Producer Livestream Wrap Up thread

[Glzmo]

I appreciate that they will make some changes on Tuesday, but they don't address the two fundamental issues we have as a community: 1) the crapshoot that is command crate opening and 2), the killing of playing alts. This reward system is going to kill the game...period.

 

I ran a raid with my group yesterday, and quite frankly, it was incredibly unrewarding, no pun intended. Getting nothing but schematics and exotic isotopes does nothing for me....nothing. I'm not a crafter. I don't enjoy it. Why the heck would I do a raid I've done countless times when the only rewards given are things I won't use, such as schematics, from bosses or CXP, which will only get me closer to crap crates that won't give me anything either.

 

You need to admit defeat on this new reward system and stop the bleeding before you kill the patient. If we want a random chance to win something, we'll go to Vegas or play the lottery. Games are reward based. At the end of the day, grinding tasks are only completed by people because there is a reward at the end of the tunnel. You've give us a system that has no guaranteed reward.

 

I have to admit to being extremely disappointed with the nebulous reaction we got from Ben yesterday. The dev response should have been something along lines of, "We dropped the ball on this. It's obvious RNG it's not what the community wants, but we feel the concept is critical to the success of the game, so we're keeping the system, but we clearly understand it is not where it needs to be. We promise to have solutions in place by the end of January 2017."

Very well said, and I agree as well. I won't be renewing my subscription because of the aforementioned things either, along with the continuous lack of speech bubbles for players in /say, /yell and /emote chat after five long years of unkept promises.

[Deewe]

Dear BioWare,

 

I'll left aside the PR talk from the live stream and won't add to the insult by explaining why the systems is flawed and how to fix it. We both know you are fully aware of it and, for whatever reason, you are not moving in the right direction.

 

In a way it reminds me SWG in which some of you(*) thought you would bring more players than the ones you would loose.

 

It also reminds me a couple of decisions that have been made in the past:

 

- Launch the game with a tunnel shooter space sim, when the forums clearly proved players did not want it and they were willing to wait and pay for an X-Pack to have a fully fledged space sim.

 

- Add an half backed multiplayer space sim without at least a joystick support nor PvE counterpart to be able to train and make it so much gear dependent.

 

- Keep PvP and PvE skills together totally regularly unbalancing classes and breaking PvE while overturning PvP and not mitigating the STUN fest issue.

 

- Making companions so overpowered and story mode so easy that there's no fun anymore to play this content and especially making death meaningful in a combat based game.

 

- Adding new companions we can't customize so players don't feel unique at all playing with clones.

 

- Adding gear dyes in a way editing the look of a character to a nice level feels like more an achievement than just a step to having more fun and feeling more immersed and unique.

 

- Removing crafting mats but to add others so they still fill 2/3 of the legacy storage if ones wants to enjoy all crafting professions conveniently.

 

- Removing tokens because they are supposedly too complicated but adding DvL ones at the same time.

 

- Encouraging players to play alts with DvL to further destroy any motivation to play alts by making rewards locked to the specific characters.

 

- Keeping spending time and money totally revamping the classes and skills again, when only fine tuning was needed, instead of using those funds to add content.

 

I could go on for pages and while I'm fully aware of the take over by EA and the "Death Star" meetings, I still don't get how could we possibly turn this fantastic IP into so many wrong decisions and outcomes.

 

As a SW fan I followed the development of this game even before it was officially announced.

I was one of the first to create an account the day the forums opened

I evolved alone and in the biggest guilds in this game.

I played nearly every content in this game to some extend.

And today, I feel lost.

 

I'm not sure there is hope anymore for this game and the current team and yet I still strongly wish it would recover at some time, waiting for THE Awakening.

 

I understand that you have the highest ROI MMO wide (with the help of the CM) and wonder whether it is because you have such a thin crew to work on the game, of which too many are dedicated to reskin and resell existing assets?

 

From time to time it feels like you are truly trying and then for whatever reason, it ends badly, very badly.

As a having worked in the video game industry I can imagine what you guys are going through and I feel bad for you.

 

Sometimes I have hope top execs at EA will sit with the smart and constructive players we have on the forums and truly get it.

It baffles me how much money could this game do with happy players and we are not even scratching the surface. It's just in survival mode.

 

In the end we are just players and SW fans who just wanna have FUN!

 

/peace

Edited December 10, 2016 by Deewe

[StupidWiz]

What about Shae Vizla's recruitment alert? Will you fix that along with Master Ranos'?

[Nebdar]

Is it only me or the twitch recording glitched/stopped a lot...

 

Thanks for an great stream.... i almost feel more sincerity and commitment with every stream

 

You did miss the new operations question but... the probable answer is tune in on January....

 

And i really love the last comment on stream chat so i am gone quote it

 

bye haters, will not miss you

[NuSeC]

Hey everyone!

 

For those who weren't able to join us for the Producer Stream today, you can find a brief wrap up below!

 

Galactic Command

• We have been monitoring progress and feedback, and will continue making adjustments to Galactic Command.
  
• In Patch 5.0.1 we are raising the Command Experience gained from a number of activities, ranging from 50 - over 100% increases.
  

 

Dark vs. Light Event

• Rewards were delivered last week to players who reached the various tiers. Congratulations!
  
• We have heard your feedback regarding the Achievements, and we will be returning the Tier Level Achievements.
  
• We are fixing Master Ranos recruiting issues in Patch 5.0.1 on Tuesday.
  

In-Game Events*

• Life Day (Dec 13 – Jan 10)
  
• 5th Anniversary (Dec 13 – Jan 17)
  
• Rakghoul Resurgence on Corellia (Dec 13 – Dec 20)
  
• Bounty Contract Week (Dec 20 – Jan 3)
  
• Relics of the Gree (Jan 3 - Jan 10)
  

Coming to SWTOR Early 2017

• New Uprisings in January
  
• Master Mode Chapters in January
  
• Master Mode Uprisings in February / March
  

 

You can find the archived video of this stream - and all of the SWTOR streams - here!

 

Thanks,

 

Tait

 

*These dates have been corrected from those given during the stream.

 

5 year long sub cancelled due to this ridicules RNG crap. I don't feel the need to maybe try to maybe get lucky. I should not fight "randomness" and there is nothing exciting about it. You guys obviously don't care anymore.

 

I would like to work on getting gear... RNG is not the way to go about it.

[Hichitsuki-hime]

i know right, the only thing keeping me in the game atm are my friends.:(

[Hyde_v]

Subscriber here. Possible spoiler info contained therein.

 

I've not even bothered to log in to the forums in months. Here's some feedback.

 

I'm currently on Jung Ma. Multi player content is dead. I can queue up for hours at a time for Warzones, GSF, and even Uprisings. This is my biggest complaint about the game. The content is there. But because there are not enough people queuing up, I cannot play any of it. I remember reading about cross server queues in the past and how the developers had technical hurdles to overcome. That was the last I ever heard of it. It is annoying to be allowed to only play half of a game.

 

I see a lot of people are upset about RNG of end game rewards. I don't even have this problem. I've nothing to say about this issue other than that because I cannot even play the content that features end game rewards.

 

I have to wait another year to hopefully get missing companions back? If that's the case, there are some classes I will simply not take through the Eternal Throne story lines. I do not want to give up Mako or Kira Carsen for my Bounty Hunter and Jedi respectfully. I've invested a lot of time in them as companions. I already lost Illora (sp?) from my Republic Trooper. And I ran her through the story and married her! Talk about a wrenching story. Considering how quickly I have no gone through the new chapters, to wait another year feels too long. Didn't Lucas do that to us with long time spans between films? Perhaps you should have staggered out the chapters a little more.

 

While I may have enjoyed the story of the Eternal Throne, it is pretty much over now. Valkorian is gone. Vaylin is dead. She may be in spirit form out there. But the game specifically said she was not powerful enough to create a new body for herself. So, she's gone. The Empire and the Republic are friendly and not fighting. There's no conflict anymore. What is next?

 

Finally, making previous content harder may work. But if I cannot access the content, I think you're wasting your time. If I am having the same problem this same time in 2017, I'm going to have to stop being a subscriber. You have that long to address the queues. And telling me to spend extra to transfer servers is not the solution I want.

Edited December 10, 2016 by Hyde_v

[siegeshot]

I could care less about the RNG, can you please bring all companions back?

And if we're forced to lose / kill off companions, can we please get a replacement that for some RP reason absorbs their influence points? You had already said a month or two ago that would be a "thing" and despite there being obvious opportunities in the story for it to be so, it hasn't happened. I think even if we choose it, we should be offered up with an opposing side's variant to RP with. This would be super easy with the new menu system you've developed....

 

Companion story spoilers........

 

 

 

Seriously I warned you... major companion spoilers.

 

 

A friend of Torian's replacing Torian to keep the Cadera clan going

Vette's sister to replace Vette?

The free'ed Gemini Droid to replace Scorpio (she was offline so she escaped the reboot programming)

A Talz that isn't an insane psychopath like Broonmark is, for light side folks?

A Mon Calimari force user that isn't an idiot, to replace Guss Tuno

Tanno Vik as well as another Weequay who isn't a raging *** depending on how you're RP'ing?

A Houk that isn't a raging *** for light side RP'ers to replace Skadge?

 

 

 

 

 

Again, this is something that was already agreed upon months ago because people have been throwing influence rep away and is the #1 complaint I've heard besides RNG gear. I don't care about RNG gear so I want to make sure this is thoroughly discussed because quite a few people in this game still RP and companions are a big, big deal.

Edited December 10, 2016 by siegeshot

[OnoRonin]

I have mixed feelings about the new gearing syste, that due to some well deserved luck I had today - btw I remember the first time my guild ran EV Hm priority ops and I had all my characters run it, and only the last one got that 224 mh I wished for (talking about RNG, and those were mostly guild runs...)

What I hated more was the feeling I got from "playing the game the way we intend to" - approx qoute from Ben I guess. I felt like a sheep herded and waiting to be milked for some more cash (in romanian cash is what we call a kind of cheese = money...)

[Costello]

Ben and Charles said they read everything they can about the story.

 

Can you please explain what was meant by

 

 

Making Dark Side Jaesa insane off looking for power and telling the player than any relationship is dead. Is that a way of saying she is never ever coming back and stop asking about her in chat. Cause if that is the case can you just come back out and say it.

 

 

[KWONRYU]

How about each Command Crate also giving one Mookie-Token guaranteed.

 

You could then exchange 10 Mookie-Tokens (10 crates opened) for a set-bonus item at a certain vendor.

Edited December 10, 2016 by KWONRYU

[eartharioch]

Better yet, don't destroy the crate when it's opened, just make it a Box-Top token. Players can save up box-Top tokens and in-game mail order items from a catalog vendor. Restore some of the magic of childhood. Edited December 10, 2016 by eartharioch

[MegaTherions]

there is nothing to fix or to adjust about the whole galactic command system. it needs to go. It needs to be removed completely. #removeRNG #removeGrind #knightsOfTheEternalGrind Edited December 11, 2016 by MegaTherions

[Hichitsuki-hime]

there is nothing to fix or to adjust about the whole galactic command system. it needs to go. It needs to be removed completely. #removeRNG #removeGrind #knightsOfTheEternalGrind

well, they've already said they're NOT gonna do that :D

[Costello]

I'm not sure I believe that the development team read the forums outside the topic title but on the off chance that they do...

 

You come off as smart people, so I can't believe that delaying and monitoring the situation with the possibility to make improvements is the option that your going for. Once people have left over disgust in the new system, a strong word but I think justified if will be that much harder to get them back because the changes wont be retroactive making their time on at the grind worth comparatively less than someone else.

 

To put it in an everyday context imagine your the producer of an MMO and you work 60 hours a week and get paid 50 bucks. Then you find out someone a couple of weeks later is employed by the same company to also be a producer of the same MMO and for 60 hours a week is paid 100,000 bucks. Would that make you happy and feel that you had been a valued employ.

 

The same goes if purple drops are increased, that doesn't help people that have already opened 100 boxes (clearly putting in the time and effort) who have yet to get anything of value. They put in 200 hours and have little to show for it, while someone coming in later puts in 40 hours and has a full set of purples and advances quicker as they have better gear to disintegrate offering more points as they have the full set at that tier much earlier on and can destroy duplicates.

 

The token idea may work, but once people have gone onto pastures new the idea they can purchase maybe one or two pieces from retroactively granted tokens (if granted retroactively) may not be much of a lure.

 

The issue doesn't just lie with the GC, if Galactic Command had been brought in at level 50 and offered loot and a point to place on a stat, many many levels could have been gained through playing through the new content. The game would be enjoyable in and off itself and the command system would have been an added bonus. Sure it would have offered a little bit of a grind, finish Makeb be a couple of points off next level you might run a few heroics to see what was in your next box or to get that next point to spend. Instead Galactic Command is a rank system that requires the grinding of content of which there is very very little new. I started playing through the story on veteran mode, until I discovered how incredibly in effective this was bothering to watch the cut scenes and having to wait on cool downs (I do not hold that it has been well balanced and can't imagine how your going to balance it for master or why anyone would bother using it to grind 1.23 million xp at possibly 600 a time if you can complete it when participation in a warzone gets 530).

 

I hate to say look at another game company cause that almost feels like copying homework, but go look at the Elder Scrolls Online Champion system. First off since One Tameriel every activity and every kill can get you champion points and for most (if not all) you have 2 faction stories to play through in which to start getting them and 3 dlcs. Sure there is a grind but its less noticeable because it isn't repeating content in the same massive way. With each level making it seem like you are making progress not just getting a box of junk.

 

So please don't monitor for a few months then make changes thinking people will flock back because the chance to get a purple by replaying those chapters/uprisings/PvP 8 or 9 times for a box has been increased by 5%. Short of significant new areas and story to explore and happen to get command XP while doing it. Once people escape they wont be so easy to lure back with some minor tweaks.

[DarthSpuds]

You're doing a great job moving forward Guys. Keep up the good work. I shall never forsake you.

 

How is going back to repeat something you already failed at "moving forward"?

 

All The Best

[tonitirola]

it pisses me off so extremly this ******** 5.0 and galactic command system.

its rly hard to describe how much

how the hell can a company treat their customers so awefull bad and try all the best they can do to upset as much as possible of the people which pay money for this game ???

i never had this bad feelings about swtor in 4 years and im not happy anymore to login this game.

my sub end in 4 days for good after beeing a sub for nearly 3,5 yrs permanent now.

thats my thank you for you developers and all them people which work very hard kill this nice game.

Edited December 11, 2016 by tonitirola

[AscendingSky]

How is going back to repeat something you already failed at "moving forward"?

 

Maybe they come from Opposite Land?

 

Yeah, I've got nothing. It defies logic.

[Rheshalea]

Maybe they come from Opposite Land?

 

Yeah, I've got nothing. It defies logic.

 

Yeah, with 5.0 they've done everything backwards - although it started in 4.0.

The Villains are the Main Characters, and the Player Character is a side-kick to the NPCs. This gets better in 5.0, but couldn't be completely rectified from 4.0.

They say they want us to progress our characters (= gear up) by doing what we like best, but when we do they say we have to like what they want us to like.

 

....I could go on, but dinner's ready and I'm hungry.

[BowtieJones]

Bolster.

Bolster appears to be working quite well. Makes the lack of gear drops sting less. Why? Because my 208 set bonus min maxed pvp gear bolsters to the same exact stats as anything below purple 230. I can deconstruct entire packs over and over. In the streams, you say that greens and blues will have better stats than previously existing purples, however, you haven't been taking into account bolster. Standing in my stronghold, looking at a command crate blue drop, I may think it's a stat increase. If I took that blue, put in on, and went into anything that bolsters me (ie, everything in the game. almost), or anything that level syncs me (ie, everything else), I will see that I have enjoyed no stat increase whatsoever.

 

Only the purple 230 pieces and above give an increase in a bolstered environment. I don't wish to grind through 90 levels of command, just so I will feel like I'm getting a boost from greens.

 

Thanks you for your time. Please consider addressing this issue by increasing purple set bonus drops, and not by breaking bolster.

 

love and respect,

Edited December 11, 2016 by BowtieJones

[eartharioch]

Bolster.

Bolster appears to be working quite well. Makes the lack of gear drops sting less. Why? Because my 208 set bonus min maxed pvp gear bolsters to the same exact stats as anything below purple 230. I can deconstruct entire packs over and over. In the streams, you say that greens and blues will have better stats than previously existing purples, however, you haven't been taking into account bolster. Standing in my stronghold, looking at a command crate blue drop, I may think it's a stat increase. If I took that blue, put in on, and went into anything that bolsters me (ie, everything in the game. almost), or anything that level syncs me (ie, everything else), I will see that I have enjoyed no stat increase whatsoever.

 

Only the purple 230 pieces and above give an increase in a bolstered environment. I don't wish to grind through 90 levels of command, just so I will feel like I'm getting a boost from greens.

 

Thanks you for your time. Please consider addressing this issue by increasing purple set bonus drops, and not by breaking bolster.

 

love and respect,

 

Better yet, make Bolster bump you the top of Tier 3 -- PVP should be about skill, not gear.

[LordBeeDoO]

Well, before 5.0 launched I was thinking, lets wait and see.

 

However, the level of grind and RNG is disgusting. Level 40 = 1 set piece ? How can anyone consider such **** exciting or fun ?

 

Casuals and semi casuals have no chance to catch up in tjis crazy system. It could have been fun, but not like this and buffing flashpoints x 2 will not solve anything.

 

In one month, ranked PVP will be dominated by those who grinded intensively or bought mods adn enhancements of GTN for crazy prices. No balance will exist. And the rest people willing to go to operation will stop because there is no way to gear sensfully.

 

I have always been big fun of this game. But this system is so annoying and demotivating that this is the first I consider the outrage all around right thing to do.

 

FIX THIS ! ASAP !

[BowtieJones]

Better yet, make Bolster bump you the top of Tier 3 -- PVP should be about skill, not gear.

 

I agree, but while I pvp almost exclusively, I'm not really thinking about myself right now. Yes, pvp should always come down to skill, but there are now other factors to consider. Unfortunately, the gearing system isn't separated anymore. And bolster exists all over the place. My 65 mara was bolstered to 70 in the eternal championship. People get bolstered in flashpoints, group finder ops.

 

I think there does need to be a certain amount of gear progression, but this is not hitting the mark. Perhaps it was one of those "it looked so good on paper" type things.

[Tsillah]

In your livestream you mention the CXP increases of 50 and 80% roughtly to uprisings (SM/Vet). But when explaining it you said that this increase was to the quest reward.

 

So since the total reward consists of gold/champion/boss mobs killed + quest reward + token reward, am I right to understand that only the quest reward itself will get boosted so that the overall CXP reward increase for Uprisings is actually more in the 20-30% area?

[eartharioch]

I agree, but while I pvp almost exclusively, I'm not really thinking about myself right now. Yes, pvp should always come down to skill, but there are now other factors to consider. Unfortunately, the gearing system isn't separated anymore. And bolster exists all over the place. My 65 mara was bolstered to 70 in the eternal championship. People get bolstered in flashpoints, group finder ops.

 

I think there does need to be a certain amount of gear progression, but this is not hitting the mark. Perhaps it was one of those "it looked so good on paper" type things.

 

My point was that by improving the consistency of Bolster (at least within categories), removing bugs, and BW communicating what each category should receive for Bolster, BW could remove some of the hatred of GC without changing GC itself.

 

By Bolstering all 204+ gear to max Tier 3 equivalent for PVP, BW would let players change stat distributions by changing out gear, so even the oldest 4.x set bonus gear would work. This should almost entirely remove gearing as an issue. Selling 224 set bonus gear for credits (in combination with the Bolster change) should entirely eliminate gearing as an issue. At the same time, this gear would behave "as is" in non-PVP content.

 

Bolstering SM FPs to 224, SM OPs to 228, and other stuff (EC, whatever) similarly would allow players to participate in *entry* level content with essentially little to no effort. Open world and HM/NiM content would require the appropriate grinds. Adding operation token drops to SM/HM/NiM bosses should allow people raiding to get the necessary raid gear for their current progression level as before, but (since PVP would be bolstered to top Tier 3), this would not convey a PVP advantage.

 

People who neither PVP nor raid (above SM) wouldn't particularly benefit, but they didn't before 5.0 either, so they shouldn't really complain that they now have RNG chances to get what they couldn't before.