DWho
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Posts posted by DWho
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Not all MMO's are going downwards FFXIV is a fine example of this not being the case the game is doing very well
Final Fantasy also was going downhill fast. It almost died because of bad design. That is why they redesigned the whole thing from the ground up on a new engine. A Realm Reborn as they say. If you put the kind of money they put into that game into any other MMO out there, they would be in a similar place. Having an major expansion released earlier in the year doesn't hurt either.
With the extra attention it is getting from its design staff as a result of almost killing it on launch, it is hardly a typical MMO
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No, it doesn't apply to warzones.
If it did there would never be any WZ pops or the server would have a meltdown trying to reconcile all the ignore lists.
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The ONLY way to fix this is to make PvP like PvE - you only get rewarded for Winning, if you lose you get nothing nut a repair bill.
The problem with this approach is it would probably finish off warzones altogether. There are a lot of casuals that participate in warzones (and do their best to win) that would simply stop queuing. Then already weak WZ pops would become nonexistent. The participation rate for PVP is already so low, you can't afford to reduce it further.
It would also make it more like Ranked, which is full of cheating and win trading, since winning is the only thing that matters there.
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Just merge the server with Harbinger, problem solved. If you read the server merge thread you will see many people are eager for this.
If you read the server merger thread its 240 pages of arguing back and forth with absolutely no consensus at all.So you brought it to a different thread instead. Nice job.a selection of posts from http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=930224&page=2
So I am going to break my rule about posting in this thread one last time to point out what the merge server crowd tries to do. The above quotes are from a thread about queue times on EH and are listed in the order they were posted. A pro-merger person posts a "merge" server" post in that thread to which I respond there is no consensus about server mergers. to which kodrac responds. Apparently if someone makes a pro-merger post and you disagree, you are not allowed to post anything further or respond to the response. This is what the merge server people have been doing in this thread for a long time now. The try their hardest to drive away people with a dissenting opinion and then claim that the thread represents a majority view. It is exactly the same as what was done in the previous incarnation of this thread.
Since I have the soapbox for a couple more lines of text. Another quote from my friend kodrac
We're on page 240 of this thread. Con #5 wasn't even on the list until page 239 because it suited your needs. It's beyond obvious at this point that the cons list will just continue to grow because, as I've noted earlier, every little thing is a point of contention. There really is no need to continue the circle jerk.and here is the #5 he is talking about
5) ninjas. People who run only end game content don't have to worry about these but people trying to level do and that is most of the people playing the game.
Here's the link to it being brought up on page 16 of the thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=923727&page=16
and the specific quote mentioning ninjas
These are very important points. Excessive competition for mission objectives is a very frustrating situation. If you want an example, look at how difficult it is to complete the bonus mission for the Coruscant heroic Face Merchants. You get to the area and there are already half a dozen people standing around waiting to jump the spawn when it materializes. Now take this situation and apply it to many of the mission objectives on Tython, Coruscant, Korriban, and Dromund Kaas (the kill X NPCs or find X components missions). I played this game when there were 150 people on the starter planets and it was very frustrating to be lined up 5 or 6 deep on mission objectives, or worse, you wait your turn and then someone jumps in and ninjas the objective. High population brings out the worst in people (ninjas, chat bullies, harassment, chat sewers), Harbinger is a good example of all the things that can go wrong with a high population. Just sit in chat for a while on fleet there and you can see how disgusting it gets.Time to get off the soapbox and let kodrac respond, as he of course will.
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You would say or you've counted? The evidence is there if you want to count it.
Interpret what I said however you like. I'm done with that thread and not going back even to count posts. You can if you like. I'll just take the position of waiting to see if Bioware announces server mergers. Until then, they are not going to happen regardless of what either side wants.
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240 pages of most people wanting merges except a few who don't you mean. Not sure if you need EVERYONE to agree to call it a consensus or not?
I'd say its about a dozen on each side with a few others voicing their opinions and then getting shouted down by the opposing side. I guess it could be more than half if you added the ones who are alright with mergers if certain aspects are fixed first since the majority of those opposed only oppose them because of problems that could be fixed by Bioware like transferring guilds intact and a separate server for the RP players.That is however, a very big if. It hardly represents the entire playerbase though since less than half of the players can post to the forums and of those that can only a tiny fraction actually do. And those posting to the forums are generally complaining about something so they are not really representative of the community as a whole.
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If you read the server merger thread its 240 pages of arguing back and forth with absolutely no consensus at all.
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But I am saying that.
My apologies, I misunderstood your point
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We're on page 240 of this thread. Con #5 wasn't even on the list until page 239 because it suited your needs. It's beyond obvious at this point that the cons list will just continue to grow because, as I've noted earlier, every little thing is a point of contention. There really is no need to continue the circle jerk.
You know what, I'm tired of this too. I think I'll go and farm credits and mats on empty servers and AFK PVP on Harbinger. After all, according to the server merge people, that is the only reason to be on a low pop server and all casual PVPers go AFK in warzones. Enjoy the continuation of this pointless discussion.
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But I am saying that.
I guess I would disagree with you then. Having to wait 30 minutes for a PVP warzone would be to long. For an Operation, not so much. FPs and Uprisings fall in between I guess. If they are not popping at all, maybe there is a reason for it other than population. Someone in another thread said all that was popping for FPs was Hammer Station. If you uncheck Hammer Station and everyone else wants to run it, I guess you won't get any FP pops. Not really a population issue.
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I stopped reading right there. Maybe you didn't, but the post I quoted did. You know, the post you failed to read correctly. When you failed at reading the post I quoted I didn't toss any insulting little gems back to you. Reading through this thread it's clear you like to argue for argument's sake regardless of content or correctness. Or better yet, for self gratification. There's no point in engaging someone like you any further. Every teeny tiny minuscule thing is a point of contention for you. You can gratify yourself to your heart's content but not with me unless you have something to actually discuss.
Very well lets discuss concerns about server mergers then
Pro:
1) better pop times for random group content
2) a more "busy" feel to the game
3) better GTN prices.
Con
1) losing Guild assets, having to disband guilds, losing strongholds purchased with credits, having to take everything out of legacy storage so as not to lose it, etc. (I counted these all as one since Bioware has said they are at least working on the Guild portion and the others can be handled using the same code more or less - these are by far the biggest issues with mergers)
2) chat toxicity/trolling - both through chat and actions/emotes - this is a problem with higher population servers
3) Server instability - can be fiixed but currently the "newer" servers are having issues
4) loss of names - not necessarily a big one but a concern expressed by both sides.
5) ninjas. People who run only end game content don't have to worry about these but people trying to level do and that is most of the people playing the game.
Fix the Cons and server mergers are not a problem. Going ahead without fixing them is. The issue is that that is going to take some time and there are already people calling for mergers before these are fixed.
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Or having to wait 30 minutes, or 60 minutes, or even longer. Having to wait for group content to pop is obviously no argument for a server merge. It just is not a legitimate concern. That's almost like saying that no longer having RP servers is a legitimate concern.
Once again, I did not say that. The quote was "I think it is insignificant to have to wait 5 minutes for group content to pop. That does not mean it is not a legitimate concern". Geez, you have to actually change what is said to try and make a point.
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Re-read the post. He said my JC is doomed, I'll have to delete character, JC is useless in PvP... Clearly not talking about a server.
Waiting for spawns... actually I'm not sure know what to say... If that's a concern then, I hate to be "that guy", but it's an online game. MMO = multiplayer online. It's a given. To expect otherwise is irrational. And to use it as an excuse against mergers is even more irrational.
I didn't say it was an excuse against mergers. You need to work on your reading comprehension. Where I come from "not necessarily a sticking point" does not equal "shouldn't merge servers because". Keith said in his podcast he wanted to understand why people don't want to move to more populated servers. As insignificant as you may think it is, it is one of the reasons. I think it is insignificant to have to wait 5 minutes for group content to pop. That does not mean it is not a legitimate concern. That is the problem with the server merge crowd. They believe only their concerns are warranted and everyone else's are insignificant.
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Yeah, but some people feel like they're special and shouldn't have to wait for anything...what do you say to them huh?
Gee, my point exactly
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Regardless, mob density is hardly a sticking point for server mergers. That's just hysterics.
Not necessarily a sticking point but definitely a concern. Any server merge should take that into consideration. Reducing the instance populations of the open world areas would significantly reduce the "hysteria" as you call it. Some people get "hysterical" if it takes more than 5 minutes for a group content pop.
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I don't even know where to begin with this but I'll give it a shot...
a) Your class has nothing to do with server merges. It's not like Consulars will go to one server and Knights to another and b) Heroics are instanced. No one can stealth into an instance and c) even if they could the rewards are for quest completion and can not be ninja looted.
You might want to rethink that signature.
I think the confusion was the use of JC here in the forums. Not everyone knows that means Jedi Covenant the server not Jedi Consular the class. The concern about ninjas is legitimate even if its not heroics they disrupt. Many heroics are not instanced so it can affect some (though those are more affected by the number of players running them simultaneously and the normally poor re-spawn rates that are there to prevent mob farming).
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Things they could of done/do differently:
4/ There's been more than enough focus on story content from two/three expansions, despite if you feel it wasn't the story you were looking for. There now needs emergency life support on endgame group content specifically ops as well as PvP. What they've started to do with VotMG with one boss at a time is a start but it's not enough, maybe there could be another op done in tandem to that to add a bit of variety and make sure people don't get bored of one op before it's completed.
5/ With that said "IF" there's another expansion I'd like to see them do away with the single player story focus, instead base it around group content. I'd like to see a good couple of full ops from the offset of an expansion along with new PvP modes & maps and a well designed daily area (not another Iokath), in fact they should make operations the main leveling method maybe with it's own short stories & alternative boss instances for solo only players like done at the end of Shadow of Revan. There doesn't need to be a long story with a lot of voice acting, all that time and effort used creating linear story instances can be ploughed into new ops & PvP to create a richer endgame experience for people to actually stick around.
The problem with 4 and 5 above is that they take a long time to develop and a lot of resources. It was the focus on one aspect of the game that caused the problem in the first place (in the case of 4.0 - Story). You don't normally fix a problem by repeating the steps that caused it in the first place. The Dev team gets burned however they do it. If they bring out OPs bosses one at a time "Its too slow". If they save them all up and launch a full OPs "its too slow". They can't win. Its the same with PVP and story. KoTFE was a disaster because it came out in too small of chunks (I actually waited for all of it to come out before playing it and it was a pretty good story played that way - more like a classic game expansion). KoTET was better in that it came out all at once but was cut short (not well developed) due to the demand for new content on a short time frame. PVP players want new warzones but after playing a new one a few times they will quickly tire of it and be back to complaining about no new warzones (Although warzones are the easiest to develop, all you need is a relatively small area with a few obstacles and maybe an objective or two and you have a new warzone - most of the current warzones are, at best, only tangentially related to the storyline). Perhaps with Warzones they could have 10 or 12 of them made up and then each week, the ones that are available to play change (maybe 5 or 6 of them at a time).
What they need to do is release a unified package of content like they did with Shadow of Revan (a big chunck of Old Republic related story along with Flashpoints and OPs - throw in a warzone or two and you'd be golden). That content was under development for a long time though. Doing the same thing now would require at least a year, maybe two, of development. That is how other "succesful" MMO-RPGs do it. Are people willing to wait that long or do they want instant gratification?
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"A marauder or a sniper should do more DPS than EVERYONE ELSE because that is ALL THEY DO. Every other class has a spec that is not DPS, so those classes (with all of their self heals and defensive cooldowns) should do LESS DPS. "
After this i stopped to read. You know nothing about class balance.
But he is right in a way. Maximum DPS (or damage per second) should not be balanced. There is a big difference between total damage output and damage per second. Burst classes should have a higher damage per second over a shorter time frame with periods of relatively low damage in between. Sustained classes should have a lower maximum damage per second but sustain the rate over a longer period of time. The balance for DPS classes should be the amount of damage they can produce over a given period of time (one longer than a few seconds). So if you take a burst class and a sustained class they should generate the same (or similar) amount of damage over a time frame measured in minutes. If you have a DPS class that has off heals and defenses it has more sustainability so it does more damage in the long term and so should have a lower maximum damage potential. Burst classes are weak defensively and have little or no healing abilities so they die quickly but are very dangerous in a short burst.
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Actually super helpful. Thanks everyone for the input.
With that said, one more question...
What's this I'm hearing about gear being able to be used on alts?
If you have a set of 248, it's legacy?
If so, I actually don't mind that.
I don't like to completely grind every single alt, but I do like to play a different class here and there.
I enjoy PvP mainly, I know the rotations so it's all fun minus the grind (to me.)
you can move the mods between alts using legacy gear. You have to pull them out of the gear that drops which has an associated cost. The set bonuses don't necessarily transfer to all classes. For example, a set with DPS bonuses is probably not the best set to put on your healer. It will work fine but won't perform as well as true healer gear. If you put together a set of 248 mods in legacy gear you can move it back and forth between characters with the exception of an item that contains a cartel market crystal. This is supposed to be fixed in the next patch.
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The sooner the better!
The later the better
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Wait wait, i have to disagree, only because I along with some other people i know have played the Story and the other Multi-player, but haven't with all my alts, because the grind make me Physically sick. Grinding Galactic Command makes me hate the stuff that i loved or liked to do. And when that joy is taken' away people don't play, or we view playing this game as a house-hold chore of the like of cleaning dirty underwaer, very dirty underwear.
I am sorry to hear that it has made you physically ill. When the game becomes a chore it ceases to be a game. I have had the other experience in that after getting 1 character to rank 300+ and in mostly 248 gear, I don't really care that much about GC anymore. I progress through the ranks with alts not really caring what their GC level is. Essentially playing the game as I did before 5.0. I know there are others that feel the same. Perhaps there is a middle ground to be found.
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I thought LadyArdor's story sounded more ike when GC came it opened up new paths for them to gear. Not only just "grinding faceroll content" but they played in PvP. Their friend used GSF. It sounded like two or three activities they used they hadn't before. Exactly what it sounded like the introduction of GC was supposed to do. Regardless how you see GC, no one should be depending on it to gear solely. Its just a terrible method. But it is one method. Just terrible. I can't stress that enough. And probably needs to remain terrible.
^^ This
GC is not meant to be the primary gearing source (especially after they reintroduced gear to OPs). It is a long hard road for anyone who doesn't do the group content for sure (and it really should be). Clearly what Bioware wanted was the two main "group play" styles, PVP and OPS to start doing each others content and to get some of the others to try the content. What they underestimated was the unwillingness of players in those areas to do anything else (the classic 1 trick pony). If they had started doing each others content the pool of players would have been expanded greatly and the random group content would be popping more often. Of course there are those in PVP that despise casuals and raiders that think PVPers are a lesser species, but had they worked together we would be in a much better place right now. Participation, particularly in PVP, is as low as it has ever been as is obvious from the length of waits for WZs on even populous servers (some will say it is all population but if you can't get more than a couple of percent of the people playing the game to do the content, is it really the population). Participation used to be much higher than it is now. Part of it is that F2P and Preferred can no longer participate in endgame content which is in itself a mistake.
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I personally like the permanent ban for hacking and make it an account ban. You can get around those but it is harder than just a character ban. You could also link the ban to a payment source for subs cheating. A harder stance on cheating (hacks, exploits, credit selling/buying) needs to be taken in this game.
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Quick question.
Reading about the new 248 gear and the ways to get it...
How long is it taking PvPer's to get a full set of 248 on average?
If you go the HM route while coming PvP, how much time should one expect to put in to gear out?
I left with 208's...
Thanks.
The best place to start is with crafted 228s. That can get you started with story mode OPs which drop 236s. With the 236s you can do HM OPs which drop 242s. The 242s can then be upgraded to 248s using UCs from PVP. It takes about 270 UCs (less for impants and more for weapons) per piece to upgrade from 242 to 248. If you do just the weekly PVP "mission" you should net around 160 UCs per week assuming you are doing the dailies along the way (if you win some of those matches you'll do a little better - each additional match beyond the weekly will get you at least 3 more UCs each additional daily completed adds 12). At a rate of 160/week it will take you about 23 weeks to fully upgrade from 242 to 248. It will actually be a bit less since you will start getting legendary pieces out of the GC crates you are earning at the same time. The time to get to 242s is pretty short in comparison. Maybe a couple of weeks depending on how many Operations you run. Purely through PVP is going to take you much longer since you will have to go through 2 rounds of upgrades 236 to 242 then 242 to 248. To put it in perspective, it would probably take you at least three times as long using just the random gear crates you get from GC ranks (you need to get to GC rank 300 before the crates start dropping 248s).
Getting 242s could be shortened if you find a helpful guild that will carry you through HMs in 228s (It is possible to do HM in 228s if you are skilled in your class or have better geared players in the raid group) and let you have all the Unassembleds.
Increase PvP Participation
in PvP
Posted