Ideas to fix GC AND keep people busy ingame

[Rheshalea]

By now we've all figured out that we got 9 chapters and 4 uprisings of actual new content in KotET. We know Galactic Command is a system to keep us p(l)aying until hopefully there is more new content.

Unfortunately, GC isn't good. The idea behind it is workable, but as it is now, it needs a lot of work to potentially become enjoyable as well.

 

The two good parts about GC are the interface and the idea that no matter what old content the players do, they earn command xp that eventually leads to gear.

The bad parts are that it takes a very long time to get lootboxes and the loot is random. Ingame activities are not equal in how much cxp they reward. The unnecessary and heavy-handed nerf to gold mobs made this even worse. Command rank is not Legacy wide, which makes it extremely tedious to gear up more than one character.

 

Ok, so now that's out of the way, I have a few ideas... I won't take credit for all of them, as I've spent a lot of time on the forums and I've read some of these ideas in other threads.

 

To fix the GC system (assuming it can't be ditched completely so we could return to the well-functioning data crystal system):

 

1. Either make it legacy wide - the way we leveled up our Legacies in the first place. Then no matter which level 70 character you play, the ranks go up and you're able to reach GC rank 300 and get a chance at top tier gear quicker. OR give a percentile cxp bonus to the Legacy at certain increments - for example 1% at rank 50, 2% at 75 and so on. (I have no patience for maths, so someone else would have to help out with further calculations). Either way, the characters you want loot on will have to get the cxp for the RNG crates themselves, so there's still a grind. Just not as hopelessly long.
   
2. As a failsafe for those with abysmal RNG luck, every tenth GC rank or so should give a "coin". Get enough "coins" and exchange for gear at a special vendor. If the price for a BiS chest piece is ten "coins", it still means 100 levels of grinding to get it. Add a cxp bonus item to buy for an alt for if/when the player doesn't need any more set pieces.
   
3. Cxp rewards of activities need to be more equal. Naturally, more difficult content should always grant higher rewards, but the discrepancy as it is right now seems gigantic, especially given that some activities can be done only once per week, while others can be repeated non-stop all day, every day. And of course, letting people actually play the way they want to play is key - so the first thing to do is un-nerf cxp gain from gold mobs, maybe even add the 1 point to silver mobs.
   
4. The cxp bonus tokens bosses in flashpoints and Ops drop are a good start, but they should be BoL, so on the off chance that someone gets BiS gear relatively quickly, alts can be boosted.
   

 

Now, as angry as a lot of the players are at this system, fixing it alone won't be enough to keep people p(l)aying. I have a few ideas there too that might help.

Add more incentive to do more of the old content:

1. Random drops of cool stuff - rare mounts, decos, weapon tunings, why not some of the most sought-after gear shells from CM - that players can farm the old open world for. If this stuff isn't cool enough in itself, add a cxp bonus for finding those items.
   
2. Farmable, collectible gear sets. We already have collections for orange shells we get from CM. How about being able to collect all gear that drops all over the galaxy? Of course, that would mean we'd have to get the original gear from each planet, not the level-appropriate gear we get now. Which shouldn't be a problem, since, at 70, we're supposed to get our gear from Command crates anyway. Also, add a cxp bonus for finishing a gear set.
   
3. Achievements. I'm not an achievement farmer myself, so I don't know if there already are achievements for using all the new companions we can get in KotFE/KotET. But I remember there are (used to be?) achievements for killing a certain amount of, for examples, droids on Nar Shaddaa with ThisAndThat companion out.
   What if those achievements also gave a small amount of cxp?
   
4. Repeatable Class Quests/Storylines. This could tie in well with the previous ideas. Some of those cool items could drop, for example, only from a certain mob in a certain area of the Smuggler class quest. Imagine whacking Skavak over and over again, to get a holo trophy for your smuggler's den in Nar Shaddaa. Or gathering a set of Lord Zash' gear while doing the class quests dealing with her. And while doing all that, getting achievements and a bit of bonus cxp (apart from the quest cxp reward) because you had Koth with you.
   

 

Naturally the best thing to do to keep players p(l)aying would be new content. More than 9 chapters and 4 Uprisings.... but if we can't have that, we need more than a constant cxp grind while we wait for that new content.

Now, I already unsubbed because of this whole GC fiasco. I want to keep p(l)aying, but until something is done to make the system feel fair and fun , I won't renew my sub.

So please, if you've read this far, help come up with solutions. What would make YOU want to keep p(l)aying? (except for more new content, because that's not likely to happen anytime soon...)

Edited December 4, 2016 by Rheshalea
Fixed list numbers

[Voemel]

I think it would be a HUGE MISTAKE to continue with RNG gear drops. That system is horrible and there is clearly a consensus of thought on it.

 

The gear token system needs to return. They can tweak it or incorporate it into GC somehow, but the RNG has to go.

 

I am sure Bioware will react to all the negative feedback in some way. But Legacy RNG is still RNG. And that's just not acceptable. Letting them scrape by with less crappy is still crappy.

[Wayshuba]

I thought about these things and made a similar post in suggestions but, after thinking about it some more - No. The system just plain needs to be removed from the game. We should go back to the crystals (or to a similar form of currency since they blew up the crystals) and the gear vendors on fleet.

 

No matter how it is sliced, this is the worst system I have ever seen implemented in an MMO. From the ridiculous grind for levels (Yeah, Musco, with the BS on a crate an hour for CASUAL play), to the stupendously bad RNG.

 

23 days left for my sub to run out. If they take it out in that time and go back to the 4.0 gearing, I will renew. As it is, the only sub I have purchased since this system went live is a 90 day one in The Secret World.

Edited December 4, 2016 by Wayshuba

[Rheshalea]

I think it would be a HUGE MISTAKE to continue with RNG gear drops. That system is horrible and there is clearly a consensus of thought on it.

 

The gear token system needs to return. They can tweak it or incorporate it into GC somehow, but the RNG has to go.

 

I am sure Bioware will react to all the negative feedback in some way. But Legacy RNG is still RNG. And that's just not acceptable. Letting them scrape by with less crappy is still crappy.

 

Yes, I agree. RNG is bad, especially for Ops players and ranked PvPers. Not so much for solo scrubs like me, who never before had the carrot of BiS gear dangled before my nose (not in this game, anyway...).

How would you solve it, though? A token to exchange for a piece of gear every so many command ranks? Set loot tables for every third/fourth/fifth command crate?

Or return tokens to Ops boss loot tables, just not as many tokens as now? I 've never done ops in SWTOR, so I don't know how the loot system works. But if so, how would the ranked PvPers get their gear?

This is why I suggested "coins" to buy missing gear with. We have to work under the assumption that Bioware will not just scrap this whole system and go back to the old, perfectly functional one. ...

[LordDelectus]

I thought about these things and made a similar post in suggestions but, after thinking about it some more - No. The system just plain needs to be removed from the game. We should go back to the crystals (or to a similar form of currency since they blew up the crystals) and the gear vendors on fleet.

 

No matter how it is sliced, this is the worst system I have ever seen implemented in an MMO. From the ridiculous grind for levels (Yeah, Musco, with the BS on a crate an hour for CASUAL play), to the stupendously bad RNG.

 

23 days left for my sub to run out. If they take it out in that time and go back to the 4.0 gearing, I will renew. As it is, the only sub I have purchased since this system went live is a 90 day one in The Secret World.

 

I agree. Token and Crystals made sense. It worked from vanilla through 5.0. This entire thing needs to be killed and quickly. They should make an announcement that they are returning to that ASAP. Probably won't until they start seeing server activity plummet, subs and cartel cash slow down. Given that new story is going to create a natural influx of activity, they not see the real impact of CXP until after the New Year?

 

My guess is they got tunneled visioned around a goal "keep server activity up, keep people subbed." They figured grinding old assets in order to gear would be the best way to keep us on the servers and active in the game. I would not be surprised if they saw Dark vs. Light event as a test run for CXP. There is almost no difference between the two, it is all about repeating the same crap over, and over, and over. They figured that Dark vs. Light was not met with too much hostility, then they could stay committed to the CXP concept.

 

One problem. Dark vs. Light was an optional event, it had nothing to do with the "GET THE ULTIMATE GEAR" mantra many of us that have gamed over the decades have followed religiously. Dark vs. Light also had crappy rewards, IMO. The decision for me was simple, I didn't even try it. The fact my main character couldn't participate was reason enough to not even bother.

 

Now they took the grindfest-busywork approach to keeping servers populated and made it the prerequisite to satisfying our "GET THE ULTIMATE GEAR" reward mindset. It is blowing up spectacularly.