Yesterday I got irritated, so I rolled a fatty and....

[WickedImage]

WOW....what a different experience that was while playing. The game hasn't felt like that in many, many months. I had a very good time. I once again "sort of" viewed the game through rose colored glasses, so to speak. I will be rolling another fatty very soon.

A real life friend and I have played since beta/launch, and for the last 2 months have been coming up with more reasons to unsub than to stay subbed. We've grown increasingly unhappy with our SWTOR with each month it gains in age, and are quickly running out of reasons to join another guild that ends up leaving our servers or the game entirely.. This should not be the case so early in SWTOR's life cycle.

There are a few things we "specifically" attribute this to. One of those specific things is a lack of players on....not one, not 2, but 3 of the servers we reside on. Shadowtown, Terentatek, and Darth Malak. None of them have breached light load in months.....huh? But...but, but the game is only "months" old? Right? Seriously irritates me.......

Oh and btw the TLDR version? Yea...no, there isn't one, feel free to stop here cuz I didn't make one.....ummm, my bad?

 

So anyways, I decided to listen to some fellow TOR goers and roll up a toon on The Fatman. This was an eye opening experience. I had forgotten how much more alive the game feels when it actually has.....*drumroll*.....people!

The Fatman had people everywhere. It was truly like going back in time to when the game launched(well it felt like that anyways). I was actually talking to people in chat for goodness sake. Hutta had almost as many people in it than my entire server did. I decided to reroll my favorite class so far, and rolled an Imperial Agent Operative.

I was on Malak waiting for my WZ to pop for the third time last night....and it just never did. I waited almost an hour before I got pissed off and came over to The Fatman. Part of me regrets rerolling there. It has ruined my view of my other servers. As soon as I log in, melancholy sets in and I yearn for the Fat one, in all his gluttony. I I just want to wallow in his Fatness and all his Fat (re)rolls.

So yeah, lack of populations on what.....100 of the servers? This is a problem that perpetuates itself. The lower the populations on servers, the less content folks will become. Hence leading to them quitting the game and further lowering their own servers populations.

Another thing hurting this game is....more "generalized" in nature. Without sounding like I'm blanketing too much of the game, although I kind of am, the game as a whole has alot of.....flat out, "irritating" baggage/nuances/whatever you wanna call them.

I know I am not allowed to call the community irritating, as that is not allowed or some such? Well it's true, this is one of the most irritating communities I've participated with and have found that I too find myself contributing to being irritating much more often than I normally am, somehow sucked into it.....

The PvP forums have almost zero instructional value. Almost zero "community" value. Almost zero of many of the things it shold be. Instead it is loaded with QQ about this, that, of the other. Unfortunately a tremendous amount of the QQ is kind of valid in many aspects. Again, Irritating.

Where can I go for PvP info and avoid all the complaining about the game? All the negative energy on the boards is quite irritating in that, I don't want to frequent the forums too much due to the negative atmosphere of it poo-pooing the game all the time. If someone calls something a turd enough times, guess what? Eventually it will be viewed as a turd. Especially when ever so rarely does someone from development team respond to the community concerns. This is terribly irritating too. Not enough feedback on the negative and too much blowing sunshine with things that aren't as big of concerns, if a concern at all. This is very irritating to those who want answers and not diversions. Like specific answers. The community is quite intelligent and understands/can process/HELP YOU with a LOT more than you may give them credit for. Give us the real information/reasons for things and those that understand you will generally bend over backwards defending you and you postion when you are not tending to the forums. This already occurs when the information is available. They/We/I got your back when you tell them/us/me the truth consistently. Even when you put your foot in your mouth with things like the "teams of stun locking operatives" post. In fact on me, it worked to your advantage. When i started hearing that concealment was becoming the consensus "worst" to take, I rolled one. It's my current favorite to PvP with, which is why I rolled another yesterday on The Fatman. Sorry...I'll get back on topic.

Irritating was it? Yes, irritating is what I was rambling about. Since we are back on "irritating" lets talk about some more things I find "irritating" and please chime in with your own lists if you choose to post.

There are MANY QoL things that are truly irritating to players and REALLY would go a long way. Like "targeting". It is not good as it is, and I am trying to be kind. It is part of the actual "mechanics" of the game. That needs to be addressed now, before you continue tinkering with balance. Unbalanced gameplay is for sure irritating but if I cannot even target things appropriately? How long do you think it takes someone to become irritated by that? You can be 15 feet away, but a few meters above the "plane" I'm on and the system will not target you. Why? Thia QoL could go a long way with players and for all you know, a better targeting system might "rock the boat" badly on any balance changes you make now? Am I reaching? Maybe....maybe not. We simply don't know because 6 months in, it's still wonky and irritating as heck.

War Zone "team selection" mechanics need to be adjusted. The code seriously needs to quit with the "Two teams, chosen by random draw" thing. It's super irritating to launch a WZ without both sides having equal players. It's super irritating to launch a WZ without both sides having relatively equal skill. Couldn't you at least use a simple ELO rating system for the time being? Maybe just a couple 2 or 3 modifiers for it? And for those of you who want to blame the community for this imbalance, please don't. It's the developers job to make our experiences smooth, not ours. The mechanics of choosing team compositions could be changed to minimize the players affect on the launch. For example: Players who want to join a WZ should Q up and be placed on a list that all Q'd players can see. 60 seconds before launching each of the next 16 players about to be cued for battle are given a confirmation they must accept within 30 seconds. If not accepted the battle simply doesn't launch and all players that did accept the confirmation invite are sent a message to let them know why the WZ is not starting. Simple.

Could this go on for quite some time? Why yes, it could on low pop servers, however I think we are all in agreement that this is already HUGE issue that needs addressing asap and transfers are at least a start, although imo the wrong thing to do. I think server mergers are a better way to go, but hey, what do I know I'm not a developer of SWTOR so I don't know their reasoning for going with transfers over merging. Money?

If they have stated it somewhere, I would love a link if someone has time?

So back to irritating, eh?

I'm gonna backtrack a little here on the "negative energy" comments I made above and say that, it is irritating how censor happy the moderators are on these forums. Stifling your players only irritates them. I'm not saying let them cuss and threaten bodily harm to each other but sheesh! I have had/heard some really silly things removed and promptly followed by a mod email in the last 6 months. Only to go back to the thread and see other, imo MUCH worse, statements/comments made by others left unchecked? Lack of consistency is irritating to players too btw. Instead of stifling the negative, educate us MORE about why things are the way they are and why things MUST be they way they must be and stop closing threads and redirecting people to bloated threads that "somewhat" cover what the poster was discussing. Let them make their own thread, who cares? If it's uninspired

and lacks information it will quickly die and fall off the boards due to inactivity anyways right? So please, stop doing irritating things to your player base. If the thread is "really" redundant and crappy, it will quickly die without a moderators interference. It irritates your peeps, yo.

Okay, I have to bail on this thread now with one parting comment which will garner some lawls, some neener-neener, some ridicule, some familiar sympathies.

Please don't delete my negatively inspired thread. I am sicker than a dog, married with 8 3/4 months pregnant wife, father of a 16 and 2.5 year old.....and this thread took me the better part of today to type out because of these things. Yes I know....pathetic

Anyways, feel free to chime in, but my two biggest concerns are low populations and irritations abound that are contributing to players leaving. What are your biggest concerns?

[Ibiza-Vin]

For all the normal people....TL;DR:

 

1. I rerolled an alt on the fatman and it's *********** amazing. More people on a server actually make the game more fun for the players. BW should merge servers so all their customers can experience this sensation.

 

2. The forums, especially the PvP forums, blow dick. No useful information, endless crying, and an all around **** OFF to new players coming here for advice.

 

3. Fix targeting, pls.

 

4. Fix uneven teams, pls. This would be fixed with mergers but since EA wants money, the devs will be going with transfers instead.

 

5. Stop being overly strict on the forums. If a thread is redundant it will fall off soon anyway.

 

6. I am a nice person.

[JMESUN]

i bet that was a serious fatty

[WickedImage]

For all the normal people....TL;DR:

 

1. I rerolled an alt on the fatman and it's *********** amazing. More people on a server actually make the game more fun for the players. BW should merge servers so all their customers can experience this sensation.

 

2. The forums, especially the PvP forums, blow dick. No useful information, endless crying, and an all around **** OFF to new players coming here for advice.

 

3. Fix targeting, pls.

 

4. Fix uneven teams, pls. This would be fixed with mergers but since EA wants money, the devs will be going with transfers instead.

 

5. Stop being overly strict on the forums. If a thread is redundant it will fall off soon anyway.

 

6. I am a nice person.

 

Sounds about right except my wife strongly disagrees with your #6 right now....

[Mirthadrond]

i bet that was a serious fatty

 

No doubt about that.

 

 

Nice paraphrase there Ibiza-Vin.

[TexasJediKnight]

Copy and paste it into a Word doc so you dont lose it.