Originally posted by Thorbrand

With $200 million dollars I would have already made one of the top 5 MMOs in history with a life span of over a decade!

WOW would easily already be dead.

Yes that is how much money they wasted on SWTOR the single player RPG!

$200 Million is 10x or more than most MMOs in development cost. Ask yourself where did the money go and know it wasn't voice acting and cinimatics.

Yes and I would unite the world and bring peace to everyone if I were president... blablabla......bioware allready get their 200 milllions back , its a huge success.

To op:

1. improve grafic engine, pvp lag is disgusting

2. dungeonfinder asap

3. more and usefull contend to lvl 50 

1-  Purge servers.

2- Code from scratch.

Have something for all the player types Killers, Achievers, Explorers, Socializers.

I will not speak for the Killers. I think there are plenty of voices for them.

1. Get rid of companions and companion crafting. Keep the same crafting profession, but alter the mechanics to make them active player involvement, not passive. This should feed A, E, & S.
2. The capital cities are too cramped and should have been spread out. Capital cities are an Explorers nightmare in their absolute lack of enjoyment. The Republic CC's Crafting and Training Dungeon is a nighmare. Do you see how creating the illusion of multiple levels, resulted in a 2d design? For E & S types.
3. Compare the Cantina in the Republic Capital City, tiny, cramped, and full of players. To the Cantina in the first combat mission zone of the same world, Massive, Spacious, only one or two players ever in there. Move the crafting trainers to this map and spread them out. The claustrophobic cantina is an in game nuisance, and not a game feature as was thought. This would go a long way to make A, E, & S happy.
4. See CoH Pocket D.

Originally posted by kiiix

After reading post after post of people bashing the game, I rarely seem to come across anyone talking about how they would improve the game if they had the chance, so now I’m asking you:

 

If you could have the chance to improve SW:TOR so that the game would become the game you where so hyped about a few months ago, what would it be?

*More content

*Harder difficulty
*More “sandboxy”
ect..

(Also mention why you have something against it so that your suggested improvements would make as much sense as possible)

Wait. NOW you want to know the problems with the game?

People have been expressing their concerns all over the internet for years. Instead, most people were censored, deleted, harassed, warned, banned, etc etc. Perhaps if everyone wasn't so busy trying to paint every critic as a "troll" or "hater" to silence them, you would know the answers to your own questions. Would you agree?

Personally, I knew the game wasn't going to be good just by the behavior of the "fans". My logic was this:

If the game is as good as it's boasting, why the iron-fisted censorship?

Turned out I was right and the "trolls" and "haters" were justified.

Originally posted by CrunkJuice2

so pretty much everyone bitching about the pvp being terrible in sw tor because of mythic are all trolls then

or is it for another reason.i just know whenever i hear people slam the pvp in sw tor they always include mythic in there rants

 

no they are BLIND BIOWARE FANBOIS

bioware can do no wrong, the fault with the game are down to the 2 pimply youths hired after WAr released.

they sound like battered wifes.

I'd have made it a multiplayer console RPG. Focused on more interesting combat, bigger stories, and making it look good.

As a MMO it's basically dry toast. They added a pat of butter to it with all the talking, but the bulk story telling really took a hit because of it.

It either needed to be more open, or more focused.

1. Repair and unlock the UI. Why must the expanded companion bar overwrite the bottom or left hotbars?

2. Build a Galactic Market that has actual search features (Armor slot, stats +/-) and that can do a sort that isn't jumbled

3. Remove all but the major storyline cutscenes.  Why does the go kill 10 Rakhgoul quest need a cutscene and dialogue?

4.  Remove all the terrain blockages so that players can move about in a world, and not a single long thin valley.

5. Make the game less solo and give some reason why grouping would be needed/wanted

6. Remove or modify companion crafting so that it feels like there is a personal interest in crafting, and an endgame use for ALL crafts

7. Take space combat off the rails, being able to kill things that haven't appeared on screen yet, but that you KNOW will be right there in 2-3 seconds is soooo wrong.

I have been playing for a couple weeks and a few things stand out - most of the have been said already but here is my list:

1- More options when it comes to you talent / skill tree's - seriously it took me two minutes at level 10 to decide what my character would would spec in all the way to 50.  As a healer- its a no-brainer.  There is one heal tree and a couple bottom tier skills from other trees.  If you play a tank or a healer- your skill tree options really are decided for you.   Im not a huge RIFT fan but at least you have three heal tree's and three tanking trees that one could mix and match or fill  all the way out.  In ToR you play a tank- you max out the one tank tree- you play a healer...same deal.  It seems like once you decide your role (maybe dps has more options, im not sure - I play tank or healers usually) but you only have one tree to go down and clicking the button to fill it in is not an "option" its just and extra click when you level.

2- Do something about the FP's (finding groups for "dungeons")- put access to them on the planets that are around the same level-  this is bad.  At level 21 you want to do some Athiss runs and you have to spam lfg on the fleet when everyone else your level is solo'ing on a planet 3-6 loading screens away.  Honeslty, just thinking about this makes me want to cancel the game and I've only had it for a couple weeks.

3- Fix the auction house- its a fail.  its broken in a lot of ways. As mentioned before in this thread, but give more options for search.  I dont even use it much- I think low level players are turned off by it and just dont use it cause there is nothin on it for mid level characters.

4- Fix the UI.  If you are doing something (crafting) etc. chat is behind the UI and you cannot see it- let us minimize or resize or whatever.  I could go on but its just not working that well.  I like the look and "spacey" feel to it, its just not implemeted well.

5- After playing a Bounty Hunter (powertech) other tanks like the Sith Warriors and Assasins just seem underwhelming.  They dont have the skills to keep aggro on multiple ranged mobs- so maybe do something to help them with aggro.  As a BH I can stand back and blast mobs from a distance, jump to them and pull them to me to keep aggro- Jedi Guardians and  Warriors have to run around all crazy like to keep aggro.   So maybe give them some more aoe aggro skills- I was thinking something like the old paladin hammer throw from Diablo.

6- Space combat...wow, this should be more like the old Privateer game or something. As it is now- it needs something else.  Let us fly around!  I did it once and have not done it again.  This should be a mini-game not something you have to zone 4 times and run 20 miles to do.

7- Fix republic skills, appearance, etc- the skills and armor are so underhwleming.  I tried a few times to play republic with different classes, but just was like wow- im throwing rocks at the mobs as my main attack.  I dont think I can do this for 50 levels.  Empire has some neat looking "spells" and armor.

8. I dont even know why im playing this game anymore- after writing this- the game is so laking in so, so, so many ways.  I think, I just like Mako... hehe

Lath

Originally posted by kiiix

After reading post after post of people bashing the game, I rarely seem to come across anyone talking about how they would improve the game if they had the chance, so now I’m asking you:

 

If you could have the chance to improve SW:TOR so that the game would become the game you where so hyped about a few months ago, what would it be?

*More content

*Harder difficulty
*More “sandboxy”
ect..

(Also mention why you have something against it so that your suggested improvements would make as much sense as possible)

All the same story content+ planets like in SWG. Would be a nice change if they did an expansion that allowed players beyond 50 to have open world sandbox planets to mess around on. What if I wanted to own a house and a farm? I remember playing KOTOR and running around on Dantooine thinking, man this Ahlan guy has the crib, be nice to have a farm in the back, grow some crops. Sometimes I just want to chillax in a game and celebrate my destruction of the republic on the couch with a Jawa beer.

[Mod Edit]

No, but my serious answer would be.

1. Customer Service Improvements.  Could get past issues if there was some CS to help you with it.

2. Pvp: Completely eliminate PvP gear.

3. More content: Game is new, but there is no filler for content.  The legacy system which could possibly be a decent filler (got to xp to go get more whatever) is not even in place yet.

4. Raids were rather simple.

5. Upon reaching lvl 50 you are allowed one final respec... use it wisely, what you choose is what you are.  No more I think I want to learn to heal or tank today randomly and suck at it.

6. Quest gear: Lower stats.  I personally hate questing in general, but I could accept it if the rewards were not so good.  Emphasize grouping for gear.  More groups = more fun = more people playing.

Well, I just canceled tonight and what I wrote on the cancel form was basically:

PVE - serious lack of customization - need a better variety of gear even if it's just appearance, skills (dual spec or just the ability to use a few more weapon types, classes feel SO limited).

PVP - so many stuns killed the fun for me - it was like continually hitting the pause button during a movie's action sequence.  That won't change but one thing is there could be more maps or a choice to pick the WZ, I got Huttball 8 out of 10 times and I truly hate that game/map.  I would gladly wait for one of the other two if possible.

Space - just awful... scrap it or give us options to choose different levels so we don't have to beat a mission with 3 minutes left to just sit there and wait for our railcar to cross the finish line.

Companions - How dumb was I, I thought we would be able to pick which companions we want and only keep them if we made the right dark/light choices like the old Baldur's Gate type games.  I was an agent and made it to level 32 with only 2 companions.  Ok fine but the game was advertised as having all these companions you can bring out whichever one fits your style at anytime - well maybe at 50 when you get all your companions but then your story is finished!

I might be back but seriously doubt it since the flaws to me were really made way back in the design process.

Originally posted by kiiix

After reading post after post of people bashing the game, I rarely seem to come across anyone talking about how they would improve the game if they had the chance, so now I’m asking you:

 

If you could have the chance to improve SW:TOR so that the game would become the game you where so hyped about a few months ago, what would it be?

*More content

*Harder difficulty
*More “sandboxy”
ect..

(Also mention why you have something against it so that your suggested improvements would make as much sense as possible)

1.   Get rid of the split-class system.   Add additional classes inclding having all Jedi classes from KOTOR I & II represented.     There is no reason to not have a Repubic agent.  There is no reason not to have  Repubic bounty hunter.   There is no reason to not have Imperial smugglers and troopers.   Also, this would allow a remake of the former mirror classes.    Come up with some other classes, like a ranger -- light infantry adept at steath, sabotage and infiltration.   That took 10-second to think of...

So, we're at 3 Jedi (Guardian, Sential, Consular)...   Two kinds of soldier (trooper, ranger).   A spy (agent).  A swash-buckler type (smuggler).  Bounty hunter.     That's 8 right there.   You could have tech/gadget guys.    And there are plenty of other archtypes out there...

2.  Better cities:  Look at Metropolis and Gotham City in DCUO (F2P so it won't cost you a nickle)).   What ever issues Sony may have with the subscriber base, those cities are the kinds of cities we should be getting.    Sure, they're comic book and there are some other issues that make them not quit appropriate to SWTOR.    But holy moly, Batman, I feel ike I'm a city when I play that game.   

3.  Better Countyside:  Look at LOTRO.   It has a very wide-open, and beautifully done, enviornment.   Yes, it has zones and there is some walling and bottle necking.    But they're still mostly open, non-linear areas even when you otherwise follow the story...   This includes weather and day-night cycles.

4.  Quest flexibility.   I'm sorry, but these quests just suck.   You only have one way to solve every one of them -- a friggin' hammer.   Any choices you make are severely prunned and negated by deus ex machina where you're shoved back on the rails.   This is MY story, BioWare.   If I wanted NO CHOICE, I'd quit your game (like I ddi) and buy a couple of books (like I did).   The books were BETTER because the writers actually have top-flight talent, something you don't have at BioWare.

5.  Full 3D movement.   BioWare's big improvement is you can jump now.  (Whoopee!)  Still can't fly in a universe with jet packs, rocket boots and anti-gravity.   We also can't swim, but lucky for us, every lake, river and ocean is only two feet deep so it doesn't matter.   But at least we can jump... 

6.   Crafting.   Trash the whole system.    Look at LOTRO/Vanguard/EQ2.   Note how close in level the crafting gear is.   Note that, by-and-large, they mostly recycle models and just color them differetly.      Note how the best weapons in the game are crafted in LOTRO.   Note how all those games, crafiting is worthwhile.    As part of this -- get rid of the tokens and quest gear.    As part of this -- crafting stations by craft type.   And make them unique.   Make them purchasable and can be put in your ship, as well.   

7.  Economics.   Who was the moron who came up with slicing?   That is the dumbest crafting idea I have ever seen.  When I saw it beta I said it was dumb and was going to lead to hyper-inflation as people would have millions of credits at end game and little to spend it on...     So, find some money sinks.   Space ships would be nice.   I'd love to have been able to buy a new space ship.

8.   Space ships  ---   These are the sadest, poorest designed game space ships I've ever seen.   From stupid stuff like windows 8' above the seats that you can't see out of, to everything (but the nav console) made out of metal and is otherwise unusable unless required by a plot element.   And the stupid robot...   I have no words for how annoying and stupid that robot is...

9.  Social functions --  Meaningful guilds.     A pug is pretty much as good as a guild right now because virtually nothing is a challenge.   

10.  Stop with the freaking meglomanic, expositiory speeches before boss fights.   It's so stupidly single-player cliche'...   And, frankly, it really pissed me off.   I'm not there to listen to some twerp ramble on...   I'm there to kill him because there are no effective dialog choices that let me do anything else.   Plus, if you're ranged, you automatically start at a disadvantage.   Just completely annoying.

11.   Something more than a joke rail-space-combat game.    Full 3D.   Fly in space.  Mine.  Do cool things.  Ship PvP.  Who knows...     But treat space like it matters.

I could go on...    And in a lot more detail...   But there is so much wrong and I just don't feel like putting in that much effort to list it all.

Originally posted by Mari2k

Originally posted by Thorbrand

With $200 million dollars I would have already made one of the top 5 MMOs in history with a life span of over a decade!

WOW would easily already be dead.

Yes that is how much money they wasted on SWTOR the single player RPG!

$200 Million is 10x or more than most MMOs in development cost. Ask yourself where did the money go and know it wasn't voice acting and cinimatics.

Yes and I would unite the world and bring peace to everyone if I were president... blablabla......bioware allready get their 200 milllions back , its a huge success.

To op:

1. improve grafic engine, pvp lag is disgusting

2. dungeonfinder asap

3. more and usefull contend to lvl 50 

They're not even close.   I did the accounting work today.   Assuming normal MMO churn, (50% gone at 6 months, 70% gone at 12 months, 90% gone in 24 months)  they'll need to sell at least 6 million copies (best case scenario (Eve Online model) to break even.    And that's saying they have an abnormally low COGS and sell at least 35% of the games from the Origin store (which is unlikely).  Worst realistic player retention case (AoC/Warhammer model), they'll need 10 million to break even.    

This is, of course, at full retail.    As of last week, they've sold 2.15 million.   Sales are under 30K a week and still dropping despite the huge advertisement campaign.   I don't see them topping 2.5, maybe 2.6, million this year.     The curve is dropping so fast, so hard that we're looking at weekly sales of 5K or less within two months.

And they're not going to get full retail on all those sales.    The sales curve points to this gamel going on sale soon as they try to recover the player-base.   I expect, by summer, to have free trials, welcome-back offers and a steep discount.

the first thing i would do is remake the game using a more capable game engine. Then start fixing anything else taht is killing the game right now.

How would I improve TOR?

I wouldn't even try. I would delete this Hello Kitty Wars, fire every one, not hire anyone that has ever worked on a WoW clone or WoW itself, turn everything over to the devs, tell production to stay the fuck away, let the devs do their magic unimpeded, call me if anyone wearing a tie ever came in the room, and do a full blown modern SWG2.

Needless to say I don't see me being hired anytime soon but it will be the best game in history hands down.

Originally posted by Bardus

How would I improve TOR?

 

I wouldn't even try. I would delete this Hello Kitty Wars, fire every one, not hire anyone that has ever worked on a WoW clone or WoW itself, turn everything over to the devs, tell production to stay the fuck away, let the devs do their magic unimpeded, call me if anyone wearing a tie ever came in the room, and do a full blown modern SWG2.

 

Needless to say I don't see me being hired anytime soon but it will be the best game in history hands down.

even if this is true, as soon as you hire a developer that has played WoW, he will want to add WoW ideas. No need to work on it to know about it.

I would un-release it, buy a new engine .. or build one, and re-release it when it's ready, not when EA says the market is prime. I would also make sure not to disenfranchise large portions of my player base with 2 faction pvp that has a ludicrously imbalanced population.

Honestly, at this point .. as soon as a decent game releases, or the few friends that are still playing stop playing .. im gone .. no matter what 1.2 or 1.3 says. Too much of this game is flat out broken. I'll probably never buy a Bioware game again .. which is too bad .. I used to think Dragon Age would make a good mmo .. but not after this disaster.

I would scrap the online features, and turn it into the Single Player game that it should be. Then it might not be a steaming pile of ... garbage.

1) Cross server group finders for pve and pvp.  This includes pug raids for casuals

2) Make all flashpoints 6 man - 1 tank, 1 healer and rest dps.  This is an obvious lesson from WOW.  You need to reduce wait times by having more dps per group.

3) Keep putting out pve content to placate the raiders

4) premade vs. premades and pugs versus pugs for PVP.  no mixing

5) Story advancement after level 50 - like LOTRO does with their epic story

6) XWing vs. Tie Fighter style multiplayer space sim - make it a third way to advance your character - not just a minigame

7) Alternate paths for leveling - 90% repeated quests when leveling on the same faction is BS

8) Sandbox elements - anything to add life to the static world and fleet

For me personally, I won't return unless they add some great multiplayer space sim content or if people respond really positively to their group finding tools and gearing up mains and alts for pre-ops gear  isn't a nightmare.