[Accessing PTS via Steam launcher]

There's no option to copy characters for anyone at the moment, Steam or not.

 

And no, you're right, the Steam version of the client can't access PTS. However, nothing(1) stops you downloading the non-Steam launcher and using the Steam-linked account on it.

 

(1) Well, one(2) thing, maybe. You end up with three copies of SWTOR on your disk - one from Steam, one "Live" from the non-Steam launcher, and one "PTS" from the non-Steam launcher. That might be an issue...

 

(2) Well, maybe two things. You have to download the extra two copies of the game, and if your Internet service is provided by barbarians(3), you may run into problems with data caps.

 

(3) If you have data caps (except, perhaps, on cellular service), your service is provided by barbarians.

 

Steam version can access PTS. Read 2nd comment.

[Accessing PTS via Steam launcher]

Would love to try out the forthcoming changes (and the addition of Combat Styles), but I see no options to access the PTS or copy my characters.

 

I use Steam. Any suggestions? (beyond calling me a Bioware plant, or some other insulting remark)

 

https://imgur.com/a/lgsfklW

 

Go to SWTOR STORE page on Steam. Scroll Down and you will see "Want to participate in the STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™ - Public Test Server? Click here to install it now." in blue writing in a lighter shade of blue box right above where it says "PLAY STAR WARS THE OLD REPUBLIC" "FREE TO PLAY" "PLAY GAME".

[The changes you all hate are the reason I'm coming back to the game]

Enure and force freeze (or whatever it's called) are incredibly boring skills. These are relics of MMOs past, they only feel impactful in certain content (which everyone seems to forget can be rebalanced) and aren't conducive to fantasy at all. They were only added because other MMOs had similar skills. Thank god I won't have to use them any more just to pass certain content, instead I could just go saber reflect which actually feels impactful and fits the fantasy.

 

Enure may seem boring in its current iteration but when I use it I always think about a Jedi Knight, Guardian more specifically, using their sheer will to stay alive and protect their friends. Protect their allies. Protect the Republic. Enduring in the face of death to buy your allies more time is part of what a Jedi is. There is nothing wrong with using "relics of MMO's past". You can take from the past, learn from it, and improve upon it. Don't do away with it entirely.

 

Clearly so many of you see this as vital because you look at it in the context of current balance, you like to click lots of things and again i can respect that. I however want to be a Jedi, I want abilities to be flashy and support my class fantasy not just reduce damage taken by a % in a rotation vs a boss.

 

Look at New World. Not really much lore that most of us know about. Nothing to really connect to the universe. Most of us are just going to be playing it and trying it out because its new. They have 2 weapon bars which allow 3 abilities per bar. Do you honestly believe you could capture the theme of a Jedi Knight with 6 abilities? Even going further, could you capture the theme of a Jedi Sentinel, Jedi Guardian, Jedi Shadow, Jedi Sage, and make them all feel unique and iconic to the role and specialization with so few abilities? Its just not possible. We want to feel like heroes and villains using a vast array of abilities that stem from our characters knowledge and prowess, not some generic character with 3 abilities that doesn't capture the essence of what the class is.

 

I agree I want abilities to be flashy and support class fantasy! Reducing damage taken is mechanically part of what allows a character to feel heroic. If we all died in 1 hit like a hardcore mode FPS then we wouldn't have that heroic feeling. Fights need to be drawn out to feel cool and rewarding when you defeat the enemies. Nobody wants to be One Punch Man always bored because you insta kill everything.

[Jedi Sentinel Feedback]

What abilities make the Sentinel unique to you?

 

Primarily Twin Saber Throw, Force Camouflage, Guarded by the Force, Rebuke, and Pacify. However I do want to mention I think having an ability "Pacify" that specifically says its not usable on OPs bosses is poor design. Should just make it so you get the Zealous Judgment effect all the time if used on Ops bosses. A class kit should be designed to work in all content in my opinion.

 

For Watchman: Cauterize and Force Melt feel good. The animation for Merciless Slash has always felt a bit basic to me and I wish it had more "oomph". Regular Slash looks more flashy with the swordplay than Merciless Slash does lol. Overload Saber effect is fine but its a bit bland and boring. I absolutely love spreading the DoTs with Force Sweep and the Mind Sear TST proc.

 

For Combat: Clashing Blast is awesome. Lance feels good. Blade Rush is literally the same animation as Merciless Slash, minus the Ataru Strike, but without a cooldown so it feels better to use. If it would weave the same animation attacking from the left side as well as the right it would feel even more exciting to use. Precision is the same animation as Overload Saber which is a bit bland. 100% armor pen helps to make Precision feel more worthwhile because you can notice the effects instantly compared to Overload Saber taking time.

 

For Concentration: Zealous Leap, Force Exhaustion, Concentrated Slice, & Focused Burst all feel good. I personally have always liked this tree (Focus) for Sentinel ever since the game launched, even before it became OP with "smashmonkeys", and I still like it somewhat now. However, I switched to Watchman on my Sentinel after 3.0 primarily because it always felt like it had more survivability with the heals and its also cool to heal the group in small amounts with the DoTs. Its fun to make jokes to Healer buddies about outhealing them with a Sentinel lol (not that its possible).

 

Do these ability paths feel effective against enemies?

 

Yes they all feel "effective" (damage wise) but its not simply about feeling effective. We want to feel effective AND feel cool doing it. We want to feel iconic to the class and spec we are playing, not just "oh this works/regular 9-5" but "my character is a beast/did you see that?!" moments. "I'm hitting like a truck!" "My character is weaving in attacks left and right" You need to capture these feelings AND make it effective.

 

In harder content, Sentinels will NOT feel effective having to choose between Force Camo or Guarded by the Force. Its just not reasonable to ask that of a medium armor melee class.

 

Take 4 minutes to watch

That's what a Sentinel should FEEL like ^

 

If you have feedback on the different disciplines and loadouts, please note your feedback accordingly so we can track it.

 

Having to choose between Force Camouflage, Guarded by the Force or Blade Blitz is just wrong. Force Camouflage is an iconic Jedi Sentinel ability, and its a unique form of stealth that doesn't take you out of the fight. Guarded by the Force allows the Sentinel to stand their ground long enough to finish their fight or to even Tank for a short few seconds. No reason this ability should be a choice its almost mandatory to stay alive as a Sentinel if a Tank dies.

 

Centering. Originally made to ensure a class with only DPS as a role would always be welcome in groups... Valorous Call, Inspiration, Transcendence and Zen. Ardor utility is usually taken to get Transcendence off the centering table. So now we spend 30 Centering to activate Inspiration, a raid wide buff that lasts 10 seconds then makes everyone Depressed for 5 minutes, unable to receive effects of the buff... and the rest of the time we spend it on Zen. It makes you wonder why does Centering even exist in its current form? When it was originally made, the game had skill trees. You could switch between Juyo and Shii-Cho Form, even Ataru Form if you specced for it, and Zen would grant different effects. People take the bypass and get the Contemplation talent to stack Centering then just respec anyways, so how is this mechanic rewarding or interesting for the Sentinel?

 

Why not make it so Centering now acts as a "mini-enrage" for all Sentinel specs. The Sentinel deals damage to build Centering, then they "Enhance" all their other attacks while Centered. If an enemy dies within so many meters, it could refresh the duration of being Centered. Being Centered could enhance how abilities operate? Or just combine all 3 versions of Zen's effect into 1? Inspiration would remain the same allowing Sentinel to consume their Centered effect to buff the whole group. You could free up a slot for Zen by making the effect automatically take place when Sentinels become Centered. Could also free up Valorous Call. Heck you could even incorporate Rebuke into the "Centered" state, so once the Sentinel is "Centered" he becomes enraged, which could automatically activate the effect of Rebuke and Zen without having the abilities as slots. Refreshes duration while attacked.

 

Merge Transcendence effect into Blade Blitz. Or even make a new ability like turning Defensive Roll into an active ability that causes the Sentinel to leap backwards with the force, resetting the cooldown of Force Leap, and granting the effects of Transcendence to the Sentinel and his/her group. Sentinel having leaps to get out of AoE's and ways to quickly re-engage will be a big help in fulfilling class fantasy while making the Sentinel feel unique. Sentinels should feel mobile and fluid.

 

Leg Slash effect can just be merged into another ability. Perhaps on Blade Barrage, Twin Saber Throw, and/or Blade Storm. It'd be best to have the effect on a couple abilities that way there is room for Trauma to be applied regardless of what's going on mid-rotation. Its already spammable as is so putting it on a few abilities with cooldowns shouldn't really matter regarding debuff uptime, dependent on the abilities its granted to of course.

 

I still think Force Clarity is mindless and boring. Yes everyone likes more DPS but the effect could literally be a passive and no one would notice. An active ability should feel impactful to the class when you use it. I vote delete. Especially if its holding you back from releasing a way cooler ability...

 

Awe and Force Stasis are vital to the Sentinel because its the only true form of CC they have. A melee class needs CC. This is something that should not be removed. I honestly think Twin Saber Throw should function like Force Push on the primary target if used on an enemy less than 10m from you. It would also be cool as heck if the sabers stuck in the primary target if they are more than 10m away from you, then it Force Pull's the target with your sabers back to you. I just wish Bioware would make abilities awesome like this. Get some freaking animators lol.

 

Overall, Sentinel changes don't look as bad as the Guardian's but regardless Bioware you still need to think about class identity and spec identity. Don't prune and force us to choose between stuff we've had for a decade.

[Jedi Guardian Feedback]

P.S maybe also make a thread with ability/passive ideas so we can help you brainstorm? Interact with us.

 

Here's some "combination" ideas to free up some slots for Guardians:

 

• Force Leap becomes Guardian Leap baseline? 2 charges default and it will leap to either an enemy and function just like Force Leap does now, or if targeting an ally it does what Guardian Leap does now. Force Push adds 1 charge.
  
• Slash could change dependent on how enemies are within so many meters of you? So Slash becomes Cyclone Slash when 3 or more enemies are near you maybe? Turns 2 abilities into one AND keeps animations.
  
• Force Clarity needs to go. Should have never been an ability. It has never felt impactful to your class when you press it, it needs to go. Could have always been a passive instead of an active ability.
  
• Combine Freezing Force animation with Blade Storm? Keeps animation present but gets rid of ability slot
  
• Combine the effects of Enure with Focused Defense and just call it Focused Defense?
  
• Instead of having an execute for Tanks, how about just making it so Tanks have a passive like Gather Strength utility all the time that also could guarantee critical hits if Guarded Target is attacked? Gives them more overall damage without having an execute.
  
• Make Force Stasis "Stasis Field" for Defense discipline which is just an AoE Force Stasis that gives Tank spec back AoE control?
  
• Make Force Push function like Enabling/Disabling companion abilities works? While checked its Force Push but while unchecked its Force Pull? Allows you to fulfill class based force fantasy and still maintain balance by forcing it to go on cooldown when it is checked/unchecked.
  
• Make some kind of "passive Saber Reflect" damage all the time for Guardians? Like a permanent Rebuke. This would help fulfill class fantasy so much then you could add more passives for this.
  
• Introduce new ability for Guardians/Juggernauts called Force Repulse/Force Maelstrom. Defensive Cooldown that replaces slot where Enure would've been. Jumps in air gathering energy, reflecting everything for 3 seconds and then AoE force pushing enemies? Only usable while at critical health? I'll always suggest this. I really think it would add to the theme of the Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior. If you've played Force Unleashed you know how cool this is.
  

 

Also, I've always enjoyed the proactive "foresight with the force" mechanics the Jedi Knight Guardian has. Blade Turning allows you to mitigate 100% melee and ranged attack for the first 2 seconds which requires proper timing to help mitigate damage. Blade Blitz works the same way. Saber Reflect short duration needs to be popped at the right time. Focused Defense needs to be used when enemies are going to attack you, if they don't attack then you don't get heals. Proper timing of cooldowns can make Guardians seem invincible. "A source of inspiration to allies and intimidation to adversaries..." I really like this thematic aspect of the Jedi Guardian. It allows for everyone to just jump in and play "moderate skill floor" but to master it you have to be knowledgeable about your class and other aspects of the game "higher skill ceiling".

 

I personally would like to see more "counter-attack" options similar to Riposte. Soresu Form and Shien Form is all about that. Maybe even incorporate some Djem So Form into the class. It'd be nice to see stuff that requires proper timing to keep with the theme.

[Jedi Guardian Feedback]

I main Jedi Guardian Defense discipline. Loadout A & B both tested, up until the point when I went back to choose Loadout B, it always gave me A. Also, the "Blade Burst" passive that is supposed to replace Freezing Force and make Blade Storm AoE slow isn't in any of the discipline's loadouts.

 

Does this feel like a Jedi Guardian? Please explain why or why not.

 

It feels like some kind of Jedi. Not necessarily a Jedi Guardian. Its missing too many important themes of a Jedi Knight Guardian... saber reflects, lightsaber throw, executing acrobat feats to AoE control the battlefield, foresight of the Force with unrivaled reflexes and practiced physical precision to evade and counter enemy attacks, force powers used in conjunction with elegant lightsaber tactics. A valiant, determined Guardian of peace defending his allies...

 

Is there anything that feels missing or out of place in the combat rotation?

 

Not in the "rotation" per say, but the overall kit of the class feels reduced. Lost Freezing Force AoE slow, lost Dispatch execute, lost Blade Blitz, lost Saber Reflect or Enure, lost Saber Throw, lost Awe, lost Force Clarity (which should've never been an ability, its never been worthy of a slot. Always should've been a passive proc), and Resolute & Force Kick weren't available but you already made a post regarding that.

 

What are your initial thoughts with the effectiveness of the Jedi Guardian against enemies?

 

I mean... there's just story content which is beatable with anything. Its not like people are queuing up for warzones and creating raid groups. Personally, I really don't have to play specific content though to know how the class is going to behave in that content just because I know the kits so well that if something is lost or missing I notice it. Everybody has differing opinions of what each class/discipline should have, but most importantly you need to develop kits that thematically fit the role and discipline so that we FEEL like the class and discipline we are playing. This is the most important aspect of class development. The "math" can all be adjusted to fit the theme, but the theme NEEDS to be accurate.

 

How are you enjoying or not enjoying this class?

 

I've always enjoyed the Guardian. There's definitely things I've wanted added but the overall feel of the Defense Guardian has mostly been accurate. This current iteration feels half baked.

 

If you have feedback on the different disciplines and ability paths, please note your feedback accordingly so we can track it.

 

I played them all but really don't feel like commenting on any but the Defense Guardian.

 

I used to would stay up and come up with all kinds of ideas and share them on these forums, discord, save things to my OneNote, write ideas down in my notebooks but its always felt like its been a waste of my time and fallen on deaf ears. I'm commenting now because I do care about this game, the community, and especially the Jedi Guardian class so I'm going to voice my opinion.

 

In regards to the Combat Style changes in 7.0, I think this is a welcome addition to the game! It will now allow you to decouple advanced classes from story and allow you to make more advanced classes to add to the game without creating whole new stories for additional classes. Finally a workaround without having to voice and write brand new class stories from scratch.

 

In regards to the new combat system's "customization", its essentially going to lead to everyone choosing a cookie cutter build just like WoW's "choose 1 of these 3 talents per tier". I personally think its best to just let us choose passives if you are going to go this route. Don't force us to choose between active abilities. Nobody wants to choose between Saber Reflect or Enure because that's not a choice. The majority of people are going to get Saber Reflect because it is integral to feeling like a Jedi Knight. You could also add "upgraded" versions of abilities we already have, but don't make us choose an ability that we already had over another one just to get the upgraded version. That's not fun.

 

I also think its a bad idea to take away abilities that fulfill important roles, like Awe. Awe is the only AoE control Guardian has and its a soft stun at that. Having AoE control in PvE is very useful for a Tank buying time/controlling against adds and in PvP AoE control is absolutely necessary to help make Tanks viable. If a Tank cant force targets to attack him in PvP, they have to be able to control enemies, reduce damage for allies, and be enough of a nuisance that the enemy is forced to deal with them. Its the only way tanking can work in PvP.

 

Also, Guardians should be the epitome of defensive cooldowns, especially Defense Guardians. I see no reason for this to change personally because its what the class is about. The problem with survivability now is self inflicted because you've given too many classes stuff they didn't need just to streamline things more. You listened to PvP only people say operatives needed a roll, operatives needed this and that. You gave everyone leaps and rolls and just too much mobility. You gave dang commandos and mercenaries a reflect... that also heals... that's not thematic for that class at all and they should never have received a reflect. Even operatives and scoundrels got a reflect in their Heroic utility selection. Reflecting stuff should be a Jedi/Sith thing only.

 

How about take a step back, and focus on what each class is truly about and what it should feel like. If a non force using class needs mobility, find something that fits thematically. If a non force user needs survivability, make it make sense to their theme.

 

In regards to interrupts and breakers, that new Swords of Legends MMO has a stun break you have to move left and right really fast and a little bar pops up to show a meter that builds as you move faster to break it. Interrupts are important for MMO's, I'm curious what you have planned for this. Also have you considered silences for specific disciplines?

 

And finally, why not start communicating with the player base IN REAL TIME on Discord or in-game on the PTS? Discuss changes, give us ideas, act like a family instead of a corporate entity. I know a small minority of people can be crazy but the majority isn't like that. Discuss changes, tell us why you are going for this, why you are going for that. You want people to live stream? You want people to chat? You want to make this game stand out more you have to put as much into it as the passionate players do.

[What would happen if an artificial ping floor was added?]

Grouping players by ping would work but you would need a larger playerbase so that queues don't take forever. Only way to get playerbase back is if Bioware actually starts investing into multiplayer content within the game. Then if you had the playerbase, you face another issue:

 

How do you stop players who have an excellent connection, from "lag switching" for lack of a better term, to fake their ping and make it appear like its higher than what it normally is when they are queuing? Once they get in the warzone/arena they would just stop "lag switching" and then they would have an advantage over everyone. Unless maybe you took their "average ping time" and used that as the matchmaking factor instead of their "current ping time." All of the data would need to come from server side as well so that players couldn't edit their client files or whatever to "inflate" their actual ping time.

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

I hate wows battlenet, I do not want people to know all of the alts I might have. Or if I am or am not online. This could also lead to some harassment issues, that is the main problem I have. I bring up the harassment issue because a former guildie was harassed on all of her toons because the other person knew their alts names on both factions and she eventually had to do name changes. The being able to basically whisper an account, I am just not a fan of, due to what I watched this friend of mine go through. I feel like a persons privacy needs to be respected and whispering an account opens doors that should not be opened.

 

That's understandable. It sucks that everything in life has to be ruined because of people making bad decisions to harass someone like that. However, couldn't the offended party simply put the offender on an "Ignore" list similar to what we do now? I don't really see the difference between the two. There are always going to be "bad" people in life but are we just going to let the fear of these people *possibly* doing bad things control us? Or are we going to stand up and do something about it? To quote a parable I heard from a movie I watched:

 

“There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs … Now, some people prefer to believe that evil doesn’t exist in the world — those are the sheep. And then you got predators who use violence to prey on the weak. They’re the wolves. And then there are those who have been blessed with the gift of aggression, and the overpowering need to protect the flock. These men are the rare breed that live to confront the wolf. They are the sheepdog.”

 

Legacy friends would make it easier to chat with your friends no matter what character they are on, and it would allow you to keep up with when your friends are online so you can all group together and have fun. Anytime some person of a despicable nature "wrongs" you in some shape, form, or fashion, all you have to do is put them on ignore. The Pros far outweigh the Cons, at least in my opinion.

 

And if you don't want people to know the alts you have perhaps they could add a persistent "appear offline" option for certain characters that you opt in for that? So some characters you may want to automatically appear offline, but some characters automatically always show when you come on, if you so choose? All these problems people keep talking about can be fixed with a little thought.

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

It wouldn't work with the way the system is currently designed. You are asking for a complete redesign of those systems here. Not gonna happen.

 

Thank you Miss or Missus developer for confirming that. It's good to know that someone with the authority to make decisions for the game told us what would and wouldn't happen.

 

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

*gibberish*

 

Don't worry. Bioware's going to build great group content and nobody builds group content better than Bioware, believe me, and Bioware will build it very inexpensively, they will build great, great group content on our Eastern servers. And they will have YOU pay for that group content. Mark my words.

 

And every time you protest, the group content will be 10x better.

[Darth Vader Reimagined]

That was hilarious. "No, boi. I'm your daddy, boi."

 

Lol I almost died from laughter

[eric musco bon jovi fan]

LOL this is awesome

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

Non-unique character names would completely break the ability to /whisper. Even if you had made this suggestion in a timely fashion, it would not work. Not to mention inviting people to groups, guilds, and other things. You would have to reinvent several systems within the game, and they are not going to do that.

 

It would work, because /whisper would work along with unique legacy names. You would be whispering a players "account" so to speak, not necessarily their character. Inviting people to groups and guilds would work the same way, you are inviting their "account's" currently logged in character. You cant be logged in with 2 characters at the same time with the same account so there is no reason why it wouldnt work.

 

It'd be the same way WoW's battlenet works pretty much.

 

Like you said they would have to reinvent systems within the game, but it WOULD work.

 

Deal with it, they already made a decision on algorithm they want to use, i don't think they'll change it, only 6 days left to server merges.

 

Like I said, I'm fine with it cause it most likely won't affect me. I was just suggesting an "option" for the people who it would affect.

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

/points to the numerous mass exoduses of players from this game due solely to the quality of raiding/PvP.

 

I'm sorry but your assertion is pretty much false on the face of it. Every single mass exodus in this game was either related directly to ignoring raiding, piss pour raids or ignoring PvP.

 

Every single raid was released with bugs which often could not be worked around.

PvP (other than class tweaking) has been largely ignored in this game since 2.0.

 

I mean, if "the story" and "hanging out with friends" are the real lifeblood of MMOs, then none of that should matter and this game should not have population issues.

 

But it has had population issues since day 31.

 

^this guy gets it^

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

I might have forgotten to pay much attention to the details... where is Harbinger moving to?

 

Satele Shan server

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

It's not "missing out" if you have no interest in it.

 

I have zero interest in Ops.

I have zero interest in GSF.

I have zero interest in anything to do with PvP, and the idea of attacking and killing other players for fun absolutely disgusts me.

I've successfully completely many flashpoints solo, including some in Veteran mode.

I don't care about World Bosses; I just care about doing all the solo missions and completing my planet maps.

 

So we've cleared that all up. I'm good with the way things are as a solo player, and if I interact with friends in the game, they will be people I know.

 

I pay $15 because the game has plenty of stuff for me to enjoy as a solo player, and allows me to interact with friends when and if I wish. If you get something else out of it, that's great. There are different play styles and the only thing anyone 'should' do in this game is respect that others might get something different out of it. We're both having our own idea of fun.

 

The day BW only caters to people who want to run in packs, the game will close. Raiding has never been the primary focus of this game, ever,.

 

And yes, if someone is disclosing information I want to keep private, it is a violation of my privacy. I'm not sure why you felt the need to try to bring RL politicking into this, so I'll just say that it speaks volumes that really nobody else in this thread agrees with your idea either.

 

Attacking and killing other players for fun disgusts you? Its just a game lol. Its not like we are actually killing people when we PvP. What about all those poor helpless droids and creatures you kill?

 

The day BW only caters to people who want to run solo will lead to the game closing. They have already seen this mistake through KOTFE/KOTET. Why do you think they got a new producer and have shifted focus to more MULTIPLAYER content? An MMO can not survive unless they have multiplayer content. We've already lost a lot of people and some of the best theorycrafters for this game due to them not providing multiplayer content.

 

I loved the KOTFE/KOTET story because Bioware has always been good at storytelling. But you can NOT expect to maintain an MMO on solo content alone, no matter how much we enjoy it. You've got to give players a reason to keep playing, to keep grinding, to keep coming back, etc... There's only so many times a person can do the same thing over and over.

 

As soon as you created a character in a Massively Multiplayer game you voided any "privacy" those characters have. You as a human being have "privacy", but I can easily inspect your characters gear, your achievements, and your legacy.

 

As far as your petty statement regarding my suggestions "popularity", it doesn't really matter lol. I was just trying to help others with a suggestion. There are always going to be people in life that agree with some things and disagree with others.

 

Also, I am glad that you find enjoyment soloing and I have no qualms about you doing so. But an MMO is meant for multiplayer content and that's what they need to do if they want to get the player base back.

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

We already had unique legacy names in the past. You really think they want to go and undo something that they changed years ago? If you think people will be upset about names already, just imagine them freaking out about having to change their legacy name.

 

I'm not saying the idea is terrible. It just would have been nice if BW had decided to keep unique legacy names and not first names a few years ago.

 

Well the only reason they changed Legacy names to be non-unique was due to server mergers! Lol... Otherwise they most likely would have still been unique to this day. And yeah I agree, it just makes more sense to have kept Legacy names unique.

 

Source

 

Also, that entire thread is back and forth with pretty much the same thing I'm suggesting.

 

With one week before the event it is really too late to change anything.

^^This^^

 

Should have made this suggestion in the server merge threads long ago...it's too late now.

 

I know... just figured I'd throw the idea out there in case they possibly wanted to delay the update and make some adjustments. Like I said, it doesn't bother me anyways cause I don't mind renaming lol. I just thought of a solution cause I saw a lot of folks were upset about losing their names for a second time.

 

Thank you but no thanks. My boyfriend and I share legacy names and we actually like it that way.

 

A workaround to that could be to introduce a marriage/partner/family system. I've played a few games where they had a system like this. The Legacy system could be expanded to allow you to add other players to your Legacy if they go through the "marriage/partner/family" process, then you can all have access to the same Legacy name. Your account would still be verified as YOUR legacy name, but the marriage/partner/family system would allow you the "cosmetic" option of wearing someone else's name on your character.

 

There's an idea for a legacy perk...

Legacy Family I,II,III,IV,and V.

Increase experience gained while questing with your Legacy family by 3,6,9,12 and 15%.

[What would happen if an artificial ping floor was added?]

Wasn't it Azure they were using for the new servers? I seem to remember reading that somewhere on the forums here in all these discussion.

 

I haven't heard that but its pretty cool if so. I've always been fascinated by Microsoft's work.

[What would happen if an artificial ping floor was added?]

I mean, I'm not a server/datacenter technician and I don't have any experience with setting up infrastructures but it seems to me like a solution could be cloud computing.

 

Microsoft has invested tons into cloud computing and there are datacenters available from when they launched the xbox one. Wouldn't an option maybe be checking into something similar to that?

 

I know they have the Microsoft Azure platform that has 36 available regions for datacenters across the world.

 

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/regions/?v=17.42n

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

A "friend whole legacy" option would require a new source of harrassment. That is, it would require a pop-up on the target player's screen, "X wants to friend you, confirm or decline?", and such popups (e.g. from duels) are already usable as a means of harrassing people. (Yes, this has happened to me. Some moron decided he wanted to duel me, and wouldn't take "no" for an answer. After the fourth popup, I typed "harrassment" into chat, although I got some strange responses because I put it in /general rather than /say. He stopped.)

 

I *have* to know that someone wants to be able to spy on my activities in-game on *all* my characters, and it *has* to be opt-in..

 

 

Have you even *tried* to look at a Commando with his reflector up? It's an effing forcefield, ffs. One that reflects incoming damage rather than absorbing it. No immersion problem there for me. (OK, it's a bit weird that it also heals me when I have it up, but the reflection itself is just fine.)

 

There is an option in game settings to auto-decline guild and duel requests. I suppose they could add something similar for the "Legacy" friends feature.

 

As far as commando goes, a forcefield "deflects" damage, it doesn't "reflect". Show me one time in all of star wars lore(other than fan fiction cause you can just make it up on the spot lol) where a non-force user was able to reflect something. The ability to reflect blaster bolts back to the target was always a force user thing because the force user would literally predict the movements with the force and deflect/reflect blaster bolts, or force lightning, or most projectiles. Any other means of "reflection" would be similar to luck/chance. For example:

 

If someone shot a bullet at me or you there is a very small possibility that we could deflect it with a sword. There is an even smaller possibility that we could reflect it back at them with a sword lol! This is similar to how a non-force user would behave. However, if we could "sense/predict" like Jedi and Sith do with the force, and if we had lightsabers, then we may be able to learn the ability to do so. In some cases with experienced force users, they could even use the force to absorb/deflect/reflect damage without a lightsaber and do it with their bare hands...(in legends this is called Tutaminis.)

 

Long story short, Commandos shield should "absorb/deflect" damage, but not "reflect." The most skilled force users at deflecting/reflecting attacks were practitioners of Soresu, Shien, and Djem So.

 

Canon

"The lightsaber is the weapon of a Jedi, an elegant weapon of a more civilized age. It can be used to cut through blast doors or enemies alike. Using the Force, a Jedi can predict and deflect incoming blaster bolts, and reflect them." - from http://www.starwars.com/databank/lightsaber

 

"When used defensively, a Force-sensitive could deflect blaster bolts with a lightsaber, and with skill, could even reflect the shots back toward the shooter or some other target. Experienced Jedi could even employ their lightsabers to absorb Force lightning." - from http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lightsaber

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

"Appear offline" still means that people know your characters' names, and I'm not in favor of that. Befriending a person on one character doesn't mean I want them knowing who every single one of my alts is. If you enjoy doing that, great, but not everyone has to play the way you do. Every person has a different level of comfort with these things, and that's not a negative.

 

As for the meaning of MMO, we've been over this a thousand times in this forum. "Massively multiplayer" means that a lot of players are online and co-existing. It is not a synonym for "must group," "must run in a pack," etc. Especially in a game like this, which is built largely around single player modes of play. So let's leave that one right there. Nobody gets to dictate how anyone else "should" or should not play the game they pay for.

 

Don't like beer; probably don't believe in your God, sorry. You asked for feedback on this; I don't think Legacy friend is a good idea and I think it violates players' privacy.

 

Multiplayer games allow players interaction with other individuals in partnership, competition or rivalry, providing them with social communication absent from single-player games. You are absolutely entitled to not have to group up with anyone ever and strictly focus on solo content but you are missing out on content, which means you may not be getting very much value for your dollar. "Although... value is subjective and you may very well enjoy running around in circles on the fleet for 30 days looking pretty" - say that in Negan's voice from The Walking Dead lol

 

Good luck doing any Operation solo.

Good luck winning any Warzone/Arena solo.

Good luck winning any GSF match solo.

Although possible in some instances on easier versions, good luck soloing most Flashpoints and Uprisings.

Good luck soloing world bosses.

 

I mean sure, you can pay $15 a month to play barbie world dress up and simply do the solo content. But understand that solo content is only 1 part of this game. If you want to pay $15 and run around on fleet all month that's your prerogative and I have no problem with that. You are just simply missing out on other parts of the games content when you choose not to group, that's all I'm saying. And like I said, you may be perfectly fine with that.

 

I absolutely love the story/solo content and I have no problem with them creating more as long as it can coincide with group content. Bioware has always been great at storytelling. The fact remains though is somewhere along the line, Bioware HAS to dictate what type of content they are going to create. They chose to pursue an MMO, therefore they need to create content that is expected in a multiplayer game. Otherwise they should've just made KOTOR 3 single player RPG and we wouldn't have to be discussing this. Whats the point of being online and co-existing with other players if the game is just meant to be solo? It just doesn't make sense.

 

Making Legacy friends in a multiplayer video game "violates players privacy" lol... starting to sound like a Social Justice Warriuh

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

I am not in favor of doing anything that would make Legacy names publicly known. Some people don't mind sharing them, but others do. There's no reason to need to see someone's Legacy name during fights or on the GTN, or anywhere else. I can see why they are necessary in guilds to keep people from trolling, but in that case a person is voluntarily providing their Legacy name by signing up for the guild.

 

The unique identifier for each character could be behind the scenes, or they could add the former server as an identifier somehow.

 

Also, with the Legacy friend add, there should be an opt out of it. I don't mind letting people know who my characters are, but there are reasons that a person might want to keep some characters private and others social. For instance, there may be some days they don't want to talk to anyone, or there might be a character they use for RP, or one that is specifically for family, etc.

 

I mean sure there could be a unique identifier "behind the scenes" similar to how WoW does #0000 numbers for their accounts on Battlenet. Any option like that could work also... I was just suggesting using the legacy name since its already part of the game.

 

As far as legacy friend goes, that's one reason I suggested maybe adding an "appear offline" status. You could have an overall "appear offline" for your account, and maybe a "persistent appear offline" for specific characters you choose.

 

Playing a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game pretty much dictates that you should be grouping with other players to do most content within the game. That doesn't mean there can't be some solo stuff, but for the most part content should be social and interactive with the community. In regards to that, one reason Bioware has gotten a lot of flak regarding KOTFE and KOTET is because they tried so hard to cater to the SOLO players and they lost a big portion of playerbase because there wasn't any group content.

 

An MMO is meant to be played with others for the most part. That's just the way it works. Everyone is so anti-social nowadays its unreal. Its really sad how anti-social and toxic this community has become. Its like a festering pit of negativity all the damn time. What happened to the days of cracking open a cold one with the boys as we downed the Infernal One... I miss the days of playing with friends, and making new friends with random people, where we could all just laugh and have a good time.

 

Like that song goes: God is great, beer is good... and people are crazy...

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

It's already too late to do anything.

 

Gotta deal with it.

 

Lol really I'm not worried about it. If any of mine get flagged for rename like I said, I'll just rename them. Its not that big of a deal to me.

 

I just figured I'd throw the suggestion out there to maybe plant a seed/idea to help those for whom it is a big deal when they lose their names. I'd rather not lose anymore player base. I'd like to see this game grow and THRIVE once again instead of just "getting by" and surviving on the crutch of simply being Star Wars.

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

This would be a huge adjustment into the under the hood stuff, something Bioware has repeatedly said they rather not do unless forced to, there are options that should be explored in order to make naming characters a lot easier. That said, I don't think we will see this such a change unless swtor suddenly gains a lot of new players.

 

Well, I mean they are already "under the hood" so to speak so they might as well get it done right. I just think for the long-term health of the game, making legacy names unique would be a much better solution because it can be expanded upon to include other options such as Legacy friends. Delaying United Forces a few weeks to make behind the scenes adjustments would be much better than losing playerbase. I for one, will just rename mine if any of my characters get flagged for rename, but there are many who are threatening to leave, unsub, etc... What options do you propose that make naming characters a lot easier?

[Suggestion for United Forces Update regarding "Name Collision"]

Hey folks,

 

As many of you know, people are upset about character renames. I've thought of a suggestion and I'd like to see what your thoughts are on it. What if, instead of forcing renames for characters when there are 2 or more of the same name, you make it so all character names are no longer unique but Legacy names become unique. Just like how things work in the USA, many of us have the same names but we all have different social security numbers. Our "social security number" can be our Legacy Name. Make it so that Legacy names become unique and then you set up similar restrictions as have already been discussed.

 

Suggestion:

 

Legacy names will become unique.

Character names will no longer be unique.

 

"As part of the process of uniting the galaxy, we will communicate a specific set of rules to govern the prospective scenario where two Legacy names collide":

• Premium players (Subscribers) will have priority over Free-to-Play and Preferred Status players.
  
• Legacies with the most playtime will have priority over Legacies with less play time.
  

 

Additionally, the in-game friends list now works by adding a friends Legacy, not just their character. This way you can stay in touch with your friends across all their characters! Honestly this is the way it should've worked to begin with, at least in my opinion. Anyone talking about it "breaking character immersion" is just being ludicrous. What breaks immersion is classes reflecting damage when they don't have a lightsaber lol. Maybe add an option to "appear offline" if people want that.

 

A few things that can be changed LATER ON (since they don't necessarily have to be done immediately), after the United Forces update since there more than likely won't be enough time to do it:

 

 

• Make it so items that are crafted now show "Crafted By: <Insert Character Name>, of The <Insert Legacy Name> Legacy."
  
• When mousing over GTN Character name, the tooltip box will additionally show Legacy name.
  
• Operation/Group Frames can have an option to display Legacy names, in case players need an easier time of reading names during group content.
  
• Warzone/Arena Scoreboard can be made to show Legacy Name as well.
  
• Mailbox can be made to show Legacy name if receiving mail from another player.
  

 

Anyways... does anyone have any thoughts/suggestions?