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Zharik

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    Companion Balance Changes

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    <snip>

    Emergent Gameplay

    [Heroic 2]s. Before Knights of the Fallen Empire, Heroics were not very utilized content. Most players ignored them after doing them once. So when we highlighted areas of improvement for our leveling experience, we knew we wanted to make Heroics sexier. We wanted players to have good reason to go do them, but also give players a reason to join up with their friends. What we failed to realize was how much most of you would enjoy them, but also how frequently you would engage in them. [Heroic 2]s were initially meant to be challenging content for what we would say is an “average” player. If you had good gear and really knew how to play well, you could solo them but you’d still have to pay attention to what you were doing. If you had expected gear for your level and didn’t think of yourself as that skilled, you’d probably find a friend to join you so you could both reap the rewards together.

     

    With Companions being the power level they were, “everyone” began enjoying them. And that was the point that we hadn’t realized. By reducing Companion power, we took that away from a lot of you. You could still engage in [Heroic 2]s and beat them, but they had become arduous, even grindy to many players.

    <snip>

    Please do not take this the wrong way, but you are making quite an assumption using the word "enjoying". I'm not necessarily saying you are wrong, but you are making an assumption. You track what your players are doing, but you have no idea if they are in fact enjoying how they are spending their time. Just because a player does something in game, (even repeatedly) that does not necessarily mean that they are enjoying it. I have repeatedly gifted my companions on many toons to higher Influence levels. Do NOT assume that I enjoyed it simply because I have spent hours (not an exaggeration) doing it. Sometimes the reward is worth the effort and grinding the Heroics for Conquest Points/Common Data Crystals/Credits/Alliance Crates makes it worth doing. Now if you want to see if it is considered fun take away most of those rewards and see how many players do it because they "enjoy it".

     

    Now a bit more on topic:

    There are so many variables when balancing a game, and many of the things you listed are not in your control as a developer (player skill/experience, computer specs, play style). The rub is when you take those variables into account, you now have too broad of a range to easily balance things to accommodate everyone. Outliers will always be left in the cold. The very top players will call whatever you do "too easy", and the very casual players will give up and call your game "too hard". Don't try to please them, all you'll end up doing is making your CORE PLAYER BASE angry/frustrated.

     

    So do not make it so easy that a tank character (with no shield equipped, wrong stance/cell, gear 30 levels out of date, etc) and his tank companion can win without any real threat of dying. Bad players should not succeed. Also do not make it so one mistake in your rotation will cause you to not do enough DPS and you die. Top players should faceroll average content, and yes be bored while doing it (you've put in many hours to get to "top player" status, you *should* be bored with average content).

     

    The rest of us though, should be sufficiently challenged by average content. Not too hard where you need a friend's help for solo content, nor anything that cannot be completed in all 3 specs for each adv class (I'm looking at you sage healer end of chap 3 at launch). Also not too easy that multiple, horrid mistakes don't punish you (and make you learn to be a better player) with a death (stand in stupid for ever, don't interrupt an ability that takes 6 seconds to cast and is called "I WIN", burn yourself completely out of energy, etc). If you can accomplish this paragraph, you'll have players that enjoy the game.

    how do we get companions back canonically?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    My biggest gripe about this situation is when you gift up a companion (or several) and they disappear. I mean if you get Vik to Influence 50 pre expansion and he is not an option to return when you see him, that really doesn't make sense. (I imagine that at Influence level 50, that companion absolutely adores your character, is willing to take a bullet for you, kill for you, works extremely hard at making you happy, etc.) But the "canonical story line" treats them all as not having an Influence score (or worse by having a fixed score).

     

    If I have treated Vik like a criminal the whole (basic) story (well he is) and we run into each other in the (new) story, having him tell me to 'go pound sand' makes sense, but if we've been scamming the Republic for extra credits this whole time he might be quite excited to get the "good 'ole days" back. And I understand that they didn't track how you have treated them in all the conversations all this time, but this could at least be represented by the Influence score.

     

    Choices *should* matter more.

    Crash to desktop after clicking Play on launcher.

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Zharik

    I deleted the bitraider folder in program files and that forced the launcher to do a repair. There seemed to be another 8% of files that needed to be downloaded. The launcher works now. I hope this helps some of you.

     

    I called customer support and they also had me do this. Worked for me as well.

     

    Edit: Specifically it is the "Bitraider" folder in your SWTOR install directory. If it is still "in use" open task manager and stop the processes with a description starting with bitraider... (I had 3)

    Schematic: Ice Scrabbler jerky drop chance too high

    in Bug Reports

    Posted · Edited by Zharik

    Oh yeah definitely, I've had to vendor like 30 of the things. It's extremely high.

     

    Pretty sure that it is the ONLY schematic to drop now (The others don't actually exist anymore. I haven't seen one since 4.0 started and all the ones that *used* to drop are now trainable from the crew skill trainers)... so when a schematic is picked initially, you always get the jerky schematic.

    Dear Bioware,

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Zharik

    they need to speak to me about my reinstalled cause it isn't working now all its saying is The Launcher is being updated please wait.....

     

    it's been like that for the past half an hour now and i want ANSWER from them!.

     

    *** is going on now with my launcher now its not updating and i tried everything.:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

     

    i pay 8..9 per month for this game and now this problem comes up.

     

    i'm really upset and..... i want compensation from you swtor devs after you fix this reinstalled problem and i mean it or i'll ring yous up and get yous to fix it!.

    You didn't try posting just one :(

    Ok, I am sorry but.....

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Sorry for confusion. I have Augmented my sabers and a couple of pieces of gear but not all. It is incredibly expensive to by the MK8 slot and then by the augment from the GTN. I plan to eventually augment all of it but am trying to raise the credits.

     

    All your old Mk-8 thru Mk-10 slotted items are now Mk-8 (top of the line) so all you need is new augments.

     

    Advice: For DPS get to 110% accuracy then rest in crit and alacrity, do NOT stack power or mainstat on augs you get plenty by default on power.

    For healers same as DPS -accuracy.

    For tanks aug for shield and absorb, you get plenty of defense already by default.

    Running KotFE with a non-force user (spoilers)

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Some things never change. I remember having this same issue with ME. I hated that fact that my Shepard had this big gun and in all the cut scenes he's holding a pistol.

     

    But at least those cutscenes gave him a pistol, right? I know it magically appeared but the cutscene made sense with it, unlike my axe's saber sounds and effects... *sigh*

    Running KotFE with a non-force user (spoilers)

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I've completed KotFE twice so far with a Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior. Now I have my non-force characters to run: Agent and Tropper.

     

    But really, the story feels more akin to force users. Does the story change much for non-force users? Anyone who has run a non-force character, does it feel awkward? I can't get my head around why the emperor would even bother with a Imperial Agent or a Tropper?

     

    It's explained fairly well. Though the cutscenes when playing with a jedi all assume you wield a lightsaber. I use a Gamorrean Axe on my jugg, and *sigh* all the cutscenes sucked for it. :mad:

    Alliances - What do we get out of it?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    From what I've seen and done in game you get a bunch of companion gifts and adaptive armor (not found elsewhere easily that I've seen - it's all like old raid gear) for turning in the packages to gain rep with the big 4. In turn, you'll unlock benefits for star fortresses at least in terms of chests you couldn't open before. Since I don't have anyone at 10+ yet I don't know what's in those chests myself. I'm sure there's a lot more, just what I've seen directly.

     

    Those chest contain temporary boosts to be used in the FP. An achievement is tied to using all 4 in the final battle as well.

    Forced to do PvP?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Zharik

    <snip>...to get Pierce or M1-4X back as companions?<snip>

     

    Just so you know troopers always can get 4X back and warriors can always get Pierce back with a conversation option. It is the other classes that have to do the PvP to "earn" him.

     

    For the record I hate the fact that they are using these two companions as a lure to get more people to PvP. They are PvE companions, after all.

    Any chance of a huge QoL improvement?

    in Suggestion Box

    Posted · Edited by Zharik

    Giving gifts one at a time isn't the worst thing ever. You can't lose influence with companions like you could with affection, so even though it's a bit tedious you won't ever have to do it again once you max a companion out.

     

    I never claimed it was the worst thing ever, that's why I called it a huge QoL improvement. Don't think it is huge? Takes slightly more than 5 minutes to give a (single) full stack of gifts, that'd be changed down to say 10 seconds with some sort of confirmation box. Using the gifts you can buy for credits (using the most optimal scenario you're still talking over 5 million credits) it takes over 80 stacks of rank 2 gifts - that's 400+ minutes per companion.

     

    Imagine if your character had to stand still while your crafting occurred. That's how this feels to me. And yeah I get that it is a "one time" thing, but sitting for an hour (or more) just spam clicking is ridiculous and not fun. I'd rather the gift gathering take longer/more effort than to spend that time clicking over and over.

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