Rumored downgrading

[SelinaH]

increased accessibility, solo viability, and greater ease of gaming experience

This is actually a very good point. As an inveterate forum lurker, I've seen a number of posts from people with significant impairments to their gaming ability -- for example, severe visual impairments (the kind that cause one to be considered legally blind, even if some form of vision is preserved) or limited function in one or both hands due to prior injury.

 

While I don't expect every permutation of ability/disability to be catered to in all in-game situations, I do feel that the core of the game, i.e., class storyline, should be balanced with ease of soloing in mind. Currently, players who have a more difficult time with gameplay in general can simply outlevel problematic content and come back to it. If planetary scaling becomes mandatory, will these folks have no choice but to group up to make progress?

[Max_Killjoy]

As I stated before -- To be blunt, some of us have spent too long, too many times, waiting around for a bunch of people who randomly happen to want to do the same mission, with a real chance each time that one or more of them will turn out to be belligerent, clueless, spastic, under-leveled, terribly-geared, rushed, screaming at first-timers to hit the spacerbar, distracted by some real-world issue they should have dealt with instead of starting the mission, and/or a *********** ninja-looter.

 

We'd rather just over-level and then go do a tour of the content we missed.

[sentientomega]

As I stated before -- To be blunt, some of us have spent too long, too many times, waiting around for a bunch of people who randomly happen to want to do the same mission, with a real chance each time that one or more of them will turn out to be belligerent, clueless, spastic, under-leveled, terribly-geared, rushed, screaming at first-timers to hit the spacerbar, distracted by some real-world issue they should have dealt with instead of starting the mission, and/or a *********** ninja-looter.

 

We'd rather just over-level and then go do a tour of the content we missed.

 

That's what I meant about vetting pre-mades for GF, so you can end up with a group from a place other than hell; thing is, it would probably take literally forever to find that perfect group, especially if you're new to a server.

 

People don't talk to anyone in the general chat, every request a char of mine made to form a group to queue for KDY (pre-May 4/5), for instance, was disregarded. And that was after much hanging around, and before I even got the chance to vet any offers. Frankly, it's not the new and ignorant players that really worry me, though they do take a lot of patient investment, I do agree. It's the infinitely mean, prison escapee-type sociopaths that really get me.

 

As for ninja-ing FP and op gear, things may be brightening up come 4.0:

 

Next, most of our Story Mode Flashpoints have been converted to Tactical, meaning you can play them at any level between 10 and 65! These Flashpoints also bolster your character, so you never have to worry about being under-geared or under-leveled, and can play with friends of varying levels. As an added bonus, each player can also receive loot specific to their Class and their non-bolstered level, so running these Flashpoints is always beneficial.

 

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

 

I don't know whether op gear will still utilise a Need/Greed system, which, I believe, has been more abused than the sum total of all power wielded by anyone, ever.

 

But yes, being able to have an opt-in mode for soloing every group content instance/area would be totally bliss, even being able to take just one or two friends along on that content, and on that op you'd otherwise never get to do.

 

This is actually a very good point. As an inveterate forum lurker, I've seen a number of posts from people with significant impairments to their gaming ability -- for example, severe visual impairments (the kind that cause one to be considered legally blind, even if some form of vision is preserved) or limited function in one or both hands due to prior injury.

 

While I don't expect every permutation of ability/disability to be catered to in all in-game situations, I do feel that the core of the game, i.e., class storyline, should be balanced with ease of soloing in mind. Currently, players who have a more difficult time with gameplay in general can simply outlevel problematic content and come back to it. If planetary scaling becomes mandatory, will these folks have no choice but to group up to make progress?

 

Precisely, and the challenge-ideologues would rather fight tooth-and-nail rather than give up any part of what they consider to be THEIR game, by advocating changes to expel those considered weak, or worthless, and then try to control how those remaining play.

 

The only time I ever appeared to try to control what players played, was when I issued warnings to friends about PvPing (WZs, specifically), reminding them that most likely everyone on their team hates them, and the enemy are probably militaristically-organised pre-mades using TS or Mumble or some such. I was worried that the Lord-of-the-Flies jungle mentality would rub off on them, rightly or wrongly; and they would devalue anyone whom they thought made them look anything but a champ. However, I always told them to do whatever pleased them, but it didn't change the fact that they could change for the worse with each PvP experience and be someone other than the friend(s) I once knew.

 

It's the only reason that aside from early curiosity on Red Eclipse, someone on the Colony managing to cajole me into it, that on Ebon Hawk I took my pre-3.0 lvl 10/11 sniper through enough PvP hell to get 900 WZ comms in order to get the Imperial Officer's Sniper Rifle (look and colours but above all, name, fit the character in question), and it was an agonising hell; only worth doing once if buying some PvP-vendor is your thing. But I did get some achievements, and nearly Valour 10, and medals kept flashing up on the screen during runs for some reason.

Edited September 28, 2015 by sentientomega

[Zoom_VI]

Or... telling yourself that you're "helping" them is just a way to justify forcing something on them, and saying "people hate change" is just a way to dismiss and belittle their legitimate concerns...

 

There are reams of things they could do in terms of content by implementing the downbolster. The only drawback you have even been able to come up with is that it offends your sensibility.

 

But hey lets limit the game just because a few people had their sensibilities offended.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Zoom_VI

[Zoom_VI]

That's probably because the GW2 system of open-world events does not require players to be grouped together to participate and receive rewards. This is a huge deal, because solo-oriented (or at the least, non-PuG oriented) players can get involved and help out without subjecting themselves to the frustration of grouping with random strangers.

 

They don't have to duplicate GW2 to reap the benefits of a downbolster system. Just think if they flagged all planetary quests as repeatable, and then made their rewards scale with the player's real level.

 

Doing that would turn every single planet into a possible daily zone.* Thus instead of only having like just yavin, you could pick what planet you wanted to do dailies on, and could switch it up periodically, which would reduce the monotony of doing dailies. Oh and that would actually be increasing choice too, something that a certain individual in this thread is obsessed with.

[AshlaBoga]

As I stated before -- To be blunt, some of us have spent too long, too many times, waiting around for a bunch of people who randomly happen to want to do the same mission, with a real chance each time that one or more of them will turn out to be belligerent, clueless, spastic, under-leveled, terribly-geared, rushed, screaming at first-timers to hit the spacerbar, distracted by some real-world issue they should have dealt with instead of starting the mission, and/or a *********** ninja-looter.

 

We'd rather just over-level and then go do a tour of the content we missed.

 

Mostly I'm concerned we'll just end up with one hundred Aurora Cannons [H4].

 

Welcome to 4.0: The Aurora Cannon Strikes Back

[sentientomega]

There are reams of things they could do in terms of content by implementing the downbolster. The only drawback you have even been able to come up with is that it offends your sensibility.

 

But hey lets limit the game just because a few people had their sensibilities offended.

 

I don't want to limit players' possibilities, that's why I'm for opt-in or opt-out down-scaling, so that people who want to treat a planet as waaay past can do so, and those who want to mentor or feel immersed in that planet can be happily down-scaled,so I don't know how you could possibly that allowing for a wider range of options would be so *ahem* limiting.

 

Doing that would turn every single planet into a possible daily zone.* Thus instead of only having like just yavin, you could pick what planet you wanted to do dailies on, and could switch it up periodically, which would reduce the monotony of doing dailies. Oh and that would actually be increasing choice too, something that a certain individual in this thread is obsessed with.

 

Not all planetary quests, say, a planetary arc, would have to be non-repeatable. The Long Cold Silence etc on Hoth, for instance.

 

And assuming we were so scaled, would our rewards match our actual level? Or would we still be getting piss-poor rewards that, say, DK repeatables would offer at lvls 10-16?

 

Mostly I'm concerned we'll just end up with one hundred Aurora Cannons [H4].

 

Welcome to 4.0: The Aurora Cannon Strikes Back

 

You know, it'd be nice to actually get a group for that, once in awhile, or else get rid of the solo-unfriendly mechanics.

Edited September 28, 2015 by sentientomega

[Max_Killjoy]

There are reams of things they could do in terms of content by implementing the downbolster. The only drawback you have even been able to come up with is that it offends your sensibility.

 

But hey lets limit the game just because a few people had their sensibilities offended.

 

 

I find that ironic coming from someone defending the position of forced down-bolstering, given that 99% the arguments in favor of it boil down to making it optional (or "allowing" people to be over-level) being too offending to someone's sensibilities about how other people should play the game.

 

 

There's absolutely nothing they can do that's both impossible without down-bolstering, and also worth the cost of down-bolstering.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Max_Killjoy

[Sarfux]

What if this is true, but they did it like GW2 where it will NOT require you to have others around to "wait" and do the quest? Would you be satisfied then? Just think of the amount of content they could do! If they made quests repeatable and planets scaled to your level regardless if you were max. You could infinitely do things as you wanted to. But STILL have your max level gear and all. But again, I will not make conclusion based on rumors. I have to see more information. Edited September 28, 2015 by Sarfux

[Max_Killjoy]

What if this is true, but they did it like GW2 where it will NOT require you to have others around to "wait" and do the quest? Would you be satisfied then? Just think of the amount of content they could do! If they made quests repeatable and planets scaled to your level regardless if you were max. You could infinitely do things as you wanted to. But STILL have your max level gear and all.

 

No.

 

If I go back to where my character started however many game years of hard experience ago, with their improved gear and large bag of new tricks and so on, I don't expect them to struggle as they did when they first showed up there.

 

The character that's been through their entire class storyline, The Black Hole, and Ilum, and Makeb, and Oricon, and Prelude, and SoR, and Ziost... shouldn't still have trouble with a few punks on Hutta or a wild dog-thing on Korriban or...

Edited September 28, 2015 by Max_Killjoy

[Sarfux]

No.

 

If I go back to where my character started however many game years of hard experience ago, with their improved gear and large bag of new tricks and so on, I don't expect them to struggle as they did when they first showed up there.

 

The character that's been through their entire class storyline, The Black Hole, and Ilum, and Makeb, and Oricon, and Prelude, and SoR, and Ziost... shouldn't still have trouble with a few punks on Hutta or a wild dog-thing on Korriban or...

 

Again, this is all just rumors. don't read too much into this Max

[sentientomega]

The character that's been through their entire class storyline, The Black Hole, and Ilum, and Makeb, and Oricon, and Prelude, and SoR, and Ziost... shouldn't still have trouble with a few punks on Hutta or a wild dog-thing on Korriban or...

 

On the other hand, if people WANT trouble with those Hutta punks, I'm happy for them to have the opt-in option to be able to do that.

[Max_Killjoy]

On the other hand, if people WANT trouble with those Hutta punks, I'm happy for them to have the opt-in option to be able to do that.

 

Oh, agreed -- if that's what people want out of playing the game, then I hope they get it.

 

IF it doesn't come at the cost of what I want out of the game.

 

 

It's funny, I keep finding myself in these arguments, where one side wants the game to be good for as many people as possible, and the other side just wants the game to be exactly what they want it to be and screw anyone who wants anything else.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Max_Killjoy

[sentientomega]

Again, this is all just rumors. don't read too much into this Max

 

Something just occurred to me, I seem to recall the phrase "streamlined leveling experience", that could mean gear is unnecessary to take on anything except the highest levels.

 

So where did the rumours of scaling down high level players to the level of lower planets come from...?

 

I don't know why BW:A would want to do that, with no opt-out or opt-in procedure.

 

It may be wishful thinking, but I think any world bolstering may well be just bolstering up, rather than down.

Edited September 28, 2015 by sentientomega

[Sarfux]

I have NO idea where this rumor even came from. . I have been searching and searching for anything even close to official for this and nadda, nothing, zilch, zip. I have no idea why some are freaking out over this. Where was anything to say anything about this.

 

Ya know....other than reddit -_- ?? Cause I have seen no information.

 

IF IF big IF they do something like level scaling for open world in this game (again I don't think they will) BUT IF it doesnt happen, I'm sure they won't screw anything up and make it great just like they have with everything else since the new crew took over a couple years ago.

 

Whatever happens, I'll always be here to support it.

 

I think some of you guys are freaking out over nothing though

[Kelaso]

What if this is true, but they did it like GW2 where it will NOT require you to have others around to "wait" and do the quest? Would you be satisfied then? Just think of the amount of content they could do! If they made quests repeatable and planets scaled to your level regardless if you were max. You could infinitely do things as you wanted to. But STILL have your max level gear and all. But again, I will not make conclusion based on rumors. I have to see more information.

 

Nope, if this rumor is true I'm done regardless. Non-negotiable. I did not spend the time to level multiple characters just to have their levels made irrelevant through a forced down-bolstered system. I can't speak for anyone else but I will vote with my wallet over this one.

[Sarfux]

Nope, if this rumor is true I'm done regardless. Non-negotiable. I did not spend the time to level multiple characters just to have their levels made irrelevant through a forced down-bolstered system. I can't speak for anyone else but I will vote with my wallet over this one.

 

Again, we need more information about this. Or need to see if it's even true first before deciding anything. I'm staying cautiously optimistic about this because I LOVE this game. I don't think it's true, but we'll see Kelaso. Then, we can go by that. I'm thinking it's just for flashpoints though..

Edited September 28, 2015 by Sarfux

[kingshaneo]

And, no amount of down-scaling, forced or otherwise, to try and increase group content frequency will improve their behaviour.

 

this is the part that gets me. that people think that it will make those of us who do not like to group all of a sudden start grouping. too funny.

 

oh well, like i said, it is all just rumor about the planets right now, so no need to get in a tizzy (yet:D )

[DJZod]

I suppose we'll find out Wednesday if scaling is in fact coming, and exactly how it will work (optional or forced). If it is coming and will be automatically applied to everyone on the planet, it will certainly make scanning for HK parts a bit different than it is now.

[Kelaso]

Again, we need more information about this. Or need to see if it's even true first before deciding anything. I'm staying cautiously optimistic about this because I LOVE this game. I don't think it's true, but we'll see Kelaso. Then, we can go by that. I'm thinking it's just for flashpoints though..

 

No doubt. My account is paid up until the expansion comes out so I will at least be here to do the stories. I just know that if I don't voice my feedback they won't know. They probably don't even read the forums anyway but it's the only stage I have to voice my displeasure.

[Deyjarl]

Your entire post was about "oh no, is it too hard for you?"

 

No it wasn't, you are being dishonest in extreme.

 

If I want something that makes me work a bit

 

Except it isn't work nor hard. And saying so isn't saying learn to play or whatever perceived insult you want to make up.

[Qui_Jon]

Yeah I doubt it too, but an official response from Bioware is required.

It would really be stupid if they did this.

But again it was a rumor I heard in game, and there exists rather a big thread about the same topic. It cannot go unnoticed by Bioware.

 

First of all NOTHING is required of bioware to respond to this, its a rumor started likely in game chat by trolls that now you expect them to cower to your demands for a response to. You don't like their silence then quit.

 

And why would it be stupid? Maybe I consider it stupid for a level 60 to want to go hang out on a level 20 planet to begin with. Honestly I think it would be a great idea, scale it down to the highest level the planet is intended to support. Then if you have a friend playing on a level 20 world and you don't want to make a character to catch up you can play with your main character with him scaled back as to not adversely effect his game play and or experience gains. Paragon Studios had a system like this called Sidekicking and Exemplar in city of heroes. It was great to allow cross level teaming both allowing a lower level to scale up and a higher to scale down. I will admit that it should be a voluntary system however since there is absolutely no reason for a level 60 to be hanging out on a level 15 world as it stands right now, I don't see the problem with forcing a system into the game that keeps your effective combat level at a point where you atleast always are in a state of being able to be threatened by the enemies of the planet you are on.

 

Third if there exists a "rather big thread" about this already, by forum rules you are to post their not start a new thread In the hopes that your opinion gains attention as a stand alone thread.

[Juromaro]

First of all NOTHING is required of bioware to respond to this, its a rumor started likely in game chat by trolls that now you expect them to cower to your demands for a response to. You don't like their silence then quit.

 

And why would it be stupid? Maybe I consider it stupid for a level 60 to want to go hang out on a level 20 planet to begin with. Honestly I think it would be a great idea, scale it down to the highest level the planet is intended to support. Then if you have a friend playing on a level 20 world and you don't want to make a character to catch up you can play with your main character with him scaled back as to not adversely effect his game play and or experience gains. Paragon Studios had a system like this called Sidekicking and Exemplar in city of heroes. It was great to allow cross level teaming both allowing a lower level to scale up and a higher to scale down. I will admit that it should be a voluntary system however since there is absolutely no reason for a level 60 to be hanging out on a level 15 world as it stands right now, I don't see the problem with forcing a system into the game that keeps your effective combat level at a point where you atleast always are in a state of being able to be threatened by the enemies of the planet you are on.

 

Third if there exists a "rather big thread" about this already, by forum rules you are to post their not start a new thread In the hopes that your opinion gains attention as a stand alone thread.

 

 

I can think of only 1 reason: To solo World Bosses.

[Max_Killjoy]

No it wasn't, you are being dishonest in extreme.

 

Here's what you said:

 

As if open world trash mobs are difficult. And since heroics are being change to be done solo, the idea that anything in open world as "difficult" is laughable even now.

[SelinaH]

Paragon Studios had a system like this called Sidekicking and Exemplar in city of heroes. It was great to allow cross level teaming both allowing a lower level to scale up and a higher to scale down. I will admit that it should be a voluntary system however since there is absolutely no reason for a level 60 to be hanging out on a level 15 world as it stands right now, I don't see the problem with forcing a system into the game that keeps your effective combat level at a point where you atleast always are in a state of being able to be threatened by the enemies of the planet you are on.

If CoH had auto-exemped me down to 25 every time I visited Talos Island for a beach party, I probably would have torn my hair out from the sheer annoyance of constant Tsoo aggro.

 

I like my hair. I want to keep it.