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MagSul

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    United Kingdom
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    http://www.jkhub.org
  • Interests
    Cosplay, Role-Play, Writing
  1. (I was playing as a Vigilance Jedi Guardian with a level 50 Kira Carsen companion set to DPS.) How did you feel about the difficulty and mechanics of the flashpoint bosses, either in general or in specific? What did you enjoy? What did you dislike? I felt that the Corrupted Vorantikus, Tem-Su & Rada-Ki, Kirba, The Forgotten and The Curse all had interesting mechanics! I was particularly happy that I was allowed to use my interrupt ability on the majority of them as in previous boss encounters in flashpoints it has sometimes felt like, "Why do I have this skill?" The mechanics were present in the sense that I felt I'd be in danger if I didn't move, but at the same time I felt I had a comfortable amount of time to react if I had been a player not looking for too much of a challenge but wanted to feel like I was in an exciting conflict. I felt that their mechanics were clearly conveyed and easy to interpret. All four of them felt as though they had the appropriate amount of health! They took enough time that they felt like "Boss" enemies, but not so quick that you thought, "That's it?" None of the bosses had a "stop-start" mechanic, which I really appreciated because these can often kill the sense of momentum and make an engagement feel drawn out. (I.e. A boss who becomes immune, or vanishes for an extended period of time while the players engage a group of additional enemies such as with Liam Dentiri in Assault on Tython.) How did you feel about the runtime of the story mode experience? I actually thought it was a really good one! It did not feel too long (or too short) and I was glad that I was able to use my mount for a reasonable portion of the flashpoint too. Even before I realised that, I felt it was moving at a comfortable pace. I was thinking to myself by the end that I'd have no qualms coming back to do this flashpoint multiple times in pursuit of an achievement. Have you run into any bugs? If so, please offer step by step details so we may be able to reproduce your experience. Like a silly person, I did not "Acquire the Fourth Flame" I realised as I was approaching The Curse. Once again, I was infinitely glad that I was able to use my mount to go back for it and then complete the bonus objective properly, but here is where I noticed that Tem-Su and Rada-Ki had respawned after their defeat. I gave them a wide berth in case it restarted their encounter, and they actually flickered in and out of existence as I did so. When crossing the narrow bridge in the wide chasm, I used Force Push to knock one of the two enemies into the abyss, however they did not die. My companions mopped them up, but this felt like a bug. After defeating The Curse, the golden overlay on my screen remained until I left the area. Is there any other general feedback you would like to share? One of my biggest grievances with more recent flashpoints (notably Secrets of the Enclave in this example) were that the minor groups of enemies between boss encounters felt like they took more time than they really ought to have to defeat. What made those particularly frustrating was that after defeating a group of enemies, another group of near-identical enemies would spawn out of thin air in the same space. I am extremely glad that no groups of enemies I defeated in Shrine of Silence were replaced by another group of enemies immediately. I am also extremely glad that the majority of enemies in the flashpoint are visible before you engage them! As a player, I've personally found it to be a frustrating experience when you can see where you're going, you've mentally told yourself that's what you're doing, and then suddenly you're pulled out of that. It's a very stop-and-start feel that kills the momentum of your gameplay. In Shine of Silence, I didn't feel any of this and it was a very good thing! Being able to see what you're going to encounter ahead of time prepares the player mentally for what they're facing, sets their expectations and they can see the progress they're making to get to their goal. The few enemies that did spawn "from nowhere" in the Nightmare Cavern were minor and quick to dispatch, so did not feel like they were tedious or slowing down my sense of momentum. The flashpoint felt well-paced and the enemies felt appropriately scaled for story mode, both in boss fights and out of them. The environment is spectacular! I like the cheeky holes in the floor on one of the corners. Walking into the Nightmare Cavern the first time was a real treat. 😍 I really liked the puzzle with the torch! Going back on yourself in a flashpoint can feel like a negative experience sometimes but this did not have that effect in the slightest. It was a quick, logic-fuelled encounter that made me think, "Oh, neat!" and the enemies were reasonable encounters on my route around. This is a huge step up in comparison to the keystones door you have to go back on yourself for in Ruins of Nul. I finished Shrine of Silence on story mode (and completed Veteran with a friend last night I shall have to do again for feedback!) and I left thinking, "I'm curious to see this on Master mode, this is a fun flashpoint!" 😃
  2. I look forward to returning to the PTS and I'm excited to see what you'll bring to the livestream to show us! It's a shame about the delay with R-4 and Manaan up to now, but refreshing myself with the livestream from last year about what else to expect on the horizon has me in high spirits! Best of luck with everything!
  3. Thank you for that insightful post, Chris!
  4. I wanted to make a suggestion regarding this "shortcut" in the Athiss flashpoint. While I cannot say with absolute certainty that this was not intended as a shortcut by the environmental artists of the game; I can say with confidence that every single time I have landed an Athiss via Group Finder, it has caused a problem for at least one member of the group. Athiss is a very early-game flashpoint, accessible before a character is even level 20. As such, it is reasonable to assume that many players accessing this content are either new or at least inexperienced. If a player refuses to exploit the terrain or actually repeatedly tries and fails to do so, they often face ridicule and are even actively removed from the group. Today, I saw this happen with a level 17 player and the consensus of the other group members was that if a player wishes to level, they should "stick to Story Mode flashpoints." While I can't expect the development team to prevent the toxic behaviour of individual players, I hope that I could perhaps open the door to two potential solutions to this problem: 1. If this should be considered a valid shortcut, please consider making an adjustment that would make this jump easier to accomplish without players . 2. Consider removing the ability to do this at all. Thank you for taking the time to read my suggestion.
  5. I like this approach! Part of the problem for my partner and I was having to separate a lot in the content we completed. Shifting the focus from dailies to weeklies with consistent plans allows us to work out what to and when together.
  6. I chose to play a Vigilance B Jedi Guardian. Does this feel like a Jedi Guardian? Please explain why or why not. No, because I am missing Awe, Force Clarity, Focused Defense, Guardian Leap, Saber Throw, Resolute, Freezing Force, Enure, Challenging Call and Force Kick. I feel like a hollowed out shell of the Jedi Guardian class and that I lack any substance. This build feels utterly illogical. For example, I am a DPS, I've been allowed to retain my Taunt and Guard (the latter of which reduces my DPS output if I'm not mistaken), but have I no ability to interrupt my enemies or lower my threat? I am assuming that my having Force Sweep and Vigilant Thrust at the same time on a shared cooldown is an error. Instead of charging heroically into combat, I honestly felt quite the fool. Is there anything that feels missing or out of place in the combat rotation? Yes, Force Kick, which is essential for numerous conflicts in the game. Without Focused Defense, I feel forced to rely on having my companion set to heal. I can't use Awe to stun nearby enemies to reduce the damage I'm taking. If the last enemy of the pack is out of range, I cannot conveniently use Saber Throw, or a 30m Blade Storm to finish them off. What are your initial thoughts with the effectiveness of the Jedi Guardian against enemies? I felt embarrassed by my own performance playing this class set up. I nearly died to a straight-forward group of enemies while my companion was set to DPS. With the removal of around 11 abilities, I feel far less effective and safe in the open world. How are you enjoying or not enjoying this class? I am thoroughly - I cannot stress this enough - thoroughly not enjoying this concept. When it was announced on the recent livestream, the impression many players seemed to get was to separate the play style (i.e. abilities and weapons) from the class-specific story. So, I could potentially play the Jedi Knight class story with the weapons, proficiencies and skills of a Jedi Shadow, for example. In no way shape or form did it even occur to me that anything regarding the existing build structures for any class needed to change. Simply open a new window on the UI, select one of the four Force-user classes, select my discipline and get on with it. Why the decision has been made to pool resources into reinventing the wheel is something that I cannot wrap my head around. If this is a glimpse into how the game intends to move forward, I'm not sure I will continue to enjoy it and that breaks my heart. Both my partner and I are in agreement that part of the fun of The Old Republic is learning the array of skills, mixing up combat proficiencies and such. It requires thought and consideration and it's rewarding when you learn it and get it right. Taking away the substance of the class just makes combat feel completely unengaging. I want to provide you with positive constructive feedback, but I cannot find the enthusiasm to continue testing what you've given us so far because it is genuinely not fun to do so. I live in hope that because this is only the first step, many of us have just gotten the complete wrong end of the stick and you don't intend to alienate your devoted player base with a condescending, hollowed-out form of this games existing gameplay. More than one developer enthusiastically told us on the recent livestream that they too enjoy and play the game as we do. That the development team then even has to pose the question to us, "Does what we're doing with this class feel right to you?" screams to me those earlier statements may not be genuine and that's really unpleasant and upsetting, frankly.
  7. On the subject of this new companion, I wanted to check if I could replace his armour. I was glad to see that I could! However, the outfit I used to test this was the Shadowsilk Aegis set, crafted via Synthweaving. Despite being Republic, he displayed the Imperial version of the crafted outfit. Picture: https://imgur.com/a/XiOtGLA
  8. Updated response! ^.^ What was your group's composition (number of tanks, healers, and dps)? - Two DPS players, one DPS companion (level 8), one Heal companion (level 50) What did you think about the layout of the Flashpoint? - I thought that the layout was fantastic. It felt very open, but not so open that you risk veering off course and dragging your trip out at the very start. The transition between each area felt very natural. I particularly liked that you could see where you were headed to from the river. Was it easy to understand where to go and what to do? - Yes. Although I confess it took me longer than it should have to work out that I needed to destroy the bonus droid spawns beside the consoles the first time! That'll teach me to read overhead text properly. That's on me. Did the length of the Flashpoint feel appropriate? - Yes. Some of the more recent flashpoints have felt just a touch too long. This felt perfect to me. What was your favourite boss? Your least favourite? Why? - I enjoyed the mechanic behind the droid encounters in the sublevel for the bonus objective. Killing an enemy in a particular place to succeed was neat. My least favourite boss was probably the bonus boss because there didn't appear to be much penalty for not doing what was required. We deliberately did not click on the tower and no noticeable difference took place. Were any boss mechanics difficult to understand or notice? - Having only played through the flashpoint to completion once, the only boss that I didn't quite understand all of the mechanics for was the Imperial Trio in the garden. However, this did not mean it was difficult to understand, just that it'll take a touch of practise to adapt and observe. Were any bosses too easy? Too hard? - I felt a little too comfortable with the graul in the cave. As a single player with one interrupt ability at my disposal, I had no issue. So, I think that with a group of 4 players, there would be little challenge to navigate in this fight. Adding at least another move that we need to interrupt would at least cause the team co-ordinate having one available. I did appreciate that as we were competing in Veteran mode as a pair on my second attempt, that this is a game mode where a healer is not a guaranteed member of the group. Having a healer companion with us actually felt like overkill. Did boss fights take too long? Were any too short? - I felt they took a satisfactory time to complete. Did any boss abilities feel like they did too much damage? Too little? - There is room for an increased amount of damage as a healer companion did take away any discernible threat outside of the Imperial Trio fight. Were you able to complete the bonus mission and fight the optional boss? - Yup! You can walk up the ramp and land in the energy cage as well. That part didn't seem intentional as the other player couldn't get back out again without the /stuck command. Did any non-boss enemies stand out as too difficult (or as having too much health)? - No, the mobs between the bosses fell at an appropriate pace. Were there too many non-boss enemies (trash packs)? If so, where was the density too high? - I actually thought it was a fair amount of enemies. I only skipped by a small handful that were off to the side here or there. I didn't feel a sense of "Ugh, leave me alone!" at any point. I thought the level of enemies encountered was spot-on. Did you encounter any bugs that made it impossible to complete the Flashpoint? If so, please describe them. - Yes, and this is what prompted me to come straight here! I was facing the Imperial Trio in the ruins of the enclave. I failed my first attempt, and when I clicked to respawn, I did so beneath the map. When this happened, I continued to fall into the skybox, die and repeat over and over. I could not do anything except force a logout to escape. Second, I walked over the threshold to the bonus boss room and fell through the floor. Third, you can walk up a ramp in the bonus boss room and fall into the energy cage with no way we could see to get back out again. What did you enjoy the most about the Flashpoint? The least? - The setting. A mix of locations outdoors and in which blended together well. I didn't feel like I was in the same place from beginning to end. This flashpoint benefits from nostalgia. But taking that aside, the detail of this environment was absolutely spot-on. I can't really say that there was anything that I didn't particular enjoy about the flashpoint. It suited me perfectly. Do you have any additional comments or feedback? - Having coincidentally played KotOR II again very recently, the one missed opportunity I felt from playing through this flashpoint was the creature mobs. When I got into the cave, I was genuinely just a little disappointed that the enemy NPCs were not kinrath and those inside the enclave sublevel were not laigrek. I feel that one or two of the droid groups could have been made into laigrek and we could have had kinrath in the cave instead of the creatures we did get, which didn't feel native. Appreciated the kath hounds though! All in all, I felt it was a solid experience. Two of us casually walked through it and stopped to appreciate the setting along the way. I feel a full group of 4 would make short work of it - which given players' tendencies to find unique ways to bypass entire groups of enemies - is not a bad thing. There's little wiggle-room once you get to the cave and that's a good thing because we're not punished with endless waves for following the path laid out in front of us. Looking forward to finding any lore objects or achievements if you happen to squeeze any in to an upcoming update too!
  9. I was not able to finish the flashpoint due to a bug which I encountered. I've described it below. I shall edit this post when I attempt this with a group later today, see if the experience changes my outlook on anything and update my responses accordingly for you. What was your group's composition (number of tanks, healers, and dps)? - One DPS (Jedi Guardian, Vigilance) + Kira Carsen (Level 50, DPS) What did you think about the layout of the Flashpoint? - I actually really enjoyed the layout. It felt very open, but not so open that I risked getting lost at any point. Was it easy to understand where to go and what to do? - Yes. Although I confess it took me longer than it should have to work out that I needed to destroy the bonus droid spawns beside the consoles! That'll teach me to read overhead text properly. Did the length of the Flashpoint feel appropriate? - Yes. What was your favourite boss? Your least favourite? Why? - I enjoyed the mechanic behind the droid encounters in the sublevel for the bonus objective. Leading them to the terminals. Were any boss mechanics difficult to understand or notice? - I'll come back on this one as I didn't get to finish the Imperial Trio! Were any bosses too easy? Too hard? - I felt a little too comfortable with the graul. As a single player with one interrupt ability at my disposal, I had no issue. So, I think that with a group of 4 players, there would be little challenge to navigate in this fight. Adding at least another move that we need to interrupt would at least cause the team co-ordinate having one available. Did boss fights take too long? Were any too short? - I felt they took a satisfactory time to complete. Did any boss abilities feel like they did too much damage? Too little? - I thought the damage ratio was pretty fair. Were you able to complete the bonus mission and fight the optional boss? - Yup! Did any non-boss enemies stand out as too difficult (or as having too much health)? - I'll let you know after round two at this flashpoint! Were there too many non-boss enemies (trash packs)? If so, where was the density too high? - I actually thought it was a fair amount of enemies. I only skipped by a small handful that were off to the side here or there. I didn't feel a sense of "Ugh, leave me alone!" at any point. Did you encounter any bugs that made it impossible to complete the Flashpoint? If so, please describe them. - Yes, and this is what prompted me to come straight here! I was facing the Imperial Trio in the ruins of the enclave. I failed my first attempt, and when I clicked to respawn, I did so beneath the map. When this happened, I continued to fall into the skybox, die and repeat over and over. I could not do anything except force a logout to escape. What did you enjoy the most about the Flashpoint? The least? - The setting. A mix of locations outdoors and in which blended together well. I didn't feel like I was in the same place from beginning to end. Do you have any additional comments or feedback? - Having coincidentally played KotOR II again very recently, the one missed opportunity I felt from playing through this flashpoint was the creature mobs. When I got into the cave, I was genuinely just a little disappointed that the enemy NPCs were not kinrath and those inside the enclave sublevel were not laigrek.
  10. I completed all three courses for all three teams on my Trooper again today and encountered this issue in every one of the cutscenes preceding each course. Example Image
  11. Weird, right? You while stood around that area, despite there being no visible obstruction.
  12. Shortly after you arrive in the Hammer Station flashpoint, the camera decides to zoom in of its own accord. This happens as you run up the ramp on the left-hand side and all of the way up to the first door way. Passing through that doorway zooms the camera back out again. I'm quite sure that this didn't happen in the past. It's making it difficult to see and target things at times!
  13. It's been a difficult year for most of us and both my partner and I are exceptionally glad to have had SWTOR to retreat to during the various lockdowns, particularly those that resulted in us being apart from each other for a few months. Personally, I've never grown tired of spending some time on your game each night after work. Your continued efforts to engage the community and support the game in general are greatly appreciated and we look forward to everything that's to come in the next year.
  14. My female body type 1 togruta is showing a black texture over her hands where her skin ought to be during cutscenes and in the character sheet window. It's not exclusive to the Ambitious Warrior set pictured below. https://i.imgur.com/nUJ24tq.jpg
  15. Similar to how you've implemented the infinity symbol, I'd suggest a little speaker logo that specifies whether or not your character speaks when you click the emote.
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