Changes Coming in Tomorrow's (1/21) Maintenance

[Tolunart]

Just wondering if you guys are taking Presidents day, Valentines day and Flag day off too?

I think the people at my bank are at work more than you guys.

 

Civil rights movement is a big deal in the US. Post office, banks, many govt offices and many private businesses close and school kids get the day off. It's BW's choice to give their staff the day off, not yours.

[DarthDymond]

Just wondering if you guys are taking Presidents day, Valentines day and Flag day off too?

I think the people at my bank are at work more than you guys.

President's Day they almost certainly will be, that's a federal holiday too. Valentine's Day is a Saturday this year, so yeah probably won't be working then either. Oh, and Flag Day's a Sunday.

 

So, in short - Yes, they will be off those days.

[Transcendent]

Start to drive back up? Check your GTN.... they are already back to pre 3.0.2 pricing levels. Managed to grab about 10 stacks of each for about 7500 each item.

 

Gone, fluctuating wildly atm. From 5k this afternoon to 45k, back to 25k.

 

All I can say is this. Forget cheap enhancements / relics / dyes or anything else that uses Midlithes. Anyone with half a brain will buy them at low prices and slowly trickle them into the market at pre slot machine prices of ~40k each.

 

So go buy anything now while the sleepy head crafters still have stuff listed.

Edited January 21, 2015 by Transcendent

[Mercediz]

So since the only reason why I bought acolyte pack was for the slot machine, do I get a refund ? no of course not, Which is BS that I paid real money for something and you change it. so I get F-----.

[PennyAnn]

I disagree. Check out this part of his post explaining one of the reasons for the change:

 

Now for myself, my crew skill use reduced by 99%. From the moment I got a slot machine I kinda sorta stopped running crew missions, other than a small handful of Slicing ones. And I used to run them A LOT.

 

Now, I'm just one person -- but what if others were the same way? What if across the board, use of crew skills dropped by such a large margin, that it was apparent to whoever set the initial drop rates that they made a mistake?

 

Edit: I don't regret my slot machine purchase one bit. I fully expected the returns to be nerfed -- they were just too good. So this past weekend I binge-watched Netflix and right-clicked my mouse to the bone.

 

So my initial investment to purchase the slots has long since been paid back -- I'm a happy camper.

 

So you want to pay a lot more credits for a lot smaller return via crewskills? Congrats, your complaints along with the others who don't like keeping more of their credits has been heard and pandered to by the Devs (again).

[kharathos]

• It had the risk of taking the Grade 11 material costs in the economy, in the long term, to a price below where we would like
  
• It created a situation where it could be more profitable to completely ignore crew skills by use of the Slot Machine
  

 

Congrats to the whining Crafters who made BW believe the economy was doomed despite nothing of the sort. You can go back to price gouging and put this down to a bad dream.

 

A further congrats to BW for buckling to said crafters despite by your own admission that grade 11 mat prices are overpriced but now taking away the very item and drop rates that forced the crafters and mat suppliers to keep their prices at a more reasonable price and which helped those who weren't sitting on tons of credits to augment their gear. Guess I'll have to return to helping guildies on that last point.

 

Pity BW didn't just make the returns on crew skills more appealing but hey, that would take work and wouldn't shut up the whining minority right?

 

Slow clap for one and all.

Edited January 21, 2015 by kharathos

[PennyAnn]

the jawa junk needs to drop really rarely and the mount has to be bound to the player or it will be used by macro'ers to do it 24/7

 

 

also they should put a limit on the machine to stop macroers, like 100 spins per day. this would encourage people to buy more slot machines.

 

Actually no, this would encourage less people to buy slot machines, and spend fewer real dollars on cartel packs to get one. Why would you want one if you are limited and it is a total credit sink with little reward (and you could do better with crew skills)?

[wolfyde]

I like that they are adding more rep items and raised the price. I would have preferred they raised certs as well.

 

I find that to be the most pointless change tbh; even more rep items that become worthless after you've maxed out your reputation, which takes only a couple of stacks to max.

That goes for rep items in Cartel packs as well.

It would be so much more interesting to be able to exchange rep items for something else at an NPC, like Cartel Certs, so they retain some kind of value after you're maxed out.

I do like the idea of the mount, in a three-pineapple-jackpot kinda way

Equally thrilled by the prospect of more slot machines, hopefully visually different!

And lastly, disappointed by the change to JJ, I maintain prices were at undemocratic levels before for baseline 60 gear. A revision and buff to crew skill missions are still needed.

But not going to lose any sleep over it either

Edited January 21, 2015 by wolfyde

[PennyAnn]

there were plenty of posts from players which rolled 500+ coins and analysed the findings. the amount of gain was ridiciulous compared with crew skills.

 

Another person who would rather pay MORE credits for LESS return by using crew skills. If you guys want to part with your credits that badly, you can gladly send them to me anytime. Maybe the lack of return on crew skills is the "ridiculous" part... ever think of that?

[EnkiduNineEight]

Thanks for the update Eric. Thanks as well for adding a mount to the Slot.

 

I still think you would be better served to add other stuff from prior packs/shipments (Never the current pack/shipment) as potential prizes from the slot. While this may diminish slightly the profit from sales of old hypercrates/old packs it does mean you don't have to drag them out from now until the game finally closes its doors as people could use slots to try to fill out their old collections.

 

I hope into the future you still consider this.

 

But I am looking forward to the mount! Yay a true money sink!

[Neglience]

Another person who would rather pay MORE credits for LESS return by using crew skills. If you guys want to part with your credits that badly, you can gladly send them to me anytime. Maybe the lack of return on crew skills is the "ridiculous" part... ever think of that?

 

Thats not the point. The point is to have some things in this game which you have to put some effort into to attain them. And of course i am rather having some kind of "gameplay" than a stupid machine which i can afk farm until my fingers are broken for profit.

Edited January 21, 2015 by Neglience

[Mariojediwookie]

Wasn't speaking of how it is now, was speaking about after patch slot machines.

 

Where does it say they are nerfing the drop rate for certificates?

[PennyAnn]

of course those 20 people are probably good for 2-3 hypercrates per month.

 

The people who buy hypercrates and got/used slot machines were not the ones complaining.

[venomlash]

Slot machine? I'm perfectly fine with the nerf, so long as the Jawa mat drop rate is going 10%->5% and not 10%->1% or something. Make them rare but not stupidly rare.

 

I suppose it would be too much to ask the Devs for numbers on the new rates...ah well, probably going to have to ask my underworld contact about the actual percentages.

[Drockter]

Thanks for the update Eric... can't say I'm thrilled about the drop rate changes...

 

With the effective drop in mat cost due to the slot machine... we saw the possibility of expanding our guildship came back into light (it may have been a way off... but we could see it).

 

With "greatly reducing" the Jawa Junk drop rate... the light has gone out again. Morale took a hit today.

 

Thanks.

[PennyAnn]

Feel free to run crew missions yourself and sell your stuff for your fair price.

 

Yes, feel free to pay more credits for smaller return and then cry if they actually fix it so that mats are not overpriced.

[PennyAnn]

Thats not the point. The point is to have some things in this game which you have to put some effort into to attain them. And of course i am rather having some kind of "gameplay" than a stupid machine which i can afk farm until my fingers are broken for profit.

 

Clicking a button (ONCE) to send out a crew member on a mission that you pay more credits for and get less back from and then LOGGING OFF completely while the crew runs those missions is more effort? Really?

Edited January 21, 2015 by PennyAnn

[Jdavidlol]

Any plan to fix the terrible server lag? Or finally optimize the game engine and fix the UI issues that have tormented the game for god knows how long?

[Neglience]

Clicking a button (ONCE) to send out a crew member on a mission that you pay more credits for and get less back from and then LOGGING OFF completely while the crew runs those missions is more effort? Really?

 

First you have to get the Crew Skill to 500. Then you have to buy crew skill perks. Then you have to grind up reputation on your companions. And if you want to be as effectiv as possible you also need to have the right companions, so you need to level up alts.

 

And when you have all that done, you are at the best starting point to send out your companions. And over time you will get stuff you want/need or make profit.

 

Slot machine on the other hand:

 

Buy the machine, buy XXX tokens, press right mouse buttion over and over again and after a few hours you have more mats gained than the person with crew missions would make in 1 week.

 

Yes this is more effort.

Edited January 21, 2015 by Neglience

[Glower]

This had two effects:

• It had the risk of taking the Grade 11 material costs in the economy, in the long term, to a price below where we would like
  
• It created a situation where it could be more profitable to completely ignore crew skills by use of the Slot Machine
  

 

 

Clearly it was unexpected for Mr. Metrics.

[LordArtemis]

I don't think the forum feedback had any effect, other than bringing it to their attention. I think it is more likely that Bioware did like they said, looked at it overall and decided that long term it was a bad idea.

 

I would also comment that, with the moderate increase in credit price against the increase in rep drops, it is likely you will still be able to use the machine for close to free....and that means, though it will take more time it is likely the machine will still be preferable to crew missions. Just a wild speculation on my part.

 

I would not, however, have adjusted it the way they did. First, I feel the coin cost is too low. Naturally I am fine with what they chose. Aside from that, this is how I would adjusted things.

 

Green junk would have remained as it is. Green mats are very easy to get IMO, so this would have had little impact IMO.

Blue and purple junk would have been drastically reduced, as they intend.

Increasing rep items is fine, but I would have liked to see certs increased as well.

I would have added the rancor, white/white dye, black/black dye as well as the walker to the loot tables, all VERY rare drops. This would have kept the appeal of the machine just as high if not higher than it is now.

 

So....

 

Coin price increased

Green scraps stay the same

Blue and Purple scraps drastically reduced

Rep items increased substantially

Certificates increased

Walker, Rancor, black/black and white/white dye added as very rare drops, all BOL.

 

This, I think would have been the best change for everyone involved. Keep the appeal very high, but still address rare mat concerns AND keep the machine as an effective credit sink.

Edited January 21, 2015 by LordArtemis

[undiess]

Who here wants to be they increased the drop rate of Cartel Rep tokens by too much and did not increase the cost of coins enough, so people will be on the forums crying when slot machine users are making straight up money off the machines?

[Bojaboo]

Hey folks,

 

First, as Tait alluded to we will be having a maintenance tomorrow, on Wednesday the 21st. We didn't have our regular Tuesday maintenance due to the federal holiday here in the states. I wanted to let you know a few of the things coming in tomorrow’s patch:

• Item rarity borders will now show properly
  
• No more getting stuck in Blood Hunt if someone dies to Jos or Valk Beroya
  
• The Underlurker will no longer rush extremely quickly back to his target after leaping
  
• There have been adjustments made to the Contraband Slot Machine (more on this in a second)
  
• There is also one other fix, check the final patch notes for more info
  

Let’s talk about the changes coming to the Contraband Slot Machine. When we were going into 3.0.2, we wanted to make Grade 11 materials more accessible to more players than they were at the time. As you know, we simultaneously put in the Contraband Slot Machine, which afforded you a fairly good chance to get Jawa Junk and other Jawa vendor scrap parts. This had two effects:

• It had the risk of taking the Grade 11 material costs in the economy, in the long term, to a price below where we would like
  
• It created a situation where it could be more profitable to completely ignore crew skills by use of the Slot Machine
  

With those in mind, we decided to make the following changes, which will be live tomorrow:

• The drop rate on all Jawa scraps, has been greatly reduced
  
• The drop rate on Contraband Reputation items, has been increased
  
• To insure that the Slot Machine is still an awesome item to strive for, we have added a faction specific walker mount as a very rare drop
  
• Lastly, we have increased the cost of each Slot Machine coin from 500 to 750 credits. It was always our intent that the coin cost would increase over time as we add more Slot Machines that accept the coin
  

Thanks everyone!

 

-eric

This is typical of the spineless responses I have come to expect form your development team... Crafters QQ in the forums and you cave right in asap. Another victory for the SWTOR TROLL community. I will actually just die of shock if This dev team ever sticks to something they create that was positive instead of Caving in like huge hairy Kitties every time a vocal minority cries.

[Delta_V]

I don't think the forum feedback had any effect, other than bringing it to their attention. I think it is more likely that Bioware did like they said, looked at it overall and decided that long term it was a bad idea.

 

I would also comment that, with the moderate increase in credit price against the increase in rep drops, it is likely you will still be able to use the machine for close to free....and that means, though it will take more time it is likely the machine will still be preferable to crew missions. Just a wild speculation on my part.

 

I would not, however, have adjusted it the way they did. First, I feel the coin cost is too low. Naturally I am fine with what they chose. Aside from that, this is how I would adjusted things.

 

Green junk would have remained as it is. Green mats are very easy to get IMO, so this would have had little impact IMO.

Blue and purple junk would have been drastically reduced, as they intend.

Increasing rep items is fine, but I would have liked to see certs increased as well.

I would have added the rancor, white/white dye, black/black dye as well as the walker to the loot tables, all VERY rare drops. This would have kept the appeal of the machine just as high if not higher than it is now.

 

So....

 

Coin price increased

Green scraps stay the same

Blue and Purple scraps drastically reduced

Rep items increased substantially

Certificates increased

Walker, Rancor, black/black and white/white dye added as very rare drops, all BOL.

 

This, I think would have been the best change for everyone involved. Keep the appeal very high, but still address rare mat concerns AND keep the machine as an effective credit sink.

 

I agree that it had an effect. I really don't think they did the math on the costs. I think they just pulled the numbers out of their *** (they've been known to do that before) and then when people posted on the forums and did the math, they had a collective "Uhhh... oops" moment.

 

I agree with your suggestions, but have a different idea for the rare drops. Instead of so many direct-purchase items, I would pick one desirable direct-purchase item, and the most sought-after items from the given shipment of packs, and made all of them super-rare drops. That same formula could then be applied to each subsequent slot machine, updated for the corresponding shipment.

[Heat-Wave]

That is nothing, going to drop some serious coin tonight, and try to double it. Everytime i see mats gomup a little in price, plan to flood the market. I am going to troll that sh€t.

 

Go ahead... and I'll just buy them all...