Droid parts, Group finder, Commendations, Strongholds, Flagships.

[JMNeves]

I’ve been asking around, talking to friends, reading reddit, the forums, and back in December I started a survey asking several questions about a few things in the game.

Points of interest:

- Droid parts for gearing companions;

- Group finder: flashpoints and operations;

- Commendations, how useful they actually are;

- Strongholds, what people want to do with them, and what they wish to be implemented;

- Guild flagship, how useful it is, and how to make it work better.

 

For the sake of keeping everything reasonably organized, I’ll divide everything into sections.

 

Droid parts:

 

First I want to clarify, this isn’t a pressing issue. But it also isn’t something hard to address, and the benefits would be great to the game.

 

Most people’s favorite companion is HK-51. He is effective, hits like a truck, has an insta-kill move (great for doing dailies as a healer or tank), and on top of it he’s funny. But he is a pain to gear. Sure, you can use legacy gear that comes from Yavin, augment it, and toss around your characters. But that’s not really customizable.

 

For better stats you can use the crafted droid parts, but it isn’t legacy so you’ll have to craft a set for each of your HK droids across your legacy. That turns out very expensive, and not very good as you’re not able to pick and choose your stats, or upgrade it with leftover mods from your own gear.

 

Rewind a bit so I can give you some perspective. Back when the level cap was 55, not too long ago, my vanguard’s HK droid was nearly min-maxed. Crafted 180 armorings, BIS power mods, BIS enhancements, crafted 180 main and off-hands, crafted implants and earpiece. All augmented too. He was unstoppable. Even without expertise he could still pack a punch against players.

 

Back to present time. We can’t craft BIS anything yet, 198 hasn’t been made available. Even if it had, it would be crazy expensive, even for a wealthy player like me.

 

We have this GREAT situation in our hands: in “Temple of Sacrifice” HK-47 appears and is destroyed (again). Imagine “HK-47 Assassin Core” legacy bound, fully moddable piece for droids. Not restricted to HK only, but fully compatible with all droid companions. Maybe it would require hero standing with Yavin coalition, cost 100k a piece, and require the turn in of a token item you’d get for free upon completing the “The Enemy Within” or something. The token would be for any of the droid parts from that vendor. Moreover, that vendor could have a built-in mechanic, maybe a ewok underworld dealer of some sort. Or two of them, one would be a quest giving NPC that would provide you with a short story of retrieving something he lost in the forests of Yavin. Once the mission was done you’d have access to a second ewok, this one a vendor with droid parts that require token turn ins (tokens from “the enemy within”). Or I don’t know, maybe the first is an ewok who lost his wedding ring in the forest, and he has a jawa girlfriend (who would be the droid parts dealer).

 

Also, those droid parts (specifically the legacy ones) would not have armoring restrictions. This ties directly into the part about commendations. Realistically right now there isn’t much to do with them (basics and elites). This would be at least another use.

 

Please note that I’m not suggesting that all droid parts should have their armoring restrictions lifted, but instead these “HK-47” droid parts would have no restriction.

 

Points: Introduce legacy droid parts and a fairly easy in-game mechanic to acquire tokens for turning in. Said legacy droid parts would be customizable, and have no (or little) restriction as far as the armorings go.

 

 

 

Group finder:

 

Bioware what have you done with our beloved group finder? It’s just plain broken.

 

First flashpoints. The new hardmode flashpoints are quite difficult, hardly you’ll run into a group that will one-shot every boss. But they’re difficult for one reason: gearing hasn’t been this hard since... I don’t know, a long time.

 

Hear me out before you start yelling at me. Every boss drops GARBAGE orange gear that WILL go to a vendor. Bonus bosses in general are really difficult (aside from Tython’s and Korriban’s), not every group can kill all of them, so that’s one of the pieces of gear that won’t be there every time you get a flashpoint simply because chances are your group won’t be able to kill it. The last boss drops a piece of gear alright. That piece of gear may or may not be for you class, and even if it is it may or may not be for your spec (good enhancement or mod for you), and even if it has something useful in it you may or may not win the damn roll for it. Getting one flashpoint a day, if by the end of the week (seven flashpoints later) if you got two pieces of gear you should consider yourself extremely lucky.

 

All that would be a non-event if we at least still had the ultimate commendation rewards from the daily. Ten ultimates a day was great, by the end of the week you had 70+ whatever weeklies you completed. You would have enough to buy a piece per week, or a piece every two weeks, it depended on the price.

No, “look for a guild” isn’t an excuse for it. We have to face it, most people who play MMOs aren’t very… Social. We are here, we are on the forums, on reddit, talking in general chat, helping strangers, raiding nightmare raids, doing ranked pvp. We’re also a minority. A very loud minority.

 

And if you say that’s not your problem, or that those people should change, or even leave the game… Well, I’m sorry but that’s just plain wrong. If you like this game in any way (with all its problems, we’re still here so we like it in some level) you have to realize that a minority won’t keep this alive for long.

 

The game content, as far as flashpoints go, isn’t hard. It’s tough to get gear, and with that groups end up failing for cheer lack of stats. Back in the day, you’d go into Lost Island and Kaon Under Siege full columi, or full rakata even, and still have a hard time. Those flashpoints were actually hard, we weren’t undergeared. Go with a pug group into Lost Island today and I guarantee you that at least 2 of your group mates will die on the first Sav-Rak jump.

 

Now to operations. The 16M operations on group finder effectively killed pug groups. They still happen, sure, but not as often as before. You’d log into the fleet, stay there for two minutes and it was guaranteed you’d see at least one person pugging something such as “LFM TFB SM 8M”. Now this is the scenario we have: group finder is only 16M, limiting you so it’s harder to actually get a full group; group finder will not allow you to choose what operations you want to do, If you want something different you have to walk; and to top it off the old weeklies don’t have ultimate commendations anymore. Does Bioware want us to stop running EV/ KP/ EC/ TFB/ S&V/ DF/ DP all together? Because that’s what’s happened. You’ll go into a lower level raid, which presents little to no challenge, you can’t queue up for it so you’ll have to walk, you have ZERO chance of getting useful gear because it’s not scaled to level 60, and you get little to no ultimate commendations out of their weeklies.

 

I understand, as the operations are now so much easier simply because of the level difference, it makes very little sense to provide good rewards for it. But those things keep the game alive and running things all the time. If the older operations were 100% of the time available on group finder, and their rewards were at least ok on the weeklies, and the group finder allowed 8M groups, and allowed HM and NiM (specially for EV, KP and EC)… Man, would it be better. Fleet would be that much more alive with pugs, people would leave their strongholds more often, interact more, be more active in general. Not to mention ultimate commendation gear isn’t that great, you get a reasonable amount of main stat and endurance out of it, so gearing up quickly with that wouldn’t be the end of the world. And it wouldn’t be that quickly either, at a max of 150 comms per week, in a best case scenario you get two implants and an earpiece in two weeks. It isn’t much, really. And most people wouldn’t cap their comms every single week anyway.

 

Operations being fixed would also provide better flashpoint queue times. People won’t queue up for flashpoints because they’re afraid of wasting their time with wipes, but if pugs are better geared the chances of a wipe are that much lower.

 

Points: Flashpoint rewards aren’t as good as they should be. Ultimate commendations back to the daily would be enough to fix it. Operations are broken, rewards for weeklies aren’t worth going back and replaying the content limiting what we have to do in-game, and not having a 8M option (as well as HM/NiM) makes it so people just will not pug groups as often as they used to, limiting group finder usage to bigger guilds.

 

 

Commendations:

 

Not only there are way too many basic/elite commendations, and few ways go get ultimates ultimates, but also there isn’t much to do with it. I don’t think conversion between types of comms would be the answer, like turning basics into elites and elites into ultimates. More uses, aside from gearing, should be made out of those things.

 

Every single thing you do you’re prompted with a reward window “heeeeeey, here are some basic comms”. Before you could put basic gear into companions, but now with the Yavin legacy gear there’s really no point to it.

 

There should be a way of transforming basic and elite comms into something else. Jawa junk would be PERFECT. One basic for green jawa scrap, three for blue metals, and five (or even ten) for purples. Too many of the lower comms? No problem, get some jawa metals and turn it into crafting mats. Or maybe credit boxes right out of the vendor. I don’t know, 50 elite comms and you can get a lockbox with eight to fifteen thousand credits and chance for screwskill missions.

 

Maybe when it comes to Elite commendations it isn’t the case for your average Joe Doe. As I said when talking about the group finder, people who don’t raid are having a hard time gearing up, harder than it should be. I raid two, maybe three times a week and I constantly have cap elite commendations – the same is valid for my in-game friends. It would be perfect to get those leftover commendations, get some lockboxes out of them, and use the money from those lockboxes to pay for our repairs.

 

Topics: Lower (basic/elite) commendations are just sitting there, they have no use. Ultimate commendations are too hard to get (read group finder topic for my suggestion).

 

 

Strongholds:

 

I’ll try to keep this one simple. They’re extremely harmful to this game for two reasons: one, they keep people away from fleet chat; two they have no actual use aside from putting random items in random places just to get the conquest bonus.

 

I would just LOVE to see the stronghold chats one with the fleet, or maybe one big chat called “strongholds” that would have everybody who is in their stronghold. This would help pug groups for ops too, you could ask in fleet general chat, or stronghold general chat and your message would reach everyone. Problem solved.

 

Now strongholds are useless. They don’t really do anything in the game. But picture this: Bimestrial contests. There would be an automated system that you could opt-in if you wanted. To participate you’d have to pay 100k credits and it would give you the rights to vote in two categories: best republic stronghold, and best empire stronghold.

Once you paid your 100k fee, you would be able to vote for two strongholds, one on each faction, and you’d be able to receive votes as well. Furthermore, to avoid people who would only pay the fee and not vote, you’d get a 10% bonus to your votes if you voted once for each faction.

 

Every two months the ratings would reset, and the winners would receive like 10k credits for each person who voted for them. It would be a HUGE money sink. So big that the only way to profit out of it would be to actually participate without trying to cheat the system. Most of the money invested into it would be just thrown away because there would only be two winning strongholds per “season”. And even then, the winning ones would have only 10% of the money invested into them reverted into a prize. And of course, the same stronghold would not be able to win twice in a roll, and two strongholds from the same legacy would not be able to win on the same season.

 

I see it as a great way to create yet another money sink, to get people to participate more in the server community, and it would be a system really hard to cheat since nearly all the credits spent into it would be trashed.

 

And new strongholds. I had a thread on reddit going for a few days back in December/ January about what stronghold people would like to see. Manaan SMASHED every planet except Alderaan, which was right behind on the votes. Those seem to be the places people want the most. Manaan wouldn’t make a lot of sense, while Alderaan would be fit right into the lore. But I do have to agree, Manaan would be so much cooler than any other place (Underwater dome? Hell yeah).

 

Points: Unify all stronghold chats, with or without fleets, but definitely without their planets. And create some kind of bimestrial contest to be another money sink, and a way to incentive people to decorate their strongholds as opposed to just placing random items all over the place. And people are asking for more strongholds, specifically Alderaan and Manaan.

 

 

 

Guild flagships:

 

Fifty million credits for a space that really isn’t useful for anything other than invading a planet and giving conquest bonus so you can more easily complete your weekly contribution and receive free jawa junk. That’s what it’s come down to.

 

Why not have different types of guildship, maybe a cheaper one? Wouldn’t be as big, as a matter of fact it could be tiny with a medium command deck, small machine room, and medium arena for pvp duels. That’s it, three areas.

 

It seems that'a a price people would be willing to pay is about 15 to 20 million, and it sounds about right for a tiny ship. Realistically it would only give conquest bonus, allow the guild to invade a planet and host duels in their own place.

 

I mean, right now how does conquest look like? Most of the bigger guilds (with dozens of members online on prime time putting tons of conquest points) already have what they wanted. They have already conquered most of the planets they cared about, agreed on deals with other guilds not to cross each other’s paths on conquest so everybody can be happy. What’s left is a bunch of medium sized guilds with flagships, and a ton of smaller guilds which have no way to participate in conquest.

 

Bringing a cheaper -but also less functional- flagship to the market would allow those smaller guilds to crawl their way up. Better than forcing small businesses to merge with big ones is to give them a chance to compete.

 

Points: There is a demand for a smaller cheaper flagship. Guilds with less people will soon be necessary to keep the conquest going as bigger guilds are slowly stopping with older planets.

 

Edited March 19, 2015 by JMNeves

[adproduction]

For the flashpoints and operations...

 

- to increase chance of people getting into raid groups you need to do cross server queues. Done servers are dead flashpoint wise or PvP wise. By cross serving you have better chances of getting into a group.

 

- attribute system is just plain horrible. The only two attributes that do anything are the one your character needs while rest do nothing except endurance which is universal. SW is the only mmo where you can't make use of the attributes for their class. What's worse is players will still roll on items they don't need because they want to gear up their companion, leading to more infighting and group kicking.

 

- another lazy oversight by Bioware by not scaling the items. Although, the equipment/mods you can buy at later levels is on par or better than what you can find. The only reason would want to get anything from missions so to customize your or your companions appearance or you broke/too lazy to get your companion something off the vendor/market. This doesn't hurt operations, but it doesn't help it either. And again, at level 50 to 60 there isn't anything worth buying so we are just sitting on money and commendations.

 

Even if Bioware scale the equipment, the players can still buy similar equipment/mods from the market or vendors.

 

- Rather scale the items of our current FPs and operations, why not make them more fun or shorter if possible. Offer better custom outfits or provide collectors equipment that provide bonuses for certain specs except for PVE. As of now I am getting bored very fast with the upper level content. The missions are more fun than the lower levels and in my opinion that is what upper level FPs and operations need: collectors content and fun.

Edited March 19, 2015 by adproduction

[JMNeves]

Hey, adproduction, I disagree with many things you said and I'll explain why.

 

For the flashpoints and operations...

 

- to increase chance of people getting into raid groups you need to do cross server queues. Done servers are dead flashpoint wise or PvP wise. By cross serving you have better chances of getting into a group.

 

Cross server would solve the problem? Maybe, but it would certainly create lag issues. Not to mention it's a whole other problem simply because the engine can't really handle cross server. We can scream and yell blaming that poor decision (of using this engine) all we want, but it isn't going to change anything so we might as well just leave it.

 

- attribute system is just plain horrible. The only two attributes that do anything are the one your character needs while rest do nothing except endurance which is universal. SW is the only mmo where you can't make use of the attributes for their class. What's worse is players will still roll on items they don't need because they want to gear up their companion, leading to more infighting and group kicking.

 

On this one I could not disagree more. SWTOR has, in my opinion, the most perfect attribute system for an MMO. After you get used to it, everything makes perfect sense and it's extremely easy to deal with.

 

- another lazy oversight by Bioware by not scaling the items. Although, the equipment/mods you can buy at later levels is on par or better than what you can find. The only reason would want to get anything from missions so to customize your or your companions appearance or you broke/too lazy to get your companion something off the vendor/market. This doesn't hurt operations, but it doesn't help it either. And again, at level 50 to 60 there isn't anything worth buying so we are just sitting on money and commendations.

 

There are things you can buy, such as the old rakata (level 50) mods are still on the vendor from Makeb, and the level 55 gear is obtainable too. However, I'd partially agree when you say it isn't worth the investment because it costs a large amount of commendations and you'll only use it for five levels or so before replacing it.

 

Even if Bioware scale the equipment, the players can still buy similar equipment/mods from the market or vendors.

 

There is no end-game gear in the cartel market, aside from crystals which are really cheap from the GTN anyway.

 

- Rather scale the items of our current FPs and operations, why not make them more fun or shorter if possible. Offer better custom outfits or provide collectors equipment that provide bonuses for certain specs except for PVE. As of now I am getting bored very fast with the upper level content. The missions are more fun than the lower levels and in my opinion that is what upper level FPs and operations need: collectors content and fun.

 

They did that bringing Black Hole/ Campaign gear to level 50 HM flashpoints, and Black Market still drops from level 55 HM. Also, decorations.

 

These things, collector's content as you say it, are nothing but temporary fixes. Once people get what they wanted they will not run it again. It isn't a good way of making credits, it provides no (or very little) conquest points, and it has zero chance of increasing your stats in any way.

Edited March 19, 2015 by JMNeves

[adproduction]

Hey, adproduction, I disagree with many things you said and I'll explain why.

 

 

 

Cross server would solve the problem? Maybe, but it would certainly create lag issues. Not to mention it's a whole other problem simply because the engine can't really handle cross server. We can scream and yell blaming that poor decision (of using this engine) all we want, but it isn't going to change anything so we might as well just leave it.

 

 

 

On this one I could not disagree more. SWTOR has, in my opinion, the most perfect attribute system for an MMO. After you get used to it, everything makes perfect sense and it's extremely easy to deal with.

 

 

 

There are things you can buy, such as the old rakata (level 50) mods are still on the vendor from Makeb, and the level 55 gear is obtainable too. However, I'd partially agree when you say it isn't worth the investment because it costs a large amount of commendations and you'll only use it for five levels or so before replacing it.

 

 

 

There is no end-game gear in the cartel market, aside from crystals which are really cheap from the GTN anyway.

 

 

 

They did that bringing Black Hole/ Campaign gear to level 50 HM flashpoints, and Black Market still drops from level 55 HM. Also, decorations.

 

These things, collector's content as you say it, are nothing but temporary fixes. Once people get what they wanted they will not run it again. It isn't a good way of making credits, it provides no (or very little) conquest points, and it has zero chance of increasing your stats in any way.

 

1) cross server has been done in many other games and doesn't create lag issues so please don't talk about something you know nothing about. The most famous cross sever franchise would be wow and it solved a lot PVE and PvP related problems. Other games have done the same with the same success.

 

2) please don't get pissy because someone says something negative about something you like. Need I remind you this game isn't your ***** or your child so you don't have to develop an inferior complex if someone criticizes the game. Going after a favored attribute in MMO is nothing new. However, SW is the only MMO who gives characters several attribute they can't put into use. (Cunning has absolutely no use to a Jedi and as far as I know there are no items with the presence attribute attached to it) So yeah the attribute were done horrible, but it doesn't make it a bad game. (NWN somehow beat SW for that)

 

3) thus the suggestion to make the upper level (and lower levels if possible) to be more fun to play and/or provide collectors items. The items themselves shouldn't be the selling points to do the mission again. I am more than willing to a mission again if it were fun rather than tedious. Dying a lot doesn't make for a good FP or operation. Lost island being a good example.

Edited March 19, 2015 by adproduction

[JMNeves]

Before addressing any of the other points you presented, I'd like to say I haven't offended you and I don't take kindly to harsh words. I merely stated I disagreed with your point of view on a few of your opinions and I presented my arguments for such.

 

Now back to the subject.

 

I understand quite a bit about it actually, I've studied computer science with emphasis in game development. Cross server, for SWTOR, would certainly create lag issues. The engine is being pushed to it's limits, only recently the persistent "lag" (from what I could see it wasn't actual connection latency, it was more related to ability activation) has been fixed on Yavin and Rishi. We can't get speeders that move faster than 110% because elements won't load quickly enough to sustain a smooth game experience in every scenario (we have faster movement than that, yes, like taxis, but those are on rails and things can be preloaded like that). The more players you put into an area, the more complicated it is for the server to manage all that within the same instance. Furthermore, have you tried playing on a server from a different region than yours?

 

I play from South America and I get consistent 120ms latency on east coast servers, while on west coast I get no less than 190ms. Now imagine you, as a east coast players (used to 30 ms latency) playing on a "cross server server" located on the west coast. You'd be playing under about 55 to 80ms lag, if I had to guess from my friend's reports and my own experiences.

 

The data HAS to be stored somewhere, mirrored in some way, so players from different servers can communicate and your "cross server" experience can be delivered. Nonetheless this "mirror" location MUST have a physical location somewhere. East or west coast, the people from the other side would have a higher than normal latency, therefore lag.

 

I understand this has been implemented in other games (not without it's small drawbacks), but my point is that it has already been declared that we're not getting cross server because it simply wouldn't be possible to work around the lag with the current setup of things. Maybe one day they figure it all out and we finally get it, but that's very unlikely.

 

On the stats, I said it before and I'll say it again in my opinion it's been done masterfully in SWTOR. But that, of course, is my opinion and I can always be wrong, and even if I'm not wrong it doesn't mean it's the best opinion out there.

 

Making elder game more fun, well, they're always working towards it. But my point was that there is no reason to run the older elder content such as level 50 and 55 flashpoints and operations. Cosmetics, collection or vanity in general are nothing but small temporary fixes; once people get what they want they'll have no reason to run it again unless they're getting something out of it. That's where my commendations suggestion comes in.

 

I hope to have clarified my ideas, mate. Cheers.

Edited March 19, 2015 by JMNeves

[adproduction]

Before addressing any of the other points you presented, I'd like to say I haven't offended you and I don't take kindly to harsh words. I merely stated I disagreed with your point of view on a few of your opinions and I presented my arguments for such.

 

Now back to the subject.

 

I understand quite a bit about it actually, I've studied computer science with emphasis in game development. Cross server, for SWTOR, would certainly create lag issues. The engine is being pushed to it's limits, only recently the persistent "lag" (from what I could see it wasn't actual connection latency, it was more related to ability activation) has been fixed on Yavin and Rishi. We can't get speeders that move faster than 110% because elements won't load quickly enough to sustain a smooth game experience in every scenario (we have faster movement than that, yes, like taxis, but those are on rails and things can be preloaded like that). The more players you put into an area, the more complicated it is for the server to manage all that within the same instance. Furthermore, have you tried playing on a server from a different region than yours?

 

I play from South America and I get consistent 120ms latency on east coast servers, while on west coast I get no less than 190ms. Now imagine you, as a east coast players (used to 30 ms latency) playing on a "cross server server" located on the west coast. You'd be playing under about 55 to 80ms lag, if I had to guess from my friend's reports and my own experiences.

 

The data HAS to be stored somewhere, mirrored in some way, so players from different servers can communicate and your "cross server" experience can be delivered. Nonetheless this "mirror" location MUST have a physical location somewhere. East or west coast, the people from the other side would have a higher than normal latency, therefore lag.

 

I understand this has been implemented in other games (not without it's small drawbacks), but my point is that it has already been declared that we're not getting cross server because it simply wouldn't be possible to work around the lag with the current setup of things. Maybe one day they figure it all out and we finally get it, but that's very unlikely.

 

On the stats, I said it before and I'll say it again in my opinion it's been done masterfully in SWTOR. But that, of course, is my opinion and I can always be wrong, and even if I'm not wrong it doesn't mean it's the best opinion out there.

 

Making elder game more fun, well, they're always working towards it. But my point was that there is no reason to run the older elder content such as level 50 and 55 flashpoints and operations. Cosmetics, collection or vanity in general are nothing but small temporary fixes; once people get what they want they'll have no reason to run it again unless they're getting something out of it. That's where my commendations suggestion comes in.

 

I hope to have clarified my ideas, mate. Cheers.

 

1) cross server is when you go into PvP arena with people from other servers into self made instance. It does not crate lag because you are in a instance outside of either server. (Same with PVE) The only way it can lag is if the instance puts in more people than intended. (Having 16 people in 4vs4) This has been used in every MMO so you are not only liar but it is evident you have experience or knowledge with cross server mechanics.

 

Also I played on a west coast server on WoW and never had latency problems, even when doing PvP. (I live on the east coast)

 

2) and I say again too, in my opinion, it is bad and the reason it is bad.

 

3) then find another game to play until more content is put in or you maybe burnt out. MMO can online do so much to please player who have seen it all.

 

So really SW just need more mission and more to keep players busy.

Edited March 19, 2015 by adproduction

[JMNeves]

I want it really bad, but I'll keep myself from cursing at you for the sake of not having the thread closed.

 

I'll try to explain it in a way you can understand the cross server thing. Let's say we're in a warzone, you on your imp, and I'm on my pub. You're from a west coast server, I'm from an east coast server.

 

In order for our characters to interact with each other, files regarding both sides (not necessarily the characters themselves, but files that would represent them) must exist in a physical location. Or at the very least, the information sent from my server to your server (and vice-versa) would have to be processed in some other place. Ideally that location would be the midway between you and me. If the whole process were to occur on my server, I'd have an edge over you, and if the whole thing were to be on your end of the line you'd have an edge over me. Following up to here? Good.

 

This MUST mean that the information IS travelling a greater distance than it normally would if we were all from the same area. In itself it already creates excessive latency, but originally it wasn't even what I refereed to.

 

What was said was: it has to create a longer route for the data to travel, therefore more latency. On top of it, it's already been declared by BW that cross server isn't happening any time soon, if at all, because -to put it simply so you can understand- the engine can't handle it. And for that I said, and now I repeat, let's not waste our time asking for something that they already said isn't going to happen. Instead, we should focus on other things like everything else from my original post.

 

Let's leave this behind and allow others to talk about what the post originally wanted: droid parts, group finder, strongholds, commendations, and flagships.

 

I hope I haven't offended you like you've offended me. Additionally I wish I was capable to clarifying my point of view. If not, there isn't much I can do. Cheers.

[adproduction]

I want it really bad, but I'll keep myself from cursing at you for the sake of not having the thread closed.

 

I'll try to explain it in a way you can understand the cross server thing. Let's say we're in a warzone, you on your imp, and I'm on my pub. You're from a west coast server, I'm from an east coast server.

 

In order for our characters to interact with each other, files regarding both sides (not necessarily the characters themselves, but files that would represent them) must exist in a physical location. Or at the very least, the information sent from my server to your server (and vice-versa) would have to be processed in some other place. Ideally that location would be the midway between you and me. If the whole process were to occur on my server, I'd have an edge over you, and if the whole thing were to be on your end of the line you'd have an edge over me. Following up to here? Good.

 

This MUST mean that the information IS travelling a greater distance than it normally would if we were all from the same area. In itself it already creates excessive latency, but originally it wasn't even what I refereed to.

 

What was said was: it has to create a longer route for the data to travel, therefore more latency. On top of it, it's already been declared by BW that cross server isn't happening any time soon, if at all, because -to put it simply so you can understand- the engine can't handle it. And for that I said, and now I repeat, let's not waste our time asking for something that they already said isn't going to happen. Instead, we should focus on other things like everything else from my original post.

 

Let's leave this behind and allow others to talk about what the post originally wanted: droid parts, group finder, strongholds, commendations, and flagships.

 

I hope I haven't offended you like you've offended me. Additionally I wish I was capable to clarifying my point of view. If not, there isn't much I can do. Cheers.

 

1) I am aware how it works. I played DNF and tried play on servers outside the US. The Cross server applies locally not across continents. If you were player in China trying play in the US then it be an epic fail. As I said other games have done it.

 

2) then SW will die plain and simple as old players will stop playing, you have less queues for missions and PvP. Cross server gave players option to meet more flesh blood to work with and more uptimes on queues. WoW and DDO had this problem as did Everquest 2 at one point. Compared to WOW this engine is bad if it can't maintain a cross server.

 

3) I don't what can be improve on strongholds and flagships except training dummies. Maybe mission and PvP terminals?

Edited March 20, 2015 by adproduction

[Unchosen]

I strongly disagree that strongholds are useless. The addition of strongholds has made this game much more enjoyable for me and it's added incentive to play lots of other content in the game.

 

Your suggestion to make strongholds more useful sounds horrible to me. Many players will just try to work the system for their own benefit and the results of such a contest would prove nothing worthwhile.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Unchosen

[branmakmuffin]

For better stats you can use the crafted droid parts, but it isn’t legacy so you’ll have to craft a set for each of your HK droids across your legacy

If you want HK in moddable parts, put moddable parts in him and put mods in them. Or put him in 192 Yavin gear (which you say you don't like). No different from equipping any other companion. Are you asking for some kind of "special assistance" in equipping HK? If so, that makes no sense.

[psandak]

I disagree that ultimate comms are needed for GF Flashpoint rewards. HMFPs and SM Ops should always be on the same level, and right now they are: You get 192 gear from both: whether drops or comms. The advantage of SM Ops: more 192 drops, relics, and set bonus tokens.

 

That being said, the fact that some of the current HMFPs require full 192 to have a chance - looking squarely at the Rishi HMs (BH and BoR) - and the rest all but require full 186, those elite comms do not feel as much of a reward as they might.

 

I think what would fix the 60HMFP reward issue (assuming one actually exists), is if ALL bosses at least had a chance to drop 192, because you are right that the 184 stuff is vendor fodder; NO ONE runs 60HMFPs in 178 (unless they are being carried by friends/guildies in full 192+), when that 184 gear would actually be an upgrade.

 

I disagree that strongholds are useless as well. You want players on fleet, I get that. But think about this: all those strongholds' general chat are linked to the planets they are on. This gives veteran players a chance to assist newer players in the form of advice and maybe even teaming up. It happens ALL the time, especially on the capital planets.

[JMNeves]

The rewards should be on the same level, yes, but right now they aren't. You said it yourself, to simply stand a chance of completing it without being carried by friends and guildies, you need to be full 192. And it rewards 184, it makes no sense at all!

 

I mean, you don't need to receive the best gear possible out of the bosses. Maybe 192 MK-1 on normal bosses, and MK-2 on bonus and final boss of each flashpoint, that accompanied by ultimate commendations on the daily.

 

 

And about the strongholds, realistically you don't see veterans helping new players very often (if at all). You don't get anything out of it aside from a sense of helping someone, and most people don't really get a kick out of that. The result is an empty fleet, and players scattered across three different strongholds on each faction making it that much harder to pug anything.

 

Making it so stronghold chat is one with fleet would solve that problem almost completely. You'd still have a desert fleet, but people would be able to see chat so the worst problem (of pugging groups) would be solved.

Edited March 20, 2015 by JMNeves

[SelinaH]

I’ll try to keep this one simple. They’re extremely harmful to this game for two reasons: one, they keep people away from fleet chat; two they have no actual use aside from putting random items in random places just to get the conquest bonus.

Actually, what keeps me away from Fleet chat is... Fleet chat. I avoid it whenever possible.

 

I haven't used my SH for the conquest bonus at all, but I do use it (and those of other players) for RP, OOC gatherings, et cetera.

Once you paid your 100k fee, you would be able to vote for two strongholds, one on each faction, and you’d be able to receive votes as well. Furthermore, to avoid people who would only pay the fee and not vote, you’d get a 10% bonus to your votes if you voted once for each faction.

 

Every two months the ratings would reset, and the winners would receive like 10k credits for each person who voted for them. It would be a HUGE money sink. So big that the only way to profit out of it would be to actually participate without trying to cheat the system. Most of the money invested into it would be just thrown away because there would only be two winning strongholds per “season”. And even then, the winning ones would have only 10% of the money invested into them reverted into a prize. And of course, the same stronghold would not be able to win twice in a roll, and two strongholds from the same legacy would not be able to win on the same season.

People would still game the system. A mega-guild could easily arrange a rotation of votes to all their members in turn, and would likely only stop when everyone else stops bothering to enter and, consequently, the guild's credit outlay becomes larger than its winnings.

Points: Unify all stronghold chats, with or without fleets, but definitely without their planets.

Disagree on this point as well. I spend an inordinate amount of time in my Kaas City stronghold, browsing the GTN and chatting with guildies. If a new player doing low-level class quests or DK planetary storylines has a question, I (as well as many others) am available to help or offer advice. I'm guessing that fewer people would be available as mentors on the capital planets were it not for the stronghold's being tied to the planet's General chat, and most newbies won't take the time to go off-planet and travel to Fleet for answers in the middle of questing.

And about the strongholds, realistically you don't see veterans helping new players very often (if at all). You don't get anything out of it aside from a sense of helping someone, and most people don't really get a kick out of that.

I don't know what server you're on, but this is absolutely contrary to what I've seen on the Ebon Hawk. Aside from the typical trolls found in every GenChat in every MMO ever, many players actually enjoy helping, and often go out of their way to do so.

I disagree that strongholds are useless as well. You want players on fleet, I get that. But think about this: all those strongholds' general chat are linked to the planets they are on. This gives veteran players a chance to assist newer players in the form of advice and maybe even teaming up. It happens ALL the time, especially on the capital planets.

QFT.