Frequently Asked PvP Questions

[Jadescythe]

That boils it down well. They are trying to balance the game for 3 different things, arenas, warzones, and pve, and its failing miserably.

 

Balance doesn't matter if there is no one to play against. Ranked will never matter until you have cross server. So ranked will never matter per this post.

[cashogy_reborn]

http://i.imgur.com/nwwT2XQ.png

[Primarch_PWnD]

It's so amazingly sad that they just don't get it.

 

You didn't tell us that those things "may happen in the future". You told us why the devs don't think those things SHOULD happen, and gave their reasons. That stuff isn't in the plan because they don't want it in the plan, not because of resources or whatever else the second post is implying.

 

We keep telling you that this notion you have that "PvPers are happy so long as there is someone to kill." is just plain wrong.

 

That's not how it is. You can brag about adding all Arenas in the world, but there's more to making them, and PvP for that matter, functional AND appealing.

 

"The gear progression is integral to the MMO PvP experience?" Yeah, because that really made people want to PvP......Remember what happened to queue times when you announced the Rewards? Still no lesson learned......

 

Also, calling the grind a "progression" is shameless. And It's artificial........not integral to anything.

[brutall]

this sucks i was hoping for bigger Warzone maps like 16vs16 or cross server

[Rynis]

[Maudril]

I think that both points #1 and #2 can be addressed with a gear check. When the player clicks "queue solo" an expertise check is made. If the player does not have 2018 expertise, a popup message appears instructing the player to check their mailbox for their recruit gear set and to equip it. The player cannot enter a queue without 2018 expertise.

 

Not only do I think that bolster should be removed from ranked, but I also think that it should also be removed from regular 55. You can ensure that a new 55 player still has a decent pvp experience by giving them a starter "recruit" set, which can have the stats of e.g. partisan gear currently or conqueror gear (when 2.7 hits). So, a new 55 would be given a tier 3 pvp gear set and then work towards a tier 2 set and eventually tier1. Every time that a new set of gear is released (e.g. brutalizer gear for 2.7), the former tier 2 gear (e.g. conqueror gear) becomes tier 3 and is either mailed to people, available for purchase at a very low cost, or otherwise somehow given to players. Also, when a new tier comes out, the previous tier 3 loses its expertise (to ensure that somebody doesn't queue with gear that is behind the times).

 

From there, it's just a matter of controlling the stat differences between the three gear tiers to ensure that there is not an overwhelming advantage for having tier 1 gear over tier 2 or 3, but still enough of a difference to encourage the acquisition of better gear. No more messy situations with bolster in 55. No more PVE 78s getting massacred due to them having low expertise. No more 46 mainhands, etc.

 

Furthermore, I think that giving everybody a pvp gear set helps with open world situations. PVE players can put on their pvp set, get max expertise, and have a fighting chance.

 

I think that bolster is excellent sub 55. I wouldn't change a thing there.

 

Anyway, thank you very much for this post. Even though most of the answers are "no", it's nice to at least know that you guys are thinking about these things.

 

I actually like the idea of recruit gear, I came in at 2.1 so I did not experience that. Recruit gear was unmoddable? Bad idea, I would be loath to wear such as set I did not like. I like them sending it in the mail or something. I would love it if it was the Partisan set (I like the shells for the Inquisitor, Agent, Bounty Hunter, and Knight), moddable too so I can put it in my look if I wanted to.

 

Consider that again, bioware, I like recruit gear system and gear check as opposed to bolster.

 

The rest of it... :/

[Capt_Beers]

sub canceled

 

Linked to the OP in reason for unsubbing

[Dage]

 

LOL, my exact reaction

[NoFishing]

In order to understand pvp, you need to pvp.

 

Not really true. I haven't really PvP'd in a long time, and even then I didn't consider myself a PvP'er. But I can easily understand how ground PvP has been allowed to atrophy to the point of needing some major efforts and overhauls to revive.

[Neoforcer]

Awesome that you're happy. Though to the players who have stuck with this game (whom only PvP) and to get answers to every question in either a "no plans" "not on our road map" "significant challenges" you cant blame people for being a tad upset...especially since most of us already knew that one of the biggest issues when it comes to them not being able to tackle issues is population and the one system which will fix this is never going to be implemented.

 

I have stuck with this game and i am a founder who only pvp for 2 years i not blaming people what i am saying is you all are making a mountain out of a mole hill . Population they have server transfers available to you to change your situation. But you all wanted to roll pvp server while the pve server pop is still fine hell my server has 4 version of fleet and que pops ever 2 min but hey let complain more. IT been helping for 2 year right.

[johnnyreece]

While I'd love to agree with you, the ridiculously active solo ranked on our server on Monday would have been even more painful if bolster wasn't implemented. It's just that there's a couple key differences between the NiM ops and Ranked.

The first is that progression PvE doesn't rely on other teams doing the same content, in general a server could only have 8 people in one raid team and those 8 people would be content, whereas population is much more highly valued in PvP. Making it more inclusive to people who actually know how to make gear bolster is a nice thing.

 

The second is that you can choose not to take a person along with your for a raid, but we, unfortunately, cannot stop people who either are horrible and/or have horrible gear from queuing for ranked. As much as I wanted to, I had no way from stopping the 27k hp/1.5k exp sent, 24k hp/1.2 exp vig guardian in shii-cho form, the 25k hp/1.2k slinger, or the 40k hp/900 exp mando from queuing. Even though they were all so horrible that no team with them won a match, they would have been even worse if they weren't bolstered.

 

Fair enough. I have two thoughts on this:

 

1.) If they weren't bolstered, and immediately melted, would that discourage them enough from queuing without gear?

 

2.) What about instituting an expertise-check?

 

Of course, if I play against you, I think you should always get the folks you mentioned.

 

I somewhat disagree about making it more inclusive. I think, for the most part, the people who are in ranked for the long haul already gear properly for PvP. What bolster does is create loopholes that later get closed, but people who are super "smart" don't realize it's closed. For example, I saw a regstar equip empty shells. Used to work; not so much now. So, rather than optimize, people look for the next (dare I say) exploit. Remove bolster, and you know what your stats are when you queue.

 

On a side note, can we all chill out on our reactions? I know it's not what most people wanted to hear, but at least we heard something. Eric's creating a dialogue. Personally, I'd rather he not regret it. Do we REALLY want to go back to when we got zero dev posts? Bad news is better than no news.

[DarthMaulUK]

Population they have server transfers available to you to change your situation.

 

Why should players have to fork out 1800 cc for something the devs are either too lazy or too stupid too address?

[Jherad]

You just dont get it Musco.

 

-4v4 Arena came at *THE REMOVAL OF 8v8 RANKED*.

-The new huttball map has been in the works for how long now? IIRC you guys teased this shortly after 2.0, right?

-Solo Queue needs to go away forever and never be spoken about again. It is the worst thing to happen to competitive PvP and overall PvP balance to this game to date.

 

And you might think you are saying 'Not at this time' instead of 'NO', but there are about to be a lot more options for MMO players. One would think you would be aware of that, and what features those games are offering that this one is not, and maybe do something to make your game equally appealing?

 

'Not at this time' might as well be never for many people.

 

Pretty much this. Balance issues aside, if the game were rolled back to 2.0 that would actually be a step FORWARD. PvP has been on a death-spiral since the introduction of arenas and removal of 8v8 ranked, intensified by the resultant population drop.

 

That they see the list of 'new features' as a net positive is.... well not surprising actually given past experience, but sad.

 

SURE things might improve in a year. But two MMOs are being released in the next few months... Why on earth would I wait? For player housing? LOL.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Jherad

[cycao]

I have stuck with this game and i am a founder who only pvp for 2 years i not blaming people what i am saying is you all are making a mountain out of a mole hill . Population they have server transfers available to you to change your situation. But you all wanted to roll pvp server while the pve server pop is still fine hell my server has 4 version of fleet and que pops ever 2 min but hey let complain more. IT been helping for 2 year right.

 

Then you're a PvE ******* on a PvE server so your argument is invalid.

Edited March 20, 2014 by cycao

[Jadescythe]

I have stuck with this game and i am a founder who only pvp for 2 years i not blaming people what i am saying is you all are making a mountain out of a mole hill . Population they have server transfers available to you to change your situation. But you all wanted to roll pvp server while the pve server pop is still fine hell my server has 4 version of fleet and que pops ever 2 min but hey let complain more. IT been helping for 2 year right.

 

FYI, we get reg pops constantly. What they want is RANKED pops.

[Jyzai]

Hey folks!

 

I thought I might pop in and add some clarification around some of what we said, and why.

 

Our first goal in this post was quite simple, transparency. We completely understand the frustration around quite a few of our answers. We know that some folks want to see the return of Ranked 8v8 Warzones or that they feel cross-server queues will help in some of their current frustrations. I thought it was really important that we took those issues and gave you guys direct answers. It isn't that we don't want to do these things, or even that they will never happen. It is just that they are not something that will be happening in the near-term.

 

When I talk about roadmaps specifically, you should keep in mind I am referring to the next X amount of months, weeks, etc. and it certainly does not mean forever. As someone pointed out, there are quite a few things that have moved from wall of crazy to being in the game.

 

We will always continue to add new content around PvP whenever possible and to continue to create the best PvP environment that we can. If you look back, in the past 3 Game Updates (including 2.7) we had:

• The launch of Warzone Arenas
  
• The ability to solo queue for ranked play
  
• Season 1 rewards
  
• 4 new Warzone Arena maps
  
• A new Huttball map
  

 

I know that this is not everything that everyone wants. To reiterate, we aren't saying "no" to your questions, we are simply just saying "not at this time." I know it may not seem that way, but these two things are different. I know many of your are frustrated and I hope this adds a little bit of clarity to where we are coming from.

 

-eric

 

Don`t know if a higher up told you to make this post or you did this on your own freewill to prove a point to said higher up about the disappointment and/or frustration the pvp community feels from EA. Personally I hope your trying to prove a point to get the ball rolling in the right direction for what the community wants that could fix the problems in pvp and in turn the game.

 

But sadly this is all just to little to late.

[Costello]

While it is not the community teams choice about what the road map will look like and its easy to forget that it does appear either the desires of the community are not being relayed or they are being ignored.

 

If you take a look at an MMO that is being released soon that is offering massive open world PvP, sieges and the option to become an emperor over 4v4 mini games or hutt ball there is a clear difference in epic pvp vs dumbed down mini game.

 

PvP in every form is being relegated to a meaningless aspect of the TOR experience. Take a look at WAR and the RvR battles of capturing keeps PvP had an effect on the game world. SWG with Restuss and battling for control of the city. In TOR it would be hard to tell if there was any PvP or who was winning etc. PvP matches are in a vacuum.

 

So adding more Arenas or Hutt Ball doesn't help this and keeps PvP relegated to the side line. Just have to look at GSF and despite getting mention in the new tactical flashpoints but it has no effect. It doesn't even offer the chance to get reputation with the new factions. The big reward of requisitions can only be spent on GSF ships and offer nothing outside of the warzones. Making it very clear on what an intergrated part of TOR GSF is.

 

PvP needs to be brought into the game not a separate mini game that plays no role outside of the map its fought on and over as soon as the counter hits 0 or one side wins.

[Clogski]

I really am disappointed with BW on this one.

 

I feel this games will die in pvp within the next few months, heck it has already lost a ton of players just because of these answers. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for pvpers? Or will it always be a "no" to pvpers even though players want to see it happen (cross server queues will solve a lot of the population problems you brought up.)

 

Also if its said that cross server queues is not planned, then come back around and say "well I meant it's not in the plans at this time but in the future maybe." Then you said in the live stream that there is no intention to bring 8v8s back but when I've had guildies open tickets requesting 8s to return the responses they got back: "We are planning for it to come back soon". Why can't we just get a straight answer without beating around the bush?

 

Can pvpers actually get as much content updates as pvers? It's tiresome seeing "New Operation!" and looking at the pvp notes just to see little bug fixes. One new map every year just is not enough. 8v8 ranked was removed. Content should never be removed, period. As a matter of fact 8s ranked was actually "fixed" with the removal of respec in warzones which prevented teams from turtling all game.

 

Also the top 5% getting rewards is pointless without cross server queues. It makes sense for top 5% per server, but not overall. Why should Team Z on server A share the same top 5% as Team X on server B when they have never faced each other at all? They both played different teams on their roads up the lader.

 

Will pvpers actually get some love for once?

~

[cashogy_reborn]

If you are disappointed, cancel your sub. Post a screenshot here so they can see the direct result of their incompetence.

[Kerensk]

I really appreciate that they finally put some answers out there in stone so people can move on (and complain about other things).

 

But I'd like to hear what ideas there are for trying to bring the ranked PvP population up. I don't think I'm the only one who never plays because I can play 2-3 unranked matches in the time it takes for a ranked game to pop.

 

Can we have ranked matches count towards our unranked PvP daily?

Possibly get better pPvP rewards so our "income" is comparable to PvE players?

 

And if not could you implement the ranked system on unranked matches and just keep the ranking hidden from the players so reg warzones have some skill balance?

[Ybini]

Will we ever be able to choose a specific Warzone to queue for?

 

From the design side, we do like the idea of allowing our players to be able to impact which Warzone they want to queue for, but it is not as simple as letting everyone select which Warzone they want and call it a day. Because of a few reasons (queue population, preventing ‘de facto’ best Warzone, making sure all Warzones are being played, etc.) it would require a fully-fledged design around that new queuing system in order to make sure the system was sustainable (in queue times, etc.). There are no current plans for the near future to implement this feature.

 

This one is amusing because the very side effect you're worried about already happens. People bail on hypergate and huttball all the time. Why not make it official and spare your server and their machine the extra time wasted?

[Savej]

Thanks for the answers and info, EM. I didn't know that crashes were causing the 3v4 issue but it makes sense.

 

For my part, my biggest issue with those listed is with bolster - it is still "painfully" broken and wzs/arenas are often dominated by those who max it out vs those that don't know about it or who assume it works or are buying conqueror sets. It is impossible to quickly explain in wzs that are just starting to the guy that just announced he's buying his first obroan mainhand why he should hang onto his comms...

Edited March 20, 2014 by Savej

[aeterno]

I'm mostly surprised there's still so many die hard pvp players around in the first place to quit now lol.

[Twin]

I'm mostly surprised there's still so many die hard pvp players around in the first place to quit now lol.

 

I even surprise myself on a daily basis tbh. But on the other hand im just biding my time waiting, since there is a serious lack of decent games without Fairy-infestation in them =/

[kamikrazy]

Hey folks!

 

I thought I might pop in and add some clarification around some of what we said, and why.

 

Our first goal in this post was quite simple, transparency. We completely understand the frustration around quite a few of our answers. We know that some folks want to see the return of Ranked 8v8 Warzones or that they feel cross-server queues will help in some of their current frustrations. I thought it was really important that we took those issues and gave you guys direct answers. It isn't that we don't want to do these things, or even that they will never happen. It is just that they are not something that will be happening in the near-term.

 

When I talk about roadmaps specifically, you should keep in mind I am referring to the next X amount of months, weeks, etc. and it certainly does not mean forever. As someone pointed out, there are quite a few things that have moved from wall of crazy to being in the game.

 

I know that this is not everything that everyone wants. To reiterate, we aren't saying "no" to your questions, we are simply just saying "not at this time." I know it may not seem that way, but these two things are different. I know many of your are frustrated and I hope this adds a little bit of clarity to where we are coming from.

 

-eric

 

...and in response, I think quite a few players are giving BW a transparent and direct answer in the form of canceling their subs. Maybe if/when BW can figure out how to commit to their playerbase, we can have confidence in committing to BW.

 

Finally, I know no means no, but I'm pretty sure not at this time also means no. But give it a shot, see if it holds up in a court of law.