9999 Seconds of Awesome

[Murdertrane]

I play a Scrapper Scoundrel.

 

Twi'lek race.

 

If you've never played a Twi'lek, you may not be familiar with our racial "parlor dance" ability.

 

When you hit the hotkey for this ability, you begin channeling a seductive dance. The channel bar is 9999 seconds long.

 

The other night, out of boredom, I decided to see if I could do the full dance.

 

I spent most of that time AFK doing work, but i'd tab over to stop myself from logging out every 10-15 minutes.

 

At 1200 seconds left--a mere 20 minutes--I got one of my nightly random crashes to desktop. No error message, no nothing. Just boom, desktop. I was pissed but whatever.

 

A couple nights later I tried it again.

 

This time I wondered what would happen first--a full 9999sec parlor dance channel? Or a warzone pop.

 

You can guess the answer to that.

 

I successfully channeled 9999 seconds worth of parlor dance and never had a WZ pop during the duration. I stayed online for sometime after the dance was complete and still never got a pop. From time to time I checked to see if ANYBODY--level 50 or otherwise--was in a warzone. Nope.

 

That experience put a thought in my head...

 

How in the world can a multi-hundred-million dollar game EVER have a 9999 second (or more) window in which there is absolutely no player vs player combat available?

 

The more I think about it, the more dumbfounding it is.

 

And the more stupid I feel for playing.

[Kracin]

I play a Scrapper Scoundrel.

 

Twi'lek race.

 

If you've never played a Twi'lek, you may not be familiar with our racial "parlor dance" ability.

 

When you hit the hotkey for this ability, you begin channeling a seductive dance. The channel bar is 9999 seconds long.

 

The other night, out of boredom, I decided to see if I could do the full dance.

 

I spent most of that time AFK doing work, but i'd tab over to stop myself from logging out every 10-15 minutes.

 

At 1200 seconds left--a mere 20 minutes--I got one of my nightly random crashes to desktop. No error message, no nothing. Just boom, desktop. I was pissed but whatever.

 

A couple nights later I tried it again.

 

This time I wondered what would happen first--a full 9999sec parlor dance channel? Or a warzone pop.

 

You can guess the answer to that.

 

I successfully channeled 9999 seconds worth of parlor dance and never had a WZ pop during the duration. I stayed online for sometime after the dance was complete and still never got a pop. From time to time I checked to see if ANYBODY--level 50 or otherwise--was in a warzone. Nope.

 

That experience put a thought in my head...

 

How in the world can a multi-hundred-million dollar game EVER have a 9999 second (or more) window in which there is absolutely no player vs player combat available?

 

The more I think about it, the more dumbfounding it is.

 

And the more stupid I feel for playing.

 

 

simple.. bioware answered this question at the guild summit i believe.

 

when asked about server transfers and the lack of players on servers. their "solution" was for the players themselves to abandon their characters, gear, money, time spent and "reroll" onto a different server, because they as a company refused to allow people to transfer their characters to places where they may actually make use of them. as a result.

 

people transfered... to 1 pvp server, 1 pve server, and i think theres a random rp server with a high pop..

 

as a result. now there is only 1 playable server with pvp on it. and that is even starting to dwindle down, and i expect there to be 1/20th the normal population this weekend because of certain events...

 

 

in reality.. the game is going to be F2P in no time at all. and will be another SWG in no time, left to the fanboys and people who refuse to let go because they dropped too much money on a collectors edition of a game that had extremely little to offer at release despite having many different models to look at during production. and is staffed by a crew that thinks it far more important to patch things and screw up more aspects of the game, than fix the known current issues. ie, buffing all WZ damage (when there wasn't a problem with TTK before, besides maybe healing). instead of adding server transfers which would have made millions of people happy.

 

 

 

 

i raise a glass to thee, oh ignorant ones

 

 

^ flourescent lightbulbs are glass right?

[Murdertrane]

If that's the case, we're screwed.

 

Everything I see coming down the pipe so far (from 1.2 on) screams "hey, roll an alt."

 

But I can't stomach the same mindless factory corridors filled with droids, caves filled with humanoids and stagnant kill quests.

 

If the answer is mass alts, I don't like the question.

[Kracin]

If that's the case, we're screwed.

 

Everything I see coming down the pipe so far (from 1.2 on) screams "hey, roll an alt."

 

But I can't stomach the same mindless factory corridors filled with droids, caves filled with humanoids and stagnant kill quests.

 

If the answer is mass alts, I don't like the question.

 

 

yes, this is what i've been telling people.

 

 

bioware/ea knew that their game lacked a viable endgame to sustain masses for more than 2 months at the most if you played "casually" which to them is 2-3 hours a day. hence why the pvp gear grind allowed gear previously, only through daily play as opposed to REAL casual play which is based on hours per week.

 

 

so then they brought in the legacy system, which explicitly gives people who roll more than a couple of characters past the planet Hoth as far as storyline goes, an advantage when it comes to warzones and to operations/flashpoints (which might exclude one certain class which would eliminate a buff given). and a whole system built entirely around alternate characters.

 

this is part of their REAL plan to keep people around which entails getting people to burn time of what most of the development was spent on... PVE and leveling. they paid tons of voice actors X amount of dollars. have scenimatics from start to finish, cutscenes on almost any and every meaningful quest you'll encounter, and even some non. they want people to spend a solid 6 months getting every character possible to 50 to experience it all..

 

 

in reality. people will get tired of the leveling after the second character and if they are a serious altoholic, after the 5th. and it is definately too easy to level in this game to the point where i have opted to skip most of the cutscenes because the questing is the same old thing, regurgitated onto the next class with the difference that the class quest offers a different story. but that is it.

 

 

cliffs = game is based solely on pve/leveling/and re-rolls...endgame was an afterthought, which is why its not so great on pvp and pve ends

Edited April 27, 2012 by Kracin

[Kheg]

Well one thing is certain... IT'S OVER 9000!!!!

[TurokDarkstar]

All good responses, especially those relating specifically to population. Ghost towns scare away new players and encourage veterans to seek out new opportunities elsewhere. All the other complaints mean nothing compared to this. If you have no population, you have no community. Without community, you have no reason other than what the game offer to login. People didn't stick with SWG for so long because of it's gameplay (lolNGE), and after a while it started feeling less like star wars (indiana Jones hats, anyone?)-- the only thing that kept people around were the relationships forged in game.

 

So if we ignore that aspect and concentrate solely on what the game has to offer (PvE and PvP group content without a population and with a huge dull repetition factor), we're looking at a grim future. Every patch note that's written up tells me that the developers are unable to handle a game of this scope, which is a shame, because it's the first theme park game that I've really enjoyed.

Edited April 27, 2012 by TurokDarkstar

[Ntranced]

So let me get this straight, the developers of the game suggested people on dead servers should just re-roll on high population servers at the guild forum?

 

Really?

 

My respect for this game/title/studio falls lower by the day.

[Murdertrane]

Every patch note that's written up tells me that the developers are unable to handle a game of this scope, which is a shame, because it's the first theme park game that I've really enjoyed.

 

See?

 

THAT'S the thing.

 

When the game works, it works great.

 

It's a lot of fun.

 

When PvP queues are popping, it's great. But lately, it's just the same group of Imps over and over. Usually the same 8 because nobody else queues. So if you finish a WZ and miss the next pop, you know you're gonna have to wait until the lone group of Imps finishes their current WZ. I don't know how much clearer we can make the argument that this WILL NOT WORK.

 

I have literally queued in a warzone for 5+ hours and seen no more than 20 different people--my side or theirs--in those 5 hours. That is broken.

 

I absolutely love fighting our opposing Imp team(s). I have great friends on both sides. But when I play 10+ warzones and every single one is against the same combination of 8-10 players--in primetime--there is a fundamental flaw.

 

I've said it before, I'll say it again.

 

I want to love this game.

 

But there is only so much *I* can do to make that happen.

[Zaodon]

Well one thing is certain... IT'S OVER 9000!!!!

 

 

~166 minutes, or ~2.7 hours (2 hrs 35ish minutes or so).

Yeah, the geek in me had to calculate that.....

[Murdertrane]

lol yeah.

 

I did the math but it seemed a little more fun to just go with the seconds.

 

Still, it's a helluva long time to go without a Warzone pop.

[Murdertrane]

A little addition:

 

I was able to do another full 9999 parlor dance today.

 

Still no pop.

 

[Marzinquan]

at what time was this marathon parlor dance performed?

[Murdertrane]

at what time was this marathon parlor dance performed?

 

 

 

It was early morning EST.

 

Between 8:30 and 11 or so.

 

The pops are decent during primetime. But man, those days when my schedule dictates I play mornings are just a black hole of PvP.

[broganthomas]

It was early morning EST.

 

Between 8:30 and 11 or so.

 

The pops are decent during primetime. But man, those days when my schedule dictates I play mornings are just a black hole of PvP.

 

We wont see cross server until 1.3(says bioware), however I bet we get "ranked warzoned" again and it wont be ready in time.

[KrackenOne]

All good responses, especially those relating specifically to population. Ghost towns scare away new players and encourage veterans to seek out new opportunities elsewhere. All the other complaints mean nothing compared to this. If you have no population, you have no community. Without community, you have no reason other than what the game offer to login. People didn't stick with SWG for so long because of it's gameplay (lolNGE), and after a while it started feeling less like star wars (indiana Jones hats, anyone?)-- the only thing that kept people around were the relationships forged in game.

 

So if we ignore that aspect and concentrate solely on what the game has to offer (PvE and PvP group content without a population and with a huge dull repetition factor), we're looking at a grim future. Every patch note that's written up tells me that the developers are unable to handle a game of this scope, which is a shame, because it's the first theme park game that I've really enjoyed.

 

Good post. For me it was the valentines day pink flammin ewoks with wings...was so very annoyed that was done.

 

But yeah, there is no community aspect to this game. Not even good factional "hate". I don't know any IMPs, I dislike more players of the same faction on my server.

 

That is one thing SWG had. Rebels v IMPs, call it RP or whatever, but you knew players "x" were going to be fighting players "y" somewhere every night.

[Elmuerto]

Sublime analogy.

 

Twi'lek, dancing alone... In the Stars.

 

9999 seconds, and beyond.

[Murdertrane]

Sublime analogy.

 

Twi'lek, dancing alone... In the Stars.

 

9999 seconds, and beyond.

 

lol isn't it, though?

[Flemshinn]

My server is the same way. PVP doesn't happen during the week unless its those few prim time hour, even on weekends earlier in the day finding pvp matches can be.....

 

I hate going up against the same handful of empire people that are decked out in war hero junk (I just started pvping when i hit 50, 3 weeks or so ago) while I am in partial BM, i have troubles "bursting" down the war hero "clothies" spec'd as gunnery.

 

IDC about that at the moment, just because PVP in this game is gear dependent, i just hate the fact i face the same handful of people, and how long it takes me to get my wins... must be my lack of skill

[TheMunny]

We wont see cross server until 1.3(says bioware), however I bet we get "ranked warzoned" again and it wont be ready in time.

 

By the time 1.3 rolls out there will be only a few active servers left I am afraid......

[kirorx]

It is Rubat Crystal, that is an RP server so you would expect alot less PvP.

 

Have you tried any other servers? I am curious to know what que times are like on pvp servers

 

I feel your pain though I am on Rubat as well and it really is the same couple of players doing warzones for the most part.

 

I rolled a toon on one of the pvp/rp servers but i vested so much time already into the characters on Rubat I dont really feel like leaving them behind, and of course there is the legacy issue.

 

Maybe one day we can get either cross server que for warzones of server transfers. Till then I guess we are all just stuck

Edited May 1, 2012 by kirorx

[Kasukua]

yea, as fun as it is playing against some of the same people, it's also really, really ZzZzZzZzZz,

 

OH, its the same premade that wins huttball based on class?

 

oh, the same repub team with 5 healers?

 

oh, the same people that won't buy recruit gear?

 

 

thats just it, on a dead server its always the same story, same *********** story over and over, long queue pops, and almost RARELY even pvp matches from the start

[Markisha]

I just unsubbed because of that. My server has 1 wz a day, and im never online at that time. Cya when transfers come.

[jibboo]

Good thread.

 

I'm not feeling very warm and fuzzy about SWTOR's future.

[Smuglebunny]

Let me explain this for you.

 

EMPTY SERVERS SUCK AND FULL SERVERS RULE.

 

Roll on a full server. If you dont want too. Then its YOUR DECISION.

 

If you want to have fun roll on a full server. If not, quit. Basicaly.

 

But never playing again takes alot longer than lvling a new toon.

 

Also your third option is wait for transfer.

 

So roll on a full server, wait for transfer, or quit. 3 choices. I re rolled on a new server and now I love this game.

 

I was also ready to quit. till i re rolled.

 

On "Canderous Ordo" there are WZ every 3 min or less, lots of folks to do flashpoints, and a thriving GTN market.

 

It is the 5th most populated server. For info to select your server go here: http://www.torstatus.net/shards/us/stats

[nToxiK]

They obviously need to make your dance longer. Problem solved.