The Downside To Double XP

[JamieKirby]

Run a few dailies for comms smartly pants.

 

Why would my max level characters be doing dailies for basic commendations, that character has no use for them...at all.....the leveling characters do and the double xp ruins the balance between leveling and gaining commendations.

 

The only way to get a good amount of commendations on a leveling character is to do the daily flashpoints and tactical flashpoint, but mostly, if not all the time, the queue time is 30+ minutes, then there is a likely chance the group will be full of morons.....which take the fun out of the game and treat it like a job.

 

This is why i try to minimize my flashpoint completion while leveling, because they just ruin the fun of doing them by treating it like another job that NEEDS to be done perfectly 100% of the time.

 

Hell, i would be happy if i could buy basic commendations for cartel coins....it would mean no more daily flashpoints while leveling.....ever.

[Khevar]

Why would my max level characters be doing dailies for basic commendations, that character has no use for them...at all.

To buy gear for your low level alt?

[ZETA_SCORPII]

Why would my max level characters be doing dailies for basic commendations, that character has no use for them...at all.....the leveling characters do and the double xp ruins the balance between leveling and gaining commendations.

 

The only way to get a good amount of commendations on a leveling character is to do the daily flashpoints and tactical flashpoint, but mostly, if not all the time, the queue time is 30+ minutes, then there is a likely chance the group will be full of morons.....which take the fun out of the game and treat it like a job.

 

This is why i try to minimize my flashpoint completion while leveling, because they just ruin the fun of doing them by treating it like another job that NEEDS to be done perfectly 100% of the time.

 

Hell, i would be happy if i could buy basic commendations for cartel coins....it would mean no more daily flashpoints while leveling.....ever.

 

You can use the basic comms your higher toons have to buy mods for your lowbies. All those mods are bind on equip so you can place them in your legacy bank, or just email them to your alts.

[therandyman]

Already used them up, so that option is gone, the solution is easy.....stop doing the stupid double xp event and make it a bloody legacy trait...its the smarter plan, which they clearly haven't thought of yet.....guess i am smarter. :-)

 

No, you aren't.

[Romeugues]

You should have plenty of creds and comms just by doing your class story and the daily FPs and PVP, I'm leveling up a Hatred Sin (ya, I know..) and I've kept my gear and Khems up to date, making it the highest for my level or close and did my class story 2-3 levels under leveled(I don't do all the planet quests) and now that I've hit 47 I'm on Makeb so I won't really need to upgrade my gear till I hit 55.

[LyraineAlei]

I have my Cybertech making Armorings and Mods for my characters. Armorings cost 7 basic comms in leveling, and Mods 2, so by Cybertech I save 9 comms per armor piece.

 

While I agree a toggle would be nice, I don't think 2xp is that hard to gear for. My PT Trooper was using Aric Jorgan from the get-go and he was still wearing her cast off Duros chest piece from Ord Man tell when she was on Voss. And had a low death rate. I was more shocked that I let his chest piece get so out of date for so long.

 

And 2xp doesn't stop you from running all the content you want to run. Or maybe I have a glitch in my system that let's me do all the same stuff regardless?

[Djiini]

[MarcoGKotor]

Honestly, if your "strategy" becomes worthless if you gain more xp, it hasnt been very good to begin with. Every seasoned player will tell you that there is really nothing difficult to levelling. And if you buy a whole set of new gear for every planet while being overlevelled 5 levels - you clearly are wasting comms.

I upgrade my gear like every 10 levels and the fights are still no challenge.

If you love your basic comms so much, you shouldnt be wasting them for stuff you really dont need. Save it for level 60.

[Djiini]

Honestly, if your "strategy" becomes worthless if you gain more xp, it hasnt been very good to begin with. Every seasoned player will tell you that there is really nothing difficult to levelling. And if you buy a whole set of new gear for every planet while being overlevelled 5 levels - you clearly are wasting comms.

I upgrade my gear like every 10 levels and the fights are still no challenge.

If you love your basic comms so much, you shouldnt be wasting them for stuff you really dont need. Save it for level 60.

 

I'm pretty sure a seasoned player would just say there's no such thing as strategy in the leveling content at all. You just figure out what your rotation is and boom bam done.

[MSchuyler]

Your mistake, OP, is in not doing side missions when you have 2XP. You can still get the same comms you can while normal leveling, but OF COURSE if you skip planetary and/or side missions you won;t get as many comms.

 

Now, if your claim is that doing so will "over-level" you, then maybe it't time to change that "strategy" you have, which is basically to over-level yourself in the first place to get green-level missions. That makes all those quests very easy for you. So if you over-level AGAIN with 2XP you are in danger of making those missions go gray on you.

 

What if, instead, you concentrated on making yourself a better player so that yellow-level missions, i.e.: those that are actually at your level, didn't present you any problems, and that you could do them as easily as you can do green-level missions today?

 

Your problem has little to do with BW and 2XP. Your problem is that you are making the game too easy for yourself in the first place. It's of your own making.

[Taramayne]

It's like everyone skipped the majority topic of my original post that discusses it's impact on the in game economy. And I never once said that all long term players have a problem with it. I made sure to use words like "a lot" for the very reason that someone would come along and say what you just said.

 

You might want to dial down that "a lot" a bit further to "some", because you really can't back up ANY claims on numbers like that.

 

Since you mention this is a problem directed to long-time players, those very same players should have a good chance to have a ton of extra basic comms on their high level alts that can fill in any holes a new character might run into while leveling faster.

 

As for disrupted "strategies"?

 

Improvise.

Adapt.

Overcome.

[Pirana]

There needs to be an option to turn this off.

 

The green gear you get while leveling is just fine, including in use for group content. There's no need to use Comms for upgrading your gear, unless that's something you want to do. Then do what you need to, run the trivial content.

 

As mentioned above, unless you have the numbers to back it up, there's no proof this is affecting the economy. It's human nature to spend currency when you want/have it. My hypothesis is that the credits are still pouring into the GTN, one way or another.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Pirana

[TX_Angel]

I think the OP has it backwards...

 

For new players, 2x causes headaches because they have no rich alts to fund the leveling...

 

I'm leveling my 3rd Sage right now, as for comms, I have several lvl 60 toons that are near the 1,000 basic comms cap, so I just buy gear for every 7 levels or so and mail it to my new Sage, she has in storage all the gear she'll need to level, so she is saving every last comm for lvl 60, when she'll spend them on 186 gear.

 

If you're new to the game, you're lacking such resources and I can see how just playing "at the level you're at" would be harder than normal.

[Clarian]

This is why i plan to just wait for this crap event to finish,

That's the plan I always use! Until there's a way to toggle it off, when double xp is on, I don't play.

 

I'm just glad they haven't done it much lately. I'm REALLY glad they didn't do it over Thanksgiving, since that's my traditional gaming weekend.

[Declan_Vee]

It's perfectly fine to level in quest rewards and only quest rewards; game isn't gear dependent, you are.

[JamieKirby]

It's perfectly fine to level in quest rewards and only quest rewards; game isn't gear dependent, you are.

 

Actually, you would be surprised, i remember having issues with quest gear and when i got commendation mods for the same level, it made things 1000% easier, the game is more gear dependent thing you think, sure, its not impossible to do with quest gear, but it is noticeably easier with commendation gear.

[Faardor]

A lot of the long time players have developed our own personal leveling strategies. We've played through the game so many times that we've naturally found ways to level up efficiently according to our own play styles. The unfortunate thing about these strategies is that they're quite exact. It's really easy for them to get thrown off.

 

So why is double XP so bad? Doesn't that mean our leveling strategy works twice as fast? No! Because the double XP events have one huge flaw: they ONLY double the XP and nothing else. My personal strategy relies quite heavily on gaining comms over a consistent leveling period. This game is very gear dependent! You level far faster than you have the comms to keep up with it.

 

Skills are free now

You can KDY till you're 55

At 55 you can do forged alliances

On Rishi you get 300 free comms

 

Where lies the problem?

Either people dedicate themselves fully to level with KDY or they dont, or they do a mix. Those that fully dedicate can use the strategy outline above, those that do a mix just need to do a balance of getting green gear or comms (the green gear from mission rewards is enough to carry you through the entire leveling process, since ive used that gear during 12xp on several toons) and in certain missions they can get both, and those that level using the orthodox way have nothing to worry about using a mix of comms, gear drops and gear rewards. Heck if any "long time player" has issues gearing new toons and cant transfer gear from their main toon from whatever reason they really aren't a "Long time player" they are just a casual who never learned the intricacies of this game.

 

ways to gear toons:

- Moddable armorings, hilts, mods, enhancements, barrels from basic comm supply vendors (these are transferable)

- GTN bought gear and enhancements

- Crafted gear and enhancements

- PvP gear

- Flashpoint gear drops

 

for SWTOR the previous 2xp was problematic because KDY was (still is) the fastest way to level (aside from lvl 60 power leveling someone) and the problem was that skills costed money and KDY earned you jack **** in money.

 

That's where it all starts to fall apart, because we're ONLY getting double XP. Everything else is exactly the same, so we're not getting enough from the game to make the loss of money worth it. We lose A LOT more than we gain. The only people who win during a double XP event are new or returning low level players,

 

actually you're wrong. New players are the ones suffering from 2xp, eventually they wont have the gear necessary to beat content. Especially if they stray away from doing anything but story missions and side quests.

 

I upgrade my gear like every 10 levels and the fights are still no challenge.[/Quote]

This is actually a very generous gearing process. During 12xp I had one of my toons do content until lvl 30ish and then I upgraded. Then from lvl 30 I generally hit a problem around lvl 47 and at that point I either upgraded A LITTLE or I went to makeb where bolster took over.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Faardor

[Djiini]

Where lies the problem?

 

Because people need something to whine about and will come up with excuses why double XP is bad.

If someone personally doesn't like it, that's their own thing, but that's different from trying to act like it's DETRIMENTAL.

[DreadtechSavant]

Honestly, I could see the complaint for 12XP if you don't have toons to craft your gear, since you have to buy less expensive comm items or cheap greens from vendors to keep up in some cases, but double XP is really not difficult to keep up with gear-wise. If you're over leveled for the content you're doing but still undergeared, then go back and do some easy heroics/planetary quests and get comms if it's that much of an issue. I just can't agree that this is a legitimate problem.

y

 

I have to agree with this. Just because you are at a higher level does not stop you doing the story for basic comms or gear that if you don't need because you are passed that level, just sell.

 

I have just finished Courscant at level 26. Did this with double XP + the +25 XP bonus and doing the daily bounty Hunts on Courscant and King pin bounties. This was using BH contacts from many toons on that sever. Sure was no longer getting XP for the actual Courscant quests but did not stop me doing them. OK my armor, mods and stuff is still level 17/19 but that's all that's need for courscant in any case. The bounty hunts were hard as a little undergeared but managed most and got help for the odd one I could not beat solo (Zinda Kent and of cause the kingpins).

 

So as said I agree with the post I quoted. Having said all this I don't see why the double XP could not be optional. I don't see the need myself but if players are asking for it, well make no difference to me, so sure why not.

[FerkWork]

If I knew they could do it without breaking the game then I would say sure fine whatever. However knowing their track record, If they made it optional I can see BW somehow breaking the game somewhere else by implementing it. Optional Double Xp? Well sorcs can now fly and Underlurker cross is now a circle. And Everyone else gets 50X xp after doing a hutball match. And somehow it would still bugged out and not be optional Edited February 16, 2015 by FerkWork

[Jeweledleah]

pretty sure its the other way around, OP

 

long term players are the ones who like double xp the most (with some exceptions) becasue they are the ones with a bunch of alts already, so for them, increased xp is an opportunity to play or replac class stories with a LOT less planetary fillers along the way.

 

for new players, double xp is not so great. sure they are leveling faster, but they are constantly outleveling the planets that are meant for their story progress, becasue everything becomes easier, they don't get to learn their class as well. now, mind you there are some long term players who very much dislike out leveling planets and its not becasue of their "strategies" but rather becasue they feel pushed out of the story through everything becoming a pushover fast.

 

also.. long term players are the ones that can get around outleveling the gear. newer players don't know all the tricks yet, so they are the ones who might start having issues later on, thanks to not keeping up with their gearing, since they are being guided to the next planets too fast

[Halinalle]

Actually, you would be surprised, i remember having issues with quest gear and when i got commendation mods for the same level, it made things 1000% easier, the game is more gear dependent thing you think, sure, its not impossible to do with quest gear, but it is noticeably easier with commendation gear.

 

How many orange adaptive armor sets we had at launch?

 

Many of us leveled our first character with mainly quest rewards and loot drops. If you got orange piece then nice... but getting one was harder than it currently is.

 

Not to even mention that outleveling content was also much harder because back then subs got the same amount of XP current F2Ps get.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Halinalle

[calypsissmexy]

It's one weekend. :/

[Turajin]

First:

I wouldn't mind if there would be an "opt-out" option for the 2xXP event... as there should be an "opt-out"-option for every event (like a "I can't be infected by those harrassing trolls"-option during the rakghoul event)...

 

It's like everyone skipped the majority topic of my original post that discusses it's impact on the in game economy.

If "game economy" is your major topic, you are beating a lot around the bush. From my understanding, it's whining over a problem I still don't understand.

 

And I never once said that all long term players have a problem with it. I made sure to use words like "a lot" for the very reason that someone would come along and say what you just said.

First: even "a lot" would be a wrong assumtion as long as you don't state real numbers (and no, having 100 of your 120 guild-buddies saying the don't like it is no substantional base to say "a lot mof people"... 100 players are really clos to "zero" campared to the number of people playing this game.

 

Second:

You made this statement

The only people who win during a double XP event are new or returning low level players, people who have a lot of money to burn, and people who gather materials and sell them at the GTN for ridiculously inflated prices.

On what base do you make this wrong assumtion and dare to phrase it like it is a fact? I don't see any "most" or "some" in there. But guess what: I am neither new nor returning player, I don't have lots of money to burn and I don't sell any materials on the GTN... still, I consider this 2XP event a "Win". How does that fit in your obviously wrong statement? Tell me, in how far do I not "win"? I have no problems having my toon being slightly overleveled (and due to the length of the event and the XP I do earn within that timeframe, it is just slightly overlevelling that happens during this event), I get more than enough comms to get the mods I need (not to mention that there are craft skills), and more than enough credits to get along.

 

So what is your problem? In how far does your "strategy" not work during the event? If you still do all the missions you did before, you still have all the comms you would get without the event. You will still be able to buy the appropriate mods for the planet you get to. And if you overlevel more than a few levels... well, make a stop at the fleet and buy the mods from the vendor of the next higher "leveled" planet, so you get mods of your level (and not just the level of the planet your on). You have to got to Taris, but your level is above all the crap they sell there? Make a stop at the Nar Shadda vendor at the fleet and buy the appropriate mods for your level there. I'd say that's one of the reasons they are there. That trip might take an additional 5 or 10 minutes, but that shouldn't interfere to much with your "strategy"...

Edited February 16, 2015 by Turajin

[BrintoSFJ]

Another one of these..how amusing..i am just gonna report it as trolling anyways