[Conquest Changes Following 7.4.1]

I appreciate the change to daily areas where it will unlock for all of my toons even if they have not completed the story. Since I have been playing since shortly after launch I have a lot of alts across servers and this is actually a change I have wanted for some time. It's a shame it wasn't done sooner.

 

Beyond that - I don't feel heard or understood, I feel ignored as normal. 

It's just sad. I have stuck around as a paying customer in this game for over 10 years, as have quite a few of my friends, even as we watched others leave due to so many negatively perceived changes that impacted their fun.

Those of us remaining, we have tried hard to create our own fun, despite the changes we perceive as negative. 

Many of the changes feel punitive, and often things are taken from the players rather than given to the players. For example, as many others have stated reputation tokens don't appear out of thin air - you have to do something to get them.

But it just seems the devs / company simply were not happy with the way the players / paying customers were using the rep tokens so a 'let's stop that' change occurred. 

No matter what you want me to do as a player, I don't play the game to do what the devs / company wants me to do - I play for fun not a second job. If I don't like a game then I will find a different one - maybe one where the players / paying customers are more valued.  

As some other posters have eloquently stated or hinted at on various threads the culmination of negative changes that seem punitive against the players is just too much. Why should I support a company that doesn't like me? That doesn't care?

Those of my friends still playing are talking about finding a new game even though they like SWTOR, they understand the company and devs could care less about them being a paying customer and what they enjoy doing.

I don't post often, and I don't post in forums for fun, I post because I hope for change so that I can continue playing with my friends; however, it seems this is drawing to a close.

And as a note, none of my friends typically post in the forums because they feel like it is a waste of time. The ones who left - they did so quietly shutting the door behind them.

 

[Conquest pts for Advance Reputation nerfed]

First as a note the stronghold is beautiful. The artists who worked on it did a fabulous job.

As far as the posts here so far, I agree with much of what has already been said.  I have been a sub since 2012, except for a few months due to a family emergency, and I am honestly sad the direction this game has taken.

 It appears that EA / Broadsword considers things the players / paying customers like as ‘over-represented’ which doesn’t even make sense, because you would expect a company to promote and give paying customers what they are interested in – to keep them as customers.

The nerfs and odd fixes / changes that the customers / players never asked for appears to be more of a priority than fixing bugs and other issues in the game. The devs / company seem to be completely out of touch with the players.

 

 I realize everyone has a different play style, what they consider fun, and different amounts of time to play, something that it feels the developers and management team forget, and sometimes even other players forget.  What one player likes or finds fun another may not.

 I have friends who can play long hours each week, but I don’t have that luxury. With my limited time I still want to have fun and be able to help my small guilds out reaching conquest, and that reputation objective was one of the ways I was able to do so. For me hitting conquest on a main toon, much less my alts, is difficult and requires me to focus on that for what I do when I log into game.

 

Due to being in the game since 2012 I have many alts and play on different servers, and there are several conquest objectives my primary toons can never get, since some objectives are self limiting and finite, such as strongholds, reputation, level requirement, etc.

The reputation and conquest change certainly will not get me to play more, in fact the opposite.

The rewards for conquest are not that great, but I do it to help out the small guilds I am in. I do play on different servers so some of my toons do get reputation for the various areas or events; however, that is limited to only toons that are level 50 and above.

As for my old primary toons the main way I was getting reputation for conquest was via the Galactic Seasons. I don’t understand how the amount of points for this conquest objective was an issue – it simply doesn’t make sense.

There had already been the change where reputation tokens from areas and events cannot be saved to use towards conquest later, which also felt punitive – you aren’t playing the way we want so we will fix that.

On my primary server I have long since maxed out most of the reputation so except for the new areas and recent conquest events my toons don’t get reputation very often, and since I am now unable to save reputation tokens for later those new areas are not much help with conquest.

  

I like the game or I would not still be playing; however, the main reason for playing now has primarily been focused around my friends.

While the content is old and it can feel like it is a grind in regards to conquest, we enjoy spending time with each other and doing things together in the game – the main reason we are all still subscribed.

Typically we are trying to figure out unique ways to do things, doing crazy things (pulling everything in an area, etc.), chatting, sharing videos, and other things while running the same content for conquest.

So, the main reason I play a game is to relax and with all of the changes that have occurred over time, many changes feel like they are made to punish the players making it become more of a job and grind than fun.

We have lost so many guild members, who love the game, but due to the various changes that feel negative towards the players they started to find it to be more like a job than a game.

 This rep change among other things was just one more thing that feels like punishment – taking something else away.

 So many promises made to players and so much customer / player feedback rarely listened to.

I am seriously reconsidering my subscription due to how expensive everything has gotten and the game is becoming much more like a job, when I already work full-time.  I don’t even want to calculate what I have spent on this game over the years, only to feel as a paying customer that I am not valued and that management could care less what I think.  

 My primary reason I have stayed subscribed has been to continue with the guilds and running with the few friends who have stayed, along with some misplaced hope the game will improve, but I am starting to realize that isn’t going to happen.

 

 

[Holiday and Cartel Market sales for 2023]

Thank you for the information. I appreciate the work that goes into a game like this and I understand that there are multiple issues and perspectives that must be balanced; however, after playing this game and being a subscriber almost continuously since 2012 there seems to be a disconnect between the company and the customers / players.

I realize some individuals might be quite happy with this sale, since each customer / player is different; however, this 'plan' for the holiday sales is beyond 'meh' and is actually just more annoyance and disappointment on top of other recent things.

Being that I have been playing since 2012 many of those Life Day items under 'unique daily sales' I already have, along with many of the other listed items.

I know I had been looking forward to the Collection Unlock sale (and so were several friends), so that I could unlock some additional items to use for alts, and now this . . .  😞

While character transfer sales does not impact me, it seems like a slap in the face to those who had been asking for a new server, only to have no easy way to transfer their main characters who they may have played for years and no sale on transfers. What a way to reward loyal customers / players.

The game feels as if it has increasingly become punitive towards the customers / players - play exactly the way we want you too or else. This sale just feels like more of the same.

I had actually hoped things would improve with the move to Broadsword, but it appears it is not getting better.

There were a lot of changes that I have not liked and some activities I have given up such as flashpoint weeklies, recently the GTN and a few other things; however, I have continued to play and sub so that I can spend time with my remaining friends in the game.  My continued subscription relies on my friends continuing to play. 

While many friends have already left for other games I still have several who have stuck around, but with all these recent changes they are actively discussing what other games we could move to, and this sale is just another 'nail'.  While I know all things eventually come to an end this is just a shame when it is for these types of reasons - still like the game but hate various changes and decisions.

 

[So was the point of the 10th anniversary to get us to cancel our subscriptions?]

Sadly I have wondered this.

 

I have been in the game, subscribed, since July 2012, minus a few months when I had to take care of a sick relative.

 

I had renewed my game time right before 7.0, but unless there are some drastic changes, I will not renew my sub, after almost 10 years of being a sub.

 

This "expansion" feels like a mess. Also, I respect that everyone has different things they like to do in game and different play styles, but so many of these changes impacted my enjoyment of the game, including the loss of friends playing.

 

The game feels so restrictive and limited now (restricted missions, flash points, etc.), along with some seemingly gratuitous or convoluted changes. I posted a more detailed post elsewhere, but currently, I just can't see a reason to continue my sub, but I am hoping that will change.

[7.0 What Made me Happy, Sad, and Spitting Mad!]

I am pretty sad right now and very disappointed in the management team at EA / BioWare. I waited to post because my mood was pretty low at launch and I wanted to give it a full week.

 

I have been in the game, subscribed, since July 2012, minus a few months when I had to take care of a sick relative, and currently with this "expansion" it feels like there just isn't much left for me.

 

Suddenly, I can't play the content that has prior been freely available when I want to. I feel as if I have been put on railroad tracks and not allowed to get off.

 

I had recently renewed my sub in game, but when this time runs out, unless things change, I will not renew my sub after almost 10 years of being a sub.

 

This is sad in many respects because I am also the GM of a couple of smaller guilds, which were once was a close community of long-term players, but has dwindled down to a handful of players left.

 

I respect that everyone might not agree, and everyone enjoys different things. I also realize that there are those with the time to play who have already completely geared out, but for those of us who are more casual or don’t have as much time to play it’s not the same.

 

The only reason I am posting is because I would like to stick around and have fun with my friends – in other words, I care what happens to the game, but this is just not looking good for sticking around, and some other friends are now leaving.

 

 

 

 

The TL;DR of the post below is:

 

Unless changes occur my almost 10 year subscription will not be renewed

 

Thank You:

 

• Boss Tagging

• Changes on only 4 matches for GSF & PVP

• Currencies (KDY, etc.) for log-in rewards

 

Sounds good:

 

• 2nd combat styles, but have not tried them - too buggy since friends had bad things happen when they tried the 2nd combat styles (changing them)

 

Unhappy About:

 

• Almost Everything else (there may be things I have not found out yet)

• Particularly:

o The Restrictive choices (Activity Weeklies, Group Finder)

o Nerfed Companions & Down-leveled Presence

o Convoluted currency and gearing system

o Gratuitous Changes

o Does not feel like an "expansion" but a "restriction"

 

Long Version

 

So the change with boss tagging is great, thank you! I also appreciate the change on the GSF & PVP weekly to only 4 matches and the currencies such as KDY for log-in rewards, thank you. But unfortunately that is about all I can say good at the moment.

 

The 2nd combat styles sounds "cool" but I haven't touched them, since some of my friends had horrible issues trying to do stuff with them.

 

But sadly, this feels like a "compression" not an expansion. Around two hours of new content for an expansion? But then so much taken away and restricted.

 

I am sure there are many great suggestions on the forums. I put a few I thought of below, since I am not “just trying to complain.”

 

 

Restricted Weekly Missions under Activities and GF

 

I think the biggest issue is that I have been left with little to do during the week due to the changes in missions and conquest, and restricted content.

 

Some of us are casual players that don't have a lot of time to grind out missions. While I realize that for other players the change in missions and conquest is a non-issue, but for me it is a deal breaker.

 

I would log in a few times a week and have fun with guild mates hitting conquest and doing weeklies and dailies from the activity window, but now with the higher conquest cap and restricted content makes it feel like a grind. I can't even run the missions I want to run if I want to complete a weekly. So I just found myself with not wanting to do anything.

 

I just don't understand why the "railroad" limiting our choices. . . such as having the Planetary Missions under activities limited in choice but able to be done multiple times. Why do I want to do the SAME weekly 3 times on the same toon in the same week?!

 

This is also Alt Unfriendly - Yes, I know this probably sounds crazy, but over the years toons add up and I have over 80 on one server. I would regularly play at least 20 of them, but this week I played 4.

 

 

Suggestion:

 

Incentivize rather than restrict

 

If you want to give an option to run certain missions 3 times a week why not make ALL weekly missions available, like they were before 7.0 and only make some of them repeatable 3 times a week?

 

Then those who want to do the same mission 3 times a week can, and those who don't can do other things.

 

Or create a new mission with the parameters you want to give. But don’t suddenly limit the weekly missions and flash points that can be completed through the activities window and GF.

 

 

Galactic Seasons

 

I was really looking forward to the Season Two Objectives and rewards, but there is a lack of diversity for the missions related to Galactic Seasons. Not everyone likes the same things, and since this is a game I will only do missions that I want to play, which left me only with 5 of 7 of the weekly missions completed for Galactic Seasons.

 

So it looks like I will not be doing a lot with galactic seasons, not because I would not like to, but because I log into game to have fun, not to be railroaded into playing the content the management at EA / BioWare wants me to play.

 

SO this leaves me with hardly any choices and not much I want to log in for.

 

On a different note: A guild mate (friend) mentioned that he found it an issue that Galactic Seasons has all these missions, but once you have done 7 there is nothing left to do.

 

Suggestion:

 

Why not add more choices to the Galactic Seasons missions?

Maybe add a 2nd daily to the list like there was before? This would give two missions a day to complete giving players more chances to do something each day.

 

Nerfed Companions & Down-leveled Presence

 

There was a lot of time and effort, along with credits spent for companion gifts and to craft things to level companions.

 

All that effort and time, along with credits . . . Gone. Something else taken away.

 

Suggestion:

 

Don’t down-level presence and fix the nerf

 

 

Convoluted currency and gearing system

 

Feels like work to get back to where I was all in order to do the same content. With my limited game time I had just finished completely gearing out to do NIM Ops again, and had a little spare time to join a group, when I found out that later 7.0 would change all the gear again.

 

Not to mention gear is absolutely worthless with the down syncing. Why should I even worry about the new gear?

 

Four different paths, which are different, different currency to keep up with . . . Static gear. Set bonuses I enjoyed – gone. Nope, I’m done with gearing and Ops, if they require the new gear, same for PVP.

 

 

Abilities

 

Why take away abilities? I happened to enjoy my toon and the abilities they had. This isn't "fresh"

 

I realize that many of the abilities I am missing may not have altered the actual play of the toon, but some of the ones gone were fun to use and added to the enjoyment of playing the class.

 

 

UI Design & Issues

 

The poor UI design is also an issue. The huge character window is really annoying. It takes up the entire screen and you can't change the size. Why?

 

Eye burning windows and squares on inventory. Hard to even see what is empty. Then the grayed out text for some things like the deconstruction claim window.

 

The "ability tree and abilities" UI is not good; I can't even tell what is picked, so I haven’t even messed with it. Others in my guild have had the same issue, because I had thought it might be something to do with my graphics.

 

The once colorful and nice looking character icons on the character select screen changed for some strange stencil drawing? It looks unfinished.

 

Why swap to a drop down menu for abilities? Poor design, and this is super annoying and more time consuming compared to the old way.

 

 

Overall Final Comments

 

The entire feel of the game for me has been altered. Weirdly enough I also miss having to put my buffs on. And what is the use of the trainers that I bought or were rewarded with?

 

I am sad watching so many of my friends and guild mates from over the years leave the game due to the choices EA / BioWare management has made. People have left not because they don't like SWTOR, but these types of issues.

 

Now more are leaving to other games, and I am considering following.

 

I have to agree with many things said in the forums, and the one thing that just seems to ring true because I can't seem to find another explanation for it is that EA / BioWare doesn't care about its customers. It almost seems like they are trying to run people off.

 

 

It's an interesting and sad 10th Anniversary, I saw someone in game general chat refer to this update as "The Great Purge" and I think that seems to fit well with how I feel right now.

[Operations / Group Finder Level Problem]

Operations / Group Finder

 

Something is wrong with the operations and group finder. Due to the changes in GF we hardly ever queue any more, because the hassle is not worth it, but due to some new players in our guild we tried this weekend, but we ended up with issues and trying to explain to a newer player why he could not run an OP.

 

We were all pretty upset and frustrated over this issue and I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem or issues with GF breaking matched groups apart, and if so were you able to find a solution.

 

 

On Friday, 3 January we tried to run Dread Palace on the Imperial Side and for the first time a level 66 player with us could not enter the operation. He got a message stating he had to be level 70 to enter.

 

Unfortunately, I have no idea when this issue started as we had run some OPs after 6.0 with lower level toons (below 70), but lately everyone has been focused on gearing and we had not taken our lower level toons in OPs for a while. And as mentioned we have not been using GF any more due to the hassle.

 

This bug is really bad timing as we have a brand new player excited to be running an operations with us, but then could not enter the OP, walking in or using GF, even through group finder states level 55 - 75. Our OPs running for the weekend became complicated and long due to this bug.

 

 

 

We just tried EV on Imperial side again for GF and same problem, except it became more complicated when we had a major glitch with GF and it broke the group apart kicking some out of group and putting some in their own OPs group.

[Operation / Group Finder Level Bug]

Operations / Group Finder Level Bug

 

BUG

Suddenly players under level 70 cannot use operations GF or go into an OPs.

 

 

Unfortunately I do not know when this started as we had players under 70 able to go in after 6.0.

 

 

FIRST NOTICED 3 January 2020

 

The first OP we tried was on Friday January 3rd, Dread Palace on Imperial Side.

 

Our level 66 guild mate was not allowed to enter Dread Palace. He got a message that only level 70 could enter.

 

Group Finder: It let the level 66 player queue and accept, but group finder would not transport the player.

 

We tried logging in and out, breaking group, and nothing seemed to help. The group finder and all the related text showed the expected character levels, it stated level 55 - 75 for Dread Palace.

 

 

SECOND TIME: Sunday, January 5th we tried Eternity Vault Group Finder on Imperial Side.

 

The EV story mission was able to be picked up as normal, but then the level 59 player was not allowed to walk into EV getting the same message about being level 70.

 

Tested this on my level 59 character as well as to get the screen shots. My level 59 Sorcerer could also not enter Eternity Vault getting the same message about being level 70.

 

 

Screen Shots

 

Mission Gained:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.enjin.com/users/7447505/pics/full/4143389.jpg

 

Message trying to walk into Eternity Vault:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.enjin.com/users/7447505/pics/full/4143388.jpg

 

 

Group Finder Screen Shot:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.enjin.com/users/7447505/pics/full/4143387.jpg

 

The group finder text for EV states "recommended for characters level 50 through 75

EV Text:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.enjin.com/users/7447505/pics/full/4143390.jpg

 

Less comprehensive on the in game ticket, but it is #934995557

[Hey Musco, thanks for breaking Group Finder Ops]

I guess learning how to do a couple of bosses is out, uh?

 

It isn't always about knowing the fights. Players have different preferences on the content they find fun.

 

 

If players would like to get the GF reward and really want to run a particular OP the random queue makes it not always possible to do. We schedule the OPs our players want to run based on the GF rotation, but this has become problematic due to the now random component.

 

Additionally, some fights are more difficult for some players. Our guild has visually impaired players who find the Monolith fight nothing but annoying and frustrating. Many have not been able to complete it.

 

So while we are fine getting TC or Hive Queen, when we get the Monolith, this causes us to have to leave, break group, swap to alts or wait on the timer, to try again.

 

This takes time away from our play time and simply annoys players. It is also a time issue. Some of us are time constrained due to real life so we don't have time to run say the Hive Queen and Explosive Conflict in the same night.

[Group Finder Concerns / Issues]

I am a guildmaster of a small guild and several of our members have been subscribers since 2012, as I have except for a short time period for a family emergency (although our numbers are dwindling). We like to use the Group Finder for Operations. Quite a few of our members have a preference on the OPs they like to run.

 

 

The changes in Group Finder have caused an issue where we have players not wanting to use GF any more due to the fact we can't get the OP on GF that is scheduled for the day, such as EV or S&V due to the others that were added making GF a random queue.

 

We like TC and Hive Queen along with the event bosses, but that is not what we want to queue for randomly.

 

If everyone is wanting to do S&V then no one wants to have to do other OPs just to get to run S&V in order to get the GF reward.

 

 

 

There are many different players (customers) who subscribe and play this game. Not everyone likes the same thing or can do the same thing.

 

The Monolith is difficult for several of our members to do because of visual impairments, monitor quality, and lag issues. There is too much reliance on colour and very quick movement required.

 

This is especially problematic for those in our guild who enjoy the game, but are visually impaired.

 

Additionally, while many gamers run high end systems, not every person who enjoys this game and pays for a subscription has an optimized gaming system or high end monitor.

 

 

 

 

The perception by most of our members is that this was supposed to be a "Play your way" expansion and I am hearing a lot of feedback that this expansion appears to be just the opposite. I have to say I feel that way to.

 

These changes are impacting play time and enjoyment with the game. I had a member log out of the game last night to go do something else because they were so annoyed trying to queue for a quick EV run.

 

 

 

I have stated this elsewhere, I am sadly hearing the same kinds of rumblings I heard when we last lost several members due to changes in the game.

While they still come into our voice chat to visit it is not the same since they cancelled their sub to SWTOR. Our friends who left still like Star Wars, what they didn't like were the changes to the game that impacted their fun and enjoyment of the game. We just had one member drop their sub, and there are at least 2 more discussing it.

 

 

The complaints I am currently hearing are due to several of the changes in the game and Group Finder is only one of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suggestions

 

Have a split Group Finder, put the Operations Group Finder back to the way it was. This way there is a defined OP for the day that groups can run so they know which OP they are going into.

 

Then have a second one for say a random OP of the day which is another Group Finder Reward

 

OR go back to GF like it was and then add in an additional rotation of GF with TC, event bosses, etc. for a daily queue of a random single boss fight

 

 

Please try to address all of the issues with 6.0 so that the levels of fun and enjoyment with the game can apply to all players (customers) equally, regardless of their play style or their physical abilities.

[Dantooine Conquest week nerfed?]

Please Return the republic Pirates again quest to how it was originally. It does not need to be made harder. Playing the game should be fun not hard or annoying.

 

Agreed!

[Dantooine Conquest week nerfed?]

Let start by saying the situation sucks and I feel bad for “some players”. Bioware definitely need to fix it.

 

But it’s ironic how Conquest is all of a sudden a problem again when large guilds and people in them can’t reach personal targets.

 

I’ve been trolled and been derided when I say conquest has been impossible for some of us smaller guilds since the expansion launched. Ive been basically been trolled to stop QQing about it,

 

But now that this weeks a problem for the masses, conquest finally becomes a problem for them and it gets attention. Honestly I have zero sympathy for those who’ve been deriding me and others like me. I say tooooo bad. Because we already can’t do conquest. And now you know how we feel. It’s not nice is it to not be able to play something you enjoy doing.

 

To Bioware, if you are going to fix conquest for large guild players, then you need to look at the whole system again and fix it for the small casual guilds and players to be able to do it again.

 

1. Lower the personal targets for guild members who run low yield. Why can’t it be scaling so if your guild goes for the low yield, personal targets are 35,000, medium 50,000 and large 60,000.

 

2. Lower the targets for the lower yield planets to 300,000, increase the yield for medium and large. Guilds that size already have extra buffs to deal with those increases.

 

3. Increase guild member ship numbers so guilds don’t need sister guilds to accomodate all their members and Alts. This would de-incentivise these guild for going for all 3 planets to win them, ie, the low yield planet this week on Star Forge was won by the same guild as high and medium AND they even beat the highest yield planet with a total of 62,000,000 points, which is insane they are even able to do in the low yield. They should not be there and there should be an incentive great enough to stop them going there.

 

4. Make it so high lvl characters get the same conquest points as those still lvling up. It is not fair that a lower lvl players can get personal conquest done easier than max lvl.

 

5. Put back in galactic rampage and the planetary rampages should be there every week. Why galactic was removed is beyond me. It totally made conquest undoable for my small guilds.

 

6. Points, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 all need to be changed or fixed so that people not in massive guilds can do conqest again and have fun

 

7. I’m sure there are other things you can do to make conquest playable and fun for smaller guilds and individuals with many Alts. Currently it’s not playable for everyone who could do it before and many people and small guilds can’t complete it, so we don’t even bother trying anymore. Which means it’s just less time we spend in the game and more reasons to stop playing and unsub.

 

Please fix it for us small guys toooooo..

.

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

I have to agree with this. I would add make it more reasonable for the smaller guilds to be able to get the better rewards that come with the high yield. Many of our members would like to be able to get the high yield rewards, and enjoy hitting conquest; however, now they see it as more of a grind than ever.

 

It would be nice if small guilds and casual players could more easily participate in conquest. We are barely able to reach the guild goals, and that is only due to some massive grinding by a few players, who are currently tired of doing so. There is no way we could ever try for an actual planet.

 

There has got to be a way to rotate planets through various yields and allow small guilds to actually have a chance to be able to win a planet rather than the large guilds always taking the planets.

 

These latest changes are horrible.

 

We are a smaller guild / community and quite a few of our friends have left the game due to changes like this that make the game less fun. We lost about 7 members, who left the game and dropped their subs due to the changes in conquest around 5.0. It was mentioned that the conquest changes would help the small guilds but it didn't.

 

A lot needs to be done, but something has to be done to make it possible for small guilds to better participate in conquest. I have posted in the forums before about the conquest changes and it is frustrating to see the issue worse instead of better. The galactic rampage had certainly helped because even people not interested in conquest objectives were helping the guild to get conquest, and now that was removed.

 

 

I understand conquest might not matter to everyone, but from the forums it is evident it matters to a lot of subscribers. I have just spent a couple of hours listening to many of our members "gripe" in voice chat, (sigh) not fun, over the conquest changes. Some people actually had to sign out because of people complaining (sigh).

 

This is a game with many different types of players and different sizes of communities. They should all be able to enjoy the game. There are many players (subscribers) who like the game, but due to real life they can't play that much, but still run content and still pay their subscription. The changes make it extremely difficult on them to enjoy the game.

 

I can say many of our community really loved the way Dantooine Conquest was done and really got involved and they are very upset with the changes / nerf.

 

I am really not liking where the conversations are going in guild and game. These are the same types of rumblings I was hearing before many of our friends left, some of them subs since 2012.

 

Please, Bioware listen to the feedback and fix conquest along with other issues. Allow all subscribers to have fun and receive rewards and do what they enjoy in game. It isn't about the grind.

[PTS Phase 2 Loot Acquisition Feedback (Newest Patch)]

Thank you for making adjustments.

I am really hoping for a lot more changes, because I really like the game and want to see my friends and other people stick around. We currently have several more guild members with "one foot out the door"

 

 

 

This is going to be a bit long.

 

 

We have run some things on the PTS as a guild, mostly a lot of Hammer Stations. We have a small casual guild with several long time players (some since 2012,, like myself) who like to run OPs and have always had hopes of running the harder content, including NIM as a group,but it takes us too long to all gear up, and this new system, in many cases, leaves us hopeless, and pretty much giving up on gear with what this is looking like. None of us like the RNG.

 

Most of us have MANY alts given how long we have been in game (plus Light versus Dark) and we do like to play them, so gearing can take a longer for "non mains" but we still like to play them and run in OPs with them. The gearing is too much of a grind and is too long to accomplish even for mains.

 

Playing to get gear is fine, but there are too many tiers of gear and way too much stuff to sort through that isn't useful. It feels like work and not fun. The majority of the guild members agree that the goal is to play the content and not collect gear.

 

 

I really don't understand the concern about gearing too fast to do content that has mostly been in the game for years. It is actually annoying to have to re-gear to do the SAME content in any mode that has been out for years. Yes gearing for NEW content and grinding for that is fine, but not so that we can go back to doing the same content.

 

 

In addition, with the down leveling, myself and other guild members are questioning what the gear is even for except for the new OP since stats will be capped.

 

 

Not a fan of the single items out of Renown crates that take forever to get. I like the other items such as companions gifts that currently drop.

 

 

Did not get enough of the currency to try out the vendors, except for the Spoils of War vendor, and not about to take my time to do the "medpac thing" just to have a chance at trying to get gear to try it out.

 

Other guild members I spoke to said the gearing and drops were a lot of RNG junk that was not useful. That is exactly what happened with that random vendor, it was a complete waste of currency and I will never do that again if it goes live.

 

We ran about 10 flash points with a different mix of groups, and there was a lot that dropped, but nothing really useful. I like the look of the gear that dropped, but that is all I would use it for is in the appearance designer.

 

Also on one run a rating 38 focus dropped in Hammer Station.

 

 

There is a lot of potential, but not liking many of the implementations currently.

 

Gearing

 

Pros

• Like the looks of many of the new gear pieces
  
• Like the Variety with the set bonuses
  
• Like the idea of the amplifiers & Tunings
  
• Like the fact that loot will drop for discipline
  
• LOVE the upcoming toggle for discipline (YAY)
  

 

 

 

Cons

• TOO MUCH RNG - needs to go
  
• Items dropping below current gear as rewards and items toons cannot use, this isn't a "reward"
  
• WAY Too many gear tiers
  
• Too much static gear
  
• Gear being tied to the irating you have on
  
• Set bonuses tied to shells
  
• Not enough tech fragments to get what you want
  
• Too much of a grind
  
• Renown crates worthless, takes forever to get one and then you get 1 item that may not even be worth it
  
• Too much gear dropping from FP to deal with that is worthless and takes up play time to get rid of. This is going to get old fast. Already became annoying during the Hammer Station FP runs
  
• Do NOT like the fact the current set bonuses are being taken away
  

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Suggestions

 

• A direct way to get gear with the set bonuses. The actual set bonuses you want
   
  
• Why not have something like the tokens that currently drop off bosses, just as they do now and then use those with a currency, then just make it cost more of the currency for different levels of gear?
   
  
• Or just Switch to common currency for all gear. If this is "play your way" then allow people to get currency for every thing you do and let people buy their gear. Something other than what it currently is: Get rid of the RNG
   
  
• Create a spot on the armor for a set bonus "token" instead of being tied to the shell
  

 

 

 

 

Additional Feedback

 

 

• Love the looks of Oderon - really nice on the looks and graphics. Have not tried all the missions yet
   
   
  
• I am, and most people in our guild are Very unhappy with the conquest changes and higher amounts to meet.
   
   
  
• The higher summoning cost is uncalled for and a burden for smaller guilds. We are very lucky, we have had some very generous members donate the credits we have as a guild, plus we have done some fundraising. We buy the guild perks and that is enough of a credit sink. Unfortunately a lot of our guild credits came from long time members quitting the game over 5.0 and the first changes to conquest.
   
   
  
• Yes there are players in the game with LOTS of credits, but not everyone. The higher costs makes it difficult for regular players to buy stuff and smaller guilds to consistently purchase all the guild perks
   
   
  
• Crafting is too expensive, requires too many mats, and is cumbersome
  

[Conquest Feedback and Upcoming Changes]

So after the "revamp" and the accompanying rage i felt at ALL THE THINGS said revamp entailed, i took the rest of my week to chill and have instead been reading what others had experienced/felt with said changes. Many i agree with, several that i don't. Let's discuss

CRAFTING One thing i have found (or found a lack of) is a true understanding of what it is to craft for conquest. The devs obviously don't get it and i would wager it's because they don't participate in it.

Misconceptions about conquest crafting:

1. It's easy
   
2. Crafters don't have to work as hard as me on a weekly basis (mostly heard from PvPers)
   
3. Crafting awards too many points and it's pay to win
   
4. "crafting was contributing too much to the overall competition of Conquests" ~the devs
   

Let's talk about why each excuse/reason is wrong.

1: it is NOT easy to compete in a crafting conquest. The smaller the number of true/hardcore crafters you have in your guild, the more prep and lead time it takes. i come from a smaller guild and to prep for conquest against the major guilds takes months full of countless hours of farming not to mention crafting those mats into components.

2: crafters work just as hard as you folks do AND we do it WITHOUT the advantage of consistent rewards for our efforts. for every 15 minutes you spend in a PVP match, you get a reward when you're done with it. for every 15 minutes of crafting i do, i get to SPEND credits on buying/companion missions for white mats to match what i've farmed. Additionally to that, in order to have the credits to buy those white mats, we have to go out and do additional content to farm credits so we can afford the white mats. So in order to participate in a crafting conquest, crafters have to actually work twice as hard as the PVP/Eers in order to be able to craft, which leads directly into item 3.

3: now, i'm biased because i'm obviously a crafter and i think my time spent working in the game should be better rewarded, but crafting should definitely not be considered as overly compensated for points. let's discuss the math involved in crafting. it costs you nothing, save repair costs or gear upgrades, to participate in PvP/E (and as previously mentioned, crafters must also do to earn credits to pay for their mats). SO here's a little crafting math for you. to craft a stack of 100 ea grade 8 and 9 components it costs me, IN WHITE MATS ONLY, 400,000 credits (if i am buying from the vendor and not doing companion missions). and out of those 100 components i get a base return of 25 war supplies. IF i can craft 1000 components in an hour, i am SPENDING 4 million credits to compete in conquest with 250 war supplies. those war supplies will take (at max comp lvl 50 on a single toon) approximately 7 1/2 hours to craft during conquest. so time spend gathering, crafting components and transforming in to war supplies is 10-11 hours with a total return of a BASE of 625000 points. any conquest crafter worth their salt will have sunk millions upon millions of credits into their strongholds to get a point boost of 150%. so let's total this up, 3 hours of lead work (farming and crafting components), 4 million credits, 7 1/2 hrs crafting time DURING crafting week (for a grand total in time of ~11 hours) and a grand total of 937500 points. when was the last time a PVP/Eer spent 11 hours of their time and 4 million credits to participate in conquest. now plug aaaaaalllll that lovely information into an equation that allows you to see how much time and effort your players put into this game to net 70 MILLION points in a single crafting conquest week especially when those are small guilds with 5-10 crafters tops. we as crafters work D**N hard and pay through the nose to participate in conquest. we deserve every. single. point. garnered in this manner.

4: Musco/Keith, you boys have GOT to be kidding. aside from the math i just laid out for you, you have repeatedly nerfed crafting in conquest. we started out with repeatable crafting every week. we were nerfed down to 3 weeks (4 since you've added iokath but that's a joke cuz there's only 1 planet that whole week), nerfed when we had to start crafting components instead of just using base mats. on a non-crafting week we can get 10,000 points MAX PER LEGACY. how is this excessive? you have done your level best to punish crafters and "even the playing field" for the other player styles. This latest nerf is WAY TOO FAR. Crafting weeks are SUPPOSED to cater to the players who enjoy farming and crafting. we don't do it because we HAVE to. we do it because we WANT to. You have obviously made these changes because you don't understand your own content and the effort that this undervalued set of players puts in to your game.

 

 

 

Disagree on "exploiting" crafting. as detailed above, it's hard work to participate in crafting and no way to exploit it. Agree that crafting is not the problem here, the problem is the perception that crafting is an "easy win" system.

 

 

 

There was nothing fast or easy about conquest, with maybe the exception of NS/Balmorra heroics weeks. There should be equal reward for time spent. work is fine, grind is not. and that's all this revamp is: G-R-I-N-D.

 

 

 

THIS!!! you're my new hero!

 

 

 

This game is all about personal experience. and by revamping in the way they have, the devs have taken personal choice and experience out of the mix. They have decided what content is enjoyable from their perspective. no one HAS to participate in conquest, but for those that do want to and enjoy the direction it gives for their play style on a week to week basis, these changes have crapped all over the idea of getting rewarded for doing the content you enjoy doing.

 

Every player in this or in any other MMO is a strikingly different individual with their own preferences. In their effort to make conquest more varied, they have done the opposite. Players largely like knowing what objectives are coming so they can plan their play accordingly, as a guild or a solo artist. This new system is pure chaos, with little reward to encourage participation.

 

Aside from completely rolling back (which the devs have already proven they are unwilling to do given the upcoming patch tomorrow), here a some things that definitely need fixing for conquest to be viable again and save subscriptions:

• planetary bonuses need to come back. Guilds don't pick planets based on the rewards. they pick planets based on objectives, bonuses and where they think they can/need to win. additionally, if bonuses return, you can keep the point targets for tiered planets at their current levels.
  
• Crafting: either roll it back or fix it. fixing it would entail requiring fewer of the lower grade mats to make a single war supply (nerf to 4 down from 6/8) and/or fix the farming for all mats from grades 2-7. there is currently no efficient way to gather these mats in the quantities currently required.
  
• If you really need some randomness in your life, include some kind of new random daily objective for conquest with a super bonus that relates to the type of week it is.
  
• Legacy objectives: ditch these. part of this game is about alts and you've killed them. again.
  
• Fix the UI, too much confusion between was is repeatable and was is once per legacy.
  

 

the single compliment i have for the revamp is the guild point target for rewards. It's always frustrating to have worked so hard all week only to get pushed into 11th place at the 11th hour. if your guild puts in the effort, they should reap the reward. so kudos on that point.

 

 

 

Every week of conquest pigeonholes a specific type of play style, whether it be ops, pvp, flashpoints, gsf, heroics, crafting or events. No single play style is better than any other. The MMOs that recognize and foster this mentality are the ones that have a lasting player base. The devs cannot continue to depend on the fact that "it's star wars!" to save them and their game. stop forcing people to play the way YOU THINK they should. provide content and availability for all play types and you will consistently have a happy community. Darkgift nails it on the nose. One of my guildies has been with star wars since beta. has been the most positive, persistent, committed player, even through the many frustrations he's experienced in the game and this latest bout of thoughtlessness was too much even for him. I know an entire guild of crafters and pvpers who saw the changes and walked away the same day. Devs, i urge and implore you to make some drastic changes for the better. for the love, listen to your community for once! or own up to what your intentions for this game really are, make the cuts and stop stringing us along. to join with the myriad of other voices who have all said the same thing: i have 15 days left on my sub. please change my mind. i really really want you to. The reason you see so much anger is because your players love the game and hate to see the mottled mess it's become.

 

 

All very well said!

[Maintenance: March 27th, 2018]

Daily Repeatable Objectives are once per Legacy, per day.

 

-eric

 

 

Ummmm, SERIOUSLY?! . . . . just wow. This is completely ridiculous. It is quite obvious that there is no consideration for the feedback from paying customers . . . the players. This overall change to conquest is awful.

 

Personally, I am just done with conquest, and so are many of our guild members. I find this very sad considering we have a smaller guild, but yet we were often on the conquest board in the top 10.

 

Guild members were already starting to question the value of conquest before the change, now . . . this just sealed it, it isn't worth it. Objectives have been restricted, crafting is beyond ridiculous with this change (others have laid out the changes very nicely, and just how insane they are), rewards are not worth it, and why all of a sudden the developers have become alt haters, when they have done nothing but encourage alts, is beyond me (Dark vs Light anyone?!)

 

I have many alts and so do many of our guild members, conquest, as we knew it is now impossible, along with the fact there is no choice, just a pre-defined grind and work. A game is supposed to be fun, not work.

 

For some of our members that was all they enjoyed doing . . . hitting conquest through the various objectives on every toon they had, and now some of those players are discussing leaving the game. Yet another negative change that starts to break up communities. We already lost a lot of our guild members and friends due to the 5.0, and some were just returning to SWTOR. I hope they do not leave, but I would not blame them.

 

And on top of all of the negative changes the patch was launched with massive bugs, which made the situation even worse and more annoying. It seems like the code wasn't even tested . . . just wow.

 

I will "monitor the situation" but as of now, myself along with a large majority of those who I have heard from in our guild are done with this mess that is now called conquest. . . . .

[Conquest Feedback and Upcoming Changes]

Eric you again miss the point . The current set up is not at all beneficial to the players who are unable to play everyday of the week. Contrary to belief most of the subscribers have jobs, families and actual lives and are unable to play everyday which makes getting conquest more difficult. Your view point on crafting is completely incorrect the previous crafting helped smaller guilds be able to win conquest when it came up. The way you have it set up now is smaller guilds with numerous alts can not participate in crafting due to the cost, large number of mats required and the time to try to obtain said mats. My guild benefited by having guild members with multiple crafting toons help achieve wins and made Evolution a contender in conquest each week we were able to stay on the leader boards .

 

Completely AGREE!! The same for my guild which is on the smaller side.

[Conquest Feedback and Upcoming Changes]

Hey folks,

 

In this thread we want to cover a few things about Conquests: our goals for the revamp, the feedback we are hearing from all of you, and what we are changing (and when). I recommend you start by reading our write-up of the changes that were coming to 5.8. Let’s jump in.

 

The Conquest Revamp – Goals

We had a few things in mind that we wanted to address as we moved from the old system into the new one. First and foremost were rewards. This includes ensuring that the new system delivers the rewards you earn, but also increasing the overall rewards for participating in Conquests. Here are is what you receive now when you and your Guild complete a conquest:

• A large amount of Credits and CXP via completion of Objectives
  
• Personal rewards, including crafting materials, credits, and more
  
• Invasion rewards, including crafting materials, credits, Encryptions, and more, which is now rewarded to all Guilds who meet the invasion target.
  
• Access to the Fleet vendor which sells special decos and the Master Compendium (Companion Influence boost)
  

 

Here are some of the other areas we were aiming to address:

• Objectives and their points – Conquests are meant to be an activity that someone can work on throughout the week as they play the game. Previously, Conquests were very homogenized in that there was very little diversity among each week. We used this opportunity to spread out what objectives were available in each Conquest.
  
• Crafting - Crafting is a key part of Conquests, and we certainly did not want to remove that. However, we know the use of War Supplies and crafting was contributing too much to the overall competition of Conquests. For that reason, we reduced the overall effectiveness of Crafting, but added new functionality to War Supplies that they can be consumed to add Conquest points. Allowing you to get points out of them twice if you want, or you could craft them on one character and then move them to other characters to gain conquest points.
  
• Yield Targets – Competition among different sized Guilds has always been a problem in Conquests. We introduced yield targets to assist in separating out Guilds by various sizes, as they have differing targets and rewards.
  
• Interface – We gave the interface a facelift (as outlined in the other post) to make it easier to find activities you may want to complete.
  

 

Your Feedback

We never saw this revamp as being a perfect change out of the gates, but it is a first step for us in crafting an improved Conquest system. Your feedback is incredibly valuable as we can immediately start making changes to get things to a great place. Now that you understand what our goals were, let’s talk about the things we are hearing from you.

 

Changed / Missing Objectives

This feedback was most commonly expressed from PvP’ers who saw a daily objective for winning a Warzone, but not one for participating. Our plan to combat the old system’s homogenization was to spread out all Objectives. This week may not have participation as an Objective, but it isn’t gone, it is just in a different Conquest. However, this information was not clear and breaks too far from the old system.

Plan: We are going to add a repeatable GSF and Warzone Participation Objective into all Conquest weeks. This will go into our next patch (possibly next week).

 

Objective Points Too Low

With the rebalance to Conquest Objectives, there is a general sense that completing your Personal Conquest takes too long and by proxy, Guild Invasions as well.

Plan: We are going to lower the Personal Conquest target to 15,000 per week (down from 20,000). We are also adjusting the Planetary Yield Targets to be:

• Small is now 200,000 (down from 460,000)
  
• Medium is now 550,000 (down from 1,380,000)
  
• Large is now 1,130,000 (down from 2,530,000)
  
  • This will happen in our next patch (possibly next week).
    

 

Crafting Changes Too Harsh

Crafting in Conquests was just too good prior to 5.8. There is a feeling though that we cut a bit too deep on its overall impact to Conquests. The War Supply schematics were combined which made them harder to craft, and their point contribution went down, even with the added functionality of being able to consume them.

Plan: We are going to give it some time and monitor the impact of these changes, and then we will make any needed adjustments in 5.9 or beyond.

 

Large Yield Target Rewards Aren’t Good Enough

We are seeing concerns that the Large (and possibly Medium) Yield rewards simply aren’t good enough to warrant the extra points required. That this may cause most Guilds to simply filter down into Small Yields, which is counter-productive to the goal of getting Guilds to split a bit by Guild size.

Plan: This is something we are sensitive to but without seeing actual participation data around Conquests, we are hesitant to make changes just yet. We will monitor in the coming weeks and make any needed changes in 5.9 and beyond.

 

New UI Confusion

There definitely is some confusion around the iconography in the new UI, especially for Objectives. For quick reference right now, Yellow icon means infinitely repeatable, Blue means daily repeatable, no icon means once per week.

Plan: With 5.9 we will be adjusting some text along with adding tooltips to ensure that is a bit clearer. We’re also going to be swapping the yellow/blue to be consistent with the rest of the game. In addition, we’ll be adding some additional fly text for Conquest Objective completion.

 

Punishing to Alts // Legacy

With the rebalance of Objective points and the reclassification of some Objective types, there is some concern over the ability for a player with multiple characters in a Legacy to be competitive in Conquests. Additionally, there are similar concerns for folks with characters within a Legacy in more than one Guild.

Plan: One initial step to resolve this is the lowering of the Conquest targets as highlighted above. Also, by adding more repeatable Objectives (like PvP participation) as noted, this should give players more ways to gain points and make it easier to achieve targets. Beyond that we will continue to monitor data and your feedback to seek other possible changes in 5.9 and beyond.

 

That is most of the major points of feedback we have seen coming in regarding the Conquest revamp, but we know it isn’t everything. Let us know your thoughts on the changes we have planned. Also, even after these changes are out the door please keep your feedback coming. We are committed to getting Conquests to be enjoyable, challenging, and rewarding.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

-eric

 

 

(Apologies, this is a bit long)

 

Thank you for the feedback on the feedback and considering changes, but much more needs to be done, and more quickly. I really do not understand why this could not have been put out there for feedback, before implementing it to avoid all the drama associated with such a drastic and negative change.

 

This conquest change is absolutely a negative change, and this appears to be the consensus of my guild. My guild members who have read this thread so far are not happy. To say I am disappointed and frustrated over the entire change is an understatement. This is not about getting "used to the new system" it is about the system is broken and not fun.

 

Thank you for clarifying the GF should be in every conquest that is good, but I am with some others why not announce that to begin with to stop the posting about it? Why the constant lack of information?

 

 

I have waited to post until I have tried to hit conquest on a toon. What have I found?

 

 

 

GOALS

 

I have found I will not be hitting conquest this week, even with the free 10,000 points (From a BUG). While I appreciate the addition of decos (thank you for those), the rewards are NOT enough for bothering with conquest now. Rewards are not scaled to the amount of time, resources, and effort now required for conquest.

 

I mean the decos are nice, don't get me wrong, but really 5 invasion forces, plus 100,000 credits for a deco? With the mats required for an invasion force?! Seriously?! That's a reward for getting conquest?

 

Additionally it is now more of a grind than ever and NOT fun (remember this is a game). If increasing the rewards and making conquest worth it was a goal, it has not been reached.

 

 

Please remember and keep in mind you have paying customers with varying schedules and amounts of time to play. For example, there are some people who can only play on the weekends. We have members that this is the case, so they have about two days to play, for fun and relaxation, along with completing conquest. This was possible before this change, it is now no longer possible.

 

 

 

OBJECTIVES

 

Instead of being able to generally do things you like in game, a variety of activities that add up or even just one activity (for those major PVP/GSF players), it now requires a lot more planning and doing additional activities JUST to get conquest points, not for fun.

 

 

I am a guildmaster of a smaller guild that used to stay on the conquest board in the top 10 often, and in the past

had won planets. We have a wide range of players who have different amounts of play time and like different activities. The objectives are not varied enough, alt unfriendly, and low level unfriendly.

 

Many of our members and myself have a lot of alts. For me, I work full time and run OPs for the guild. I play the game to have fun and hang out with with my guildies, not to grind. The changes mentioned do nothing for alts and low level toons.

 

The rewards are so low that many of us will not even be able to get one toon to conquest much less how many we

normally do. The overall change hurts small guilds and not too mention the amount of mats needed are ridiculous and too time consuming.

 

Prior to this change it was completely possible for us to compete in conquest and stay on the board in the top 10 as well as during a crafting week to actually have a chance at winning a planet, along with completing conquest on multiple toons all at different levels. Many of our members really enjoyed this and for some this has been their full time play activity when they are on.

 

Currently conquest is not even worth doing, and so far, I am not hearing any of our guild members state the mentioned changes go far enough. I am now listening to some members, who this was their main activity, reaching conquest, talk about unsubscribing, and some of them just returned a few months ago, after leaving due to 5.0. This is sad to me on so many levels.

 

 

Additional Suggestions to Fix conquest, OTHER than just rolling it all back to what it was (fine with that too):

 

 

Change ALL crafting back to the way it was, including schematics. I just don't understand how it "was just too good prior to 5.8. Additionally, Either allow the other schematics that use the Exotic Isotope Stabilizers (with Iokath

Recombinators) or convert all of them to the Refined Isotope Stabilizers.

 

I do not think destroying "donating"?! VERY expensive invasion forces which are also now currency, is "added functionality" or even something "fun" or added value . . .

 

Untie objectives to legacy and make them per toon

 

Increase the point values across all objectives, this is a game, meant to be fun, and should not be WORK

 

Add objectives that include multiple activities that low level toons can complete, enough to get conquest

 

Increase the rewards to make it worth it

 

Please Add the Guild Ship back to conquest. Grant a buff for the planet the ship is over that works out side of the

 

planetary down leveling. Currently the guild ship is a buy in just to do conquest for 50 million

 

Add additional objectives which match the themes for the conquest week

 

Please make sure heroics are included in each conquest week

 

 

 

 

Yield Targets

Competition between different sized guilds has now been made impossible due to the crafting changes. Crafting

changes are beyond horrible. This is not how to fix the competition between guilds. Small guilds could at least have a chance at winning a planet due to the way crafting was set up. Small guilds now have 0 chance at winning a planet.

 

I am sure there are many workable ideas out there, but here is one.

 

If you want to make it more even between guilds then create conquest brackets. You have access to the number of

people in a guild, make brackets where conquest is the same as ever, but guilds are competing with other guilds with reasonably the same number of members. This is JUST an example but say all guilds with 1 to 250 members are in 1 bracket and they can win a planet and get a title, then the next bracket is say 251 to 500 members, then maybe another 501 to 750, etc. I am sure you can pull numbers to figure out break points.

 

I am sure there could be other ideas to create a more fair competition between guilds, that was just one example.

 

 

UI

 

Personally I prefer the old UI for conquest it was more interesting to look at, but everyone has their preference.

 

Please consider colour use, because some players of the game are colour blind. We have guild members who are.Additionally, for what ever reason, I have zero blue triangles, I do have silver so by process of elimination I will guess those are the "blue" you mention.

 

 

 

Alts/Legacy

 

Lowering the points needed for conquest does nothing for alts / legacy. This doesn't even make sense, legacy is legacy, it an objective is 1 time for legacy, lowing the total points needed does not make it where other toons in the same legacy can get the points. Adding many additional objectives that are not tied to legacy and that are repeatable would help, so we will have to wait and see what the changes bring for that.

 

Additionally, as mentioned additional objectives need to be added to allow toons of all levels to reach conquest.

 

I am waiting on the changes and I am hoping they will be drastic and better, as this situation currently is not an improvement on conquest. Conquest should be fun, not a grind. Currently what reason is there to do conquest?

[Utility Changes coming in GU 5.6]

When they don't even realize that you don't need to clip to hit 3 abilities into ferocity, feels bad. Going from 7 abilities in every 2 ferocities to 4 is so painful.

 

This alone makes me think the ones making the changes do not play the class and do not understand how it is played

[Galactic Command Gearing Changes, 5.1 and Beyond]

It's just me or i'll have to play with 1 toon only for at least 6 months to TRY gearing him up while my others 16+ toon will have to wait to 6.0 ?

 

I'm mostly pvp player and there is no way i can gear up all my toons.

 

#rip

 

No not just you. Sadly, at this rate, I feel like it might take almost a year for me to just get one toon fully geared where I can start running the content I was running before 5.0, and I have about 37 alts that will not get played that much.

 

It's one thing to log in and play end game and maybe have a chance at winning a gear piece or gearing for PVP in the prior system, but an entirely different thing to try to grind out points for random chances of gear or grind the low token reward rate for PVP. I have work and school, so I can't play as much as some individuals can, and when I can play I would like to be doing what I enjoy, not worrying about grinding for gear.

[Galactic Command Gearing Changes, 5.1 and Beyond]

Well . . we lost 2 more officers and a casual player from our guild this week, with more to go as soon as their subscriptions are up. Some players with subscriptions are no longer logging in, including several officers and raid team members. Many were waiting to see how those last "fixes" were implemented, but it wasn't enough to bring them back or keep them from leaving.

 

People (customers) are understandably frustrated and I have heard multiple times that "if I wasn't a huge Star Wars fan I would have been gone long ago," but even some of them have now left the game. Not every player (customer) who is unhappy posts in the forums, some quietly leave while many others discuss it with other people in and out of the game. Some of that negativity is also what has driven off at least one of our members.

 

 

Almost everyone wants all of this to just get fixed and be able to stop having to wonder whether to continue playing or not. This is game they pay for and they just want to log in and have fun and do the content they want to do without having to wait for RnG to give them gear so they can go back to running the stuff they were running before 5.0 hit and locked them out of the content.

 

 

I really don't understand how long it is taking to address any of this. This is not good from any standpoint, the uncertainty, constant negativity, along with it being horrible from a business stand point.

 

I mean, I have no idea overall how much business has been lost, but just two of our players who still have subscriptions (paid ahead), but aren't playing any more, and so far aren't coming back, used to spend hundreds of dollars on hypercrates each time a new pack came out along with other occasional cartel market purchases, on top of their subscriptions. Not that I advocate that, but looking at it from a business stand point, running off customers who spend that kind of money just doesn't make sense to me.

 

 

 

Pros

 

• Progress on returning SOME unassembled tokens on bosses
  
• Bringing back the gear vendors so players have a choice in turning in the tokens
  
• Progress towards returning the equivalent of "commendations" / "crystals" for gear
  
• Announcing a new operation - Great
  

 

 

 

Cons

 

• ADDITIONAL Grind added on top of already bad grind
  
• During OPs runs the lack of unassembled tokens dropping off bosses is a huge issue for almost everyone.
  
• NO true help for legacy toons gaining cxp, HORRIBLE legacy "perk"
  
• Additionally it almost doesn't matter what rate you are getting cxp, when due to RnG, nothing is decent in the boxes or it is duplicated so it is just disintegrated
  
• Horrible PVP grind for gear
  
• Low cap on the command tokens
  

 

 

Solution

 

Return the gearing system, completely, to the way it was prior to 5.0 where ALL bosses dropping an unassembled token and players can turn them in for what they want!!!! (it wasn't broken) All of the players I have spoken with in our guild, plus others who run group content, want the entire gearing system back (tokens, crystals, vendors, etc.) including the PVP system, prior to 5.0.

 

 

I know I have been told by many of our raid team members they would come back if the gear system went back to pre 5.0

 

 

 

Make command crates something people strive to get, rather than something they have to grind out in order to get something they need, the gear, in order to do the content they want. I can think of all kinds of items that could come in the crates that might make people want them, I am sure you guys can too.

 

Maybe a couple of example ideas might be:

• Adding chances for some of the currency that was removed from the game, but the vendors still sell items players want that require the currency that no longer drops
   
  
• Many have also mentioned they would like to see the level 6 companion gifts go back to being able to be bought with "crystals" or "what ever" and lessen the horrible "grind" with so many companions in the game. That has been mentioned to me as a "reward" that was removed from the game, using your earned crystals to buy the gifts. Personally I know I would like to see that returned, so maybe "command tokens" could be used for that.
  

 

I mean there are probably endless things that could be thought up that players might want so that getting the command box would feel like a reward and not a disappointment and wasted time.

 

Would it still be grinding? yes, but if it is for something you actually want and feel it is worth the effort then normally it feels different than HAVING to grind something out to get something you need in order to be able to do what you want.

 

Now with this awful grind you only get what you need if you are lucky enough through RnG to get the gear you actually need

[January 5th Livestream Wrap-up]

That stream was an utter disappointment. The community is in an uproar due to Galactic Command and you choose to ignore it. The 5.1 changes won't even come close to fixing it.

Here's the thread with concerns from Jedi Covenant: SWTOR forums / Reddit (since you wrote in stream chat that you haven't seen it, even though it's been in top place both on Reddit and in GD)

 

 

 

I completely agree with this.

 

A lot more needs to be done. There are so many good and workable suggestions out there. One main one I have seen that would help is bringing back the guaranteed unassembled token drops from each boss as it has been in the past, prior 5.0.

 

 

What is happening to the game, and has happened to our guild / community has been sad to watch as player after player leaves. Many of my friends and guild members have stated they left, or are leaving, due to the changes and the fact that BioWare is ignoring so much of the player base, along with the frustration with constant bugs that do not seem to get fixed. (They like the game, just not what BioWare has done to it)

 

I don't understand the changes from any stand point. It isn't good as a business model or for the community. All the negative focus, the numerous paying subscribers quitting, lost players not buying cartel coins, and lower server count making it difficult to do some group content and on some servers impossible.

 

Many of our guild members (paying subscribers), casual members as well as our raid team members, participated in many aspects of the game. They also bought cartel coins, hypercrates, etc. And now sadly, a huge number of them are gone from the game due to all of the changes, with more stating they are leaving.

 

It just makes no sense why these issues have been ignored.

[5.0 Gearing - A Gambler's Nightmare (Attention: Eric Musco)]

With literally no new OPs in more then two years now.. why on earth would you expect this? Much less really want it... since it's simply rescaled OPs now days?

 

There have been 7 expacs in 5 years with this MMO, and OPs were left behind for more then two years now. Clearly.. the studio knows they will lose progressive raiders who play only to raid.... but have apparently decided that it is OK to let that minority segment move on. Don't have to like it, and many do not... but to deny it is kind of failed logic at this point.

 

True points. Sadly, many don't expect it and that is why many have left or are about to leave. It is more of a hope now, as some of our raid members said they would not leave or they would come back if that (operations gearing returned to pre 5.0) happened.

 

Not all who left were only raiders, many played other aspects of the game and liked SWTOR, but that was their primary activity. We did have some newer players joining our raid teams who did need the gear, plus many players (including myself) with a lot of alts to gear, so we could play various roles. We were still working on the hard mode operations and hoped to move on to the NIM.

 

That said, that is one of the main things that is so frustrating about the grind they introduced, that it is all to get back to doing old scaled content. No one is really interested in grinding just to be able to go back to the old content they were already doing.

 

No one minded so much before, even though many hoped for new operations (not really thinking we would get any at this point), because it was fun to get together with friends and raid, along with helping our newer players get the hang of the operations.

 

Many of our guild members who left liked SWTOR and participated in other aspects of the game, but were not interested in grinding just to go back to doing what it was they wanted to do, the old scaled operations.

[5.0 Gearing - A Gambler's Nightmare (Attention: Eric Musco)]

We represent a 750+ member guild on the Jedi Covenant server. The guild runs 9 weekly raid teams and Friday and Saturday night open guild raids. Its members are also active in pvp and other SWTOR activities.

 

Prior to 5.0, raid team members were dedicated to progression as well as fun*and easy operation runs. People were committed to gearing their toons, honing their skills and tackling and completing the hardest content in the game. If one team member had bad rng on rolls for gear, the team could help them get the gear they were missing to help the team advance. With the advent of 5.0, all that has changed.

 

5.0 brought some good changes, such as the class changes which provided interesting new abilities to many classes. However, 5.0 also brought perhaps the most criticized, frustrating and hostile game change ever to be introduced to an active MMO.

 

In many people's perception, SWTOR can now*be likened to a gambling casino which feeds on people's propensity to seek the chance reward, provided there is intermittent reinforcement to keep them going. Put the money in the slot, pull the handle and see if you get the gear. If not, buy another command boost to feed the hungry SWTOR beast, grind some more and try again. Some people have said that they*consider SWTOR*to be*an unregulated online gambling site and wonder if federal regulators are investigating this aspect of the gaming community.

 

Rather than people gathering to focus on progression raiding, people feel compelled to focus on the grind to potentially get a gear drop that will help them with the harder content. Some people with good rng get multiple drops, while others endure the frustration of not getting a decent drop for perhaps 70 or 80 command ranks. Casual players are often more geared than hard core raiders. A team cannot support its undergeared members because the gear is all rng. Players are also forced to focus on lower level content which they have cleared for years until they can acquire the gear to continue with their progression teams. Some players simply do not have the time to grind the command ranks and will not be able to access the gear they need to continue on their progression teams. For others, the tedium and boredom of the grind is extreme.

 

People who have submitted tickets complaining about the system have reported that they get a generic response that demonstrates no real concern about the situation. Calls to customer service have been met with the recommendation to post a complaint on reddit or other forums to get the attention of SWTOR executives since there is nothing customer service can do to address the situation.

 

5.0, in many people's view, is a system which is frustrating, demeaning to long time raiders, and yet addictive to those with the slightest gambling tendency. Perhaps there should be a SWTOR Anonymous site for those who cannot break away from the grind long enough to tend to personal affairs. The whole system is a travesty to a game that people have played for years and immensely enjoyed because it provided challenging and enjoyable content.

 

The changes announced for January go a small way to address the current level of frustration many players are experiencing. However, the changes are minimal and will not truly fix a system that has been horribly broken. Players are leaving the game and others are contemplating leaving if a big fix is not coming. While casual players may like the new changes because they do not have to do operations to get gear, the reality is that casual players do not need the new gear.

 

In our view, it is imperative that SWTOR substantially address the broken gearing system before there is a mass exodus from the game. Raiders have endured no new operation content for over two plus years. To now strip them of their gear, force them to grind and provide such a small chance of gear is disrespectful and a slap in the face to a community that has paid for and supported this game since inception.

 

Simple fixes could include such things as upping the rate and quality of drops in the command crates, lowering the tier level requirements, and providing guaranteed gear drops on each boss rather than a random drop on some bosses with only one guaranteed drop. Such changes would still provide SWTOR with the financial gain from command boosts, but also provide gear to those players who actually need it to continue with progression raiding.

 

We strongly recommend that SWTOR consult with the GM's of leading guilds on all servers to come up with a*satisfactory and substantive fix to this*situation before people leave the game and it dies.

 

Thank you! Very well said and I agree completely.

 

Our guild is in a situation now where many players have left, and others are basing their decision to leave or not on the upcoming "fixes," but unfortunately we have already lost many members of our raid teams.

 

Most in our guild would like to see the operations gearing returned to what it was prior to 5.0.

 

If there is such a focus on wanting the command boxes to be a major part of the game, then why not put items in the command boxes that players would WANT, rather than trying to force players to grind for the boxes in order to have chances to get gear they NEED to do what they want to do in game?

[Ops in 5.1 - Will unassembled pieces drop from every boss, or just the last boss?]

Hey folks,

 

There is some good conversation going on in this thread but I thought I would pop in and explain how it is currently planned to work in 5.1. The last boss of each Operation is guaranteed to drop unassembled pieces of a specific slot (we are still working out how many pieces drop). Each other boss in an Operation has an increasing chance (by boss) to drop any unassembled piece, not a specific slot. For the sake of the example I am about to make, I will use Karagga's Palace.

 

Everything listed below is an example and not necessarily what will be in-game, these are just representative of the way the system will work.

 

1st boss (Bonethrasher) - 20% chance to drop any unassembled piece.

2nd boss (Jarg and Sorno) - 25% chance to drop any unassembled piece.

3rd boss (Foreman Crusher) - 30% chance to drop any unassembled piece.

4th boss (Fabricator) - 35% chance to drop any unassembled piece.

Final boss (Karagga) - 100% chance to drop unassembled head piece.

 

Hopefully that clears up any confusion!

 

-eric

 

Ummm, seriously????

 

 

I thought that the stream meant restoring gear tokens to ALL operations bosses, not adding MORE RnG, this is utterly ridiculous and unacceptable. This needs to change.

 

 

The command boxes would have been a nice ADDITIONAL reward and supplementary gearing system for players, but making gear for operations tied to RnG and grinding is not acceptable.

 

 

Many of my friends have already left this game in November and during the last couple of weeks, with more to go in January. Some who still have subscriptions have not logged in for weeks. I have been a continuous subscriber for years and I am considering following them due to these game changes.

 

 

But THEN there was Hope, that just maybe, this system would change and, maybe, my friends would come back to play, but now that has been dashed. The hope that any kind of fairness or reward system will be put back in place for operations seems to be gone.

 

 

ALL operations bosses should have a 100% drop rate for gear tokens as it was prior to the change. If they are random gear pieces I have no issue with that, as long as they are a set piece of gear like before the change.

 

 

There are 8 or 16 people taking their game time to run a group operation and they have all taken the time to learn the mechanics and participate in the operation, they should all be able to roll on gear on EVERY boss. Even then not every player in the operation will leave with gear, but at least several will. It still takes time to get fully geared with that system.

 

 

 

So many of the paying customers, which are the players of this game, have said this RnG system is terrible, but BioWare insists on ignoring us as so many others have pointed out in the forums.

 

 

Additionally, for myself, and some of my friends who do not have a lot of time to play, the changes have drained the fun out of the game. This grind is not fun and not something I will continue, since the whole reason I play a game is to have fun.

 

 

The sad part is many of the players I play with are trying to gear just to get back to the OLD CONTENT we were enjoying and trying to get through as a guild, which we cannot currently run, because of gearing issues along with the fact that so many of our guild's operations members have quit the game over these last changes.

 

 

 

The Command Boxes should be a SUPPLEMENTARY method of gearing NOT THE PRIMARY and operations gear drops should go back to the way they were before.

[Command lvl 10 and I'm already sick of it.]

I completely agree, I am sick of these changes already!

 

I have 34 characters on the Shadowlands server and others scattered on other servers. I have been a consistent PAYING customer, supporting this game for years.

 

I have met some wonderful people, but it seems, very sadly, this is at an end.

 

 

 

It is extremely obvious that EA/BioWare does not care about players. They leave many bugs, these changes are HORRIBLE, the grinding of the new changes are ridiculous. I am not sure who thinks this amount of grinding is fun, but it is not me or for many other players I know.

 

 

 

ALL this grinding, NOT FOR NEW CONTENT, but ONLY to get back to the OLD CONTENT that I and others WANT to DO, such as Hard Mode Operations.

 

 

This has broken apart our guild, and ran good players off. Some have come back to do the story only and due to these horrible changes are leaving right after this.

 

 

 

They have effectively PUNISHED players, pushing them back and not allowing them ACCESS to OLD CONTENT, things we were ALREADY doing, but now CAN”T do because of GEAR CHANGES which KEEP US from doing what we were doing before this stupid “expansion.”

 

 

 

I have been a continuous subscriber for years, but for the first time, I am now considering ending my status, unless some extremely drastic changes occur, or they revert the gear system back to crystals and operations drops.

 

There are NO REWARDS left in the game and the rate of gaining command points, especially for players who do not have a lot of time to play, is horrible.

 

 

 

Many of my friends have cancelled their subscriptions or will be gone when their time cards run out in January or so, and I may go with them. I pay for this game and I don’t have to!

 

So to sum it up: It is not fun, my friends are leaving, and I can’t do the OLD CONTENT I want to do BECAUSE EA/BioWare decided to PUNISH the players!

 

So yes tired of these changes . . .