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Maggok

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Everything posted by Maggok

  1. Thanks! This is exactly my point. People are confusing a faction problem with a population problem.
  2. No, but they DID add it for the same reason that BioWare did - it is the best thing for the subscription based MMO business model. Now players have to engage in TWO separate gear grinds to participate in two distinct areas of gameplay. These grinds mean time, time means active subscriptions, and that means money. BioWare could make all the gear equal between PvE and PvP and just make it so people could get gear by playing the game however they choose. ArenaNet is taking this approach with Guild Wars 2, but then again, they have no subscription quota to feed. It's the same reason that everyone in a GW2 dungeon group receives loot they can use from their bosses. They don't need slot machine RNG to force you to come back week after week. I'm enjoying SW:TOR, don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day, it is a business, and subscription based MMOs absolutely feature mechanics that are only in place to keep that subscription money flowing in. Specialized gear is one of those mechanics. Here is a full article on the subject. PvP stats are a business decision, not a player experience decision.
  3. Here is an article which provides reasons why Faction Imbalance is a non-issue. One less thing for people to cry over.
  4. Awe, Ava! Why would you do this to me? Here this whole time I thought you were the whore with a heart of gold! Instead you're a whore with a regular whore's heart!
  5. I've noticed a difference between Elara's effectiveness at healing and Makos. I certainly die to packs that seem perfectly reasonable given my PT leveling experience. Then again, I leveled my Powertech as a Shield Tech while my Vanguard is Assault Spec, so maybe the healing is the same but my ability to take damage is greatly reduced. That seems logical to me. What I've started doing on mixed elite/champion/normal mobs is keeping a shield generator handy and popping Ion Cell until I clear the pack of normal mobs and at least get the numbers in my favor. I don't gain the full benefits of my DPS spec, but I'm not as much of a glass cannon either.
  6. Actually it is a 1.5 second cast that requires you to stand still. And to the OP... the hybrid build is far from being "trash". It may not be the spec doing the most damage, but it is absolutely the one racking up the most medals, holding the most points and possessing the most mobility. For objective based PvP, it is amazing. Move a couple points around and you can easily use the same spec for PvP and for tanking HM operations. If your play style hinges on doing the most damage possible, and winning to you means having top damage or top kills regardless of it your team won or lost the match, I guess I can see where you'd consider the hybrid build inferior. For a lot of us who love seeing those big green letters spell out VICTORY after each match, and who focus on objectives more than damage done, 21/2/18 is amazing.
  7. This video applies to most of the twitter generation in general, but especially the vocal minority on these forums with huge entitlement issues and short attention spans. The game has been out for two months. Like most things in life, it is about progress, not perfection. Most players are having fun and appreciating the game for what it offers. Where criticism is warranted, BioWare is taking action to improve it. Love the game. My guild loves the game. Well worth my time and money, and I'm looking forward to watching it develop, improve and expand. A huge thanks to everyone who had a part in making it, and an even bigger kudos to those poor souls who have to wade through the mire of unproductive whining that are the official forums. Trying to find mature, constructive feedback here can't be easy. Have a nice day.
  8. Single elimination death matches are for shooters. In MMOs, you end up centering class design and balance around what is, in actuality, a glorified mini-game. Objective based PvP is the ideal setup for MMO PvP. If you are "mindlessly" playing Warzones, then that problem exists between the chair and keyboard along with 99% of all PvP complaints.
  9. Originally posted in the general Bounty Hunter thread by mistake: While I appreciate the nature of this ability and use it frequently to shed a bit of heat, it feels a bit lacking for a capstone talent in the Shield Tech tree. My suggestion would be to have the damage of Heat Blast scale upwards with the total amount of heat you've built up. Obviously as tanks, heat management is key for sustained threat, but I think this would introduce an interesting risk/reward mechanic to the talent. Overall, I love the Powertech for both PvE and PvP! Thanks for your time.
  10. Pretty sure this is already in development. The security key app is set up with a "select an application" header, meaning more options are coming. I'd be willing to bet that a crew skill app is among them.
  11. I agree with this 100%. Big step forward for MMO design in general. Story works. My character means more to me after a couple weeks than my WoW toon did after 6 years. I can't imagine going back to a WoW-style questing system. The PvP is amazingly fun. Huttball is outstanding and mixes in a lot of strategy along with entertaining gameplay. Best PvP experience I've had in a MMO, and 1000x better than WoW's arenas or battlegrounds. I'm wishing for more Huttball maps and competitive league play. Hell, I am wishing for more Warzones featuring environmental hazards. If they add one like Khaine's Embrace from WAR, where you can detonate a high yield explosive that can vaporize friend and foe, I'll be damn near giddy. Just no arenas please. Not now. Not ever. Keep it focused on objective based PvP, and the game will be better off for it. Sure, there are some issues in PvP, but the ability delay will be fixed, and most of the imbalances people cry about have more to do with who is sitting at the keyboard than the classes themselves. The End Game will grow and develop in time along with everything else. Most of the complaints are from people who blew through the content to hit max level during their Christmas break and had unrealistic expectations of what would be waiting for them. The fact that there is a functioning Operation at all is something to be thankful for - more than a lot of launches had. Enjoy it, and look forward to what is on the horizon. The game has set the bar as far as a launch for a MMO is concerned, and I've been through more than a handful of them. I have my list of complaints and gripes, but 90% of the game rolled out perfectly. I'm content to play and enjoy myself while BioWare tweaks, fixes and adds to the game. We just have to get through till February when the ADD kids cancel their subs and take their entitlement issues elsewhere, leaving us with a better community overall.
  12. Spacebar is your friend. Just jump every so often. No big deal. The alternative is what? People who are actually AFK remaining logged in and increasing queue times? If I had to err on one side or the other, I'd rather people get booted.
  13. User review sites are less than worthless because I place no value in the opinions of 14 year olds who skipped their meds that morning - or the adults who act like them. I place my trust in specific, professional reviewers whose work I follow and whose opinions I can trust - even when they differ from mine. I do NOT place any faith in random trolls or fanboys who still wouldn't know a thing about objectivity even if the Googled it.
  14. This was a joke, right? Oh, maybe you weren't there for WoW's launch and are being serious.
  15. This x1000. Huttball is the most innovative and enjoyable PvP I've played in a long time.
  16. I actually played World of Warcraft at a high level for six years. Without lowering myself to trading internet insults, I can assure you that I do, in fact, know enough to express an informed opinion on the subject. I can even manage to do it in complete sentences. I absolutely know there will be whining about PvP, just as there is whining about everything else. A great number of people operate under the delusion (to use your term) that the internet was designed, built and is maintained with the sole purpose of serving as a sort of perpetual grievance engine. Nothing will change that. You are absolutely correct in your assertion that the poor class balance in WoW was the fault of the designers. When you attempt to make your game all things to all people, you end up failing at everything. SW:TOR is a Story-Based MMO. SW:TOR is not X-Wing vs Tie Fighter. It may have space combat as a mini game, and it may have room for improvement, but it will never be the focus of the game. SW:TOR is not Star Wars Galaxies (or even Skyrim). It may be a Star Wars MMO, but it isn't a sandbox. There is a linear nature to how the game progresses. Exploration is rewarded with hidden gems like datacrons, but open world exploration will never be the focus of the game. SW:TOR is not Call of Duty, League of Legends or Starcraft. It features PvP as an optional activity, and it already does so quite well, but competitive e-sport PvP will never be the focus of this game. I'm okay with all of that. In fact, I applaud it. SW:TOR isn't in direct competition with any of those games, so why should it try to be? The strength of any great game is defining the experience it wants to provide the player, and then delivering on that experience in the most innovative, engaging and fun way possible. While developers can certainly draw inspiration from a number of sources in a MMO this large, the great ones never lose sight of what their core gameplay experience is. I love the game that BioWare has created, and I look forward to being a part of it as it expands and refines itself over time. If they do decide to add some sort of single elimination death match mini game to SW:TOR, I'll happily play it. All I ask is that it be kept in check as what it is - a mini game, and NOT a core design experience that forces the game as a whole to try to be something that it is not. In all honesty, it shouldn't even be the primary focus of PvP in the game. That is the mistake that Blizzard's developers made, and why I agree with you that laying the blame at their feet for what happened with WoW is 100% correct.
  17. You are essentially making my point about what works in a MMO and what does not. League of Legends is not a MMO. It is designed from the ground up to deliver the PvP experience it provides, and does so exceptionally well. It isn't trying to be anything else other than what it is, and because of that, it succeeds. Huttball works exceptionally well because it delivers a competitive, objective based PvP experience for 8v8 teams. This is vastly different, and far more compatible with a PvE based MMO, than single elimination death matches centered around 2v2 or 3v3. I sincerely hope that BioWare continues to center their end game PvP around competitive, objective based design like Huttball instead of an Arena system.
  18. I personally can't stand arenas based upon my experience in WoW. It isn't as simple to say "If you don't like them, don't participate." because their very existence in your game completely dominates game design and class balance in order to accommodate the minority of players who do participate. Put simply, with objective based group PvP (like the current Warzones), you don't need to divert time, energy and resources into balancing every single Advanced Class to reach some magical, unattainable equilibrium. With Arenas and the rock/paper/scissors nature of team compositions, you do. If you don't, then the flavor of the month teams become easily apparent, and your entire Arena system becomes flooded with them. The only solution is to nerf and tweak those respective classes until other compositions become competitive, or until a new FoTM team is discovered shortly after, and then the cycle begins all over again. The problem with this is that these class changes affect 100% of the players playing that class, and not just the fraction of players participating in Arenas. Now, if your game was designed from the ground up to be a competitive PvP e-sport, fine. MMOs aren't that game, and this one certainly isn't. By keeping the PvP focus in SW:TOR based on Warzones and open world experiences like Illum, BioWare is dodging a huge bullet. They can now let PvE drive game and class design without having to give equal billing to PvP, without much of a downside, if any. TL;DR - It is much easier (and less detrimental to the game as a whole) to design PvP around 8v8 Warzones than it is to try to center all your design around Arenas with much smaller team compositions (which is inevitable if you try to make them truly competitive and especially if they reward BiS gear). The smaller the team size you balance around, the tougher and worse off you are. That is why WoW has all but abandoned 2v2s. Arena play can be fun and rewarding, but only so long as it is kept as a side game that doesn't reward BiS gear. That is the hole "that other game" dug for themselves when they implemented their Arenas, and it is one they've been trying to dig themselves out of for years now. I'd rather do without them entirely than go down that road again.
  19. Pretty sure this is already in the works along with a mobile armory and other potential apps. My theory behind this is based on the fact that when I use my iPhone SWTOR app to access my security key, it prompts me to "Please select an application:". Right now the only option is "Security Key", but they're obviously anticipating more options. Not sure if we'll see it inside the first 6 months, and maybe that is a good thing considering the state of crafting in general and their need to focus attention elsewhere, but I'm betting a crew skill app is inevitable.
  20. /signed Run with max settings fine everywhere else in the game. I hit a warzone, and I need to crank everything down to minimum just to attempt to offset the FPS drop. I LOVE the game. This is pretty much the only complaint I have.
  21. NO ARENAS. NOT NOW. NOT EVER. Arenas DID in fact help ruin "that other game" because their efforts to constantly balance it in order to make it some sort of e-sport took priority over everything else and failed miserably - tarnishing their PvE offerings in the process. Rob Pardo, Executive Vice President of Game Design at Blizzard Entertainment and former lead designer on WoW is on record as stating that same thing in an interview. "We didn’t engineer the game and classes and balance around it, we just added it on, so it continues to be very difficult to balance. Is WoW a PvE cooperative game, or a competitive PvP game? There’s constant pressure on the class balance team, there’s pressure on the game itself, and a lot of times players who don’t PvP don’t understand why their classes are changing. I don’t think we ever foresaw how much tuning and tweaking we’d have to do to balance it in that direction." Mr. Pardo even said that if he could go back in time, either he would go back to before the game came out and changed the rules to make the Arena easier to implement or he would just scrap the idea. " Instead of trying to make it the best PvE game they possibly could, they tried to be all things to all people. This *never* works. Objective based PvP is the pinnacle of player competition in an MMO. The Warzones provided with SWTOR currently are a great example of this, especially Huttball, and I sincerely hope Bioware sticks to this type of design. If you want single elimination team combat, go play MW3. Don't try to force a rock/paper/scissors class composition mini-game into your MMO and balance everything else around it. It doesn't work.
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