Livestream: December 8th, 2016

[Jerba]

Giving operations ridiculous numbers of exp? Seriously doubt it is going to happen as all that will do is unbalance pvp since expertise is no longer in effect . It would also effect the Gree event,Conquest and I believe the Rackghoul event if you are in a pvp instance. Not to mention any open world pvp. GSF as an example gives over 1k a match,which is far better than ground pvp (though this may be with bonus as I didnt check). The numbers and bonus are there as an incentive. There will be times ops does get those big numbers from the bonus and what side you of the force you are currently fighting for and there will be times other things are getting that bonus. What they seem to be pushing is for diversity in the game experience. Doing everything that gives command points and honestly that isnt a bad thing.

They can easily double the CXP from flashpoints/operations and it would still not imbalance PvP. Operations require skill and have lockouts; PvP gives you CXP no matter what you do and can be repeated all week. Also, the daily bonus only gives a 20% bonus on CXP packs (and no bonus on quest rewards), which is not much an incentive because PvP/GSF still give the most points.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Jerba

[MegaTherions]

They can easily double the CXP from flashpoints/operations and it would still not imbalance PvP. Operations require skill and have lockouts; PvP gives you CXP no matter what you do and can be repeated all week. Also, the daily bonus only gives a 20% bonus on CXP packs (and no bonus on quest rewards), which is not much an incentive because PvP/GSF still give the most points.

 

No need to fix or to fine tune the CXP system. They need to remove it! No one asked for grind and RNG

[Sundragon]

Will only a random number of people be allowed to watch the livestream?

[gabigool]

All this tells me is they will, in usual form, gloss over the issues and ignore the outrage, then they will quickly move on to whatever event is coming up, try to wow everyone by going way overboard on some more crappy in-game rewards (new trainer, knock-off party jawa, etc.) move on to gleam over Life Day and then end on how they are listening to us and how successful 5.0 has been so far.

 

Without question, that is what they want to do. But that would be a very, very bad idea. This should not be a business as usual stream.

 

Honestly, Charles should sit this one out. A lot of people haven't played through the chapters yet and, more importantly, there are larger problems going on this week. No offense C.

 

I really don't care about apologies or hat in hand ****. I just want honesty. Specifics.

 

I want Ben to say things like he recognizes that there are some glaring issues with the rates/methods of CXP gains.

 

I also think he needs to spend some time discussing that overall players are not happy with GC overall, and explain why they went ahead with it anyway. This is about honesty. Character. Trust. Ben asks us often to trust him. Coming on screen and saying the overall impression of the playerbase is positive will shred any chance he has at being trusted. Ever.

 

I want Ben to explain the justification for the Gold nerf, specifically explaining its effect on group PvE CXP acquisition rate, and why grinding is not allowed.

 

I want Ben to speak to the discrepancies between various CXP acquisition activities and to flat out admit "play how you want" is a joke.

 

Also, I want to know today what his plans are to make alt-gearing actually viable, and the mythical "catch-up" plan i.e. SB vendors. Today.

[Celise]

Personally I dont mind the RNG thing,though I have had decent luck with it at Command level 11 and 2 pieces of set gear. Funny part is what they will probably do as a hotfix is just add bolster to make all gear set at minimum for story mode Ops and the like. And then people will complain some more,even though they have fixed the issue of casual gaming.

 

The commentary about everyone leaving and sub numbers dropping a few weeks after launch is a straw man argument at best and disingenuous at worst as the complaint at the time was how fast the game was completed (average was 40 hours) and people had nothing else to do. That is why everyone left,not having more to do and grinding like mad to get the gear.

 

Fixed the issue, what fix?

 

How is it a strawman argument? i never asked for a change in end game content, i was happy with 4.0. i certainly never advanced any idea towards that end nor did i even want it. now this absurd RNG system is dropped into the center of the game as the go to mechanic for all gear. i never wanted anything like this and bioware could of most certainly left it alone and just added some more ops and gear and things would of been fine and your idea of a strawman wouldn't exist. but this is what we got, now, someone who thinks there is a fallacy instead of agreeing or disagreeing.

[dr_mike]

13th iirc.

 

Tuesday the 20th.

 

It's somewhere buried in a post around here and listed on those websites we're not supposed to discuss.

 

Will only a random number of people be allowed to watch the livestream?

 

And you have to have a command rank of exactly 299 on no less than 3 characters.

Edited December 7, 2016 by dr_mike

[Anzel]

#RemoveRNG

[ImmortalLowlife]

 

Seriously, you already got your answer on that:

 

1) No new companions until at least 6.0 (= November/December 2017), and

 

2) the new comps aren't customizable because it's too much work and then the cutscenes don't look like the devs intended. Just because you don't like this answer doesn't change it. There are way more pressing concerns that have not been answered yet.

 

Ok....

1. They never gave an actual date or timeframe for the companions return. That bs YOU talking bout is actually just a "guess" that the forum has latched onto and run with. Nowhere has Ben said "we plan to bring them back in 6.0". So unless you got proof of the date...

 

And

 

2. Guess what....They once said they were done with individual class story. But after years of people asking for more personal story we got those little "one shots" of individual story in SoR. The lesson here...."closed mouths don't get fed". As it stands, I've run through SoR recently with master ranos as my companion who is currently wearing the revealing body suit (with a dark purple dye). And the cutscenes there work just fine. They've made changes to the engine with every update, so what they said a year ago may not be a factor today....so I'm gonna keep asking about it.

 

So try this....YOU worry about what's important to you, and I'll worry about what's important to ME. IDGAF about GC-RGN. I do care about story and immersion...... Patna

[TUXs]

I hope you do address the crap that is the GC RNG gearing. Bring back the ops token loot.

If they don't, there's no hope for this game...even though I think the message has been clear for 2+ years now.

[Darkbloom]

Dear Bioware,

 

You have gotten some exceptional posts on this thread, especially the second and third posts on page 6. I really hope you pay attention.

 

I love so much about KotET. But since GC is such a source of unhappiness, and since you have put all your eggs in this one basket, I want to point out three things.

 

1. You already have a conquest system. When you discovered that people could farm gold mobs and get ridiculous CXP, why was your response not modeled on the conquest system? Why didn't you put a daily cap on the number of mobs rewarding CXP?

 

2. Before release, you all said the idea was that the average player would get 2 or 3 crates per hour of play. Given that people play alts, that seems perfect. The average player is certainly not getting 2 or 3 crates per hour.

 

3. If gearing is now going to be done through CXP, why are there any lockouts on PVE content lasting longer than one day? People can do war zones endlessly. Why are heroics and operations different?

 

Remember the original reason games put lockouts on raids?

 

There is a reason I chose to emphasize these 3 points. There is a serious lack of deep, critical thought here.

 

You put all your eggs in one gearing basket, but didn't think it through clearly. And it is frustrating to see how angry you have made people as a result.

 

Yes the game has other problems too, which were nicely summarized in the posts I mentioned earlier. But the lack of big picture critical thinking about a change to the fundamental nature of how people play the max level game perplexes me.

 

I sincerely hope you start with a vision of how the average player can get 2 or 3 crates per hour, even at L 300, then balance from there so that most activities give relatively similar CXP. And please, look at your own quite-successful conquest system for help on how to balance things.

[Riincewind]

Can you please tell us when we are likely to get a fix to PT tank?

 

The Flame Engine proc is breaking the class for many as it doesn't work. I understand you guys maybe busy, but a little acknoledgement on a gamebreaking issue for a class would be nice, we understand it may take some time to fix, but right now it feels like the problem is bring ignored and swept under the carpet.

[Wayshuba]

Does anyone really believe Ben truly understands how much is riding on this livestream tomorrow?

 

I have one bit of advice. Go on YouTube, watch the guild summit, then go to your database and look at the subscription cancellations after that summit.

 

Do not come on and patronize your paying customers. Do not tell them the system is fun - NO ONE THINKS IT IS FUN. Do not tell then they are getting loot faster - YOUR IDEA OF LOOT AND PLAYERS IDEAS OF LOOT ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Do not say something as stupid as you are getting a crate an hour. In fact, it might be good to explain why you completely lied about that. Especially as the levels go up.

 

Do come on and say how you are immediately implementing the 4.0 gearing system back into the game in the next two weeks (before you leave for holidays).

 

If you insist on keeping a universally hated system (the WHOLE ENTIRE THING IS HATED), then make it an extra like the DvL boxes were. Add some unique armor SKINS (not end game stuff), some decorations, pets, mounts, and maybe even keep the legendary armors as an added bonus - AND MAKE THE THING LEGACY WIDE.

 

Please tell us tomorrow you understand the strengths of the 4.0 era SWTOR as being very alt friendly and new player friendly as well and that the current load of garbage you call the CxP system is completely the opposite of what the games strengths were (in fact, it killed those strengths).

Edited December 7, 2016 by Wayshuba

[Peteraven]

Hello, this is the second time I post on swotr forum.

 

I will tell a bit my experience.

 

I started pre 4.0 only not the beginning, the 4.0 i made a couple episodes first than left. I was preferred player first then subscribed because like so much the class story. Still remember that only had a comp. healer lvl 30 and made some dailies to get better gear.

When 4.0 was launched played some episodes and left. Subscribed again this year. And found a nice active guild i started raiding with them with pvp gear in Sm ops just for the set bonus , they help me to complete set bonus and be raiding since them, with them also with group finder.

One of the activities I like most on game.

Not a hardcore player or veteran. But watched swotr through time with some changes. This command crate is not very newcomer friendly. I don't know what you add in mind. it is a terrible , enourmous mistake .

4.0 was not perfect but was alright crystal coms do ops get better gear roll for it don't get it do raid again. Next time you get it. Also not alt Friendly. Did not played yet the new episodes because trying to grind best gear for me. But I can't is just making me nervous and not enjoying the game. No matter if story is good or not. I hope you do apologize to the community and add the crystals like it was on 4.0. For me and majority of people we are just getting angry with command crate casino and will unsub and try to do other things that give us joy in our spare time. Life is too short to spend ridiculous amount of time, on trying to get a crate with set bonus rinse, repeat if don't. You are killing the game and is a "...path that leads to anger, anger to hate.. "master Yoda ".

Everyone's will be unhappy and unsub.

I hope you apologize to people say this command crate is a big mistake and re enter 4.0 crystals and ops gear, as for me and I think majority of players will see no reason to keep subscription and just unsub. Thanks.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Peteraven
Grammatical errors

[gabigool]

Can you please tell us when we are likely to get a fix to PT tank?

 

The Flame Engine proc is breaking the class for many as it doesn't work. I understand you guys maybe busy, but a little acknoledgement on a gamebreaking issue for a class would be nice, we understand it may take some time to fix, but right now it feels like the problem is bring ignored and swept under the carpet.

 

As much as I think the most important issue to discuss is GC, I agree Shieldtech is broken. Would be nice to at least see it listed as a known issue. Anyone who cares to can observe this by playing it for 15 seconds. FE is pretty much the cornerstone of the build and it ought to work properly.

[Batwer]

Hey everyone!

 

This Thursday, December 8th, we will be hosting a Producer Livestream with Ben Irving and Charles Boyd. We are going to discuss a number of Community hot topics, such as Galactic Command and the KOTET Story, as well as a few things coming soon to The Old Republic!

 

Details:

When: Thursday, December 8, 2016

When: 430PM CST / 230PM PST

Where: http://www.twitch.tv/swtor

 

See you then!

 

Tait

 

Mhm.... *Pitchfork swung*

[PlasmaJohn]

You really think they are doing this livestream for goodwill? They are doing it only for one reason - because there has been a lot of sub cancellations since launch. Otherwise there would be no livestream.

I'm not convinced. They've been having these pretty regularly on Thursday afternoons. I suspect this one was scheduled to congratulate themselves on how awesome KotET turned out. Remains to be seen if they truly understand the magnitude of the discontent over RNG gearing (and DvL)

 

I'm no longer a fan of making command rank legacy wide not unless they seriously ramp up CXP gains. Even with the 10cxp golds PVE activities still made grinding ranks a slog. Best to bring back gear tokens and vendors ASAP. Then I be able to play how I want instead of stressing over grinding moar ranks.

 

DvL is an unmitigated disaster IMO. Just trash that the whole system and forget it even existed.

 

Wish I could say the KotET story was awesome but I cannot. Too much cognitive dissonance. And yeah, I was on a Guardian.

[TUXs]

Does anyone really believe Ben truly understands how much is riding on this livestream tomorrow?

Not even close. Your post was perfect, but I had to reply to this one part because I think they're oblivious.

[Tanitha]

1. Remove RNG for gearing, put it back in ops as it should be.

2. Bring back expertise for PvP, so PvPers don't have to do ops to get gear

3. Make Galactic Command legacy, and keep it for vanity items.

4. gathering mats: Darvannis and Zakuul are not enough for both grade 9 and 10 mats. You have Iokath and nathema, put grade 10 mats on those 2 new planets.

5. Content! Content! 9 chapters and 10 mins uprisings not enough content.

#6: Grinding for CXP is boring. I want to do stuff for fun, not to get CXP for gearing, and IF I get something usable..

Edited December 7, 2016 by Tanitha

[christian_bmx]

Hey everyone!

 

This Thursday, December 8th, we will be hosting a Producer Livestream with Ben Irving and Charles Boyd. We are going to discuss a number of Community hot topics, such as Galactic Command and the KOTET Story, as well as a few things coming soon to The Old Republic!

 

Details:

When: Thursday, December 8, 2016

When: 430PM CST / 230PM PST

Where: http://www.twitch.tv/swtor

 

See you then!

 

Tait

i think you should make the live stream today. I cant wait to tomorrow to see what the hell is happening with swtor and his daily problems

[gabigool]

Does anyone really believe Ben truly understands how much is riding on this livestream tomorrow?

 

I honestly don't know. You're right, of course. If they do their typical silly marketing garbage stream, they are going to lose subs. It isn't fun, now. And not fun = not play. It's pretty simple. There are a lot of people looking at this stream for the sole purpose of expecting a real discussion. Not back patting, talking points or pacification. They want to know now, that it's going to change. Massively.

 

Do come on and say how you are immediately implementing the 4.0 gearing system back into the game in the next two weeks (before you leave for holidays).

 

If you insist on keeping a universally hated system (the WHOLE ENTIRE THING IS HATED), then make it an extra like the DvL boxes were. Add some unique armor SKINS (not end game stuff), some decorations, pets, mounts, and maybe even keep the legendary armors as an added bonus - AND MAKE THE THING LEGACY WIDE.

 

I really don't see them blowing it up. I agree they should, but they probably won't. External corporate forces etc. If they wanted to actually fix it, they would put loot back on bosses and back into PvP vendors.

 

But I do not see much incentive for them to actually fix it. They do not care if it's a good system as long as no one is quitting. I can't see them killing GC.

 

Honestly Ben has a pretty simple out. Hop on and simply say:

"Hey, guys we're listening. We're watching and we're playing too. Our initial tuning was way off. We're going to massively jack up the amount of CXP you're gaining from all activities. By 400%.

 

And we're going to add token vendors you can access for the previous tier the moment you hit the next tier. We'll get those out soon, no timeline yet but expect them in the next month or so.

 

Golds are going back up to 8 CXP. We don't want you to farm, but we understand some people may opt to. Hopefully the other changes I just mentioned will remove the sense of feeling you "have" to farm. We truly want you to be able to play how you want to.

 

We also understand the impact GC has on alts and we want to assure you we're going to make it far more alt friendly. We're looking into either legacy CXP gain or allowing the option to choose which set bonus you want a SB item to have upon obtaining one. We'll get some posts up over the next couple days to share our ideas and solicit yours, but we are looking at implementing something in the next couple weeks.

 

I can't promise you this will be perfect. But I do promise we are going to make it better. A lot better.

 

GLHF"

 

IMO that would still be a crap system but it'd be far more playable than what we see now. but more importantly, it's a far more likely scenario than them putting tokens back on bosses (where they belong).

 

I'm sure there are far better ideas that don't gut GC while making it far less toxic. But I do not see wanting it gone as a realistic thing to hope for, so it's simply a matter of making it suck less. A lot less.

 

Please tell us tomorrow you understand the strengths of the 4.0 era SWTOR as being very alt friendly and new player friendly as well and that the current load of garbage you call the CxP system is completely the opposite of what the games strengths were (in fact, it killed those strengths).

 

Exactly. I'm all for change, but they removed what was literally one of the best aspects of the game, how quickly and easily people could enjoy their favorite gameplay activities on alts. Just.... how do you come up with that line of thinking? Sigh.

[AngFour]

Will only a random number of people be allowed to watch the livestream?

 

Seeing as the only answer to your question was made in jest, I'll give you a real one:

 

Anyone can watch the stream. You might go crosseyed trying to read the chat on the side (as thousands of people are watching it and commenting at the same time), but they will probably end up disabling chat anyway after too many negative comments.

 

Which was fine for most of the other streams they've done (I suppose) but with this one that will harm them more than help.

 

Anyway, yeah, anybody can watch the stream. And they also keep it up afterwards to watch on their Twitch channel if you can't watch it live.

 

Hope that helps!

[TUXs]

Honestly Ben has a pretty simple out. Hop on and simply say:

"Hey, guys we're listening. We're watching and we're playing too. Our initial tuning was way off. We're going to massively jack up the amount of CXP you're gaining from all activities. By 400%.

 

And we're going to add token vendors you can access for the previous tier the moment you hit the next tier. We'll get those out soon, no timeline yet but expect them in the next month or so.

 

Golds are going back up to 8 CXP. We don't want you to farm, but we understand some people may opt to. Hopefully the other changes I just mentioned will remove the sense of feeling you "have" to farm. We truly want you to be able to play how you want to.

 

We also understand the impact GC has on alts and we want to assure you we're going to make it far more alt friendly. We're looking into either legacy CXP gain or allowing the option to choose which set bonus you want a SB item to have upon obtaining one. We'll get some posts up over the next couple days to share our ideas and solicit yours, but we are looking at implementing something in the next couple weeks.

 

I can't promise you this will be perfect. But I do promise we are going to make it better. A lot better.

 

GLHF"

Honestly, that would be the smartest thing he could ever say...EVERY word of it is golden (not just the text color). He should seriously copy this and read it in it's entirety tomorrow...the community would turn around in a heartbeat if he did.

[Neshira]

Whatever. I don't see anything useful. You must be blind cause most people don't even use the forums.

 

Ignore them. The forums are basically the most vocal and dissatisfied 10% of players who don't like anything. They'd curse BW no matter what happened just to be cursing them.

 

That's not to say I'm entirely pleased with things either. 5.0 has its issues for me but frankly either I have phenomenal luck or people are just far more picky than I am. The RNG has been good for me, I've gotten more and better gear in five days with it than I got in a month of doing ops and FPS and stuff. I can get gear by doing what I enjoy and not have to compete with others for a -GASP- RNG chance at getting ONE piece. Instead I get multiple pieces that I might be able to use on alts or I can sell or disintegrate them. My main is now geared completely in 230 gear which is more than sufficient for my needs since I mainly do story content or rare ops and don't do PVP at all. Pre 5.0 I had her geared in 190's mostly because drops for anything better were absurdly rare and 208 was too expensive for a mostly casual player like me.

 

That's my experience. Others have had worse. For them I want a solution also, a vendor or something so that they can feel like there is less chance involved in gearing. Not a vendor they can get instant access to of course...because let's face it, most of the whiners are gear freaks who want the best gear almost right off the bat without having to work for it. How would that benefit BW? They NEED people to take time to gear. Gear shouldn't be an instant thing every update.

[DarthSpuds]

Also to add:

 

You might want to let Ben know that a lot of revenue is riding on this livestream.

 

No one cares one iota about what is coming up. What they care about is how you messed up the current game and what you are going to do to fix it. The future doesn't mean anything if no one is here to see it.

 

SWTORs strength was its alt and new player friendly gearing schemes that made introducing new players easy.

 

You completely threw every competitive advantage you had in the MMO out the window with this GxC system. Either it goes - or A LOT OF YOUR SUBSCRIBERS ARE GOING.

 

You can't have it both ways.

 

This.

 

They need to demonstrate that they understand:

-1) Why we are upset.

-2) That they HAVE made a mistake,

-3) What that mistake is.

-4) How they need to rectify it.

 

Please note while those point are about the GC/GCXP fiasco they are also about the entire deteriorating realtionship between Bioware and the player base.

 

I have never in all my years playing MMRPGs seen a game company show such scant regard or respect for the players who pay their wages. It is, frankly, alarming.

 

All The Best

Edited December 7, 2016 by DarthSpuds

[Shwarzchild]

I can honestly say I'm a bit conflicted.

 

On one hand I like the galactic command system. I like "leveling up" even though I'm at level cap. I like that crafting is now important again and not just a side show. I like getting "experience" for anything and everything I may want to do. I like that conquest is my way of playing alts still (personal opinion there of course). I like getting the guild together to go do some world bosses.

 

However on the other hand, I hate the rng gearing aspect of it all. I hate that I'm at rank 20 on 2 characters and 30 on another and I have virtually nothing gear wise to show for it....especially on the rank 30 that's gotten one set piece in total. I dislike the cartel market being involved with cxp boosts. I dislike that these tier 1 ranks are still such a slog to get through without farming something.

 

I'm all for a fix to the loot tables, and a catch up mechanic. But, I don't think I'm for scrapping the whole thing entirely. For instance, different levels of gear you choose to disintegrate should have different cxp values. Green trash 228 gear shouldn't award the same as a repeat purple piece.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Shwarzchild