Since the game is dying

[Malox]

When I first started playing, this game had over 50 servers that had a que to get in at most times (hated those days thank you preorder). Now we are down to 6 or so (NA) servers (8 for NA...had to count rather than glance).

 

One would think that since BW pretty much placed their entire intellectual integrity (which isn't much since they sold out to EA) that they would not make the same mistakes over and over and over. Yet we have GSF that exhibits the same problems as PVP did when it was first brought out.

 

Again we don't have brackets. Again we don't have separate ques for solo players to play against other solo players. Again we don't have separate ques for group players so they can only play with group players due to the unfair advantage they pose to solo players.

 

For a game that was boasted as having the most subs in a month to later become a running joke in gaming communities, one would think BW would actually want to do right by their game and implement things right the first time.

Edited March 12, 2014 by Malox

[Verain]

When I first started playing, this game had over 50 servers that had a que to get in at most times (hated those days thank you preorder). Now we are down to 6 or so (NA) servers.

 

Warhammer Online also had many many servers when new. Even WoW had more. New games have more servers- not a shock!

 

One would think that since BW pretty much placed their entire intellectual integrity (which isn't much since they sold out to EA)

 

When it starts like this, you know it's gonna be unbiased.

 

Again we don't have brackets. Again we don't have separate ques for solo players to play against other solo players. Again we don't have separate ques for group players so they can only play with group players due to the unfair advantage they pose to solo players.

 

You'll continue to "again" those things as long as they need to be true. Many servers are lucky to have two simul GSF games, and often have one or even zero. So no, you don't get "brackets". Brackets is just code for "please stop letting players better than me play against me". You don't get that, because what you want is for me to never get a queue pop, because I play more than you. Screw that.

 

Unfair advantage? GROUP UP DUDE. You weren't born a solo player. It's not a birth group. It's not your race. You don't hail from the Tribal Jungles of Solo Queue. Play the game.

 

For a game that was boasted as having the most subs in a month

 

This game has never had more subs than wow, so I doubt they boasted that for any month.

 

to later become a running joke in gaming communities

 

Why are you subbed to a "running joke"? While SWTOR definitely has some downsides, it's popular and successful.

 

one would think BW would actually want to do right by their game and implement things right the first time.

 

Which is code for "people who queue GSF in groups shouldn't be allowed to, because I can't be arsed to speak to another player at any time or else I will break my silent Loner Ninja Elite Code".

 

 

Boo hoo. Get farmed.

[Verain]

PS: This game does need cross server queues. But that's a lot to ask of Bioware- it's not a trivial thing for them. Cross server queues would allow the matchmaking to be more effective.

 

 

But they don't have that.

[Malox]

Warhammer Online also had many many servers when new. Even WoW had more. New games have more servers- not a shock!

 

 

 

When it starts like this, you know it's gonna be unbiased.

 

 

 

You'll continue to "again" those things as long as they need to be true. Many servers are lucky to have two simul GSF games, and often have one or even zero. So no, you don't get "brackets". Brackets is just code for "please stop letting players better than me play against me". You don't get that, because what you want is for me to never get a queue pop, because I play more than you. Screw that.

 

Unfair advantage? GROUP UP DUDE. You weren't born a solo player. It's not a birth group. It's not your race. You don't hail from the Tribal Jungles of Solo Queue. Play the game.

 

 

 

This game has never had more subs than wow, so I doubt they boasted that for any month.

 

 

 

Why are you subbed to a "running joke"? While SWTOR definitely has some downsides, it's popular and successful.

 

 

 

Which is code for "people who queue GSF in groups shouldn't be allowed to, because I can't be arsed to speak to another player at any time or else I will break my silent Loner Ninja Elite Code".

 

 

Boo hoo. Get farmed.

 

Warhammer flopped pretty quickly as well. Wow has less servers than it did two years ago but they continue to have more servers than they started with if memory serves correctly.

 

And to point out, the same issue arose before brackets were implemented in normal PVP. If brackets were implimented they would allow for newer players to go against newer players instead of running into the same issue that PVP suffered from. Why do you think bolster was implemented?

 

And requiring someone to group up to do even remotely well is poor game design as if you have played any games that like to try to push the group mentality, a lot of people push back (warframe is having that issue as well for instance).

 

And if you were around the first month of game release like me, you would remember the press release from BW and EA saying they made history by having the most subs/games sold in a month upon release....and a month later people left in droves (for numerous reasons).

 

SWG was successful (till SOE signaled its death knell) Lineage was successful, Eve online was successful. Wow was successful. Ultima online was successful. How many server merges have we had in two years?

 

And I don't think group ques are bad, it is just a huge advantage to them as is most likely they are on a voice server that allows for greater coordination than is normally present in solo que. If your team is able to go 50-0 or 0-50 in a match on a consistent basis, you find yourself with less players because they get discouraged specially since requisition is not easy to come by if you are on the side that scored 0 the entire match. If that is happening consistently then there is a problem as players won't play it. Or am I imagining all the hate threads for GSF in this forum?

[Malox]

PS: This game does need cross server queues. But that's a lot to ask of Bioware- it's not a trivial thing for them. Cross server queues would allow the matchmaking to be more effective.

 

 

But they don't have that.

 

yes cross server would help things quite a bit but BW never was good at planning ahead when they first make something. Would def spice things up with different people because to be honest if I am running with a group I don't like seeing the same people because crushing them several games in a row till you stop seeing their names gets a little disheartening. Or I am playing solo due to my guild not being on, seeing the same names over and over and over. I have seen it from both sides and something needs to be done.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Malox

[The_Raven_Lord]

The simple fact of the matter is that, putting separate queues would effectively kill off GSF on many servers.

 

The real problems with GSF are:

 

-Faction imbalance (No real solution to this other than cross server queues, which is difficult to do.)

 

-Ion Rail Guns are too powerful.

 

-Bomber Drones and Mines ignore obstacles to their targets. In some cases, they can even be placed inside of objects.

 

-Burst Laser Cannons do too much damage.

 

-Lack of rewards to give incentive for more people to play.

 

 

On the last part, incentives could be like:

 

-Lock boxes bought with excess ship req.

I have literally every single component maxed out on my favorite fighter. So being able to buy stuff like credit cases, or roll boxes with items would be great!

 

-Award valor for completing GSF games. Or perhaps a new bar to fill up?

People like this sort of thing.

 

-Vanity Items

People like to collect these sorts of stuff. Wouldn't mind a pet Sabotage Probe, new flight suits, new paint jobs and colors, more shiny looking components for the fighters. Whatever.

 

-Character progression

It gives decent amount of XP and credits. Maybe it could also reward crafting schematics, leveling gear, legacy gear. Maybe legacy fighters to help your alts out with GSF.

Edited March 11, 2014 by The_Raven_Lord

[Malox]

The simple fact of the matter is that, putting separate queues would effectively kill off GSF on many servers.

 

The real problems with GSF are:

 

-Faction imbalance (No real solution to this other than cross server queues, which is difficult to do.)

 

-Ion Rail Guns are too powerful.

 

-Bomber Drones and Mines ignore obstacles to their targets. In some cases, they can even be placed inside of objects.

 

-Burst Laser Cannons do too much damage.

 

-Lack of rewards to give incentive for more people to play.

 

 

On the last part, incentives could be like:

 

-Lock boxes bought with excess ship req.

I have literally every single component maxed out on my favorite fighter. So being able to buy stuff like credit cases, roll boxes with items.

 

-Award valor for completing GSF games. Or perhaps a new bar to fill up?

People like this sort of thing.

 

-Vanity Items

People like to collect these sorts of stuff. Wouldn't mind a Pet sabotage probe, new flight suits, new paint jobs and colors, more shiny looking components for the fighters. Whatever.

 

-Character progression

It gives decent amount of XP and credits. Maybe it could also reward crafting schematics, leveling gear, legacy gear. Maybe legacy fighters to help your alts out with GSF.

 

One thing I wish they had done is actually tie the different game types together but not make playing them a requirement. PVP in this game has always been an afterthought for BW and continues to be so. I like your ideas as they tie things together with other game modes. Ion rail guns are more for bombers due to high shields (granted the slow from it def comes in handy when going solo and scouts get to the back line (me)).

 

Another thing to add to your list of things that are wrong with GSF is the capital ships...spawn camping is def not ok. I have done it and thought it was funny the first time.....the next ten times it gets boring. If I am hovering over a capital ship that is not my faction I should be getting shot at.....not playing pattycake with it while I blow up people respawning.

[Altheran]

-Award valor for completing GSF games. Or perhaps a new bar to fill up?

People like this sort of thing.

 

-Vanity Items

People like to collect these sorts of stuff. Wouldn't mind a pet Sabotage Probe, new flight suits, new paint jobs and colors, more shiny looking components for the fighters. Whatever.

 

-Character progression

It gives decent amount of XP and credits. Maybe it could also reward crafting schematics, leveling gear, legacy gear. Maybe legacy fighters to help your alts out with GSF.

Reputation or Piloting levels with sets of decored military uniform/pilot suits. The number of visible military distinction would increase with level required for the said set. (Legend-level or whatever rank set would have more medals and distinctions on the torso than a Hero-level or whatever lower rank)

Edited March 11, 2014 by Altheran

[Buggleslor]

Came here to provide countervailing voice to the constant mewling of "bioware you suck," saw constructive criticism, pleasantly surprised.

 

On the last part, incentives could be like:

 

-Lock boxes bought with excess ship req.

I have literally every single component maxed out on my favorite fighter. So being able to buy stuff like credit cases, or roll boxes with items would be great!

 

-Award valor for completing GSF games. Or perhaps a new bar to fill up?

People like this sort of thing.

 

-Vanity Items

People like to collect these sorts of stuff. Wouldn't mind a pet Sabotage Probe, new flight suits, new paint jobs and colors, more shiny looking components for the fighters. Whatever.

 

-Character progression

It gives decent amount of XP and credits. Maybe it could also reward crafting schematics, leveling gear, legacy gear. Maybe legacy fighters to help your alts out with GSF.

 

Reputation or Piloting levels with sets of decored military uniform/pilot suits. The number of visible military distinction would increase with level required for the said set. (Legend-level or whatever rank set would have more medals and distinctions on the torso than a Hero-level or whatever lower rank)

 

I love every one of these ideas. It would be really nice to have something beyond titles to show in the ground game for the amount of time you've invested in blowing up spaceships. The starwarsfox 64 space missions unlock a set of adaptable gear and a mount, shouldn't GSF have something similar? It would have the impact also of increasing the ranks of new players who stick with it, since they'll have an incentive to push through the first few games of getting repeatedly splattered immediately. (It will also swell the ranks of people who don't care and feel that they're just dying over and over to grind for the mount or whatever, but hopefully they'll have fun in spite of themselves).

Edited March 11, 2014 by Buggleslor

[silvershadows]

Warhammer flopped pretty quickly as well. Wow has less servers than it did two years ago but they continue to have more servers than they started with if memory serves correctly.

 

Actually, Warhammer Online was only JUST shut down on December 18th, 2013. So, yeah.

[okiobe]

I think this game is alive and well unless of course you're talking about the Harbinger hamster. There have been a few discussions about its deteriorating health.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=724080

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=680743&page=1

Edited March 11, 2014 by okiobe

[ToMyMa]

The game isn't dying.

/thread

[Mallorik]

PS: This game does need cross server queues. But that's a lot to ask of Bioware- it's not a trivial thing for them. Cross server queues would allow the matchmaking to be more effective.

 

 

But they don't have that.

People who don't want separate solo and group ques are the same losers who hang out on tatooine with their 55's so they can gank lowbies, because that is all they can gank.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Mallorik

[MisterBlackJack]

The game isn't dying.

/thread

 

This For all the talk about the game dying it's still the 2nd or 3rd biggest MMO in the west (That's subs not evening talking about F2P)

[Applejacxs]

swtor is not dying.....gsf theres some debate to that. Anyways good suggestions everyone.

[Malox]

The game isn't dying.

/thread

 

I'm speaking in terms of GSF...when you tend to start seeing only the same players match after match after match....tends to raise a few eyebrows.

 

and in terms of overall game health....from where this game was two years ago...yeah.....its def become quite decrepit. Not to mention they have cut staff to this game and I know that from one of my clanmates that works at EA.

Edited March 12, 2014 by Malox

[ToMyMa]

I'm speaking in terms of GSF...when you tend to start seeing only the same players match after match after match....tends to raise a few eyebrows.

 

and in terms of overall game health....from where this game was two years ago...yeah.....its def become quite decrepit. Not to mention they have cut staff to this game and I know that from one of my clanmates that works at EA.

 

Well, GSF is healthy on ToFN, at least. Even though the majority probably are preferreds or f2ps, the pops are still going.

[MystbladeWA]

I think this game is alive and well unless of course you're talking about the Harbinger hamster. There have been a few discussions about its deteriorating health.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=724080

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=680743&page=1

 

I am consistently seeing new players in Harbringer GSF. Of course there are regulars, of which I am one (within Oceanic Timezone), but I still come across new and capable names.

[Llama-Eight]

People who don't want separate solo and group ques are the same losers who hang out on tatooine with their 55's so they can gank lowbies, because that is all they can gank.

 

Or maybe they're concerned about increased queue times perhaps? I'd be surprised if anyone disagreed about separate queues as long as the queue times were kept short (by cross server queues, or whatever).

[Malox]

Or maybe they're concerned about increased queue times perhaps? I'd be surprised if anyone disagreed about separate queues as long as the queue times were kept short (by cross server queues, or whatever).

 

Que times would be shortened by cross server implementation but then we run into the same problem of having no brackets.

 

One way they could implement brackets is when you que up you choose the ship you want to use and that dictates which bracket you move into depending on how many upgrades are on that ship.

 

Most of us end up choosing to upgrade offense and defense first and then utility which allows us to pubstomp new players. Sorry but this is the first iteration ground pvp for swtor part dues. Same issues that happened there that caused people to get angry there (then we got the bolster system that ticked off the guilds that liked little competition).

 

I understand this system is new and is still in the works.....but don't halfass a publish....I mean yes I am aware that is what BW has done from day one but holy hell man....

[Itkovian]

I'm speaking in terms of GSF...when you tend to start seeing only the same players match after match after match....tends to raise a few eyebrows.

 

and in terms of overall game health....from where this game was two years ago...yeah.....its def become quite decrepit. Not to mention they have cut staff to this game and I know that from one of my clanmates that works at EA.

 

Plenty of players on Ebon Hawk GSF, we've got a good community, and I continuously see new good pilots emerge.

 

Beyond that, if you're claiming the game s decrepit compared to what it was 2 years ago, then you've lost any credibility you may have had. The game has evolved a lot since its creation, with plenty of new content added... like a fully functional game with GSF, for example.

 

To me at least, GSF confirmed TOR as the best MMO I've played, and it has everything I look for in one package. It's a very exciting time to be a player, if you ask me.

[Malox]

Plenty of players on Ebon Hawk GSF, we've got a good community, and I continuously see new good pilots emerge.

 

Beyond that, if you're claiming the game s decrepit compared to what it was 2 years ago, then you've lost any credibility you may have had. The game has evolved a lot since its creation, with plenty of new content added... like a fully functional game with GSF, for example.

 

To me at least, GSF confirmed TOR as the best MMO I've played, and it has everything I look for in one package. It's a very exciting time to be a player, if you ask me.

 

Yes quite a bit has changed since the game came out and I was a preorder. Lets go over the history of why I mean the game has become decrepit.

 

- At launch was lauded for selling over a million copies (there was a press release to this..google it).

- A month later players starting leaving in droves (unfished game product at that time, thank you EA, if you had only waiting 6 months)

- Legacy system at that time was laughable even when it came out fully in march of that year

- Severs started becoming ghost towns and players wanted server transfer abilitties

- Server merges were first to come prior to server transfer

- Free to play came out due to falling sub numbers

- Subs still get more bang for their buck than being free to play (so not really free to play if you have to pay more then subs to get teh same experience)

- PVP was stagnant when it first came out (stun locks.....wave at IA/smuggler) which has gotten better spec after bolster came out granted still has people abusing the system which comes back to how blind the BW staff are to their own game

- We get money sink items more often than more thought out story lines (spend less time on cartel packs and more time on game experience....items don't bring depth to the game...they are vanity and the shiny wears off quickly).

- somewhere in there we got another server merge but was gone 6 months so happened in that time

- we have a half baked addon game that again doesn't add much depth to the game as it is the same thing over and over....BW if you want an idea of how to add depth to teh game via space content look at SWG jump to lightspeed. I know many of you played it so with the tech today you could actually make it better...yet we get this......crap. Yes it is fun but grinding it over and over and over and it will get boring fast specially when you go 0-50 matches or go 50-0 matches on a regular basis.

 

Oh and don't forget bugs that have been in since launch....but i guess those cartel packs take priority:rolleyes:

Edited March 12, 2014 by Malox

[LegoUniverseBC]

Sorry, didn't know you wanted 50 servers so you can be on a dead server.

With 8 NA servers and 10 Europe servers which most of them are always Standard or Heavy the game is far from dead and is growing.

[Malox]

Sorry, didn't know you wanted 50 servers so you can be on a dead server.

With 8 NA servers and 10 Europe servers which most of them are always Standard or Heavy the game is far from dead and is growing.

 

funny thing....those 50 servers used to be full.....now we are down to 8 on NA side where only one last night at peak time said heavy and the rest said standard....thats depressing

[LegoUniverseBC]

funny thing....those 50 servers used to be full.....now we are down to 8 on NA side where only one last night at peak time said heavy and the rest said standard....thats depressing

 

I've been playing since launch and I NEVER remember a time when all 50 were full.