Rise of The Hutt Cartel: First Digital Expansion

[Svifnymr]

I can imagine a few reasons.

1. They'll run CC deals and they don't want you getting the expansion for cheaper than the purchase price. SoE did this with their Station Cash, and people were getting subscription time for far cheaper than usual. They had to remove the ability to purchase subscription time with Station Cash because of it.

2. Subscribers could get it for free if they waited long enough, and they want to make sure everyone who plays this content is a paying customer.

I'd assume #2. The guys that don't really need their CC right now would just save them and use them for the expansion.

But, I mean, I'd think that's a nice enough compromise. Charge $20 worth of CC for it, the subscribers could save up for a long time, or do a save up and buy more split, or whatnot. It's how I originally thought they'd do F2P stuff before the action bar thing...

[Katsuragisama]

I'd assume #2. The guys that don't really need their CC right now would just save them and use them for the expansion.

But, I mean, I'd think that's a nice enough compromise. Charge $20 worth of CC for it, the subscribers could save up for a long time, or do a save up and buy more split, or whatnot. It's how I originally thought they'd do F2P stuff before the action bar thing...

They've already said that you wont be able to buy the "expansion" with Cartel Coins. Only directly from the site.

To answer the question posed here about purchasing Rise of the Hutt Cartel:

We'd like to clarify that Rise of the Hutt Cartel will be available for purchase through SWTOR.com/buy only, and there won't be an option to purchase it using Cartel Coins.

You can find the post on the official forums here. If you were to buy the "expansion" with cartel coins, they wouldnt make as much as if they charged you for subscription AND a milked content patch.

[Deleted]

Does anybody know if there is any indication BW will change the VO interaction ? As in let you skip VO on generic quests ? That would be feature worth paying for.

Nope, you spacebar, get a dipping bird if you want to automate it.

Fun trivia: They first wanted F2P players to be unable to skip dialogue.

[Kelimbror]

Fun trivia: They first wanted F2P players to be unable to skip dialogue.

Which is hysterical, because they claimed a riot almost broke out...yet they have no problem practically lying to their players, charging them for bullshit, and basically under delivering on something that could be awesome.

That place is seriously fubar.

[Deleted]

Which is hysterical, because they claimed a riot almost broke out...yet they have no problem practically lying to their players, charging them for bullshit, and basically under delivering on something that could be awesome.

That place is seriously fubar.

Well I found the fact that they considered forcing players to fully experience their implementation of voice acting (one of the two things they marketed as the games selling points) to be a punishment to be more telling of how they view their own product.

[Armourboy]

Well I found the fact that they considered forcing players to fully experience their implementation of voice acting (one of the two things they marketed as the games selling points) to be a punishment to be more telling of how they view their own product.

I busted out laughing reading this. The biggest selling point of the entire game was the VO and at some point they thought about using it as a punishment to get you to sub. I think what it tells me is that even they have figured out that for most players having VO on every single quest isn't really that great of a thing.

[WarpedAcorn]

I busted out laughing reading this. The biggest selling point of the entire game was the VO and at some point they thought about using it as a punishment to get you to sub. I think what it tells me is that even they have figured out that for most players having VO on every single quest isn't really that great of a thing.

I think its a great thing and even after 7+ playthroughs I still listen to *most* of the VO's. The only time I skip is if I literally just listened to it on another alt, or if its an Ugnaught.

[Kelimbror]

I think its a great thing and even after 7+ playthroughs I still listen to *most* of the VO's. The only time I skip is if I literally just listened to it on another alt, or if its an Ugnaught.

You are a very rare soul. Even as someone who loves reading, I cba to read quests anymore these days. I try so hard when I start new games to make myself read everything, go slow, etc. I can do it for a handful of levels and then I'm back into quest mode.

We want to think that this system is so revolutionary and different, but at the end of the day it's still being forced to sit there reading/listening to something that is holding you back. It would be like if WoW never implemented the instant quest text and instead had forced you all these years to wait for the text to scroll to the end of the quest before you could accept it. It's that exact same thing, masked in millions of dollars and hearing people. Even worse is the fact that they have to give you quest text anyways so you can check on what you are doing while you are in the field.

I don't know how much of the budget it took, but logistically it must be a nightmare. Fully voiced over games should be left to stand alone RPGs. They really could have let this team make KotOR 3 and it would have been one of the greatest games ever made.

[Valeron]

For a lot of the side quests I wish they did the voice work like they did in DCUO. I still like the class quests and the main zone's story in cut scene/voice over mode though.

[Razael]

SNIP.

Same thing for me. I really try hard to read the quests/lorebooks etc. But i can't at all. I instantly look for what needs to be done, don't care why. Well i do care just not in a way that forces me to read/listen to a poem every time im asked to kill 15 crocodiles, 25 Republic trainees etc.

I'm ok with the VOs on story quests, like GW2, but the filler quests, they should have realized by now that "most" players don't care at all why they need to pick up 10 pieces of dogshit . They just want to get it done to get to the meaty content.

I've been spoiled by Borderlands 2 recently, i pick a Mission (Quest) and i can either sit in front of the NPC watching / listening to him talk, or if i start moving away from them the NPCs will instead transition to talk to your "Cellphone" and you listen to the Why , who, when, while heading to the objective or even whilst doing it. A system like this in most MMOs would be amazing.

[Psychlon]

Even as someone who loves reading, I cba to read quests anymore these days.

I'm only reading class quests anymore, however I will read through all the republic quests as I haven't played a character there in a long time.

[Armourboy]

I think its a great thing and even after 7+ playthroughs I still listen to *most* of the VO's. The only time I skip is if I literally just listened to it on another alt, or if its an Ugnaught.

Well thats fine, its ok to like it, I personally read all of the quest text in WoW the first time I do it, however I'm not crazy enough to think that the vast majority of players enjoy it at all.

The thing is though, if they were considering making it a punishment to force people to listen to it, they know as well most players don't normally want to listen to the vast majority of it. Part of the reason they went with the Hero Engine was the amount of feed back it could give them on a very large amount of events in game. I'm sure they can and have looked up how many times certain quests have been skipped, and I'm betting the highest percentage are those that are side quests.

[WarpedAcorn]

My gut feeling isn't always right, but concerning the "Digital Expansion", I really do think that Bioware will come out and say that it will be available to purchase with Cartel Coins. I believe there has been and is still enough outcry that it will rattle up to the top decision makers and we will hear an announcement closer to the release. The only reason I say this is because they did manage to adjust a lot of the F2P options to make it at least playable, those changes coming at nearly the last minute.

[Redblade]

I really do think that Bioware will come out and say that it will be available to purchase with Cartel Coins.

Doubtful, that would give all subscribers the option to just get it for free over time and in the extension to that sell it to "free" players, the blatantly obvious reason for the decision to not sell it for CC.

[Kelimbror]

My gut feeling isn't always right, but concerning the "Digital Expansion", I really do think that Bioware will come out and say that it will be available to purchase with Cartel Coins. I believe there has been and is still enough outcry that it will rattle up to the top decision makers and we will hear an announcement closer to the release. The only reason I say this is because they did manage to adjust a lot of the F2P options to make it at least playable, those changes coming at nearly the last minute.

Even if this happens, it's past time that they should be pushing the limits on every decision they make...only relenting when enough people complain. It's like what happened recently where all these banks started 'experimenting' with fees for stuff as simple as having a damned debit card or making deposits, resulting in people trying to burn BofA down to the ground.

[ariakul]

I busted out laughing reading this. The biggest selling point of the entire game was the VO and at some point they thought about using it as a punishment to get you to sub. I think what it tells me is that even they have figured out that for most players having VO on every single quest isn't really that great of a thing.

I laughed too. I can already imagine the articles on fan sites and others, "SWTOR charging to unlock the Space Bar!".

Can you imagine how much money Bioware can make if they made people pay money to unlock the number keys!!!!!!

Edit:
I'm passing on Makeb expansion. As a preferred and 2 f2p accounts, it doesn't make sense. I can already see having to pay the $20, and then being forced to spend more real money for unlocks: Oh, you want to use your speeder here? Ya, thats a special unlock unless you're a subscriber. Oh, you want quest rewards?!?! Ya, sorry.

[Deleted]

Any new/more details on this? I kinda wish they took the opportunity to introduce 3rd faction - The Hutts. Would be cool if we could deflect from our current factions and joins the Hutts instead after finishing the main story. Or maybe they could introduce some bounty system with the Hutt Cartel, or some smuggling missions, and mercenary missions, spy missions. Hutts are potentially a goldmine for end-game content IMO

[Edge-]

Any new/more details on this

No new details. I honestly wouldn't really expect any until after the pre-order bonus ends.

[Arlee]

Putting this here solely because Cathar were originally supposed to be with Mekab. Idk if they still will be but, for now it fits...

Originally Posted by SWTOR

Originally Posted by Lium View Post
This is one of the few aspects of SWTOR that is a real turn-off to me and quite puzzling. I don't understand why there wasn't more variety for playable species in a Star Wars game, a universe known for its alien creatures.

Making an alien race fully human playable is a huge amount of work, at least if you want to give players the level of customization options that they have come to expect. It takes a lot of work to make all of the customization options work together and look good, while still ensuring people still can find looks that are unique to each other.

The Togruta provide a unique problem in this regard, in regards to the tentacles. Yes, the Twi'leks have tentacles too, but they are typically behind the player, whereas the Togruta's canonically drape across the front of the character. This means that they struggle to work with the existing animations and gear without clipping -- indeed, the first screenshot you see for Ashara if you google her is one with her chin ridiculously clipping through her tentacle. While this may be acceptable for a companion who is frequently offscreen while fighting, or NPCs who we can dress and pose carefully, its much more problematic for player characters who need to be able to wear anything and perform any animation and still look good. (The Twi'leks clip somewhat as well, but much art was tweaked to make this a lot less prevalent than it otherwise would have been)

I'm not trying to pour cold water in the species discussion. Quite the opposite - if the Cathar do well, I hope to expand your options even more, and we should know the answer to that 'soonish'. I just don't want anyone to think that just because an alien is currently in the game as an NPC, that it is trivial to turn it into player art -- it's a TON of work to do that, and do it well.

(Source)

[WoWGoneBad]

Putting this here solely because Cathar were originally supposed to be with Mekab. Idk if they still will be but, for now it fits...

Originally Posted by SWTOR

Originally Posted by Lium View Post
This is one of the few aspects of SWTOR that is a real turn-off to me and quite puzzling. I don't understand why there wasn't more variety for playable species in a Star Wars game, a universe known for its alien creatures.

Making an alien race fully human playable is a huge amount of work, at least if you want to give players the level of customization options that they have come to expect. It takes a lot of work to make all of the customization options work together and look good, while still ensuring people still can find looks that are unique to each other.

The Togruta provide a unique problem in this regard, in regards to the tentacles. Yes, the Twi'leks have tentacles too, but they are typically behind the player, whereas the Togruta's canonically drape across the front of the character. This means that they struggle to work with the existing animations and gear without clipping -- indeed, the first screenshot you see for Ashara if you google her is one with her chin ridiculously clipping through her tentacle. While this may be acceptable for a companion who is frequently offscreen while fighting, or NPCs who we can dress and pose carefully, its much more problematic for player characters who need to be able to wear anything and perform any animation and still look good. (The Twi'leks clip somewhat as well, but much art was tweaked to make this a lot less prevalent than it otherwise would have been)

I'm not trying to pour cold water in the species discussion. Quite the opposite - if the Cathar do well, I hope to expand your options even more, and we should know the answer to that 'soonish'. I just don't want anyone to think that just because an alien is currently in the game as an NPC, that it is trivial to turn it into player art -- it's a TON of work to do that, and do it well.

(Source)

umm this dont fit because the Pureblood Sith have facial tentacles down their eyes cheeks and chin so how would he Torgurta not work ??