As in the title. I don't get why Bioware's focusing on updating starter planets which still look at least decently, while Player Characters, vanilla armors or the Republic Fleet are all in much MUCH more dire need of a graphical update.

 

Please focus on those areas first!

 

7.0 is getting a shiny new Character Creator yet the original 1.0 face textures, plastic hair or low-res complexions remain the same. It looks jarring and THIS is the first experience for any potential new players! Tenebrae's model in Echoes of Oblivion shows how well original models can look simply with higher-res skin assets. Players Characters often look comical standing next to core high-quality NPCs like Arcann, Tau or Malgus. In such a cinematic game like SWTOR our Character's faces are the most prominent in-game asset we are looking at most up-close, not plenetary details...

 

That being said, if there's one map that should've been updated first/long ago it's the Republic Fleet. It had a wrong architecture and textures from Day 1 and you know it, as evidenced in the Republic Penthouse stronghold sporting the correct (and completly different) white&dark-red texture set that all other Republic vessels have.

 

And when you actually get to updating starter planets (hopefully AFYER fixing Player Characters or Rep Fleet first...) then please DON'T overdo it. No one wants a Mek-Sha style "pretty and super laggy experience" on starter worlds.

Edited January 13, 2022 by Pietrastor

agreed 100%.

we allso need new faces. older and more scars perhaps? its a mmorpg after all.

Edited January 13, 2022 by vingmotor

I agree a fresh set would be nice, but replacing all the faces with new ones will drive some people crazy who've fallen in love with the appearance of their toons with the old faces.

 

In everquest 2, there are two sets of player models, the original one and one set up with more Asian-looking characters. You can mix and match across models, but can only have one or the other model appearing at one time.

 

So to keep people from screaming "I like the old faces!" the suggestion would be to refactor the old faces using a new mesh/texture regime and build onto that any set of new faces, so both camps are happy, otherwise Bioware would just be repeating the snafu when they introduced new eye appearances without first consulting the player base.

 

(But I'd personally like to see the rocks on Tython look like rocks not watercolors first).

Edited January 13, 2022 by xordevoreaux

Agreed! The cinematics are the strength of the game, so it only makes sense to focus on textures that involve our character looks more so than planet textures. Armors is one they could do without any concerns about ruining established character look. I think xordevoreau has a good point about differentiating with faces between old and new, so as not to ruin the looks people are used to, which should be a lot easier to do with this character creator than some, since it's just lists of presets.

I agree a fresh set would be nice, but replacing all the faces with new ones will drive some people crazy who've fallen in love with the appearance of their toons with the old faces.

 

In everquest 2, there are two sets of player models, the original one and one set up with more Asian-looking characters. You can mix and match across models, but can only have one or the other model appearing at one time.

 

So to keep people from screaming "I like the old faces!" the suggestion would be to refactor the old faces using a new mesh/texture regime and build onto that any set of new faces, so both camps are happy, otherwise Bioware would just be repeating the snafu when they introduced new eye appearances without first consulting the player base.

 

(But I'd personally like to see the rocks on Tython look like rocks not watercolors first).

That's why I said upscale&update, NOT replace. Any work done to Player Character face assets should be just about improving the resolution and details, not changing the style, colors or shapes.

Strongly disagree. That would just make our characters look out of place in the old content rather than the new. As someone who plays this game purely for the class stories, how they look there is a lot more important to me.

 

Having two character models that you could switch between as someone suggested above would work.

That's why I said upscale&update, NOT replace. Any work done to Player Character face assets should be just about improving the resolution and details, not changing the style, colors or shapes.

 

I can get behind improving resolution, and hair certainly needs a lot of work, but I get worried when people bring up the new skin textures. I hate them! They are all so ugly! I don't want to see pores and black heads. Really, I don't! I'm not too sure they can actually improve on our hair though. Have you seen Arn's hair? It's laughably bad.

 

I think it is safest for Bioware to work on planet assets first. Fewer people to piss off if they screw up, and they have a long history of screwing up.

Strongly disagree. That would just make our characters look out of place in the old content rather than the new.

And if they update the (starter) planets first your old characters will also stand out negatively in new/updated content so...same issue? Actually not the same, as updating character models first would mitigate your concern much better because the environments are viewed at a MUCH greater distance than character faces. So even if outdated, the far-away perspective masks the detail of sorroundings well enough versus outdated character faces seen up close 90% of the time Edited January 16, 2022 by Pietrastor

Agreed! The cinematics are the strength of the game, so it only makes sense to focus on textures that involve our character looks more so than planet textures. Armors is one they could do without any concerns about ruining established character look.

 

Totally agree, there are so many nice older armor sets that could really use a texture update. Plus: It gets harder and harder to mix and match newer armor sets with the older ones because of that.

 

I'm a bit on the fence about updating the looks of our character faces, mostly because I am so used to and don't want to change them but a slight resolution update would sure be nice, as long as it's not too much. But I'd rather they bomb us with more options - new scars, hair. eye and skin colors, facial tattoos and jewelry/piercings etc.

I totally agree too. Starter planets... They are the first thing we see BUT it's really short.

I 100% agree with this. It has been needing an update for years now. I was running through just the normal kotfe stuff and it looked like my character was from a xbox 360 game and arcann was from a made somewhere within this decade game. It legitimately looks like our characters are made out of playdoh lol

+ 1 for all of this

+1 they literally are teasing with the outfit preview. I mean maybe I'm the only one that can see more detail there.

https://i.imgur.com/iT2FwZ2.png

then please DON'T overdo it. No one wants a Mek-Sha style "pretty and super laggy experience" on starter worlds.

 

Agree with everything, even with someone suggesting to keep old and new with the chance to switch.

But please, please, no more lag and stuttering. I don't wanna leave the game atm, but change pc only to play... Well not my more important priority... And already lost blade & soul after the graphical upgrade/update.

Actually the fleet... Maybe not. It's already laggy enough.

 

But character skins and textures? HELL YES. And fix buggy hair too (and add more).

And if they update the (starter) planets first your old characters will also stand out negatively in new/updated content so...same issue? Actually not the same, as updating character models first would mitigate your concern much better because the environments are viewed at a MUCH greater distance than character faces. So even if outdated, the far-away perspective masks the detail of sorroundings well enough versus outdated character faces seen up close 90% of the time

 

I didn't see this reply when it was originally posted, but I'm dreading the threatened update of the starter planets. Not that a graphical update in itself is bad, but the performance on the more recent planets is so bad for me that if they make the whole game like that I will no longer be able to play.

I didn't see this reply when it was originally posted, but I'm dreading the threatened update of the starter planets. Not that a graphical update in itself is bad, but the performance on the more recent planets is so bad for me that if they make the whole game like that I will no longer be able to play.

 

At some point, EA either needs to cut loose 15+year old machines as well as the $500 i3 and Celeron pieces of crap you can buy at Wal-Mart and update, or complaints about eye-bleed graphics quality issues will never end. I built my computer in 2014 but had the forethought to future-proof it by making it as robust as I could, and I've upgraded it along the way.

 

Besides that, if you're running Windows 10, in a couple years that will reach End of Life, so if you're computer isn't robust enough now to run Windows 11, graphical updates in SWTOR probably isn't your biggest problem.

 

EA split Sims4 into a "Legacy" 32-bit version and basically froze its development, and then marched on with a 64-bit version. The 64-bit version is still DX9, but at least they preserved playability for people on ancient machines, to an extent, with the Legacy version.

 

Sims5 has been confirmed. I hope it's DX10+.

 

If I want to keep playing games as they modernize, if I ever expect to run Win 11, I'll need a completely new system soon. I can't afford it right now. But you sure as hell won't see me begging EA not to update and improve the graphical experience even for the games I do play. That would be just selfish to hold back great experiences for the people who can.

Edited April 8, 2022 by xordevoreaux