Uh Oh, the world as we know it may come to an end

[MSchuyler]

I think you would be surprised how many players want the best gear possible just so that they can do the content they are in that much easier. While the SOR and Ziost content can be done using nothing but quest rewards from FA and beyond, having full 178 at 56 and 186 and 58 makes everything that much easier.

 

That's kinda my point. As a not particularly good player (who plays with one hand and a touchpad on a laptop and does not have the fast reflexes of a 15 year old) I'd much rather do green missions than orange missions. So if I have the capability to get into 178 gear at 56 before I start the 4-flashpoint pre-Revan run, and get myself to 186 at 58, I will do that, which makes these drops rather superfluous and, since they are bound, useless. All I can do is vendor them to a droid in the stronghold. Nice gear, too! 'Cept it's too low to do any good.

 

Believe me, I understand that all people don't want to do what I do. I studied anthropology and that's pretty much ALL they taught us for 4 years straight. Don't be ethnocentric.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

I think you would be surprised how many players want the best gear possible just so that they can do the content they are in that much easier. While the SOR and Ziost content can be done using nothing but quest rewards from FA and beyond, having full 178 at 56 and 186 and 58 makes everything that much easier.

 

I know this from experience because I did SOR on my main in full 186 to start (I ran NIM DF/DP with him in 2.x) and the content was cake; never struggled once. Even in my primary alts, in optimized but no set bonus 180, I never struggled. I even tried giving myself a challenge by pulling multiple groups of mobs on many occasions. OTOH, my most recent 60, I leveled from 56 (after running FA solo) starting Rishi in 168 and getting to full 178 after Yavin, and there were times where I had to break out Heroic Moment to stay alive. that being said, I still only died once.

 

As to bolster, if I read the blurbs correctly it is for SM and only through GF. Furthermore, it will also downgrade characters so they can experience the content as an "appropriate level" (permitting players of higher level characters to assist their lower level character friends)

 

I'm not saying people will outright stop purchasing this gear but it will certainly have a huge impact as I see it on things.

 

How much of an impact I think comes down to 2 things:

 

-How the bolster works in regards to the gear you are wearing.

-What will be the top end RE'able gear and how it's appropriate to the content available.

 

Also there is one other fairly major factor to the future of stat crafting and that is how we are basically getting 5 levels for 16 chapters and I personally doubt those 5 levels will last 5 chapters let alone 16.

So it will be interesting to see how they treat any sort of gear progression from max level on into the future chapters ( surely need some sort of a carrot on a stick ) and whether if there is any gear progression if it's only going to be drops or if it will all be craftable also.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

That's kinda my point. As a not particularly good player (who plays with one hand and a touchpad on a laptop and does not have the fast reflexes of a 15 year old) I'd much rather do green missions than orange missions. So if I have the capability to get into 178 gear at 56 before I start the 4-flashpoint pre-Revan run, and get myself to 186 at 58, I will do that, which makes these drops rather superfluous and, since they are bound, useless. All I can do is vendor them to a droid in the stronghold. Nice gear, too! 'Cept it's too low to do any good.

 

Believe me, I understand that all people don't want to do what I do. I studied anthropology and that's pretty much ALL they taught us for 4 years straight. Don't be ethnocentric.

 

But it seems to me you are coming from the perspective of crafting for yourself vs crafting as a means to make a profit to buy whatever you fancy ( new adaptive armor, SH deco's etc. ).

 

It's the crafting for profit I think that is going to take a big hit and this should have interesting effects really.

 

I could go more in depth on why I think but might pay to wait and see for sure what changes are coming as I had planned on starting up a good discussion thread on how to make credits in the expansion crew skill world for anyone interested in doing so ( usually people keep these things to themselves initially to maximise their profit but I've got enough credits that I'm happy to share my insights ahead of time this time around ).

 

Just wanted to point out a difference of point of view I am seeing in crafting for ones self vs crafting for profit, crafting for yourself won't be affected ideally because the cost if just really the mats and it's almost always cheaper than buying it yourself from the GTN.

[Khevar]

It's the crafting for profit I think that is going to take a big hit and this should have interesting effects really.

Unless BW significantly reduces the credit rewards for dailies, people are still going to be making plenty of money. What are you thinking they are going to spend it on?

Edited September 1, 2015 by Khevar

[eartharioch]

Unless BW significantly reduces the credit rewards for dailies, people are still going to be making plenty of money. What are you thinking they are going to spend it on?

 

CM stuff people buy with CC and then sell on the GTN...duh.

 

That said, as long as crafted gear has some relevance (like MH, relics, and dyes), there will always be people who don't want to take the time to craft things for themselves, and thus a market for those who will. With the potential of a whole new crowd of new players (due to new movie) who won't have established crafters, it's really hard to predict (with what little info we have) what the effects of the reducing the number of viable products to sell will be as compared to a [probably] larger number of potential customers.

Edited September 1, 2015 by eartharioch

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Unless BW significantly reduces the credit rewards for dailies, people are still going to be making plenty of money. What are you thinking they are going to spend it on?

 

Without needing ( or even wanting for many ) to spend on gear then whatever else they want. I should reiterate I'm tlaking stat affecting crafting here - anything that's ideally cosmetic will still sell well if not better with more money left for people to spend.

 

It might also have the effect of sending even more people doing dailies etc. ( if their crafting isn't generating the income they want or enjoyed previously ) bringing more credits into the game driving inflation up further.

 

Also there could be a ton of new crafting items we've yet to hear or see to make it still completely viable. It's why I wanted to wait and see for more specific details. As it stands on the information at hand though it would certainly seem stat crafting isn't looking overly optimistic though to be fair I think the changes are a plus for the game even if it is at the expense of those crafting markets.

[psandak]

It might also have the effect of sending even more people doing dailies etc. ( if their crafting isn't generating the income they want or enjoyed previously ) bringing more credits into the game driving inflation up further.

 

Gave me a chuckle...

 

So, instead of 10-15 million a week I am making now, I'll make 5-7 million a week. I do not think I will need to run dailies...thank the Force

[eartharioch]

Gave me a chuckle...

 

So, instead of 10-15 million a week I am making now, I'll make 5-7 million a week. I do not think I will need to run dailies...thank the Force

 

Lol, if that happens, maybe I'll buy the Yavin IV stronghold and decorate it as a "poor house" and do my crafting from there...

[DawnAskham]

Lol, if that happens, maybe I'll buy the Yavin IV stronghold and decorate it as a "poor house" and do my crafting from there...

 

Sadly I did buy the Yavin 4 stronghold, and while it is very large and a nice place, it is not very functional (way too big, weird hook placements, landing point out in the grass).

 

Maybe I'll rent it out if things get too bad.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Gave me a chuckle...

 

So, instead of 10-15 million a week I am making now, I'll make 5-7 million a week. I do not think I will need to run dailies...thank the Force

 

Well the inflation would be nice for me because I currently make that every 24 hours or so at least over my toons doing just CM items ( though I spend it as fast as I free up inventory space ) so if people have more to spend they'll pay more for the CM items.

 

Besides that I was more thinking of crafting for profit as a whole throughout the entire game rather than the more minority player base who do really well out of it.

 

Still too many unknowns - it could be worse than I imagine or nowhere near as bad.

For example the items that are used for crafting stat changing items could be really popular for something new or something else really popular driving the mat prices up whilst the stat changing crafted items remain fairly unpopular due to incoming changes and barely make any profit at all when compared to mat price.

 

The cool bit there is you can still make your profit on the "something new or something else really popular".

 

I just really can't see there being much of a market for enhancements, mods and armorings after all is said and done.

 

Hopefully they release a nice detailed structure of crafting in the next couple of weeks though as relying on the mined data so far is too risky to form conclusions from but it does like quite a large overhaul is coming ... more reminiscent of prefabs.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Sadly I did buy the Yavin 4 stronghold, and while it is very large and a nice place, it is not very functional (way too big, weird hook placements, landing point out in the grass).

 

Maybe I'll rent it out if things get too bad.

 

Same and I do tend to use it as my base of operations but damn if it doesn't have the stupidest hook layout possible.

[Khevar]

I just really can't see there being much of a market for enhancements, mods and armorings after all is said and done.

As far and endgame gear goes, I believe it's going to rely on the stat differences between the next top craftable tier of gear, and what can be purchased with commendations.

 

With 3.0, the 186 craftable stuff is better than the 186s you can buy with Basic Comms, and in many cases, better than the 192 high-endurance Elite Commendation ones. New level 60 alts (with sugar daddy mains) have probably made up the bulk of the customers.

 

If the next craftable tier (208? 210?) is better than what you can buy with Basic Commendations, you can rest assured that there will be a thriving market for it.

 

As far as leveling gear goes? I find it hard to imagine the market for that ever going away. Each time something comes up that threatens it turns out to be nothing really.

Edited September 2, 2015 by Khevar

[MeNaCe-NZ]

As far and endgame gear goes, I believe it's going to rely on the stat differences between the next top craftable tier of gear, and what can be purchased with commendations.

 

With 3.0, the 186 craftable stuff is better than the 186s you can buy with Basic Comms, and in many cases, better than the 192 high-endurance Elite Commendation ones. New level 60 alts (with sugar daddy mains) have probably made up the bulk of the customers.

 

If the next craftable tier (208? 210?) is better than what you can buy with Basic Commendations, you can rest assured that there will be a thriving market for it.

 

As far as leveling gear goes? I find it hard to imagine the market for that ever going away. Each time something comes up that threatens it turns out to be nothing really.

 

We could gloss over this all day and all be wrong really.

 

My main point isn't to be basing things on how they are now to how they will be because things are sounding like they are going to be drastically different as I see it:

 

* Don't need companion gear.

* Don't need gear for SM operations (bolster). Especially if there is some sort of down grading bolster in effect - your better gear would mean nothing?

* A single main stat for all and combined surge/crit.

 

Those 3 changes as I see it are going to hit those markets massively and I'm sure there's even more changes to take in to consideration also like actual direct changes to crafting itself.

I'm not saying they will die outright of course and I'm not saying profit can't be made through crafting ( if you rely on those 3 markets now you're doing it wrong as far as I'm concerned ).

 

Leveling I'm waiting to see what changes they have in mind if any. If it's more or less the same as it is now then you're right, gear will be just as popular as before if not more so from an influx of new players.

[Khevar]

Especially if there is some sort of down grading bolster in effect - your better gear would mean nothing?

Now if this happens, you'd be right, the end-game crafting market would take a huuuuge hit.

 

But we already have PvE bolster in effect right now and it doesn't behave that way. Is there something that leads you to believe it might with 4.0?

Edited September 2, 2015 by Khevar

[Aricus]

We could gloss over this all day and all be wrong really.

 

My main point isn't to be basing things on how they are now to how they will be because things are sounding like they are going to be drastically different as I see it:

 

* Don't need companion gear.

* Don't need gear for SM operations (bolster). Especially if there is some sort of down grading bolster in effect - your better gear would mean nothing?

* A single main stat for all and combined surge/crit.

 

Those 3 changes as I see it are going to hit those markets massively and I'm sure there's even more changes to take in to consideration also like actual direct changes to crafting itself.

I'm not saying they will die outright of course and I'm not saying profit can't be made through crafting ( if you rely on those 3 markets now you're doing it wrong as far as I'm concerned ).

 

Leveling I'm waiting to see what changes they have in mind if any. If it's more or less the same as it is now then you're right, gear will be just as popular as before if not more so from an influx of new players.

 

I agree with mostly everything said here. If anything the changes in KoTFE as crafting stands now will cause its value to decline due to the stat and companion gear changes.

 

As for leveling, new players wouldn't purchase crafted gear at all. If anything they'll just use the quest rewards, comms, and drops they receive to keep their gear up to date. Not to mention if the 12x XP sticks around it only hurt the new players market more.

 

I mean how likely will it be that the influx of new players will buy crafted gear if it will only last in a matter of minutes? The exception to this will be the orange custom gear, but the cartel market will do much better due to having more options and less restrictions.

 

Really the people who buy crafts are those who are trying to twink their pre-60 or pre-65 characters for pvp. Oh and for their companions but that'll be removed after KoTFE.

[psandak]

Now if this happens, you'd be right, the end-game crafting market would take a huuuuge hit.

 

But we already have PvE bolster in effect right now and it doesn't behave that way. Is there something that leads you to believe it might with 4.0?

 

There was something that said that characters that overlevel FPs will be downgraded to get a more level appropriate experience.

 

It said nothing about operations though. Basically a level 60 entering group esseless/black talon would be downgraded to level 10-15 stats. But for those who want to run those lower level FPs solo, there will be solo mode versions of all flashpoints, whether they are "down-bolstered" is unknown.

 

I mean how likely will it be that the influx of new players will buy crafted gear if it will only last in a matter of minutes? The exception to this will be the orange custom gear, but the cartel market will do much better due to having more options and less restrictions.

 

12x XP should be going away with 4.0

[asbalana]

What is your measure of those statements? Are you talking about subs or active players? If you are talking about subs, then yes it will spike and crash. There are players out there who have already resubbed for the extras subs get. Once the content is burned through they will unsub and move on. If you are talking about active players...not so much. Based on experience, the population is stable. Yes, there are a lot of F2P and Premium account players that wander in and wander out, but roughly for every out there is a corresponding in.

 

I had in mind subs.

 

Since the majority of revenue both through sub fees and CM sales come from subs, non sub f2p players have limited value. The non subs provide two facets to the game. First, they make the servers fuller that they would otherwise be and give the illusion of a vibrant population and second they may become subs.

 

Will the expansion increase the number of f2p players? In my mind, yes initially. I have no idea how many. There are two counterbalancing forces that come to mind. First, many people have come into and then gone out of the revolving door that is SWTOR since f2p was announced. I have no idea how many of them will go for a second run through or how many people are out ther who have never tried SWTOR (many millions have played SWTOR and left the game) are still out there who are prospective f2ps. On the other hand, a shiny new expansion will be attractive to many and some part of them will try it for free. The crux is how many of them will stay for more than a few months and key to BW is how many will convert to subs and spend money in the CM? My gut feeling is that there will not be many, but I may well be wrong. As I said, time will tell.

 

As far as current sibs are concerned, how many of them will stay for more than a few months after launch of the expansion? Again, I do not know but feel that the number of those who are current subs will significantly decrease. Just a gut feeling, but we will see. Many people have posted their subjective opinions that the expansion's purpose is to bring in new subs of a different profile than the current at the expense of "expendable" current subs. I have often been wrong and hope for the sake of those who want to continue to play the game that I am now.

 

As a purely subjective note, my wife and I are founders who have subbed continuously to today. This last week was the first time since launch of the game we have logged on once, looked around and said meh, and logged off again. Part of that is the feeling that there is no purpose to continue or try to build in light of our expectations of the expansion. My wife, who has always held the position that she would be playing SWTOR for years to come, is discouraged and has started looking for a new game for both of us to play. At this point, we will continue our subs through the expansion and likely play the first nine chapters through once or twice and then unless we are wrong in our anticipation unsub. Perhaps we are expendable.

 

We will see.

Edited September 2, 2015 by asbalana

[Khevar]

There was something that said that characters that overlevel FPs will be downgraded to get a more level appropriate experience.

Ah, that rings a bell.

 

My understanding was that it was specifically for, as you say, overleveled. In other words, the storymode leveling flashpoints, not the hardmode flashpoints at end game.

 

My prediction is that the bolster for endgame PvE will be good enough to do the content, but less than crafted endgame gear, which will not be "downbolstered" upon entering the instance.

 

I've a lot of crafting alts, so my plan is to unlock as many of the next craftable purples as I can and sell as many as I can. Similar to the companion gifts guess, this could be a waste of my time, or very profitable.

 

We'll see what happens come October.

[MSchuyler]

At this point, we will continue our subs through the expansion and likely play the first nine chapters through once or twice and then unless we are wrong in our anticipation unsub. Perhaps we are expendable.

 

It is unreasonable for either players or BW to have the expectation that players will stay in perpetuity. Even for players that have been around awhile, there will come a time when they've played all classes and variants, played through all stories more than once, and effectively exhausted content. Perhaps BW's promise of regular additional chapters is an attempt to alleviate that, but it just prolongs the inevitable.

 

If they want the game to continue to be viable, they absolutely must plan on old hands eventually unsubbing permanently, therefore they must attract new players. The movies resurgence will help, but I believe the coming expansion and "simplification" of the game (Mastery only? Duh.) is an attempt to attract a class of player that is not willing to put the kind of time and effort into learning the intricacies of the game that people in this crafting forum have likely done.

 

Given how intricate the game is now, it takes a certain level of IQ to play successfully. Basically only a certain percentage of the population is sufficiently skilled enough to play it successfully. To paraphrase John Wayne: "The game is hard. It's harder if you're stupid." BW's changes may be an attempt to widen the potential player base both in terms of IQ and in terms of commitment.

 

I hope this does not backfire. I'm not sensing an overwhelming positive anticipation of the changes in crafting, for example. I'm not a "nail in the coffin" kind of guy, but there is the possibility that by making the game easier to play it will alienate those of us who enjoy the current level of intricacy. In other words, the "bar" may be only so wide and moving it downward may not result in a wider bar, but one that drops the high in favor of the low.

 

Of course, as usual, we're flying blind without the metrics.

[Khevar]

Of course, as usual, we're flying blind without the metrics.

Or sufficiently detailed developer blog posts, articles or forum posts from Bioware detailing forthcoming changes to game mechanics.

 

I really liked the 2.0 approach. There was a closed beta to test the new story chapter of Makeb, hush-hush for obvious reasons. Then there was an open beta on the PTS that exclusively let players see the gameplay changes but were locked out of story spolers. One could still see the new gear, the new changes to classes, the new crafting changes, the old flashpoints just upscaled to level 55 (e.g. Mando Raiders)

 

Heck, crafting and companion changes notwithstanding, I'd love to see what the scaled up level 65 operations are like. One of the interesting things about PTS beta testing, is that players from EVERY server transfer in to try it out. Any time I've gone to the PTS to try flashpoints and operations, it's suuuuper easy to get a group.

[psandak]

As a purely subjective note, my wife and I are founders who have subbed continuously to today. This last week was the first time since launch of the game we have logged on once, looked around and said meh, and logged off again. Part of that is the feeling that there is no purpose to continue or try to build in light of our expectations of the expansion. My wife, who has always held the position that she would be playing SWTOR for years to come, is discouraged and has started looking for a new game for both of us to play. At this point, we will continue our subs through the expansion and likely play the first nine chapters through once or twice and then unless we are wrong in our anticipation unsub. Perhaps we are expendable.

 

I too am a founder (funny thing is while i started subbing at launch I did not really start playing until I stopped playing WoW...about three months later). I had played WoW for seven years, and at the end I just realized that I had done everything I could do in that game without dedicating more time and effort (AKA becoming more hardcore), and so one day I cancelled my sub and stopped playing that game and started playing SWTOR in earnest.

 

The point is that eventually we all come to a point where a given game no longer provides the entertainment value we seek. The additional force at play is the time investment we have all made to this game. The knowledge that we have spent hundreds of hours leveling characters and getting gear and schematics for crafting etc etc etc, makes it harder to quit. Well it is time to quit when more often than not you sign on, say meh and sign off. With that in mind, my general philosophy is as soon as I feel like I HAVE to sign on (for whatever reason) is the moment I decide to take a break. That break can be a day or two or a week, but the next time I sign on it is because I want to.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Now if this happens, you'd be right, the end-game crafting market would take a huuuuge hit.

 

But we already have PvE bolster in effect right now and it doesn't behave that way. Is there something that leads you to believe it might with 4.0?

 

Just a hunch really as to if they would bolster everyone to 65, from possibly 50, for the ops or if they would meet in a middle ground. The easiest way I see them doing it is making it more or less "gear doesn't matter for SM" but even if they bolster everyone to 65 the effect of the market will totally depend on how easy it is to do the content as a 65 with the bolster in effect.

If it's quite easy ( stat wise ) and drops better gear than what you can craft ( set bonus for example ) well there won't be too much need for people to buy gear.

 

 

Psandak also touched on earlier also and might have seen something else to back it up as I'm mostly going off the blog and my opinion.

 

Also away from the bolster part I vaguely recall them talking about the way they are going to do gear drops so that gear that drops is guaranteed to be useful for your character and you almost always get some but this might be FP's only and not ops.

 

Each day, a new Story Mode Operation will be available in Group Finder, and will all drop relevant gear for your character.

 

This and in the blog the other parts he talks about gear in relation to FPs is what got me thinking here.

That might mean as your GF reward instead of comms you get a HM capable piece of elder game gear.

 

With a new GF each day and 10 ops listed on the blog for GF ... if craftable gear isn't better than that gear then ... ouch to crafting end game gear.

 

Again though depends on how easy the content is to do stat wise.

There will still be people buying of course but a lot less if it's not exactly "required".

 

For me I remember back crafting the 28's ( I think they were ) as the golden time for stat based end game crafting, everyone need them for entry into the SM ops but slowly BW has moved away to make ops more accessible and it's certainly hit the end game crafting market - already if you compare then to now there is quite a big difference though other factors can play into that.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

I too am a founder (funny thing is while i started subbing at launch I did not really start playing until I stopped playing WoW...about three months later). I had played WoW for seven years, and at the end I just realized that I had done everything I could do in that game without dedicating more time and effort (AKA becoming more hardcore), and so one day I cancelled my sub and stopped playing that game and started playing SWTOR in earnest.

 

The point is that eventually we all come to a point where a given game no longer provides the entertainment value we seek. The additional force at play is the time investment we have all made to this game. The knowledge that we have spent hundreds of hours leveling characters and getting gear and schematics for crafting etc etc etc, makes it harder to quit. Well it is time to quit when more often than not you sign on, say meh and sign off. With that in mind, my general philosophy is as soon as I feel like I HAVE to sign on (for whatever reason) is the moment I decide to take a break. That break can be a day or two or a week, but the next time I sign on it is because I want to.

 

The day I quit would probably be if they ever made a cash shop to buy credits direct.

That would completely kill the pack market imo ( supply would dry up, prices would go through the roof - probably have similar effects on CM items ).

Main reason I sub and play right now is to keep selling stuff in anticipation of when I get my next 25 empty inventory slot to buy another crate or tons of the grand packs etc. they keep coming up with. They've done really well with packs etc. imo - they keep me hooked with the gambling aspect and I don't have to spend a cent of real world money buying them.

[asbalana]

It is unreasonable for either players or BW to have the expectation that players will stay in perpetuity. Even for players that have been around awhile, there will come a time when they've played all classes and variants, played through all stories more than once, and effectively exhausted content. Perhaps BW's promise of regular additional chapters is an attempt to alleviate that, but it just prolongs the inevitable.

 

If they want the game to continue to be viable, they absolutely must plan on old hands eventually unsubbing permanently, therefore they must attract new players. The movies resurgence will help, but I believe the coming expansion and "simplification" of the game (Mastery only? Duh.) is an attempt to attract a class of player that is not willing to put the kind of time and effort into learning the intricacies of the game that people in this crafting forum have likely done.

 

Given how intricate the game is now, it takes a certain level of IQ to play successfully. Basically only a certain percentage of the population is sufficiently skilled enough to play it successfully. To paraphrase John Wayne: "The game is hard. It's harder if you're stupid." BW's changes may be an attempt to widen the potential player base both in terms of IQ and in terms of commitment.

 

I hope this does not backfire. I'm not sensing an overwhelming positive anticipation of the changes in crafting, for example. I'm not a "nail in the coffin" kind of guy, but there is the possibility that by making the game easier to play it will alienate those of us who enjoy the current level of intricacy. In other words, the "bar" may be only so wide and moving it downward may not result in a wider bar, but one that drops the high in favor of the low.

 

Of course, as usual, we're flying blind without the metrics.

 

I think there is much truth in what you are saying, but there is more to it than that.

 

Indeed, over time players exhaust content or become tired of a game and leave. Perhaps they leave for a while and perhaps they never come back. So indeed a game has to attract new players to grow or worst case stay at a steady level. That is much different than driving away players who desire to continue playing.

 

This reminds me of WOW at the launch of Cataclysm in many ways. The game went from over 12.1M players and growing to 5.6M players and still dropping like a rock. This is over the span of 4.5 years.. That is a NET loss of 6.5M players. I remember at the end of Wrath, loving the game and intending to play for years to come. Cataclysm and the changes it brought drove me (and many many others) away.

 

I don't buy the IQ argument, because at the end of Wrath WOW was as complex or more so than SWTOR was at launch. Yet 12.1M people could handle WOW with no problem. The net negative migration in WOW started after the dumbing down began. I tried WOW recently, seeing the writing on the wall here, and found it to be so dumbed down that I quickly left.

 

In the end, I don't think that metrics mean much. WOW has metrics out the wahzoo and I am sure that the SWTOR team has them as well. I have read a million and seven discussions of why WOW tanked and why SWTOR went down like the Titanic at launch. Being a participant in both games at those times, I have my own ideas. But simply put, I do not think that the current crop of devs have a clue - period. They do not know what their market wants and why people actually play their games and like the WOW devs at the launch of Cata when people voiced their complaints, they are contemptuous of and removed from their customers.

 

In the end the joke was on the WOW devs. They took something that many loved and made it into something that they did not like. Don't let the door hit you in your back and can I have your stuffz was the expression of the day. Those customers are still out there, but they are not buying a product that they do not care for. Will the joke be on the EA/BW crew with this expansion and the changes it brings?

[psandak]

Also away from the bolster part I vaguely recall them talking about the way they are going to do gear drops so that gear that drops is guaranteed to be useful for your character and you almost always get some but this might be FP's only and not ops.

 

That has been in effect for a while now. Go into any FP alone and you will get nothing but gear with your character's main stat on it. Go into any FP with a group and everything that drops will be "useful" to someone in the group; again the main stat applies. Whether the drops are truly useful depends on how geared the characters are going in. Honestly, if they modify the "useful" factor to be always truly useful - as in for example a character going into a 60HMFP in 192 and there drops 198 - that would be SOOOOOOO broken.

This and in the blog the other parts he talks about gear in relation to FPs is what got me thinking here.

That might mean as your GF reward instead of comms you get a HM capable piece of elder game gear.

 

Well realize with the main stats becoming mastery and crit and surge being consolidated and crit moving to a teriary stat, there will be a LOT of gear that would be "useful" to a LOT raid members. The only real differentiation would be if the gear has accuracy (for DPS) or tank stats (def, shield, absorb). And since a raid has to have all three roles the chances of every piece being useful to someone jumps radically.