We're hoping Star Wars: The Old Republic has a better 2013 than 2012, but what should BioWare do specifically? We weigh in with this week's SWTOR column.

Face it, 2012 was a rocky year for BioWare Austin and this was clearly reflected in SWTOR’s game updates that year. While there were a few gems, the studio was undergoing many changes and spending significant development time retrofitting the game to work as a free-to-play product. Outside of the Legacy feature, there weren’t many new systems introduced in 2012. We were mostly treated to familiar forms of new content updates, ranging from new Operations, Warzones, new Flashpoints, and the like.

Read more of Michael Bitton's How SWTOR Can Own 2013.

They might want to address the horrible frame-rates many users get even on high end systems. I would have given free to play more of a chance if the game could get above 20-25 fps on my rig.  

[post launch I never had frame-rate issues with this game save on Ilum. They have done something that messed up the performance. I turned off advanced shadows etc., no effect.]

To me, the graphics engine is what holds this game down the most.  Second only to EA's horrible customer service, largely caused by CS being bogged down with buggy releases, generating more tickets than they can handle.

A MMO that peaks with 16 players on-screen at once isn't very massively.  But hey if you have a $5,000 computer you can get almost the same framerates as the starting area in WoW's Alterac Valley with 40 players.  To actually play something like AV (40 vs 40) you would need a supercomputer.  Great engine.

As for where EA spent a chuck of their time, yes it was in creating the cashshop interface and other freemium aspects.  It is still ongoing, since EA's Damion Schubert admitted that upcoming cartel items have "long lead times.", thus still consuming large developer resources.

Originally posted by Dihoru
Guess Bioware/EAturd paid you guys off for some more positive publicity.

Originally posted by xalvi

No. This game could never own anything, let alone owning a whole year.

 

No clue where this was getting at,   this game is a complete bore. How could this possibly own 2013 when brand new MMOs are coming out, with fun combat.

 

You forgot MMOs with fun combat and non combat activities... that what people really want.

i was a huge fan of swtor at launch. i am the guild leader of a guild that raided hardmode operations twice per week. had 40+ unique members. was incredible fun. but after awhile runnin the same things week after week, i got bored and my wife and i decided to take a break. fast forward 4 months later. now we have lfg tool and f2p model. the f2p model sucks balls. i tried it for a week and realized u just cant play it that gimped. so i resubbed and am having fun again. there is alot of work that still needs to b done but for now im enjoying it again. and for the record i have very little to no framerate issues anywhere in game.

A huge massive EVE like space system would go a loooong way. Other than that I don't think there is anything they can do.

Wtf lauch a starwars game with nothing more than a starfox online space minigame... cmon man.

i think looking at the joke that is their first "expansion" is a prime example of what you can expect from SWTOR for 2013. 

Nothing

There are still some people who love the game, and i am sure if the space combat is revamped, that would certainly attract players. They can start by doing either something akin to STO space combat, just a little faster or maybe even going into creating small areas similar to Rogue Squadron approach.

The STO approach would allow for more Team play approach, people taking roles. The Rogue Squadron approach would look more like a proper shooter which may work better for solo play, but that doesnt mean there are ways to include multiplayer in it.. In either case, it would be so cool to explore some of the conflicts in the game around the galaxy that we have already explored with our characters. Another thing that could work favorably is base stations/capital ships that guilds can use for PVP warfare,

I guess one last approach is create a semi simulator akin to Jump to Lightspeed, which will definitively atrract ole players to the game. That would certainly need to be a proper expansion, but it will change the history of the game.

And yes, a sort of swoop/pod racer event can be amazing. Being a themepark game, you can do many interesting things and it will work.

Overhauled space

sandpark

next phase of class stories.

Originally posted by silverreign

i was a huge fan of swtor at launch. i am the guild leader of a guild that raided hardmode operations twice per week. had 40+ unique members. was incredible fun. but after awhile runnin the same things week after week, i got bored and my wife and i decided to take a break. fast forward 4 months later. now we have lfg tool and f2p model. the f2p model sucks balls. i tried it for a week and realized u just cant play it that gimped. so i resubbed and am having fun again. there is alot of work that still needs to b done but for now im enjoying it again. and for the record i have very little to no framerate issues anywhere in game.

There are a lot of people who don't have FPS issues with the game, but there are a lot who do. It's enough of a problem that I brought it up. If it was just me I wouldn't have mentioned it.

Our rating: 8.7

User rating: 7.2

Says it all, no?