove tails with the Hero Engine tech they used.

Which all goes away with a very min amount of money spent, such as , if you selected to pay for a monthly premium, many features are unlocked even when you revert back to the F2P basic. LOTRO does so many things right and I have yet to see 1 advertisement of any kind pop up. Players can choose what content they want, for very low costs, however again, with a regular monthly sub, you not only get this, you also receive a monthly stipend of points to use in the LOTRO store. Frankly, any game that wants to go F2P should look at what Turbine has done and learn mirror that success. There are practically no gold sellers either, no spam to deal with or it is so little that no one really sees it. Turbine is doing things right on so many levels.

Yes, and for many, a lot of vested time and energy went into their character. How is it fair to tell someone to "re-roll" and leave behind all the hard work and effort they already put into their character(s)? Maybe some players had the time to invest early on, but now they do not. Why should be they punished for low to near non- existent server population? Bioware's systems design engineers and with the help of the Hero Engine ppl, should have been working on server transfer tech that works and is stable, and then invest OT into their IGS team to handle all the manual transfer requests. This would be a big positive PR push on their part, but apparently Bioware states they simply do not have the capability to do so or unwilling to take on this sizable project.

Here is the official link to Gordon Walten who was co-director of Bioware Austin, as he spoke about the lessons Bioware supposedly learned from other MMO games. http://www.darkimpera.com/index.php?topic=75.0 As I read through all the 12 points Gorden talks about on behalf of Bioware, it is very apparent that while he may have believed in these points, very few actually came to fruition when SWTOR launched. It really looks and feels like they attempted to put way to much psychology into their metrics and design decisions. As someone who has taken several classes at Austin Community College in game design and had some of the actual Bioware staff teaching them, it amazes me how many well thought out lessons were taught, but in practice, Bioware fell behind core basic principles in many areas they taught and said were important. It is vital that you have those who truly play and understand MMO games to head up your teams and departments. I say this because Bioware and Mythic are part of the same company. Mythic did so many things right with their RvR system in DAOC, which was brought up many times during SWTOR beta. Why the PvP design lead took nothing from these companies successes let alone what the players were stating during beta, makes me wonder if these game designers even played past MMO games or had a real passion for them. Gorden pointed out that the Bioware Austin had a sizable team which allowed them to have separate divisions to address each core factor, such as PvE and PvP. I also want to point out that many students in game design who played many of these past MMO games all had a similar idea and understanding on how to make PvP successful. Some of these students who were in their 30's and early 40's, understood these principles and in our student discussions outside of class, we all agreed that many of today's game designers are sorely lacking real vision or creative abilities for PvP. In the end, maybe it requires new blood and hiring actual gamers who have played all these other MMO games, and are truly passionate about it. Bioware has stated they had full control over the content and design of SWTOR with little influence from EA. Gorden's biggest hype was talking about having a partner company that understood a game was done when it was done, and not rush things out the door. Talking about how important a well built and customizable GUI was in Gorden's list, makes my chuckle a little as this was one of the key issues the game lacked at launch. Comparing to another game RIFT, which had a robust GUI, one can only wonder how and why so many core features were allowed to be put on the back burner before launch. Understandably between the lack of system design / engineers abilities and the possible lack of the Hero Engine tech, many things came crashing down for Bioware's MMO. Lessons learned (I hope).

As I have been saying all along, BW used a new game engine that their system design engineers are unable to master, or the game engine itself has so many lacking features and ability to do what standard MMO's can do today. I look at RIFT. Granted many players were burned out on that genre already, however a few things that RIFT did right was the ability to allow players to copy their characters every 7 days to whatever server they wanted. This feature was also available early on for players who wanted to copy over to the PTS to try out the new content and help test. So many features that RIFT had at launch and within 3 months afterwards, yet BW seems to fall way behind even the most basic abilities to do any of these things. It amazes me how the top leaders at Bioware could possibly allow these deficiencies to happen before they launched SWTOR, let alone lacking the proper system design engineers. Who did they hire for these positions and why were far below standards even allowed to pass? While I do understand they are trying to recover from these issues, the damage has been done and with quite a few people now laid off from SWTOR, new ideas suddenly emerge such as "mega servers" which is what DCUO did in an attempt to save what player base they had left as well. Unfortunately for many, it is too little to late, as I project their actual subscription numbers (not the "technical ones in which they gave free game time) after June will be below 1m total. (Prob closer to around 900k) All these cuts to BW Austin is a direct reflection of not meeting the core basic standards of new MMO's today within the first 30-90 days. All the things that talked about and said they learned about the industry, yet their actions, or lack there of, speak louder as they struggle to figure out how their "metrics" and "design ideas" failed. Those that enjoy purely "story" will have a great single player experience while collecting new companions along the way, with sprinkled in multi-player experiences for those who want to run flashpoints or participate in any PvP battlegrounds. Why so many developers and game designers have lost touch with what makes a game fun is beyond me. Listening to Daniel Erickson state they are not losing subs, just seeing lower concurrent players, was clearly false information and the downsizing of their development team reflects it.

Not entirely correct, but the aftermath for many game companies is the same due to financial markers not being met. The only reason direct hire employees get laid off is when the financial bottom line does not meet the expectations of the share holders. That is why there are many "temp" or "contract" positions during the development process of an MMO. Unfortunately these layoffs were employees who were directly hired by Bioware / EA because of the current state of the game and the lower then expected revenues coming from it.

Actually the server population died as the "free 30 days" expired which was given out to anyone who had a lvl 50. What is sad is players actually trusting and believing in anything Daniel Erickson states in terms of Bioware "not losing subs". It is like the company execs are ok with "technical" terms because the account was technically active, so it is still counted as such. Watching the video of James Ohlen talk about their upcoming 1.3 and seeing the server list with highly misleading information making it look like their servers are filled with players is disgraceful. Honestly we will never see the true population of "light" or "non-existent" nor any exec with Bioware or EA come to the plate humbled with the results of their game. What I can state for fact, is that out of the aprox 80 active guild members we had at launch, there is currently less then 15 active subs, just from our guild alone. Many moved on to D3, Terra, or back to City of Heroes, etc. Going back and reviewing everything Bioware stated they have "learned" from other game companies and how they will avoid those hard lessons, it honestly appears completely opposite, which is very very sad I feel this game has potential, but only if they can undo all the damage their system design team caused using the Hero Engine. I still had regular ability delay latency issues, with my Jedi Knight. Some of the combat animations would stop mid way and I would have to mash my button a 2nd or 3rd time to get it to go through. The same issues we discussed and had since day 1. While some things have improved, the lack of meaningful PvP and lack of core features that should have been in the game at launch drove many players away. I wish Bioware the best and will see what they might be able to do in the future. Having no server transfers now severely hurt the companies reputation and confidence from a lot of players. Actions speak louder then words and any company who wants to use their "metrics" over logging into the game servers during prime times and admitting they have a population issue, does not deserve my support.

My friend cancelled their account a month ago, and now suddenly Bioware gives them free 30 days because they are a "valued" customer... I work in CS in this industry, and seeing this makes me laugh inside... It tells me Bioware is "padding" their subscriptions and count "Free" game time as a subscription. I have seen this before and its pretty clear the intent. They need these inflated numbers to show their stock holders how "successful" they are maintaining this game. Numbers do not lie, I know of a lot of players who paid for 3 months up front and already cancelled a month ago. Bioware knows a large number of 3 month subscriptions are gone, hence my belief why they are tossing out free 30 day gameplay. My 3 month sub ends in 3 days, even though I cancelled and moved on after the first 45 day + the 7 days early release time I had. It's like they expect the IP "Star Wars" to be enough to reward this type of game with the subs they need to keep profitable. I see how quick they are to post their 1.7 M subscribers a month ago... but again, there is a good amount of those players who paid 3 months up front. I will be very curious to see what numbers they believe they have when April is gone. Truly good potential game here, but seeing all the mistakes made and especially the PvP issues that came from 1.2 even after they were told and warned by many PvP veterans this will not work, they felt it was fine and now get to deal with the consequences. I truly wish them luck and hope that maybe one day, they will have the proper teams in place made of actual gamers who understand what really works, and can then prove it with something truly innovative. Good luck to those who stay, I am sure there will be a fair share who love the game in every way =) For many others, it is no longer something worth paying for or supporting.

What I find more interesting, is that Bioware has unfortunately seemed to loss any creative ability in terms of real game play design, by simple merit of one of our own peers steps up and puts in real time and effort into a very well documented idea which frankly, is very doable. It would be great if Bioware would hire some of these creative talents to get rid of a good portion of their current design team for this type of project. Maybe they are just burned out or having a hard time thinking creatively. It has become a major disappointment to witness an IP of this caliber in stitches. I honestly feels like they want solid feedback, however it doesn't feel like the want to swallow certain prideful issues, or choose to actually incorporate a handful of solid fixes which this community has given them even during Beta. Every idea listed by the author of this post is spot on with features and game play elements that should have been conceptualized. I keep going back to Bioware stating how they have spent a great deal of time looking at all the other MMO games out there and how much they have learned from their mistakes. Sorry, but I have to just shake my head and walk away from this all together. We have so much creative power in some very talented players, I would lay money on the line that you could round up these players, find new talent for design, and by common sense reviews, create a game play experience that would truly catch the attention and commitment of their players. I just wish that Bioware, or any company with a lot of money to use, would start over and re-learn these basics.

What you are forgetting here, is the the Rakata stims are no better then the lvl 48 purple ones that you RE up to. That is what I got from reading these patch notes. So I think its a very valid question... what is the point of Rakata which you can only make by earning the crystals in Ops? There is very little point in making these Rakata stims, etc, when they have the SAME power as the RE lvl 48 purple ones now. Unless I am off, please correct me with details.