It's a general two hour downtime post - same as the one before. However it did finish earlier yesterday, think it was around 1 hour 15 min Best to keep an eye their Twitter page

Ha! Saw that one.

While the servers are down for maintenance I had a quick look round for anything on this. Most of the posts are related to mechanical faults, which doesn't sound like your problem. The only one I could find that may be of some use is from another game (you know the one!) forum, linked below: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/9573548229

And they can be 'dead' certain this time!..............

I thought that was an I WON'T :-)

Thank you :-)

OP - Unfortunately I have to agree in regard to the message boards. Whatever the outcome, there's been a significant amount of ill feeling generated by the companion settings. If this isn't a lesson to Bioware to carry out pts testing before initial introduction, then I don't know what is. I understand that they wanted to keep the story fresh for the KotFE launch, but this could have been worked around by simply having anonymous looking companions on the pts - Comp 1, Comp 2, Comp 3 etc. However, that opportunity has been missed and here we are. I'll admit that whatever the outcome, I've lost quite a bit of faith in the company to implement future actions correctly. I'll leave off re-subbing until the dust has settled, then see what's gone on. But currently I see a no win situation for the overall game environment - as whatever Bioware's decision on companions, a portion of the player base will feel let down.

Not sure honestly. Some people tasted 4.0 and loved it. The game play suited their lifestyle, and to them Bioware had done an excellent job. Meanwhile others liked 4.0.2 where they felt a kind of accomplishment after killing a couple of mobs - ok calm down, only teasing Now the (possible) middle ground......well there are a couple of well publicized quotations about compromises: 1) "A good compromise is one were both parties are equally dissatisfied." and 2) "A good compromise leaves everyone angry." Personally, I think we'll have the second one here.

It was completely unfair of you to use mathematical logic on the original poster I'm thinking we'll end up mid-away between 4.0 and 4.0.2. Exactly mid-way? Give or take the odd percent, yes.

Of course that's ok, as long as they realize that they are farming content below these max'd characters. But don't then forum bash this lower content as being too easy.

Everyone? - Nope I wouldn't be, not by a long way. I want more improvement than that. The best they're going to end up with is a fix that leaves all parties equally dissatisfied.

Will be a miracle if that happens. The best they're going to get is a situation where most people are kind of ok with things. People are still saying they want it back to pre-nerf Others are saying fine as is Yet others are saying pre-nerf with some toning down - which is what we will end up with I guess. The big question is of course - how much of an improvement will we end up with? I'm guessing (and it's purely guesswork) they'll go for the middle between 4.0.0 and 4.0.2 here - purely because it's an easy target. But I'll wait and see before hoisting any flags up.

Quote: Originally Posted by Atalantia View Post In conclusion if the idea is to make the game a grindy half baked Korean MMO then mission accomplished and we don't even get the bouncing ***** and over-sized flame blasting chain saws, never mind the hiiiiieeeeeyaaaah! sound effects... Sitting down between fights while the next batch of mobs stands around watching you isn't more engaging game-play Bioware. All you have introduced (apart from community wreckage) is a transparent uninteresting time sink. At least before, this rinse and repeat was mitigated by getting through fairly quickly. Now?........painful tedium.

Bioware ignored the poll prior to the Companion changes, they'll likely ignore this one as well. There's only one poll they'll have to take notice of, that's the subscription one. Is it a poll? Well yes, players decide whether to go for option play, or option cancel. There was obviously significant cost incurred in producing KotFE, and they have gone done the sub only route to recoup this. If the sub numbers drop below their required target, they've lost. And lets' face it, irrespective of your thoughts on companion strengths, they've completely messed things up here. Ideal scenario - introduce KotFE with tried and tested companion strengths having done sufficient preparatory work on the pts. Worst scenario - introduce with high performing companions, switch to seemingly ad-hoc low performing companions - resulting in cancelled subscriptions, all out forum war amongst the community and a significant break down of trust between the company and it's paying customers.

Agreed Unsubbed

I'm sorry Eric, but your post just comes across like some kind of work order. You should this, you should that.... Similarly, We expect this, we expect that..... My bosses at work use those "expect" "should" expressions. That's ok, they pay me. Whatever happened to playing for fun? Whatever happened to thinking about the playerbase, to real consideration and care? 'We expect'.....so far removed from any indication of real consideration - a simply terrible posting. It just portrays a defensive, we are always right mindset. With the onus thrown straight back at the players that if they are voicing serious concerns, then it's all their fault for not being 'good enough'. One of the most odious learn to play messages seen from a so called professional body. I feel you have completely lost sight of the service yourself and your company set out to do. It is a game, people play games for fun, not some obligatory set of expectations being thrown at them. Do you simply not realize that many players where having that fun at the launch of KotFE? Did you completely turn a blind eye to the lists of messages and the poll saying don't change things? But you simply ignored them, hiding behind a 'we know best' attitude that is distasteful. So far removed from really caring about your customers. And what now? When you have created a situation where there are hundreds/thousands of posts showing complete dissatisfaction with your decision making? Where your portrayed arrogance and decision making has resulted in lists of cancelled subscriptions? Where is a simple acknowledgement that you haven't gone about this anywhere near the correct way? That you realise this and will take immediate action to help stop the player exodus? That you will reverse the changes, then do what you should have done - incremental adjustments on the pts. You know, the server that is there exactly for this kind of adjustment tests? But no - all I see is 'we expect......we expect...' How far this is from a truly caring and supportive organisation. Inferring that if players are now struggling, or even stopped, with the content - then it's entirely their inadequacy. Do you simply not care that players are leaving, have left already? Do you really want to drive a proportion of the playerbase away? I can only assume this is in fact the case. For simply misjudging the mood of players and for this misdirecting 'down to you' approach, this is one of the worst development responses I have had the misfortune to experience. Reverse the companion changes Carry out proper incremental testing on the pts Then make an informed decision - and for heaven's sake, move away from this 'you should/we expect', player ordering approach.

More metrics Well honestly they can do metrics all they want. Any company that introduces 50%- 70% reductions in a critical area without any pts testing comes across as completely amateur. What do they do tomorrow? Reverse the changes? Revert then nerf by 10%? 20%? 25%? Pick a number out the hat? Bioware/EA, it's really hard to see you as a professional gaming company when you pull these untested stunts. Was it so hard to carry out incremental changes on the pts - gain feedback, see what these changes where doing, then make a decision? Well apparently for you it was, which is really depressing.

Cancelled the sub here. The worrying thing for me is the reason Bioware/EA gave for the decision. They did acknowledge divisions in opinions (conveniently missing out the 70% in favor of leaving the companions alone), but said the decision came down to how they wanted the companions to be. So, the current condition of the companions is how the company wants them to be, hence my cancellation. I think they have lost sight of probably the most critical criteria: An mmo company can try to force their beliefs onto a playerbase, but they'd better be damn sure those beliefs are what the majority want.

Basic logic would show that a 70% majority in a poll would be the one to go for. Damn this logic nuisance.

It really doesn't matter what the OP thinks people are missing - including the message that it was the company vision on companions that forced the change. Why doesn't it matter? It's not the reason - it's the result. If the company vision aligns with the majority of players you've got a successful outcome and hopefully an increasing playerbase. Conversely, if this vision turns out to be at odds with the majority, boy have you got problems. The **** storm on here points away from the former.

What do you think they could say, after ignoring the majority of player requests not to change the companions ahead of the patch? "Hi folks, we previously acknowledged player comments on the forum, including the 70% poll majority telling us not to do this change. But we did it anyway! We continue to value your input, which as our track record shows, we will completely ignore. We also acknowledge there has been considerable interest in these changes, so for neatness sake we have collated many of the replies and dumped them. Please do not forget to renew your subscriptions ready for the next chapter happening sometime soon or later. May the force be with you".

As are the reducing subscriptions - yep exactly where they should be ......oh, apart from the thousands of posts dissatisfied with the change, the cancelled subscriptions, the stopping of subscription renewals, the firestorm headlines on multi-national gaming sites, the ignoring of the 70% in favour of leaving the companions as they where. Yep, can't see a problem here.

Asking the same question. Gathering companions and their escalation is a major part of this expansion. It beggars belief that they could have got it so wrong (in their eyes), to carry out a 70% reduction. That's not just minor tweaking by any stretch of the imagination and neither of the answers reflects well on them a) It was intentional to bring players back, then change it to slow people down and hope players would stay once they had committed time to this expansion or, and far more likely in my opinion, but equally disheartening: b) They don't really know what they are doing. No proper pre-testing of the companions at expansion launch, followed by a knee jerk numbers out of a hat reaction based on minority whining. a or b - they aren't going to win mmo company of the month with either.

Well he's definitely getting feedback