AscendingSky
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Posts posted by AscendingSky
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They'd do the same things they did during 4.0...they'd play alts, they'd PvP, they'd gear alts, they'd try harder things, they'd get better gear, they'd help others, they'd do the things they wanted to do...not grind RNG boxes for flippin gear.
And in the past, you could buy decent gear at 65 from the fleet vendors...that's not an option now. Now you need to wait until you loot the right thing via RNG to progress...hell, a long time ago they completely gave away FREE PvP gear to players...as many sets as you wanted...for FREE...and those guys kept playing.
Gear allows us to do the things we want to do and it restricts many things we'd like to do too.
At one point in the late 1.X days, they just gave you enough comms needed to buy yourself a set of PvE set bonus gear (Tionese, for those of you who remember that). People were GRATEFUL for that, because gearing in the 1.X days could be difficult thanks to how drops worked back then (i.e. randomly determined tokens that were assigned to a particular class of a player(s) in the group and couldn't be used by anyone not playing that class, and legacy gear did not exist back then).
As others have pointed out, EAWare has over the past 5 years made it simpler to get gear, and moved AWAY from those random drops off ops bosses and the PvP Battlemaster RNG boxes for gear. Now suddenly, with 5.0, they decided to make it all RNG all the time... and for some reason they were surprised when people became upset about EAWare backtracking and repeating old mistakes but even worse than before. Their 'tweaks' to this system (that I've only seen the same half-dozen white knights on the forums support, no one I see actually playing the game) have only added secondary grinds you have to complete along with the core Command crate grind for Command tokens.
It's like if EAWare was a pie shop, and for years they had been improving the quality of their pies, and offered a wide range of different fruit fillings that people liked. They liked the pies so much, in fact, that they paid for a Pie of the Month club. Then suddenly they switched ALL their pies over to using durian filling. Sure, some people may like durian (especially people over in Asia who are used to durian), but a lot of loyal customers will not want durian and will be upset that they're paying for the Pie of the Month club and getting something they think is terrible. So of course they're going to complain and/or cancel their subscriptions to the club.
That's what's happening here EAWare. Stop trying to feed us something many of us don't want. We wanted what you were providing before, we don't want this! We told you we didn't want this from the moment it was announced!
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All they had to do is make unassembled components drop at pre 5.0 (approx. 10 times its current rate) and problem would have been solved. But no, that's just to easy so they are going to torture the remaining player base by not FIXING the problem but instead tweek it a little.
It was a simple fix and they failed. They failed us all.
Ben Irving is the lead producer for the game. GC is his baby. If anyone's head should roll (figuratively!) for the damage done to this game and this community of players, it's his.
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My Sith Warrior is absolutely ecstatic about Quinn's return. It means she can finally have that one night stand of hot, sweaty sex with Pierce while she forces Quinn to watch as just payment for her husband betraying her. Then he gets slowly consumed by flesh-eating beetles, a la the Mummy but far more drawn out.
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I guess you're right, from Bioware perspective.
But I still think that sometimes a little bit of honesty is better than over-controlled and over-positive communication that doesn't represent reality. I would have respected them more if the communication was different. I must value honesty too much. If he's really as controled as you say, well, that's a really ****** job.
I'd like to agree with you, but I just don't buy it. He's not a slave who has no other choice but keep doing what they want. He chooses to keep doing so, and to keep working here. I don't blame him for that, but he choosed it.I get what you were saying, his responsabilites are minimal, and you're right, but there isn't none. He's not a poor victim, he's doing his job and he's paid for it. I'm not saying we should bash him, but nothing shows me that he cares any more than others about players and nothing shows me that he isn't supporting the team decisions. Maybe he is, but we can't say.
At best he's almost "neutral" for me, but no pass for him, sorry.
I can't blame Musco and other people 'down in the trenches' who have to deal with players on a regular basis. I've worked in the customer service industry for many, many years myself. I know how much it sucks to have to parrot the company line even if you personally think it's wrong, because if you stray from said company line you end up with another line: the unemployment one. They're not the people in charge of this game's development, or who determine its funding. They can give feedback to those people, but they don't get to make any of the actual decisions. Musco is a mouthpiece for EAWare Austin, a messenger and little more, and I refuse to shoot the messenger.
That's why I blame the people at the top. That's why I think Ben Irving should no longer be lead producer. Because he DOES make these terrible decisions and should be held accountable for the damage they've done to the game.
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I kinda like this idea...it would make balancing classes a bit more difficult, but I can see how this would be great for character customization.
I'm sure Ben Irving would declare having options for character gearing 'too complicated', and instead want to substitute a system where your set bonus benefits are determined by RNG whenever you open a Command crate or buy an unassembled piece, and if you want to change the set bonus you have to pay a bunch of Command Tokens and unassembled components and maybe some GSF requisition just to make it SIMPLER by his definition. Because RNG is EXCITING!!!!! and you experience the THRILL OF THE HUNT!!!!!
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Somehow i wish this post was done by ben:cool:
As much as I agree with you (and believe me, I would throw a RL party at this point if Ben quit), I think it's a bit churlish to say something like that on someone else's goodbye post. Yes, a lot of us have issues with EAWare and their staff members' performance over the past few years, but let's just allow Tait to say goodbye and wish him well. It's the nice thing to do. This isn't the appropriate forum to air all our grievances about the company, not when he's telling us he's leaving said company.
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I can't blame you for leaving. Anyone smart knows it's best to abandon a sinking ship before you drown. You work there, you can see the writing on the wall better than even we long-term customers can.
Stay safe, and I hope you do well in your future endeavors.
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I wouldn't say it was nonexistent... I definitely agree that the new symbols are horrible but, as someone who is color blind, I've had a hard time being able to see the original symbol (Depending on the shades, I can hardly discern purple and blue). In my opinion, the blue background we all know should stay but make the group icons a color that greatly contrasts it (Bright yellow? Maybe even white?). If anything, they should really let us change the colors of all the map icons like you can with chat channels and such.
I can definitely understand your issues. I think a bright yellow or orange icon would probably be a good idea to make it easier for everyone to see the position of other players, colorblindness or not.
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Mine are transparent.
Well, I wish I had that benefit. I have all my graphics settings up as high as they go, and my big ugly circles are opaque. From the multiple threads that have been started on this issue, a lot of other people also have opaque circles. You're the only one I know that have transparent circles.
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I believe the problem is that the employees who modified the beta Hero engine EAWare chose to purchase (instead of the full final version with support) in order to perform various tasks in the game are no longer working for EAWare. They were all fired, quit, or laid off. So it's quite possible the remaining employees at EAWare have no idea HOW to fix any of these bugs, because they don't understand how the code should work in the first place. Which is why we may not EVER see fixes for these bugs that have been around for years. They're not just incompetent, they're ignorant.
Or perhaps Ben Irving thinks bugs that randomly affect different people, sometimes to game-breaking levels, are EXCITING!!!!
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I don't think there's any way we can actually prove they changed the drop rates. It wouldn't surprise me though. It would explain why Musco had to deliver a lie about how it was going to take OMG SO MUCH MORE TIME to adjust the drop rates of items in packs. Because changing a few numbers in a loot table takes multiple months of time... somehow. EAWare had no actual intention of changing drop rates in our favor, only to our detriment, so they had to feed us that nonsense story that even some of the white knights pointed out didn't make sense.
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I'm sorry you dislike the fact they made it easier for people to see where group mates are, however Not everyone hates this change. I really like it. The blue player color, on a blue map was hard to see. This is a much needed change.
What game are you playing? You think it's okay for there to be a huge circle around the player icon, which is NOT transparent, which hides EVERYTHING ELSE behind it? Enemies, nodes, quest markers, other players... EVERYTHING! You can't even see other players! So how is that making other players more visible?!
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Oh my God. Why, EAWare, WHY in the world are you wasting your limited development funding (so limited that you allegedly can't find the time or the ability to change a few numbers on a loot drop table for the Command crates before APRIL somehow) on changing things in the game that NO ONE IS ASKING TO BE CHANGED and that MAKES THINGS WORSE?!
Pathetic, absolutely kriffing pathetic. Ben Irving strikes again. I guess he finds player markers that block out everything around them so enemy positions cannot be read properly as EXCITING!!!!! as well. Because he doesn't play this game, combined with his general incompetence.
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How do you know that? Even if what you say it's true, it's his sub money and he can use his sub time any way he wants. If he wants to be critical he has every right to be. As a subscriber you are entitled to use the forums and leave feedback as you wish.
Because white knights like them think only people who bow to the west and hail EAWare on a regular basis should be allowed to voice their opinions. Some of said white knights even call for the banning of 'haters', because they dare to be critical of a product they are paying for. They are self-centered and think only their opinions are worthy of being expressed, despite the fact we all pay the same subscription. Anyone who has an opinion disagreeing with theirs are deemed 'bads', 'trolls', 'losers' and 'stupid' (just to name a few of their common insults) and are constantly told to leave.
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{I suppose any player who has an actual interest on being on the biggest server in a region also won't bother to spend 10 minutes on google to research for their needs, before committing.}
{You could send a studio employee to every front door, who would tattoo the notice on the players forehead and give them a mirror, and there would still be players complaining that they don't know and it's the studios fault}.
Not to mention... todays biggest and badest sever could very well get abandoned in favor of another one later.. which does not help the player who made an informed choice either. Players choosing to move to different servers in MMOs has provoked stability havoc in every MMO I have ever played. It's always a two edged sword.
TL;DR there is no perfect way to inform and encourage players to make sound choices that fit their personal tastes and interests. There is also no "standard" profile for player tastes in terms of servers size and activity. In fact, it's impossible to stop players from making stupid decisions that are counter to their personal interests.
The problem is, character transfers that people have to pay for are detrimental to players in comparison to a server merge. Why? Because transferring to another server on your lonesome means losing a LOT, like guilds you've invested a lot of time in and their attached strongholds. Or your own strongholds, and all the decorations you've unlocked. It's a disincentive to keep playing if doing so means paying for a transfer and then losing a bunch of your accomplishments/items/investments in the process.
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We may not like it, but like it or not this gearing system will, averaging over the entire playerbase, actually get people to play more than they otherwise would have. It is basically psychology. Look up classical conditioning, it kind of evolved from that. We may not like it, but the possibility of getting a great reward will keep us grinding more boxes.
Our brains enjoy the excitement of opening that box and getting something we really hoped for as a random drop, despite potentially opening many many boxes before we get it, much more than they enjoy seeing the "price" of a desired object (e.g., 300 radiant crystals, or defeating that certain ops boss), and then grinding out the activities to be able to afford the "price". That approach is perceived by our brains as more as a chore and is associated with much less reward or pleasure.
So we may hate this gearing system with all the passion in our souls. But our brains love it. Though there are exceptions, on average, gamers will play more hours with this gear system than they will under the previous gear system. The trick will be for Bioware to find just the right rate of cxp gain to raise the number of gamers pleased with the system on average to the point where the game maximizes profit.
Despite what you and Ben Irving think, most people in this world do not have or are inclined towards a gambling addiction. People with said addictions find gambling EXCITING!!!!, sure. But the rest of us don't. And we find it frustrating and insulting when we are FORCED to gamble despite finding no enjoyment in it.
If EAWare only wants to cater to those customers who have a problem which can result in them destroying their lives by throwing their money and time away on gambling, then they'll quickly learn that's a minority of the population as a whole.
If I wanted to play a microtransaction coercing mobile game, that's what I'd be doing with my time. But I signed up to TOR, because it was an MMORPG, because that's what I wanted to play. Not roulette, not scratchoffs, not the lottery.
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1. Make it a paid expansion. I'd be willing to put in extra money if it meant EAWAre could get the funding/employees/will to get off their shebs and start making an MMO again instead of a single player RPG with a 3D chatroom interface. It's obvious EAWare is unwilling at this point to give us an actual expansion without additional cash. So fine, that's economics, I can deal with that, if it means all the content I'd want to put in an actual expansion would be doable.
2. At least one new fully explorable planet area with both dailies and a story questline. RotHC had Makeb (which I'm not fond of, but it was a big map with plenty of quests nonetheless). SoR had Rishi and Yavin (which again both had a storyline as well as repeatable quests). All the last two expansions have given us are Odessen (which is just a hub to do the expansion content with some vendors and GTN/mailbox), Zakuul (an area just for some of the expansion chapters, with zero repeatable content and quests beyond the dull as dirt cage match thing which doesn't even give you gear worth a damn anymore), and Darvannis (a small explorable area only good at this point for farming mats, without any actual content outside the one chapter that occurs there). That's not enough.
3. At least one new stronghold. We haven't received one since SoR, two years ago. I'd also add an additional deck or two to guild flagships (especially ones with more centerpiece hooks, the current ships only have one on the whole thing). Strongholds are good credit sinks for people, which this game could use with the inflation a lot of servers are experiencing.
4. At least one new GSF map with a new game mechanic of some kind. Deathmatch and Domination are all GSF has now.
5. At least one new PvP map--again with a new mechanic, not just a new arena that's just wallpaper, and for God's sakes not another Huttball map, we already have two.
6. Return to 4.0 style gearing, but without a highlighted HM ops every week. Make the unassembled components the new warzone comms/crystals and have them drop from all the content at similar rates as those things used to.
7. Keep Galactic Command as a supplement to the gearing system, not the core. That way solo players who just want to do story and quests could still get some gear.
8. At least 2 new flashpoints, with solo modes as well as group ones, with actual story and cutscenes.
9. At least 1 new operation, released all at once.
10. No more glorified Heroic 2+ missions you can queue for, aka Uprisings. We have 10, that's enough for now for some boring cut and paste content without story.
11. The return of ALL missing class companions, with one VOICED mission to get each of them back.
12. Some actual storyline content for the various romances, both from original class companions as well as the ones from the last two expansions. EAWare has dropped this particular ball for far too long.
13. No more HK anything.
14. Return the ability for people to buy weekly passes for warzones, operations, etc. This is a revenue stream EAWare has foolishly cut off in favor of trying to force people to play gearing roulette because Ben Irving thinks it's EXCITING!!!!!
15. Return to the 3.X drop rate for decorations from flashpoints and operations.
16. Add some new decos to the prefab vendors (some of them already exist in the decoration database but have never been added.
17. Make cartel certificates start dropping from cartel packs again.
18. Add more cosmetic options for character creation. This could include a new race, but it definitely should include new hairstyles, adding tattoo options for both factions, more cybernetic appearances, etc.
19. Some new class specific as well as faction specific content. We've all been forced into one single storyline for far too long, which gives us no reason to play through it on different classes.
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More solo may be last thing YOU want, that does not make it a bad thing for other players who do want it though.
More of ANY content is never a bad thing for a game, it keeps a broader variety of players happy and honestly right now its like you are flat out saying no, ignore those players, never give them anything new again.
Wrong.
The game needs more of EVERYTHING.
All varieties of play forms to support and cater to the vast number of styles of the current people who play it.
More of something is NEVER ever a bad thing for a game. That does not mean it doesn't also need more of some other kind of playstyle to be looked at in tandem.
No one is saying 'never give anyone any solo content in TOR ever again'. Stop being so silly. Leave that poor abused strawman alone; what did he ever do to you?
What people ARE saying is that we have already had two expansions in a row dedicated to solo content, in addition to all the other solo content we already have in the game. All we've received in return for focusing on solo content for two expansions to the exclusion of all other types of content in the game is declining sub numbers. That is why I said solo content is the LAST thing we need; we've already received tons upon tons of it for the last two years. We have a surplus of solo content, not a shortage. It's time to switch gears and put out content in areas that have been neglected for those same two years.
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What was the reason this event was taken out of the rotation?
When is removing content entirely ever a good idea?
Oh, you misunderstand. The event never went away! Ben Irving just decided restricting RNG to simple cosmetic items wasn't EXCITING!!!! enough for him, so he took that event, renamed it "Galactic Command", made it year round, made it mandatory, and made it the primary way to get all gear.
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The Kakkran Daggerstar, one of the sub reward mounts. It's the one in your email under "KOTOR Swoop inspired mount". Looks like one of the Kilrathi fighters from Wing Commander (to me)
Oh, yeah, that thing. I'd completely forgotten its name. Thanks!
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I can't believe the majority of you actually seem incapable of reading.
My post says it's a poor business model, meaning: once they give away the sub content, that's it. It's basically free labor, and opening it up to others for a fee would benefit everyone.
Sub benefits won't make the average joe sub, as he will be content that this is a game he puts on once in a blue moon, but if there is a thing he thinks looks cool, or gives him nostalgia, like the kakkrann, he is likely to pay money for it.
If not, he's likely not to invest money into the game, as he didn't play when the kakkrann was there, and has absolutely zero, zip % chance of getting it, even worse if it was a reward before he even started playing.
This in accordance with human behavior, will lead to a punish reaction. And might even put people off playing the game, which in turn, is a bad business model.
The good idea with a sub reward is that people get things for free, exclusively.
But, to blame people for not being a sub and then being dickish about it is beyond low life standard.
It's a game, and you guys act like this is some sort of alternate reality you want to make your babies.
You can like it or not as much as you want, it's still a bad business model.
And people have seriously digressed away from the point.
Oh btw, the kakkrann and everything I say is: RANDOM EXAMPLES. THEY'RE NOT TO BE TAKEN LITERALLY AS IT'S THE SYSTEM AS A WHOLE!
From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
Definition of punishment:
1 : the act of punishing
2 a : suffering, pain, or loss that serves as retribution
b : a penalty inflicted on an offender through judicial procedure
3 : severe, rough, or disastrous treatment
You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.
P.S. What is a kakkrann?
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Ooh, I know how to turn caps lock on and off too! Watch....
It never says exclusive. Captain CLEAR AND EXPLICIT there even admitted it's never EXPLICITLY stated, only IMPLIED.
I'll tell ya something that's CLEAR AND EXPLICIT: in the TOS, where it says they can change anything about the game at any time. That means that, at their discretion, they can give and take away ANYTHING THEY WANT.
Deal.
Oh, sure, they can do such a thing. But why would they, when it's not in their financial interest to do so? Because some entitled people whined about how they didn't get rewarded after they unsubscribed from the game? Yeah, I see EAWare really caring about rewarding shinies to customers who unsubscribed and stopped giving them money...
/sarcasm
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But you said CLEAR AND EXPLICIT! Now you say it wasn't explicit?
"To qualify for the HK-55 Bonus Chapter, the account must continuously be in active Subscription status between January 11 - August 1, 2016"
That is a clear and explicit restriction right there. THE ACCOUNT MUST HAVE BEEN CONTINUOUSLY SUBSCRIBED DURING THOSE MONTHS TO QUALIFY. How much more clear and explicit can you get?
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I think you are missing the point guys.
Achievements and Rewards are 2 different things.
Imo all achievements of the game should be doable at any given time.
Rewards for being a Sub at a specific time should be other things. Like Mounts/Pets/Armors. Like with season PvP awards.
In the end, it's not nice locking out achievement hunters. Give to the Subs sth else special that has nothing to do with Achi.
The ONLY achievement linked to the bonus chapter is the achievement for completing the bonus chapter. It is not tied into anything else, including the meta achievements for completing all of the expansion content.
Also, as others have said, if achievement hunters really cared about getting that one achievement, THEY COULD HAVE PAID THE 8 CONSECUTIVE MONTHS OF SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED TO GET IT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE WHO DID. If achievement hunters missed out on that one achievement, they have only themselves to blame.
But I still think that sometimes a little bit of honesty is better than over-controlled and over-positive communication that doesn't represent reality. I would have respected them more if the communication was different. I must value honesty too much. 
Feedback: Horrible Mistake Emergency Fix Needed
in General Discussion
Posted
Unfortunately that fix (while definitely needed for PvPers) would not help those who primarily or only PvE. Loot drops from ops bosses are still entirely RNG save for the final boss. I've run several HM ops since 5.1, and only in one of those runs did any gear drop off a boss before the final boss. That is a piss-poor return rate and it is gutting the already weak and embittered raider community. People are becoming downright cutthroat on gear, refusing to let backfills roll on gear, kicking people out of the group before they can roll on a drop, or just flat up ninja looting it off the final boss and giving the other players in the group the middle finger as they log out. It's terrible, and it's become that way because of how hard it is to get a drop now. Many people no longer want to run ops at all unless it's with their guild, so people who don't have a raid-focused guild are pretty much screwed.