Lord_Karsk Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 (edited) Ok first i want to say great podcast. And for the game to have it's own is a really good idee. Also i learned alot from listening to the combat developers. And what i got from them this time was this They dont play their own game in a competetive dualing way. They call the sniper and gunnslinger as a support class and they even talk about the classes as staying back and support fire etc in the new WZ. This is a huge problem we have been talking about all the time when it comes to class unbalance in swtor why mele is king and you will never ever see any range class in arenas or competetive high ranked gameplay. The way you people design the game is great for public fun but nothing more. If you want your classes to be viable you only need to play your own game in the right way. Go to you tube what ever to see all the dualing videos and you will see why your ranged classes is just not good enough and is a disaster for competetive gameplay against mele classes, that only have insta skills and can move arund all they want.Why the ranged have be a stay turret and get interrupted.Plis start playing your game the right way to understand why the combat system have so many flaws. Edited March 31, 2012 by Lord_Karsk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReckonerH Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 These guys sound like they need thicker skin when it comes to receiving criticism. Honestly, the way they describe which forum posts they take seriously and which ones they don't is messed up. They sound like they're playing semantics. Sometimes people phrase their messages awkwardly, or even in a very opinionated way. Instead of not taking these messages seriously, as a professional company they should be competent enough to try and figure out what these people are trying to say. Sometimes people have some great feedback but they have trouble expressing themselves. A good reader/listener though can often times find some brilliant insight underneath all that. If they dont have people reading all the forum feedback who can do this, then maybe they should hire some new people instead. This game has so much potential and it can still be so much better. But everything I hear about upcoming patches/content sounds like theyre content with what theyre doing and seem to be ignoring a lot of the major concerns players seem to be having or underplaying them. World pvp (REAL world pvp. Not artificial world pvp like Ilum), performance issues, immersion issues, etc. Well it's their game and if they think the road theyre taking is their best choice then all the best of luck to them. I sincerely hope it works out. What do I know after all, I'm no developer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaytfoh Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Basically what I took from it was "Post comments and suggestions about class balance/in-game mechanics/bugs etc in the manner and format we want you to or don't expect to be heard". Which to me is a load of crap. Just because it's not written in the exact same way every single time it doesn't make the points that some people make any less valid. I have personally participated in and contributed towards numerous discussions about the tanking pitfalls of Juggernauts and comparing them with the only other tanking classes in the game and have demonstrated multiple times exactly how inferior we are and have yet to see any real input from Bioware. Not to mention Bioware, you guys should really pay attention to sithwarrior.com they have many great posts and posters who are doing an enormous amount of testing and number crunching to try and essentially help you fix your problems and it seems/feels like you just ignore everyone else but yourselves. The main point I would like to make is this: perception is everything. That's all there is to it, it's one of the simplest business concepts and right now the prevailing perception of Bioware is this: "A true customer service lacking, casual player hugging, produces a bug riddled game for which they take no blame and admit no fault in anything released (Soa/Ancient Pylons anyone?) a distant company that pays Customer Service Agents by the number of tickets they respond to rather than the quality of the response given." and I could really go on and on, the point is that it's not the best look ever. And attitudes and perceptions aren't the easiest thing to change. So my fire and brimstone warning is this, 1.2 better live up to the hype and expectations that YOU have set out Bioware or expect your game to fall even further and faster than it already has. Bugs are inevitable, it's how you handle their fixing. If you admit fault, apologize and say you're working on it... trust me you'll engender much more love and support than by just remaining silent. I'll just concentrate on the first sentence there because really this boils down to your attitude towards it (negative and non-constructive - which coincidently is what they are not asking for yet you are giving it and wasting your own time in the process). If you listen again to the podcast they are not saying that "Post comments and suggestions about class balance/in-game mechanics/bugs etc in the manner and format we want you to or don't expect to be heard". They are saying that if you do not post X and Y should be doing Z, they have no frame of reference to address the bug you speak of, it all boils down to articulation of the bug itself and as they say in the podcast they know more than you do about the mechanics of the game so they have to interpret your exact meanings and implications from your assumptions (I say assumption because like they say, there is a difference between maths and the assumptions as those have context, and in your eyes is a negative one). He also did not say they would ignore it, they take every post onboard they just would spend more time on more constructive posts that gives data they can work with to aim them towards the source of the bug. That shouldn't be seen in a negative light if anything they are trying to make sure we are as articulate and as constructive as possible. They need our help and all I read from your post in your own perspectives is "Fix it according to my liking, otherwise you will have a lot of unhappy people". Thats a negative view point which correlates to the exact type of post they CANNOT work with, because you have essentially done nothing here but express exactly that, a negative view point. No offense meant, just my opinion which I believe to be valid in this case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katywills Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 I would like to see the guy come in with coffee and say"I think the inquisitor has to many stuns" Then they would start argueing about it Ok inquisitor fans Time to troll me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loreki Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 I enjoyed it, I really did. I think you've chosen great hosts who command a lot of respect in the community and ask the right questions. One perhaps pessimistic concern: Will the creation of an official podcast make the team less willing to make appearances/give interviews on other podcasts which the community enjoys? I think it would do the community, discussion and crucially the feedback (which it is clear you value) a disservice for the other podcasts to become somewhat secondary sources in comparison to a single official source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnugthreeonefive Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 I enjoyed the podcast. Please try to make it detailed, complicated, hardcore, interesting. Anything too simple and obvious and superficial is fail. Want cool insights I can't figure out on my own! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claymaniac Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 These guys sound like they need thicker skin when it comes to receiving criticism. Honestly, the way they describe which forum posts they take seriously and which ones they don't is messed up. They sound like they're playing semantics. Sometimes people phrase their messages awkwardly, or even in a very opinionated way. Instead of not taking these messages seriously, as a professional company they should be competent enough to try and figure out what these people are trying to say. Sometimes people have some great feedback but they have trouble expressing themselves. A good reader/listener though can often times find some brilliant insight underneath all that. If they dont have people reading all the forum feedback who can do this, then maybe they should hire some new people instead. This game has so much potential and it can still be so much better. But everything I hear about upcoming patches/content sounds like theyre content with what theyre doing and seem to be ignoring a lot of the major concerns players seem to be having or underplaying them. World pvp (REAL world pvp. Not artificial world pvp like Ilum), performance issues, immersion issues, etc. Well it's their game and if they think the road theyre taking is their best choice then all the best of luck to them. I sincerely hope it works out. What do I know after all, I'm no developer. Actually, what they said is pretty spot on. People need to give feedback better. Its easy to just say hire people to sift through comments, but its not realistic. People assume a ton of stuff and post it as fact and when you do that, its hard to take the rest of the post that seriously. Heck, your post is the perfect example. Your exact quote is "But everything I hear about upcoming patches/content sounds like theyre content with what theyre doing and seem to be ignoring a lot of the major concerns players seem to be having or underplaying them. World pvp (REAL world pvp. Not artificial world pvp like Ilum), performance issues, immersion issues, etc.". All 3 of those issues have been specifically addressed. The Game Director is asking people to tweet him personally for feedback on world pvp. The PvP forum has a poll up and a feedback thread asking for ideas. We've been told that there is a dedicated team focused just on optimizing the game. The people on the PTS are already reporting better performance in 1.2. I believe one of the QA's(maybe guild summit) mentioned that they are working on adding stuff to the world to make it feel more life like. Stephen Reid has said on a number of occassions that live events will start soon after 1.2. When they are sifting through thousands of posts, I'm sure its not easy to separate the constructive stuff in a post from the non constructive stuff. When you say stuff like "They are ignoring so and so" when they clearly are not, the natural reaction will be, move on from this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fargond Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 its always great to hear from the dev's with their points of view in a relaxed setting. Keep up the good work guys. i'd lso like to ask can't you change the pod cast into a video cast? love watching people talk rather than listening, though it was still awsome. thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThemisBlackheart Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 I would really like it if they asked them about they're reasons for doing to Mercs what they are doing. Some of it makes sense but the rest just.. not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baerik Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 I'll just concentrate on the first sentence there because really this boils down to your attitude towards it (negative and non-constructive - which coincidently is what they are not asking for yet you are giving it and wasting your own time in the process). If you listen again to the podcast they are not saying that "Post comments and suggestions about class balance/in-game mechanics/bugs etc in the manner and format we want you to or don't expect to be heard". They are saying that if you do not post X and Y should be doing Z, they have no frame of reference to address the bug you speak of, it all boils down to articulation of the bug itself and as they say in the podcast they know more than you do about the mechanics of the game so they have to interpret your exact meanings and implications from your assumptions (I say assumption because like they say, there is a difference between maths and the assumptions as those have context, and in your eyes is a negative one). He also did not say they would ignore it, they take every post onboard they just would spend more time on more constructive posts that gives data they can work with to aim them towards the source of the bug. That shouldn't be seen in a negative light if anything they are trying to make sure we are as articulate and as constructive as possible. They need our help and all I read from your post in your own perspectives is "Fix it according to my liking, otherwise you will have a lot of unhappy people". Thats a negative view point which correlates to the exact type of post they CANNOT work with, because you have essentially done nothing here but express exactly that, a negative view point. No offense meant, just my opinion which I believe to be valid in this case. None taken, but try this on for size... I have vehemently posted these 2 things: Post #1) Presently don't have an assassin to compare with, but the discrepancy between Juggernaut tanks and Powertech tanks in terms of damage dealt/threat generated and overall mitigation is just straight up ridiculous. The Powertechs, if specced correctly and have their 4 piece, of even just Tionese gear, get: 5% mitigation from Ion Gas Clyinder, 2% from their 4 piece, 2% from "Ion Screen" talent and 2% from the "Power Armor" Talent for a grand total of 11% full on mitigation. Combine that with their talent "Combust" which lowers the damage dealt to them by their attacker by 4% we now arrive at a 15% total. Ion gas cylinder provides a 60% increase in their armor total, however they also have a talent to increase their armor by a further 16%. Furthermore, the Ion Gas Cylinder provides a 15% passive chance for their shield to proc, and then they have 2 talents which increase their shield chance by a total of 12% for a combined total of 27%. They also have the talent "Ablative Upgrades" which increases their absorbtion total by 6%. Juggernauts, however, do not have the same myriad of tools We get 6% reduced damage for being in Soresu and our Dark blood talent increases our Elemental and Internal damage reduction by 4%. So even if we do a fight that is just Elemental and Internal damage the most we get in pure reduction is 10% vs 15%. Jugg 4 piece increases the active shield we get from Force scream by 20% (20% of a low number, is still a pretty low number) considering the tooltip merely says "a moderate amount of damage" it's hard to give specifics but I've seen hits of about 2.5-3k go fully absorbed. We receive no armor bonus beyond Soresu putting us 16% behind Powertechs, and we gain 4% shield chance due to talents plus the passive 15% putting us 8% behind Powertechs on passive shield chance. Juggs also do not possess a talent to increase their absorbtion amount. We do receive a 6% passive defense and 6% active defense increase upon using retaliation, but since defense is a chance, whereas Damage reduction is guaranteed the two just really don't compare. Now before anyone else posts and gets all uppity about how Jugg threat is fine... consider this, We pulled a champion mob, I was the only one attacking for the first 30 seconds, and then our Powertech started in, within 20-25 seconds of him starting his attack he had pulled threat... sorry but that is absolutely imbalanced and needs a fix. Juggs have 1 ability with +threat on a minute. Post #2) I just put in now a combined 3 tickets regarding a single issue, other guildmates put in a similar ticket about that issue, for a grand total of 11 tickets and the severe lack of service was extremely unimpressive and exceedingly angering on Bioware's part. #1 Not everything can be solved by simply going and reading patch notes, I'm sick of getting that as a response. #2 You can't begin to tell me or anyone else who is experiencing a genuine bug that it is working as intended, unless you in fact intended to create a buggy game... but then you shouldn't be claiming that your game is good to go... let alone releasing it. Ancient Pylons still remain bugged, sure there are work arounds, but even those aren't guaranteed and everyone has a different one. Some say let North solve first, others say South, we're getting puzzles with portions already solved etc etc. Last night my guild and I went for our Infernal run (we've been having a rough go of it with people quitting, having to recruit and regear all over again otherwise we'd've had it a long time ago) and during Ancient Pylons the consoles randomly stopped functioning and didn't allow us to rotate them in either direction. I wrote a ticket regarding this matter, Ticket #4660825 in which I describe the bug that occurred forcing us to reset the instance in order to get functionality back, thus ripping us off from getting our title reward. (We went on to finish all of Operation: The Eternity Vault in 1 hour, 45 minutes and 51 seconds and received no title, no codex entry for completing Soa on Nightmare mode, nothing). This ticket wasn't responded to, it is (on client side) closed with no information from Bioware about anything. The other ticket I put in, Ticket # 4661317, was handled in an even worse manner. Again client side, all of the information in the ticket was wiped clean. The ticket is just a hollow shell, with no answer at all from Bioware. So I opened up my final ticket regarding the matter and here is an exact quote from the Customer Service Agent, "In addition with the other ticket (4660825), please take note that we have investigated the error you reported, and have confirmed with our specialist team that in fact this is not a bug, and is working as designed." -Quoted from Protocol Droid X0-A2 (aka Jozen Eli). The other ticket (4661317) has been forwarded to bug report people, but I'll receive no information and I should watch Patch notes for potential changes or statements about said issue. So one of a couple things, either your so called "specialist" team is indeed really "special" and figures vital parts of fights stopping their functionality as being working, or there was no real investigation and it's just easier to push us off instead of admit a mistake and try to rectify the situation, or it is indeed truly designed as such making the patch notes regarding the matter factitious. I am of course referencing Patch notes for 1.15 on 3/6/2012 which clearly states "an issue that could cause buttons to stop responding during the Ancient Pylons encounter has been fixed". To me, it's a simple fix. If Bioware can check Metrics to see who was spawn camping in Ilum and punish them, then use the same process and check our times in Nightmare Mode Eternity Vault and if we beat it in under 2 hours, which we did... then give us our rightly earned title, and the appropriate codex entries. Should be fairly simple. And have yet to receive any... and I mean ANY acknowledgement or post of any kind from Bioware regarding these issues. Both provide numbers and logically thought out feedback and yet absolutely no recognition on any aspect of it. So no, no offense taken but don't assume that because I complain about their apparent continuation of flippant remarks about the kinds of posts they plan on answering that I have no clue what I'm talking about or that I haven't already attempted to provide constructive feedback and basically been flipped off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowwarrior Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Really cool, loved it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealtrogg Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 nice podcast....cant wait till the next episode! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekkamansoul Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Very cool, thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narfirill Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 (edited) Have any of you guys just walked in the room in the morning and say that marksman snipers have a problem? if not please .....pleaaaaseeeee do it and then play it read some player forums and do something about it. please! edit: by the way i hope that sniping positions are not that far away ... coze you just sent as solo with the invisible classes camping us at this spots and the rest of the crowd just avoiding those positions because they are some snipers there that its hard to reach them. Edited March 31, 2012 by Narfirill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaalkingdom Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 OUTSTANDING! It was truly great to hear Musco and Brooks back on a podcast. What better way to share "inside" information with the community than to have them in an official BioWare podcast. As a fellow podcaster, I am excited to see this official podcast fill a niche that the rest of us can't touch. LOVED it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musezy Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 I'm really disappointed. Just more typical PR spin and fluff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruntvigs Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Great podcast info. Is it possible to make a PvE zone that is like pvp but not combat related but Enviroment related....or on RP servers a RP zone were you RP stuff instead of combat. Just an idea I'm throwing out there so others have ideas to expand on what to do....but it would greatly enhance the game to offer this addition as game play Variety? I started to dislike pvp in Wow after Arena's came out as it was so boring fighting the same way all the time. Now I don't even pvp in this game but one time...the new open zone looks like I might try that as I dislike closed spaces anyways. Keep the changes and improvements coming and this will be the best MMO ever...stop that and it will go the route of Wow....I mean pandas?...really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verraton Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Q&A at the end of the podcast would go a long way. Just my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogoo Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Official podcast = AVOID at all cost. We need an objective discussion about SWTOR, not some PR babble, and a fake, virtual world where everything is fine and dandy (like BW wants us to believe) and that it's the best game in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReckonerH Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 (edited) All 3 of those issues have been specifically addressed. The Game Director is asking people to tweet him personally for feedback on world pvp. The PvP forum has a poll up and a feedback thread asking for ideas. We've been told that there is a dedicated team focused just on optimizing the game. The people on the PTS are already reporting better performance in 1.2. I believe one of the QA's(maybe guild summit) mentioned that they are working on adding stuff to the world to make it feel more life like. Stephen Reid has said on a number of occassions that live events will start soon after 1.2. They've been claiming to listen to player feedback like this for years now, asking for tweets and whatnot, and it's been shown over and over they dont actually listen to anyone. One look at the state of pvp in this game is proof enough of this. Why should this time be any different? As for their performance fix, I did read about it. Their idea of a fix is to make setting sliders go even lower. So even though the problem is on their end we still have to play the game at an even more uglier setting than we already do. Thats not a viable fix. And I stand by what I said about their nit picking posts based on semantics and mannerism. Edited April 1, 2012 by ReckonerH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brickabrack Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 (edited) Good podcast. Isn't one host from Mos Eisly radio and the other from TOROcast? Good stuff, they were both voices I missed. Now we just need Torwars and Correlian Run mixed in and we've got the mega-ultra offical podcast of nerdy doom. The only thing tainting this is the fact that it's official, so the assumption is that they can't be as free with their opinions as they were able to be when they were fan run. Which while sad, still does not take away the quality of the podcast. So, good job! Looking forward to future installments. Edited April 1, 2012 by Brickabrack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yaesive Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 I have to agree this was an excellent podcast and "I" (sorry could not resist) am glad to hear of some of the changes coming. While exploits are not intended or ideal for usage, at times some individuals I am sure do not understand the harm or the scope of the exploit that is being resolved. As an example the discussion of the Sage ability of healing and how that exploit both hinders the game and how the fix will address it without intentionally making the sage character undesirable to play are aspects that need to be expanded and discussed a bit more. Remember some people have level 50 toon's and others level 10 thus a bit of detail around the scope of the change might go further to enlighten the community more. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bealias Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Loved the podcast guys. Thanks heaps for keeping us updated! Keep them coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Typheran Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 .... Class balancing by dueling..... Sooooo.. Whoever plays your assassin either has a non-hybrid build or is just bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vadess Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Any chance of this showing up on iTunes? I find it easier to keep track of podcasts that way. Agreed. I love the idea of a podcast. I looked on iTunes and I can't find it. Hopefully they'll add it soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts