FourPawnBenoni Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 (edited) Look at the ranked participation numbers and the decline since Season 1 Ranked play "should" be serious competition. If you allow ungeared players into an arena it ruins the experience for those trying to compete. Bolster DOES NOT help this issue. A bolstered PVE player with 1500 expertise is an extremely easy target and should be in regs; not ranked. Please enforce a 2018 experience criteria to be eligible to queue for ranked wz's for next season Once queued; gear cannot be removed. And if it's not too much trouble; please make guard skill tied to the tanking discipline. I know that Bastion has good population right now; and Harbinger is decent. But if you look at the numbers the past couple weeks all the other US servers have a miserable number of ranked games I believe you'll find if you increase the quality of the experience you will see the ranked numbers grow on these servers. There are many, many good pvp players I see in regs and I ask them "why don't I ever see you in ranked" and the answer is always because they got stuck on teams with pve'ers; had an unfair matchup and lost. It ruined their experience to the point they don't even want to do it anymore. Please and thank you. Edited April 4, 2015 by FourPawnBenoni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOULCASTER Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 (edited) I'm legitimately concerned for Season 5. Pot5 is completely dead now. What little life it gained with players coming back from 3.0 has now returned it to its ghost town state as just about everyone quit the game again or left the server now. No one queues teams (as usual) and the last two nights I couldn't get a single solo rated pop. A single one.... I'm hoping season 5 is going to be the last of this style of rated pvp. Something drastic has to change....Rated PvP Participation was in the toilet by season 2, got flushed in season 3, made its way down the pipes now in season 4 and now will be in the sewer for season 5 haha. I seriously hope they do something DRASTIC to the rated scene. This is a miserable existence currently. Edited April 4, 2015 by SOULCASTER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimRita Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 (edited) It's not just PvP that has suffered(although that has taken a massive dent since 'No Gate') - the entire game is on a huge decline this year. My guild alone has gone from 279 qualifying accounts to just under 140 in March. Q pops for everything takes longer, all the servers remain 'light' population for 80% of the day now and if pvp does pop, its more or less the same faces. There's a variety of reasons but I feel that this F2P model is outdated and has done nothing but drive players away from the game. Paying 480 coins for a week pass to play 4 year old content is laughable. And, Mid PvP is probably turning away 70% of new players in its current form. Bioware expect new players to be cannon fodder from 30-55, then again in 60s due to the crazy cap on warzone coms. It all reminds me of the time shortly after the game launched and bombed. 6 months of zero communication as server numbers dropped like a stone before they actually acted. Edited April 4, 2015 by GrimRita Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DariusCalera Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 There really is no one else to blame for the state of PvP in this game other than the devs. For 3.0 they hosted a closed beta where very little, if any, PvP testing was done. If they had done their due diligence in balancing the classes and actually preparing for Season 4 we might not have seen 3 specs, and their mirrors, totally dominating the leader boards. You could look at discipline calculators a couple weeks before 3.0 went live and tell which specs were going to be overpowered. Players even posted that these classes were going to be OP and the first few weeks proved it with the rest of the season reenforcing that proof. Yet, even with the blatantly obvious imbalances BW let the season continue with very little adjustment to classes. For all intents and purposes, from the release date until now, SWTOR has been in an open beta where PvP is concerned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThorgrimLutgen Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Look at the ranked participation numbers and the decline since Season 1 Ranked play "should" be serious competition. If you allow ungeared players into an arena it ruins the experience for those trying to compete. Bolster DOES NOT help this issue. A bolstered PVE player with 1500 expertise is an extremely easy target and should be in regs; not ranked. Please enforce a 2018 experience criteria to be eligible to queue for ranked wz's for next season Once queued; gear cannot be removed. And if it's not too much trouble; please make guard skill tied to the tanking discipline. I know that Bastion has good population right now; and Harbinger is decent. But if you look at the numbers the past couple weeks all the other US servers have a miserable number of ranked games I believe you'll find if you increase the quality of the experience you will see the ranked numbers grow on these servers. There are many, many good pvp players I see in regs and I ask them "why don't I ever see you in ranked" and the answer is always because they got stuck on teams with pve'ers; had an unfair matchup and lost. It ruined their experience to the point they don't even want to do it anymore. Please and thank you. Remove bolster from ALL ranked PVP. Add a 2018 expertise gate. Remove all ranked comms from non ranked play, including the 3:1 conversion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MystbladeWA Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 My initial reaction to this thread was going to be along the lines of "PVP has been a distant 3rd to Cartel and PVE content since F2P came into place, its not going to change ever". I still think that this is unfortunately true but I also think that BW really need to start to think about alternatives to fixing the waning population bases in the ranked scene pretty soon. They cant really simply kill ranked off, and they cant simply expect it to continue on this downward spiral into a complete ghost town. Something needs to happen. Whether its this "better than x-server" thing, which seems to be more of a slip of the tongue than an actual idea, or server merges, something needs to happen. Its not even just about proper balancing. Group ranked has been dead across almost all servers for multiple seasons. If EA/BW want to keep milking this cow for a few more years then sooner or later they are going to actually have to pay the PVP scene more than just the lip service its been receiving for the last...hmm...3 years... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthRaistlin Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 bet you all would love to see hybrid healing mercs again huh? but nope had to complain about hybrids, now pops are way down and mercs suck in ranked. got no one to blame but yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlrikFassbauer Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 My personal reason not to play Ranked is the amount of FOTM classes in the Leaderboards. I take the Leaderboards as a measure of how many of them are there, in Ranked, at least roughly - and the result I get from this is like : I don't want to play Ranked with THIS bias. If I had an Hatred Assassin, then I'd probably try it. But call me stupid if you want to, but I cling to my Gunslinger main. And I most definitively don't want to get defeated all of the time by Assassins in Regs for just gearing up. That just isn't my definition of "fun" in PvP. "Fun" is currently something only a few classes can provide - and of course extremelky well coordinated teams leading to an 6:0 in Huttball. For everyone else, there is currently just no "fun" in PvP anymore. Therefore I wait. For better times. And do PvE instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxmob Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 I'm legitimately concerned for Season 5. Pot5 is completely dead now. What little life it gained with players coming back from 3.0 has now returned it to its ghost town state as just about everyone quit the game again or left the server now. No one queues teams (as usual) and the last two nights I couldn't get a single solo rated pop. A single one.... I'm hoping season 5 is going to be the last of this style of rated pvp. Something drastic has to change....Rated PvP Participation was in the toilet by season 2, got flushed in season 3, made its way down the pipes now in season 4 and now will be in the sewer for season 5 haha. I seriously hope they do something DRASTIC to the rated scene. This is a miserable existence currently. the last time they did something drastic, they pulled the 8v8 format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaLeX Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 This is a dying game. Best thing to do is unsub, how many chances do they get to display even a slight bit of competence. People don't like being killed by a stealther who can't be cced or knocked back and hits 10k crits on an aoe and takes a third of my health away on an uncleansable dot. Its absurd. The more groups run sins the more people will stop pvping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floplag Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 enough with the morons reading these forums telling us the game is dead.. who are you trying to convince? i mean you are here so... save it that having been said, ranked isnt dying because of any of those things, its dying because of balance. Those things are annoyances that should be addressed, that is true, but when a large percentage of the player base isn't viable, and aren't interested in chasing the the FOTM... you cut your available player base by a large percentage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmmbuddah Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Remove bolster from ALL ranked PVP. Add a 2018 expertise gate. Remove all ranked comms from non ranked play, including the 3:1 conversion. You want to make it even MORE of a grind to get ranked gear, yeah, that makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOULCASTER Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 the last time they did something drastic, they pulled the 8v8 format. I would like them to pull the solo rated format. lol So I'm standing my decision of requesting something drastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOULCASTER Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 You want to make it even MORE of a grind to get ranked gear, yeah, that makes sense. You can be 100% competitive in 168 (non-ranked) gear. So honestly what he's suggesting is better than having the pve or accidental peopel queueing for ranked play. I'd support his decision. Currently, you can fully gear a toon in well under a week, maybe like 4 days from start to finish (in non-ranked gear). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Culbrelai Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 enough with the morons reading these forums telling us the game is dead.. who are you trying to convince? i mean you are here so... save it that having been said, ranked isnt dying because of any of those things, its dying because of balance. Those things are annoyances that should be addressed, that is true, but when a large percentage of the player base isn't viable, and aren't interested in chasing the the FOTM... you cut your available player base by a large percentage. True. Everyone says the current MMO they're playing is "dying" or will be "killed off" by new MMOs. People said SWTOR would be "killed" by ESO. Did it happen? Nope. ESO is critically average or below average. People said WildStar would put SWTOR in it's grave. Did it happen? Nope. Go to their PvP forums and look at the whine. It's WAY worse than here and that's saying something. It's hilarious to read, I read their forums when I'm down. The balance could be better but the way many in this forum conduct themselves ... is abhorrent. Of course, the devs are rather... slow... to say the least. Took them ages to fix the Coratanni encounter's multiple bugs, (not withstanding the Revanite chestpiece fiasco, I still know people who have 30+ of them...) Figures they'd be slow in balance as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magira Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 (edited) Necessary steps for the survival of PVP here: For solo Rated: - Opening for FTP players - Any Gear is raised to the maximum level - Mechanisms to prevent queue Syncing - 8vs8 solo Warzones For Group Rated: - Opening for FTP players - Any Gear is raised to the maximum level - Mechanisms to prevent Win Trading - 8vs8 Group Warzones For regs: - Full Opening for FTP players - Any Gear is raised to the maximum level - Separate queus for solo players and groups - Mechanisms to prevent queue Syncing - Opt-out for Arena, Huttball or Warzones - Hot join mode as in GW2 AND: Cross Server or Mega Server as Basis Edited April 4, 2015 by Magira Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FerkWork Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Remove bolster from ALL ranked PVP. Add a 2018 expertise gate. Remove all ranked comms from non ranked play, including the 3:1 conversion. I'm curious, wouldn't the last 2 suggestions make more people Queue for ranked solely to grind comms rather than to play competitively? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burrowa Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 I'm legitimately concerned for Season 5. Pot5 is completely dead now. What little life it gained with players coming back from 3.0 has now returned it to its ghost town state as just about everyone quit the game again or left the server now. No one queues teams (as usual) and the last two nights I couldn't get a single solo rated pop. A single one.... I'm hoping season 5 is going to be the last of this style of rated pvp. Something drastic has to change....Rated PvP Participation was in the toilet by season 2, got flushed in season 3, made its way down the pipes now in season 4 and now will be in the sewer for season 5 haha. I seriously hope they do something DRASTIC to the rated scene. This is a miserable existence currently. xfer to the Bastion..had continuous pops last night for a good 2 hrs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmmbuddah Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 You can be 100% competitive in 168 (non-ranked) gear. So honestly what he's suggesting is better than having the pve or accidental peopel queueing for ranked play. I'd support his decision. Currently, you can fully gear a toon in well under a week, maybe like 4 days from start to finish (in non-ranked gear). Regardless that would STILL cause even MORE people to leave pvp overall. I for one know I would NOT be willing to play ****** *** arenas to get ranked gear. We should try to bring people IN, not push them away with even more restrictions. And yeah, you can totally do it in 4 days if you play non stop and don't do anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmmbuddah Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Necessary steps for the survival of PVP here: For solo Rated: - Opening for FTP players - Any Gear is raised to the maximum level - Mechanisms to prevent queue Syncing - 8vs8 solo Warzones For Group Rated: - Opening for FTP players - Any Gear is raised to the maximum level - Mechanisms to prevent Win Trading - 8vs8 Group Warzones For regs: - Full Opening for FTP players - Any Gear is raised to the maximum level - Separate queus for solo players and groups - Mechanisms to prevent queue Syncing - Opt-out for Arena, Huttball or Warzones - Hot join mode as in GW2 AND: Cross Server or Mega Server as Basis This to the T! In order to bring more players in , they need to make pvp more accessible, more fun for solo and group players, have LESS restrictions, not more, and some severe QOL upgrades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DethlaHadyn Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Guys... I need some experienced input over in another thread, to help refine a proposed system that would assist all players in ranked, regardless of skill level. I'm looking at at a system that will be able to sustain a large population base in a healthy and competitive way. Check the link in my sig. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FourPawnBenoni Posted April 4, 2015 Author Share Posted April 4, 2015 xfer to the Bastion..had continuous pops last night for a good 2 hrs Would love to see EA get more reasonable on the price for transfers; but currently $15 per character to transfer to a server is just ridiculous. They made a mistake when the game first started when they failed to quickly fix the dead servers and lost players. Will they make the same mistake? Since I'm on the east coast; I'd prefer to play ranked games here at 40 ping instead of 100 so it's not just the money although if it were $2 per character I'd send over the main 5 I play right now. They really need to look at merging all servers into two mega servers; East and West. I know many of my pvp friends are getting really frustrated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klham Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 If they merged into two mega-servers, would that be the end of OWPvP as we know it, outside of periodic special events like the Gree Enclave? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DariusCalera Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 This to the T! In order to bring more players in , they need to make pvp more accessible, more fun for solo and group players, have LESS restrictions, not more, and some severe QOL upgrades. Except for the probability that person has never played ranked 8v8 and I'm willing to bet that a lot of people that are clamoring for it now never played it and have no idea what kind of a pain it was to not only get 8 people on willing to play but 8 people playing the right classes. Because seriously, to have a competitive 8s team you were going to look for the classes with the best synergy with each other and that were the most powerful. Next, if they were to bolster gear up to the top level in PvP they had better do it for PvE as well or else you're still going to lose players. Separating the queue times for group and solo regs is once again going to drive players away because of long queue times. Some of the other ideas I would be fine with but still others show a misunderstanding on what is going to keep players playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virus_Bot Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Necessary steps for the survival of PVP here: For solo Rated: - Opening for FTP players - Any Gear is raised to the maximum level - Mechanisms to prevent queue Syncing - 8vs8 solo Warzones lawl ^ i'd pay to see that clown show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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