Level synch = death of SWTOR

[Thoronmir]

great level synch battle of 2015...war to end all wars?

Aren't they all?

 

/sigh

 

All I know is that this issue seems to have had a severe chilling effect on my desire to play SWTOR this weekend ... or ever. I thought I would wait for the expansion release to make up my mind. But, for the first time in a very long time, I'm filled with a dread malaise about SWTOR. The downscaling function and its ensuing forum debate have left me ... Meh! ... about SWTOR. I've been down this road with other MMOs ... remained subbed ... logged in every so often (mostly to see who else was on) ... piddle around with crafting for thirty minutes ... log out to find something else to do. I learned that an extended break from a game can be healthy.

 

There's a nip in the air, leaves are turning brown, and I may have to turn on the heat at home for the first time since March. Seasons change and I guess it's time for me to return to Middle-earth for a while. I can always reactivate my SWTOR sub after New Year's (which is my usual pattern). And, sorry, but no. None of you may have my stuff. I might need it in 2016.

[Unrealsaber]

It's just bioware rehashing old stuff and calling it new stuff because they think that is content instead of actually making new "end game" content.

[JattaGin]

However, our guild in the discussion thinks its being done mainly for PVP. Thats the driving goal. There is a terrible touch of making sure players grind out old (as in 4 year old) content because there isn't anything new in game as a side effect. PVP still the goal overall.

 

Changes made to levels in a piss poor attempt to drive PVP on planets and keep it closer to "fair"

Changes to conquest where the best point accumulation going forward is PVP of some sort.

 

I see your guild's point. But if this would be true, it doesn't make any sense to me. Haven't they mentioned officially that only a very small percentage of players is PvPing (and playing OPs)? So why change the whole game system now for a minority? While at the same time their actual new content is solo PvE content? This doesn't fit together at all. I just don't understand why they wasted time and resources in doing this change. They could have done so many other things at the same time. A feature nobody would have requested if we would have been asked what we want to have changed. The lowest priority I can imagine. So much risk for so little gain.

 

Or is this their solution to the gold farmers problem (which definitely has gotten out of hand by now)?

[TUXs]

Aren't they all?

 

/sigh

 

All I know is that this issue seems to have had a severe chilling effect on my desire to play SWTOR this weekend ... or ever. I thought I would wait for the expansion release to make up my mind. But, for the first time in a very long time, I'm filled with a dread malaise about SWTOR. The downscaling function and its ensuing forum debate have left me ... Meh! ... about SWTOR. I've been down this road with other MMOs ... remained subbed ... logged in every so often (mostly to see who else was on) ... piddle around with crafting for thirty minutes ... log out to find something else to do. I learned that an extended break from a game can be healthy.

 

There's a nip in the air, leaves are turning brown, and I may have to turn on the heat at home for the first time since March. Seasons change and I guess it's time for me to return to Middle-earth for a while. I can always reactivate my SWTOR sub after New Year's (which is my usual pattern). And, sorry, but no. None of you may have my stuff. I might need it in 2016.

Hurry back please...your wit and humor will be noticeably absent.

[Frenesi]

Aren't they all?

 

 

And, sorry, but no. None of you may have my stuff. I might need it in 2016.

 

At least let us borrow it

 

On topic - no, you can't make level sync optional. Read this part again. YOU CAN'T. It simply will not be used by the majority => become completely useless and pointless. You either introduce the system, or you don't. Pick one side and stop playing that stupid "everybody should benefit" game.

 

I'm actually on the side of the system. It's present in GW2 and works like a charm. I can even - BEHOLD THE IMPOSSIBLE - help my friend level new character on my max level. And yes, becouse of huge skills arsenal and stat pool, I still can one-shot most of trash, while still encountering some entertaining challenges here and there.

 

And since there is no reason to assume it will work any different here, I see it as positive, or at least neutral, thing. As for money farming - it will even up. Hell, maybe you would be able to buy something on GTN for less than 1M.

[K_osss]

I remain skeptical of sensationalist headlines like the thread title. And while I didn't read the entire thread I think there are a number of arguments that can be made for the changes as well.

[JattaGin]

All I know is that this issue seems to have had a severe chilling effect on my desire to play SWTOR this weekend ... or ever. I thought I would wait for the expansion release to make up my mind. But, for the first time in a very long time, I'm filled with a dread malaise about SWTOR.

 

Exactly this is what happened to me as well. The last weeks and even months with all the lack of info, now waiting for nearly 2 weeks for the promised blog post about "streamlined leveling" which is not coming, have already destroyed a good portion of my love for Swtor. Now I feel just completely desillusioned. Whether or not this is just exaggeration from me, does not matter.

 

BW had so much time to prepare us for this with proper communication. Every day I check the dev tracker. Every day I am disappointed. I don't care about watching other people playing this game and streaming this online. I want information which helps me understand what direction this game is going. 3 weeks only left and my only feeling currently left is why did I just spent 40 Euros for this stupid Amazon bundle with 90 days sub time. I thought that this would provide me with enough time to enjoy KotFE. But right now, I feel so disconnected from this game thanks to the lack of communication and this forced, not necessary, feature, that I - for the first time ever since 2011 - am thinking about finally ending this game for good. Do I really care for the Zakuuls? Right now, I have to answer this with no.

 

I figure once more blogs / streams / on-live gameplay show those reasons we will understand the reasoning better.

 

You mean like the plenty of helpful blogs they have presented us during the last 3 months? The blogs that prepared everyone well in advance what 4.0 would bring? No. Because there were no such blogs (class changes and OPs aside). And now it is too late. The damage is done. Instead of spending one hour of his time to write a short blog about e. g. level sync in e. g. July or August, they plant the bomb less than a month before the game starts. Don't they really understand anything about B2C communication? I don't get them.

 

TL;DR: The damage is done, because of fail of communication.

[Rafaman]

Exactly this is what happened to me as well. The last weeks and even months with all the lack of info, now waiting for nearly 2 weeks for the promised blog post about "streamlined leveling" which is not coming, have already destroyed a good portion of my love for Swtor. Now I feel just completely desillusioned. Whether or not this is just exaggeration from me, does not matter.

 

BW had so much time to prepare us for this with proper communication. Every day I check the dev tracker. Every day I am disappointed. I don't care about watching other people playing this game and streaming this online. I want information which helps me understand what direction this game is going. 3 weeks only left and my only feeling currently left is why did I just spent 40 Euros for this stupid Amazon bundle with 90 days sub time. I thought that this would provide me with enough time to enjoy KotFE. But right now, I feel so disconnected from this game thanks to the lack of communication and this forced, not necessary, feature, that I - for the first time ever since 2011 - am thinking about finally ending this game for good. Do I really care for the Zakuuls? Right now, I have to answer this with no.

 

 

 

You mean like the plenty of helpful blogs they have presented us during the last 3 months? The blogs that prepared everyone well in advance what 4.0 would bring? No. Because there were no such blogs (class changes and OPs aside). And now it is too late. The damage is done. Instead of spending one hour of his time to write a short blog about e. g. level sync in e. g. July or August, they plant the bomb less than a month before the game starts. Don't they really understand anything about B2C communication? I don't get them.

 

TL;DR: The damage is done, because of fail of communication.

 

But the think is... there is no damage. Lol. Level sync improves the game. It doesn't take anything away.

[TUXs]

But the think is... there is no damage. Lol. Level sync improves the game. It doesn't take anything away.

From YOU, sure...not everyone. It does inhibit some players ability to complete things. Apparently not everyone agrees with you. Go figure huh?! Just like those jerks who didn't like 12xXP...but they were given a way to remove it.

Edited October 1, 2015 by TUXs

[Paktaii]

no, you can't make level sync optional. Read this part again. YOU CAN'T. It simply will not be used by the majority => become completely useless and pointless.

 

So, why are they going to implement this "feature" when nobody would use it if it would be optional?

The most posts i was reading are against this "feature".

I think this discussion will go on till they make it optional. Then their "feature" will be completely useless and pointless.

So, again, why do they implement this?

[MillionsKNives]

At least let us borrow it

 

On topic - no, you can't make level sync optional. Read this part again. YOU CAN'T. It simply will not be used by the majority => become completely useless and pointless. You either introduce the system, or you don't. Pick one side and stop playing that stupid "everybody should benefit" game.

 

I'm actually on the side of the system. It's present in GW2 and works like a charm. I can even - BEHOLD THE IMPOSSIBLE - help my friend level new character on my max level. And yes, becouse of huge skills arsenal and stat pool, I still can one-shot most of trash, while still encountering some entertaining challenges here and there.

 

And since there is no reason to assume it will work any different here, I see it as positive, or at least neutral, thing. As for money farming - it will even up. Hell, maybe you would be able to buy something on GTN for less than 1M.

 

What a stellar sales pitch for the system. "It's a system so good that if we didn't force it down your necks then none of you would even want to use it."

 

Yet you contradict yourself in the next paragraph. You'd want it even if it was optional because it lets you help your friend level. So much for nobody using it if it was optional.

[azudelphi]

You mean like the plenty of helpful blogs they have presented us during the last 3 months? The blogs that prepared everyone well in advance what 4.0 would bring? No. Because there were no such blogs (class changes and OPs aside). And now it is too late. The damage is done. Instead of spending one hour of his time to write a short blog about e. g. level sync in e. g. July or August, they plant the bomb less than a month before the game starts. Don't they really understand anything about B2C communication? I don't get them.

What exactly was the status of the level-sync feature in July or August? Because quite frankly I don't know. I know that there are protocols for when features are published to the public. I can only assume that the protocols that have restricted information release in the past are the same protocols that restrict information release now. But let's assume they had told us about this 2 months ago... would it change anything? Could it change anything? Are there pieces of the puzzle we aren't seeing? My hunch, is that we may not fully understand the decision because there is more going on than remains to be seen. My second hunch is that people saying they wish they had been told sooner are really just inflating the importance of their personal opinion and think that had they been given a chance to gripe sooner that something may have changed. Maybe it would change, maybe it wouldn't.

 

I stand by my approach. See what else is connected to this decision, try it out on live, then determine enjoyment factor and subscription status accordingly.

Edited October 1, 2015 by azudelphi

[TUXs]

no, you can't make level sync optional. Read this part again. YOU CAN'T. It simply will not be used by the majority => become completely useless and pointless.

Please help me understand your mentality...

 

Bioware is forcing a system upon everyone, that you even confess, the vast majority would never toggle on if it were optional. How the **** is that a good thing???

[ELRunninW]

This is horrible idea, make it optional!

[azudelphi]

Please help me understand your mentality...

 

Bioware is forcing a system upon everyone, that you even confess, the vast majority would never toggle on if it were optional. How the **** is that a good thing???

While I am certainly not in either camp claiming that this is good or bad, I think the argument made by Frenesi is a god-awful one...

Edited October 1, 2015 by azudelphi

[Neglience]

It is good for BW because BW is under the impression more "content "= good. Even if it is just recyclyed stuff.

It does not matter for BW what the players want.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Neglience

[Quraswren]

I see your guild's point. But if this would be true, it doesn't make any sense to me. Haven't they mentioned officially that only a very small percentage of players is PvPing (and playing OPs)? So why change the whole game system now for a minority? While at the same time their actual new content is solo PvE content? This doesn't fit together at all. I just don't understand why they wasted time and resources in doing this change. They could have done so many other things at the same time. A feature nobody would have requested if we would have been asked what we want to have changed. The lowest priority I can imagine. So much risk for so little gain.

 

Or is this their solution to the gold farmers problem (which definitely has gotten out of hand by now)?

 

Could be gold farmers but I doubt it.

We think it's a phase one type thing. Get this epic story rolling out but how to do placate PVP and PVE end game till later?

 

You band-aide their crap togther with some half-*****ed design like down grading there levels and rehashing some really old PVE content and some solo modes.

 

This down grading player thing isn't interesting enough to keep our gamers in game, not for any length of time anyway. At least with it being optional they could go back to old areas without the hassle of some worthless challenge they didn't want in the first place as they killed time. To bad there is no reason to stay and kill time. There isn't anything new to do. IT's an ugly snake eating it's tail.

 

A whole lot wrong is happening in SWTOR as we move into the so called expansion. I see a good amount of neat stuff but the bad just outweighs the good.

[Uruare]

I think it's safe to say that most people don't care one way or the other about a toggle to turn it on or off.

 

Which is why no one really cares. Toggle, no toggle, it doesn't really matter.

 

As to the Dev, I trust if they make it mandatory for syncing that they have a reason for it and aren't refusing to put in a toggle just to make a handful of forum posters freak out and threaten to quit.

 

And I trust that their reasoning is solid.

 

I trusted Bioware to make Dragon Age 2 be something as cool as DA1 was. Trust broken.

 

I trusted Bioware to do a good job with the grand finale of Mass Effect 3. They not only failed to do a good job, they went full frotzing French Arthouse and made it some ultrafail 'interpreted art' ending that couldn't have failed harder if they'd deliberately set out to screw it up. It took a huge global effort to get them to finally, begrudgingly add to it just a tiny bit, though the Bedgrudging was total and they didn't actually make it good. Just less 'What the frotz is this even I don't what?'

 

So, they did a much better job with Dragon Age: Inquisition. Some faith restored for that - evidence that they can both learn and try to up their game. Full honors restored? Nuh uh. Some. Broken trust is harder to fix than it is to break in the first place like that.

 

Mass Effect? I don't even care if they add more to the franchise now. I really just don't. It was good while it was good, but they took the grand finale and made it into something only Van Gogh could've appreciated.

 

Imagine Episode 3 of the original Star Wars trilogy ending with an abstract montage of Luke's companions fleeing the Death Star, some poignant music and absolutely no closure what so ever as to what even happens with Vader or if Luke even lives or dies or what, but there's Han and Leia and C-3P0 standing outside the wreck of the Falcon, looking off at some hope-filled artsy-fartsy sunrise wile an upbeat swell of the music reminiscent of some Lion King Circle of Life BS crescendos and bam, the end, roll credits.

 

The point I'm trying to make here? Bioware can fail, and when they do, they like to fail big.

 

I mean, look at this very game. SWTOR: the most expensive example of folly, hubris and mediocrity in the MMO scene at the time of its launch. You bet its gotten much better since, but we're still mired in an engine of sheer mediocrity with both hands firmly grasping the increasingly distant past of World of Warcraft's Burning Crusade era baseline mechanisms.

 

Bioware almost literally went digging through Blizzard's garbage and put Star Wars skins on it to make this game. If they'd have actually spent the fabulously enormous budget for this game wisely and tried to make a game that wasn't throwing itself into the past for reasons unbeknownst to quite possibly anybody, we could have been playing a much better game.

 

But this is what you get when hundreds of millions of dollars is thrown at mismanagement and some unquantifiable severity of ego and conflicting direction. Here we sit forevermore on a second-rate engine in a game that tanked so hard that it had to go free to play in the first year just to keep the servers on.

 

Here we sit in a game made by people that, for whatever reason, seem very intent on putting the lion's share of everything neat in gambling addicts' CC Market boxes because whatever, need to make money, who the crap even actually cares anymore.

 

And you have the audacity to plug your faith in Bioware as though its even merited, let alone representative of anything other than sheer folly?

 

Your faith is misplaced. They don't always have good reasons no matter that they always act like they think they do and when they screw up, they're too proud to apologize or even necessarily try to fix it because, as far as I can tell, that'd be admitting failure, and the first rule of being a giant failure in corporate business is that you never apologize and you never admit failure.

 

You forge ahead. Failure doesn't exist in your vocabulary. You never admit setbacks to the public and you deny through absolute silence every single thing that doesn't fit with your projections' narrative.

 

You have faith in that? You trust that?

 

Because I don't trust that very much at all.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Uruare

[Neglience]

 

Or is this their solution to the gold farmers problem (which definitely has gotten out of hand by now)?

 

How should this be a way to fight gold farmers? central quest hub with adaptive level quests with rewards and instant teleport is a dream of every bot maker. This will be massively used by farmers.

[Rafaman]

From YOU, sure...not everyone. It does inhibit some players ability to complete things. Apparently not everyone agrees with you. Go figure huh?! Just like those jerks who didn't like 12xXP...but they were given a way to remove it.

 

I really don't need anyone to agree with me, but the hysterical fanaticism you seem to be condoning is what kills really good improvements to an already watered down game. This level sync will not be a big deal because as has already been demonstrated, players will still be OP enough to do most of the things they want to do. You will be able to solo heroics if you want. Trash will not be a problem. etc.

 

But it also means that things that were not meant to be solo'ed are back in line like WBs. And mentoring new players, the real benefit will actually be a reality. Other games like EQ2 have this in place and it is a great success.

 

No, there is no damage here. I'm not sure why you think this is just another option taken away from players. It really isn't at all. Players can still play the way they want, but they won't be in god mode.

 

BW, don't capitulate to this fear and hand-wringing. Launch it as is, then come back then come back and evaluate things later.

 

My guess is that think\gs will calm down as we head toward the holiday season and this will be only relevant to forum warriors. Everyone else will have moved on.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Rafaman

[_NovaBlast_]

Hi All,

 

Given the similarity between several of the level-sync threads, we've decided to merge them into a single thread here. Please consider that if you want to discuss a topic, and if it's already very similar to another thread, to simply post in the thread that's already active rather than creating a new thread discussing the same topic. Keeping posts in a single thread makes for an easier time of reading for all.

 

And, as always, while we encourage constructive criticism and civil debate, please keep it respectful.

 

Best,

CommunitySupport

 

Thanksyou for cleaning up all the forum spam.

Edited October 1, 2015 by _NovaBlast_

[Highlandscot]

Hi All,

 

Given the similarity between several of the level-sync threads, we've decided to merge them into a single thread here. Please consider that if you want to discuss a topic, and if it's already very similar to another thread, to simply post in the thread that's already active rather than creating a new thread discussing the same topic. Keeping posts in a single thread makes for an easier time of reading for all.

 

And, as always, while we encourage constructive criticism and civil debate, please keep it respectful.

 

Best,

CommunitySupport

 

That's it? Over 1200 posts on the subject, and BioWare's "big" move is to combine all the threads? Nothing about, "expect some more information and clarification on this obviously controversial issue on Friday"?

 

While I'm asking, when ARE we going to get some serious information on the game changes? October 19th in the patch notes, AFTER everyone has paid subs for the last 4 months, so if subscribers decide to bail, it'll just be, "Hey, thanks for the cash, suckers!" ?

[Bakakiba]

That's it? Over 1200 posts on the subject, and BioWare's "big" move is to combine all the threads? Nothing about, "expect some more information and clarification on this obviously controversial issue on Friday"?

 

While I'm asking, when ARE we going to get some serious information on the game changes? October 19th in the patch notes, AFTER everyone has paid subs for the last 4 months, so if subscribers decide to bail, it'll just be, "Hey, thanks for the cash, suckers!" ?

 

"Sucker" is appropriate if you paid for four months and didn't actually do anything other than wait for 4.0.

[astrobearx]

Hi All,

 

Given the similarity between several of the level-sync threads, we've decided to merge them into a single thread here. Please consider that if you want to discuss a topic, and if it's already very similar to another thread, to simply post in the thread that's already active rather than creating a new thread discussing the same topic. Keeping posts in a single thread makes for an easier time of reading for all.

 

And, as always, while we encourage constructive criticism and civil debate, please keep it respectful.

 

Best,

CommunitySupport

 

how about you guy talk about the P2W crew skills crap?!:mad::mad::mad:

[azudelphi]

how about you guy talk about the P2W crew skills crap?!:mad::mad::mad:

Because it isn't P2W. Doesn't warrant a response.

Edit: Also very off-topic for this thread. Now shoo...

Edited October 1, 2015 by azudelphi