Knights of the Eternal Throne [Expansion Discussion]

[Kithelle]

Jesus, and those dark/light rewards for the winning/losing side are pretty brutal. How on earth do they expect anyone to voluntarily join the losing side or be happy that they picked the side that loses? I literally see no benefit for the loser given the nightmare putting together groups for and tracking down the open world bosses will be. It's infinitely easier to just stack the winning side and bask in all the bonus Command experience, permanent access to the cosmetics vendor, and the dark/light tokens from Command Crates.

And yeah, hot damn that looks grindy. Easy to fill out early levels, but later levels are going to be a pain in the ass even with completing weekly quests etc. for that big bump in command experience.

I feel this is extremely appropriate

If I could I would hit like!

Looks like what ToR took from WoW this year was its RNG and grinding.

[Golden]

It's infinitely easier to just stack the winning side and bask in all the bonus Command experience, permanent access to the cosmetics vendor, and the dark/light tokens from Command Crates.

On my server there are easily 10 times more Imperials than Republic. It's probably going to be worse after this.

[Edge-]

On my server there are easily 10 times more Imperials than Republic. It's probably going to be worse after this.

Yeah, but thankfully for folks who had the misfortune of picking the faction that was ludicrously underpopulated, they can at least pick the side of the force that wins every time!

It's a silver lining, I guess : /

[WoWGoneBad]

After reading that Dulfy post...

It looks like they are FORCING Grp play now. "For group activities such as Uprising, Operations, and Flashpoints, you will be placed automatically into a group queue when you click on them." WTF... so we are not FORCED into being in a grp to do this? Is there no way to "solo" outside of KoTFE Chapters and beginning chapters? Are they removing the option to do Tacs? Or can a player just travel to these places(I know you can do this for FPs)

And then the Dark/Light losers... WOW just wow. Not only do they have to GRP to kill the WB boss, but they now have to scatter across the planet(I find it hard to call them that) and find the boss and only have a 25% chance to ENGAGE it?

Not only did they go Sub or GTFO but they killed endgame solo play it looks like.

- - - Updated - - -

Looks like what ToR took from WoW this year was its RNG and grinding.

I was thinking this too. Its like they took the Legendary grind and just added Loot Crates rather than WQs where the player has to track it down and kill it to get RNG loot.

[Edge-]

After reading that Dulfy post...

It looks like they are FORCING Grp play now. "For group activities such as Uprising, Operations, and Flashpoints, you will be placed automatically into a group queue when you click on them." WTF... so we are not FORCED into being in a grp to do this? Is there no way to "solo" outside of KoTFE Chapters and beginning chapters? Are they removing the option to do Tacs? Or can a player just travel to these places(I know you can do this for FPs)

I'm assuming tacticals are still a thing, they just fall under "flashpoints", there's no mention of any changes to tacticals this expansion. So the solo activities that already existed (daily/weekly quests etc.) continue to exist. But this expansion is very squarely aimed at multiplayer content, it's their knee jerk reaction to the last expansion pissing everyone off because it completely lacked MMO content specifically.

And then the Dark/Light losers... WOW just wow. Not only do they have to GRP to kill the WB boss, but they now have to scatter across the planet(I find it hard to call them that) and find the boss and only have a 25% chance to ENGAGE it?

Yep, there's literally zero benefit as the loser unless the rewards from the bosses are insanely good.

Not only did they go Sub or GTFO but they killed endgame solo play it looks like.

I still don't see how you're getting this. The game is adding more group content, but it's not removing any solo content beyond the usual level cap increase making older dailies/weeklies obsolete.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

SWTOR is a more shitter game now which I why I won't return. If Bioware wasn't brought by EA, this game would be x20 better

[Edge-]

SWTOR is a more shitter game now which I why I won't return. If Bioware wasn't brought by EA, this game would be x20 better

BioWare is responsible for the majority of the decisions that have been detrimental to the longterm health and success of the game.

Story focus that they've had to pivot away from class stories and find a way to merge both factions together into one awkward storyline? All BioWare.
Decision to use the early beta version of the Hero Engine and finish it in house, causing massive technical problems that still persist today? All BioWare.
Copying a huge amount of WoW's design and bragging about how they were smart in doing so? All BioWare.
Launching and thinking it would take people 3-5 months to hit level 50, rather than a matter of days? All BioWare.
Launching with little in the way of endgame content so folks quickly ran out of things to do? All BioWare.

All using money EA gave them that amounted to, by all estimates, the biggest budget for a MMO ever (estimates for development/marketing in total range from around $250-300M USD).

I'm sick of people giving BioWare a pass out of fandom and blaming everything on EA. EA can be extremely shitty, there's no argument there. But they're not responsible for literally every bad thing that happens to studios under their watch. Sometimes, they are because they aggressively pushed a game in a direction it was never really intended to go and had unrealistic expectations (hello Dead Space 3!). Other times, they give developers plenty of leeway but the developers screw the pooch either because they were overly ambitious and didn't have their ambitions checked to make sure they could realistically achieve them, either in terms of time or budget (this has happened with BioWare before).

If BioWare was never purchased by EA, they'd have never made this game. EA negotiated the rights to the property for the game (and subsequently the rights to almost all Star Wars games on console/PC for the next 4ish years IIRC), EA fronted the massive development/marketing budget, and EA threw their weight behind it. BioWare wouldn't have had a fraction of the resources available to them on their own that EA provided, and I doubt EA would have been terribly inclined to publish/distribute a large scale MMO like this on behalf of a third party developer. The last MMO I can think of they were involved with before this was TSW, and that was primarily to handle distribution and help with marketing. And that didn't go swimmingly for them either.

[Witchblade77]

so. many. bugs. quest xp bugs. general quest bugs. bugs everywhere.

you know... its kinda fun how the game is mostly aimed at solo players, but at the same time they are trying to shove grouping into everything while simultaneously nerfing group rewards for at least some of the content and I just... I don't even know. I tried playing it for a bit, got too frustrated with bugs and ended up just randomly exploring in ESO instead.

as for EA being responsible or not responsible? IMO, they are the ones who pushed the worst of micro-transactions. gameplay changes? that's all bioware.

[NoiseTank13]

I wouldn't even say the CM is in the top 10 of things wrong with SWTOR atm. But yeah, Bioware fucked the pooch hard.

[WoWGoneBad]

DvL event Achievement COMPLETE wipe to all players.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showp...81&postcount=2

WTF..... Just...... wow..............................

So all those players that spent WEEKs if not MONTHs working to complete the ENTIRE event are just assed out. This is a slap in the face for Achive hunters as stated in the thread. I myself did it just for the kudos of doing something and even I am a bit pissed.

[Edge-]

DvL event Achievement COMPLETE wipe to all players.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showp...81&postcount=2

WTF..... Just...... wow..............................

So all those players that spent WEEKs if not MONTHs working to complete the ENTIRE event are just assed out. This is a slap in the face for Achive hunters as stated in the thread. I myself did it just for the kudos of doing something and even I am a bit pissed.

You still get the rewards on Friday, so all the hard work is still rewarded. But yeah, it sucks ass for achievement hunters.

Apparently it's something about, "in case we run the event again later" (because it went over so well with the community the first time!), but I'm much more inclined to believe that it's due to their inability to remove the event from the servers without also removing the achievements. I'd put money that there was no way to remove one but not the other unless they did some major technical work to their backend, and they never planned for it and can't be bothered to deal with it now.

Glad I only did a small amount of it before getting bored/frustrated, because I'd be furious if I was an achievement hunter who dumped hundreds of hours into getting those achievements.

[WoWGoneBad]

Glad I only did a small amount of it before getting bored/frustrated, because I'd be furious if I was an achievement hunter who dumped hundreds of hours into getting those achievements.

Yea, I myself spent about 4 weeks in the HM FP ques trying to get them all. I had a HELLA LOT of bads that could not clear content and I was the Tank for fast pops(yeah.... right).

I mean yea we get the rewards on Friday so I dont really care "that" much about it, but.....geez BW each time you do something new you remove more of your player base.

Hell I was on Fleet today on EbonHawk and it was only about 100 players TOTAL. No second Instance. I get that it was morning and people playing the story but..... When I log in tonight I dont expect to see more than 200+ at Fleet and that is a "positive" guess as I can get.

I just REALLY HATE how disenfranchised BW has made me become aboutthis game..... I absolutely LOVED my commando running around the Galaxy Defending the Republic. But now the Republic is gone and I have no purpose...... To hell with the Zakuulians I want to kill more Imps and Sith

[Edge-]

I just REALLY HATE how disenfranchised BW has made me become aboutthis game..... I absolutely LOVED my commando running around the Galaxy Defending the Republic. But now the Republic is gone and I have no purpose...... To hell with the Zakuulians I want to kill more Imps and Sith

We cannot be friends anymore, I don't associate with people who enjoyed the Commando class : 3

But yeah I'm seeing that sentiment quite a bit this expansion from folks who have been hardcore fans since beta and been subbed/playing since launch. They're finding that they no longer like the direction things are going and are unhappy with a lot of the changes (specifically the Command system). I'm just a casual player who's largely been a critic of SWTOR over the years, and it's damn heartbreaking to see people who are finding that they no longer feel very welcome in the MMO that they've called home for years.

And to your last sentiment, extremely hell yes. I can't wait for this story arc to be done, and I'm hopeful that BioWare can find some way to bring back the traditional republic vs. empire storyline. Even if it's not all out war (like it was at the end of the class stories), they need something. Hell, I'd even take the nonsense Shadow of Reven, "Well, we're just temporarily working together to fight this bigger baddy but we're still going to be shitty to each other while we do it." nonsense, and I thought that was a big stretch. Because that at least acknowledges the conflict between the to remains ongoing, despite them temporarily suspending overt hostilities.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Won't lie, the ending of the expansion was BAD.ASS.
MASSIVE SPOILER BELOW
This is most likely the end of SWTOR since Valkorian is dead ...forever and the Empire/Republic is at peace [assuming the LS ending is canon]

[Alvito]

Honestly, in this case I think it was less about copying WoW (which they've been unabashedly proud of during the development before the game launched) and more a development necessity. They simply didn't have the time/budget to continue two separate stories even. That's why even Shadow of Revan merged the two stories more or less into one, after Makeb managed to keep Imp/Republic storlines going. But at least with Revan we got a lot more of "Star Wars" via the continued conflict between the two sides and the unease of the temporary truce between them.

Now...it's just so bleh. And the fact that the faction war is all but gone causes plenty of other issues. The game has always been a compete and utter disaster when you try to resolve the conflicts that exist between narrative and gameplay/design from start to finish. It's one of the reasons why I wish they'd have never gone the story focused route. With a property like Star Wars, it's too potentially restrictive if you want to pretend like your story matters and especially if you want to make it canon (like SWTOR initially was before Disney).



Yep, at this point if they wanted to pull the lazy plot device they pulled during KotFE and freeze us in carbonite again, this time for a few hundred years, just to get the story back on track...I'd be totally alright with that. Zakuul is probably one of the least interesting storylines I think I've encountered in the Star Wars universe.

I liked the the new spin on things at first. Playing it on multiple characters isn't going to happen though.

[Edge-]

Won't lie, the ending of the expansion was BAD.ASS.
MASSIVE SPOILER BELOW
This is most likely the end of SWTOR since Valkorian is dead ...forever and the Empire/Republic is at peace [assuming the LS ending is canon]

Well, it's nothing they can't write themselves out of, but that's a pretty deeply unsatisfying ending IMO : /

[Selky]

I'd like it to be the ending. Unless they think up something crazy like Satele and Marr, I can't imagine a better place to leave the story. I'm sure they'll probably milk the SWTOR era for all it's worth but I'm grateful they made an ending like this where I can leave with most of the loose ends resolved.

[Golden]

I'm pretty aggravated. I got stuck on Chapter 16 due to the Arcann bug in story mode. So, I switched over to Veteran mode. It seemed like there were intermittent server pauses all the way. I would be hitting buttons, nothing would happen. Some boss would put a circle around me, I would move away from the boss to drop it...didn't matter...it would drop where it initially targeted me anyway. I would put Lana on passive to move her out of crap...but it would take her like 8 seconds to move over to me and she would die, etc. I thought it might be my ISP. I switched over to WoW...everything was smooth as silk.

The chapter forced me to use Lana, who I hate and never got her much influence. I seriously hope that re-plays of the chapter don't always force me to use her...I bet it does though. And now, the grade 6 gifts are 250K, rofl.

[derpkitteh]

Won't lie, the ending of the expansion was BAD.ASS.
MASSIVE SPOILER BELOW
This is most likely the end of SWTOR since Valkorian is dead ...forever and the Empire/Republic is at peace [assuming the LS ending is canon]

it's annoyingly predictable, honestly. i kinda wish they would have made him actually learn something from his apotheosis, like he claimed to in the carbonite dream. originally, as vitiate, he wanted to devour the entire galaxy and then live out multiple lives in new galaxies until the end of the universe and it all restarts. i wish they would have had him leave to do that and actually leave the throne to you, and the dark side choice would have been actually using the dramath and the holocron to destroy him.

it was such an interesting desire to me. it hit me on a different level from all other bad guy motivations i've ever dealt with in games. it made me want to experience that same kind of thing honestly, seeing so many other lives, watching how they develop and turn out. it'd be amazing. but oh well, evil emperor gets killed is... so very typically star wars v.v

[Witchblade77]

I'd like it to be the ending. Unless they think up something crazy like Satele and Marr, I can't imagine a better place to leave the story. I'm sure they'll probably milk the SWTOR era for all it's worth but I'm grateful they made an ending like this where I can leave with most of the loose ends resolved.

most is a key word. I mean we have resolved an overall arc. more or less. but half my characters are still missing companions, there are a LOT of details that just don't fit unless you are playing a light side jedi and just... meh. (still rolling my eyes at fellow council member explaining to my sorc all about Sith code and sith traditions. really? REALLY?)