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The Thrill is Gone


MishaCantu

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It used to be that I got excited about new content releases. I couldn't wait to see what new stuff awaited my characters or what new interactions I would get with my companions. Yes, it was the same for every other trooper, knight, agent, or inquisitor, BUT, it felt like MY story.

 

Now it's just a gear grind like every other MMO hack and slash game, just with lightsabers. It's boiled down to the Empire's story or the Republic's story. Where is My story? Where is my companion? Why haven't I at least gotten a letter?

 

I understand that voice acting is expensive. I get it. Surely it can't be that hard to use companion flags and write a simple text message to insert into the game. Sure, every other class would get the same letter, but in my mind, it was MY letter.

 

Case in point. I have a male smuggler toon who romanced Akaavi. No, she's not a popular companion, but my poor smuggler never even got one line of acknowledgement, or, heaven forbid, a letter.

 

There's the occasional (flirt) option with new characters that will go nowhere. I don't even bother. To me, they are just inserts to give the appearance of something new. Our original companions are simply battle pets now. Even the dev's beloved Lana has gone mute.

 

I'm not complaining about the lack of content, but the lack of content IN the content. I understand that this is a year long celebration with stuff being dribbled to us throughout the year. I'm pretty patient. The problem, for me at least, is that there's nothing personal any more. It's not MY story it's just one big battle with bit players.

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It's been like this since Fallen Empire (4.0). I've played different classes back to back through those chapters and it's like 95% exactly the same. Rarely, there is a single line that's different. The rest of the time there is no difference, the exact same dialogue spoken by all the classes.
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It used to be that I got excited about new content releases. I couldn't wait to see what new stuff awaited my characters or what new interactions I would get with my companions. Yes, it was the same for every other trooper, knight, agent, or inquisitor, BUT, it felt like MY story.

 

Now it's just a gear grind like every other MMO hack and slash game, just with lightsabers. It's boiled down to the Empire's story or the Republic's story. Where is My story? Where is my companion? Why haven't I at least gotten a letter?

 

I understand that voice acting is expensive. I get it. Surely it can't be that hard to use companion flags and write a simple text message to insert into the game. Sure, every other class would get the same letter, but in my mind, it was MY letter.

 

Case in point. I have a male smuggler toon who romanced Akaavi. No, she's not a popular companion, but my poor smuggler never even got one line of acknowledgement, or, heaven forbid, a letter.

 

There's the occasional (flirt) option with new characters that will go nowhere. I don't even bother. To me, they are just inserts to give the appearance of something new. Our original companions are simply battle pets now. Even the dev's beloved Lana has gone mute.

 

I'm not complaining about the lack of content, but the lack of content IN the content. I understand that this is a year long celebration with stuff being dribbled to us throughout the year. I'm pretty patient. The problem, for me at least, is that there's nothing personal any more. It's not MY story it's just one big battle with bit players.

 

Well said.

 

And I might add:

There is a growing concern that the current level of companion "participation" is broken as well. This has in turn added another level of "unpleasantness" to the game that simply was unnecessary. Add to that gear for the game is now spitefully rationed out with the exception of a handful while all but totally ignoring feedback from virtually every other resource directly connected to SWTOR.

 

If this is truly "how things are intended to be played" ... someone is just flat messed up.

 

** No! I don't expect the right people to listen. They are listening and preforming for their audience as intended (?)

** NO!! I don't expect the bug fest to be cleaned up.

** NO!!! I don't expect that there will be significant changes to our companions. Our choices and interactions with them has been gradually pushed to the side and are for the most part simply a non-interactive "Battle Pet" (as OP has indicated).

 

And YES ... that hope has been reduced down to a sliver... and it's very brittle at that!

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So last night I finally got around to finishing the story content that came with 7.0. (Once I hit 80 mid-Manaan I had trouble getting up the enthusiasm to finish it for months.) While I finished that bit of content I was thinking about why, as a story loving player who replays the old stories constantly, I wasn't interested in LotS enough to finish on even one character.

 

The whole story on Manaan felt like a drawn out side-quest. It simply wasn't main story worthy. Maybe it will prove important later? I would have preferred it if the Selkath had been speaking Selkatha, her basic was jarring (I know a lot of people hate reading subtitles, so I will give the developers a pass on that.) The story in Ruins of Nul was short yes, but it also felt bland. It didn't help that I couldn't really remember what led up to it.

Capturing Malgus in story mode was very anti-climactic

I just don't think flashpoints are a good medium for the main story.

 

The cutscenes clocked in at around 45 minutes. Of those 45 minutes a significant amount of time was spent watching our character walk around, sometimes just standing there looking at things. I'm sure the reason was for a "more cinematic experience", but it just came across as filler to me (and I expect they wanted a cheap way to drag out the cutscenes knowing people would time them.) Then, when there were actual conversation scenes, there were very, very few choices for the player to make. For an "interactive story" there was hardly any actual interaction.

 

And finally, I just don't care about Arn or Tau. It was not enjoyable spending so much time with the wooden angsty twins and having flirt options with them is just a cruel reminder of all the loves we've lost. (Arn is just eww! He needs a pass from a better artist so it doesn't look like his hair was cut out of a magazine and pasted on.) Lana was fine, but I really, really missed Theron.

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^From above.^

I just don't think flashpoints are a good medium for the main story.

 

This.

Stop hiding story behind group content.

FPs are one thing but you used to stick story stuff behind Ops too.

Thought you had stopped doing that.

Edited by Rammboo
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So last night I finally got around to finishing the story content that came with 7.0. (Once I hit 80 mid-Manaan I had trouble getting up the enthusiasm to finish it for months.) While I finished that bit of content I was thinking about why, as a story loving player who replays the old stories constantly, I wasn't interested in LotS enough to finish on even one character.

 

The whole story on Manaan felt like a drawn out side-quest. It simply wasn't main story worthy. Maybe it will prove important later? I would have preferred it if the Selkath had been speaking Selkatha, her basic was jarring (I know a lot of people hate reading subtitles, so I will give the developers a pass on that.) The story in Ruins of Nul was short yes, but it also felt bland. It didn't help that I couldn't really remember what led up to it.

Capturing Malgus in story mode was very anti-climactic

I just don't think flashpoints are a good medium for the main story.

 

The cutscenes clocked in at around 45 minutes. Of those 45 minutes a significant amount of time was spent watching our character walk around, sometimes just standing there looking at things. I'm sure the reason was for a "more cinematic experience", but it just came across as filler to me (and I expect they wanted a cheap way to drag out the cutscenes knowing people would time them.) Then, when there were actual conversation scenes, there were very, very few choices for the player to make. For an "interactive story" there was hardly any actual interaction.

 

And finally, I just don't care about Arn or Tau. It was not enjoyable spending so much time with the wooden angsty twins and having flirt options with them is just a cruel reminder of all the loves we've lost. (Arn is just eww! He needs a pass from a better artist so it doesn't look like his hair was cut out of a magazine and pasted on.) Lana was fine, but I really, really missed Theron.

 

So far I've taken 3 through Ruins of Nul. But it was Malgus's story, and now that it ended the way it did, I'm sure it'll be the little Jedi girl's story. The one who took the holocron in the cinematic. There's no personal reason for me to get excited. My Hero of the Galaxy character will once again be sent by the Republic or Empire to retrieve it, and maybe there'll be a (flirt) option with Rivixx or Tau. I couldn't care less, though Rivixx is a least entertaining in his own smarmy way. And yes, it is just a cruel reminder of what we've lost.

 

And yes, I miss Theron too as well as the other companions who are there but not really.

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*Shrug* I used 7.0 to re-prioritize. Instead of keeping my fingers in 7 pies, I'm mostly just doing the Bounty Hunter class story. After that, I'll get to the Consular. It's possible that I'll fiddle around with getting Cognitus into 7.0 story but the priority will be getting the two remaining toons past their class story.

 

As such, the thrill is still here....to an extent.

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^From above.^

I just don't think flashpoints are a good medium for the main story.

 

This.

Stop hiding story behind group content.

FPs are one thing but you used to stick story stuff behind Ops too.

Thought you had stopped doing that.

 

It's just a way to reduce having to make more content. Combining it all into a flashpoint saves time, money, resources etc. They don't have to make two stories this way.

 

It's lazy with no imagination.

 

I really miss being able to run through the story without it being a slog or a stress fest instead of must do <Insert fp name>, to advance the story line and then adding an additional fp outside that you can run whenever you want.

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^From above.^

I just don't think flashpoints are a good medium for the main story.

 

This.

Stop hiding story behind group content.

FPs are one thing but you used to stick story stuff behind Ops too.

Thought you had stopped doing that.

 

it's an MMO expect to do group battle stuff with story.

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The lack of story content hasn't really helped, but overall I still get excited about what's going to happen... eventually.

 

But yeah, flashpoints are getting old (especially as soloers get nothing from story flashpoints anymore). I miss the Onderon/Yavin/Rishi type of content, instead of going from Flashpoint to story zone over and over again...

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No. The moment they lock story behind group content again like they did with Oricon is the moment I quit and take my money elsewhere.

 

It's why I quit 9 years ago at Ilum.

 

That was a totally irrelevant comment anyway as the flashpoints in question are STORY MODE.

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it's an MMO expect to do group battle stuff with story.

 

MMO means Massive Multiplayer Online - it is not a law of nature to build groups and raids. It only says that many players are playing in the same environment. It could also be done with players all together fighting a world boss without being in a fixed group.

 

Also many RP players play together in a locations without in groups or raids.

 

There are many ways to play in a MMO - a good game design is when all mayor groups of player types are satisfied and the content is not designed only for a minor group of hardcore FP players or Raiders.

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I just don't think flashpoints are a good medium for the main story.

I really hope the Devs see your comment. Main story should not be a series of flashpoints (or flashpoint-like such as Ruins of Nul). I thought we were done with it after the traitor arc. Story was the one thing that made this game unique. Even KotFE/KotET gave us immersive story. The chapter format was superb

though I'm trying not to mention the mess they made of our companions during all that

 

And finally, I just don't care about Arn or Tau. It was not enjoyable spending so much time with the wooden angsty twins and having flirt options with them is just a cruel reminder of all the loves we've lost. (Arn is just eww! He needs a pass from a better artist so it doesn't look like his hair was cut out of a magazine and pasted on.) Lana was fine, but I really, really missed Theron.

I really don't care about Tau but I'm finding Arn a little more interesting after doing the 7.0 story. My distaste is reserved primarily for Anri. She is awful. And I'm getting fed up of the flirt options with all the new forced-on-us companions. They really should have written something into the game that recognises if your character is in a relationship with an existing companion and there should be an option to permanently keep that relationship for those who want and not be offered flirt options.

The two new Empire characters they added in Manaan were pointless (not to mention awfully voiced. What on earth happened there? I can't believe they spent so much time promoting them, especially as it's possible

to kill both of them.

 

I have to say since 7.0 I've hardly bothered with the game and may go preferred after my sub runs out. I used to play many alts but I've hardly looked at them since 7.0; the gear grind is just abysmal. As there's still a massive list of unfixed game issues, I can't see 7.1 with the daily area coming before July/August this year and I don't expect any more story until Dec '22 / Jan '23. On the bright side, I've been getting through my unread books and caught up on a lot of series I'd missed

Ted Lasso is fantastic!

 

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MMO means Massive Multiplayer Online - it is not a law of nature to build groups and raids. It only says that many players are playing in the same environment. It could also be done with players all together fighting a world boss without being in a fixed group.

 

Also many RP players play together in a locations without in groups or raids.

 

There are many ways to play in a MMO - a good game design is when all mayor groups of player types are satisfied and the content is not designed only for a minor group of hardcore FP players or Raiders.

 

Well said!!

+100

 

If some folks are worried about difficulty levels IMO there is a reasonable solution for that as well.

 

All of this spells time, careful planning and making available substantial content for everyone. It's not an impossible task.

 

Challenging ??? Without question.

 

A return to multiple character views of the main story / is a must. (**NOTE**) A revival of companions (and interactions with them) is needed as well. Leaving out challenging material on multiple levels would be an even larger error!!

 

Who said it would be easy?

 

One thing that any good MMO is NOT!!!!! ... a one and done release. It takes a lot of time, commitment. That was something we did see here once upon a time.

 

**NOTE** I don't think we will ever see ALL 8 return ... but there definitely needs to be more than just copy / paste responses for all characters.

 

The truth is out there !! ;)

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This is true for me too and I've been wondering what they would have to do to fix it. There are a couple other games I can point to that have creative solutions for specific issues. Genshin Impact only uses voice actors for like half of the content, for example, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. I played a stardew valley-type game called My Time at Portia that did a great job of keeping you connected with your spouse instead of just ending the story when you got married (you randomly get a quest to essentially go on a date with your spouse - nothing major, but it works great). I could go on.

 

It seems like a lot of the technology is hard to change though, so I'm not sure that creative solutions are possible with an aging game like this. We may just be stuck with the best they can do with the limits that they've got. When we get sick of it, there are other games waiting.

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MMO means Massive Multiplayer Online - it is not a law of nature to build groups and raids. It only says that many players are playing in the same environment. It could also be done with players all together fighting a world boss without being in a fixed group.

 

Also many RP players play together in a locations without in groups or raids.

 

There are many ways to play in a MMO - a good game design is when all mayor groups of player types are satisfied and the content is not designed only for a minor group of hardcore FP players or Raiders.

 

Uh... Yes it is. It's in the name. Massive Multiplayer Online. The game is meant to be played with group content in mind.

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This is true for me too and I've been wondering what they would have to do to fix it. There are a couple other games I can point to that have creative solutions for specific issues. Genshin Impact only uses voice actors for like half of the content, for example, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. I played a stardew valley-type game called My Time at Portia that did a great job of keeping you connected with your spouse instead of just ending the story when you got married (you randomly get a quest to essentially go on a date with your spouse - nothing major, but it works great). I could go on.

 

It seems like a lot of the technology is hard to change though, so I'm not sure that creative solutions are possible with an aging game like this. We may just be stuck with the best they can do with the limits that they've got. When we get sick of it, there are other games waiting.

 

You're comparing a gacha game and a animal crossing like game to swtor. Are you really nit picking the voice of a character? Does it really take you out of the game that much? And we all know the real reason people play Genshin Impact. It has to look and sound pleasing. And of course My Time at Portia is going to keep you connected to your wife. It's a single player game. Compared to how many people you connect with in the swtor? Do you want to run quest for companions you don't care for?

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You're comparing a gacha game and a animal crossing like game to swtor. Are you really nit picking the voice of a character? Does it really take you out of the game that much? And we all know the real reason people play Genshin Impact. It has to look and sound pleasing. And of course My Time at Portia is going to keep you connected to your wife. It's a single player game. Compared to how many people you connect with in the swtor? Do you want to run quest for companions you don't care for?

 

Having your Companion spouse write a love letter to you in mail is just a matter of a programmer writing it in that character's personality. For a mission while it would be nice to have the voice actors speaking to you it's enough to have programmed cinematics and plug in the class object appearance of whoever is your companion in the companion slot of the cinematic. They could even have the option of letting a player allow for a start game and end game cinematic. When you log out of the game there's a cinematic of you going into your quarters and there's your spouse companion sitting up on the bed smiling at you. Fade to black. When you log into the game the cinematic is you getting out of bed and there's your Companion spouse sleeping.

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Uh... Yes it is. It's in the name. Massive Multiplayer Online. The game is meant to be played with group content in mind.

 

Not THIS game, considering that all the story content is meant for SOLO players.

 

Which is fine by me considering how toxic most of the community is.

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Uh... Yes it is. It's in the name. Massive Multiplayer Online. The game is meant to be played with group content in mind.

 

Sorry, but Multiplayer has always meant exactly that: lots of players. It has never mattered what they happen to be doing. The MMO umbrella is vast and covers a whole lot of diversity.

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Uh... Yes it is. It's in the name. Massive Multiplayer Online. The game is meant to be played with group content in mind.

 

I says Massively MULTIPLAYER.... NOT Massively GROUP PLAYER..... MMO meas there are a lot of players in the game world at one time... NOT that they must be GROUPED to play the game... MMO"S are just as much SOLO play as GROUP play. There is no RULE that says ALL MMO'S MUST BE GROUP.....

 

MMORPG

 

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game: any story-driven online video game in which a player, taking on the persona of a character in a virtual or fantasy world, interacts with a large number of other players.

Edited by denavin
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Sorry, but Multiplayer has always meant exactly that: lots of players. It has never mattered what they happen to be doing. The MMO umbrella is vast and covers a whole lot of diversity.

I says Massively MULTIPLAYER.... NOT Massively GROUP PLAYER..... MMO meas there are a lot of players in the game world at one time... NOT that they must be GROUPED to play the game... MMO"S are just as much SOLO play as GROUP play. There is no RULE that says ALL MMO'S MUST BE GROUP.....

You'd think some people would have understood this by now, wouldn't you? :rolleyes: The people who continuously spout that to play an MMO yOu MuSt dO GrOupEd PLaY need to get in the bin with that nonsense.

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