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

[Glower]

Inclusiveness. It's really that simple.

 

Gosh go check new WoW gearing system. THIS is the inclusiveness, but not this RNG crap with CXP grind on your main character.

[Aowin]

I agree even though i dislike the system but i see the truth in your point

 

Maybe it will grow into me someday

 

I think Galactic Command, at its core, is something worth keeping. There will be a trial and error period and BioWare will tweak it when appropriate. However, we have to remember this is just phase one and BioWare is monitoring metrics to determine what they should do next. It may take a few months, but eventually I think Galactic Command will be something everybody can at least tolerate, if not completely appreciate.

[JennyFlynn]

I think Galactic Command, at its core, is something worth keeping. There will be a trial and error period and BioWare will tweak it when appropriate. However, we have to remember this is just phase one and BioWare is monitoring metrics to determine what they should do next. It may take a few months, but eventually I think Galactic Command will be something everybody can at least tolerate, if not completely appreciate.

 

The idea itself isn't bad but the numbers and RNG attached to it is. Ideally I'd see them tweak it so it does become more alt-friendly. So you can play your alt for an hour or two without feeling like you're robbing your main of time for CXP farming. Make it so that GC Rank 20 activates Galactic Command legacy wide so your alts can start earning CXP for you as well as they run around Tatooine doing their Class story. For example. Adjust the RNG of the crates' contents a little so you're not constantly receiving fluff and junk. Leave the crates in a 'claim' sort of window so you can decide which character you want to unpack them on (don't know in which way they're bound currently, account or otherwise). I mean these are just examples but the system does need tweaking, desperately. The current model just isn't right and it's not newcomer or veteran friendly at all whether you're a 'dirty casual' or hardcore raider.

[KristianBurke]

I think of myself as a casual player of SWTOR. I started in beta and subbed for a few months after, but I've left and come back for months at a time--usually with longer stretches spent away. I've done most flashpoints (only a few in hardmode) recently finished the last of the class stories (much faster with all the boosts we get now) and I'm currently working my way through KOTFE. Haven't touched operations--mostly because I never had the gear.

 

I had subbed again a couple months ago so I could catch up with the story and go right into KOTET, so I had early access. On my new main (ended up liking my JK the best during class play-throughs so stuck with her) I was able to craft and augment a full set of 228 gear on the second day of early access. Well, crafted all the armor pieces and augments. I was able to buy non-synthweaving pieces and put my augments in them. Overall a surprisingly fast process. Now, my question is--with this fully augmented 228 gear what content am I gated from?

 

See, my take on this expansion when it came out was extremely positive. As far as I understand it my fully craftable gear lets me do everything but the hardest operations. It's currently working just fine in the Veteran story missions. I like that pretty much everything I do now earns me potentially better gear. I haven't even used the couple of 230s that dropped because it was such a marginal gain over 228 I didn't feel like making a new augment kit for it.

 

My point is I think there are many people playing this game like me. The voices in this forum are no where close to an accurate sample of the player base. Bioware has all the numbers, I'm sure they can see how the majority of people actually spend time in-game, and I'm sure it's not the high-end raids. This new system has a much better chance of keeping me subbed than the old system, and I'd wager that's true many others as well. The ones happily playing the game instead of running to the forums.

 

That said, it's clear there should be some improvements made for that subset of people who seem to only want to run a specific type of content on a specific difficulty. Relying on the current RNG won't work. But we're what, less than a week into this new game? Relax and I'm sure there will be something added eventually.

[Aowin]

I think of myself as a casual player of SWTOR. I started in beta and subbed for a few months after, but I've left and come back for months at a time--usually with longer stretches spent away. I've done most flashpoints (only a few in hardmode) recently finished the last of the class stories (much faster with all the boosts we get now) and I'm currently working my way through KOTFE. Haven't touched operations--mostly because I never had the gear.

 

I had subbed again a couple months ago so I could catch up with the story and go right into KOTET, so I had early access. On my new main (ended up liking my JK the best during class play-throughs so stuck with her) I was able to craft and augment a full set of 228 gear on the second day of early access. Well, crafted all the armor pieces and augments. I was able to buy non-synthweaving pieces and put my augments in them. Overall a surprisingly fast process. Now, my question is--with this fully augmented 228 gear what content am I gated from?

 

See, my take on this expansion when it came out was extremely positive. As far as I understand it my fully craftable gear lets me do everything but the hardest operations. It's currently working just fine in the Veteran story missions. I like that pretty much everything I do now earns me potentially better gear. I haven't even used the couple of 230s that dropped because it was such a marginal gain over 228 I didn't feel like making a new augment kit for it.

 

My point is I think there are many people playing this game like me. The voices in this forum are no where close to an accurate sample of the player base. Bioware has all the numbers, I'm sure they can see how the majority of people actually spend time in-game, and I'm sure it's not the high-end raids. This new system has a much better chance of keeping me subbed than the old system, and I'd wager that's true many others as well. The ones happily playing the game instead of running to the forums.

 

That said, it's clear there should be some improvements made for that subset of people who seem to only want to run a specific type of content on a specific difficulty. Relying on the current RNG won't work. But we're what, less than a week into this new game? Relax and I'm sure there will be something added eventually.

 

Thank you for this. You made a lot of great points. I think Galactic Command is largely achieving what it was set out to do. You are also spot on that 228 gear is more than enough for everything besides Master Operations. I haven't tested Master Flashpoints, but that gear is probably sufficient if you have a competent group.

 

Tier 2 and Tier 3 are really more luxury than necessity for most aspects of the game. It's only going to be with regard to Master Operations where those higher tiers are really needed. Again, that is a very small demographic of the community as you pointed out.

 

Changes are going to occur, but the foundation is incredibly solid and I believe the silent majority is largely benefiting from this change in gear progression. We'll just have to wait and see as we are still less than a week into 5.0.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Aowin

[Tsillah]

Grind - disintegrate - repeat.

 

And I am already bored with it. I have leveled about 10 alts to 70, because I got bored grinding with my main. Only L11-12 and got 1 piece of 230 purple gear.

 

This grinding is boring. This grinding is boring. This grinding is boring. Just doing stuff for grinding and not because you are having fun. This grinding is boring.

 

Exactly that.

 

I am sure there are enough people in the game still that are fine with this crap and I wish them good luck, but for me this is the end.

 

It's simply boring and if BWA will do something about eventually, well, if it's a big enough change, I'll consider resubbing...eventually. Not gonna waste my time on grinding in the mean time.

 

And here's the thing. If I would unsub for say 6 months before, I could come back to the game, get a toon geared up to baseline gear in a couple of days and join the HM team and all's good. I am saying baseline gear ok, not the top gear. I'm saying this because there are some idiots out there that think that people like myself want top tier gear for free. No, just enough to get into HM since I've done the SM ops way too often already and they're not interesting anymore.

 

But now, if I were to come back after say 6 months I'll be so far behind on the grind that I won't be able to mesh back into the HM team on any short notice. That's why tweaks won't be enough. The simple reality is that BWA have used the old operations and fp's for 2 expansions now as their endgame. This is also why people who raid and have a bit of skill don't want to deal with SM anymore, especially after getting nerfed. Now they made the whole experience feel less rewarding and in fact, from an endgame gearing or progression gearing point of view it is factually less rewarding.

 

So when someone says that this is another nail in the coffin of raiding, they're right. Now, that may be just fine for a lot of people playing the game right now. I am not claiming any majorities. But people who don't understand that not everybody likes the same thing and think that's because it's fine for them it's fine for everyone should really get their heads checked. It's a dumb *** thing to say or even think.

 

I quit playing because this is not enjoyable for me. I do not expect half the player base to do the same, but there is a decent size group of players leaving and my guess is that these are generally players with some skill. So not only the game is continually being dumbed down but so is the player base. Clearly, it's time to move on for me, but I full well expect SWTOR to muddle on. I don't think it will die, but I do think it's turned into a game for simpletons. Again warning for reading skills: I said the game is for simpletons, I did not say that every player now is a simpleton. If you have a hard time though with the story in SM and can't figure out yourself how to beat Vaylin for example, well, I guess then you're the target audience for this expansion.

[keitzy]

Exactly that.

 

I am sure there are enough people in the game still that are fine with this crap and I wish them good luck, but for me this is the end.

 

It's simply boring and if BWA will do something about eventually, well, if it's a big enough change, I'll consider resubbing...eventually. Not gonna waste my time on grinding in the mean time.

 

And here's the thing. If I would unsub for say 6 months before, I could come back to the game, get a toon geared up to baseline gear in a couple of days and join the HM team and all's good. I am saying baseline gear ok, not the top gear. I'm saying this because there are some idiots out there that think that people like myself want top tier gear for free. No, just enough to get into HM since I've done the SM ops way too often already and they're not interesting anymore.

 

But now, if I were to come back after say 6 months I'll be so far behind on the grind that I won't be able to mesh back into the HM team on any short notice. That's why tweaks won't be enough. The simple reality is that BWA have used the old operations and fp's for 2 expansions now as their endgame. This is also why people who raid and have a bit of skill don't want to deal with SM anymore, especially after getting nerfed. Now they made the whole experience feel less rewarding and in fact, from an endgame gearing or progression gearing point of view it is factually less rewarding.

 

So when someone says that this is another nail in the coffin of raiding, they're right. Now, that may be just fine for a lot of people playing the game right now. I am not claiming any majorities. But people who don't understand that not everybody likes the same thing and think that's because it's fine for them it's fine for everyone should really get their heads checked. It's a dumb *** thing to say or even think.

 

I quit playing because this is not enjoyable for me. I do not expect half the player base to do the same, but there is a decent size group of players leaving and my guess is that these are generally players with some skill. So not only the game is continually being dumbed down but so is the player base. Clearly, it's time to move on for me, but I full well expect SWTOR to muddle on. I don't think it will die, but I do think it's turned into a game for simpletons. Again warning for reading skills: I said the game is for simpletons, I did not say that every player now is a simpleton. If you have a hard time though with the story in SM and can't figure out yourself how to beat Vaylin for example, well, I guess then you're the target audience for this expansion.

 

Exactly.

[Alloou]

Thank you for this. You made a lot of great points.

 

So your perfect solution to GC RNGfest is to buy and craft your gear????

Your glorious solution to the current gearing system is to not go through it and craft your own gear?

 

Amazing ... Simply amazing ...

 

As for KristianBurke, please enlighten me, if you are currenlty going through KoTFE, where did you get all the mats to craft and augment a full 228 set? Did you manage in 1 day to get all the schematics/mats you needed to craft the appropriate gear?

Because if you did, then you are probably the luckiest person i know. Not to mention you probably spent millions to buy 14 augments to put on your gear.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Alloou

[Frenesi]

So your perfect solution to GC RNGfest is to buy and craft your gear????

Your glorious solution to the current gearing system is to not go through it and craft your own gear?

 

Amazing ... Simply amazing ...

 

As for KristianBurke, please enlighten me, if you are currenlty going through KoTFE, where did you get all the mats to craft and augment a full 228 set? Did you manage in 1 day to get all the schematics/mats you needed to craft the appropriate gear?

Because if you did, then you are probably the luckiest person i know. Not to mention you probably spent millions to buy 14 augments to put on your gear.

Well, it is the best solution available

[Alloou]

Well, it is the best solution available

 

Why he is whiteknighting such a bad system when the solution is already in game...

Remove gear completely from GC, let the schematics be at the vendors and the content to drop only mats.

 

Everyone will buy their own gear, with the set bonuses from GTN, amirite?

 

But then again, people will come to the forums and complain that now they need to farm credits

 

Bottom line, solution is simple. Make GC only for vanity items and find other ways to distribute the gear to everyone through other means... Hell, mail everyone a full set of 244 and be done with it...

[KristianBurke]

So your perfect solution to GC RNGfest is to buy and craft your gear????

Your glorious solution to the current gearing system is to not go through it and craft your own gear?

 

Amazing ... Simply amazing ...

 

As for KristianBurke, please enlighten me, if you are currenlty going through KoTFE, where did you get all the mats to craft and augment a full 228 set? Did you manage in 1 day to get all the schematics/mats you needed to craft the appropriate gear?

Because if you did, then you are probably the luckiest person i know. Not to mention you probably spent millions to buy 14 augments to put on your gear.

 

Schematics come from the *gasp* crafting trainer. All the mats are from farmable nodes/missions or are readily available on GTN. I crafted my own augments--took some time to RE a bunch of armorings for the augment kits pieces but there was plenty of time while going through KOTFE missions. Prices really weren't that bad for the parts I couldn't craft because there was a rush of people crafting everything.

 

And for those that didn't have 3-4 million saved up, getting 228 crafted gear is way faster than all the moaning about RNG on this thread. What's your problem with that solution exactly? Because the "grind" that everyone has become accustomed to is now less relevant?

 

My question is still out there though--what content is someone in augmented 228s under-geared for? From someone unfamiliar with the high-end raid content I'm honestly asking.

[Aowin]

So your perfect solution to GC RNGfest is to buy and craft your gear????

Your glorious solution to the current gearing system is to not go through it and craft your own gear?

 

Amazing ... Simply amazing ...

 

As for KristianBurke, please enlighten me, if you are currenlty going through KoTFE, where did you get all the mats to craft and augment a full 228 set? Did you manage in 1 day to get all the schematics/mats you needed to craft the appropriate gear?

Because if you did, then you are probably the luckiest person i know. Not to mention you probably spent millions to buy 14 augments to put on your gear.

 

It's not a "solution." It's merely an optional way of guaranteeing quality gear until you get better versions in the command crate system. The point that was being addressed is you can get decent gear that is guaranteed. All the nay-sayers would have us believe that getting decent gear is impossible and that Galactic Command is the worst thing to ever happen to this game. Wake up.

 

I think you are a bit confused. You don't need to find 228 schematics. You just buy them from your crews skill trainer. The schematics that drop in command crates are 230. Everything he crafted is readily obtainable by anyone. Augments and augmentation kits have never been expensive and they are easy to craft. Really, this new gear progression system isn't nearly as horrible as you make it out to be.

[Alloou]

Schematics come from the *gasp* crafting trainer. All the mats are from farmable nodes/missions or are readily available on GTN. I crafted my own augments--took some time to RE a bunch of armorings for the augment kits pieces but there was plenty of time while going through KOTFE missions. Prices really weren't that bad for the parts I couldn't craft because there was a rush of people crafting everything.

 

And for those that didn't have 3-4 million saved up, getting 228 crafted gear is way faster than all the moaning about RNG on this thread. What's your problem with that solution exactly? Because the "grind" that everyone has become accustomed to is now less relevant?

 

My question is still out there though--what content is someone in augmented 228s under-geared for? From someone unfamiliar with the high-end raid content I'm honestly asking.

 

Simple, as people mentioned before, HM content requires a baseline 230 set gear...

And my question still stands...

The best solution to the current gearing system is to not go through it? Doesn't that strike you as odd?

 

And how are people supposed to run HM/ NiM/ Master content? With 228 non set gear?

Not gonna happen with the dps and healing requirements for that content. There is something called Enrage Timer which one-shots everyone when you reach it ...

[Frenesi]

Schematics come from the *gasp* crafting trainer. All the mats are from farmable nodes/missions or are readily available on GTN. I crafted my own augments--took some time to RE a bunch of armorings for the augment kits pieces but there was plenty of time while going through KOTFE missions. Prices really weren't that bad for the parts I couldn't craft because there was a rush of people crafting everything.

 

And for those that didn't have 3-4 million saved up, getting 228 crafted gear is way faster than all the moaning about RNG on this thread. What's your problem with that solution exactly? Because the "grind" that everyone has become accustomed to is now less relevant?

 

My question is still out there though--what content is someone in augmented 228s under-geared for? From someone unfamiliar with the high-end raid content I'm honestly asking.

 

It's just, set bonuses are generally more important than simple stat increases. Always was the case. While SM is perfectly doable naked, and some HMs can be done in "comm" gear without bonus, others can not. And you absolutely NEED set bonuses for high-end runs, like ToS HM or NiMs

Edited December 6, 2016 by Frenesi

[gabigool]

At no point in the last few years has this game been "unfriendly" to new players.

 

It has been unfriendly to veterans. Guilds. Hard Mode raiders. NM Raiders. PvPers. Ranked PvPers. This is why they have largely left.

 

New players? this place has been paradise.

 

Massive QoL improvements. Leveling ease. XP boosts. Preferred. Bolster. Commendations. Legacy gear. Removal of mechanics. Overtuning of companions. H2 Nerfs. Credit fountains. Level 60 tokens.

 

A new player could log in for the first time and be in a raid in 15 minutes. What other game is that even possible in?

 

No one - I mean no one rational - has ever said that the idea of making spectacular gear available to the masses is wrong. Nobody. So when you pat yourself on the back about how wonderful you are to see how great it is for everyone to get all shangri la... you do understand you're completely missing the point, correct? Like - you're arguing vehemently against a point no one is making, right? You do get that?

 

It's a question of implementation.

 

You haven't given a single good reason why this system (or an improved version) could not have been dropped on top of the existing system. I mean you've made up facts and said some nice pretend stuff - but it's all noise.

 

People were gearing too fast in PvP you say.

 

Huh? Too fast for who? Isn't the idea of a new player being able to gear up quickly to be on the same playing field as everyone else MORE new-player friendly than this? It seems so. If anything, the slower the pace, the wider the margin between the first and last players.

 

PvE players were gearing up too quickly in Operations? The problem with this was... wait, what exactly? Sure, EV/KP didn't belong in HHM. Heck, HHM didn't belong in this game, period. But I'm not sure I see a shred of value in taking players who, last week, were killing NM stuff and telling them they should wait a few months before they do so again. I literally can't see a reason to think that's okay other than being nasty. Literally, you haven't once explained why that's good. You just keep saying that we should all think so.

 

Are you seriously trying to imply the reason people blew through Operations content was because they geared too quickly?

 

See, I kinda thought it was because there hasn't been new content for the last two years. I dunno. You're the expert.

 

Take that player that posted above. She likes the system. That's awesome. I understand why she might.

 

But I can think of a dozen other ways to put her into a situation where she could get some fantastic gear and not make the game a literally miserable experience for thousands of people.

 

RNG acquisition of gear that is essentially required for the enjoyable experience of content delays enjoyment. Period. That's not how a game is supposed to work. A game is supposed to be fun. Not in an established MMO with the current dearth of new content. People don't want gear. People want to do stuff with the gear. that's a subtle difference and it's completely lost on you.

 

You want to gate access to content behind a grind? That's fine if it's new content. The idea of gating two (or three or four) year old content behind a grind is ludicrous. It's laughable. Anyone who thinks that makes sense needs their head examined.

 

The focus in a game like this should never, ever be on gear. And that's what this entire expansion is based on. Being able to gear up characters - all of these alts we were encouraged to make (in an event you threw confetti over because it was so new-player friendly) - was what made this game enjoyable for a lot of people. IMO it was one of its greatest strengths. It was new player friendly. It was alt-friendly. But most importantly, it allowed the players to not focus on gear, but on the game.

 

Yes the story is cute. And the Uprisings will distract people for a couple weeks. But they're going to tire of them pretty damn quickly when they are grinding through CXP level 70. Or 115. Or 140. You feel?

 

The new content has been relegated to a means to an end. That's not supposed to be the point. Gear shouldn't be the focus of this expansion. And it is. And that's bad. The focus ought to be on the content. And it's not.

 

But to get back to your propaganda, the entire point you're trying to make crumbles with one push. You keep beating this drum that a new player used to be at a disadvantage in the old system, but not in the new system. How does that work in 6 months though?

Edited December 6, 2016 by gabigool

[majopucik]

I really do not think this system makes people equal!

 

Look at the system now, Ranked warzones gives A LOT of cxp and its pretty fast to level the rank with them. However, now its pretty easy due to the fact that PVPers had only 208 gear and PVErs have 224, which is much more superior to PVP gear.

 

However, in a few months PVPers will have top end game gear as the ranked system gives good cxp, when new players que ranked then they will be facerolled. Yes, everyone can get the gear if they invest enough time into it, but that is still crazy to do!!

 

As for me, sure whatever, implement the system, but at least make it legacy wide, not character specific.

[SizaCionel]

This command s**t system is a f**king twink killer who the f**k will level all classes to level 300!!!??? Are you kidding me? I always played ever class, all 8 dps and all 3 heals where fully equipped and all been played successfully in nightmare and THIS NEW SYSTEM F**KED IT ALL UP !! Now I can't help anyone cuz I need the command points on my main!!!

[JennyFlynn]

<insert lots of stuffs>

 

Second time I've seen you post today and wholeheartedly agree! Keep throwing those truth bombs around, hopefully they'll hit their target soon.

[Alloou]

It's not a "solution." It's merely an optional way of guaranteeing quality gear until you get better versions in the command crate system. The point that was being addressed is you can get decent gear that is guaranteed. All the nay-sayers would have us believe that getting decent gear is impossible and that Galactic Command is the worst thing to ever happen to this game. Wake up.

 

I think you are a bit confused. You don't need to find 228 schematics. You just buy them from your crews skill trainer. The schematics that drop in command crates are 230. Everything he crafted is readily obtainable by anyone. Augments and augmentation kits have never been expensive and they are easy to craft. Really, this new gear progression system isn't nearly as horrible as you make it out to be.

 

But this is the problem with this system. The currently implemented system. You can never predict when you will have your gear ready to do that content.

Can you guarantee a raider or a pvper that they will have their full gear in 2 weeks?1 month? 2 months?

That is the problem with RNG, there will never be a guarantee for any gear EVER.

 

Why don't you see that? This is what people are raging about ...

 

Simple solution would be to bring back the old system, for pvp make everything cost 4x more commendations...

For OPs, reduce the number of drops per boss so that you artificially extend the old content again.

 

For rest of players, add yellow crystals and put vendors that sell them for 1000 a piece and adjust your H2s, story modes etc to make it equal to raiding and pvp gearing...

 

And even more, add a weekly limit to tokens, commendations and yellow crystals to everyone so they wont farm like idiots for 15 hours a day.

 

Reward the effort through the content, not reward luck and sheer grind...

[AbsolutGrndZero]

Thank you, finally good to see others like myself that see the benefit of this system over the old system. I rarely did ops, which meant I was unable to get my main hand weapon, or even the higher end gear.

 

But now, I can do what I enjoy and I can still get the top end gear. This is better for EVERYONE in the long run, just people fear change and refuse to see the light at the end of the tunnel because they are already convinced it's a train. It's not a train, but no amount of telling them that will suffice. They already 'know' it's a train.

[Alloou]

Thank you, finally good to see others like myself that see the benefit of this system over the old system. I rarely did ops, which meant I was unable to get my main hand weapon, or even the higher end gear.

 

But now, I can do what I enjoy and I can still get the top end gear. This is better for EVERYONE in the long run, just people fear change and refuse to see the light at the end of the tunnel because they are already convinced it's a train. It's not a train, but no amount of telling them that will suffice. They already 'know' it's a train.

 

No it is not. That's why people are raging. That's why even Dulfy was forced to take a stance against it for the first time in 5 years... RNG is never a guarantee for anything, so you might or might not get the top end gear.

 

i gave a much better solution on my post above...

 

EDIT: Not to mention that in order to have a chance to get to the top end gear you need to reach first GC level 180... So 180 hours for reaching the point of getting a chance at that elite gear ( 1h per crate as per livestream).

Edited December 6, 2016 by Alloou

[JennyFlynn]

Thank you, finally good to see others like myself that see the benefit of this system over the old system. I rarely did ops, which meant I was unable to get my main hand weapon, or even the higher end gear.

 

But now, I can do what I enjoy and I can still get the top end gear. This is better for EVERYONE in the long run, just people fear change and refuse to see the light at the end of the tunnel because they are already convinced it's a train. It's not a train, but no amount of telling them that will suffice. They already 'know' it's a train.

 

I appreciate your statement and you're entitled to your opinion but I have to ask; why do you want top end gear when you don't really engage in ops?

 

I've never bothered with ops either, nor will I as end-game isn't really my concern in SWTOR so I've always felt that the max level entry gear from the vendor was fine for derping around doing SOLO/Story mode FPs and Heroic+2 weeklies. Chuck some decent mods into my weapon and done. I've never wanted or felt like I needed top tier end game stuf so I'm just curious why you do.

[Frenesi]

Thank you, finally good to see others like myself that see the benefit of this system over the old system. I rarely did ops, which meant I was unable to get my main hand weapon, or even the higher end gear.

 

But now, I can do what I enjoy and I can still get the top end gear. This is better for EVERYONE in the long run, just people fear change and refuse to see the light at the end of the tunnel because they are already convinced it's a train. It's not a train, but no amount of telling them that will suffice. They already 'know' it's a train.

 

Sorry dude. You can not.

[KristianBurke]

Simple, as people mentioned before, HM content requires a baseline 230 set gear...

And my question still stands...

The best solution to the current gearing system is to not go through it? Doesn't that strike you as odd?

 

And how are people supposed to run HM/ NiM/ Master content? With 228 non set gear?

Not gonna happen with the dps and healing requirements for that content. There is something called Enrage Timer which one-shots everyone when you reach it ...

 

Yeah I know what enrage timers are and thus why there are gear "requirements". Just curious where the 230 requirement came from. Experience? There used to be a tooltip or something in-game that had recommended gear levels but I can't find them anymore. But to clarify, when you say "content" are you just talking about Ops? Because from what I've heard from folks in-game at least the hardest FPs and Uprisings can be done with sub-230 gear. I know the chapters are possible since I'm doing it, and planetary missions are a cakewalk. So is this really just a HM+ Ops problem? Still seems like a small portion of the player base.

[Aowin]

...

 

This game has always been unfriendly to new players since launch. For years BioWare has been trying to streamline it to make it more accessible to new players. Remember class trees? Remember each class used to have unique stats? Remember how classes used to have forms and cells that weren't passive? Remember how Valor actually used to mean something and was required for PvP gear? Remember how operations used to drop gear pieces and not tokens? The list goes on and on with the changes BioWare has made in this game in an attempt to make it more newcomer-friendly.

 

BioWare has tirelessly been trying to make this game more and more appealing to new players. The old gear progression system was never ideal and there was always a disconnect between newcomers and veterans. Why was that the case? Because there were so many different gear sets, different currencies, new players did not know what to get and what to do. From your biased perspective, of course gearing was "simple" because you were here for years... New players did not have your knowledge. No, gearing was not simple pre-5.0 and Galactic Command was the ultimate solution to streamline all gear progression.

 

I understand it's difficult for you to see any perspective other than your own. Believe me when I tell you BioWare is doing what is best for the majority of the game. Gear has always been the focus of this game, especially in progression raiding. I'm not sure why you think Galactic Command has somehow made it more relevant than it was before. All Galactic Command does is make the best gear available to everybody on a fair playing field. This really isn't difficult to understand and the benefits of this system for the majority are obvious.

 

Try to put yourself in the shoes of a new player who literally just started playing today. Do you honestly believe the convoluted and confusing gear progression we had in 4.0 and prior is easier to understand and achieve than Galactic Command? I think you know the real answer, even if you don't like it. The system isn't perfect, but Galactic Command is the right direction for this game and it is here to stay. We'll have to see what's in store for group content and perhaps operations.

 

As for how this system works in six months? That's an easy answer. CXP boosts, CXP weekends, and other means of equalizing command ranks and placing all players on an even playing field. By the time the new expansion hits command ranks will either be reset to 1 or BioWare will provide tokens for players to catch up to those who get to command rank 300. BioWare has a plan. You'll just have to wait and see what they have in store for us.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Aowin