Dorkfrey Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 What do I believe is wrong with the state of PvP currently? Several things I think are drastically out of kilter - Faction imbalance however is the "primary" core of this. By Faction Imbalance, I mean to say - the way that currently, the game is set up to allow one Faction (or another) to "snowball" in effect, guaranteeing that one side will always be on the losing end, over and over. For those of you wondering how: 1) Apply this - let's have Faction 1, who is much larger than Faction 2 - and now have the ability to literally "lock out" the smaller faction - while continually growing stronger. Be that in terms of gear, gear availability, and even to some regards, PvE progression (as high end PvP gear is better in some regards than entry level raid). Now, granted - there will *always* be individuals through skill, who are capable of "bucking" a trend, these exceptions only ever prove the general rules. 2) The current animation setup, and spell effect timings (while technically "mirroring" the opposite faction) are a genuine hindrance to many. As a consular - I'm very aware of suffering the brunt of this. I appreciate that my PC's specs might not be up to the level of "some" PC's out there, but anything that can run WoW, DoW2, DNF, FFXIV, at high settings at 50+ fps - but can barely scrape double digit FPS in a low pop Warzone is problematic. When a large portion of your abilities and timings favour a fast approach - suffering as much as a half a second delay (many animations are vastly longer) - currently in Huttball it takes about 4 seconds from when I use (read press it and it actually activates - not including when my character suddenly starts jerking around because spells refuse to fire at all) Force Wave - I need Kwizatz Haderach (screw Jedi, I need to be the Universe's SUPER BEING) levels of presience to be able to land one effectively. I get that you're trying to fix the delay bug, but the animations need to be sorted as well. It's a huge imbalance in the game, that when two equally skilled/geared opponents meet, the guy with the good animations will win most of the time - that's a definate problem that needs addressing - especially when it doesn't only affect PvP, but also PvE to a large extent. - The implications of this, are truly horrendous and need to be put into line with Faction 1 - Imperials. There's many of these abilities listed, and they need to be fixed, asap - because with problem 1 and problem 2 combined, you're basically trying to dissuade people from playing Republic - and succeeding. My experiences would say that we're outnumbered conservatively at a 2:1 ratio (although, I suspect the actual amount is much higher). 3) Thirdly, and I know this one it a touchy subject - same faction battlegrounds. This reinforces the lockdown that's already occuring in problem 1. And unfortunately, the more it's allowed to continue - the more problems 1/2 will grow - which will further demoralise players (eventually on BOTH SIDES of the game). If there's a fraction of Republic PvP'ing a lot, and a glut of Imperials PvPing, then the Imperials will continue to gain in strength, while the Republic cannot close this gap down. - I know that the Imperials will claim this is just punishing them for "choosing" the winning side, but in terms of balance- and long term game survival - this needs to be rectified and fast. If players are getting to the point of seeing primarily same faction Warzones, this means that they don't have opponents who're playing to face them. This will lead to a very stale end-game PvP, and while it might feel like you've "won", you've shortened the lifespan of the game dramatically. It's a case of taking one for the team. Just because you get longer queues doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad thing for the game as a whole, and the game is bigger than the individuals needs for long term prosperity. This game CANNOT continue in the vein it has, if it wants to have a long term future. 4) Fourthly, don't change the goalposts to make it "harder" for a faction to be able to recover when we're in a snowball situation. I'm talking about raising the costs of PvP gear here, now that your "favoured" side has snowballed over the Republics. I get it, you want the bad guys to win. It doesn't make for a "balanced" or future proof game when you make the milestones harder to achieve. It's a case of trivialising an EQ grind for one faction, and making it vastly harder for the other. This is basic MMO rules 101. Think about it a moment, and you'll see the intuitive leap here. If it's suddenly got MUCH harder for one faction to be able to compete and progress, and you now move the milestones back even further you are just showing either your inexperience in dealing with MMO Balance, or you're just being totally biased (possibly unintentionally). It does come across as a bit of a richard move though. Don't do this, ever. If faction growth was balanced between two/three/twelve factions - changing the milestones is fine to extend content. When it's a two horse race and you cripple the weaker horse, you're killing your future by doing it. 5) Finally - Bioware, you need to wake up, and react a lot quicker to game breaking issues. The 1.1 Patch Day problem was a disaster for you on all accounts. If a scenario occurs where one faction or other is literally ruining people's days when it comes to enjoying this game, you need to deal with it ASAP. Sitting on it for hours, before saying you've got a potential issue, before getting a committee together to work out if the problem, is actually a problem - isn't good enough. You will gather a lot more respect from the community, when you can identify mistakes, admit them, and deal with them ASAP. We're all aware that you're only human, but part of being human means making mistakes, not passing the buck. Players will by and large, always take the path of least resistance for anything they are given a carrot to follow. If you make a mistake, sometimes bringing the servers down - asap, and removing content for a while, is the best option, especially when it's at a level of corpse camping SPAWN points. You cannot afford to sit on it and make platitudes. You need to act, and act fast. Consider Patch 1.1 as a lesson for future reference. Bugs happen, exploits will spring up, stuff will be discovered that you didn't mean to go through. This is fine - games around the world have this, from the lowliest MUD's to the highest budget MMO's. It's how you react to them, that will guarantee your success or failure as an MMO developer. I appreciate that there will be people who buck the trend. Those top end PvP guilds who're Republic, and dominating - but they aren't the majority. And if you're losing subscribers or people are swapping over to be Imperials on masse, you've got a massive problem for the future. This isn't just applicable to the Empire, if the roles were reversed and my main was an Imperial - I'd be saying the same thing. Even if it meant slowing down my own sides progress - to stabilise, not level, but to just sheerly stop the snowballing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorkfrey Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 My 2:1 Estimate was woefully inaccurate - but whatever. These points still stand. And yes - today, I've had many successes in WZ's - probably more wins than losses, due to having mostly full premades joining me, and we all know to play together. However, I don't the Immps do this every time, and I don't believe the Republic do either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockenn Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 i play a sniper and have all those delay issues in warzones too instant casts like my cover knockback takes a 1-2 seconds to activate its supposed to be instant if i hit another ability before it activates it cancelled its a load of bull the pvp is.i end up smaching my keyboard around becase of the delay issues cannot get into any flow using the abilities coz of this. i have cancelled my sub i have a great pc and line connection ill use them on another game i think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorkfrey Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 There is no "dissing" in my response, but from what I've seen on both sides - the mirror inevitably favours the Empire drastically. It's not a PC problem either - but a game engine problem. I can fight, and fight well, to the point that with my current spec I can go 1v1 with almost anyone within my range/gearing, and it'll be a tossup on who's procs work/don't work best. They've messed up in many regards - yes you've got one ability that is "slow" but so is the corresponding Republic one. There's countless more that show that basically Bioware shafted one side over the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumire Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 All the imps have amazing gear so u get owned because they cheated, nuff said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelticfury Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 What do I believe is wrong with the state of PvP currently? Several things I think are drastically out of kilter - Faction imbalance however is the "primary" core of this. So the biggest primary core problem with pvp isn't pvp. you lost my attention right there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorkfrey Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 All the imps have amazing gear so u get owned because they cheated, nuff said. Man, no. I don't believe "all" the Imps have cheated. However - the playing field favours them far too much in terms of balance, yet - people find it easier to troll than to read. Read the whole thing, carefully. I appreciate fully the Ilum **** up, however - that's the tip of the iceberg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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