New Pack Opening Experience

[Pietrastor]

This comment is meaningless. The cartel team is not the operations team. It is not the PvP team. The cartel team is responsible for changing and maintaining the cartel market, and that's precisely what they did. The item stash is actually a welcome improvement. Having items clutter the inventory and cargo hold is annoying, and waiting for a bind timer to move blasters/lightsabers/mounts is annoying.

 

This QoL, while maybe minor in the grand scheme of things, is a nice little improvement.

 

The cartel market looked for ways to improve the CM, and they did. Complaining that the CM wasted time doing exactly what they were told to do is hilarious.

The UI team or whoever is responsible for it certinately isn't working on improving and developing UI features for the core game though if they're busy making new Cartel Pack opening UI experience. That means stuff like improved Social Window/features, cross-faction UI for guilds, 1-click respeccing and gear swapping along with quickbar arrangemenets or Chat Bubbles are NOT being developed because people who could do it are busy with Cartel Opening experience.

[Alssaran]

The UI team or whoever is responsible for it certinately isn't working on improving and developing UI features for the core game though if they're busy making new Cartel Pack opening UI experience. That means stuff like improved Social Window/features, cross-faction UI for guilds, 1-click respeccing and gear swapping along with quickbar arrangemenets or Chat Bubbles are NOT being developed because people who could do it are busy with Cartel Opening experience.

 

And you assume that the UI and coding team is so understaffed that they can always only work with full-force on one small project, and not designate smaller teams within the structure to work on different things, because? Insider knowledge? Team reports?

[Pietrastor]

because? Insider knowledge? Team reports?

Glacial pacing of any new or improved UI features getting released aint good answer enough? If they were rolling out big UI changes every few months I wouldn't doubt a Cartel Pack opening flashy animations don't mean much in a grand scheme of developement. But that has not been the case. UI improvements, changes and additions have been very sparse and some key features are still missing despite nearly 5 year anniversary

 

I also like how you act as if YOU had insidr knowledge that they're totally got tons of sparse manpower lol

Edited August 2, 2016 by Pietrastor

[DarkSaberMaster]

As I said before. The CM is the game. Everything else is just sidebar conversation white noise. Smh.

[Reedek]

To your first question, yes they will! To your second question, the answer is sort of. Any unopened DvL Packs which you have currently will open through the new pack opening after 4.7, allowing them to go into the Legacy Stash. This will have no effect on already opened packs or items which have been removed.

 

As a note, these changes will also effect any older packs which you may currently have, or that come back to the CM.

 

Thanks!

 

-eric

 

Hi Eric,

 

I am disappointed that you didn't decide to tell us of this potential feature (even if it was still in development) in your June 30th post. In fact, you stated (emphasis added):

 

• Dark Vs Light Pack bind rules - The reason we chose to go with BoP over BoL for these items is Collections. Currently, BoL items do not work towards a Collection unlock. If we had the items be BoL then you could not have combined the event packs with any other items to complete a Collection set. We agree this is not optimal and we are working on ways to solve this moving forward.
  

 

The wording "moving forward" made it appear that there was nothing that could be done with the DvL event packs. This made many people open their packs that would have otherwise waited if we knew this feature would be available soon. Now, we have BoP items that could have been in this system if it was stated earlier. I think anyone who opened DvL packs based on these assumptions should be compensated a few additional DvL packs (perhaps 25% of the packs they opened) because of this--it looks to many as unfair that you didn't mention it when questions were asked about this.

[Alssaran]

Glacial pacing of any new or improved UI features getting released aint good answer enough?

 

The game has went through tons of UI and control improvements since release. This game has no odd pacing when compared to most other MMORPGs. Only when comparing this game to WoW, a game that can have an immense development team and be the norm out of standard MMORPGs, the UI improvements pale in comparison.

 

Even "fixing" and improving the UI does not only take a single team, but an effort of multiple people in other departments. The entire UI department will never work on the same thing at the same time, as well as being completely reliable on the entirety of a different team. It's possible that a very minor portion of the UI team was working with one or two of the code developers and an animation designer to come up with this change, while at the same time other animators/designers/programmers/UI artists were working on completely different stuff.

 

Your entire post assumes that an entire part of the development team (in a single category of development) work on only one project at a time, and that the progress is completely singular down a straight line. It's much more likely that a studio such as BW has multiple departments for different jobs, and individual people work on individual projects with the coordination of a designer.

 

I also like how you act as if YOU had insidr knowledge that they're totally got tons of sparse manpower lol

 

I do work part-time in an IT company. I can assure you that the cases where our entire coding or database engineering team work on the very same feature in our software are scarce. We have a database department, and even within said department, the individual workers might not work the same project at all times. Some people are working with the UI guys to improve query functions, some others are cleaning up the database, and two others are improving the data storage.

 

I do not believe they have spare manpower. That would be wrong. Having too much spare manpower and redundant workers would not be cost efficient.

 

I'm saying that your assumption that they have five animators, and all five animators have been working at this CM animation for the past month, is simply wrong. That's where this complaint was coming from. "An animator has worked a month to make this! Total bullsh*t! Put him to the other twelve who are working on KotET!" It's much more likely that multiple animators, software programmers and designers are working on KOTET, and one or two animators were told to assist the CM team in making this new feature.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Alssaran

[DarthDymond]

'meh.

 

So taken in a vacuum, I think this looks nice, I will definitely like having it (particularly for the DvL Packs), and I seriously doubt the development of any real features was delayed or cancelled over implementing it... but ... yeah, I really can't blame anyone for saying that this just gives a strong impression that the CM is disproportionately important to the game.

 

My point isn't "Damn you BW! All you care about is your Cartel junk!!" because I think that's a serious oversimplification, my point is that if BW knows that there is a perception floating around out there that the only thing they are about is the CM, then maaaaybe they should have given some more thought to managing that perception a bit better.

[JWagner]

So... The 30ish crates I already opened will still have the partial gear sets in my cargo bay... Shucks. Guess I'll forever have partial gear sets...

[Pscyon]

Bravo.

[AlienEyeTX]

To the people who are hating on this change and saying they should have been working on (insert favorite part of the game here) instead: You don't know which people work on what or why they are assigned to their particular task. There is no need to poo-poo this change because something else is bothering you. The fact is, this is a good, useful, change that they have made.

 

I am always happy to see something change for the better, even if it isn't the thing I wanted most. This is a good thing they did.

[higginsjf]

Looking forward to trying this out. Key thing mean may be no more chance cubes:eek:

[Arthuriuan]

I like the change, but wish it was retroactive. I have several toons which are just bank toons for cartel stuff I don't want to just destroy. I did, after all, spend real world dollars on that stuff. Is there any chance of older items which came out of Cartel Market Packs ever being able to be placed into the Stash? I would really like to clean up my inventory and get rid of those toons.

 

And don't try that "It would take up too much space in the database." stuff. The items are already there and already exist in the database, I would just like to place them into a new folder.

[merovejec]

ROFL, you just keep adding nails to your coffin Bioware. So this is really the path you chose? Just make money out of CM stuff? Inhance the experience of opening packs?? ARE YOU SERIOUS??

 

Im waiting for the sub to expire and then you wont see me again!

[DarthWoad]

An all new flashy way to throw away your money! It's fantastic!

[Kauzer]

This is ********. No one cares about boxing interface. Fix priority operations and give us new ops. This game holds only on pve players, feed them, otherway you gona loose subs like in 2012...

[MishraArtificer]

Hm...oh, Goodsir Musco? Might we be able to add non-Cartel Pack items to the Item Stash one day, mayhap for a small CC fee? I have some old rifles and pistols from the Tionese vendor (yes, really) that I'd like to move around to other characters.

[tummiswtor]

You don't know which people work on what or why they are assigned to their particular task. QUOTE]

 

Looks like they fired all people who's working on group content. There's only 2 groups

- KotFE/KotET chapters group

- Cash shop things.

 

And still a lot of bugs and for example half of codex doesn't work (one player did a special thread and 40/300 or something like that is repaired since SWTOR started)

Edited August 3, 2016 by tummiswtor

[Nastrodamus]

This is what you all spend your time on? Not the 16 man Ops multiple instances bug or new team content, but a shiny new interface for those who choose to spend more than the subscription price per month? What do we actually get out of our subscription fee? Where are those dollars going? Where is proof of any sort of investment in the future of the actual gameplay we experience? Absolutely pathetic.

[merovejec]

Why not include a new operation in the new Packs?? You open the pack and if you get the operation you click it and it will be available to you

[tummiswtor]

This is what you all spend your time on? Not the 16 man Ops multiple instances bug or new team content, but a shiny new interface for those who choose to spend more than the subscription price per month? What do we actually get out of our subscription fee? Where are those dollars going? Where is proof of any sort of investment in the future of the actual gameplay we experience? Absolutely pathetic.

 

SWTOR 5 years ago

A Star Wars game that You choose one of great class story and have a great adventure! Many updates! Group Content! Full servers!

 

SWTOR 2016

A single player gambling game very smilar to C*** bet sites. You put into game a money and have chance to win something. By the way You can play 5 year old content with 1/4 of players that still remaining.

 

SORRY but everyone say how KotFE is great (yeah story is:)) but tell me why everyday there's less ppl on servers...

I call players to go any ops and no one want to go becouse everyone is bored.

 

Maybe by some of my posts it look I dont care about swtor but i really, really wish them best, but if no one say it, they will never listen to players. I never say anything wrong about SWTOR in my first 2 years of playing until now.

[LordMairsil]

I actually like the concept of the stash, it was always very annoying to have to wait two days before you could sent pack items to the right characters, and to have to juggle inventory space.

 

It's also great news for the DvL packs, the only sad thing is that the timing punishes people who embraced the new event, and already opened their first 25 boxes. It would be a lovely gesture for Bioware to simply send people another set of boxes if they've already completed one or more DvL achievements. There's practically no cost to doing so, and it would mean the early achievers get a little extra reward (in the form of their already-bound rewards) instead of a penalty for being early.

[DZechman]

Hm...oh, Goodsir Musco? Might we be able to add non-Cartel Pack items to the Item Stash one day, mayhap for a small CC fee? I have some old rifles and pistols from the Tionese vendor (yes, really) that I'd like to move around to other characters.

 

This, this, and more of this!

 

I have been saying for years now that we need a way to either convert items from Bound to Bound-to-Legacy (it could be implemented similarly to the add-an-augment-slot interface) or at least a method of doing a one-time transfer of a Bound item to another character in the legacy (think: buy a B2L container, put item inside, move container, remove item, container is consumed). The container could be sold for CC's. The "B2L Augment Kit" (or whatever it would be called) could be craftable and require the consumption of an unassembled Inheritance/Birthright item to construct it.

 

Moving arbitrary items into the Stash (or, for that matter, the Legacy Bank) would also serve this need elegantly.

 

(I, too, have some old items on my oldest characters that I will not destroy--because I could never get them again--that I'd love to be able to use on newer characters.)

[Keledorn]

This means little to me since I wont waste any more money on cartel packs until you fix the broken weapons/armor sets from the previous packs. Some of these items have been broken for a long time, have been repeatedly reported, yet still have not been fixed.

[Gomla]

How do you know there isn't a team right now developing new Ops and WZs?

 

Because we've been here since beta and seen absolutely no evidence of that.

 

Something new pops up once in a blue moon while the CM gets attention lavished on it.

 

This game does not have the amount of developers working on it that you seem to think it does.

[Falor]

I like the change, but wish it was retroactive.

 

Every recent update has felt like Bioware has forgotten some of us have been playing this game for half a decade... Great stuff and content for new players, but just slaps in the face for us vets. "Good news! If you spend another few thousand dollars on our product, we'll make the next batch of stuff 100% more functional!" How about you make the last batch of crap I've bought for the last half decade more accessible. I am not even remotely exaggerating when I say I have 20+ cargo holds of just cartel crap....

 

Maybe they have a severe underappreciation for the life of a SWTOR Vet... I will be happy to answer any of Musco's or the Dev team's questions if they want to talk to an actual long-term SWTOR player; it feels like they haven't done that in awhile. I am even Legacy Level 50!!!!!

Edited August 3, 2016 by Falor