Ben, I'd like to see a stream today

[Rolodome]

Well I am a developer and 100% support the OP

I was going to say we must be liars because we're "haters" and all, but it looks like ole' Bruticis beat me to it. Oh, predictability...

[kodrac]

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

 

I got no reply, zilch, nothing, nada. They have zero presence. I doubt there's even anyone at the wheel.

[Tsetso]

I got no reply, zilch, nothing, nada. They have zero presence. I doubt there's even anyone at the wheel.

 

Well, I was expecting that, that's why i never appealed.

[kodrac]

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.

 

That actually explains a lot. He has no idea what this crowd wants.

[Tsetso]

That actually explains a lot. He has no idea what this crowd wants.

 

Thinking about that, i'm playing SW GoH while going for a smoke at work and i find striking similarities between it and GC system.

[EDIT]

And i think it's not he but she. Not that matters

Edited December 5, 2016 by Tsetso

[Rolodome]

What a coincidence, I'm a psychologist and I 98.7% support the gang seeking immediately medical attention for PTSD and/or Stockholm syndrome.

The hilarity of this post is that you don't even know what Stockholm Syndrome is. If I had Stockholm Syndrome, I wouldn't be posting a bunch of negative stuff and questioning BW. I would be defending them and saying that we just need to trust in their decisions.

 

The other irony is that if you were right and I did have Stockholm Syndrome, it would imply that BW is an abusive party and you therefore either have Stockholm Syndrome yourself for the way you defend them, or are complicit in abuse.

[kodrac]

....But it’s really hard to know until we monitor player behavior....

 

I wonder if they'll be able to consider not participating as part of player behavior.

[gabigool]

Interesting...thank you for the link. My fear is, they'll be too late...like they always seem to be.

 

This is why I feel the communication has to come directly from Ben to the community.

 

Personally, from the two paragraphs I saw, he's wrong on "What it boils down to....". That's not the issue. The issue is what the current implementation of CXP gain is doing to in-game activity. It's funneling it - much moreso than pre-Saturday. Dropping this bomb on a Saturday morning was pretty shady. And it hasn't been addressed.

 

It's completely the antithesis of "play how you want to play". Because the gains are so monumentally slow people are migrating towards the highest perceived CXP/minute. And it is having a terrible effect on gameplay. People on both sides of this are not enjoying the game. Right now it is far worse than it was before Saturday.

 

I think that's a pretty massive problem and I believe it needs to be acknowledged. Anyone who thinks this is about getting my shinies fast enough is missing the point by a mile.

 

I'm not running from the fact that I do not believe this system belongs in this game. I think it's insanity with the content cadence we get. Delusional.

 

However it's here. Fine.

 

But this iteration of CXP gain-tables is legitimately broken and I do not see any point of view from which it is acceptable to not expect immediate answers WRT fixing it. (Actually fixing it - not making it massively worse a la the last fix).

[Tadagyt]

I agree with you OP, but not sure if you have noticed... they have vanished from the forums weeks ago and only come to announce stupid things.

[curulz]

The OP is offensive, out of line, and insulting a developer calling him "ignorant" and "stupid." Yet, this same person gets a standing ovation from some of the folks in here? I think some of you need to re-evaluate yourselves. Is Galactic Command a drastic change from what we are used to? Yes. Does that mean it's horrible? Maybe from your perspective. The sense of entitlement and the superiority complex the OP is spewing is beyond ridiculous. He is not a developer and neither is anybody else in this thread.

 

If you don't like the system, provide civil, critical feedback. Do not insult the development team, do not make ridiculous demands of them, and do not tell them you know better than they do. This thread should be locked for the vitriol the OP is throwing around as its obviously in violation of the forum rules. Nothing positive or constructive comes from threads like this. If anything, BioWare would simply ignore these types of voices as they are clearly unreasonable and only believe their opinion is right.

 

Must be hard to play the game way up there on your high horse.

[PlasmaJohn]

But this iteration of CXP gain-tables is legitimately broken and I do not see any point of view from which it is acceptable to not expect immediate answers WRT fixing it. (Actually fixing it - not making it massively worse a la the last fix).

I have some small sliver of hope that this was a lower risk stop-gap update so they can sit down and do a more involved redesign. Obviously this makes the hilarious assumption that there's somebody sane doing the design.

 

But all we can do is speculate and that is the precise problem. They needed to own their screw-up and give a reasoned explanation of the CXP nerf and state if this is indeed temporary or if it's the final state. The silence is highly unprofessional and just underscores the sheer incompetence of their communications department. In other words: Business as usual.

[TUXs]

I have some small sliver of hope that this was a lower risk stop-gap update so they can sit down and do a more involved redesign. Obviously this makes the hilarious assumption that there's somebody sane doing the design.

I wish you were right, but if they were sitting down, when? Late January? February? April? It'll be too late at that point. They seem to think they have all the time they need...they don't.

[Tsetso]

I have some small sliver of hope that this was a lower risk stop-gap update so they can sit down and do a more involved redesign. Obviously this makes the hilarious assumption that there's somebody sane doing the design.

 

But all we can do is speculate and that is the precise problem. They needed to own their screw-up and give a reasoned explanation of the CXP nerf and state if this is indeed temporary or if it's the final state. The silence is highly unprofessional and just underscores the sheer incompetence of their communications department. In other words: Business as usual.

 

If that's the case the proper thing to do is to come and say - "Yes, we messed up, we're thinking how to fix this". The silence is deafening.

[GaenMerrik]

I had been playing this game since the beta testing rounds, got my early access and waited in the server line queues to play. I never let my subscription lapse until Spring, when I decided to cancel because of the direction this game was going. I was already quite tired of it for almost a year prior to that, but I stayed on because at least I was having fun raiding with my guild and doing PVP. You can only run the same content week after week for so long.

 

I renewed a month ago to give it a chance again and try the changes. I like the story, but completely dislike everything else and personally would much rather trade the story for a couple of operations and a flashpoint or two. It seems like every new change is centered around masking the complete lack of content development (outside of the single player aspect). It's weird now. The focus of the game used to be a progression of completing lower level content that I considered "chores" to get gear, materials, and experience, so I could then engage in harder and more rewarding content. Now the focus of the game is the chores with no reason to progress except for your own desire to gear up. There's no way in hell I am going to continue to pay a monthly subscription for that and it certainly doesn't appear to me that the strategy is going to change any time soon.

 

I was a regular subscriber since day 1 and often spent cash in the Cartel Market. People always bring up the "silent majority" argument. Take a look at my previous forum postings and at my ID number. I am not a forum warrior and I don't speak for everyone, but there are definitely a lot others like me who are leaving because of the direction this game has taken and not making a fuss about it. People who I would consider as a vital part of the costumer base. I have to imagine they are bleeding subs at this point. Heck look at torstatus and check the lack of increased server activity after this whole thing dropped. While not a totally accurate way to define population, it tells you a lot about what's going on here.

[Theshadowbehind]

Unlikely they will change anything for months to come, maybe 6 or 7 months from now, if exodus happens. But I doubt the game will recover from it population wise once that has happend, seeing plenty of servers on the list are already barren Tomb of Freedom Nadd for example.

[Bruticis]

Unlikely they will change anything for months to come, maybe 6 or 7 months from now, if exodus happens. But I doubt the game will recover from it population wise once that has happend, seeing plenty of servers on the list are already barren Tomb of Freedom Nadd for example.

 

Wow, someone predicted the death of SWTOR. Shocking and bold claim! I haven't read that claim in almost 3 minutes.

[Theshadowbehind]

Wow, someone predicted the death of SWTOR. Shocking and bold claim! I haven't read that claim in almost 3 minutes.

I said if. Bioware has a track record of being really slow at making changes and releasing content And I guess you haven't logged in on the Tomb of Freedom Nadd recently have you? 27 people on the fleet in primetime is rather refreshing. Edited December 5, 2016 by Theshadowbehind

[kodrac]

The hilarious part is you're paying to be miserable and by hilarious, I mean really funny in an excessively funny way. You keep complaining on the one hand while tripping over yourself to pay your monthly sub with the other and I'll keep being amused, hilariously amused.

 

You know, you can try opening a dialogue with people about their concerns with the game without being a d-bag about it. Try it, it works. Not everyone is a member of "the gang" as you put it.

[Bruticis]

I said if. Bioware has a track record of being really slow at making changes and releasing content And I guess you haven't logged in on the Tomb of Freedom Nadd recently have you? 27 people on the fleet in primetime is rather refreshing.

 

Sounds like paradise to me considering the crap on Harbinger. I might actually not have to turn off gen chat within 3 seconds of loading onto the fleet.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Bruticis

[Tsetso]

Sounds like paradise to me considering that crap on Harbinger. I might actually not have to turn off gen chat within 3 seconds of loading onto the fleet.

 

Use the moment then. Transfer all of your chars to Pot5 while it's still 90cc!

[Bruticis]

You know, you can try opening a dialogue with people about their concerns with the game without being a d-bag about it. Try it, it works. Not everyone is a member of "the gang" as you put it.

 

Where's this dialogue you speak of around here? All I see is entitled "people" ranting about anything and everything under the sun. I will however admit, every now again someone accidentally makes a constructive criticism post that sounds like an actual human with an ounce of intelligence but it's quickly dog piled on by the gang.

[Ceinwyn]

Great post, OP.

 

Nothing else to add except that the CXP system is a joke and after the story on a few toons, there will have to be some pretty significant changes to CXP to keep me around. I might come back when the rest of our companions do.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Ceinwyn
post not thread

[Snowred]

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.

 

Kudos to the OP .... Awesome post

[Ryenke]

Ben did make a statement on the complaints about GC / CXP on Friday during a press interview for the KotET launch. I doubt they have anything new / different to say on the matter since the weekend.

 

I find it hard to believe he is so out of touch that he thinks that monitoring the situation is enough. 29 boxes in a row with junk that I can make an equivalent or better version of? So I unsubbed. By the time they "monitor" then think about doing something, people are long gone. Math tells you that there will be people who get duplicate after duplicate of trash (I had 4 dup trash pieces out of my first 9 crates for instance) and Math tells you that the guy at level 200 might not have more than one or two pieces with set bonus. Not even that tier one set bonus. Oh, the lucky guy who got his set bonus in 50 boxes, he might still be playing. The rest of us, who knows, we will likely have moved on.

 

"monitor the situation" = so sad, don't play if you don't like it. Thanks, that is exactly why I unsubbed. If Bioware does something sensible about this BEFORE my sub runs out, I'd be happy to resub, but I think snowstorms in Hell are much more likely.

[RiVaN_]

The post by the Op is a perfect example of why these forums need a like button.

 

For those who don't know how to vote for a thread, please post a comment, scroll all teh way to the bottom of the page before you click submit and use the last drop down box to rate this thread. I, loved this post and therefore gave it a 5.