I always forget that when you make things consistent, you also have to make them consistently trashy. :/ It's unfortunate that absolutely none of the neat **** they could have done to fix this actually got done. It's a shame that these folks either aren't able or aren't allowed to effect positive change in their game systems. I wanna go out there and fix 'em. I'd buy the ticket and everything. Goddamnit.

Yes, the randomness is working as intended. Yes, the fact that they're using randomness in this system is one hundred percent bankrupt. It's stupid, it's slipshod, it's lazy design, and this in and of itself has driven every single one of my friends off the game, myself included. I have a massive thread up for a way to fix it that also addresses numerous other systemic issues in this game's PvP system, but no one gives a ****. They're 'fixing' this system by removing the random element and making the bags drop more Commendations, which makes loot progression fairer and fixes absolutely nothing else. MMO developers drop the ball kind of a lot on this stuff. I realize they don't have the freedom to work like they should be able to, but **** me, fellas. It has to be better than this.

What -are- you? I rocked **** on Belsavis and I was a level low.

I like to think I have great ideas. I have, as of this writing, already cancelled my account. The change they're making to fix this is the most incremental little thing they could possibly do, addressing only a single problem of the multitude of systemic issues plaguing the game's PvP system. I dealt with tiny baby-steps iterations throughout my lengthy tenure in Warhammer Online and I used up all my give-a-**** doing that. I'd love it if they'd hire me to revamp their ****, but they won't, no one knows who I am, and there's no such thing as an entry-level design position. **** my life.

That's just it. They DO want to promote death in PvP. Death keeps things moving, it pushes one side or the other to move or change tactics or just lose the fight instead of letting people wail away on each other ineffectually for minutes on end. Death is a GOOD thing. You want folks dying in PvP or else PvP is thoroughly unsatisfying. If you ever played WAR, just think about Warrior Priests and Disciples of Khaine. They had tons of armor, they healed themselves and all their buddies like crazy, and they were mostly unkillable unless you focused them with a bunch of folks -and- had a Witch Hunter open up and heal-debuff them. it's not the way you want things to go. Folks should be able to die under fire even without tons of heal debuffs and things to help them down, and that's precisely what this debuff does. It's not like you can't still make an impact; I've seen healers with 900k healing on the board before, and not just from their buddies standing in hazards or anything. It's crazy stuff.

They did this to make it hard to just heal folks right through anything that comes their way. It's not like players hit as hard as raid bosses, but healers are required to heal players through raid bosses at points, then turn around and fight other players with that same healing. To offset the big numbers, they made healing broadly less effective in PvP. It was a good step, I'm glad they did it; big stalemate fights where a healer can't deal damage but can keep himself alive through thick and thin are boring and it doesn't happen very much at all in SWTOR PvP.

If you got all your gear in that much time, that's awesome. I hit 50, bought 6 bags, got nothing. Finished all my dailies, got nothing. Finished another few dailies, a weekly, bought more bags, nothing. In three days of PvP I have barely enough to afford one Centurion piece and you're in full Champion. Therein, as they say, lies the ****in' problem.

Did I say I was a healer? I'm a Merc. And not the kind that shoots Kolto at people, I'm the one everyone's trying to get nerfed because I'm forced to use an ability for half my ****in' rotation.

Uh... you get to blow healers up like bags full of fireworks. Sawbones and Sorcs go up -particularly- well, although I've been chopped up by a couple of you guys before I could even get a second Tracer Missile off at the ball carrier. Being nigh-immobile makes it super hard to escape you stealthy types. Sorcs are definitely in that category. You bring something, and that something is 'destroying pockethealers'. You're one of the only classes that can do it in a short enough time to be reasonably effective, too, not to mention being able to lock out spammable heals while you're knocking folks down and stabbing the **** out of them for oodles of damage.

Eeeyep. Ranged are always at some advantage. Folks don't realize how cool not needing a gap closer is. Not OP! We give up a lot of things to have no capacity to close gaps. I have a rocket pack and I can't even ****in' use it, for heaven's sake. Still. Ranged is good stuff. Melee folks are always in rougher shape than ranged folks just 'cuz they're right in the thick of it all the time.

Penalizing the side with a population advantage universally alienates the larger portion of the population. This isn't a good idea, it's economic suicide for the game. Starting the long tail earlier rather than later is good for nobody, and the suggestion itself is selfish. Same-faction-available Warzones are a great idea; it means queues pop, which means people get to -play- the game they're buying time on. Selfish. Shortsighted. Not a good idea.

Hooray! Three more bags today. 9 more Commendations. This system sucks ***. My guildie opened his six bags (from having one bought and 1000 of each Commendation when he hit 50) and pulled -five pieces- out of his, including a mainhand. Me, I get ****-all. I'm always very hopeful about these things, but I might very well just **** off and play games that are worth my time.

Yay! I just hit 50 and guess what I got in all 6 of the bags I had ready to go? ****-all. Naturally. Oh, and I finished a round with 20k Objective Points from hauling *** and defending a ton, and that's at 50 in 44 gear. Second on damage, top kills. So it ain't like I'm some terrible player along for the right, here. >:|

This is going to be a big thread, so please try to hold on until the end. If you're not up for big, specific reading, it's probably best to just quit now. I had an idea for a new Warzone that would be available for both side vs. side and side vs. self, much like Huttball; they'd be identical except for the name, one being Skirmish when it's a real fight, the other being War Games when its Imps Vs. Imps or Pubs Vs. Pubs. Textwall inc: War Games will be a sort of hybrid between Alderaan Civil War and Demigod, if anyone here has ever played that particular spin on the MOBA genre. Ilum is contested in Star Wars literature because of a few resources it has; in this case, I've chosen Kathracite as our analogue to cash and Influence as our analogue to XP. Both of these resources are restricted -only- to a single War Game or Skirmish; when the game ends, they will be converted into various rewards, and everyone starts a the War Game with none. 1. Headquarters. This will contain: 16x Auto Turrets (4 top, 4 bottom, 8 mid) 4x Anti-Vehicle Turrets (1 top, 1 bottom, 2 mid) 2x Player-Controlled Turrets (Corners, can reach Top/Mid or Bottom/Mid) 1 Headquarters, a building with its own set of 4 heavily-armored turrets. 1 Command Console, used to purchase upgrades for the entire army. Command Console upgrades are puchased with Influence , and these upgrades affect your entire side in the war. Upgrades are structured like a talent tree with a number of branches: a) Medical Systems: Respawns for players are shortened b) Mining Systems: Kathracite mining more effective, more Kathracite from kills c) Training Grounds: Influence gain from kills increased d) Planetary Defenses: Adds more Armor or health regeneration to base defenses. e) Quartermasters: Adds Damage or Armor to NPC soldiers f) Barracks: Adds one soldier to each spawn per tier, or converts a currently-spawning soldier to a new type: Elite (silver), Medics, or Rocket soldiers. Base spawns are five soldiers each, while max-level spawns will be four soldiers, two medics, an Elite commander and a rocket soldier, for a total of eight. 1 Requisition Console, used to purchase gear by members of the owning faction. These items are specific to the gametype and are bought with Kathracite. They can fill any of six slots: a) Boots - Boots can have a number of effects, but most are intended to increase the speed at which you move about the level. The best boots would have both a combat runspeed increase and an out-of-combat runspeed increase. They also add a small amount of Health and Armor. b) Helm - Concerned mainly with adding to class-specific resources like Force pool, regeneration, Heat venting, or the like. They can also reduce cooldowns for some skills which would ordinarily have a longer-than-relevant cooldown, but the best resource regeneration or pool increase items may not always have the best cooldown reductions. Also add a small amount to Health and Armor. c) Gloves - Gloves decrease the Global Cooldown, proc buffs that cause the next move used to ignore the GCD, or otherwise cause abilities to be ready quicker. These can also significantly impact Alacrity. Also add a small amount to Health and Armor. d) Chest - Chestpieces increase Armor, Health and Resistances significantly. They are the main source for Armor and Health in Wargames, and one chestpiece is available for free that allows every player entering a game to immediately add a substantial amount to their health. Better Chestpieces may also have passive procs or active abilities that allow one to shield themselves from a certain type of damage, regenerate health when hit, or other defensive support abilities. e) Weapon - Causes white damage from weapons to gain numerous benefits. Some increase damage more significantly, but some will have extra effects like hitting more targets, stealing Health, stacking Armor Piercing or DoT debuffs, or slowing attackers who have been struck. f) Ultimate - Grants one ability. Several Ultimates are available and have abilities anywhere from calling airstrikes to firing cruise missiles at enemies from extreme range to leaping huge distances and landing with a stun and damage. These will universally have a lengthy cooldown and be costly, sometimes expending 40-60% of a player's resource. These slots can be placed on a new page of the character menu, perhaps replacing the Companion page while one is in a War Game or Skirmish. Note: Each upgrade bought reduces the cost of any other upgrade for the same slot by 90% of its original purchase price. Buying early and upgrading later is to be encouraged. The Headquarters area is your home base. Inner turrets can detect stealth, and both turrets and the Headquarters building itself can self-repair over time. If all four of the Headquarters' turrets are destroyed, the Shield Generator that the Headquarters houses will become available for attack; when the Shield Generator is destroyed, the battle is over. And now, a small diagram: ...4---6---3..... .../.....|......\... ../......|.......\.. HQ----2----HQ ..\......|......./.. ...\.....|....../... ....3---5---4.... HQ is obvious. The rest of the points are as follows: 2. Point of Contention. A main mining operation on Ilum, this PoC is extremely influential among local soldiers. This operation also houses a temporary HQ with a shop that sells more expensive, more powerful items. This is a capture point and it must be captured in order to access the shop, and it improves the Influence gained by the owning faction by 20%. 3. Barracks cap point. One of two Reinforcement areas, the Barracks cap point spawns waves of NPC guardians to help your base. At a cost of Kathracite, Influence, or both, one may spawn extra waves or extra-powerful additions to new waves (walkers, tanks, etc.) on a limited basis. This cap point is heavily defended, with 4x Standard Turrets. Both Barracks and Training Grounds are the spawn points for new units and allowing one to fall to the enemy will mean that the enemy gains new waves of soldiers which will attack the nearby HQ, so be careful not to lose them! 4. Training Grounds cap point. The second of two Reinforcement areas, the Training Grounds cap point spawns waves of NPC guardians to help your base. At a cost of Influence, Kathracite, or both, one may choose to temporarily upgrade units; with coordination, using both cap points together (to buy an Armor upgrade and a Walker simultaneously) can be very powerful. This cap point is heavily defended, with 4x Standard Turrets. Both Barracks and Training Grounds are the spawn points for new units and allowing one to fall to the enemy will mean that the enemy gains new waves of soldiers which will attack the nearby HQ, so be careful not to lose them! 5. Fixer Station cap point. Fixers or Republic engineers in this area improve the efficiency and combat viability of all units, causing Energy gain, Heat venting, and Force gain to be improved in-combat by 10%. This includes extra Energy gained with Pugnacity or its mirror, Heat vented with Vent Heat or Missile crits, and Force gained with the Life Tap equivalent. Consumable Drops are available here for Kathracite; Fixer drops include things like Repair Drones, Medical Drones, Stealth Probes, Forcefields (which are basically just enemy-NPC-taunting objects that require nearby NPCs to destroy them before they can continue) and other defensive support items. 6. Armorer cap point. Imperial quartermasters or Republic armorers in this area improve the defensive capabilities of all soldiers in the field; overall Health is improved by 10% whenever this point is held. Consumable Drops are available here for Kathracite; Armorer drops include things like Anti-Personnel Turrets, Mines, Anti-Vehicle Rocket Launchers, Droid Drop Pods, and other fire support items. All enemy units give Kathracite and Influence. Influence is gained in an area; if a player is within range but has nothing to do with a kill, they will gain Influence for it. Kathracite is gained for kills; any enemy the player has dealt a majority share of damage to will reward them with extra Kathracite, with a small AoE reward of Kathracite for participants. New UI elements should be visible without being difficult to see past; equipping Ultimates to slots should work just like putting a Relic active on your bar. Equipping ALL pieces of Ilum Wargame loot should be automatic; if a player has a great, rare piece of equipment which drops on death, they do not drop the loot; they drop 90% of its cost in Kathracite, split between killer and assisters, 80-20. All enemy players give Kathracite, Influence, and Valor. They give 25% of held Influence and Kathracite over to their killer (or split it 60-40 with killer and assistants) as well as a reasonable amount of Valor. This game should be very different from most PvP. Characters will be almost at raid-boss power levels at the end of the game, able to drop thousands of damage in AoE and take loads and loads of hits. This is because adding a considerably higher baseline for health and striking power will significantly reduce the currently-extreme gap between players with and without Expertise. Extremely high-level PvP players will find themselves only a little better off in this gametype, while low-level PvP players can gain a comparable amount of Valor to running Warzones without feeling as though they are fighting unmanageable odds. This makes the gear gap much less important in this particular gametype. The earlier the game ends, the more Valor and XP it is worth. Farming a beaten team for 20m after a 10m fight should have small rewards while crushing a team in 15m should be worth significant bonuses to Valor and Experience for all involved.

This is going to be a big thread, so please try to hold on until the end. If you're not up for big, specific reading, it's probably best to just quit now. I had an idea for a new Warzone that would be available for both side vs. side and side vs. self, much like Huttball; they'd be identical except for the name, one being Skirmish when it's a real fight, the other being War Games when its Imps Vs. Imps or Pubs Vs. Pubs. Textwall inc: War Games will be a sort of hybrid between Alderaan Civil War and Demigod, if anyone here has ever played that particular spin on the MOBA genre. Ilum is contested in Star Wars literature because of a few resources it has; in this case, I've chosen Kathracite as our analogue to cash and Influence as our analogue to XP. Both of these resources are restricted -only- to a single War Game or Skirmish; when the game ends, they will be converted into various rewards, and everyone starts a the War Game with none. 1. Headquarters. This will contain: 16x Auto Turrets (4 top, 4 bottom, 8 mid) 4x Anti-Vehicle Turrets (1 top, 1 bottom, 2 mid) 2x Player-Controlled Turrets (Corners, can reach Top/Mid or Bottom/Mid) 1 Headquarters, a building with its own set of 4 heavily-armored turrets. 1 Command Console, used to purchase upgrades for the entire army. Command Console upgrades are puchased with Influence , and these upgrades affect your entire side in the war. Upgrades are structured like a talent tree with a number of branches: a) Medical Systems: Respawns for players are shortened b) Mining Systems: Kathracite mining more effective, more Kathracite from kills c) Training Grounds: Influence gain from kills increased d) Planetary Defenses: Adds more Armor or health regeneration to base defenses. e) Quartermasters: Adds Damage or Armor to NPC soldiers f) Barracks: Adds one soldier to each spawn per tier, or converts a currently-spawning soldier to a new type: Elite (silver), Medics, or Rocket soldiers. Base spawns are five soldiers each, while max-level spawns will be four soldiers, two medics, an Elite commander and a rocket soldier, for a total of eight. 1 Requisition Console, used to purchase gear by members of the owning faction. These items are specific to the gametype and are bought with Kathracite. They can fill any of six slots: a) Boots - Boots can have a number of effects, but most are intended to increase the speed at which you move about the level. The best boots would have both a combat runspeed increase and an out-of-combat runspeed increase. They also add a small amount of Health and Armor. b) Helm - Concerned mainly with adding to class-specific resources like Force pool, regeneration, Heat venting, or the like. They can also reduce cooldowns for some skills which would ordinarily have a longer-than-relevant cooldown, but the best resource regeneration or pool increase items may not always have the best cooldown reductions. Also add a small amount to Health and Armor. c) Gloves - Gloves decrease the Global Cooldown, proc buffs that cause the next move used to ignore the GCD, or otherwise cause abilities to be ready quicker. These can also significantly impact Alacrity. Also add a small amount to Health and Armor. d) Chest - Chestpieces increase Armor, Health and Resistances significantly. They are the main source for Armor and Health in Wargames, and one chestpiece is available for free that allows every player entering a game to immediately add a substantial amount to their health. Better Chestpieces may also have passive procs or active abilities that allow one to shield themselves from a certain type of damage, regenerate health when hit, or other defensive support abilities. e) Weapon - Causes white damage from weapons to gain numerous benefits. Some increase damage more significantly, but some will have extra effects like hitting more targets, stealing Health, stacking Armor Piercing or DoT debuffs, or slowing attackers who have been struck. f) Ultimate - Grants one ability. Several Ultimates are available and have abilities anywhere from calling airstrikes to firing cruise missiles at enemies from extreme range to leaping huge distances and landing with a stun and damage. These will universally have a lengthy cooldown and be costly, sometimes expending 40-60% of a player's resource. These slots can be placed on a new page of the character menu, perhaps replacing the Companion page while one is in a War Game or Skirmish. Note: Each upgrade bought reduces the cost of any other upgrade for the same slot by 90% of its original purchase price. Buying early and upgrading later is to be encouraged. The Headquarters area is your home base. Inner turrets can detect stealth, and both turrets and the Headquarters building itself can self-repair over time. If all four of the Headquarters' turrets are destroyed, the Shield Generator that the Headquarters houses will become available for attack; when the Shield Generator is destroyed, the battle is over. And now, a small diagram: ...4---6---3..... .../.....|......\... ../......|.......\.. HQ----2----HQ ..\......|......./.. ...\.....|....../... ....3---5---4.... HQ is obvious. The rest of the points are as follows: 2. Point of Contention. A main mining operation on Ilum, this PoC is extremely influential among local soldiers. This operation also houses a temporary HQ with a shop that sells more expensive, more powerful items. This is a capture point and it must be captured in order to access the shop, and it improves the Influence gained by the owning faction by 20%. 3. Barracks cap point. One of two Reinforcement areas, the Barracks cap point spawns waves of NPC guardians to help your base. At a cost of Kathracite, Influence, or both, one may spawn extra waves or extra-powerful additions to new waves (walkers, tanks, etc.) on a limited basis. This cap point is heavily defended, with 4x Standard Turrets. Both Barracks and Training Grounds are the spawn points for new units and allowing one to fall to the enemy will mean that the enemy gains new waves of soldiers which will attack the nearby HQ, so be careful not to lose them! 4. Training Grounds cap point. The second of two Reinforcement areas, the Training Grounds cap point spawns waves of NPC guardians to help your base. At a cost of Influence, Kathracite, or both, one may choose to temporarily upgrade units; with coordination, using both cap points together (to buy an Armor upgrade and a Walker simultaneously) can be very powerful. This cap point is heavily defended, with 4x Standard Turrets. Both Barracks and Training Grounds are the spawn points for new units and allowing one to fall to the enemy will mean that the enemy gains new waves of soldiers which will attack the nearby HQ, so be careful not to lose them! 5. Fixer Station cap point. Fixers or Republic engineers in this area improve the efficiency and combat viability of all units, causing Energy gain, Heat venting, and Force gain to be improved in-combat by 10%. This includes extra Energy gained with Pugnacity or its mirror, Heat vented with Vent Heat or Missile crits, and Force gained with the Life Tap equivalent. Consumable Drops are available here for Kathracite; Fixer drops include things like Repair Drones, Medical Drones, Stealth Probes, Forcefields (which are basically just enemy-NPC-taunting objects that require nearby NPCs to destroy them before they can continue) and other defensive support items. 6. Armorer cap point. Imperial quartermasters or Republic armorers in this area improve the defensive capabilities of all soldiers in the field; overall Health is improved by 10% whenever this point is held. Consumable Drops are available here for Kathracite; Armorer drops include things like Anti-Personnel Turrets, Mines, Anti-Vehicle Rocket Launchers, Droid Drop Pods, and other fire support items. All enemy units give Kathracite and Influence. Influence is gained in an area; if a player is within range but has nothing to do with a kill, they will gain Influence for it. Kathracite is gained for kills; any enemy the player has dealt a majority share of damage to will reward them with extra Kathracite, with a small AoE reward of Kathracite for participants. New UI elements should be visible without being difficult to see past; equipping Ultimates to slots should work just like putting a Relic active on your bar. Equipping ALL pieces of Ilum Wargame loot should be automatic; if a player has a great, rare piece of equipment which drops on death, they do not drop the loot; they drop 90% of its cost in Kathracite, split between killer and assisters, 80-20. All enemy players give Kathracite, Influence, and Valor. They give 25% of held Influence and Kathracite over to their killer (or split it 60-40 with killer and assistants) as well as a reasonable amount of Valor. This game should be very different from most PvP. Characters will be almost at raid-boss power levels at the end of the game, able to drop thousands of damage in AoE and take loads and loads of hits. This is because adding a considerably higher baseline for health and striking power will significantly reduce the currently-extreme gap between players with and without Expertise. Extremely high-level PvP players will find themselves only a little better off in this gametype, while low-level PvP players can gain a comparable amount of Valor to running Warzones without feeling as though they are fighting unmanageable odds. This makes the gear gap much less important in this particular gametype. The earlier the game ends, the more Valor and XP it is worth. Farming a beaten team for 20m after a 10m fight should have small rewards while crushing a team in 15m should be worth significant bonuses to Valor and Experience for all involved.