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Star Wars: The Old Republic: A Return to Story for 2015
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
During this weekend's Star Wars: The Old Republic Cantina event being held at PAX South, Bioware distributed a letter penned by Bruce MacLean. In it, MacLean lays out more details about the team's plans for 2015, including a return to story and each character's personal journey throughout the game. The letter has yet to be officially published, but several sites have copies on hand and have shared the information contained within.
MacLean begins the letter by revisiting the four pillars on which SWTOR is built: combat, progression, exploration, and story and that the game has sought to bring players the best of both RPGs and MMOs. He acknowledges that the emphasis since launch has been the latter and giving players a fantastic multiplayer component.
2015, however, will see a return to story and each player's progression through the game world.
Shadow of Revan was just the beginning. In 2015, we are committed to bring you more character driven adventures in the Old Republic universe. You're going to see a unified story with themes that unite our eight classes. Everyone is a veteran from the galactic civil war with a complicated past and uncertain future. You'll see a greater emphasis on your character's personal story and on the choices that you make. I don't want to say too much more since we're in the midst of development, but what we have planned really gets back to the Star Wars fantasy at the heart of our game.
Our plan is to deliver two major updates with this new story direction later this year.
In the interim, the team will deliver two hard mode Flashpoints, the start of PvP season 4, a new system called the "outfit designer", a new stronghold, and hints of yet more things to come.
Want to read the full letter? Check it out at Massively.
Comments
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
" the four pillars on which SWTOR is built: combat, progression, exploration, and story"... exploration was a pillar? If so, that pillar was never built. It's good to see they are bringing back more choices for the story though.
"You're going to see a unified story with themes that unite our eight classes."
Does this mean the classes are all being homogenized into one story? It seems like it. I don't really blame them though, since it's probably too costly to develop for 4 class stories (it's not really 8).
exploration was quite fun with the Datacrons, still one of the most fun activities. Haven´t played it in a while.
I´d hope they will build future worlds less tunneled, more open world. How are the new planets in the expansion?
I recently returned to give SWTOR another try. Very disappointing, to say the least.
I really hate the new Discipline system that replaced the old skill trees. The optional choices are dull, weak and uninteresting. The 3 main disciplines just give you pre-packaged builds that don't always work well. It has all the signs of being thrown together quickly without much creativity.
I have a ton of characters in their 20s and 30s and 40s. But the low level zones are dead now after the misguided 12 x XP period that pushed everybody to zoom to high level at super speed. Low level crafting is dead.
And the best thing I can say about SWTOR's vaunted stories is that they are better than watching TV. They are fairly well-written interactive cartoons. But you are totally on rails - you can go the whole game making all the "evil" choices or else making all the "good" choices and, in the end, the story on rails takes you to the exact same place.
So this guy is blowing smoke. SWTOR has less exploration and role-playing than any MMO I've ever played.
At this point, SWTOR just feels like it's living out it's last few years by milking the fanatic fan-base with both subscriptions and a heavy handed cashshop.
in the words of the great taylor swift the kingslayer: "and the players gonna play play play play and the haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate"
SWTOR is fine. Ive been playing since beta tests and I can say the game has had its up and downs but is really growing and getting better with time. If you are on the fence about it, right now is as good a time as ever to return. btw..here is a hint. If you wanna just do story stuff dont sub. If you want to exp the full game..sub. Simple as that.
For the empire.
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
And then what? Are they going to nerf the story content to the point of nonexistence ??
Yeah....EA/Bio can go smoke bad crack...they have far worse problems still yet to fix from their last "expansion".
SWTOR is not fine....when a company starts resorting to bait and switch tactics they are not doing good to their customers or their product.
I sure as hell wouldn't come on other forums saying they are doing well.
There are many , MANY areas they have to improve on right now. Something they are most definitely not doing.
No fixes to raid bugs , lag performance, ...and many more...let's not forget less support for pvp and the continued balancing issues not to mention the weird bugs that affect other areas of the game( pve ship mods effecting pvp ship matches??)..yeah doing fine....sell it to some one else.
Sell what? There is nothing to sell. The game has bugs just like every other mmo in the history of the genre. The bugs will be fixed. This usually takes a while when xpacs come out, because they have to keep patching and every patch adds a change that may or may not play well with other patches for some people. I have personally never had a "pve ship mod affect pvp ship matches" btw what pve ship mods are you putting on your "GSF" ship? you realize thats not the same as your pve ship or have you not played the game at all and are just spewing bs because you think its 2011?
I am not saying the game is perfect. Its not even my favorite game to play. But it is one of the better MMOs on the market and yes its doing fine. Doing fine means "healthy community + devs are adding content and trying to make the game as smooth as possible for players" Outside of wow TOR is financially doing better than most mmos chalk it up to the CS if you want, the point remains the game is doing fine and will continue to do so for some time. You sound like you are prob one of those 2011 "this game will fail in 12 months people"
Have you read the patch notes recently? Do you ever read them? There is your proof of them improving those "many areas" you speak of.
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
Returned last year to ToR and I can honselty say that it was my MMO of 2014. Had a blast, loved the story, even enjoyed the PvP.
I am happy that the game is doing well and they will continue to expand the stories. Though I hope they don't forget about PvP.
I do wish they would do an overhaul of the space missions. At this point they are so slow paced that they are boring. My suggestion is take Star Conflict, reskin it and add it as the space missions=)
exactly. Ive been saying the same thing since tor beta to the same people. TOR is fine and will continue to grow. Stop comparing it to wow..that game has a decade of work done to it. TOR will be fine.
BTW: some of you may remember early 2012 when i called everything that TOR could add in the future to improve the game. Mostly Everything that I said came true. I am the savior! BOW TO ME AND SERVE A TRUE SITH!!
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/352376/page/1
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
Except one MAJOR fact,it is not your personal story,it is one THEY designed.They made the dialogue,they decide when you can enter a room,it is exactly like a single player game design.
Your personal story would be one that you create as you play through the game ,hopefully with others.Personally after about halfway through ,i got tired of THEIR stories because they were always the exact same conspiracy theory idea and on BOTH sides good and evil,so not even creative there.
What the game really NEEDS is a totally updated new combat design and class changes to make it fun.I actually felt like i was playing Wiz 101 just waddling back n forth quest to quest with no reason other than a push to get levels and it never felt fun.
If they allowed the mobs in game to roam and not be tied to groups of 1- 3 all the time and create a better AI that allows them to move about more realistic ,it would go along way.
I would like to see a LOT more areas with room to setup a party for SINGLE encounters that are very tough and need a party.The problem is the small party size hardly feels like a party.I think there lies the problem,the entire game is created too much like a single player game and yet to play it we login to the internet and online servers,why when only 2% of the game cater to that?
I really i mean REALLY wanted to like this game, i go way back as a Star wars fan,heck i watched the original in the family station wagon lol.The game just does not have that EPIC feeling not even close it plays too generic.I did however enjoy some of the areas in cities and some of the open assets as well,even still it has the look that it was going for an EPIC feel then got rushed to cut down costs.
Oh and thr crafting again feels cheap and rushed,i do not like automated game play EVER in my games,i want full 100% control of what i or my npc buddy does.Example in FFXI i could raise a nPC buddy but i also sort of controlled her,she was by my side.However in Crafting in SWTOR you just magically send her off somewhere and you really never do anything,it is just automated it is a real lazy design approach.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Ya exploration was not even a factor at all because your entire game play revolved around following markers over npc heads and on a map.So you were basically hand held to each new area,that is not exploration nor discovery.I mentioned this several times now ...a SINGLE player game design,it never has the feel of YOUR personal game.
The single player game design is what MOST developers suffer from,they simply cannot think outside that old school box they grew up on playing single player games.What is that came in the jungle setting..hmm Marvel comics game...bah can't remember ,i think some Swedish guys made it.Anyhow it suffered the exact same problem,the entire design was based on single player and not multiplayer.
If you want to know what SWTOR SHOULD have been like ....EPIC gameplay
This was created for a very old console game FFXI.That is what t SWTOR should have done,create invasions on the cities,then have the military join in as well as real players for some great epic fun.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
You're right. I got my math wrong! I was only counting 8 for one faction only.
"being held at PAX South"
Can anyone translate?
Is this a server name or the name of a building or the name of a gathering of some sorts?
What an odd way to start an article.
It seems, though, that the only content they're regularly adding is this MOBA-style, minimal effort stuff.
I applaud them for trying to bring story back into the game, but is it a case of too little too late?
In the words of the great Moody Blues....."(K)NIGHTS in WHITE satin."
The story is the only one thing everyone can agree is worth it to play this game.
Basically more of the same.
no mention of;
1. Pazaak or card or holo chess mini games
2. No swoop racing (apparently their engine can't handle it)
3. No day night cycles for a sci if fantasy that's epic to have (they lied about it being complicated since the 'planets' are just flat areas, and so the cycle would just be from one side of the map to the other and resetting the process to repeat - im guessing the real reason for not putting it in, is the engine cant handle it - or its part of their vision that korriban should be a certain light of the day 24/7)
4. Space combat not integrated to pve progression
5. No mounted combat
6. Pvp is out of balance for classes. Competitiveness for a game that has a gear grind per class locks players into under valued classes for Pvp.
7. No gambling
8. No player bounties (wasted development on event which is too easy)
9. No npc rep grind ( wasted development on achievement system). Relevant to open world if it was an in depth mmo.
10. Almost non existent trophy system to decorate house with. Bounties, Pvp pve and raids.
11. No Player created content on public test server for duel arenas among other possibilities
12. No Music creating
13. No mention of wz maps. Large Pvp encounters that were promised for illum. But ofc they can't do that because of the engine limitations.
14. More classes
and takes them too long to add races. There should be 30 races to choose from to play with.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
Umm...no, people actually play this game and also pay for it because of the name "Star Wars". Let's face it if this game had a name like "Soul of Galaxy" or "conflict in galaxy", this one would have gone bankrupt on their 1st year.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
Smile
That outfit designer has me intrigued. More customization's never a bad thing!
And of course more personal stories, woot!
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
truth
Having such massive focus on class story allways made SWTOR feel less like an MMO. Also it makes it near imposible to ever implement a new class.
Personly I allways felt the heavy focus on class story was a bad idea. Locking 3/4 of your players from doing certain quests just doesn't seem viable in the long run.
I wanted more focus on faction story and planet story. I wanted to learn about the lore via quests too and not only via lore objects.
Companion stories might be ok if they weren't locked to class. Not a huge fan of companions though.
3.0 was pretty much a disappointment. Personly I play the game less now than I did before 3.0. The fleet are pretty much silent after ultimate coms were removed from old operation. Not that I don't agree that the rewards for running old content was way too good, but atm it's just not enough for anyone to care.