Operations and Flashpoints in Fallen Empire

[aeterno]

Tragic bit here is that if they just put in one new raid it'd pretty much be all smiles (except for pvp-ers ofc. lol). Now the HC raiding "scene" will rain on the expansion parade.

 

Flashpoint changes sound very good for the game. Bit unclear what the operations endgame concept is going forward but the fact that after 3 years they're finally attempting to sort out what they WANT to do with it is a positive.

[idnewton]

What about Colossal Monolith?, i understand that you need to finish some history to access him, but that can be skipped using flagship transportation making him the same type of boss like Golden Fury so it will nice knowing if that boss is going to be 65 too.

 

I was curious about that... Monolith is part of a planet of a specific level, and should be played at that area's level. But... so is Golden Fury! It seems pretty stupid to treat Golden Fury and Colossal Monolith differently. They're the same problem, use the same solution.

[DarkDisturbed]

If you cannot get enjoyment from something, then you are mentally incapable of it, by definition. I can't believe I have to explain this to you.

 

If I'm mentally incapable of watching five hours of teletubbies straight, that does not mean I'm mentally inferior to someone who can. However, at this point, I would argue that you are mentally inferior since you can't seem grasp the most obvious concepts. But note that I didn't jump to that conclusion; it's blatantly obvious at this point.

 

You realize you're the only one in this thread at the moment who's derailing the topic with pointless arguments? You should look inward, young padawan.

If you do not believe that every single one of your posts have been demeaning then you truly are living in a bubble of your own. Plenty of other posters have pointed this out to you over the past 10 pages or so that you've been posting on too. You're just mentally incapable of stepping off of your pedestal and for that I pity you because I can only imagine how your relationships in life are if your online personality is a reflection of yourself.

 

It's obvious you get off on this by the way(evidenced by your trolling in this thread to begin with), so I probably won't continue to give you the pleasure, but I hope someone will so you can continue to bring some form of enjoyment to yourself.

[Lightning_xv]

Hard Mode Flashpoints are getting love as well! All Hard Mode Flashpoints, including the Red Reaper for the first time, will be available starting at Level 50 up to Level 65. There will be a small Bolster to allow different level ranges to play together, but you’ll need to bring a balanced group with a Tank and Healer just as with Hard Mode Flashpoints currently.

We will assume the lvl 50 tank knows his class and how to tank(fat chance in hell:D). Is he going to be able to hold agro off a level 65? Me thinks no but better to ask the question now than wait and find out the hard way.

 

Curious as to why a level cap raise and new gear was needed for new story content and scaled old content? At the same time if you think I'm pugging those old raids at 65 with how people still struggle with lurker SM your out of your bloody mind.

 

Lackluster news but news none the less. Play till I get bored then move on I guess.

[johncenaultimate]

We will assume the lvl 50 tank knows his class and how to tank(fat chance in hell:D). Is he going to be able to hold agro off a level 65? Me thinks no but better to ask the question now than wait and find out the hard way.

 

Curious as to why a level cap raise and new gear was needed for new story content and scaled old content? At the same time if you think I'm pugging those old raids at 65 with how people still struggle with lurker SM your out of your bloody mind.

 

Lackluster news but news none the less. Play till I get bored then move on I guess.

 

in october, i won't be concerned about underlurker sm. The true test is EC. if you can clear ec, you are capable of clearing any op in the game. And we will see who is truly the best of the best in october. EC, the op that separates the champions from the rest of the pack.

[Alssaran]

Absolutely correct!!!

 

Should have marked my thing as sarcasm.

 

Yes, horizontal progression can be difficult to manage, but it is possible. However, the majority of the negative crowd seems to hide their disappointment behind the guise of a lack of "progression", when progression does not need to come from a new texture.

 

Fact is: Yes, no new designed operation s**ks. But it doesn't have to be all bad, if implemented right. A few new mechanics, some tighter DPS checks.

[JLazarillo]

So I have three questions/concerns. Probably some repeat after 9 pages, but:

 

1. What happens to Collicoid War Game? Of all the FPs currently existing, it's the one that most desperately needs to be "tactical" anyway (as it can really be done with almost any group already, but absolutely must have a group).

 

2. Will anything be done to balance either the fights or the rewards of the revised Operations? Nobody was doing Explosive Conflict back before 3.0, and nobody's doing it now, so what is being done to encourage groups to take on all content?

 

3. Will anything be done about Macrobinocular/Seeker Droids? Seeker Droids at least can be outleveled and bum-rushed, but Macrobinoculars can't, not to mention people who don't have the missions can't assist with them either.

[Jadescythe]

I really think a ballpark figure for when new operations content will be available would have helped greatly. Are you focusing on the story for the release and targeting January for end game content? Will it be July when all the chapters have been released? Is it more likely a bigger expansion at the end of next year? The fact that there is no mention of when we might see it leads to the assumption that it won't be anytime soon or the timetable would have been mentioned.

[Sumantrah]

No new Flashpoints and OPS??? I only say that you will kill this game with this type of decisions.

[BrianDavion]

in october, i won't be concerned about underlurker sm. The true test is EC. if you can clear ec, you are capable of clearing any op in the game. And we will see who is truly the best of the best in october. EC, the op that separates the champions from the rest of the pack.

 

this BTW is part of why I'm looking forward to this change. BW's got a mixed bag regarding operations. some are pretty easy, easy eneugh that more casual groups should be able to get in and achomplish something. others BW has made really hard. it'll be fun to have so many differnt choices.

[Alssaran]

2. Will anything be done to balance either the fights or the rewards of the revised Operations? Nobody was doing Explosive Conflict back before 3.0, and nobody's doing it now, so what is being done to encourage groups to take on all content?

 

That is an interesting question. I'd like to have that answered aswell. There are, as was pointed out, two possibilities. Either Bioware wants to make sure of that by handing the daily quest out via the GF and hoping for the decorations and new mounts to do the rest, or implement a few different tiers of sets throughout the operations. That means you have to clear EC and EV to move on to TfB and SnV, for example.

 

Hard to tell now.

[DarthVengeant]

This is good news. The game does NOT need ANY new ops yet. We just got two in December and most people/groups have not cleared either fully in HM yet. I'll be glad to go back and do EC again finally, since no one ever does that ops anymore, and get relevant gear from it. I like everything I read including being able to Solo old Flashpoints. Good move Bioware.

 

For the people who want a "challenge" in everything they do. Get off your game and go get some challenge in LIFE. Games are supposed to be an escape from all that, something fun to do. Not more stress. I really get tired of hearing people and their "challenge" stuff everywhere when life has quite enough of that already.

Edited July 9, 2015 by DarthVengeant

[BrianDavion]

Let old stuff be old. I did it back when it was on tier and don't care to do old raids I already spent many many months on in the past. No new raids is a huge blow.

 

 

See I disagree. I enjoyed those ops, but they're too easy. it'll be nice to do em "on level" again

[DarthDymond]

3. Will anything be done about Macrobinocular/Seeker Droids? Seeker Droids at least can be outleveled and bum-rushed, but Macrobinoculars can't, not to mention people who don't have the missions can't assist with them either.

Just want to second this. I'd love it if the Macro / Seeker missions, as well as the [Heroic 4] in Section X got a quick pass to make them solo-able too.

[TravelersWay]

This is the most pathetic thing I had ever read. Not only is BioWare shoving old game content at us, but they are raising all the old Flashpoints and old Operations (including the current ones) to level 65. Then calling this change, "new" end-game content. Not only is the old content the new end-game content, but to get the new "elder" end-game gear, you have to revisit the old operations like Eternity Vault at level 65 to obtain it. Also, you get the same perks in Nightmare modes as Hard modes now? What's the point in doing Nightmare modes now? This imbecile, George Smith, should be fired and anyone associated with these changes should be fired as well too. Who the **** comes up with all these pathetic ideas at BioWare? Just wow.

 

Welcome to the New Age. The Age of the casual gamer. One need only use some logical reasoning and take a look at the state of the gaming industry and the gaming community to see that these changes not pathetic (though I do not agree with all of them). Ultimately they are necessary for the future of the game considering the game's core audience as it is now.

[JumperPenn]

So what if I want to solo and old fp when I'm overleveled, am I still able to do this or does the fp force me through your gate of weakening to make me the right 'level' for the fp?

 

After the gate of weakening nerfs me do I get rewards that fit my level or am I stuck with the same junk gear that an overleveled character gets when the do an old fp? (If you aren't rewarding us there few reasons to through a nerf gate to do OLD content.)

 

Instead of just weakening solo players for meet the levels of specific fp's why didn't you work this BW gate of weakening into a toggle we could activate upon entering a zone/planet so we could run content with friends? This is one of those things we've been asking for a long time now.

[Cis_Arkh_Buel]

Relax.....they will have new operations soon after the new expansion. They have already said that they wont forget about the raid group people and they will give us all some love. Be patient, the new story-line will be fun and bring in alot of new and returning players. Then the new Operations will hit.

 

"as we release new Operations " second paragraph. Does'nt say when, but at least it says it.

[Ghisallo]

Let me explain "story" -- more story than WoW -- more story than EQ, more story than EQ2 (which I loved for 8 yrs till they nerfed it so bad and are making people PAY for new content ... even subbers, and so far only one new "campaign " as they call them, since Soe sold EQ and EQ2 to Daybreak in February ) ---

it's something different from the never ending rat race of raiding -- gearing up, readorning your gear -- etc etc etc ...... the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence -- I know, I've tried .... yes the story is the same basically, but maybe if players slowed down and got out of raid mode for a bit, they'd enjoy the game -----don't hit max level in 2 days and go slow ( oops but that's what I learned in raiding "what ? you're not max level or AA level yet? what's taking you so long? " )

and even the main man at Daybreak said ( in a very interesting post ) that the age of the MMO as we've known it, is done -- times have changed, people don't have time, or money to go into raiding like we used to in the past, and the raiders that started way back there are all grown up, with children -- priorites change folks

-- that may be one reason they are pushing their new game H1Z1 -- solo playing in short time increments

 

So, as I see it, this is not an unexpected thing in gaming -- the end of an era, and it's sad, but I have a feeling that hard core raiding is dead for the most part in MMOs

 

Actually they sold it to a Private equity firm and the SOE peeps called themselves day break. The reason Sony sold it was a matter of overall strategy. Sony has decided to focus on products that directly support SCE. The last product that SOE developed to fit that mold was The Agency which was canceled in like 2009. The sale was really nothing to do with SOE good or bad. They were wrapped into SCE a number of years ago and SCE basically said "if you don't make products for the Play Station we don't need you."

 

If you are going to tell stories as if they are based in reality PLEASE read things like Fortune and Forbes. If you did you would actually understand the realities like this...

 

It’s likely that this move illustrates Sony’s focus on doubling down on its effort to promote and grow its first party platforms as a primary concern over continuing PC development,”

 

http://fortune.com/2015/02/04/why-sony-sold-its-online-games-division/

 

And not be revealed as someone just pulling stories out of their butt.

[Trevor_the_Bruce]

I really love this news for SWTOR! I love playing the Flashpoints in this game and I've never gotten into Operations much, so the fact they improving the group finder for this will definitely have me trying out a majoirty of operations for the first time since I've subbed 4 years ago. I mostly pvp and do story and flashpoints, so operations are new for me and since this announcement, I am excited to try this out. Thanks BW for making these improvements to the overall system for flashpoints and operation.

 

A lot of people are disappointed in that there are no new operations, but I think a majoirty understand that the quality of life improvements are much needed and that after this expansion is released, it will be the appropriate time to introduce new operations. I'm very pleased with what we've got coming in this expansion. I'll be subbed for a long time in the future, probably til this game is at its end, and seeing all these changes coming I think this game will be around for a long time. I would like to see some new content for pvp (at least one new map or a new mode), and I think it would make a lot of people happy to have a few new operations/flashpoints added next year, but so far for this year, I am a happy subscriber and my brother is going to start subbing again because of the new expansion, so thanks in advance for that cause I love doing group story content with my bro.

[Rafaman]

Eh, I wouldn't worry too much. This change will reveal the laughable truth about the vast majority of raiders: they don't learn, and they don't progress. Each week they earn new gear, which allows them to move on to harder content. They think they're getting better, but really it's just the gear. This expansion will make that blatantly obvious, and I will enjoy laughing at the fools who were carried by their gear rather than skill. Otherwise known as: the vast majority of the PvE community.

 

Ding! We have a winner.

 

I can't wait. Progression groupies will be crying salty tears, not because they are clearing content, but because they can't clear content. Progression isn't necessarily about new content, it is about the difficulty of the content! Good god man, I can't believe that has to be explained.

 

Again, if you clear EC NiM at 65, then you have every right to look for newer more challenging content. Until then, shut up and keep paying your repair bills.

 

Oh and BTW, the real so called Progression Raiders, have already left this game. My guess that most of those crying will be quite happy surviving Soa HM.

Edited July 9, 2015 by Rafaman

[Eshinai]

Recycling content is literally a cheap way to create more things for players to do and it's happened in several other games, including Blizzard's World of Warcraft. However, it was introduced as part of expansions/updates, with other content being completely new along side it to keep player interest. This entire blog strikes me as announcing a summer intern is adding code for blostering players' gear in FPs/OPs, adding code for Solo Mode and buffing OPs content to 65.

 

We may as well all unsubscribe until October, resubscribe for a month to get the first nine chapters and buy a few Ops passes (they're on sale currently, btw) and clear out the 65 Ops in a couple of raid cycles before moving on to another game. There's no significant reward for remaining a sub when we can play something else for a couple of months, then swing back and pay $15 for another few chapters (DLCs?). What is the incentive to remain a continuous subscriber if we're paying for the same content? Even new players will quickly exhaust the content, where PvP and endgame Ops often become the backbone to keep players active. Individual content only survives a couple of iterations before it's no longer interesting and merely a chore.

 

The game needs both new PvP and Ops content in October. People are moving entire guilds to find more people to play with right now, and the game design is going in the opposite direction for 'story'. Groups/people will remain together by finding other activities & games to play. These groups are not beholding to Bioware / SWtoR and will leave if the group activities that keep them playing aren't improved. Some will stay for the story, and I expect they'll exhaust that and depart that well before new chapters roll out.

 

We (Raiders & PvPers) aren't asking for KotFE to be purely new content. We're insisting it include new group content so we have a reason to remain and play with our friends. Otherwise we are going to look around with the $30-45 USD we're not going to spend between now and October for another group game. Minority or not, folks were willing to pay to get new content and now we're looking at our wallets asking "Why" .

[BrianDavion]

Ding! We have a winner.

 

I can't wait. Progression groupies will be crying salty tears, not because they are clearing content, but because they can't clear content. Progression isn't necessarily about new content, it is about the difficulty of the content! Good god man, I can't believe that has to be explained.

 

Again, if you clear EC NiM at 65, then you have every right to look for newer more challenging content. Until then, shut up and keep paying your repair bills.

 

 

I disagree, it's not just about the gear, people do improve. it doesn't matter what your gear is, if you don't get in the "you die NOW!" mechanic, you don't succeed.

[BrianDavion]

Incidently did anyone notice we're getting a HM KDY?

[mr_twopercent]

Eh, I wouldn't worry too much. This change will reveal the laughable truth about the vast majority of raiders: they don't learn, and they don't progress. Each week they earn new gear, which allows them to move on to harder content. They think they're getting better, but really it's just the gear. This expansion will make that blatantly obvious, and I will enjoy laughing at the fools who were carried by their gear rather than skill. Otherwise known as: the vast majority of the PvE community.

 

 

You've obviously never tried Revan HM then. Or Council NiM at 55. What a ridiculous thing to say.

[Rafaman]

I disagree, it's not just about the gear, people do improve. it doesn't matter what your gear is, if you don't get in the "you die NOW!" mechanic, you don't succeed.

 

That was my point, and the one I quoted. The gear will not hide there is a need for improvement. Many will improve and have improved, but it will be just as glaring obvious that many were being carried.

 

Once they level the playing field, gear will matter less, mechanics more, true Raiders will be happy.