SWTOR goes free to play–What does that mean?

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In my last post I made the comment that EA’s July 31st, “press conference will tell us everything we need to know on what to expect from the game's future.”  What they announced was they were going free to play in the near future.  They also announced that subscriptions had slipped below 1,000,000 but were significantly above their breakeven of 500,000.  Because they didn’t give an actual number it makes me think the real number is closer to 500,000 and I’d bet 650,000 is probably good.  When you consider they’ve gone from 1.7 on 12/31 to 1.3 on 3/31 to .7 on 6/30 it is obvious the game was going to stabilize at a point below their breakeven.  MMO’s like DAOC, WAR, AOC, and Rift stabilized between 100-200k and if you figure that SWTOR has the star war fan factor I’d bet the number would have been in the 300k range.  I made a comment back in May that:

EA/Bioware is painfully aware of what happened last year with Rift.  In their first quarter they peaked at 600,000 subscriptions but two quarters later they dropped to 250,000 and are still falling.  The same trend happened with Warhammer - peak of 850,000 with a drop to 300,000 six months later and 175,000 within a year.   Age of Conan followed a similar pattern - peak of 700,000 with a drop to 410,000 in 4 months and around 100,000 within 8 months.

They’ve know this for a while as I’m sure they’ve been tracking subscriptions closely and the other titles subscriber loss is common knowledge.  That meant they needed to add additional sources of revenue to make money which is the reason for the free-to-play (F2P) announcement.

Bioware has been especially quiet for the last quarter and the reason is they’ve known they this has had to happen and they’ve been working frantically to implement it.  You can’t make an announcement like F2P without giving fans a reason to continue to subscribe until the new system is in place.

Here’s what they announced:

• A new Operation: Terror From Beyond
• A new Warzone: Ancient Hypergate
• 10 New Space Combat Missions for level 50 characters
• A Powerful New Companion – HK-51
• Subscription Players Earn Cartel Coins:
• Free-to-Play Option: Coming this fall

The F2P option is specifically designed to reward long time players and is designed to keep people subscribed until the fall.

• 150 Cartel Coins – Every Month subscribed prior to July 31st
• 1000 Cartel Coins – Purchase of the Collector’s Edition
• Hero’s Banner – Purchase of the Collector’s Edition
• In Game Gift – Players that remain subscribed from August 1st – F2P launch
• 200 Cartel Coins – Every month subscribed after August 1st
• 250 Cartel Coins – Active subscribers at launch of F2P

As you can see, the rewards are a nice mix of rewarding faithful sgubscribers along with trying to make sure people stay subscribed while they get the system ready.  As I’ve subscribed for 6 months with a short break and one month free after 1.2 launched I will have 4-6 x 150 coins right now.  This part is ingenious as my first thought is to unsub but I will get into the reasons why in a future post.  The reason it is smart is I currently have 600 coins and I can’t spend them if I leave the game.  It’s silly but it’s human nature and it is why F2P is a good method.

The other hooks like the in game gift (it looks weak to me but will entice some) 200 coins for subscribing from now to launch and 250 coins for being active at launch are big enticements.  That leads me to believe that subscribers after F2P goes live will be getting around 100-150 coins per month and the cost per coin will be around a dime.  That gives people a reason to subscribe even if they aren’t playing because another way of looking at it is pre-buying cartel coins.  I expect EA/Bioware to make this obvious in the near future which will emphasize that playing now is like getting coins on sale.

They can do this because the companies goals are now more defined.  They now have two development teams – 1) to make content for Cartel Coins and 2) to provide content for people that continue to subscribe.  Both will be limited in their scope and have strict budgets based on expected revenues.  This discipline has been missing from the game designers since the games inception and I’m sure is a reason that EA wanted it.

The big questions is - what does this mean to people that are playing now and is this enough to keep people subscribing?  What can we expect?

My last post I listed a bunch of issues in the game and I will use a shortened version to predict what will happen:

Game Design:

• No scripting tools to make mods
• No threatmeter
• No guild tools
• Crafting system extremely basic
• WOW Auctionator functionality on GTN
• Alt crafting control
• Long Travel Times
• Game engine needs better optimization
• Limited ability to track abilities

Subscriber Only:

• Nothing to do at endgame

Now Free to Play:

• Simplistic Space combat
• Planets feel dead
• Planet design is too linear without obvious hubs
• Non Instanced dungeon design is bad (fight in and a fight out)

The reason many people played this game was because of the class stories.  They were mostly good but in actuality a small part of the game from level 1-50.  Now that 1-50 is free I really doubt we see any changes in that area.  All the F2P players can expect is what exists and the ability to buy XP boosters or trinkets that have no real impact on the game.  The good stuff will need a subscription.

EA/Bioware has made it clear they view the game from 1-49 as a failure and giving it away for free.  This news is actually good news for subscribers as it means the focus will be on creating content at level 50 like events, mini-games, operations, flashpoints, and equipment.  That is what will keep people subscribing and that is where most of the subscriber money will go.

The biggest question is game design.  Are they going to address any of these issues?  There really isn’t any payback other than giving everyone a more enjoyable experience and that is hard to quantify in the F2P world.  My suspicion is these items will get minimal funding until the next expansion which I’d expect to see in the fall/winter of 2013.  By then they should be pro’s at creating monthly events to keep the playerbase happy.

So that leads to the question of my future plans.  Despite Bioware’s missteps the biggest question players should ask themselves when considering to subscribe is --- Am I having fun?  Could I have more fun doing something else?  For me the inclusion of the LFG option has made the game fun.  The reason for my current hesitance to commit is trying to figure where the game is going.  I’ve been willing to invest money to help them improve the game while I had fun.  They are saying all the right things now that the game will be much closer to what we expect when F2P launches.  The issue is EA/Bioware has shown in the past they aren’t above lying.  Perhaps some of the comments were made with the expectation they were true at the time but their credibility needs a lot of work.

I know the CEO’s only goal is to stop the sliding revenue numbers in the game and he doesn’t care how it happens.  If that means lying to us once again, he’s ok with that.  On the other hand, the Cartel Coins seem like a decent investment and the game is still fun for me.  Am I offended enough by the possibility that they could be lying to unsub?  I really don’t have an answer right now and as my subscription runs out in a few weeks I have a bit of time to decide.

What makes an MMO successful and can/will SWTOR make necessary change

Back in February I mentioned the things that Bioware did right and wrong in the launch of SWTOR.  Over time my opinion has changed a bit in some areas but the thing that is frustrating is on the things they have fixed since the launch.  Here's a summary:

Game Issues

• No looking for Group
• No looking for Raid
• No scripting tools to make mods
• No combat log
• No way to adjust the interface
• No threatmeter
• No guild tools
• No guild bank
• Crafting system extremely basic
• Ability to Queue Crafting on an alt and have them mailed once complete
• Mailbox – Open all function (note: this might have been in game at launch)
• Mailbox – Remember alts for addressing / auto ship certain mats to alts
• WOW Auctionator functionality
• No way to control alt crafting (needed due to their intro of time delay crafting)
• Legacy bank
• Auction house difficult to use which limits use and popularity of crafting
• No Global chat channels
• No Bulletin boards
• Long Travel Times
• Spaceports waste a ton of time
• High learning curve for abilities and limited ability to track them
• Simplistic Space combat
• No easy way to get back to your spaceship
• Space travel between planets is too long
• Spaceships are lifeless and waste a huge opportunity
• Planets feel dead
• Static NPCs
• No central gathering point
• Planet design is too linear without obvious hubs
• Quest design is poor so it likely to rerun an area multiple times to finish everything
• No safe zones to travel through areas which makes travel even more difficult
• Non Instanced dungeon design is bad - Respawns mean a fight in and a fight out.
• NPC sound bites triggers on the player and not to a location
• Better functionality for character placement when entering a cutscene

Of this list the items listed in RED have been fixed.  Of these things, the interface and the LFG system are the most important.  These were great improvements but unfortunately it isn't enough.  The biggest problem for Bioware is the questing/game-engire issues are massive changes with very little return since most players have already gone through that content I doubt that will ever happen before an expansion.

The defense most SWTOR fanboys give in defense of the above is that it takes time to implement some of the advanced features I listed. That is true to some degree. When WoW launched quite a few of these features didn't exist. The thing was many of us were noobs and the genre itself kept our attention for 6 months. I know I almost quit but it was about that point that Blizzard released PVP. Our other options were Everquest 2, City of Heroes, and Starwars Galaxies. None of them were deep enough really steal market. If WoW launched today they'd find it a lot tougher to keep players.  The thing is that I really doubt the Blizzard exec's would release it without key features.


What features are needed these days?

• Robust crafting system that is viable to use and to make money
• A method to ease grouping
• Ability to modify game interface/create macro's (not including combat macro's)
• Guild management system
• Minigames so players have something to do with limited time.
• In game events like the holiday events in WoW.
• Emmersive questing that makes players a part of the story
• A world with a definitive bad guy to hate and characters you fear/love
• Robust PVP system that allows massive PVP battles

What game do we currently have from Bioware?


Eight similar single player games using a broken game engine, dead worlds, limited space combat, decent PVP and a good LFG system.


Is it enough to get by until Bioware can develop the rest of the game?  I doubt it.  It isn't because of lack of fans.  I think there are enough fans to support it but I don't think EA/Bioware is willing to take the risk to put more money into the game.  Everything they've done over the last 3 months appears like they've made the decision to abandon the game.


In the last 3 months the lead game designer, community manager, and most of the writers have left the team.  This doesn't bother me too much as I really think some of them were part of the problem.  I often wonder if any of them have ever played an MMO before.  There are so many obvious issues that anyone I'd think anyone that ever played an MMO would be screaming at their co-workers lack of knowledge in meetings.  Anyone that watched the Guild Summit in March could see their inexperience first hand.


My hope is that when subs started to drop in Feburary, EA brought in advisers to review the game.  It was quickly decided they had a train wreck and a plan was put in place.  It's obvious that at some point it was decided that drastic action was needed.  The exodus of people form the game could indicate one of two things: 1) Massive cost cutting while attempting to squeeze every penny from the existing playerbase or 2) Prudent cost control to support the level of subscriber base combined with reinvestment to grow the game in the future.


Both of these are possible and frankly the answer is probably both options.  The real question is does EA have a plan and are they planning to reinvest.  EA/Bioware's communication has gotten increasingly worse since Stephan Reid was let go.  My suspicion he was let go is so EA could keep things quieter and have less impact on their stock price.  On Tuesday their silence will end as they have to announce their results for the the quarter ended on June 30th.  I'm interested in two things: What is their long term plan and what is the current subscription number?  If they don't answer either question it means they aren't planning on reinvesting as it would be stupid not to release that if they have good news.  I doubt they are that dumb so at the very least I expect lip service on the future plans.


The big news will be subscription numbers.  I really doubt they will give out easy to decipher numbers as the people playing for free will somehow be included.  My server usually has between 1200-1500 people online during the evening which leads me to believe that we've got around 12000-15000 subscribers.  Since there are a total of 27 servers worldwide that equates to about 500,000 subscribers.  If the numbers are truly that low we will never hear about it.


There are some people that still think the numbers are over a million which is patently ridiculous.  I can't imagine them being higher than 750,000 which would mean about 27,000 subs per server.  I guess we will see on Tuesday.


It's no lie to say this press conference will tell us everything we need to know on what to expect from the game's future.

A funny thing happened when I played 1.3

My last post is over a month ago and I thought I'd post what is happening in the game since the release of 1.3.

When the game was released I made many posts about what was wrong with the game.  The biggest flaw I ran into was a lack of community and any guild tools to encourage people to play together.  That was an issue in the early days of WoW but at the time there were many mega guild that formed on most servers that helped with the issue.  The other thing was the playerbase was continually growing so there was always people around eager to play.


With SWTOR's playerbase shrinking this has been an issue since the game was first released.  To this point the patches have done little to address the situation.  

• 1.1 was a content patch that added a few new flashpoints and new endgame.  Since most people weren't able to group up this content was mostly ignored.  
• 1.2 was called Legacy and was a massive update to the game which fixed many bugs included at launch and added a ton of content.  Many looked to it to save the game and somehow it acquired the nickname, 'The Jesus Patch'.  It mainly focused on adding the core innovation the designers included in the game which was to link all your characters on a server into a legacy.  The higher your legacy the more rewards you could get.  Unfortunately most of the 'rewards' were silly/overpriced and the content unreachable which caused a mass exodus from the game.
• 1.3 was called Allies and added one thing - a group finder.  At the same time they merged servers which put player population to levels that hadn't been seen since launch.  To those that remained in the game and actually used this feature it was like playing a whole new game.

Prior to 1.3 I played in 2 flashpoints total. Trying to form a flashpoint as dps was a frustrating exercise that took hours and usually ended in disappointment.  I tried to get into operations but because my gear wasn't good enough I was stuck at endgame.

That was the experience of most and as the playerbase continued to shrink it only got worse.

With the launch of 1.3 the playerbase issue was fixed and suddently it was easy to find flashpoint groups.  I've easily played in a hundred flashpoints in the month since 1.3 was released.  The funny thing is though the single player experience is still badly flawed and the game engine is one of the worst I've ever seen, the flashpoint experience is amazing.  Whoever put this together did an amazing job especially if you play flashpoints as you level.

My current situation is I have two level 50 toons that are ready for operations and am leveling a Republic toon mainly through flashpoints as I try to improve my tanking skills.  1.3 was a true game changer and made everything accessible.  It saddens me that this wasn't included at launch as I'd bet the game would sill have a million+ subscribers with an engaged community.

There are many other issues that plague the game (a ridiculous amount but that is for another post).  Players are willing to overlook a lot as long as the game is fun and accessible and there is a promise of future fixes.  When Ultima was launched there weren't any other options for online play.  If people wanted to play online they only had one choice which allowed them to make mistakes and learn on the job.  As competition arrived many companies failed because they ignored a simple concept I call the Fun to Total Playtime ratio (FtTP).  

The idea is simple and it is the sum of the 'fun' a player has in there limited game time.  For example, if someone only has 90 minutes to play (which is a max for most casual players) they have a few choices.  Here's an example of what I mean:

The beauty of most Xbox games is you turn on the machine and you are gaming.  The same is true of devices like the 3DS or even Ipads.  Gaming on a computer is different in that just getting your PC optimized to play the game can be a chore.  The experience has to be something better than Xbox or people won't put up with the hassle.

In the example above you can see that for most games the 'fun' is a constant but for MMOs it comes in spurts as you are able to experience content with other gamers (I'm ignoring everything but Flashpoints in WoW/SWTOR for the moment).  Before 1.3 most of your time was spent on the fleet looking for a group until it was past time you could finish a flashpoint which meant you'd start crafting, working the GTN, or leveling an alt.  It was a frustrating experience so is there any question why people left the game to other, more accessible games?

With 1.3 people could find a group within 10 minutes (this excludes leveling groups but that is a different issue).  The fun you could find int SWTOR went from being worse than playing a mindless game like TinyTower all night to as good as any Call of Duty type shooter in terms of player engagement.  It made SWTOR a new game.

If  you can't tell, patch 1.3 has re energized me. I'm having fun and I'd bet most people that have tried group finder feel the same.  There are dark clouds on the horizon but many of the 'idiot' designers that ignored the principles of FtTP are gone.  I just hope it isn't too late.

I resubbed for a month and cancelled

A few weeks ago I renewed my subcription for one simple reason - player transfers.  It had nothing to do with improvements to the game.  It was worth $15 to me to transfer my toons during a 'free transfer' time and not wait until paid transfers when I'd probably need to pay $25 per character.  This was an easy decision.   One thing it has allowed me is to post on the SWTOR forums and while I initially tried to stay positive, playing the game for a few levels on my alliance toon reminded me of the many fatal flaws in the game.  here's a few of my posts.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4471973#post4471973
05.26.2012 , 08:54 AM | #116
I'd be surprised if their release isn't in mid to late June. Keep in mind that they server two masters - the playerbase and their shareholders. They want to make sure the patch is ready but they want their subscription numbers to look as positive as possible when the quarter ends.

This patch doesn't have a lot of content additions so as long as the LFG system is working it should be good to go. I doubt it stays in beta for very long as there are really only a few things to test and the playerbase isn't really that helpful.
I'm sure they want to release the patch around June 20th in hopes that people that have left the game will come back and resub so their numbers spike. That will allow them to report to the investment community that the game is stabilizing and with the things they are adding in the future they expect it to grow from here. Despite what they've said publically this will also have a huge impact on their share price and that will help them convince EA to continue investing in the game. That's really the only road to long term success.

EA / Bioware's actions are so easy to predict it isn't funny.  The finance guys have been running the release schedule for a long time.  This was my response to a thread today that was complaining the game was being released too early.

1.3 going live has nothing to do with it being ready.  I predicted weeks ago that it would go live before the end of June for one reason only - they want to be able to attract as many people back with a new patch and things like 'free 7 days' for former subscribers by the end of the quarter.  That will allow them to give out higher subscriber counts and hide the true number from investors.  Their stock has already taken a beating and they want to make sure the subscriber number is as high as possible to avoid it going lower. 

This patch is being released early for the same reason the game was launched early - to maximize EA's stock price.  This game is too important to EAs share price to simply be released, 'when it is done'.  If you doubt that, consider that they releasing  an internal patch that will never hit the PTS.  The furor that occurs when the bugs that we all see every day on the PTS  will be frustrating to watch as it could have been avoided if they were able to take their time and  listen to feedback.

I've already unsubbed again and wait for the day that Bioware has the freedom to make the game better.  Until then my feeling from the day I resubbed remains. 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4611041#post4611041
06.12.2012 , 03:16 PM | #143 EDIT REPORT POST QUOTEI re-upped 5 minutes ago. My anger towards EA/Bioware for rushing the game out hasn't abated but I'm willing to give them another $15 as my toons are on a server that can transfer. I'm also anxious to get into the test server and take a look at the LFG and see how it affects the game.
I could stay mad at them and refuse to re-up but who am I hurting? My $15 isn't going to make or break them and like all of us, I really wanted this game to succeed. If I think the game has improved and grouping will be viable then $15 is a small price to pay to find out.

I'm ever hopeful and will return if it ever happens.

Just for grins this is two other posts Ive made in the last month.  The first is what happened when I tranferred and it was my luck that my destination server for my Empire toons was the same as my Republic server (there's only 8 slots and 8 classes on each side.

06.13.2012 , 04:10 PM | #43 EDIT REPORT POST QUOTE
At launch I picked Keller's Void for my 8 Empire toons and Jedi Covenant for my 8 Republic toons. My thought was if they gave us 8 slots and each side had 8 classes this would be the best option. 

Fast forward 6 months and after playing all the classes through the first planet (and 8 through chapter 2 with 3 of them level 50) I find out that Keller's Void is moving to Jedi Covenant. I spent an agonizing afternoon yesterday figuring out which Republic toons to delete. It wasn't the end of the world as I've spent a lot more time on my Empire toons but it still was a bit frustrating. The only positive was since I used the same names on both I didn't lose that in the transfer. 

I'd love to have a few more slots though.

The last post is my ultimate feeling about the game in response to a well thought out post that detailed the lack of cohesivenss in the game and the fact much of it was subbed out due to Bioware's lack of expertise.

When I am feeling pessimistic about the game my thinking is similar to what you state in your post. It feels like sometime last year the SWTOR team made a status presentation to senior management who realized that there was little integration between the teams. To fix the issues would have taken another year and they couldn't do that. Investors had already assumed that SWTORs 2012 cash flows would prop up EA's already dismal profits and the delay would have killed them (worse than is happening now). They had to patch things together to make the system work and sold it knowing we'd buy it.

I'm just hoping that EA/Bioare keeps the faith with those of us that have continued to pay our monthly subs. If not then I hope Lucas pulls the property and gives it to someone who can develop something worthy of its fans..

I think that pretty much sums it up.

I cancelled my SWTOR subscription today

I cancelled my SWTOR subscription today.  I spent way too much time telling them why but I felt I needed to do it for my anger at EA/Bioware and not because I think it will have any impact.  Here's what I wrote:

I really liked the single player aspect of the game but the developers totally failed in trying to make a immersive world.  Planets felt empty, playing through the game a second time for my legacy was a chore as there were no alternate paths, travel/spaceports were poorly implemented, and poor map/ quest designs made it seem like you spent most of your time running around a world trying to get around obstacles instead of having fun.  The game's engine didn't seem to be able to handle the load as it the game lagged at times especially when more than 10 people were in the same area.  That is pretty much inexcusable for a game that calls itself a multiplayer game.   

It really feels like you knew this game was poorly designed so you released at a time when  Star Wars/Bioware fans would buy it so you could maximize getting your investment back from box sales alone.  The developer conference in March pretty much confirmed it was released early as there were many comments like "we would have liked to get that into the release but didn't have time."   This game is a failure mostly of the designers that didn't have a good clear cut vision of what was needed, a game development team that couldn't get an engine to work, and upper management that cold-heartedly exploited the love of the brand names to maximize profit for developer mistakes. 

I know I'm not alone in my feelings and despite that I still want to love this game.  I just can't wait any longer for it to improve so I'm cancelling until I hear from those patient enough to stick around that things have been fixed. 

FWIW I have loved Bioware and all its products since Baldur's Gate and have bought every game they've released since that time.  It is apparent that EA cares little about protecting the name that Bioware built over the years.  The Bioware tradition of making sure their products are of the highest quality is no longer a priority so I will no longer purchase any of their products without first waiting a month or two to make sure this doesn't happen to me again.

 I'm not really sure anything else needs to be said.  I have 1 day left on my subscription (I didn't realize it but the they applied the 30 free days before I paid last month) and I'm not even sure I will log in.  It's not like there's anyone online for me to say goodbye.

I may post on this in the future as I hear of new developments but it will be spotty and most likely will eventually stop.

Swtor Layoffs begin

EA announced they were planning to lay off about 10% of its workforce in April and it appears they've finalized the SWTOR specific layoff.  We don't know the exact numbers but I've heard the SWTOR team has about 400 people so anything above 100 would be catastrophic and a clear sign they have given up. Here's the official announcement:

Hey folks, since you’re reading this you may likely have heard that we’ve done some restructuring here on the SWTOR team. Sadly, we are bidding farewell to some talented, passionate and exceptionally hard-working people who helped make SWTOR a reality. Impacting people’s lives this way is always very hard, but we’re ensuring the affected people are treated with dignity, fairness and respect.

Looking back at launch, we all came together and did something historic. We executed one of the largest, most successful and stable launches of any MMO yet in industry history. That is not an easy feat for any development team or company and we are humbled and honored by our fan community’s strong support both at launch and beyond.

Looking forward, the studio remains vibrant and passionate about our many upcoming initiatives for Star Wars: The Old Republic. We still have a very substantial development team working on supporting and growing the game, and we feel we are in a strong position, with your continued involvement and feedback, to continue to build Star Wars: The Old Republic as one of the most compelling and successful online experiences in the world today. There are many strong initiatives planned for cool new content and new features that we’re excited to tell you about in the upcoming weeks and months.
Rest assured that we remain dedicated to delivering a high quality service in SWTOR to you, our fans, and we will continue to support and grow Star Wars: The Old Republic over the weeks, months and years to come.
Thanks,
Greg and Ray

As I said in the article a few weeks back SWTOR subscriptions are going to fall past the 1.3mm they current have to at least 800k by year end.  That's the best case in my opinion and could go as low as 500k (I doubt it goes lower than that unless Bioware pulls the plug or really does some stupid things).

We've heard the break-even is between 500,000 and 1,000,000 subscription so it is obvious they are planning for the worst.  The unfortunate thing is the game has mostly fixed cost so if they are laying off that people in the content creator group is a sign that they are putting the brakes on future development.

Looking at it another way let's assume that it is 100 people and they cost $100,000 each.  That's a savings of $10,000,000 annually which would reduce the breakeven to 10MM / ($15 x 12 months) or 55.6k subscriptions.  It's a nice start but it's not enough to save them.  That's where closing 60+%
 of their servers would be helpful but unfortunately they don't have the code developed to make this happen.

Sadly, I think it may be safe to say that any chance this game had at having a large market share is gone.  What remains to be seen is if they can remain a minor player or become gaming's latest cautionary tale of what happens when management and the developers are out of touch with the reality of their business.

The Hero Engine - the answer for everything

Someone on the forums asked the question why we needed the fleet as a hub and the posts that followed mostly agreed that the fleets were stupid.  This was my response:

I have a feeling using the capital cities as hubs was their original thought then they realized they needed a place to gather that took up fewer memory resources. The reason I feel that way is why else wouldn't they have a speeder go from the Dromund Kaas Spaceport all the way to the Citadel. There's a natural chokepoint between the two and I think the designers originally envisioned this as a gathering place. Also think about the quests after each chapter where they send you to the fleet and then your next quest immediately sends you back to Dromund Kaas.

If you've never experienced it the quest after each chapter is a 30 minute time waster that consists of catching a speeder, running through town, catching another speeder, running through the spaceport to your ship, exiting the planet, loading the fleet, running to the quest objective, getting a quest taking you back to Dromund Kaas, running back to your ship, reloading space, reloading Dromund Kaas, running through the spaceport, getting on a speeder, running through town, getting on another speeder, running to the Citadel, and finally talking to the guy who gave you the quest in the first place.

Wouldn't that design decision make a lot more sense if the Empire's hub was on Dromund Kaas? Despite what many think the games designers aren't stupid. They wouldn't do that if there wasn't a really good reason and that's because Dromund Kaas was initially the Empire's hub. By the time they realized they needed to add a fleet it was too late to change the quest design (I'm pretty sure talking to the guy on the fleet activates your account's legacy when you finish the first chapter with your first character).

I get the feeling that late in the design phase they realized that Dromund Kaas took up too many system resources and if you had more than 15 people in the city player's systems slowed to a crawl. So they added patchwork answer of using a lower resource intensive fleet instead of capital cities as a gathering point. As someone else mentioned, everything in the game is meticulously crafted but the two fleet hubs are almost identical and it is almost like they were quickly put together.

Almost every issue in the game goes back to the fact that they 1) made the worlds too big with too much information and 2) the games engine gets bogged down. Every design decision is based on that.

• Why don't they have mods? Anyone that has played wow knows that too many mods slow down the game.
• Why don't they have an ingame dps/threat meter? It will slow down the game.

• Why are planets dead? They can't add random NPCs to add flavor as it would slow down the game.
• Why is Ilum world PVP gone? PVP battles on that planet turned the best PCs frame rates to single digits.
• Why is there a fleet? It was a design decision to allow a place for hundreds of people the meet.

They have never said it but I'd bet they have a big team working on making huge changes to the engine so that at some point (probably the first expansion), they won't be hamstrung by the engine and the designers can fully develop the game as they first envisioned. It is pretty much the reason for everything.