EDIT: Read the post first before commenting, no its not a troll post. Not all threads MUST be negative or angry to be "heard" most of the time angry/negative post are ignored.(unless your a troll its your source of food.)
Hi BW, Hacksign here (and everyone else)
First of all, great response time on the fixing delay and server side issues on skills and cast bars and what not. I know theres more to come on patch 1.1.2. Players have jumped the gun early by criticizing the game too quickly, and to some extent they are partly true and genuinely correct. But others like me who wants the best for you and your company to grow we sat and let the first few months unfold, why not right?.
In this post I would like to just give my opinion(Now this is just me and how I view the game so far. No way should it speak for anyone else's experience or tell/say how to do the job properly. But you promote that it is after all the "players" game. I would just like to speak my mind and hopefully the readers will agree or disagree so that the game could become better and better.)
Ok, here we go, Alot of players have dealt with as troller's say "the very first MMO" world of warcraft, and they tend to always ALWAYS compare any new game that comes out to that. Looking at it in a birds eye view in an unbiased way I say why not? After all its just a standard bar that is kept being raised. business is business and in order for business to thrive a healthy competition is always put in placed automatically by other competitors. aka companies. It should be an feat to be compared to such an exceptional and well made game and successful. (whether people like it or not wow still retains the highest MMO market per capita of a company in the gaming industry.) But what it should also mean is swtor will always be an underdog till it overcomes its competitor. So far its on the right track, don't mind the "freebies" players who just comes and goes, Long term is the game and BW/EA you will be fine.
OK lets address the main concern for ME specifically.
PVP
Macros
There needs to be a macro system. Not to make the game easier, but to further increase the skill cap of players. Like pressing tab to target and PRAYING its the target you want, will be alleviated with macros. or macroing your auto attack skill to another skill that alleviates unnecessary keybind presses.(i know theres no auto attack in the game. But for example, Rifle shot cost no energy its pretty much an auto attack for me.)
So example to get rid of clustering of the skill bar.
/target enemy
/cast Rifle Shot Rank 7
This is the simplest macro, I could go on, it doesnt make gaming alot easier, but when your pvping, seconds BECOMES minutes. If it takes you 3 seconds to react to something, its just too slow. When a stun only last for 2-3 seconds you want to maximize your advantage. Anyways you will see casual pvpers say macros isnt neccesary because players will just exploit and put all skill into 1 macro etc etc. But really if you do that then...your just crippling yourself rather than improving. Theres more to consider not just all skills in 1 macro.. Ignorance can really spark imagination, and thats viral, the most dangerous for the mind.
Tab targetting.
I wanna make it quick, it needs to be tweaked more if you somehow want to make this game very competitive. I know its not constructive to just say "its not good enough" but eh its very hard to go wrong. Right now its just isnt good enough. "Target middle screen" great concept but kinda lacking, what if your a dps and you target your members, what if your a healer and you target enemies. What if your target is acquired and then they used vanished but an ally is also chasing, the target re-appears but you keep targeting the allie...waste of precious seconds.
Target next enemy=useless its like a roulette.
Target closest enemy=random and inconsistent.(more of a melee thing)
Just...something has to be further tweaked.
GCD,
is great, but not ALL skills should be linked into the same GCD. Defensive GCD should NOT be intertwined with offensive GCD, it just makes competitive plays becomes "casual". Yes GCD is mandatory and it stresses more concise keystrokes rather than button mashing, which is great. But to have 1 GCD for all skills in my opinion is a NO NO in pvp. and 1 second GCD is too long if your counting skill animation etc etc.
Ok great example is this. You have an instant ability and a channeled ability and a cast time ability. GCD should be in placed for these 3 categories.(dont mind defensive abilities yet)
When I use an instant ability it should be INSTANT, not animation and THEN it triggers. or it triggers and animation must be played out in order to finish the skill. It just makes no sense... Instant is Instant. then put a gcd on it. But the GCD does not affect the other 2 gcd because its not part of the category. yes they are ALL offensive abilities, but seriously, its kinda uncomfortable trying to do a chain, with GCD in place for ALL skills, its not fluid...
I don't know how much else I can illustrate through words.
Bottom line, instant skills>gcd>instant skills>gcd>Instant skill=ok
Channeled skills>gcd>Channeled skills>gcd>Channeled skills>gcd=ok
Cast skills>gcd>Cast skills>gcd>Cast skills>gcd= ok
Channeled skills>Instant skills>gcd>Instant skills= ok
Cast skills>channeled skills>instant skills = ok
Instant skill>Channeled skills>gcd>Channeled skills = ok
Cast Skill>Channeled skills>gcd> Channeled skills= ok
Cast Skill>Instant Skills>Cast skills= ok
What is NOT ok is
Instant skill>instant skill> instant skill= should be gcd in between.
I don't know if you understand but yeah, pretty much you cant use the same skill type in a row, but if its not in the same category it should not respect the GCD ruling.
Camera movement: Its too fast, not viable for pvping, it should pan SLOWLY so you can see what is going on around your character. Also I don't know if you can do it, but there has to be a way to see behind your character while your running forward. Its more of purpose of when your retreating from a person you want to see if their fallowing you or they also backed away, so you either have 2 choices go offensive and carry on with the defensive tactics. But as of now with 1 camera option you cant have that decision etc etc.(avid pvpers will understand this.)
Resolve bar,
The pvp at this stage is not competitive enough for it to shine...Either place an arena or DM type maps, where the environment is controlled and the fights are less erratic than per say wz where it is. Either stick to the standard DR properties or make resolve more noticeable. And having resolve bar is only effective if your "escape" cooldown is available. So you have 2 minutes of CC fest. its just not appealing as of now.
Talent trees
I personally find this useless, why? because in the end people are gonna max-min everything and that will be skill tree included. You will be part of the norm, no matter what. just the way it is, generalization, its sad but its true. Only way to distinguish you from the others is how WELL you use the skill tree. Being a sniper and have 3 DPS tree doesnt really do us any justice.. (thats more of a rant but lets carry on.) Yeah its standard now in this industry to having skill tree... But its just too...gimicky.. people will agree to disagree with this one.. personal preference, you either overdo it like rift did, or innovate it, past what WoW did.(sorry again with the comparison.)
Anyways, dont want to poke at things too much, I'm enjoying thats what matters, but if its trying to be competitive is the incentive, then it has ways to go.....ARENA MUST be put in place, or a TDM type map. with ladder ranking. Rated Wz is a wonderful edition, but doesnt really show personal skills as you keep advertising to us players. But I will not judge till its put into place.
Other than that CHEERS!!!!!!!! keep going your doing great. People will always remember negatives, and barely the positives, no matter how good something is, 1 bad memory will smear the goods you've done. Thats business, But at the same time, you can never truly succeed unless you fail and learn from it.
