RNG is perfect for SWTOR and I'll explain why.

[Andryah]

Gear was freely available to anyone, who could get into a well-managed guild. "Well-managed guild" is an entirely inappropriate gear gating mechanism; because management of a guild is outside the span of control of the developers. Argument still invalid.

 

Given the widely transitory and free form nature of so many guilds in MMOs these days, I agree with you on this.

 

I'm only guilded today because it is people I have been playing with and trust since the early days after Rift launched. We all left Rift to play SWTOR and have been here since. Some of us take breaks from time to time, and even try other games.... but as a core.. we remain together, and have years now. It is a very low drama guild of players that know each other and respect each other. Most of the members scoff at all the drama in the forums, and I think only a few of us ever even post here.

 

We do pick up new recruits from time to time, but we only do so on the referral of a guild member, and that has prevented much of the normal effects that guilds suffer now days in MMOs. Some day, as a guild, we will move to another MMO.. but so far we have not fallen into the trap of getting jaded over what the studio does or does not do .... as we understand it is the studios MMO, and we are guests here. We play MMOs, as is, and simply consider things we do not like as a challenge to over come (such as gearing in 5.0), or simply skip what we do not like. Our goal is to have fun together with people we know and trust, and just play and enjoy the game for what it is.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Andryah

[Khevar]

Theoretically speaking, no one needed the best gear in the game for the entirety of SWTOR.

Not every raider in the game has been good enough to complete new operations with the previous tier of gear.

 

When HM EC was added to the game (along with Campaign Gear), my ops group didn't finish it the first night wearing Rakata (although there were people that did -- we just weren't that good).

 

No, what happened was, we "progressed" through the raid, getting familiar with the fights, and getting Campaign gear from each boss. As time went on, more and more people had better gear and it became easier to progress.

 

I'd say we were, as a group, 50% Campaign / 50% Rakata the very first time we killed HM Kephess.

A gear system that rewards the best gear by completing the hardest content makes no sense. You just did the hardest content, why would you need more powerful gear?

You act like finishing the hardest content gives you a full set of 14 pieces of BiS gear.

 

Gearing up happens gradually. And the more gear you get, the easier it is to progress.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Khevar

[Aowin]

Corollary to my original negation of argument. If it requires pugging ops, it's an invalid argument; because pugging ops did (and probably does still, I haven't tried recently) require hanging around fleet (or flagships, I suppose) doing nothing but watching chat and posting in chat. It's not like I haven't tried to pug SM ops in the years I've been playing; but I've gotten into exactly 3, and 2 of those were due to picking up on a guildie's invite. Queuing through GF for ops is a broken waste of time. I'd rather be out playing the game than watching the jawa jokes go by. (This is not news to you, Gabi, I've ranted about this before, but there might be one or two people reading this that haven't seen my hate for the dysfunction of Ops GF.)

 

Incidentally, I put in plenty of play time. But I won't commit to group activity unless I know I have a clean slate for the time period I think it's going to take. And I rarely have an hour+ free to play. (And the one pure pug op I got into was SnV, and I was not expecting a 4-5 hour playtime, without wipes or excessive slack time.) I do PvP, I do GSF, I do the odd TFP. (I haven't done an Uprising yet because I haven't had time to play much since 5.0 dropped). My play sessions tend to run around an hour, max (coincidentally enough, the length of a chapter), with hard stops at the end and unpredictable breaks in the middle.

 

This means that, no, the Ops-grade gear was entirely inaccessible to me, despite nominally playing every week the amount of time a KP or EV run would take. I took the PvP armor for set bonus and ran with it; but then I locked myself into having PvP-statted armor, and forewent the PvE upgrade path because a hybrid armor set would kill my PvP effectiveness, and lack of PvE=level stats (fractionally improved as they are) blocked my own challenge advancement; there were fights out there I would lose by inches because of a fractional lack of DPS; and my own skill had plateaued.

 

Gear was freely available to anyone, who could get into a well-managed guild. "Well-managed guild" is an entirely inappropriate gear gating mechanism; because management of a guild is outside the span of control of the developers. Argument still invalid.

 

A lot of great points here. I think this really highlights that while pre-5.0 gear was certainly easy and accessible for some, that was not the case for everyone. Veterans to MMOs who have been playing these games for years can take these issues for granted. I've played SWTOR since closed beta and I know the ins and outs of all aspects of SWTOR. If I wanted something in particular, I would know how to get it and I would have the means to do so. That's just not the case for everyone and continuously saying "you can get it if you try harder" misses the point entirely.

 

Pre-5.0 gear progression was not equal and it was not fair. Some gear and content was actually out of reach for a large portion of the player base and BioWare had no control over this. To have to rely on guilds , PUGs, and other players, is at best random chance (ironically enough) and doesn't guarantee all players the same opportunities. This is not 2004. The MMORPG genre has changed and the players that engage in these games have changed. Again, this can largely be attributed to WoW making MMOs far more accessible and with a much more reasonable learning curve.

 

Gear progression in SWTOR was a detriment and an inhibitor to various aspects of the game. Without the means and the right people, large portions of the game were simply inaccessible. That may not have been apparent to those who have guilds or the means to circumvent this lack of infrastructure in the game, but it was apparent to many other players who perhaps even quit because of it. Really, it comes full circle and goes back to what the point of Galactic Command is: inclusion.

 

I don't expect those who are opposed to this new gear progression to change their minds, but I would ask that they try to put themselves in another person's shoes, for once, and really try to understand other points of view. I think the more we can actually understand how other people play the game, the better we can understand BioWare's actions and why they have taken SWTOR the direction they have. SWTOR is not SWG. That game was entirely dependent on working with others and building a player-driven experience. SWTOR is meant to be accessible and to provide players with a wealth of content regardless of how they play the game.

[Radzkie]

I've cleared a couple 5.0 NiM bosses already in half 224 and half 230, but we've been hitting a DPS wall on some bosses. As a healer I've tried to help DPS -- but there's only so much I can do. It would have been nice if those NiM bosses dropped actual gear instead of schematics. Also would have been nice if we got good schematics instead of the **** ones or ones the guild already has. Edited December 9, 2016 by Radzkie

[gabigool]

"Well-managed guild" is an entirely inappropriate gear gating mechanism; because management of a guild is outside the span of control of the developers. Argument still invalid.

 

IMO it's sort of the point of playing an MMORPG. You find a community of players with common in-game interests and help each other achieve things that are not possible to be solo'ed.

 

IMO it's a fundamental difference of opinion I have with the studio. I do not believe the studio has a responsibility to ensure I have access to all content in the game on my own. I don't believe I should expect that.

 

And specifically in this game, I believe the gear that was accessible to solo players was more than adequate for solo content. As in - they literally would not notice the difference in content they do.

 

I do not think it is unreasonable to expect that the best gear in the game requires a high degree of investment in time/learning and effort. And IMO a two hour chunk of time, once or twice a week is not a 2nd job. I play golf. Softball. I watch my kids do sports. I make time for hobbies. I understand what you're saying, but I believe spending $150M+ to create an MMO and ensuring it contains no content requiring more than an hour is a dubious plan. I think you build mobile games for that demographic.

 

Regardless, it's a question of want. It's not a question of need - and this is only my opinion so it's not a big deal either way.

[Aowin]

I've cleared a couple 5.0 NiM bosses already in half 224 and half 230, but we've been hitting a DPS wall on some bosses. As a healer I've tried to help DPS -- but there's only so much I can do. It would have helped if those NiM bosses dropped actual gear instead of schematics. Also would have helped if we got good schematics instead of the **** ones or ones the guild already has.

 

The real issue here is if BioWare allows progression raiders to gear up too quickly, then everybody else is left behind. It would not make any sense at all for you to have access to better gear just because you are doing progression raiding. Then, you would have a clear advantage over everybody else in the game, regardless of the content. That would definitely be a big "no no" in PvP.

 

Galactic Command with RNG is meant to stabilize gear distribution and keep the game relatively level. By providing any sort of "alternative path" for progression raiders or anybody else merely undermines the entire point of the system. You'll just have to make do like the rest of us with what you have until you get to a point in the tier system where you have access to better gear.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Aowin

[Radzkie]

The real issue here is if BioWare allows progression raiders to gear up too quickly, then everybody else is left behind. It would not make any sense at all for you to have access to better gear just because you are doing progression raiding. Then you would have a clear advantage over everybody else in the game, regardless of the content. That would definitely be a big "no no" in PvP.

 

Galactic Command with RNG is meant to stabilize gear distribution and keep the game relatively level. By providing any sort of "alternative path" for progression raiders or anybody else merely undermines the entire point of the system. You'll just have to make do like the rest of us with what you have until you get to a point in the tier system where you have access to better gear.

I wouldn't call what I do "progression raiding" but I'll roll with it anyway.

 

In theory you're suppose to get "the best" cxp rewards from NiM raiding (which atm doesn't hold true, I know) so we are suppose to gear up or at least level up faster than others.

 

I can see it being an issue for PvP, but if they adjust PvE rewards I'd hope they'd also adjust PvP rewards. To keep the top tier players of both relatively even.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Radzkie

[Hichitsuki-hime]

Corollary to my original negation of argument. If it requires pugging ops, it's an invalid argument; because pugging ops did (and probably does still, I haven't tried recently) require hanging around fleet (or flagships, I suppose) doing nothing but watching chat and posting in chat. It's not like I haven't tried to pug SM ops in the years I've been playing; but I've gotten into exactly 3, and 2 of those were due to picking up on a guildie's invite. Queuing through GF for ops is a broken waste of time. I'd rather be out playing the game than watching the jawa jokes go by. (This is not news to you, Gabi, I've ranted about this before, but there might be one or two people reading this that haven't seen my hate for the dysfunction of Ops GF.)

 

u know a lot of servers have custom chat channels for putting raid groups together right? I never have to just sit on fleet to look for people to raid with for one. just saying. as for SM raids. well, i did a SM DF today, it took 25 minutes, so it's not like it's hard AT ALL, what with it being out for several years, and bolster does exist to compensate for low level / bad gear. though i will admit raid GF does SUCK balls.

 

*snip* This means that, no, the Ops-grade gear was entirely inaccessible to me, despite nominally playing every week the amount of time a KP or EV run would take. I took the PvP armor for set bonus and ran with it; but then I locked myself into having PvP-statted armor, and forewent the PvE upgrade path because a hybrid armor set would kill my PvP effectiveness, and lack of PvE=level stats (fractionally improved as they are) blocked my own challenge advancement; there were fights out there I would lose by inches because of a fractional lack of DPS; and my own skill had plateaued.

 

well that sucks. and i can't commit to raids due to crappy timezone. but htat doesn't stop me trying my best and yelling currently at the top of my lungs that the way they're implementing the new system now SUCKS. note: not the system itself (not sure about htat yes, though it sure is boring as f**k.

 

Gear was freely available to anyone, who could get into a well-managed guild. "Well-managed guild" is an entirely inappropriate gear gating mechanism; because management of a guild is outside the span of control of the developers. Argument still invalid.

this argument is also kinda tinted with your personal experience. and like, gating gear behind horrid RNG i also NOT the answer. ESPECIALLY for people who don't have time to play more than 2 hours a day.

[Hichitsuki-hime]

The real issue here is if BioWare allows progression raiders to gear up too quickly, then everybody else is left behind. It would not make any sense at all for you to have access to better gear just because you are doing progression raiding. Then, you would have a clear advantage over everybody else in the game, regardless of the content. That would definitely be a big "no no" in PvP.

aaaaand AGAIN you come back to prog raiders gearing too fast. yes we know 4.0 made it easy. but it wasn't all that easy in 1.0 or in 2.0 or even in 3.0. but regardless. yes it was easy. so instead of making it slowER, they now turned it into a SNAIL-PACED GRIND

 

Galactic Command with RNG is meant to stabilize gear distribution and keep the game relatively level. By providing any sort of "alternative path" for progression raiders or anybody else merely undermines the entire point of the system. You'll just have to make do like the rest of us with what you have until you get to a point in the tier system where you have access to better gear.

no it will certainly not be LEVEL. because it's RNG. it's completely and totally RANDOM!!! especially if these gear boxes contain useless fluff like jawa junk, empty shells.... and REP. TOKENS.

and besides some crafters already have access to 240 schematics. so that means that people with a lot of credits to spare and get gear VERY fast anyway. not set bonus sure, but good upgrades for mods and enhancements at least. easy advantage right there. we don't all have a spare 100 mil on hand.

[DawnAskham]

The real issue here is if BioWare allows progression raiders to gear up too quickly, then everybody else is left behind. It would not make any sense at all for you to have access to better gear just because you are doing progression raiding. Then, you would have a clear advantage over everybody else in the game, regardless of the content. That would definitely be a big "no no" in PvP.

 

Galactic Command with RNG is meant to stabilize gear distribution and keep the game relatively level. By providing any sort of "alternative path" for progression raiders or anybody else merely undermines the entire point of the system. You'll just have to make do like the rest of us with what you have until you get to a point in the tier system where you have access to better gear.

 

Wrong.

 

GC along with raising the level cap to 70 / resetting all gear is designed for one reason and one reason only...to add a bunch of artificial time sinks to keep players busy grinding away at old content.

 

It isn't a social experiment designed to make bad players feel better, nor some sort of equal opportunity gear system, nor a "Story Player Lives Matter" movement; it is simply a business decision to use an RNG grind along with a level cap increase / gear reset to keep players occupied chasing character progression in rehashed content.

 

The only question is will it provide the results desired by the studio - only time will tell.

Edited December 9, 2016 by DawnAskham

[Khevar]

Really, it comes full circle and goes back to what the point of Galactic Command is: inclusion.

It bears repeating -- the "inclusion" part of Galactic Command is good.

 

It's the RNG portion that is the problem.

 

You're familiar with the typical "bell curve" chart of random number distribution? Every single player that falls on the left-hand side of that curve is going to feel "excluded".

Edited December 9, 2016 by Khevar

[Hichitsuki-hime]

It bears repeating -- the "inclusion" part of Galactic Command is good.

 

It's the RNG portion that is the problem.

 

You're familiar with the typical "bell curve" chart of random number distribution? Every single player that falls on the left-hand side of that curve is going to feel "excluded".

 

hear hear, after some 40 crates of complete and utter NOTHING, i don't even wanna log in that much. i do a couple pvp matches or a quick GF op and get bored. because every time i open this next crate there is yet another slap by RNJeezuz

[Aulus_Claudius]

Pre-5.0 gear progression was not equal and it was not fair. Some gear and content was actually out of reach for a large portion of the player base and BioWare had no control over this. To have to rely on guilds , PUGs, and other players, is at best random chance (ironically enough) and doesn't guarantee all players the same opportunities. This is not 2004. The MMORPG genre has changed and the players that engage in these games have changed. Again, this can largely be attributed to WoW making MMOs far more accessible and with a much more reasonable learning curve.

 

Gear progression in SWTOR was a detriment and an inhibitor to various aspects of the game. Without the means and the right people, large portions of the game were simply inaccessible. That may not have been apparent to those who have guilds or the means to circumvent this lack of infrastructure in the game, but it was apparent to many other players who perhaps even quit because of it. Really, it comes full circle and goes back to what the point of Galactic Command is: inclusion.

Agree 100% that raid-gated gearing was neither equal nor fair for PvE, and it was a very good decision to make it more accessible for all players. The issue is how slow they've made gearing combined with the fact that there is gear-gated content - including Master-level story content coming in January I might add - and that the concept of gear itself is inherently unequal until BiS.

 

Until BiS under the current RNG system, in PvP it's survival of the luckiest, and in PvE the top DPS player will be the one who got the most lucky with gear drops and/or who engaged in the most grinding, not who knows how to play his class better. To combat this, the speed of gearing should remain what it was in 4.0, but be obtainable for all through legacy-wide GC. RNG can be relegated to determining which upgrade you get, but not whether you get an upgrade or theoretically keep you from ever obtaining BiS at all. No more grind, no more inequality, and while gear-gating would still be there its impact would be minimal if gearing were kept at 4.0 speed.

 

BiS gear is not a reward - it's a necessity to facilitate equality in competition and full access to existing content.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Aulus_Claudius

[IanArgent]

IMO it's sort of the point of playing an MMORPG. You find a community of players with common in-game interests and help each other achieve things that are not possible to be solo'ed.

 

IMO it's a fundamental difference of opinion I have with the studio. I do not believe the studio has a responsibility to ensure I have access to all content in the game on my own. I don't believe I should expect that.

 

And specifically in this game, I believe the gear that was accessible to solo players was more than adequate for solo content. As in - they literally would not notice the difference in content they do.

 

I do not think it is unreasonable to expect that the best gear in the game requires a high degree of investment in time/learning and effort. And IMO a two hour chunk of time, once or twice a week is not a 2nd job. I play golf. Softball. I watch my kids do sports. I make time for hobbies. I understand what you're saying, but I believe spending $150M+ to create an MMO and ensuring it contains no content requiring more than an hour is a dubious plan. I think you build mobile games for that demographic.

 

Regardless, it's a question of want. It's not a question of need - and this is only my opinion so it's not a big deal either way.

 

Emphasis mine, because I do put in at least that amount of play time. I put in around 3-10 hours in a week in game averaged across the month (or I did up until my day job ate my brain with year end deadlines starting in November); in 0.5-2 hour chunks; with the irregular 4-6 hour session on weekends. And that still didn't get me anywhere near being able to get entry-level set-bonus gear. It's not lack of time investment that has prevented me from accessing the gear. It's the lack of membership in a "well-run guild" that raids regularly. It's nice for you that you're in one; but that path has never opened for me. And there are no provided tools for getting into one. From the point of an outsider looking it, finding a guild to open up the end-game gear escalator is as much or more "RNG" as the CXP boxes. PUG Ops are worse than that; you can (I have) walked away from an Op with a repair bill bigger than buying on the GTN the gear drops drops I've gotten as guaranteed loot, and nothing else. Much less selling the items to vendors because I already have one and they're bound on pickup. And, of course, I actually enjoy pugging PvE content. Not everyone does. And all the elitism aside, there's now high-end solo content in the game, with HSF and TEC. It may not be challenging to high-end raiders, but it's plenty challenging to a large chunk of the player base.

 

Here's the thing. High-level gear is relevant to different players for different content. Not everyone will have the same skill level. Whenever I hear someone say "only NiM raiders need tier 3 gear, I get a tiny bit mad. It's not the absolute level of difficulty that people need the best gear for, it's the relative level of difficulty. People have skill caps, different in every person. To the extent that anyone "needs" gear, they need it for the highest-end content they are capable of tackling. My current "progression" is in TEC - I can't beat the 9th boss on any character (or at least, I couldn't in 4.0; haven't had a chance to try after 5.0, but given that I haven't really upgraded my gear, and the events have been retuned, I can't imagine that's changed); but I can see that I'm within the margin a gear upgrade would give me to advance, and I haven't been able to advance my skill level in the year I've been banging my head on the 9th boss.

[-Spc]

If RNG is so good, explain to me why is a pet "new gear"

 

At level 34 i got this from command cate:

1. pet

2. level 10 empty orange item

 

So explain to me how is a pet an upgrade to my current 224 gear ?

[IanArgent]

It bears repeating -- the "inclusion" part of Galactic Command is good.

 

It's the RNG portion that is the problem.

 

You're familiar with the typical "bell curve" chart of random number distribution? Every single player that falls on the left-hand side of that curve is going to feel "excluded".

 

Which is why I have always been saying they need strong anti-RNG mechanisms that have the appearance and effect of cutting off the negative side of the RNG bell curve. It's not enough to have anti-RNG mechanisms. They have to be visible. It's not sufficient to say they exist, they must also work.

 

This is where BWA has fallen down. There is no visibly-effective "safety net" for poor RNG results. Disitegration is not "effective," at least not at the current rate of CXP gains from disintegration. There needs to be a hard-stop mechanism, a guarantee that you will get your set bonus in a fixed number of crates. Not a "statistical certainty," a "absolute certainty." Where that hard-stop is on the bell-curve is a deign question; how many hours MUST you play before getting that? Design decision. But there has to be no probability involved to hit that hard stop.

[IanArgent]

If RNG is so good, explain to me why is a pet "new gear"

 

At level 34 i got this from command cate:

1. pet

2. level 10 empty orange item

 

So explain to me how is a pet an upgrade to my current 224 gear ?

 

Putting cosmetics on the same drop table as the statted gear? That's ... not a good decision.

[Andryah]

Which is why I have always been saying they need strong anti-RNG mechanisms that have the appearance and effect of cutting off the negative side of the RNG bell curve. It's not enough to have anti-RNG mechanisms. They have to be visible. It's not sufficient to say they exist, they must also work.

 

This is where BWA has fallen down. There is no visibly-effective "safety net" for poor RNG results. Disitegration is not "effective," at least not at the current rate of CXP gains from disintegration. There needs to be a hard-stop mechanism, a guarantee that you will get your set bonus in a fixed number of crates. Not a "statistical certainty," a "absolute certainty." Where that hard-stop is on the bell-curve is a deign question; how many hours MUST you play before getting that? Design decision. But there has to be no probability involved to hit that hard stop.

 

Yeah... I think they believed "disintegration" would be sufficient to mitigate bad RNG results. Wrong belief.

 

They need actual visible and viable failsafe mechanisms so that players know that by X-time/Y-effort..... they WILL have all their gear. A reputation style ladder and vendor for GC levels would do this nicely. Make the items direct purchase once they level-unlock, and make them BoL at the same time and you solve most of the alt-gearing issues as well. Lucky player gets his gear earlier then the ladder opens up... yay for them... and the ladder+vendor protects the unlucky from endless leveling of GC.

 

While there are some lazy players that want everything handed to them in an MMO.. I think most players are completely willing to do the effort as long as they have a map that clearly shows how far the journey to success is, rather then appearing open ended. Right now.. the system keeps that a mystery and anyone who is a pessimist is immediately turned off by it.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Andryah

[ivanhedgehog]

Agree 100% that raid-gated gearing was neither equal nor fair for PvE, and it was a very good decision to make it more accessible for all players. The issue is how slow they've made gearing combined with the fact that there is gear-gated content - including Master-level story content coming in January I might add - and that the concept of gear itself is inherently unequal until BiS.

 

Until BiS under the current RNG system, in PvP it's survival of the luckiest, and in PvE the top DPS player will be the one who got the most lucky with gear drops and/or who engaged in the most grinding, not who knows how to play his class better. To combat this, the speed of gearing should remain what it was in 4.0, but be obtainable for all through legacy-wide GC. RNG can be relegated to determining which upgrade you get, but not whether you get an upgrade or theoretically keep you from ever obtaining BiS at all. No more grind, no more inequality, and while gear-gating would still be there its impact would be minimal if gearing were kept at 4.0 speed.

 

BiS gear is not a reward - it's a necessity to facilitate equality in competition and full access to existing content.

 

to many people, it has become apparent that the gearing grind is basicly the whole expansion. all the metrics in the world wont change that. all the tweaking in the world wont change that. BW had better get off the stick and make some content to go with the grind. If they need to cut the 2 month sabbatical short so be it, because this game will not survive without some new content. Its like a resteraunt with nice new tables and chairs that serves cold ham sandwiches because they didnt cook any food. Not the best business plan.

[Aowin]

Putting cosmetics on the same drop table as the statted gear? That's ... not a good decision.

 

He is factually incorrect. Cosmetic items do not replace a gear piece. What likely happened is his interface bugged and did not show the gear piece he received. This has personally happened to me once before where I thought I did not receive a piece of gear. You always get a piece of gear that has stats. Cosmetic items are separate and on an entirely different loot table for RNG.

[benmas]

The weak excuses the devs use to force RNG down our throats was that "you don't get a set piece every raid" but after 14 raids you will definitely have something that isn't a bunch are terrible cosmetics Edited December 9, 2016 by benmas

[IanArgent]

Yeah... I think they believed "disintegration" would be sufficient to mitigate bad RNG results. Wrong belief.

 

They need actual visible and viable failsafe mechanisms so that players know that by X-time/Y-effort..... they WILL have all their gear. A reputation style ladder and vendor for GC levels would do this nicely. Make the items direct purchase once they level-unlock, and make them BoL at the same time and you solve most of the alt-gearing issues as well. Lucky player gets his gear earlier then the ladder opens up... yay for them... and the ladder+vendor protects the unlucky from endless leveling of GC.

 

While there are some lazy players that want everything handed to them in an MMO.. I think most players are completely willing to do the effort as long as they have a map that clearly shows how far the journey to success is, rather then appearing open ended. Right now.. the system keeps that a mystery and anyone who is a pessimist is immediately turned off by it.

 

There are many mechanisms possible, without going to rep/vendor. One I had suggested earlier was that if you disintegrated an item, it would be "removed" from the drop table from that slot until an item in the slot was accepted, for example. Though that would require a restructure of the slots and drop tables per slot, since it looks like they went and boneheadedly put cosmetic and stat items in the same box slot. (Another bad decision). Unlocking set-bonus armor plates (which was mentioned in last livestream, actually) would be a soft RNG mitigation mechanism, as then you would know you only need to get 6 set bonus items to have a full set bonus. There are a lot of things they can do. What will they do? So far it doesn't look like they want to put in hard RNG mitigation. Which is a Bad Idea.

[Aowin]

...

 

RNG is something BioWare is devoted to and I don't see them rapidly changing that system. I can see them increasing CXP gains, allowing more crates to drop, etc. However, I don't see them taking steps to undermine the RNG, which they very much support and want in place. Regardless of whether people believe RNG is good or bad for the game, BioWare believes it will lead to the best results based on how they have structured gear progression.

Edited December 10, 2016 by Aowin

[ivanhedgehog]

The obvious issue with this is there would need to be a re-balancing of the loot that does drop (schematics and rare materials) as well as lowering the amount of CXP players can obtain in an operation. The last thing BioWare wants to do is create a system in which operations are vastly superior to grinding CXP over everything else. That would largely undermine everything they are trying to achieve with Galactic Command.

 

pvp is the vastly superior way to gain CXP. When will that fix be coming again?

I can do wz after wz with no limit to gain way more gxp than any 1 time per week raid.

[Aowin]

pvp is the vastly superior way to gain CXP. When will that fix be coming again?

I can do wz after wz with no limit to gain way more gxp than any 1 time per week raid.

 

The "fix," which will be a substantial CXP boost to flashpoints and uprisings, is coming Tuesday in the next patch.

 

Either way, accumulating CXP should not be vastly superior in an operation, regardless of the mode for obvious reasons. Unlike in PvE where better gear is more of a luxury, better gear is an absolute necessity in PvP. Those small variables in stats can be the difference between life or death.

 

If raiders were to have an unfair advantage and then just come into warzones/ranked arenas and crush the PvP player base because of gear, there would be an uproar. That's what happened at launch when expertise was not working and raiders were coming in with Rakata gear knocking players around in Battlemaster gear and Champion gear.

 

That would be a very fast way to kill off what's left of the PvP community in the game.