Ben, I'd like to see a stream today

[gabigool]

I think you're wrong. I suspect he's the "original tracer missile" guy.

 

Agree. And IMO a bit unfair to one of my all time favorite posters. I love me some Bruticus.

[Radzkie]

I love me some Bruticus.

 

Me too. I hope Bruticus will insult me one day. It'll be like getting a blessing.

[Soljin]

lm sarcastic, not entitled, there is a difference darling. I could argue that I feel entitled to be sarcastic having been worn out from all the whining on this forum, ofc then theres the question of why I'm here in the first place if I find it so exhausting, the answer is ; I need a break from the game! Ill need a break from all this entitled whining eventually too but until then I'm just going to poke fun at it!

 

Out of curiosity what exactly made you "need a break from the game"? Now be careful and think real hard before you answer darlin'.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Soljin

[PlasmaJohn]

We want to know what you're going to do to make this game fun again. Because today, thanks to you, it's not.

This. Sooooo much THIS.

 

Eric, Tait, Ben you and your team has sucked what little fun there was left from this game.

 

Uprisings... Some words of wisdom from Penny Arcade [link]. After doing just one I have very little interest in doing more.

 

The new DvL system: Total Failure. Lightside always wins when I'm on. Then the edgelords start whining. In chat and in voice and it's getting really, really old. All because you shove that horrid meter in our face with no way to disable the popup. At least we can dismiss it but that's a very poor workaround for the ability to disable it entirely.

 

Our dial goes to 100,000: If shoving the latest brainsick system in our faces wasn't enough you had to go and bloat out the alignment scale to 100k without a similar bump to DS/LS mission choices. So much for letting the story drive the alignment.

 

Galactic Command: If you haven't noticed the overwhelmingly negative reaction this crap system has gotten, you're beyond redemption.

 

Alt Hostility: Since you don't do things in half-measures, not only did you make gearing up one character a vile chore, you actively punish folks for daring to play more than one character. Brah-vo. /ironfist

 

 

Well. I agree with gabigool that you need to sit in front of the playerbase and do some 'splain'in but as we all know Mondays are Emergency Panic Meeting days in the corporate world.

 

Actually no. The time to explain the change was Thursday. Oh well. Can't say I envy your management (and likely the fate of the rest of the Austin studio) when Corporate spots your trendlines.

[AngFour]

 

Alt Hostility: Since you don't do things in half-measures, not only did you make gearing up one character a vile chore, you actively punish folks for daring to play more than one character. Brah-vo. /ironfist

 

 

 

Alts that they have been repeatedly encouraging us to make for the last two years (12xXP and DvL) no less.

[Sportiva]

I would love to see a response from BW, but it won't happen. I suspect that they are fully aware of the negative feedback ... they knew this would happen before 5.0 hit. The reason that they won't respond is that they have to figure out what changes they can promise given their limited resources.

[Quraswren]

Alts that they have been repeatedly encouraging us to make for the last two years (12xXP and DvL) no less.

 

That to me is just another poorly thought out problem bw created with this.

 

All those class stories for us to play and get interested in alts.

All the double EXP and 12X times we were given to help get alts leveled up to use at end game.

DVL event that massively encouraged you to do every single class again. Making even more alts.

 

 

bw designs an end game system that says forget any alt you ever created as playing them will severely hinder.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Quraswren

[ForjKlahaa]

These guys keep failing to listen to their customers over and over and over again. Feedback on the forums and from folks in game is terrible. People in game are WAY more vocal as they aren't worried about the forum police silencing them. Don't believe me? Send an anonymous questionnaire out to your subscribers and see what happens.

 

I get that some folks are going to defend EA no matter what but this last update is terrible. SWTOR has gone WAY off of the tracks. I LOVE KOTFE and KOTET but the CXP system is garbage. The GAMBLING is garbage and WAY out of control. The neglect to existing systems is terrible.

 

- Add "Cartel Market" dyes to collections

- Add Weapon Tunings to collections

- Add weapons to the outfit designer

- Add companions to the outfit designer

- Make new companions customizable (seriously)

- Do something about Cartel Certificates and Reputation

- Completely rework CXP to provide currency for vendors

- Remove RNG from gearing completely

- Make CARTEL GAMBLING VOLUNTARY by listing items directly alongside your packs

- Do SOMETHING... ANYTHING about rated PvP. It's terrible.

- PvP Matchmaking is the worst in all of gaming...

 

I like this list. It's not everything but it's a good start.

[Alssaran]

Alts that they have been repeatedly encouraging us to make for the last two years (12xXP and DvL) no less.

 

This is why the decision to implement GC as it is baffles me.

 

This game has been about alts since 1.2. The legacy system. Legacy armour. Legacy storage. Making comms tradeable through legacy. Trading set armourings. The entire game was build around having alts. They encouraged us to play alts until DvL ended last week. And now they turn around and go completely crazy for "mains". "Invest 300+ hours into a single character to finish the grind! No Legacy support!"

 

There is no reasonable justification for such a strict change in direction in a few weeks. I dare anyone at Bioware to try.

[aSpitefullRetort]

Nice work OP...

They created uprisings...not sure if they intended them to be the actual player-base. For the record i'm out as well.

[Clarian]

The new DvL system: Total Failure. Lightside always wins when I'm on. Then the edgelords start whining. In chat and in voice and it's getting really, really old. All because you shove that horrid meter in our face with no way to disable the popup.

THIS.

 

Not being an end-gamer, the RNG stuff doesn't impact me directly. (Though it does sound awful.) I mostly hate it because it's taking attention away from the fact that

 

YOU NEED TO GIVE US A WAY TO BLOCK POP-UPS.

 

(I know, breaking news from 1998.) There should be at least one huge, constantly-page-one thread about this, but there isn't, and probably won't be until the RNG is dealt with (so, maybe never).

[AngFour]

This is why the decision to implement GC as it is baffles me.

 

This game has been about alts since 1.2. The legacy system. Legacy armour. Legacy storage. Making comms tradeable through legacy. Trading set armourings. The entire game was build around having alts. They encouraged us to play alts until DvL ended last week. And now they turn around and go completely crazy for "mains". "Invest 300+ hours into a single character to finish the grind! No Legacy support!"

 

There is no reasonable justification for such a strict change in direction in a few weeks. I dare anyone at Bioware to try.

 

I don't work for BW, but I'll take a stab at a reasonable explanation:

 

Satan's half-wit brother Stan took the wheel. And then he got dropped on his head. So "Quarter-Wit Stan" is the guy who's responsible for all of this.

Edited December 5, 2016 by AngFour

[Tsetso]

THIS.

 

YOU NEED TO GIVE US A WAY TO BLOCK POP-UPS.

 

Just be happy that they are not announcing what players in your vicinity got by opening a GC crate as in some other mmos i've seen

[PlasmaJohn]

The entire game was build around having alts. They encouraged us to play alts until DvL ended last week. And now they turn around and go completely crazy for "mains".

BINO -- heck even their Edmonton Studio -- has time and again shown that they simply don't "get" gamers. I suspect that they didn't even consider that GC was going to turn SW:TOR into a mains-only game.

[Clarian]

Just be happy that they are not announcing what players in your vicinity got by opening a GC crate as in some other mmos i've seen

Yeah, maybe that's coming for 5.2 or so...

[thatguybil]

Agreed!!! PERFECT post!!!

 

 

Agreed d. How do I upvote?

[Tsetso]

BINO -- heck even their Edmonton Studio -- has time and again shown that they simply don't "get" gamers. I suspect that they didn't even consider that GC was going to turn SW:TOR into a mains-only game.

 

That's because they are obsessed with RNG. I can imagine that every decision about the game is approved by a random number generator.

[DanNV]

I'd like an update from you. Today. To talk about what you plan to do WRT making radical improvements to the CXP/GC situation.

 

A few yea-sayers aside, this structure has been universally panned. It is an abject failure in both conception and implementation. Whatever you'd planned/hoped/expected this system to do, it has not. The best you can claim is that it has been an effective repellent.

 

I'll discuss the major issues shortly, however the larger point of this post is to express you have a responsibility to speak to this today. Openly. Perhaps in an impromptu stream. You need to get in front of the community and express that you hear the anger and understand the mindset of your playerbase.

 

Like, right the **** now Ben. It's bad. I've been in a few different voice chats over the past couple days. I hear misery. Disdain. Dread. This is supposed to be a game. Look at fleet chat. Stronghold-planet chats. Ops chats. It's bad.

 

Maybe the ducks are telling you otherwise so I'm just giving you a heads up, in the form of a bucket of water to the face, a jolt of electricity, a siren in your ear.

 

You created uprisings. Good idea in theory. You cheaped out - we get it. That's how you do. But objectively it's a nice idea. You know what we think of them? We're already sick of grinding them.

 

On day 4.

 

You normalized gear. Good idea in theory. You didn't think it all the way through - we get it. That's how you do. Objectively? Again - nice idea. But all people are thinking about is how it's going to take until May to get geared.

 

On their main.

 

You've completely broken CXP gain with your nerf. If it was barely stomachable before - it wasn't but we're talking in relatives - it's a total horror show now. Lesson: You don't understand MMO's. That guy that grinded up to rank ~100? That's how it's played. If anything it demonstrated the cap was too low. Your reaction to that was ignorant, underhanded and, candidly, just utterly stupid. I'm sorry, but you don't remove the ability to grind in a grind system. You just don't. I'm not sure how you don't get that. Most people weren't doing that. All that did was screw everyone - because you were trying to fix something that wasn't a problem. You flat out lied about the point of the cap. That was not exploiting. That was simply someone playing a game in a way you don't understand because you have no understanding of this gametype or your playerbase. And that's your job.

 

Talk. Today. Stream. And answer questions. Own this. Explain yourself. Don't you dare get on screen and say one single postive thing about this expansion, save a minute or two on the story. Which, by the way, you've completely overshadowed and spoiled with GC.

 

I don't think - no, I know - you don't fully understand what this system is doing to gameplay and the community. What it means for pugs. Why the incentive is to bail as soon as there's a single wipe. Why the incentive - which for a couple days was to actually kill mobs in FPs/Ops - is now to simply spam queue for thrown GSF/PvP. Why last night it took 10 mins to get an Uprising pop on Harby with a tank/heal/DPS in the queue. Why heroics are pointless now.

 

We want to know what you're going to do to make this game fun again. Because today, thanks to you, it's not. We want to know how you're going to make playing alts viable. Now.

 

This needs to be handled. Right now. You need to talk to the community, as a leader, and demonstrate accountability, flexibility and concern. Show us why you're in your role. Today.

 

You hit the nail right on the head. Ben needs to own this sh*t sandwich and tell us what he is going to do about it.

[EightiesMonkey]

I think you can turn off the DvL war pop up. In Quickbar Management there's a thing in the middle of the screen that's says "System Alerts" or something where the popup occurs.

 

If you click on it, there is the option to disable and resize just like quickbars. I haven't tried it myself but noticed last night before I logged out as I moved the DvL alignment thing from behind my map as Light side was partially hidden.

 

I'm not being a White Knight, I hate the new system specifically the lack of gear vendors and the comm/crystal system, I simply posted this as a possible aid until the farce is addressed.

 

I hope they do fix this major pain, it feels more like a step back than a step forward.

Edited December 5, 2016 by EightiesMonkey

[dr_mike]

Nah wont happend, EA isnt in the habbit of actually responding to criticism, they live inside their own bubble.

 

^^This. I;ve been told that I;m not allowed to talk about it but you should have seen what I got as a response from my arbitration requests.

[Tsetso]

^^This. I;ve been told that I;m not allowed to talk about it but you should have seen what I got as a response from my arbitration requests.

 

Now you've picked my interest. I never bothered with that when i was "hammered". However aren't the mods a third party?

[AngFour]

I think you can turn off the DvL war pop up. In Quickbar Management there's a thing in the middle of the screen that's says "System Alerts" or something where the popup occurs.

 

If you click on it, there is the option to disable and resize just like quickbars. I haven't tried it myself but noticed last night before I logged out as I moved the DvL alignment thing from behind my map as Light side was partially hidden.

 

 

You know what that affects? The message from the server saying it's going down for maintenance. That's all. I tried.

 

So we can disable AN ACTUAL IMPORTANT MESSAGE, but the "So-and-so's stronghold (which gets bugged and lasts for 5 minutes)" "Blorg Guild Controls this Sector (which gets bugged and can last for more than five minutes)" and the the DvL message? Newp. We're gonna have to know this unnecessary information, and we're gonna like it!

[PlasmaJohn]

That's because they are obsessed with RNG. I can imagine that every decision about the game is approved by a random number generator.

Eh. My guess is that RNG is coming from EA's focus on phone games. IIRC Austin's new boss came from EA's Mobile Division.

 

RNG systems can work when you work with statistically significant volumes. RNG gear systems shower you with gear. While there are chase pieces they're not critical to your gameplay like set-bonuses are. Unless you're a pay-to-win phone game. At least those let you pay to skip the grind. SW:TOR makes you pay to even get access to the grind.

 

Regardless, it's not just RNG I'm pointing out. KotFE (and KotET) barely qualify as interactive movies much less a game. Equally astonishing was the Edmonton devs getting their panties in a bunch when the fans raged at the ME:3 endings. If you make games like Maplethorpe made art... well expect your critics to be harsh.

[ErrEff]

YOU NEED TO GIVE US A WAY TO BLOCK POP-UPS.

 

Why would non-level 70 players even get that announcement? It's stupid, they can't have any impact on GC until level 70. Spamming them like this is just bad game design 101.

[EightiesMonkey]

You know what that affects? The message from the server saying it's going down for maintenance. That's all. I tried.

 

So we can disable AN ACTUAL IMPORTANT MESSAGE, but the "So-and-so's stronghold (which gets bugged and lasts for 5 minutes)" "Blorg Guild Controls this Sector (which gets bugged and can last for more than five minutes)" and the the DvL message? Newp. We're gonna have to know this unnecessary information, and we're gonna like it!

 

Ah, well then, what complete [insert a vast amount of curses here].

 

Seriously this needs fixing.