An Open Letter to BioWare: Improving the Overall State of SWTOR.

[Kalolo]

/signed

/support

Edited September 26, 2013 by Kalolo

[Maerassarth]

/signed

 

Very well written btw OP

[Lyriel]

Not signed, though I have taken your poll .

 

I did not sign it because it is not representative of my ideas of how best to go about improving the game. It is very PvP-centric, and that is not content in which I am interested at all. Please note that I am not saying PvP doesn't deserve attention - it absolutely does, and I do support people who enjoy it presenting well-thought-out, constructive posts on the topic. There are several suggestions here that seem good, and I wish you luck in getting this feedback acted on by Bioware/EA. However, I can't sign a petition that purports that PvP is the focus of the game or present it as the highest desire of its entire community. It doesn't speak for me, or many of the people with whom I play on a regular basis.

[Crawelc]

This thread is far to friendly, I could not possibly recommend our facebook page to these people. Way to go guys.

[Djstingable]

/signed

 

Hope we get a yellow post on this thread soon.

[gluefoot]

The following are changes that we wish to see:

 

• [*]Regarding Difficulty: Adjust the difficulty levels for each Operation. Story Mode SHOULD be able to be completed with the proper gear of any level. Hard Mode SHOULD be significantly harder—not just a tiny bit—and you should not be able to complete Hard Mode until you are 80–90% in whatever tier gear that is dropped in Hard Mode. Nightmare Mode SHOULD be significantly harder than Hard Mode and should be near impossible to complete without almost full top tier gear. This will make things more challenging for those who enjoy PvE and they will clear and get tired of content as quickly.

[*]

 

I would like to oppose this part, if you would allow me. I think that requiring having mostly 72's for HM (for the raids present at the current time, anyhow) is too much for a couple reasons.

 

1. It creates much more grinding outside of HM raiding, which should be the main event

 

2. People spend less time getting gear in HM.

 

It essentially shortens the life of HM raids as they stand. If you're trying to get new gear (and in the process min-max, what comes in the sets is not exactly balanced stat wise), it takes several weeks to get even a couple of pieces of 72 gear, even with maximum playtime. The only way that's possible on a realistic level is to devote a ton of time to SWTOR. It would pretty much have to be the only other focus in your life besides what you do to live (work, eat, sleep, bio breaks). And 80% is a lot. You've got several pieces to mod out if you want to get to that goal. These include:

 

-Head

-Chestpiece

-Gloves

-Belt

-Pants

-Boots

-Mainhand

-Offhand

-Bracers

 

Now even if you got those all to 72's, you still wouldn't have a set bonus (which might be necessary for some, hint hint). Even with all of that that's still 9/14 pieces of Verpine gear. That's not even 65%. Still got 15% to go. Well if you want the rest of the pieces needed to break that magical 80% mark you'd need three more pieces still. So you'd need any combination of three of the remaining implants/earpiece/relics. Let's say you want the best stats on them, because anything short wouldn't cut it. I know that the Verpine implants/earpieces have no optimised stat combos for DPS troopers. Nto by a long shot. Well just get the optimized ones crafted right? Simple enough. Unless you're not Biochem, Cybertech, or Artifice, or someone in your guild doesn't have the schematics. In this case you've got high demand and only a handful of people who can make them. And then when new raids come out? No one is able to get in because they can't break that 80% mark without not being min-maxed. And min-maxing helps a lot, let me tell you from experience.

 

Also it costs ~100 Ultimate comms per 3 72 mods. Can I make that estimate? I think it's fair. Well then that's ~33 ultimate comms per mod. Well, assuming you do everything you can to max out all of your ultimate comms in a week. 200. You can get 6 72 mods from that. That's two pieces. Great. Now next week you can grind two more, and go on with that for about a month. Again, this includes getting all SM raids cleared on 16 man (including TC) and all the joys that come with that, and completing every weekly. You've got to be very dedicated to do that. So, that grind lasts for five or so weeks and you sitll haven't gotten there yet. Well, now time to get stuff crafted. Under current market conditions implants and earpieces and relics go for about 1.2 mil, and that's being generous. Well, if you do every daily area every day, that'll yield about 600k and take about 2.5 hours per day. Okay, not a bad playtime/payout ratio. Well, do that for another ten days and you've got your 80%! That's assuming market prices don't change and the implants are available. So that's two months of prep per person and about 3 hours of playtime a day to get ready in about a month and a half.

 

A month and a half for three hours of HM raid. And that's not even top tier.

That's why I oppose this petition.

[mmjarec]

I actually prefer the other petition because it is more pvp friendly. Once you get bored with pve yu will wish pvp wasnt broken. I know all i can do after raiding is look at the gtn once yu finish progression there is nothing to do thats why ppl quit because there is always a brickwall at the end of pve that pvp doesnt have. I really dont care about the wording what i do care about is getting the most for ALL players cuz if you give bioware any room to back out of something they will always take the easy road as their track record is proof. No going the extra mile

[TUXs]

TL;DR /Signed. Now let's not muck it up.. give it time to grow and provide results.

/faint

 

And GREAT post!!! /signed!

[Rafaman]

OPs et. al. responsible for this petition,

 

I swear... and maybe I need to stop playing this game because I'm taking it too seriously, but this petition, this version of it, nearly brought a tear to my eye. Seriously. It is the first time in quite a while that the opposing factions have put aside their zeal to be the opposing factions and have created something worthwhile. Something worth talking about. Thanks for the work and most notably realizing that in order to have something substantive that can be brought to BW changes needed to be made.

 

Andryah,

 

Thank you. Your post in this thread demonstrating your commitment to the cause is great to see because quite frankly you take a lot of abuse from those who have been more than critical of the game, and that abuse has not tainted your optimism and reason. Reason won out this time.

 

As for the rest of us, we can quibble about the details, but this is a good petition. We should present it as a good faith effort to improve the game. We can argue about the details, but I think it is well worth signing in its current form to get the process started.

 

Now... lets all go out on the roof and sing "Let It Be."

 

/signed

/support

Edited September 26, 2013 by Rafaman

[metalfenix]

I like this petition a lot more than the other, without silly ultimatums (I'm not going to unsub any soon) and actually very specific. True, most of the changes are pvp, but unlike the other thread, I don't think you would be mad if an actual carebear signed the petition.

 

Even though, there are aspects that need to be addressed in class balances regarding PvE too, like shadow/sins and their spikey damage as tanks, or the poor AoE healing of mandos/mercs in ops (compared to the other healing classes).

 

So,

 

/signed

[SenaZane]

I not once said "complete with min maxing". To be honest SWTOR also needs some work on itemization as well with ALL their gear (both PVP and PVE). I don't think it should be fully itemized from the get go but some pieces are like "What were they thinking?"

 

You can outright purchase anything that isn't the very top tier for PVE (apart from the armorings with the set bonuses, you can buy same statted armorings however). So it takes significantly less time to min max in that tier which will allow you to clear any of the current content. I only had min maxed arkanian level stuff (most of the mods and enhancements came from the 55 flashpoints) with some verpine and cleared all the content. As much as I love my guild, we are ultra casual and far from the level of the competitive PVE guilds, but we still were able to clear the new content fairly easily Without min maxed verpine.

Edited September 26, 2013 by SenaZane

[theUndead]

OPs et. al. responsible for this petition,

 

I swear... and maybe I need to stop playing this game because I'm taking it too seriously, but this petition, this version of it, nearly brought a tear to my eye. Seriously. It is the first time in quite a while that the opposing factions have put aside their zeal to be the opposing factions and have created something worthwhile. Something worth talking about. Thanks for the work and most notably realizing that in order to have something substantive that can be brought to BW changes needed to be made.

 

Andryah,

 

Thank you. Your post in this thread demonstrating your commitment to the cause is great to see because quite frankly you take a lot of abuse from those who have been more than critical of the game, and that abuse has not tainted your optimism and reason. Reason won out this time.

 

As for the rest of us, we can quibble about the details, but this is a good petition. We should present it as a good faith effort to improve the game. We can argue about the details, but I think it is well worth signing in its current form to get the process started.

 

Now... lets all go out on the roof and sing "Let It Be."

 

/signed

/support

/ect.

 

This so much. Very well said.

[HoloTweed]

Update

 

Everyone, you can now rank each topic from top (highest being the best topic, in your opinion) to bottom (lowest being the worst topic, in your opinion).

 

Here is link! I hope you like the addition of this newest poll. Took me a while to find it.

 

 

I want to offer my appreciation for your hard work and effort in putting this together; you have really demonstrated that the core of your petition is a desire to improve the game, and by taking out the deadlines you have turned this into something that not only more players can get behind, but that the Devs can read and even comment on. There was no way they were going to respond to ultimatums.

 

I know you just revised your polls but I might suggest a different approach. I don't think you should be having votes on which is the most to least important, but rather a sign of how much EACH is important to the voter. It's unfair to your points to have them ranked against each other instead of each getting something like a 1 to 10 vote.

 

Also, if I my suggest: it is wisest to not argue with your former comrade about this. You made the right choice, and his comments here already have disrupted your new initiative. If he truly was concerned about the game then he would have supported this petition in the way he said we should have all supported the last one. Since he's not getting his way, he's not supporting you and that's a shame, but very telling.

 

Good luck with this new version and again, fine work here.

[mmjarec]

Bioware will likely ignore it like everything else unless we keep bumping it. Even at that im not jolding my breath. If they do hopefully it will not be a dodge. Ill try to be optimistic

[Sphinxen]

/sign

[Holyexecutor]

/sign

[Tersch]

/signed

/supported

[ImperialSun]

Firstly I'd like to thank all those involved in this rewrite for not only their effort but also for listening to the feedback from other posters and being able to find some middle ground in terms of presentation

 

The revised wording and presentation of this open letter is a drastic improvement over the original IMO!!

 

I've got a couple of errands to run this morning so I will be giving it a thorough read through later...but based on what I've read I will also be completing the polls and signing the petition

 

Driz

Edited September 26, 2013 by ImperialSun

[Michalrajtar]

Great work on this petition!

 

/signed

[lmogsy]

Good post OP. I think the game is in a good state right now, but these are areas that need work (although I only pvp so I can't comment on the pve or test server sections). Whilst there is no chance of me unsubbing, I must say that right now, for me, the only thing on this list that severely affects the q.o.l in-game for me is lag and fps issues, so /supported.

[Reno_Tarshil]

Very good rewrite. My main concern was the forum moderation portion which in the other petition, I felt was attacking individuals, where as the portion in this petition is more neutral makes a more broad stroke about it.

 

I agree with all points and as such.

 

/signed

 

Good Job.

[mmjarec]

I have a feeling unless theres some kind of repurcussion from not answering they wont. They have no reason to answer. Player concerns havent been enough in the last unless they were cornered

[SenaZane]

I have a feeling unless theres some kind of repurcussion from not answering they wont. They have no reason to answer. Player concerns havent been enough in the last unless they were cornered

 

I think if either of these threads don't get at the VERY LEAST a response, Bioware presents themselves in poor image. Not replying will just add to the frustrations of every disgruntled person and possibly lead to negative results, which can't be good for business. With numbers dwindling, one would think that the last thing the devs would want is a poor image. Sure, there may be only a minority who will see their apathy towards the matter if they don't respond, but bored people talk to each other and there are a lot of bored people around the game lately. Responding will at the very least show that they have taken the time to read it and take away from those negative results.

 

I don't pretend to know about business. That isn't my area of expertise, however this is how I see things based upon a basic knowledge of it.

[mmjarec]

I think if either of these threads don't get at the VERY LEAST a response, Bioware presents themselves in poor image. Not replying will just add to the frustrations of every disgruntled person and possibly lead to negative results, which can't be good for business. With numbers dwindling, one would think that the last thing the devs would want is a poor image. Sure, there may be only a minority who will see their apathy towards the matter if they don't respond, but bored people talk to each other and there are a lot of bored people around the game lately. Responding will at the very least show that they have taken the time to read it and take away from those negative results.

 

I don't pretend to know about business. That isn't my area of expertise, however this is how I see things based upon a basic knowledge of it.

 

Ufortunately negative consequences hasnt stopped them in the past. Hopefully they try to do more than milk a dying cow

[SenaZane]

It certainly has it but with each update... The subscriber/user base spikes up then drops lower than it was previously it seems. You would think that with new games out/coming out SWTOR would make an effort to hold its player base so it doesn't stray, not ignore people who legitimately care about the future of the game and WANT it to succeed.