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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Update 1.3 and Beyond
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
One of the most compelling features that shipped with the Star Wars: The Old Republic v1.2 patch was the Legacy System. We had the chance to catch up with Daniel Erickson to talk about the Legacy System and other topics around v1.2 and upcoming v1.3 and also a bit about what comes next. Check it out!
MMORPG: Of all the features and additions introduced to the game with Update 1.2, which ones have turned out to be the most popular with players? What are they saying?
Daniel Erickson: There are a ton of smaller features that players loved with 1.2 but by far, Legacy was the big hit. Players are making all sorts of new species-class combinations, rolling out their Legacy powers and flying around with their rocket boots. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
Read more of Mike Bitton's Star Wars: The Old Republic - Update 1.2 and Beyond.
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Comments
Daniel Erickson is a cocky buffoon and poor addition to the dev team.
I remember reading his "what players really want guide" a few years before the launch of SWTOR. I wish I could find it again to link. It was completely off the mark.
I remember when he was asked a simple question during one of the SWTOR conventions. He was asked how big the worlds are and how long it would take to walk across them. Daniel, knowing that they are the smallest and most linear maps ever made, starts tap-dancing like a politician.
I remember when someone brought up the importance of space exploration, as space is a big part of the Star Wars Universe. He replies, "When did Han ever tell Chewie, 'Hey, let's just go fly off and dick around in space.'" The convention laughs and buys his little conjuring spell. The only good thing about their terrible idea of space was the popular client-side leveling exploit. I got tired of hitting the space bar every 2 seconds.
This guy is an idiot.
But the thing is space exploration isn't a big part of star wars, that's star trek... If anything politics and power is a bigger part of star wars than exploration.
That being said this mmo should have had a political system in it from the start.
Working at a snail's pace to introduce superfluous content while the basics aren't even in yet... This game should just die already.
Again: Why is mmorpg and ToR so proud of the legacy system? The game adds essentially NOTHING in terms of content, it's minor fluff for people that enjoy re-rolling alts and minor emotes.
Seriously, I've never seen a more underwhelming game feature touted so much. What ToR needs to do is STOP focusing on the legacy system and start focusing on real, solid, end game content.
Why the MMORPG writer refuses to ask any good questions is beyond me.. And of course they refuse to touch the large population drop in game. Would love to hear a question about Ilum..
If anything they are going to spend the first 6 month after launch to patch and add little stuff, they should ask the RIFT guys how quick content and patch releases is done...
no wonder Ea layoff some, because they see that the room for sub growth isn't there. So maybe they will fall back to the 500k minimum they need to turn a profit.
You must not read the books. The characters are always exploring space or on the way flying to a destination getting stuck in situations that require some form of space combat.
Really? If Space wasn't such a big thing in the Star Wars lore, why do we have endless amounts of spaceship toys (x-wings, a-wings, y-wings, ties, tie intercepts, falcons, slave ships, and many other iconic ships), video games (Rogue Squadron, X-Wing Vs. Tie etc), and novels.
Lando blasting through the second Death Star before it explodes...
Luke blasting apart the first Death Star seconds before it is about to pillage the rebels...
Han blasting Vader's TIE before Luke gets crushed...
Han navigating the asteroid field in order to get away from the emps...
Obi-Wan's space battle with Jango Fett...
Han hiding the falcon on the Star Destroyer...
The inside of the falcon itself, e.g., Luke & Han fighting off TIEs, R2 & Chewie's last second hyper-drive fixes....
Anakin & Obi's long space scene against General Grievs space army...
The beginning of EVERY STAR WARS FILM...
Many many other scenes...
Yeah. Space isn't that big in Star Wars...
........
If you're trying to argue the word "exploration", then by that logic, why have exploration on the planet? Even on the land, the characters all knew where they were going. You can't have a MMO without exploration, else you become the laughing stock of the genre: SWTOR.
Come on, you must be a Bioware employee if you don't think space is a huge part of Star Wars. After seeing how GW2 dynamic events system works, i can only wonder what a SW mmo would be like, if they had that type of system not only for the ground game but the space game as well. Being able to hop into your ship and just go off into whatever direction and come upon a huge battle between the Empire or the Republic. So many possibliities that could have been but now are only a after thought about a game that in my eyes is the worse SW game ever to be made and released.
Okay, I am sad to have to mediate on a dead game thread, but you have missed the point being that space "exporation" is not big in Star Wars. And it isn't. Period. Does that prmote the on rails feces that they made in this game? No. But exploration isn't a big part of the active Star Wars experience.
All the good shit happens once they land or around an imprtant planet, station, etc. All of the situations you explain are actually taking place at sepcific locations - not in the middle of exploration. They are intercepted on their way somewhere or almost there in the Star Wars universe. And that makes total sense. In a desert, the only place you should expect to find people reliably is an oasis of some sort. Even in a city at night, you have to go to a night club or other place to reliably bump into the people you want to see/meet. The hyperspace lanes, etc are not being mapped by our heroes, they are jumped onto then off of. Think the sky melting into the long star line in Star Wars movies. That is a reief. it means you are out of engagement. And not using those lanes would mean fuel use beyond all ability.
That DOESN'T mean SWTOR couldn't give us a bunch of relays (like ME) and let us choose where to go then choose what angle to use to get to the ship we are attacking/lead the person we are escorting. The rails thing is crap. BUT Star Wars isn't about exporation of space. It is about interacting with the worlds and organizations within known space. And that could have been done WAY better - including the option to trail off and die when you run our of fuel since you missed the hyperspace lane.
EDIT - Typos
Someone please make a good MMO.
You gotta wonder if the SWG folks are secretly ROFL at all this.
Well, duh. That's because everything in 1.2 should have been part of the game prior to launch.
"Additionally Character Transfers will help get friends together and let people move to servers they think better fit their playstyle."
-->
"Additionally Character Transfers will help get *people* together and let people move to servers they think *still have other people on them*."
There, I fixed it for you.
Too bad he didn't voice why players are clamoring for transfers or merges. I hope they at least internally acknowledge it!
Thx for the back up... Person just fail to see "SPACE EXPLORATION" never have been star wars main focus.. The toys some mention are just there for merchandise purpose, and those where the cool stuff.
Space was just put in there to show they are traveling from one point to the next only to be ambush or used to take part in a battle. In the books space exploration doesn't even last that long to be considered important...
That being said, is the on rails stuff they did good, that depends on who you ask.. it could have been way better, that's for sure..
At the end of the day if a political system or dynamic events were in this game it would add much more variety, and let everyone have a say in the politics of the world not just high levels..
It seems to me that you are both argueing a moot point and agreeing on the overall premise: What ToR did, it did underhwlmeingly. Could they have done more with space? absolutly, Should they have? Absolutely. PvP, Legacy, Story, every aspect of this game has been underwhelmingly done. Yes, they have many, many aspects from different MMO's, they just seem to have done a poor job implementing nearly all of them. ToR went for quantity over quality...
3 updates in and they are STILL focusing on features and content that should have been in the game at launch.
The "and Beyond" does not look promising.
Yup, things that beta testers brought up over a year ago, voiced concerns and let them know these were features people would want in the game from day 1. They put the features on the "wall of crazy" which is they're code words for "Crap we'll give them as updates/patches to make them think we're listening to them".
Lack of UI custimization
Lack of LFG system
Lack of a dye system
Lack of endgame
Lack of world pvp.
Lack of high level copying for testing (This one they could never get right, we got high levels once, they broke a lot of stuff and in less than 2 days they were taken away and never given to us again) They just could not figure out how to do it, and still can't do it for PTS.
Lack of liveliness in npcs/casinos/cantinas.
Slow loading screens/traveling and loading screens
There were so many things brought up during beta and the testers were brushed off by BW and mocked by other testers that thought BW could do no wrong.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
Pre-ordered, played, unsubscribed. Laughed at BW/EA email begging me to return for a free month - game's not worth playing even when free. Tic-tac-toe has better game play and is better designed that SWTOR. Wait. Why are we still talking about this game anyway? Is there a tie-in with 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking?
Not that I like to see the demise of any mmo game, however when SOE jacked SWG by introducing that god awful NGE system, it's was lights out for me and many other veteran players that were around since beta.
Then came the SWG NGE veterans that defended the theme park style mmo and said get over it, your Pre CU SWG is dead and move on already.
They should of just left SWG alone and we wouldn't be in this mess. Your going to get players saying the NGE system was on the right track (yeah, right track to a theme park mmo to utter failure in which it spawns SWToR).
With SWToR I knew it wasn't going to be a SWG 2.0 and still remember the masses of SWToR fans that defended this style of gameplay.
I am a big Star Wars fan and even gave SWToR a try just because the love I have for Star Wars. It's a love hate relationship with me and this EA/BW game.
Am I laughing, yep, but I wish the game the best for these hard times.
"1.2 was huge. It was almost like re-shipping the game but without the ability to wipe and start over"
Umm..Wut?
Who does this guy think he is fooling? Seriously...I dont even think a fanboy could spin the derp out of that one.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
I joined because a lot of the old Eclipse community was going to get back together.
Then we decided to go to two different servers.
Then we all came to the realization the game sucked.
most of the old Eclipse community isn't on Port Nowhere or vulkar highway.
Erickson is a clown. He's one of the major problems with the development of the game. Bioware deserves everything they get from letting a jackass like that have that much involvement in a game's design.
___________________________
Have flask; will travel.
damn this is disappointing. That guy needs to be fired.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
I don't normally comment in threads these days, but this hits it right on the head for me - there are still minor, but important, pieces of the game that have been broken since launch, and yet they're still pushing relatively superfluous content (which, incidentally, requires constant play to activate.)
The timing of layoffs, combined with a game update that once again promises to push superfluous, "hamster wheel" gimmicks instead of resolving issues around broken content or gameplay, makes me want to run for the hills. I really, really want this game to work - I'm a big Star Wars fan, and I still miss pre-NGE Star Wars Galaxies - and I'm tired of going from one half-baked MMO to another.
He's actually been in the Bioware SWTOR team for a long time...he was just promoted to lead developer recently by Bioware, hence the public interviews you are seeing more of from him.
Actually, 1.3 will be a real tonic for SWTOR. It will add a lot of gameplay features such as a good LFG tool and player transfers. PLayers may troll that these features should have been in at the start, but that's just torlling. Bioware designed the game to lack a PvE tool to try and force players to interact with each other without a group finder in PvE, and they logically didn't have transfers at launch as it was important to give servers their own identity.
Patch 1.4 is going to be a big content update, so SWTOR should be in good shape as an mmo.