AscendingSky
-
Posts
2,060 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Blogs
Events
Articles
Downloads
Gallery
Posts posted by AscendingSky
-
-
Jim Sterling put out a video today reacting to the Kotaku article, focusing specifically on what sounds like the super toxic work environment at BioWare. Gotta love the title: A Video About BioWare Working Staff To Tears And Calling Its Mental Abuse "Magic".
(NSFW Warning: Jim Sterling uses naughty language.)
-
The only reason EA went the route to have all the studios using the Frostbite engine as to save on licensing fees. However, saving money on those fees cost them far more than those license fees. I know beyond a reasonable doubt that EA ultimately lost more money in the man-hours required to code into Frostbite so they could do what was required of them for Anthem. They literally had to build everything from preview windows to third-person viewing. Frostbite had no tools built in for that.
The single most costly revenue killer is personnel and the hours they have to work. That doesn't cover the utilities to keep the doors open while they're working or the wear and tear on equipment. Sadly, the human costs too shouldn't be forgotten either. How many quit? How many were forced to go on extended "recuperation" vacations to recover from the stressful environment they were forced to work under?
I would not be surprised if the man-hour costs far exceeded the cost for a 5 year license agreement with upgrades. EA gambled on increased production costs with a long-term financial outlook that would balance out and improve profits. With how things are going now...I would not be surprised if Anthem did not end up like NCsoft's Wildstar.
The recent article from Kotaku about the Anthem disaster backs up all the points you brought up in this post.
https://kotaku.com/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong-1833731964
-
Here is the response I received:
If I wrote such an unprofessional appearing response to a customer I wouldn't have a job.
I deliberately left out the support rep's name as I don't name names, but if this is the standard of a response it should be internally addressed.
And I thought my last few customer service responses were bad! Mine were riddled with misspellings and bad grammar too (and that's been normal for the past two years now), but yours tops them easily. Hiring managers at EAWare must have dropped their standards into the sewers.
-
Want your video short, pithy, and vulgar with no spoilers? Check out Yahtzee's take on the garbage fire that is Anthem:
Want your video long, thoughtful, and filled with spoilers for the excuse of the Anthem story? Check out IHE's analysis of the mess!
-
Does it really, truly, in the end, matter? Get 10 people in the room and you'll get ten answers as to what takes "priority" for the right-this-second gotta have it gotta have it gotta have it NOW people.
Where's my PVP update?
Forget the PVP update, I want new skill trees!
Screw that, where's my new stronghold?
Forget strongholds, we need wrinkles and more skin colors for twi'leks and better eyes!
Forget eyes! We need new mounts!
No, we need new pets!
No, we need all these graphic bugs fixed first!
No, we need new conquest objectives!
No, we need....
You see? Argue till you're blue in the face for what you think should come next. There's a line forming behind you of people willing to disagree.
Just let EA roll out whatever they're gonna roll out and go with the flow, because at this point, hyperventilating about what's bundled with what when just means you're popping an artery over something that at the end of the day really affects a far smaller subset of players than what anyone else cares to scream about.
No one will ever agree as to what is priority.
Just let EA put out the content, update, however you want to characterize or twist what they're doing to fit your narrative on the state of the game, and don't worry about it.
Chill.
Everybody.
Would you mind not putting words in my mouth? I said the tweaks were good but I was disappointed that that's all we were getting. I wasn't "hyperventilating" or "popping an artery" or threatening to unsub or anything remotely resembling that. Honestly, you're the one getting all super worked up over a mild expression of disappointment. You might want to take your own advice and chill.
-
Pretty much this. Musco doesn't actually care to listen to feedback that's not about how incredible they're doing
Exactly. Sure, they'll talk about 'gathering feedback' plenty, but we've seen time and time again how EA will ignore all feedback that isn't patting them on the head and 100% in line with what they already wanted to do (see the closed beta feedback on Galactic Command 1.0, all the PTS feedback about slot locked mods, forum and social media feedback about killing off romanceable companions, and so on and so on). All this talk of 'gathering feedback' is feel-good lip service aimed to keep money coming in, nothing more. EA is a corporation out to sell us a product, not our friend who wants to give us a fun time with their game. The only thing that makes EA change course is a dip in revenue (like what happened after Galactic Command 1.0), which is when they go into damage control mode.
-
I understand that altering live CM products is a rarity, but these are products people pay for. If you get a broken product that you pay for, you are due a refund or a repaired product.
I understand the issue of complexity in repairing the hairstyles themselves - but would it be simpler to re-release all of the affected hairstyles in a corrected state, & reissue them to people who already have them? I think that would be a simple & effective fix. Even if there are duplicates, you'd at least have one version that works as intended.
Sure, that would be the simple and elegant solution that would satisfy everyone. People who like the glitched colors would keep them, and people who want the 'true' colors would have them. But EA can't make any more money off of you that way! And that's all they care about. So it won't happen. We're nothing but bank and credit card accounts to them. The best we'll get are a couple new hairstyles selling for like 1k CCs (on sale!) in a bundle. EA's gotta make up revenue for so few people buying Anthem, after all.
-
I admit, I'm disappointed in this announcement. Not that guild heraldry is a bad thing--it's a minor thing that definitely doesn't justify an 'update' all of its own, but it's a nice (if small) perk that doesn't hurt anything. And updating the preview window to function better is a good QoL fix. But calling this an official 'update' to the game feels a bit insulting. This is all extra stuff that should be bundled with actual content in a true update. This game desperately needs new content to be released on a more frequent and regular basis. Bells and whistles are nice and all, but they're nothing anyone's going to sink their teeth into or that will convince a player on the fence about continuing to subscribe to stay with the game. Not to mention with so many issues and bugs still outstanding (some of them outright game breaking), it seems frivolous to spend the limited resources EA has allotted to this game on mere frippery.
-
Apparently end-game loot in Anthem is not only extremely grindy to get, but its stats are also entirely determined by RNG and often drops end up with the wrong stats for the build you're playing, or for the right build but with worse stats than what you already have despite it being allegedly 'end-game' gear.
(NSFW Warning: Jim Sterling can use naughty language)
A game overseen by Ben "RNG is EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!" Irving being super grindy and having randomized loot drops with terrible stat distributions that are worthless to you most of the time? Is anyone surprised by this?
-
Much Ado About Tubers
Lana or Leave It
Bee Movie 2: Jedi Boogaloo
Grind: A Star Wars Story
I Can't Believe It's Not Content
RNG Boxes and Where to Grind Them
-
I don't think EA really has a plan either way. They've been kind of schizophrenic lately in terms of how they're handlng themselves and their business decisions. Take their recent cancelling of their big open world Star Wars game plans (that they cancelled Visceral's partially completed game for) in order to come out with a "smaller scale experience" (which is what Visceral was doing before EA killed the studio and all their projects):
https://kotaku.com/ea-cancels-open-world-star-wars-game-1831786371
Feels to me like the suits can't make up their mind on which way to 'pivot' their products and IPs and as a result are spinning around in circles. I doubt any of them have really prepared for what happens to SWTOR beyond Anthem's launch, regardless of whether it's a bang or a bust. SWTOR is basically ignored by them in general; they never even mention the game on their stockholder annual reports anymore.
-
All of them. Considering how little work they're doing on this game and how they aren't fixing major game breaking issues until after Anthem launches, the devs are probably all primarily assigned to Anthem right now and are just working on SWTOR sporadically.
-
I went through the whole list that AscendingSky has helpfully compiled in the original post on this thread, to check to see which of these decos have been fixed with today's patch. I'm going to list all the broken-by-5.10 decos here and note whether or not I was able to confirm that they're fixed as of today:
Ambient Machine: Birds - FIXED
Ambient Machine: Party Chatter - FIXED
Ambient Machine: Techlab - FIXED
Cargo Bay - FIXED
Crystal Light - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Flag: Imperial Hologram - FIXED
Flag: Republic Hologram - FIXED
Fountain: Jedi Temple - FIXED
Galactic Alliance Statue - FIXED
Hanging Vines - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Holocron of Ancient Masters - FIXED
Holocron of Despair - Can't verify sound at the moment, maybe whoever first reported this could check to see if they see improvement?
Holofire Jedi Knight Shrine - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Holofire Jedi Padawan Shrine - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Iknayid - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post. It might be worth adding that there *is* a pet by this name that drops from the Eternal Championship so the source isn't necessarily wrong, it's just that it's another example of two "decos" sharing the same name and causing a problem.
Infected Tree - FIXED
Life Day Wall Freezer Unit - FIXED
Paxton Rall - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Poster: Galactic Starfighter - FIXED
Poster: Galactic Strongholds - FIXED
Poster: Knights of the Fallen Empire - FIXED
Poster: Rise of the Hutt Cartel - FIXED
Poster: Shadow of Revan - FIXED
Poster: The Old Republic - FIXED
Replica Sacrificial Sphere - FIXED
Seed of Rage - FIXED
Small Jedi Padawan Fountain Shrine - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Small Jedi Padawan Shrine - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Starship Medical Tank - FIXED
Starship: Imperial Bomber - FIXED
Starship: Imperial Scout - FIXED
Starship: Republic Bomber - FIXED
Starship: Republic Scout - FIXED
Stoneray - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Torch Jedi Master Shrine - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Torch Jedi Padawan Shrine - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Trophy: Colossal Monolith (HM) - FIXED
Trophy: Colossal Monolith (Story) - FIXED
Vinn Atrius - NOT FIXED, issue remains the same as noted in the main post.
Weapons Display: Satele Shan's Dualsaber - I didn't observe this deco getting stuck but maybe I didn't watch it long enough? Perhaps the person who first reported this could check to see if they're still seeing the same problem.
I was just about to start editing the OP with my own findings when I saw your post! Thanks so much for going through the work to verify the issues have been fixed! I will work on verifying the last few glitches you were uncertain of. I added the Weapons Display: Satele Shan's Dualsaber issue myself as I noticed the weapon rotation freezing in my own stronghold. It's an intermittent problem (much like the one with the Zakuulan Information Terminal that's been around for years now) so I'll have to keep watch and see if the freezing happens again.
-
I've run into this problem as well recently. I'd thought someone must have just healed me or something and I hadn't noticed the green numbers, but with what you're saying this sounds like an actual bug or deliberate stealth change on EA's part that didn't go in the patch notes.
-
Most of the time I am supportive of Bioware and try to spread positivity about the game and its direction. But not today and not now. Even though I personally am not that bothered by the gear grind, I am in a minority in regards to that as the majority of the players is highly unsatisfied with the 5.10 gearing changes.
Therefore, I am appealing to the devs directly through this thread: don't be stubborn. Let your initial idea for the 5.10 gear changes go, there is no merit in buckling down in your belief that you are correct or that this is what the playerbase needs. Because it isn't, this isn't what the players want or need.
Don't presume to speak for the players, listen to them instead. Jedi Under Siege could have been a great update if it hadn't been for the gear grind you have introduced (yes I know, the bugs ruined a lot as well). You have made changes that will work detrimentally to the playerbase and therefore I beg you: put your own wants aside and please listen to the playerbase. Put aside what you want to see implemented into the game and listen to what the players are telling you they'd like to see in regards to gearing.
Please, don't be stubborn.
We went through this same issue with the initial rollout of Galactic Command back in the Ben "RNG is EXCITING!!!!!" Irving days. It took a bunch of people unsubscribing to make EA stop doubling down and start making changes. Unfortunately I expect it would take a similar subscriber exodus to produce the same effect here. EA has proven time and again they don't care about what players say on the forums or how enjoyable their game actually is to play, only about their income flow.
-
Six hours of downtime and that's all the patch fixed?! And you gave us the GSF crystal weekly again?! Dozens of decorations still broken by 5.10! Companions still not fighting with you! Set item bonuses still not stacking with the new gear! How did removing a CHEST from a cave rate higher priority than fixing problems that actually prevent people from playing your game?!
This goes beyond simple incompetence and reaches the realm of deliberate disregard by Keith and company. Disgusting. If you can't be donkeyed to maintain your game while drawing your salary, you shouldn't ask us to keep paying for full access to it.
-
What the...Lana did nothing wrong, she even took a bullet for my SW. It was a stun round but Lana didn't know that. I don't understand.
I had no idea Theron was like that on Republic side. I've only played one Republic toon, a trooper and only because of Jen hale. Never got that character out of the vanilla story.
Please note that you're getting this information about Theron from someone who has stated multiple times that they hate Theron's guts and never side with the Republic (because in their opinion a fascist state that supports sex and labor slavery and gleefully engages in genocide is morally superior to an inefficient democratic republic with occasionally corrupt leaders).
I've played through SoR on multiple Imp and Rep toons, and Theron is not any ruder to you for disagreeing with him on anything than Lana is on similar matters. They both argue with you if you don't do what they want you to do with the cyborgs on Rakata Prime, for example; it's not only him. Both Lana and Theron get angry and fight back if you tell them they're incompetent after Ziost, for another example. If you don't tell them they're incompetent, BOTH of them express remorse/wish they had done things differently or better. AND, as a counter-example, if you don't agree to let the Empire dissect Master Surro's brain after Ziost, Lana gets really nasty and claims you're dooming them all.
You shouldn't take information from such a heavily biased source as gospel. Theron and Lana are honestly well-balanced off eachother from Forged Alliances through Ziost. They made a great team and I'm sad that EA ruined that with the Space Waifu overuse and trying to turn SWTOR into Game of Thrones.
-
GSF Missions not tracking properly (including the MW Crystal Mission) along with a host of Missions not sharing as intended will be addressed in 5.10.1 in February.
-eric
This absolutely unacceptable. You tie your terrible new gearing system to the obtaining of a limited resource with a limit of 4 a week if you take every avenue to get one... and then you leave a mission bugged that accounts for 1 out of the 4 possible in a week every week it shows up? This should be a #1 priority to fix, not something you'll get around to in a month or more.
Shame on you, EA.
-
She didn't lie about what she did, though. For both Imperial and Republic characters she freely admitted setting him up, and on Republic characters she even admits trying to get into his head. She also says she knows he's related to Revan and that he's got implants to reduce his pain and susceptibility to torture, so it seems as she thought he'd be all right. Not excusing it, because it was a crappy thing to do, but she's pragmatic and Theron was someone she knew was going to go back to the other side after their alliance.
My characters early on did make her apologize, but more recently they just have shrugged and said "eh, you were right to sell him out."
Nope, she 100% lied about it. When Theron is first captured, she tells your protagonist (on both the Republic and Imperial side) that it was effectively bad luck Theron got captured--they were just checking out a Revanite safehouse, but oh noes, somehow the Revanites must have expected them and they were ambushed! She totally only held Jakarro back because Theron was already caught and she didn't want everyone to get captured, not because she was deliberately setting up Theron to take a fall to further her own aims, she swears! 100% lying on her part.
Only after Theron comes back from being rescued and calls Lana out on throwing him under the bus does Lana admit she did, in fact, throw him under the bus. The actual conversation lines are different depending on if you're playing an Imperial or Republic toon, but on both sides the freshly-tortured Theron has to call her out before she admits she deliberately orchestrated his capture from the start. SoR is my favorite expansion by far, I've played through it many times, I KNOW how this story goes.
Also, for someone who claims they're not excusing what she did, you're giving an awful lot of excuses for what she did. But considering you have repeatedly stated you hate Theron's guts, I'm not all that surprised by this.
-
I also think the traitor arc is probably better for a character romancing Theron, it makes the fake treason more intimate, that actually partially why i tried the romance on my main character in the first place and ended up liking that pairing a lot more than i though i would as i first intended for them to be like BBFs, they're clearly my favourite pairing among all of my characters.
While the traitor arc was something of a mess from beginning to end, I agree that it felt better playing it from the perspective of a toon that romanced Theron. His motivation for pulling the crazy, dangerous stunt he did is stronger and makes sense after you hear his voice breaking in this line from Nathema:
"If anything happened to you, I couldn't... you mean everything to me."
People do stupid, reckless things for love, after all. I'm still not happy with the traitor arc, but it at least fits together better in my head with the rest of Theron's behavior and personality when you're romancing him.
-
Off topic but, my biggest problem with the traitor plotline is how it made Theron look. I've read enough material to know he's an excellent spy and very intelligent. The entire plotline as presented would only work if they gave him the idiot ball and that's exactly what they did. It's OOC for my main SW to keep him around but I decided to anyway because he was a victim of some terrible writing.
I agree that there was a lot of BS going on with that plotline, not just with Theron but also with Lana and other characters in the story. To me it always felt like Charles Boyd and the other writers originally had Theron set up to be an actual traitor so that Space Waifu Lana could be the unquestioned hero, but then someone reminded them "Um, you know that straight/bi women and gay/bi men also play this game and could have romanced Theron instead of Lana, right?" So then they had to scramble to rewrite everything so as not to create another stupid Quinncident-style plot hole and turn a popular male LI into a one-dimensional villain for no reason other than Charles Boyd likes making SWTOR more like Game of Thrones.
I'm not saying that's actually what happened, but the awful execution of said story sure made it feel that way to me. Some parts of the plotline only made sense if Theron had originally been written as a 100% traitor, and some parts only made sense if he was a double agent all along, and then there were the parts that made NO sense from either perspective and felt like hasty rewrites and handwaves.
-
She's cute in the SoR romance with Republic characters, for sure. If you play a smuggler, you can offer to jet around the galaxy with her. In the romance, she's honest on Rishi and says that she wants to be with the PC but they have no future because they're on opposite sides. The PC's able to convince her to enjoy it while it lasts, more or less.
Overall she's just so straightforward with everything, and I really don't understand what they seem to be doing with her now either. Unless the goal *is* to get Republic characters to want to break with her and they're table setting for that. From a romance perspective, withholding information and not letting the SIS contact the PC is even more problematic. Either way, it's very troubling and it seems completely OOC for her, and it's disappointing they seem to want to go there with her.
From a romance perspective with Theron, it's great that you can frame it that way with him. From my characters' perspective (non-romanced), even though he meant well, he caused a lot of grief and damage, and some of them can't get past that.
Theron does something bad: "He caused a lot of grief and damage..."
Lana does something bad: "It seems completely OOC for her..."
There's that double standard again. I dislike when people try to handwave away anything objectionable Lana (or any other favorite companion) says or does with "Oh that was just bad writing, she'd never really do that if she was written properly," but then they want to nail Theron (or any other companion they dislike) to the wall for every questionable thing he does regardless of how OOC it is compared to his past behavior and canon material or how little sense it makes in general. Either blame the writers for both of the characters' OOC actions or hold both characters 100% accountable for said actions. Don't pick one to call his kill/dismiss option "karma" and gleefully gloat over getting to make him cry/leaving him to die while insisting the other one is a pure and perfect Space Waifu who never really does anything wrong or makes any mistakes at all and therefore should never receive her own kill/dismiss option.
ETA: Also, people who say it's OOC for Lana to withhold important information from your protagonist should remember how she LIED to said protagonist about how she deliberately set up Theron to get captured on Rishi. Also how she only admitted to the lie after the fact, AND she expressed zero guilt for lying in the first place (in her own words, "I will not apologize for being right.") Characters do grow and change over time, yes, but this kind of behavior is something Lana HAS demonstrated in the past. Just saying.
-
I hope for the best and expect the worst. Your cynicism is well founded.
Thinking about the reason for my Lana complaint in Jedi Under Siege because all things considered she didn't get a lot of time; it's the kind of content she got I think is what some of us are frustrated about. I don't want to go on a romantic stroll with her or share my secrets. Now I realise this isn't Lana's fault and I don't want her dead, but I don't want to be so intimate with her either. I hope that makes more sense than just complaining about her getting a scene. It would be nice though to see other characters giving and responding to situations, quests. But that complaint is moot now because we did get other faces in JUS.
The type of content we got with her is definitely part of the frustration for me. The fact that Lana is the ONLY person you're allowed to tell of your true allegiances no matter what is another big part. Then there's the fact she's the one who puts you in contact with the SIS even if Theron is alive (who is canonically good friends with Jonas Balkar). Also giving Lana two romantic scenes and two kisses, when Theron got two lines and a hug and all the other LIs got jack and squat. We spent so little time with our Alliance companions at all in Jedi Under Seige, and most of it was taken up by Lana for everyone. That sort of thing is going to engender resentment for people who aren't big Space Waifu Lana fans already, when we are given so little story content and so much of it focuses on one already seriously overused character.
It would have been much better to give Lana ONE scene total and use the development/writing/animation time and money to give a scene to another LI instead. Koth would've been a good choice honestly; he could have provided a third party perspective on a Republic vs. Empire squabble that he has absolutely no stake in. That would have been interesting, AND it would have provided attention to a very long neglected (and LGBT-friendly) Alliance LI.
The fact that we didn't even get LI letters (but did get letters from people saying 'Peace out dude' and leaving) is probably the most grievous oversight. You can't blame lack of money to spend on voice actors and artists and animation coders for neglecting to put together at least a few sentences of plain text! That would have cost them next to nothing but they couldn't be donkeyed to put in even that small modicum of effort.
-
Hey everyone!
We will be taking the servers offline on Tuesday, January 15th in order to apply Game Update 5.10b. The website will also be unavailable during this time. You will notice this is an extended maintenance because in addition to 5.10b we are also finishing up some back-end upgrades.
Details:
DATE: 15 January 2019
TIME: 4:00AM - 10:00AM PST (1200 - 1800 GMT)
VERSION: 5.10b
Patch Notes will be available on Tuesday, here. In the meantime here is an initial list of fixes:
- Granny has been found! Various decorations will now show their correct appearance instead of the text “Missing Granny”.
- Galactic headhunters have been successful in restoring a number of male head options which were not showing up as intended.
- Players who acquire Paxton Rall will no longer see Darth Hexid become unsummonable. Note: Players who are already in this state will be resolved in 5.10.1.
- Corrected an issue where in rare circumstances players would score every time they picked up the Huttball.
We know there are still some key issues that have not yet been resolved following 5.10. Just a couple of examples are set bonuses not stacking properly and Companions in odd states following 5.10. These issues are scheduled to be resolved in 5.10.1 in February.
Thank you for your patience as we maintain Star Wars™: The Old Republic™!
-eric
While I am glad you are finally acknowledging and preparing to fix the decorations with the "Missing Granny" glitch, I really, really, REALLY hope you're not just fixing that glitch while ignoring the dozens of other decorations you broke with 5.10. Most of the broken decorations are completely unusable at this point. Some of the broken decorations have to be purchased from the Cartel Market for real money, so making then unusable effectively means you're stealing said real money from the players who paid for a product and now can't access it.
Also, saying that you know certain bugs are "key issues" and then stating you're waiting until NEXT MONTH AT EARLIEST to fix them? That's very much a slap in the face. How about you guys get "key issues" fixed FIRST? Those "key issues" often make the game unbearable or even flat out unplayable for your customers.
- Granny has been found! Various decorations will now show their correct appearance instead of the text “Missing Granny”.
Patch Massively Broke Decorations!
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by AscendingSky
Playing Better Homes & Starships is one of the few things that keeps me subscribed, so I can access my piles of stored credits to buy the new shiny furniture pixels when they come out. I've dumped easily hundreds of hours into my strongholds getting everything where I want it (to say nothing of all the real world and game world money I've sunk into buying what I need to get the look just right). The fact that not only is everything borked but I can't even fix it manually is incredibly infuriating.
There'd better be a patch for this tomorrow. If not, I will unsubscribe until it is fixed.
That is kinda how it works, yes. However, it also counts doors as the limiters of rooms. For example, if you ever use the "pick up all decos in one room" button while you're standing literally anywhere in the Yavin stronghold, it will remove EVERYTHING from the entire stronghold. Why? Because there are no doors left after you unlock expansions in Yavin; the devs decided to make all the doors crumble away into dust, leaving open archways. As a result, the game treats all of Yavin as one big continuous room.
Also, if you are in a separate room in a stronghold and the door is closed, you can usually (but not always) pick up everything in that one room without difficulty. However, if the room door is still open (and we all know how often stronghold doors stick open even after toons have moved away from them), then the decoration removal effect will spill out into the next area.
TL;DR - That button has been completely broken since strongholds were introduced and EAWare has never bothered to fix it. That is why I never ever EVER use the "pick up all decos in a room" button. You never know how much will get ripped up.