One feature of the 7.4 patch that wasn't officially announced but got noticed by players on the PTS was a number of small graphical updates to low-level content, the most striking of which was the retexturing of Korriban. I had to take comparison screenshots for myself when I first heard about it, which you can find below.
I find it quite interesting how the devs continue to subtly improve and tweak the starter planets and other early levelling content (such as when the Black Talon and Esseles received improved cut scenes a couple of years ago). It's not unusual for older MMOs to drastically revamp their starting experience if they feel that it has become outdated, but these smaller tweaks are fascinating to me.
Another one I encountered personally and that initially confused me was that the optional champion probe droid at the end of the Chamber of Speech heroic on Tython was turned into a gold assault droid that blocks your path now. Why? Who knows, but somebody at Broadsword clearly thought it was a worthwhile change to make.
At the same time, they have to be very careful with adjustments like that because SWTOR's early game is still incredibly precious to people. The low levels tend to be a particularly enjoyable experience in many MMOs, but I can't think of any others that I know where many players would outright say that the lower-level game is better than the max-level game, which is a sentiment I see people express about SWTOR quite often. Even if you really enjoy the newer stories (like I do), it's hard to deny that the base game with its eight distinct class stories wins in terms of sheer volume of varied content available.
The other week I saw a reddit thread (which I unfortunately can't find anymore or I would have linked it too) where someone said that they had a "problem" because all their characters tended to fizzle out around Hoth, at which point they'd just start over. At the same time the poster didn't really sound that unhappy about it though, and like they were actually having a good time going through the starter experience over and over again, and there were quite a few commenters who concurred.
Even among those who actually finish the class story and reach the level cap, I'm always surprised by the number of people I see on reddit (a place that by definition attracts a more engaged audience) who've never even played through any of the later expansions and don't seem particularly bothered by it. I'm sure that players like this exist in other MMOs as well, but games like WoW for example tend to push you towards endgame quite vehemently, so I can't imagine that play style being hugely popular there. With SWTOR though... I really do wonder just how many dedicated players (not just new ones, who obviously start off at the bottom by default) are happily just puttering away in low-level content for months or years on end.
I can imagine that this must make for a bit of a conundrum for the devs sometimes, to justify the development of new story content at max level when many players don't even go there (which in turn makes it more understandable why many MMOs try hard to push you into it). Then again, I'm pretty sure that there are still quite a few players like me as well, who are always excited to check out new story releases (and subscribe to check them out).
What's your experience with this? Do you know anyone who just sticks to the base game by choice? Or maybe you yourself prefer to hang out in low-level content?
My main issue with later game SWTOR (not end game) is that there is just so much of it. Even if you use a token to start a character at high level you have to play through ~5 years worth of updates. And some of it can be a real slog to get through. The early game has such a nostalgia factor for me, too. If they ever did a "SWTOR Classic" server I'd definitely give it a go. Until I got tired of all the old grind that I've since forgotten about.
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree that there are parts of the later story that are a bit of a slog, but there are free options to skip, and not all of it is required to access higher-level content. I actually quite like SWTOR's approach here where the story isn't required to unlock things like flashpoints, operations and so on.
DeleteThe furthest you can skip to is Ossus, isn't it? That's 5 years old now. Sure, you can jump into Ops or FPs, but if you want the character "caught up" so that you can play through the *next* content drop, you've got a long road ahead.
DeleteIt's all relative I suppose. Five years is a long time in terms of real time, but in practice I'm not sure all the story that's come out since then takes longer to play through than KotFE and KotET put together yet.
DeleteI wonder how many of those folks are at the free to play level (not preferred)? Those limits on story content and number of characters would explain the constant revisiting of the class stories.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I'm on a six-month sub and I do mostly solo player content. But I may be an outlier. It would be interesting to have an inforgraphic from the Swtor team about this.
You just described me, you know. I'm happy with the SWTOR vanilla content, because it's like an old friend. That the class stories feel like there's a completion to it is nice too.
ReplyDeleteI also do this in other MMOs, such as LOTRO, ESO, and WoW Classic Era, where in all of those cases just puttering around in their own Vanilla-type equivalents is just fine. In Retail WoW, that's a lot harder to pull off because --as you pointed out-- the game pushes you hard into the latest content. You have to actively resist that shove from the developers to stay behind, and that's one of the reasons why I simply don't play Retail.