These 4 threads all ask the same questions,can we get answers?

[freeoftime]

Question to anyone:

 

Taking aside the PvP requirement for a second. Do you believe that non-class companions should require effort to attain, whatever the method?

 

 

To give you an extreme example to illustrate my question. Let's say that the devs created a quest that awarded either Light-Side or Dark-Side Jaesa Wilsaam. The quest ended by defeating her in solo combat. Now let's assume further that you couldn't use another companion and that the devs roughly made her as difficult as an elite, but with much smarter use of her abilities. So as a dual-blade user, they gave her the full skill set of a 65 Shadow/Assassin without any of the artificial limitations on NPCs to make them easier.

 

Finally, let's say that in practice only 20% of the people will get her on the first try, perhaps another 60% with retries and effort, and about 20% just will never be good enough to beat her.

 

Is that OK?

 

I'd still say that's dumb as **** but if they finally remember to include a reject option I could at least choose to say "**** this idiocy" and move on were I so inclined. Maybe if everyone can agree to loudly demand that we can at least get a reject option like we should have had from the very beginning

[Infernixx]

This is an already observable effect; check out server populations on PvPcentric servers.

 

People in general don't care to PVP. They're plainly not playing TOR for the PVP, else PVP servers would be far larger in population than they are now.

 

So, why do we continue to see these pathetic efforts to try and boost PVP participation. The players plainly don't like it. And that's not an opinion, that's a statement of hard fact backed up by simply observed reality. The PVP playerbase is small, toxic and hostile. They simultaneously complain about long queue times, but actively hate on anyone showing up in their WZs and noobing it up.

 

And BW wants us to sit through that? Who thought that was a good idea? Who really thought that it'd do anything more than give a short-term boost to WZ participation followed by an even greater animosity and hatred for PVP from those who didn't even want to do it in the first gorram place.

 

Literally 'no' one is served by this ridiculously bad approach to trying to boost PVP numbers. No one. PVE players are gonna hate it and actively afk and sabotage their own teams. The PVPers will hate having noobs afking and doing jack all, at the best...and at worst, actively working against their own teams out of spite and a desire to spread the misery around.

[robertthebard]

I am just here to laugh at the cry babies that are so against doing PvP that they complain about it like it's the end of the world. The Fountain of PvEers Tears sustains me. On a more serious note being stuck on an Event based recruitment is what really grinds my gears. I don't care much for Lokin but the completionist in me demands I recruit any one and everyone. So seeing that quest stuck in my log because I had to wait for a specific event severely damaged my OCD. Please fix it because I hate it and what I like/dislike is all that matters. Am I doing this right?

 

...and I'm here laughing at the carebear that sincerely believes that being good at duels means they're some kind of PvPer. Seriously, my Aion legionmates that gave PvP here a try sincerely believe that you are all carebears. You're hiding here, in a game where it has no relevance, beating your chest like Tarzan. Tell me, how many kills does your rancor mount have in WZs? Hell, assuming you've at least had the balls to roll on a PvP server, how many kills does it have in OW PvP? None? Imagine that. So you got a completely worthless reward for doing a completely worthless activity, I guess it's true, you get what you play for. PvP in swtor is equivalent to 8 guys standing in a room with their pants around their ankles going "mine's bigger". Congratulations for being good at that? How much docking is going on?

[CloudCastle]

1) I'm ok with a couple of comps being "gated" by PVP in some way if the writers think it fits those characters. I think the method chosen was pretty unimaginative, and afk and sabotage from an outraged PVE-ONLY crowd easily foreseen.

 

2) I'm not ok with comps being gated behind other comps (at least the way Lokin is to Qyzen), and I'm really not ok with having to recruit comps that I don't want for a given character's alliance just to get a comp that I do want.

 

I thought KotFE was supposed to be about companion choice -- as in *me* choosing which comps I want to recruit and use.

 

Yes, this is what it's all about.

 

I had no problem initially when I heard about Qyzen, Lokin and M1-4X/Pierce's requirements. As long as the characters who originally had them on their crew could get them back without jumping through hoops, then great! I figured I'd just skip them on a lot of characters. I'm already feeling a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of companions I have now as is. I appreciated the opportunity to be more choosy.

 

But, it seems that's not how the system is currently set up. Making the alliance quests into linear chains is a BAD, BAD idea.

 

The story in KOTFE already has a very linear, locked sort of feel. The alliance system could act as a great counter to that, allowing players to put together a team of their choosing. It also would encourage replayability among alts because I could choose to do different quests/get different companions at each play through.

 

I have no desire to bankrupt myself getting Lokin's crafting requirements on all my alts, no desire to fight over camping sites multiple times to get worthy Jagganath targets, and I will not PvP. But that means that many of my characters, including my main, will now be locked out of much of the new alliance content.

 

People have already suggested what a better design would be. I hope the devs read it and are considering changing things.

[SelinaH]

The thing is, what you're doing isn't an official part of the gameplay. You're free to make pretend within the constructs of the game, but there are no actual mechanisms that directly support what you do. Maybe emotes? But again, you're talking human elements to judge, quantify, etc. It's not a mechanical operation. PVP very much is, this has been one of the core features since the launch of the game - regardless of how many people participate in it.

Just to play Devil's Advocate: As mentioned before, an "RP requirement" for companions could be fulfilled by X amount of time spent online in a cantina or other rest area. It's not actual roleplay, and it certainly won't convince anyone who isn't interested in RP to try it out -- but drinky-birding your keyboard to prevent AFK kick in a warzone isn't really PvP, either. It still counts, though.

 

(For the record, I don't actually support an RP gate for any companions, and I'm fine with certain companions being gated by PvP activity. What I'd like is an option to bypass unwanted companions in order to progress to the next ones in line.)

[Jadescythe]

Oh sure, that's what I hear in Fleet chat constantly. A demand for 'better' matches. Not a steady stream of crying over long queue times and the occasional gloating about how one group of PVPers totally smashed another group of PVPers.

 

Every premade thread or complaint you've ever seen is actually a complaint about imbalance. They dont' care if there is a bad premade on the other team, only if there is a good one. If cross server existed for regs, you could actually take skill into account. I wouldn't see players doing 300 DPS in matches and they wouldn't see players doing 3k. When you go to do your 20 matches, you'd be matched against players who are new to PvP as well and might find your time to be more enjoyable.

 

I would be fine with an INCREASE in queue times if matches were actually going to be more meaningful. That's the true benefit of cross-server, not decreased queue times. Sorry, I'm not your stereotypical PvPers and actually have logical views on the subject. I'm not out to stomp new or bad players, just looking to queue up for 10-15 min of fun and feel rewarded for my efforts.

[hadoken]

Just to play Devil's Advocate: As mentioned before, an "RP requirement" for companions could be fulfilled by X amount of time spent online in a cantina or other rest area. It's not actual roleplay, and it certainly won't convince anyone who isn't interested in RP to try it out -- but drinky-birding your keyboard to prevent AFK kick in a warzone isn't really PvP, either. It still counts, though.

 

(For the record, I don't actually support an RP gate for any companions, and I'm fine with certain companions being gated by PvP activity. What I'd like is an option to bypass unwanted companions in order to progress to the next ones in line.)

 

That would be pretty funny. I was trying to come up with something myself. Spamming dance x times in y zones or something.

[branmakmuffin]

So, why do we continue to see these pathetic efforts to try and boost PVP participation.

It seems obvious they feel that if enough "enticements" are added to PvP, more people will do it. They are clearly out of touch on that issue.

 

Literally 'no' one is served by this ridiculously bad approach to trying to boost PVP numbers. No one. PVE players are gonna hate it and actively afk and sabotage their own teams. The PVPers will hate having noobs afking and doing jack all, at the best...and at worst, actively working against their own teams out of spite and a desire to spread the misery around.

There is an upside: 1337 PvPers get easy kills. The more 1337 the PvPer, the more they care simply about kills and the less they care about a competitive match.

[tigrina]

So... if I understand this part correctly, even though I have chosen to not get M1-4X and Pierce because I detest PvP with a deep and abiding passion, that to access future companions, I might be forced to unlock the previous PvP-wall companions after all. In essence, requiring me to inflict myself on warzones and avid PvPers, where I do not want to be and where I won't have a clue what I am doing, and won't have any fun doing it, and making it horrible for everyone else that is there.

 

Or again choose to accept being gated from accessing all the companions I might wish to have.

 

Great. Just great.

 

Chapters 1-9 were awesome. Best time I ever had in this game. Ever. Alliance and recruiting companions -- not so much. Keep adding barriers like this and it gets a lot more not so much.

I'm exactly in the same boat as the above poster. I've been playing MMO's for over 10 years. I detest PvP and do not remotely understand why anyone would force PvP for story progression. Trying to force me is useless.

 

I'm very very tempted to cancel my sub. over this, with a not so friendly reminder that you're practically kicking out people that don't have the reflexes to PvP.

[Shipwright]

So, as I will not be doing a vast majority of the recruitment missions, is it only future companions that I will not have access to?

 

Or will future chapter chapters be essentially unplayable? it would seem a daft move, but already some very poor choices have been made.

 

Not really a complaint, I just want to know if I should even bother with KotFE as I will maybe do 1 recruitment mission. Made a "free" 60 to test out KotFE, and seeing the recruitment deign, I have literally no interest in recruiting.

 

Will the continuing chapters actually require that I have recruited "x" number of companions, or specific companions?

 

Will my alliance be deemed somehow "too weak" to continue or some such thing if I ignore this recruitment thing?Just curious. I'll cut my loses if I find out this recruitment thing is vital/integral to continuing the rest of the chapters.

[Jadescythe]

So, as I will not be doing a vast majority of the recruitment missions, is it only future companions that I will not have access to?

 

Or will future chapter chapters be essentially unplayable? it would seem a daft move, but already some very poor choices have been made.

 

Not really a complaint, I just want to know if I should even bother with KotFE as I will maybe do 1 recruitment mission. Made a "free" 60 to test out KotFE, and seeing the recruitment deign, I have literally no interest in recruiting.

 

Will the continuing chapters actually require that I have recruited "x" number of companions, or specific companions?

 

Will my alliance be deemed somehow "too weak" to continue or some such thing if I ignore this recruitment thing?Just curious. I'll cut my loses if I find out this recruitment thing is vital/integral to continuing the rest of the chapters.

 

Companions don't have an impact on your ability to progress through future chapters. They may have an effect on the content of your future story, that is yet to be seen.

[branmakmuffin]

I'm very very tempted to cancel my sub. over this, with a not so friendly reminder that you're practically kicking out people that don't have the reflexes to PvP.

While not tempted to cancel my sub over this, I generally concur. I am not going to learn to be a key binder and/or a master of the gaming mouse just so I can PvP. I remember tinkering with my joystick to get it set just right for playing X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. That was fun 10+ years ago.

[Shipwright]

Thanks for the reply!

 

I understand that they have locked companions behind quest chains, but did not know the extent of the ramifications of ignoring the quest chains beyond that.

[Jadescythe]

While not tempted to cancel my sub over this, I generally concur. I am not going to learn to be a key binder and/or a master of the gaming mouse just so I can PvP. I remember tinkering with my joystick to get it set just right for playing X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. That was fun 10+ years ago.

 

Using [ to cut to 1/3rd speed if no one died in the initial head on engagement. Good times.

[Mirandel]

So, as I will not be doing a vast majority of the recruitment missions, is it only future companions that I will not have access to?

.

 

The problem is, those "future" companions are in fact our old companions. And if you happen to like the story you probably was excited to get, say, Kira for your SW. Well, too bad - unless you FIRST spend time for activity you absolutely hate (PvP or PvE one) to get MX or Lokin - no Kira for you.

[TheSeventhJedi]

The problem is, those "future" companions are in fact our old companions. And if you happen to like the story you probably was excited to get, say, Kira for your SW. Well, too bad - unless you FIRST spend time for activity you absolutely hate (PvP or PvE one) to get MX or Lokin - no Kira for you.

 

I'm really starting to think that the developers were told to find a way to make as much of the old content reusable as possible - had to save money for that trailer. I mean, I enjoy alts - but the grind is ridiculous on ONE character. I haven't touched many of my alts, because I just can't imagine doing all of that AGAIN. Make influence legacy wide, problem solved. You obviously want us running and re-running content - at least make it alt friendly.

[TUXs]

You obviously want us running and re-running content - at least make it alt friendly.

This is something I'm shocked I don't see more of...I'm fortunate I guess, in that I've only got one "main" toon, the others are filler characters for when I'm on lockout or need to run as an Imp. With as alt friendly as SWTOR had been since launch, 4.0 really puts a wrinkle in it for people with lots of alts...but your reply is the first one I've seen expressing that.

[SkybladeDarkstar]

This is something I'm shocked I don't see more of...I'm fortunate I guess, in that I've only got one "main" toon, the others are filler characters for when I'm on lockout or need to run as an Imp. With as alt friendly as SWTOR had been since launch, 4.0 really puts a wrinkle in it for people with lots of alts...but your reply is the first one I've seen expressing that.

 

You continuously talk about how fortunate you are that all the pieces fall right in place for you. You like PvP, you only have one toon, you don't care about the characters in the story, etcetera.

 

Then you utterly crap on anyone pointing out that the requirements don't work for them.

 

They work great for you. That's wonderful. Maybe other people have a right to complain when the game design is incredibly hostile to them.

 

 

 

And, actually, there's at least one post per page talking about how alt-unfriendly some of these requirements are.

[Shipwright]

The problem is, those "future" companions are in fact our old companions. And if you happen to like the story you probably was excited to get, say, Kira for your SW. Well, too bad - unless you FIRST spend time for activity you absolutely hate (PvP or PvE one) to get MX or Lokin - no Kira for you.

 

Yep, exactly so.

 

I used my "free" 60 to make a character for KotFE; no others will be doing it. And the one doing KotFE will do no recruitment as I am not interested. I did get Yuun, but beyond that I doubt i will do any, maybe Xalek but that'll be it.

 

I like most of the changes with 4.0, a few i do not care for. This one of those I don't care for. So, I'll get what fun I can out of it by just doing what appeals to me.

[ScarletBlaze]

The problem is, those "future" companions are in fact our old companions. And if you happen to like the story you probably was excited to get, say, Kira for your SW. Well, too bad - unless you FIRST spend time for activity you absolutely hate (PvP or PvE one) to get MX or Lokin - no Kira for you.

 

And this can hurt those of us that did not go to the terminal to get our old companions back as we wanted to do through the story line and that could also be through the alliance alerts and if you don't do one of the alerts you will not be able to do it that way. As of right now, we have no idea how this is going to work in the story or the alliance alerts.

[Aelflaed]

II think pvp should be a beautifully done option, like instances & group content. But gating our pve companions behind it? Just a jerk move, honestly. If you want to create a new companion only obtainable by pvp or raids, go for it. But this is not ok. Edited November 14, 2015 by Aelflaed

[sentientomega]

I think the whole Alliances thing should be able to be done by everybody playing this game, with a minimum of aggravation for all concerned.

 

I think Hercules-film-length PvP-gating was a terrible thing to do, it really should just be enough WZs for Valour 2 (evidence of having tried PvP before the mission was taken), or enough WZs, having just gotten the mission, to cover the 65 Unranked PvP Daily, which I think comes to 4 matches, wins counting as 2 matches.

 

OR, some non-pvp way, like with Yuun, for JUST that companion and the alliance crate, no boosted influence, no extra rewards, nothing beyond the basics.

 

When you feel the need to gate something like companions behind something like PvP, nothing screams "We acknowledge this activity sucks BIG-time." better than that. It's a desperate move to save a failing play-style, and I should know, having gotten a sniper to Valour 40 in the past week. Really love that Centurion title... Once I reached 40, though, I breathed a sigh of relief, I was pretty much glad it was over, that same feeling having been emulated when my 65 sentinel had finished being curb-stomped through 20- WZs.

 

And yet, there are people on the forums who want to tighten the PvP requirement into asphyxiation levels, just because a handful of people are going on strike. Medals? Wins? Wins in a row? Wins in a row with no deaths? Sorry, but if that became implemented, then no-one would PvP for the companion(s). They really would be far more trouble than they're worth. I do my best, whatever content I'm in, should I really be penalised because there are some nasty elements out there?

 

PvPers don't need a reason to PvP, they'd probably do it anyway; it's in their blood, it's not in the rest of ours'.

Edited November 14, 2015 by sentientomega

[Icestar]

A pure PvE player forced to do PvP content to get a companion will not care about the PvP matches anyway.

 

It is not a good move to force PvP content, players must want to be there.

Edited November 14, 2015 by Icestar

[sentientomega]

A pure PvE player forced to do PvP content to get a companion will not care about the PvP matches anyway.

 

It is not a good move to force PvP content, players must want to be there.

 

In order to get a companion that has no expertise stats, I do agree.

 

So, I really think the number of PvPs required should be dramatically below 20, myself? I really would have it so it'd be just "Do the Unranked Daily" would be more-or-less what the mission would say after talking to whomever the comp is, which is 4 WZs, that sounds like enough exposure, I could totally live with that as the basic requirement. You'd have to turn in the Daily BEFORE being able to go back to the companion...

Edited November 14, 2015 by sentientomega

[MajikMyst]

I am on a PVE server.. Why am I being forced to do PVP for a PVE quest?? Why am I forced to PVP at all??

 

Does it matter to you Eric that the population of the PVP servers are pretty much non existent?? Does it matter to you that Bioware had the same issue in August, Sept, and Nov. in 2011??

 

Do not force PVP on your players.. Let them play the game how they want.. You provide the park.. We will decide how we want to play on it.. Got it??