Interview with Alex Modny and Eric Musco on Bad Feeling Podcast

[iamnotshrek]

Available for your listening enjoyment here:

 

http://badfeelingpodcast.com/index.php/episode-list

 

Upcoming PvP Changes:

Goals are to increase pvp population, increase competitiveness, and speed up pvp progression:

 

1. PvP Gear Cost Reduction (33% reduction for exhumed, 81% reduction for Dark Reaver)

 

2. Dark Reaver will now be bought with WZ comms, ranked comms are removed from the game entirely.

 

3. Warzone XP and Credit gain are being doubled.

 

4. They are adding Warzone Commendation Lockboxes which will allow you to transfer wz comms throughout your legacy.

 

5. RANKED CHANGE: You must have 2018 expertise to queue for ranked now.

 

6. RANKED CHANGE: Starting in Season 6, the way ranked rewards are distributed is being changed. You will now be getting ranked tokens which you can trade in for a variety of different rewards. The amount you get at the end of the season is based on your rating, but you also will get tokens after every ranked match. A bronze player could theoretically get enough tokens to get the gold speeder, but they would need to play A LOT of games. However, there will still be one exclusive reward per rating tier. Top 96 players get one of every item.

 

7. AOE's in warzones can no longer interrupt captures. Justification is that it will make stalemates less common. (they would like some feedback on this)

 

 

 

Some other interesting highlights

 

1. They are currently prototyping a new warzone but besides that there is nothing to report.

 

2. No new GSF content either but they are apparently working on balance.

 

3. According to Bioware, their metrics indicate that snipers are performing really well despite the community's perception.

 

4. Only 2% of the current PvP population has a full set of Dark Reaver.

 

5. The devs would like to hear your thoughts on whether rewards from previous ranked PvP seasons should become available again. Their current stance is that they feel these should remain exclusive but are open to feedback.

 

6. The community team will continue to communicate on the forums despite recent events.

 

 

Overall can't really complain about these changes. I suspect they will help a lot. I disagree with a few of the things they said, such as the viability of snipers in ranked, but more pops = more games = more variety in competition = better and more accurate metrics so hey, i guess we'll find out.

Edited May 28, 2015 by iamnotshrek

[JourrnoRush]

Haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but here it is:

 

http://badfeelingpodcast.com/index.php/episode-list

 

I hope to see a TL;DR version but the first 10 min I got before remembering its a podcast and I don't like podcasts...

 

Edit: Some good news is still good news.

Edited May 28, 2015 by JourrnoRush

[DynamiCtagez]

I'm at min 28 and so far it's only vague dodgy answers. When they were asked why PTs and Sins/Sorcs are still broken and dominating ranked they pretty much said just stated "we're seeing the bigger picture and you don't, so basically we're right and it's more or less fine".

 

Edit: So seems it's some small but nice changes to encourage players to play PvP more (that probably should've happened ages ago). This is not bad at all. But it won't help if the balance stays like this.

Edited May 28, 2015 by DynamiCtagez

[emeraldon]

Summary (updating asap)

 

Everything might be subject to change.

 

Content patch 3.3

 

**Gearing**

 

Reduction in PVP set gear costs:

 

- Exhumed reduces by 33%.

- Dark Reaver reduced by **81%!!** (thanks a lot for this, /u/emusco and Alex - I promise to level at least 4 new characters to 60 so I can finally PvP on other alts!

 

Apparently only _2%_ of the games population has a full set of Dark Reaver.

 

- Ranked Warzones comms removed from daily/weekly.

- XP and Credit rewards have been increased. (he said doubled, but might not be 100% yet.)

- This is a **permanent change**.

 

 

---

 

- **They are introducing an offical way to transfer warzones comms from character to character** (People weren't too happy with the removal of the stronghold title transfer.)

- NO timer restriction.

- You buy a box of 99 comms for 99 comms and send to whatever alt you want.

 

---

**Ranked**

 

- For ranked you now need **2018 expertise to join queue.**

- They are doing this to reduce trolling even more, while they'll still keep monitoring trolls/douchebags.

- Changes to ranked rewards.

- There will now be season specific tokens (big amount) at the end of the season based on the tier you get. You will no longer gain ranked comms, you will get season specific tokens throughout the season. At the end of the season, you can buy rewards from all tiers based on your performance (this one seemed a bit unclear.)

- Giradda will be selling these rewards!

 

- **The more matches you play, the more tokens you get. You'll be able to buy Tier 1 rewards even if you only ever get to Bronze! Confirmed by /u/emusco later in the interview.** Mounts might be purchaseable even if you only ever get Bronze, but you'll have to play _A LOT_ (emphasis by Musco.)

- A new ratio/system rewards you with tokens / medals. Winning gives more tokens obviously.

 

- Tokens you get in for example season 6 will be usable during season 7, then removed forever by being converted into warzone commendations. You'll have an entire season to spend LAST SEASONS tokens on the rewards.

- **There's going to be one exclusive reward per tier that you need to get x rating to get.** Not the Top 96 rewards, but something new.

- Top 96 will get everything + exlusive top 96 as usual.

- They have looked into adding top 96 _per server_, but will not happen now.

 

---

 

**Warzones in general**

 

- They are changing AoE in warzones - they can no longer interrupt captures. No more force storms, Death from Above, Death Field etc. (SUBJECT TO CHANGE IF IT IS TERRIBLE.) This will be tested on the PTS first.

 

---

 

**They are not going to stop communication with us after the developer harassment, but they will be cautious in the future and Musco makes it clear it's unacceptable behaviour from a few bad apples.**

Edited May 28, 2015 by emeraldon

[dalin]

Without even talking about the lack of balance/content. I have to say, I like these changes. It'll increase participation and make ranked less painful. Especially when your group is strong with the derp side of the force.

My question is this: When do we see these change get made? Sooner the better Bioware.

[Technohic]

Summary (updating asap)

 

 

**Warzones in general**

 

- They are changing AoE in warzones - they can no longer interrupt captures. No more force storms, Death from Above, Death Field etc. (SUBJECT TO CHANGE IF IT IS TERRIBLE.) This will be tested on the PTS first.

 

And there goes my Sab Slinger and any node guarding. On to sharpshooter.

[AlexModny]

Hey everyone, I hope y'all enjoy the podcast. Chuck and Brian are awesome and I hope you enjoy their show (and don't find my ummmming too obnoxious ). Despite Chuck's protest it really was an honor to be on their show and it was very special for me personally.

 

There is a lot of information on the changes that we covered and we are going to make an official post about all the changes next week but until then please ask away if you have questions about the podcast that I can answer.

 

Ummmmmm, cheers!

[Technohic]

Hey everyone, I hope y'all enjoy the podcast. Chuck and Brian are awesome and I hope you enjoy their show (and don't find my ummmming too obnoxious ). Despite Chuck's protest it really was an honor to be on their show and it was very special for me personally.

 

There is a lot of information on the changes that we covered and we are going to make an official post about all the changes next week but until then please ask away if you have questions about the podcast that I can answer.

 

Ummmmmm, cheers!

 

Just glad we got to hear it and get some information. Thank you as well as Chuck and Brian for that.

 

Sounds like you guys have put a lot of thought into getting some more participation in ranked, but how about adding the 8 man objective warzones to YOLO? Some of the classes that can do well in team ranked but not YOLO due to lack of support can still compete pretty well in an objective warzone and could get more people involved.

[DynamiCtagez]

Hey everyone, I hope y'all enjoy the podcast. Chuck and Brian are awesome and I hope you enjoy their show (and don't find my ummmming too obnoxious ). Despite Chuck's protest it really was an honor to be on their show and it was very special for me personally.

 

There is a lot of information on the changes that we covered and we are going to make an official post about all the changes next week but until then please ask away if you have questions about the podcast that I can answer.

 

Ummmmmm, cheers!

 

These changes are good. But you have to realize with balance like this it won't help much.

Chuck and Brian asked you that question and you guys basically just said we have more metrics so we know it better. Even though you tried to put it nicely ofc.

 

You can't balance a game around metrics only. You have to actually play your own game to understand how fkd up the current situation is. Hatred/Madness DoT-spread is broken. PTs and Sorc/Sins dominate ranked. Solo and group.

DoT-spread is an (interesting) mechanic that doesn't work. The differences between classes regarding this mechanic are INSANE. I'll put a example for why it's so broken in the spoiler tag.

Do you really not see this? DoT-spread needs to disappear or be completely reworked.

 

 

Quick comparison between Mara and Sin/Sorc DoT spread for better understanding:

Sin/Shadow/Sorc/Sage DoT spread aka Deathfield/Force in Balance:

• high internal damage
  
• 10/30m range
  
• INSANE diameter (bigger than guard range)
  
• part of single target rotation
  
• places debuff on all affected targets
  
• has a negligible cost that won't affect single target damage
  

Mara/Sent DoT spread aka Smash/Force Sweep:

• extremely low kinetic damage
  
• no range
  
• pathetic diameter
  
• not part of single target rotation
  
• doesn't place a debuff on affected targets
  
• has a high cost that will completely kill single target damage if used every 6 seconds like it would be needed to keep up the spread constantly
  

 

Edited May 28, 2015 by DynamiCtagez

[skomerko]

deleted Edited March 31, 2019 by skomerko

[iamnotshrek]

These changes are good. But you have to realize with balance like this it won't help much.

Chuck and Brian asked you that question and you guys basically just said we have more metrics so we know it better.

You can't balance a game around metrics only. You have to actually play your own game to understand how ****ed up the current situation is. Hatred/Madness DoT-spread is broken. PTs and Sorc/Sins dominate ranked. Solo and group.

 

I agree with you that theres still a lot of balance issues that they may not have as full a grasp of as the game's top players do, but the thing about these changes is that they will make things such as snipers being god awful in solo ranked and assassins being ridiculous a lot more obvious than it already is. With a larger player population, its a lot less likely for things like q syncing, win traders and trolls to have an impact on their metrics, making them a lot more reliable.

 

Sounds like you guys have put a lot of thought into getting some more participation in ranked, but how about adding the 8 man objective warzones to YOLO? Some of the classes that can do well in team ranked but not YOLO due to lack of support can still compete pretty well in an objective warzone and could get more people involved.

 

I would love to see this as well. I would imagine that Bioware's main reason for not wanting to do that would be because of concerns that it would make regs pop less often, which would be a problem on some of the lower population servers, but I feel like its definitely something worth considering. As a side benefit it would significantly reduce a lot of the premades vs. pugs whining that goes on.

Edited May 28, 2015 by iamnotshrek

[thatPERSON]

Hey everyone, I hope y'all enjoy the podcast. Chuck and Brian are awesome and I hope you enjoy their show (and don't find my ummmming too obnoxious ). Despite Chuck's protest it really was an honor to be on their show and it was very special for me personally.

 

There is a lot of information on the changes that we covered and we are going to make an official post about all the changes next week but until then please ask away if you have questions about the podcast that I can answer.

 

Ummmmmm, cheers!

 

 

i might actually log on more than once every two weeks it appears. kudos for at least attempting to make pvp some what relevant in the devs' eyes. i will actually have a reason to pvp on more than 2 characters if all these changes are successful/actually make it into the meta game.

 

+10 for the devs for actually doing something for pvp

Edited May 28, 2015 by thatPERSON

[DynamiCtagez]

I agree with you that theres still a lot of balance issues that they may not have as full a grasp of as the game's top players do, but the thing about these changes is that they will make things such as snipers being god awful in solo ranked and assassins being ridiculous a lot more obvious than it already is. With a larger player population, its a lot less likely for things like q syncing, win traders and trolls to have an impact on their metrics, making them a lot more reliable.

 

I'm not sure if I have the patience left to wait for that. This will MAYBE be happen at some point after 3.3. But most likely not. I don't even know what metrics they're refering to. The only thing I could imagine is they include all the players that played less than 10 games. Which would make the statistics extremely unreliable. But they wouldn't be so stupid to do that, would they?

Edited May 28, 2015 by DynamiCtagez

[MorgenBlue]

AoEs not breaking caps is pretty dumb. Now you can just zerg a node and unless the other team is proactive about it no way to stop it.

[Master-Nala]

Most of that seems awesome, but the bit about AoEs not breaking caps.... I'm not sure whether that will make games more dynamic or just plain awful. I hope a lot of people log on to test that.

[ZoreWon]

This sounds awesome. Everything.

 

Do anything you can to increase our pvp numbers please. This should be the year to concentrate on getting the numbers up. Next year more exclusive rewards.

 

We all need to agree that everyone needs to be on equal ground for pvp gear. I would start putting PVP gear in every active accounts mailboxl. Directing them where to buy the next best set at.

 

Thanks so much guys!

[Master-Nala]

I'm not sure if I have the patience left to wait for that. This will MAYBE be happen at some point after 3.3. But most likely not. I don't even know what metrics they're refering to. The only thing I could imagine is they include all the players that played less than 10 games. Which would make the statistics extremely unreliable. But they wouldn't be so stupid to do that, would they?

 

To be honest, our observational bias really doesn't give us a good handle on this. Our personal experiences are just a tiny few data points. I will take the devs at their word for now, but I am interested to see how season 6 goes with these changes.

[Bzziki]

I don't like it.

Stupid changes.

They increase population by adding more and more bad players to pvp, but pvp already have too much of them.

You will lucky if wz will start without pve heroes

[unibim]

New pvp maps pls.

[dalin]

Hey everyone, I hope y'all enjoy the podcast. Chuck and Brian are awesome and I hope you enjoy their show (and don't find my ummmming too obnoxious ). Despite Chuck's protest it really was an honor to be on their show and it was very special for me personally.

 

There is a lot of information on the changes that we covered and we are going to make an official post about all the changes next week but until then please ask away if you have questions about the podcast that I can answer.

 

Ummmmmm, cheers!

 

Overall I think you guys are on the right track. At least when it comes to the ranked changes and faster gearing, etc. We really do need some new PvP maps. I would love to seem some variant maps like you did with huttball. A different version of Novare Coast would be really enjoyable for me.

 

I would suggest enabling 8 vs. 8 for solo ranked again. If the population increases, it would give classes like DPS Mercs/commando's a place to shine and with the 2018 requirement no one would be in PvE gear. It could make for some pretty close games. Make these changes quickly, and hopefully merge servers with low populations so queues pop quickly, and I think you'll see PvP rebound quickly.

[Lhancelot]

Available for your listening enjoyment here:

 

http://badfeelingpodcast.com/index.php/episode-list

 

Upcoming PvP Changes:

Goals are to increase pvp population, increase competitiveness, and speed up pvp progression:

 

1. PvP Gear Cost Reduction (33% reduction for exhumed, 81% reduction for Dark Reaver)

 

2. Dark Reaver will now be bought with WZ comms, ranked comms are removed from the game entirely.

 

3. Warzone XP and Credit gain are being doubled.

 

4. They are adding Warzone Commendation Lockboxes which will allow you to transfer wz comms throughout your legacy.

 

5. RANKED CHANGE: You must have 2018 expertise to queue for ranked now.

 

6. RANKED CHANGE: Starting in Season 6, the way ranked rewards are distributed are being changed. You will now be getting ranked tokens which you can trade in for a variety of different rewards. The amount you get at the end of the season is based on your rating, but you also will get tokens after every ranked match. A bronze player could theoretically get enough tokens to get the gold speeder, but they would need to play A LOT of games. However, there will still be one exclusive reward per rating tier. Top 96 players get one of every item.

 

7. AOE's in warzones can no longer interrupt captures. Justification is that it will make stalemates less common. (they would like some feedback on this)

 

 

 

Some other interesting highlights

 

1. They are currently prototyping a new warzone but besides that there is nothing to report.

 

2. No new GSF content either but they are apparently working on balance.

 

3. According to Bioware, their metrics indicate that snipers are performing really well despite the community's perception.

 

4. Only 2% of the current PvP population has a full set of Dark Reaver.

 

5. The devs would like to hear your thoughts on whether rewards from previous ranked PvP seasons should become available again. Their current stance is that they feel these should remain exclusive but are open to feedback.

 

6. The community team will continue to communicate on the forums despite recent events.

 

 

Overall can't really complain about these changes. I suspect they will help a lot. I disagree with a few of the things they said, such as the viability of snipers in ranked, but more pops = more games = more variety in competition = better and more accurate metrics so hey, i guess we'll find out.

 

THANKS for posting this. I really appreciate it!

 

As for the content, it's interesting and even if they didn't lay out some grand plan of ultimate improvements for specific classes, the good thing is, they are FOCUSING on PVP.

 

If they focus on PVP that means they will focus more on class balancing... I think everything will fall into place then. I am going to just be patient now.

 

At least they understand that PVP is a pretty big part of SWTOR, and the players who PVP are worthy of attention! I think this is great, and gives me hope the game will improve.

[Technohic]

i might actually log on more than once every two weeks it appears. kudos for at least attempting to make pvp some what relevant in the devs' eyes. i will actually have a reason to pvp on more than 2 characters if all these changes are successful/actually make it into the meta game.

 

+10 for the devs for actually doing something for pvp

 

Keep in mind that ranked will require 2018 expertise so regs would still have a purpose. Really; even if people gift an alt comms for gear, regs would still be a good testing ground to learn classes and queue 4 mans for casual warzone play.

[ForceWelder]

My take on the podcast ...

 

Almost half of it (the first half) was almost completely a waste of time. That was the negative.

 

As for the positive ...

 

Playing a minority faction on a low population server, gearing a toon in full PVP DR gear was pure hell. I'm glade they are reducing the costs of the equipment sets. And rank comms going bye bye ... I won't shed a tear.

 

Hearing on 2% of the population is in full DR is not surprising. It is a common complaint within the community. Far too many people running around in mix or raid gear simply because it takes far to long to get this equipment.

 

The vendor item to transfer comms is nice. But I do see a problem. People will focus on getting them on their main and fail to focus on their alts until they are geared. This could make them less effective on those characters.

 

Changes to rank season items acquisition is nice. The current system simply leaves far too many players out.

 

All in all these changes seem to be the first level of changes. The goal is to get more people in PVP. But at the same time it doesn't seem to do much for class balance. This leaves me to believe that some of their metrics are so off that they aren't trusting the numbers they are seeing and want more player input to verify what many of us PVPers already know ... that some classes have zero viability in rank arenas.

[Ramhez]

happy with everything here. couple of points;

 

- 2018 expertise to queue for ranked will stop anyone from using old set bonus brutalizer gear which no longer has expertise on it, best example is the operative two-piece for +15% nanotech heal, which with bolster and the right mods used ends up giving 2008 expertise inside pvp or something (which is fine). devs could get around this by putting expertise back on old pvp gear. it's a minor issue anyway generally introducing this is a good thing.

 

- the aoe not stopping cap is a terrible idea and will just lead to strange people who care about objectives more than actually killing other players in warzones constantly pressure capping. for objectives with a faster channel such as voidstar doors, 4-5 players capping a door would be practically impossible to stop.

 

thanks for paying some attention to pvp though, particularly the gear cost stuff which is brilliant.

 

ps your metrics don't work

[Jaiyne]

Hi Alex,

 

re: 2018 for ranked. It's a good change kind of... However as an op healer, I run 2 piece PvE that bolsters to 2018 in arena. Will my ability to queue for team ranked be affected? It had better not be.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Jaiyne