Dark vs. Light Event

[gabigool]

Hey All,

 

There are a lot of forum posts and conversations happening around the Dark vs Light Event. We are paying attention and following what all of you are saying. Our plan is to share our thoughts on the Event during the Live Stream on Thursday (https://www.twitch.tv/swtor). That doesn't mean that changes are or aren't coming but we will talk through some of the main topics then. See you on Thursday!

 

Ben

 

Would it be possible to address the other elephant in the room - the fact that there is no meaningful communication surrounding (even the potential for) new Operations?

 

We literally do not know if you have plans to release new Operations in 2017. No clue.

 

Just tell us if they are on the radar - and if so, ballpark us with when.

 

Between S1/S1.... After S1.... Never....

 

Please? It's getting a little ridiculous - it's been a year since George's post and there's been total darkness. Not one peep. Those of us that play primarily for endgame content do not want to go anywhere but every week more and more of us are gone.

 

The normalization to 65 actually hurt more than it helped our community. It actually gave the NM raiders more to do (those few of us left) but it took away the ability for mid-tier guilds/teams to work through that content over-level. They've beaten the HM stuff and there's nothing left to do since it's rare for those groups to have 8 NM capable players.

 

Going back a tier, the "Hardmare" probably hurt even more. New Ops came out that turned many, many players off due to the weird tuning/scaling. You guys said "We'll never do NM again!" but you did - you just called it Hard Mode. To try to pop some life back into our guild my team put up a Bounty on Revan - 50M to whoever kills it - and no one is even trying.

 

You guys make awesome Operations. We don't want to go play WoW or FF. We want to stay here. We're a pretty useful community to have around. We plug your game. We stream. We write guides and create videos.

 

But the people that love your Operations have run out of stuff to do. It's not about gear, it's about dropping bosses. And it's getting harder and harder to motivate ourselves to log in and drop another 2-3M in repair costs trying to help our 3rd or 4th team through some of these encounters - players that if you guys actually provided remotely timely content would be doing it, rather than banging their head on older stuff that is probably above their skill cap now that you've normalized.

 

I took a group into HM MB last night. They will never kill it. Ever. It is far beyond what they can do. But there's nothing left for them to do. Eventually they're just going to go play something else too. How long do you honestly expect people to go without new content? This affects teams... guilds.... It's pretty grim at the moment and until there is some sort of information - real information - it's going to continue to get worse.

 

There needs to be some communication besides "I can't tell you now" or "Trust me we have things planned" or whatever it is I have quoted in my signature.

 

Operations. Not non-chapter content. Not group content. Not <insert vague term> content.

 

Operations. Are they coming? If so, when?

Edited June 28, 2016 by gabigool

[Kaizersan]

Would it be possible to address the other elephant in the room - the fact that there is no meaningful communication surrounding (even the potential for) new Operations?

 

We literally do not know if you have plans to release new Operations in 2017. No clue.

 

Just tell us if they are on the radar - and if so, ballpark us with when.

 

Between S1/S1.... After S1.... Never....

 

Please? It's getting a little ridiculous - it's been a year since George's post and there's been total darkness. Not one peep. Those of us that play primarily for endgame content do not want to go anywhere but every week more and more of us are gone.

 

The normalization to 65 actually hurt more than it helped our community. It actually gave the NM raiders more to do (those few of us left) but it took away the ability for mid-tier guilds/teams to work through that content over-level. They've beaten the HM stuff and there's nothing left to do since it's rare for those groups to have 8 NM capable players.

 

Going back a tier, the "Hardmare" probably hurt even more. New Ops came out that turned many, many players off due to the weird tuning/scaling. You guys said "We'll never do NM again!" but you did - you just called it Hard Mode. To try to pop some life back into our guild my team put up a Bounty on Revan - 50M to whoever kills it - and no one is even trying.

 

You guys make awesome Operations. We don't want to go play WoW or FF. We want to stay here. We're a pretty useful community to have around. We plug your game. We stream. We write guides and create videos.

 

But the people that love your Operations have run out of stuff to do. It's not about gear, it's about dropping bosses. And it's getting harder and harder to motivate ourselves to log in and drop another 2-3M in repair costs trying to help our 3rd or 4th team through some of these encounters - players that if you guys actually provided remotely timely content would be doing it, rather than banging their head on older stuff that is probably above their skill cap now that you've normalized.

 

I took a group into HM MB last night. They will never kill it. Ever. It is far beyond what they can do. But there's nothing left for them to do. Eventually they're just going to go play something else too. How long do you honestly expect people to go without new content? This affects teams... guilds.... It's pretty grim at the moment and until there is some sort of information - real information - it's going to continue to get worse.

 

There needs to be some communication besides "I can't tell you now" or "Trust me we have things planned" or whatever it is I have quoted in my signature.

 

Operations. Not non-chapter content. Not group content. Not <insert vague term> content.

 

Operations. Are they coming? If so, when?

 

Hate to break it to you but there is no operations team anymore all the main operations designers that made all the operations we have no longer work at BW Austin all that is left from the raid team are a few guys who designed some boss fights but no one with experience in designing raids and from EA point of view they don't need to give us raids when people keep spending money hand over fist on the new CM packs.

[Lularapio]

Hey All,

 

There are a lot of forum posts and conversations happening around the Dark vs Light Event. We are paying attention and following what all of you are saying. Our plan is to share our thoughts on the Event during the Live Stream on Thursday (https://www.twitch.tv/swtor). That doesn't mean that changes are or aren't coming but we will talk through some of the main topics then. See you on Thursday!

 

Ben

 

I really hope you chiefs are planning something to alleviate the anger of people with so much time invested in this game only to be forced to level up everything again. It is not all about simply not willing to do it, but the logistics behind it.

[Alexandrozingsw]

There are a few options:

• Complete the objectives on a different server than the server where you are capped.
  

-eric

 

so legacy system is going to be cross server for this event?

[DarthEnrique]

Hate to break it to you but there is no operations team anymore all the main operations designers that made all the operations we have no longer work at BW Austin all that is left from the raid team are a few guys who designed some boss fights but no one with experience in designing raids and from EA point of view they don't need to give us raids when people keep spending money hand over fist on the new CM packs.

 

Shhh! Don't tell the greedy people they are ruining the game. They'll chew your head off. Lol!

[Costello]

Hey All,

 

There are a lot of forum posts and conversations happening around the Dark vs Light Event. We are paying attention and following what all of you are saying. Our plan is to share our thoughts on the Event during the Live Stream on Thursday (https://www.twitch.tv/swtor). That doesn't mean that changes are or aren't coming but we will talk through some of the main topics then. See you on Thursday!

 

Ben

 

While its great to get a yellow post in here, I have to ask really? Experience has taught us that this will not be addressed, points not read and you will put a PR spin on it such as the dark vs light event has shown us how passionate our players are, which is Great! Even advertising the twitch rather than addressing the issue feels a little like turning this into a PR gimmick.

 

However on the off chance you are reading and looking to respond here are some of my issues (I shall use the term people though am only speaking for myself, but it reads much worse if I write like I believe I alone should be treated differently)

 

1) Creating a list of old content objectives (many which go back to the launch of the game) and offering some gambling boxes is not an event. It is what it is a list of objectives and a chance to win some emotes! To sell it as a 4 month event is insulting and offers veteran players nothing new expect rewards many of which were sold to them in cartel packs.

 

2) An 'Event' should be open to all characters, more so if this coincides with the 5 year anniversary of the game. Some people myself included have been here since day one early access, to have the 'event' exclude anything done in this time or open to characters created in the last 4 years and few months is equally wrong.

 

3) Rehashing old content that players have been encourage to play through since patch 1.2 with the introduction of legacies, then again with double xp and then again with 12 xp, really has to be rethought. The 1 to 50 game is great but at this point anyone that hasn't played through it isn't that interested so calling it an event and hoping no one notices is a little insulting.

 

4) Tying new companions and in fact the state of the galaxy to this event and then only allowing new characters to participate is disrespectful to all the customers that have previously played through the content when they had to learn what to do, content with bugs and other issues. After 5 years we have been looking for meaningful choices and there may be one and its not open to existing characters???

 

There are more points but I don't wish to labor the point on how this is not an event and even if you accept its a list of old content plus some rewards it should be open to all characters.

 

P.S. before The Gemini deceptions launches today, if SCORPIO betrays the player in this chapter, you really need to find a new writing team. Betrayal only works if you trust someone and could have done something to stop it as it is the writing forces us to recruit her, bring her along and can do nothing to out smart her obvious betrayal. At this point along with this Light vs Dark mess you will be turning an MMORPG into a cartoon where you just watch cutsceens with no connection to any choices you can make in the game. Even Teletale games allow for some choice and change of consequences.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Costello

[UberSamoyed]

I think announcing some news on operations is just about the only thing that could slightly mitigate the anger. And, I'm not even sure if that would do much...keeping in mind that most 100% achievo hunters are also raiders. It would have to be a concrete announcement that would give players some hope to counter this match-to-gasoline atmosphere. With that being said, imagine the anger after hamster-wheeling the new event and then not getting any op news whatsoever. Or, even worse, finding out a new Op is not coming or is so far off that it's not feasible to care anymore.

 

Conventional to nuclear. Someone has got to blink here. I hope they realize that. The ironic thing is that they exacerbated the anger by creating this event. Now that I think about it, out of all these scenarios, only one works: A new Op dropping soon after the end of the event. They kinda put themselves in a corner here.

 

As I posted in January, no one likes to be strung along. Just break up with us and be done with it. If we are to believe the numbers some post, then we don't matter much to the bottom line anyways. It should be easy...right?

Edited June 28, 2016 by UberSamoyed

[Lakemine]

They did mine. Coding my ***, they make a token you eat and get it back, or manually grant it like all the nightmare achives for EV, KP and EC when those came out.

 

Dang....well then I guess either I'm more bugged then the rest of you (As my friend got all 3 of his granted also, which is what prompted me to ask.) or cursed.....most likely the latter lol. Anyways, got the response back from CS, saying "Sorry but if you did not get them granted when they were added, they were not ment to be retroactivated and thus you must head back into the flashpoint to get them again. Hopefully you can find some other people in the same boat with you." (Mind you not those same words and some more, but you get the jist.) Think asking again might be good? or I'm forever cursed?

[Lyshar]

Hey All,

 

There are a lot of forum posts and conversations happening around the Dark vs Light Event. We are paying attention and following what all of you are saying. Our plan is to share our thoughts on the Event during the Live Stream on Thursday (https://www.twitch.tv/swtor). That doesn't mean that changes are or aren't coming but we will talk through some of the main topics then. See you on Thursday!

 

Ben

 

Don't you think that's a bit late for answering simple questions? Event goes live today (depending on timezone). There are some pretty straightforward questions out there, which I am not expecting to even get answered Thursday.

 

When will the event end? "Fall" is such a vague term, knowing even roughly where in fall can help people plan their actions. Since it's unknown waiting until Thursday might not be an option for everyone as time may be short already.

 

Does the order of achievements matter? If people have to be level 25 before they do the three FPs it's not a big issue as they can be repeated (still time may be limited). But are you expecting people to make new characters just because they completed a one-time mission too early? From what I'm hearing about people saying they need to have 3 character at level 65 this is what people seem to be assuming (3rd one to complete Ziost).

 

Not even thinking about doing the last one, I just will do up to the companion tier, both sides, so all my characters should get both the companions. At least that's how I understood it. It works like that, right?

[Lakemine]

so legacy system is going to be cross server for this event?

 

No. But the rewards at the end of the "event" the companion and pet and speeders are account bound and sent out after the "event" ends.

[Lakemine]

Shhh! Don't tell the greedy people they are ruining the game. They'll chew your head off. Lol!

 

Greedy people! your ruining the game! :D:D That work?

[Lakemine]

Don't you think that's a bit late for answering simple questions? Event goes live today (depending on timezone). There are some pretty straightforward questions out there, which I am not expecting to even get answered Thursday.

 

When will the event end? "Fall" is such a vague term, knowing even roughly where in fall can help people plan their actions. Since it's unknown waiting until Thursday might not be an option for everyone as time may be short already.

 

Does the order of achievements matter? If people have to be level 25 before they do the three FPs it's not a big issue as they can be repeated (still time may be limited). But are you expecting people to make new characters just because they completed a one-time mission too early? From what I'm hearing about people saying they need to have 3 character at level 65 this is what people seem to be assuming (3rd one to complete Ziost).

 

Not even thinking about doing the last one, I just will do up to the companion tier, both sides, so all my characters should get both the companions. At least that's how I understood it. It works like that, right?

 

1. Yeah "Fall" is a bit vague. I'm guessing the end of Oct as that is the latest date they have for a event that's needed (The Gree event) and also because KotFE started in Oct of last year. Though, this is being advertised as "The 5th Anniversary!" so this may last all the way until Dec. Meaning imo, season 2 wont start until Dec-Feb.

 

2. Yes they do. Latter tier achievements will not unlock, and therefor will not get credit, until the previous tier and achievement is completed. Imo, just stager them. ie: run your republic through KotFE 1-9 and when you get to Legendary, run your imperial through Ziost and then KotFE, or vice versa. (Then again, if Legnedary is to much for people, just forget anything in that tier and do up to Eternal. (The companion tier.)

 

3. And just as a reminder, you will ONLY be getting ONE companion, not both at the end of the "event'.

[Eukof]

Have you read all the requirements for the different tiers? Have you read about the legacy gear with the 50% exp boost that will stack with guild exp boosts and regular exp boosts and the character perk unlocks? Plus doing heroics or fps with 3 others, (better yet with 65s with you) the exp is going to be even better then 12xp. And remember, the 12xp was ONLY for storyline. All these stacking exp boosts are for EVERYTHING ingame. PvE, PvP and gsf. Everything. Mind you I get the rage, I raged on Thursday night, but once I read through it again and read what some other people had said and explained it a bit better, I calmed down and found....the objectives were kinda easy. (for me to get anyways.) But then again, I am also someone who still has well over 300+ fps on HM left to run, about 3/4 of the 16m NIM left and 18k more pvp kills, so...im used to things like this. So just saying, before (or even after) raging, just read and then think through it and you can find pathways through.

 

And for the achievements? Did they auto grant you the wookie boss in Cademimu when they released that? Or did you have to redo that fp 25 times all over again even though you had 100% before 4.0? (trust me I sent in a ticket to ask if they could auto grant it ,but its a coding issue and they couldn't, most likely the same thing is going on here.) Just saying, its the same here.

 

My point is merely, if you want to make a new toon for new content over the summer go for it, do not force players to run more stuff for more achievements that cover the same content that was already covered by other achievements, its redundant, and displays an extreme lack of player courtesy. Do it... NOW DO IT AGAIN.

No I did not gain all the previous runs through Cademimu for the wook, but even those included I only have 216 left to run. So... no big deal. After about 45k achievements something like that is a small fish to fry, but having to do even 15% of those achievements AGAIN... would be a horrible miss use of time and energy.

[JabbaWabbA]

it is alarming that they keep recycling content.

[VirtualMorrigan]

Pathetic. The event is a joke, and apart from the usual handful of apologists, player reaction shows that no one is impressed. But the moment one of the two employees here posts a meaningless reply ("we are listening, we won't change things but we sure are taking your comments to heart, bwahahaha") everyone again falls over themselves and commences bootlicking to get a pat on the head.

 

No wonder BW treats their customers like that if said customers all act like they are back in school trying to be teacher's pet. Sad.

[squirrelballz]

Ben if you'e not gonna make achievements retroactive at the very least do your vets a solid and let them do the event on existing toons. This event has been mishandled and I was so excited for it to come around now I just don't want to participate. What y'all say in the livestream will determine if I renew my Sub in august or not.

[Nmyownworld]

Hey All,

 

There are a lot of forum posts and conversations happening around the Dark vs Light Event. We are paying attention and following what all of you are saying. Our plan is to share our thoughts on the Event during the Live Stream on Thursday (https://www.twitch.tv/swtor). That doesn't mean that changes are or aren't coming but we will talk through some of the main topics then. See you on Thursday!

 

Ben

I think it's good to see this acknowledgment. Thank you Ben Irving.

 

Since this Live Stream is two days after D/L goes live, either little to nothing about D/L changes or it's running for two days with misinformed players because there are changes. As much as I appreciate the post, I'm feeling like someone's blowing smoke to keep the forums quieter for the start of D/L.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Nmyownworld

[Lakemine]

Pathetic. The event is a joke, and apart from the usual handful of apologists, player reaction shows that no one is impressed. But the moment one of the two employees here posts a meaningless reply ("we are listening, we won't change things but we sure are taking your comments to heart, bwahahaha") everyone again falls over themselves and commences bootlicking to get a pat on the head.

 

No wonder BW treats their customers like that if said customers all act like they are back in school trying to be teacher's pet. Sad.

 

I don't like licking boots, they taste nasty and weird and not very good to be honest. I do however LOVE chocolate milk.

[idnewton]

Hey All,

 

There are a lot of forum posts and conversations happening around the Dark vs Light Event. We are paying attention and following what all of you are saying. Our plan is to share our thoughts on the Event during the Live Stream on Thursday (https://www.twitch.tv/swtor). That doesn't mean that changes are or aren't coming but we will talk through some of the main topics then. See you on Thursday!

 

Ben

This is the kind of post that I'm glad to see. I'm still skeptical that our concerns will be alleviated, because I'm pretty sure we understand the motivation behind the event. However, I like that you stated the attention you've paid, and that you aren't necessarily going to make changes, but will talk about the issues. While that may seem like a bad thing, I feel like if you actually have the foresight to not just outright promise changes, well then maybe there's still some hope for the game. But, still, that hope will likely die out again unless these issues are actually resolved.

 

I'm glad you didn't promise to fix them with the stream, merely address them. However, you have three options, not two. On top of failing to follow through on promises, and actually doing so... there's also a neat concept wherein you 'go the extra mile'. If you were able to actually fix some of these issues by talking about them, that'd certainly count as going the extra mile past fulfilling your promise, and I think we'd all be really glad to see that. Acknowledging the uproar is a good start. Doing something about it would be even better.

 

But seriously, I don't mean to downplay the quoted post. This actually is the right first step to addressing the community's concerns. I just hope it's followed by more steps

Edited June 28, 2016 by idnewton

[Gokkus]

Question: Is it possible to get both companions?

 

So do all the decisions you make add up, or is it per character? I really would like both companions if at all possible...dont make me choose!

[Twin]

Hey All,

 

There are a lot of forum posts and conversations happening around the Dark vs Light Event. We are paying attention and following what all of you are saying. Our plan is to share our thoughts on the Event during the Live Stream on Thursday (https://www.twitch.tv/swtor). That doesn't mean that changes are or aren't coming but we will talk through some of the main topics then. See you on Thursday!

 

Ben

 

Well im at least slightly comforted that you acknowledge that people have cencerns, even though i think you should have responded with this post the same day as the announcement was posted.

 

But tbh, it's one thing to talk about frustrating objectives and give explanations, and a completly different thing when it comes to ppl not being able to actually participate at all due to lack of server slots. Like i've said in the past: Deleting toons, buying slots or switching servers are NOT valid solutions, not even workarounds.

 

I play with ALL my toons, dont want to delete any of them.

 

I can't buy slots for RL cash atm, and i shouldn't have to. And prices for slots on the GTN are stupidly high since your announcement, and again, i shouldn't have to.

 

I can't switch servers because then many of the rewards will be stuck on a server im not playing on normally. And transfering at a later point is also out of the question since you raised the transfer costs to 1k CC

 

So you can talk and explain all you want - but more or less excluding dedicated players from an event meant for "everyone" is not something i can see you defend in any way or shape tbh. The event starts today and I'll have to wait til Thursday to even hear an explanation as to why you are not allowing me to participate?

 

Give me a server slot today and explain it on thursday tbh.

[Twin]

But seriously, I don't mean to downplay the quoted post. This actually is the right first step to addressing the community's concerns. I just hope it's followed by more steps

 

I agree with this too, only that i wish my personal issue would be communicated before the event starts...but as you say, communicating with us is very much a step in the right direction.

[VegasTheLost]

Sorry but I have to say it. Altering the requirements after go live is an even bigger blunter than the whole concept of the event. If some modification were to be made. Sorry again but this post:

 

Hey All,

 

There are a lot of forum posts and conversations happening around the Dark vs Light Event. We are paying attention and following what all of you are saying. Our plan is to share our thoughts on the Event during the Live Stream on Thursday (https://www.twitch.tv/swtor). That doesn't mean that changes are or aren't coming but we will talk through some of the main topics then. See you on Thursday!

 

Ben

 

Simply does not comforting. Even there isn't any solid confirmation about changing stuff. Either cancel and rework the whole event or go live with as it is currently and admit that this event will be a failure("metrics" will show, trust me).

[Gearmasterblitz]

Ok, I posted something similar to this in another thread, but I'll post this here too since this is the main thread for the event...

 

After reading the info about the new companions, I find it too vague to answer my question and it just leaves me confused since it doesn't solidly say one way or the other, so let me ask:

Is each player getting the companion that their own LS/DS choices in total leaned toward? Or is everyone getting the same companion based on the total LS/DS points earned across all players?

 

Because one of those options is cool, and the other option is sure to piss off a great number of people...

[tummiswtor]

Few more hours and we will see if this event bring new players, or its just some of Veterans created new alts.