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[Preview] Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Hutt Cartel is Rising

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

Star Wars: The Old Republic is getting its first digital expansion with the imminent release of Rise of the Hutt Cartel. We were on hand to check out RotHC at Bioware: Austin and have a great preview to share. See what we discovered and let us know what you think in the comments.

When BioWare and EA first launched Star Wars:The Old Republic, it was an ambitious if not slightly misguided foray into the world of MMORPGs. There had been a lot of hype leading up to its release and the initial consumer response was a bit, shall we say, tepid. It had delivered on all its promises in the eyes of most reviewers, but didn’t really pop with the general public right off the bat. So BioWare did something that anyone in their position would do if they’re smart, they asked the people what they wanted and changed their pay structure to be more enticing to casual players. But the changes didn’t stop there: the team has committed to updates every 8 weeks and has not stopped listening to players about what they like and don’t like. And next month’s April 14th upgrade looks to be the most ambitious one yet with a ton of new content and the brand new Rise of the Hutt Cartel DLC.

Read more of Blake Morse's Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Hutt Cartel is Rising.

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Comments

  • winterwinter Member UncommonPosts: 2,281

    WoW where does the guy that wrote this article come up with this stuff??!!

    Seriously you think Bioware asked its players what they wanted in SW:TOR and they said we want F2P? I've seen alot of request from players for more story content which Bioware did not release during its first full year. I've seen requests for free roaming space or a secret space project which of course Bioware is totally ignoring in favor of what F2P with Biowares now trade mark paid DLC. of course most of that now paid for DLC was originally planned for free release last year. thats EA/ware for you if they can't nickle and dime you for release day DLC then they'll just hold the content till later when they can charge for it.

     
  • KarteliKarteli Member CommonPosts: 2,646

    It's just more of the same, with a different background scenery.

     

    For how this Special Announcement was played up at DarthHater, TorWars, Duffy, and other sites, this news is nothing short of a complete letdown.

     

    TORWars said the news was so good that "You'll explode!" .. leading to speculation about engine revamps, open world PVP done right, freeroam space flight .. expansive planets ... immersive features ...

     

    But instead the secret message decoded to: "Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine!"

    Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
    Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.

  • dimasokdimasok Member UncommonPosts: 183
    Originally posted by Karteli

    It's just more of the same, with a different background scenery.

     

    For how this Special Announcement was played up at DarthHater, TorWars, Duffy, and other sites, this news is nothing short of a complete letdown.

     

    TORWars said the news was so good that "You'll explode!" .. leading to speculation about engine revamps, open world PVP done right, freeroam space flight .. expansive planets ... immersive features ...

     

    But instead the secret message decoded to: "Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine!"

    The problem is that developers think SMALL whereas the community thinks LARGE. Its the sort of gap which will never be bridged and hence the constant stream of disappointment.

     
  • MadatanMadatan Member UncommonPosts: 182
    "Here are bits and pieces from our new quests" - What an announcement, totally blew my mind...
  • FromHellFromHell Member Posts: 1,311
    Originally posted by Xobdnas
    Still none of the stuff we asked for in Beta 1...some people never learn to listen.

    Surprised? Perhaps that´s why the suggestion box on their site has been called "cemetary of shattered hopes".

     

    Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. ! :D
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw

    Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
    .


    .
    The Return of ELITE !
    image

  • akkedis86akkedis86 Member UncommonPosts: 123

    I wonder if they have a ace up their sleave?

    We'll have to see, regardless, I preordered it anyways.

     

    I appreciate the authors non-biased writing.

    I expect we will see the Cathar, maybe solo-ranked wz, cool gear,  28 mods, mk-7/mk-8 augments, possibly paid server transfers coming soon, maybe another implementation of open world pvp(PVP announcements have really slowed down), why'd he say third faction like that "Taboro have revealed themselves as a third faction vying for control of the galaxy" ?

     

    Huh? :0

     

  • hikaru77hikaru77 Member UncommonPosts: 1,123
    Looks like the hate towards swtor is still strong here.  Everyone did know that the big announcement will be about maked and the release date, also the DNA is still running till tomorrow 9am when we will know more details about makeb.  Darthhater.com also have a new video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pCcVeNRDkyE   
  • IllyssiaIllyssia Member UncommonPosts: 1,507
    I just wonder if Bioware/EA shouldn't use this as a learning curve and go for the Mass Effect MMO. That would be really cool. Especially if they went next gen Xbox/playstation and PC for it. Problem with SWTOR is they designed it as a single player mmorpg that had a small end game. After 6-9 months all the cool kids quit just leaving a game that went F2P and hardcore cash shop.
  • hikaru77hikaru77 Member UncommonPosts: 1,123
    Originally posted by Illyssia
    I just wonder if Bioware/EA shouldn't use this as a learning curve and go for the Mass Effect MMO. That would be really cool. Especially if they went next gen Xbox/playstation and PC for it. Problem with SWTOR is they designed it as a single player mmorpg that had a small end game. After 6-9 months all the cool kids quit just leaving a game that went F2P and hardcore cash shop.

    You certainly are not playing the game. 

  • danwest58danwest58 Member RarePosts: 2,012
    I went back to SWTOR because of the end game is more casual than other games that have raiding.  My group of friends can easily create an 8 man operation team and get to see content in an hour or 2.  Since we all have lives outside of the game we can play when we have time and take care of our famlies the rest of the time.  No need to run dailies everyday for several hours.  Yes the game still feels like a single player game for the most part however thats where the MMO genera has been going. 
  • IllyssiaIllyssia Member UncommonPosts: 1,507
    Originally posted by hikaru77
    Originally posted by Illyssia
    I just wonder if Bioware/EA shouldn't use this as a learning curve and go for the Mass Effect MMO. That would be really cool. Especially if they went next gen Xbox/playstation and PC for it. Problem with SWTOR is they designed it as a single player mmorpg that had a small end game. After 6-9 months all the cool kids quit just leaving a game that went F2P and hardcore cash shop.

    You certainly are not playing the game. 

    Not really tempted to go again as I think the new planet maybe a little more content and not enough for myself to dip my toes into again.If you were playing the game in the F2P model then it might well work I guess.

  • n3v3rriv3rn3v3rriv3r Member UncommonPosts: 496

    Hmm I really dont think you have an objective view of how this game was accepted by general public neither how well or not the devs handled the game after its release.

    Please try to write about things that you can objectively describe and avoid generalizatons: eg. You may be pleased how they implemented f2p model but many are not.

     
  • hikaru77hikaru77 Member UncommonPosts: 1,123
    Originally posted by n3v3rriv3r

    Hmm I really dont think you have an objective view of how this game was accepted by general public neither how well or not the devs handled the game after its release.

    Please try to write about things that you can objectively describe and avoid generalizatons: eg. You may be pleased how they implemented f2p model but many are not.

     

    Swtor is not F2P, it never was. Is a P2P MMO with a F2P trial or option, it never was free and it wont be anytime soon. 

  • CypruskaCypruska Member UncommonPosts: 45
    Which are??????
  • RyowulfRyowulf Member UncommonPosts: 664

    I have to disagree with the author on a few points.

    1. " initial consumer response was a bit, shall we say, tepid"  It sold a lot of boxes, but word of mouth slowed and then killed sales. 

    2. "BioWare did something that anyone in their position would do if they’re smart,"  No EAware has not done anything smart.  They didn't listen to their player base. They saw they no longer had the subs to support the game and needed to try something else to make back a little of the money invested. 

    Tor is not ftp, you can't lvl to cap right?  Its a trial that is made to get players to pay.  Unless they only want to do the personal story then at least EA can show high log-in numbers to stockholders.

    When Tor is ftp the way Tera is then you can tell me they did right by their players.  Until then all I see is a company trying to make money in the sort term because they don't have any long term plans for the game (unless you count selling/shutting it down).

     

    I get that you like the game, but you can't just turn a blind eye to its faults.

  • Sevenstar61Sevenstar61 Member UncommonPosts: 1,686
    Originally posted by Karteli

    It's just more of the same, with a different background scenery.

     

    For how this Special Announcement was played up at DarthHater, TorWars, Duffy, and other sites, this news is nothing short of a complete letdown.

     

    TORWars said the news was so good that "You'll explode!" .. leading to speculation about engine revamps, open world PVP done right, freeroam space flight .. expansive planets ... immersive features ...

     

    But instead the secret message decoded to: "Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine!"

    LOL you can only blame TORWars for the overhype... obviously it was them who wanted attention....

     

    I am very happy to get to my merathon SWTOR playing on April 9th... 10 characters level 50 to level... it's going to take me some time... maybe 11 if I will work hard on my Sniper LOL

     

    PS. Time to request some time off work /grin


    Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
    Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
    Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E

  • RyukanRyukan Member UncommonPosts: 828
    SWTOR's F2P has alwyas struck me as more Free 2 Pay then Free 2 Play.
  • ThelricThelric Member UncommonPosts: 30
    I was one of those players that stopped playing after finishing the class story quests and doing the instances at least once. It's nothing personal and I enjoyed the game. It has an excellent way to deliver story content, which I enjoyed. I'll definitely be tring out the new expansion but will leave soon after to try out other new mmo's.  That is, unless they can keep bringing out new story content since I am not one to wait around grinding content until something meaningful is made available.
  • ShamorauShamorau Member UncommonPosts: 181
    i thought in one of the those pictures was Urdnot Wrex.
  • WickedjellyWickedjelly Member Posts: 4,990

    Slightly misguided? Wtf?

    Is that like saying the captain of the Titanic slightly misnavigated?

    Kudos for those still playing should be a nice addition for them. For many others though would imagine it is too little...too late...or maybe just too little all the way around.

    1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.

    2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.

    3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.

  • IncomparableIncomparable Member UncommonPosts: 1,138

    I think at this point they realize what kind of market they have attracted to thier game and can only focus the constant stream of content to please one major demographic.

    They decided in all thier wisdom, that the constant content should be feeding the content grinders of MMOs. Just give them more content, and it doesn't even need the same quality features as before.

    Its unfortunate that this is being done with a SW MMO. Otherwise, moving on to something else would be the natural choice for anyone, but if they like SW enough, and also like the basic features of swtor, then seeing it change and go downhill from there, is not something easy for committed fans to see.

    I expect a lot of people to begin growing a resentment towards gaming in general as they feel that this grind is simply a grind taking up their time, and money.

    And due to making enough content for content grinders this game will do well enough, until even the content grinders become bored. 

    I think the major flaw in making MMOs content grinds is that its not diversidifed from the best content grind out there... and that is WoW. 

    The success of MMOs unforuntately is attribtued to content being contstant rather than the mechanics that are repeatable. So it seems the urgency by devs is to relese more content of lesser quality and turning into more of the same. 

    I could be wrong and at the very least there is a sense of choice with the faction stories, but I would imagine that for people with alts, playing faction stories without even choice would be the definition of a terrible content grind.

    If only the people who liked content grinds in games like WoW were not kids. I would call WoW a child factory indenturing kids to 'play' thier grind and WoW clones trying to hire the little gremlin army to peddle their mmo engine out of icy waters.

    Its basically the modern day slavery of the first world, and using low quality feautures to make games successful using kids.

    At least its better than a kid dying from chimney smoke, hence it being modern, but the losers are not just the kids wasting thier time with long grinds, their social time and developing proper taste with real experience... but also fans of the genre who get misrepresented by what is actually fun for rather being successful due to slavery.

    Solution: Make MMOs adult rated.

     

    “Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble”

  • daltaniousdaltanious Member UncommonPosts: 2,381

    Along with wow, swtor is my no1 game. Worst problem swtor had since start was not at all swtor itself ... but haters that have spread around even faster then those of wow. They have been bashing game over and over again in all possible forums. Majority never actually I guess played it.

    But is truth i know many that do not like at all story telling, they would if possible just jump to end game, etc. Never ever all players will be happy with same game. This is mission impossible.

    I love every bit of swtor, immersion, combat, story telling ... and particularly I lOVE VOICED ACTING. Ful voiced acting in all quests (great, but unfort only in starting area, were also of Aoc).

  • FromHellFromHell Member Posts: 1,311
    Originally posted by daltanious

    . Ful voiced acting in all quests (great, but unfort only in starting area, were also of Aoc).

     wrong. The personal story and many major quests are voiced too after the starter area. At least in the current version, maybe got added over time.

    Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. ! :D
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw

    Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
    .


    .
    The Return of ELITE !
    image

  • JorendoJorendo Member UncommonPosts: 275
    Originally posted by daltanious

    Along with wow, swtor is my no1 game. Worst problem swtor had since start was not at all swtor itself ... but haters that have spread around even faster then those of wow. They have been bashing game over and over again in all possible forums. Majority never actually I guess played it.

    But is truth i know many that do not like at all story telling, they would if possible just jump to end game, etc. Never ever all players will be happy with same game. This is mission impossible.

    I love every bit of swtor, immersion, combat, story telling ... and particularly I lOVE VOICED ACTING. Ful voiced acting in all quests (great, but unfort only in starting area, were also of Aoc).

    I still play and enjoy SWToR everyday since launch. Now i don't care much for endgame as im a RPer and get my fun out of roleplaying with others. So for me the setting is more important then the actual content when lvl 50. I had a blast playing trough the class quests and i enjoy that all quests are spoken dialouge. Haters been bashing the game rather unfairly in the early days. But it's nothing new, with every new MMORPG you got haters trying to destroy a game cause they favor another game. SWToR had the bad luck of being caught between two giant hater groups, the GW2 fanboys and the WoW fanboys who both attacked SWToR. GW2 fanboy's shouting that GW2 was gonna be a lot better and WoW Faboys shouting SWToR didn't do anything new.

     

    SWToR might not be the best MMORPG for most people but it did some things right:

    1. It wasn't another generic fantasy setting like almost every other freaking MMO out there.

    2. Fully voiced did add a lot. Haters will say it didn't but they either didn't play the game or are those who never bothered with stories and just skip. But i think every MMO should have fully voiced dialouges cause it really helps in keeping it interesting.

    3. You got to own your own little place, in SWToR its a ship. They should have given you options to customize it from the inside and do more with it (and once they had those plans until it became F2P). But still you got your own little place that is yours. GW2 has it with the districts.

     

    For me SWToR is the first MMORPG that caught my attention for longer then a few months after release since WoW. I played WoW till shortly after Cata came out. I just couldn't settle into other MMO's and i tried. I tried to like AoC but the bugs eventually killed it for me, i wanted to like Warhammer but with no one around anymore and me being in the lower tiers meant no fun pvp so it killed it for me, Aion great on promise with flying was just a gimick bullcrap that was very limited, kiilled it for me. SWToR i been playing since the start as still love it.

     

    However i do think Bioware/EA should do more with it and listen to the fans. They promised a huge space expansion that would be patched into the game shortly after release....we never saw it happen. They promised same sex relationships would be patched after release, they canned it just to make it a thing you can do on one planet only (i don't care what people think about same sex relationships, it was a feature that was suppose to be in the game and they just scratched it out just to make a basic version later again that you have to pay for), they promised seats to sit on, more then the three chairs in your space ship. But for some reason they never implanted it in the game. Why can't we sit on chairs i mean wtf? Oh and please don't give me the BS "Who gives a F about chairs to sit on, we want more endgame!" raiders aren't the only type of players okay, there are also RPers and frankly the european RP server has been highly poplulated since day one so one should also please them next to the end gamers and pvpers. Many things that where promised to be added over time never made it and they should do so. More races, more freedom in exploration.

     

    What i don't get is that SWToR haters still come to SWToR topics and spill their guts out about how terrible the expension is gonna be. Why would you care? You don't play the game. You never did or only the first month but WoW or GW2 was more appealing (and that is your good right im not saying its wrong). Just return to your own game don't bother us. Let everyone enjoy their own game, no need to whine and cry about a game you don't play. SWtoR is a enjoyable game, it didn't do much to change the MMORPG scene, but so what, not one of the current MMORPG's has done that. Not even GW2, it only did something that do it a little different. But it are mostly things that where normal in MMORPG's before WoW.

  • superniceguysuperniceguy Member UncommonPosts: 2,278
    Originally posted by Karteli

    It's just more of the same, with a different background scenery.

     

    For how this Special Announcement was played up at DarthHater, TorWars, Duffy, and other sites, this news is nothing short of a complete letdown.

     

    TORWars said the news was so good that "You'll explode!" .. leading to speculation about engine revamps, open world PVP done right, freeroam space flight .. expansive planets ... immersive features ...

     

    But instead the secret message decoded to: "Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine!"

    Actually Darthhater has not stated what got them excited yet

    Update:  I want to remind everyone that part of the news I was excited to bring you will start tomorrow morning at around 9AM pacific; this is pretty much complete coverage of the new features from the Closed Test Server, and includes videos for quests and achievements, a ton of new screenshots as well as information on the Seeker Droid and Macrobinocular quests.  So, while many of you weren't surprised by the release date announcement, I think you'll enjoy what you see tomorrow. - Vox

    It seems that this MMORPG article has covered the information, and if so, then still meh

     

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