The one who uses irony does not necessarily hold the truth, if it does not have the right perception …
first Penthouse, then Manufactories, then NM raids, now transformed to E10 
Some easier to outgear then others but that doesn’t affect “difficulty” which should be measured when you progressed it. And the most things in TSW/SWL are either “stay at range and don’t be bothered” or “avoid all @#$% on the ground”. Difficulty of that is just the same everywhere. Cooperation is more required in dungs then on NYR really.
2 Likes
In TSW, the raiding cabal I was in was always open for applications and occasionally actively recruiting. They did have an understandable requirement that anyone who applied show that they themselves were proactive and willing to talk and join the rest in group activities. They had a high gear requirement but didn’t require one to be NM raid geared…just that that person showed initiative to get that way.
Of the people who applied, the ones I saw rejected were almost always because of a timezone mismatch or because they never showed up and never talked.
It was a bit small, but toward the looming end, it was getting big enough to field two raids.
Thank you, Tron! I was considering buying some aurum to show my appreciation to Funcom. Now I won’t. I will play the new content (a week should suffice), and then I leave for MMOs who give me dungeons to run.
1 Like
Well that’s the intended behaviour and what most of the playerbase is already doing (especially since SWL), SWL never claimed to be a dungeon running game… They’re just there so the few people who still stick between updates can sink time.
If you want a end-game PvE experience, SWL isn’t even in the top 20.
I’m curious. Can you name the 5 of those top 20? Like, actual dungeon-running endgame that aren’t shooters. All I see on Steam are games like PUBG or Fortnite or similar. I know there’s Destiny 2 and maybe even The Division could count? Can you name 5 more?
I’d say WoW, Wildstar, GW2, ESO, Tera. then SWTOR, Neverwinter, Rift could qualify. I haven’t played all of them but their PvE is considerably more developped than SWL’s. And if you’re the kind of players that goes for end-game PvE you’ll pretty much go towards either of those.
1 Like
Starsmith, it was OUR NM raid team! At least until you ended up somewhere else and it morphed lol.
And to add to this. It’s a shame people feel excluded from endgame because they aren’t “gud endgame bros”. I can say that there is (was) a small, but very friendly, minority of players who like to play well just for fun, and aren’t as attached or burn with as much ambition. So these players can take their time, and have more patience and personality to teach and learn with other (non a-hole, willing to make adjustments, willing to be patient with others too) players.
I think we hung out in noobmares chat channel, but as time went on and the game died, the community got smaller and smaller and more fragmented. Most left. A lot left after Kaidan Aegis was introduced. I believe Aegis gated casual end-gamers because of the massive repetition of 2 dungeons for progression. Like a lite version of the 10-level tiering system we have now. But better! It’s sad Aegis was a better grind… So I rather blame Funcom for making NM raids the providence of hardcore groups.
Mind you, I did complete all three NM raids, and I have enough kits to get to full 10.9.9. I was in top 3 dps in our fixed raids by the end. But I did it with people I enjoyed teaming with and not with anyone who insisted we “get gud” their way or no way. Finding people like that was stupidly difficult, and to me it was both natural ageing of the game and Funcom’s decisions that made it so.
I’m pretty much done with SWL. I’m waiting for the grind to be less grindy, and in the waiting I’m gravitating towards other games that I can enjoy either as a personal challenge or as part of a friendly, non a-hole group. But even the great group of ppl I know in SWL isn’t enough for me to overcome the grind that only seems designed to either squeeze money out of me or to make “endgame bros” feel “leet pro”. Or the weapon system that makes non-meta builds very punishing on group dps. Yet again their game design gates casual end-gamers or seem to expect ppl who don’t play the “get gud” style only care about story. This BS no-middle-ground style is a plague and I don’t want any part of it. No thanks Funcom.
4 Likes
Urban legend
Blade Master
1 Like
You did the work on putting together the second one, so I figure you get the credit for it 
cries in a corner with his sword
2 Likes
An extremely small percentage of our total playerbase is doing significant amounts of endgame content.
And how many of those people actually spent money on the game, buying patron and aurum?
I’ll bet if you look solely at the people who bother to spend money on this game you’ll find a significant portion of them are invested into the endgame content.
But sure, go ahead and focus development efforts on the f2p people who spend 2 weeks playing through the story and then never touch the game again.
I’d much rather have the old dungeons and raids we’re still missing. Back in TSW I quit before Tokyo came out so I never got to experience Manufactory. Was looking forward to it in this version but I guess that’s never gonna happen. It’s pretty strange because everyone I’ve talked to that did it said there’s some pretty significant story content in there that kinda explains why the Dragon “won” Toyko. You’d think we’d get that before Season 2 (at least as a story mode), but I guess I’ll just have to settle for watching a youtube video of someone clearing it instead.
2 Likes
This is all our speculations as we have no clue what the real numbers are, but perhaps most of people who spend some money in game is a mass of casuals who want to have a better gear and easier progression through the story, so they invest into patron status for a month or two and buy some upgrade items and then leave…
Personally I would love if they would be more concerned about retention mechanics, but the problem is if they want to keep more people in game, it would probably require much more work/time/money/devs to add more content and keep the pace of updates. There is not enough things to do in game after you finish story if you are not a really dedicated to upgrade through limited endgame content. Same few dungeons again and again and again. Not to mention situation if you would like to make some progress as a sigle player in which case it is nearly futile…
And if I read their financial reports, they are not willing to change the amount of money/resources they are willing to give this game.
Well, I agree the focus on dungeons as the way how to solve retention problems is a wishfull thinking of dungeon runners only But even then I think one new dungeon/lair/raid per new zone would be fitting and right.
What I think would help is to keep in game various different options to make the gameplay varied enough after you finish the story. And I know, it is easy to write, but difficult to do.
If it were the case they’d be in serious monetary deficit.
Hopefully, it is highly probable that (like myself and my cabal) a lot of players spend money early in their game experience for stuff like inventory space, sprint, patron that are quite relevant and useful when you’re leveling up.
By the time I reached end-game grinding, I had no need for further spendings and I was self sustaining my MoF/Aurum expenses (I even stopped my subscription because most of the advantages are great only for low level/low gear/low mof players). In fact as an “end-game” player, I count on the other players to buy aurum so they can purchase what I farm.
This.
I think the endgame dungeon runners/raiders population is far away from need to buy anything for real money and as you write if it would be majority of whole game population, then SWL monetization would be in serious troubles.
Blades can do very decent damage, that’s not their problem really. Just AR is OP on too many fronts. But since half population is using them, even with blade you can outperform most of them just because players lacking skills.
And it only really matters on the very end of red gear where it doesn’t really change much since all weapons outdps any content available anyway. And during the progress it’s just few more levels to make it equal, no big deal. Certainly not “punishing on group DPS”.
i agree on the part where all players that dont play blade lack skills 
2 Likes
it’s funny. The very first thing that occurred to me is that can’t be true. It is was a true the very first thing any sentient marketing guy would do is offering a year subscription. Because if you target people who come, like a very much what they see but leave after story because they can’t do what lies beyond, you need to grab them during the initial phase and those willing to pay will pay in advance if it’s slightly less, even for a period they won’t be playing anymore.
So the “logic” says, since we don’t have 3, 6, 12months patron, they don’t get majority of money from guys that come, pay for “something” (with patron being the first obvious choice really) and leave after a month when they finish the story
This is actually interesting topic that baffles me for some time and cannot find good answer.
On one hand I do understand that less people means less income means less resources.
On the other hand I see new games that spend less time to develop, offers much more content, and that itself makes them more money then they cost to develop. Except they can do it on green grass, with 0 fan base at the start.
So where’s the line? How it can be possible that development a good content based on very good and established fundamentals (should be even cheaper, right?) with some people already aboard cannot make the money for itself? You get pretty neat things for 20€ (Life is Strange) or really hard work for 50€ like Kingdom Come (just the amount of text and voiceovers is enormous).
It’s not really limited to FC/SWL.
Do you consider FC marketing on behalf what we could see back in TSW capable of smart choices and work efficiently?
1 Like