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Will SWTOR ever recover?
Fruxy
Member Posts: 32
This game just seems to fall and fall and fall with no end in sight.
Fleets that were once popular with 3 X 250 players are now populated with 1 X 150 players (sometimes 2 X), the downsize is because EAWare determined that, as everyone already knew, their engine sucks ass, so to make the game playable, smaller numbers of players are necessary in any zone. EAWare capped zones at 150 players instead of 250.
This is primetime. I wondered if it was just my server, and http://www.torstatus.net/shards/us/stats confirms my observations. Last I checked servers were around 3.0+ or at least 2.5+ (TorStatus numbers) .. now they are struggling to keep above 2, with many servers in the dead region. Europe is tanking worse.
So, can this game ever recover? I'd love to see a 5 star Star Wars game!! or even a 3 star game if I had to compromise.
Comments
Hey Fruxy,
I am wondering what you mean? I play on and off and find that the servers are quite populated (Or at least it feels populated). When I wish to do a group activity it doesn't take long to find a group. I do experience a lot of lag on the servers compared to a year ago.
I only know that a lot of people would like to see the game fail and such but hey.. If I like a game ill go out an play it.
No, not before an EXPANSION of epic proportions.
Space Sim project.
And it better be good. By good I mean Star Citizen/Elite/EvE.. or at least JTL good.
Add ship boarding and guild ships and atmospheric flight
plus get the day night change on planets going, trash the simplistic mount mechanics, those wheel chairs are outright embarrassing
And make the Space Casino work, Pazaak, Swoop Raging, Animal mounts, double size of the planets, smarter mobs, mobs on speeders, mobs doing stuff instead of standing around.
Add vehicle combat.
Or let SOE do SWG2
I just see the population falling. I'd rather see if raising, not falling. but EAWare seems to want it decreasing by lowering the MMO scope, thus less people play - or less people want to log on with a smaller scope.
Bioware never fixed the engine anyways after 2 years? what gives.
Playing - FFXIV, ESO
Played - FFXI, WoW, Lineage 2, Guild Wars, Aion, SWToR, LotRO, GW2, TERA, Rift, ArcheAge, TSW
I´ve been playing the occasional warzone in F2P preferred mode until I got bored of the same maps over and over again.
Some days ago I had to free up my SSD harddisk and finally decided to uninstall and move on, I swear I won´t play again until the space project expansion arrives which I will buy IF it is worth the money.
Which goes against everything being reported about the game. So are you seeing what you want to see or what's actually happening.
Subs going up, people returning to the game, new content being added. None of that seems to say a game is falling or in decline.
I guess there is no answer. Fans want to say a dying game is thriving, and people who want the game to be better will continue being honest.
I was looking for an answer, but alas, servers continue to die and no answers.
Last weekend was an all-time low. 1 fleet during primetime, even with the 150 player cap (instead of 250 player cap). My server is personal.
I guess character transfers will help to keep 20% of the servers maxed out. Too bad legacy transfers won't happen? Or am I wrong about legacy? I hope I'm wrong. Then again I also hoped Legacy transfers were free since if was BioWare who told players to start characters on other servers when the population died last year.
/sigh
Do you even play the game still?
And if you will play anything with red lightsabers in it this is your game. Most of the population play dark side characters because they never read Plato.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
No one says it is "dying" (I guess)
I think EA has truckloads of cash they will keep investing until it finally gets good and with lots of new game mechanics at some point.
When this will be, who knows. SWTOR 4.0 or 5.0 maybe?
Look at Age of Conan, was a trainweck at release and now Age of Conan 4.0 is a magnificent MMO, one of the very finest out there.
MMOs need to mature like a good wine
Of course it could happen that EA gets impatient or sick of it next year, or has another SW title coming up and they put SWTOR on maintenance mode. Then of course it´s over and everyone will say "It had potential, too bad that yadda yadda happened / didn´t happen"
Not until all the senior decision makers are replaced with others who have a significantly superior skill set and game philosophy.
IMHO....that ain't going to happen.What will happen then......more of what has already happened.
Game is dead, BW and EA messed it up permanently.
Star Wars games past, present and future are dead and sadly should be forgotten. EA will mess them up worse than courtney love at the pamela anderson roast.
You are better off saving the money, buying a rubber hammer and hitting yourself in the nuts and head with it for a few hours. It will be the feeling as playing the games but at least EA wont get our money and it will help the economy better. Same goes for disney's Star Wars films.
R.I.P. Star Wars
From what I have read, it was handicapped from the start by the unusual choice of game engine.
There are several articles on this, a couple by the actual engine development company themselves. Sure this wasn't the only issue, in mmo's it's rarely just down to one thing, but it's a decision that affects everything in the game.
Content can be added, new classes, etc etc - all running on that same engine.
Of course, there is still EA's approach to the playerbase........even one of their divisional presidents admits their reputation is bad.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22801311
Not in its current incarnation - but maybe after a fashion it will.
Recent EA presentation at E3. The EA investor web site opens this link: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/2538398852x0x671275/b99c27ce-e08f-4f64-8bec-df942536460a/E3_2013_IR_Breakfast_FINAL.pdf
No mention of SWTOR - unlike in previous presentations. Page 16 lists EA's (fewer, bigger, better) product portfolio going forward and SWTOR is not in the list. Not in the existing or n their the future list. SWTOR has been downgraded.
However there is now Starwars Battlefront.
Presumably this is is going to be a Star Wars skinned Battlefield 3. Good engine and maybe they can reuse SWTOR material:artwork, the skills of any artists and writers still left - whatever. Maybe some of the voice acting might get recycled (doubt it but).
Like B3 I would expect the game to be B2P with a "premium package" that will provide quarterly DLC content drops or whatever.
EA would like all their SWTOR subscribers to buy the game and take out the premium package.
Will they close SWTOR?
If it is covering its operating costs - and it probably is today due to Makeb sales - then you would say no but it is going to get harder as time goes on to keep players- espacially when SW Battlefron launches. Faced with declining revenues going forward - ys I know average revenues went up post F2P but going forward they will decline - and little opportunity to reduce costs further the launch of Battlefront could provide an ideal opportunity to close SWTOR whilst sweetening the blow by offering subscribers some sort of deal. Use cartel coins to get a discount off SW Battlefront maybe.
What the hell? If you care about SWBF3 you should re-think that Idea. SWTOR looked like a stupid cartoon.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
I have a buddy that's been praising the game lately since he returned to it about 2 weeks ago. Keeps trying to convince me to come back to SWTOR but I just can't.
But that's one that I personally know, so I guess it can recover in some way or has. He says there have been improvements and he likes the way the gear now works with putting in the mods as well as the armor dye system they've got going now.
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
It's one of the few games that surprises me with how bad it actually is.
Other games I typically expect to be bad or mediocre, but SWTOR is just somehow worse than it should be regardless of how low I set my expectations.
I no longer play, but the word from EA is that they've been getting more subscriptions lately.
Personally, I think if there is any money to be made, it will happen when Star Wars hits theaters again.
Logged in yesterday at prime time on the PvP server and it was pretty populated . Main area had to 2 instances going and is capped at 250. I don't usually don't pay much attention to this , but I believe there are only 5 US servers to choose from, been that for a few of months ? I'll have to look later this evening . If that's the case then the data may be skewed. That being said , it's summer and a lot of games face a drop off in populations.
I believe you where looking for posters to be in agreement with you, you don't like the responses you got so you have labelled them as "Fans" thus justifying your original statement which really is a shame if thats how your trying to get your message across.
May I suggest in future that you need to backup your posts with actual verified information rather than anecdotal comments to drive home your points, that way perhaps you may be better recieved if things can be checked and found to be true.
As it stands SWTOR is still an active MMO, no more no less, there are many such MMO's out there that are in a very similar position, both have their pros and cons, yet they still manage to provide some entertainment to those players that have chosen to play them.
SWTOR and EA/Bioware have obviously let you down in some way, your frustrations would be better aimed at the relevant sources so that you can get the answers you desire, as all you will recieve here are players own answers, none of which can alter the gameplay for you, that is a design decision only the makers of the MMO are able to accomplish.
No. Not unless Bioware stops building the entire game around its cash shop, and all its past, current, and future "game" updates.
Especially with all the new games people are waiting for on the horizon. It is completely up to EA if they let the game slip away like they did with WAR.
The few people I know that play(ed) this game, including myself, canceled our subs recently due to every single game update just adding nothing but cartel market items.
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
It can't recover...you only get one shot at launch...
It will go up and down like a yo-yo for a bit but eventually runs out of string to climb