Changes to Gearing through Galactic Command

[eriksarcasm]

It does seem rather strange that this survey suddenly came out. I don't remember such a survey for 4.0.

 

If it is EA, and they actually read the feedback, unlike the team in Austin, and the sub counts are dropping fast, I would not want to be a fly on the wall when that information comes out.

 

Some claim there was one after KOTFE... I don't remember getting one. But then again, I don't get any.

[Wayshuba]

Something has given them a good scare. I think the message was received, but the implementation will need a month or two. This is the most important message: Do not expect them to do a 180° during today's livestream. They won't. They will talk around the issue and work to find the culprit behind the scenes, and then continue to fine-tune the "solution" until January.

 

An "expansion" launches under one of EAs most precious IPs. They see the sub cancellations rapidly climbing.

 

Hmmm. What does the corporate type in EA do....

 

1.) They call the team in Austin to ask what is going on. They tell them its all love and roses and those were subs that would normally drop of after an expansion (even though the EA exec sees how many 5 year subs just cancelled).

 

2.) The exec comes to the forums, and is horrified by the universal contempt for the GCS and the atrocious RNG system.

 

3.) The exec calls the devs, they decide to have a livestream to talk about getting specific gear after you went through 200 levels and the grinds for alts.

 

4.) EA issues survey because the devs have lost credibility with the exec.

 

5.) The team in Austin suddenly can't ignore the feedback anymore as the exec in EA tells them how they are moving further development of the game to Redwood Shores as this team has obviously IGNORED the feedback of the customers and they want it in the hands of a competent team who won't upset paying customers with half-baked game design.

 

Did I miss anything?

[cyrusramsey]

Yeah.. previous stream convinced me to cancel my sub. This stream has already convinced me that it's going to stay canceled. Garbage.

[AscendingSky]

An "expansion" launches under one of EAs most precious IPs. They see the sub cancellations rapidly climbing.

 

Hmmm. What does the corporate type in EA do....

 

1.) They call the team in Austin to ask what is going on. They tell them its all love and roses and those were subs that would normally drop of after an expansion (even though the EA exec sees how many 5 year subs just cancelled).

 

2.) The exec comes to the forums, and is horrified by the universal contempt for the GCS and the atrocious RNG system.

 

3.) The exec calls the devs, they decide to have a livestream to talk about getting specific gear after you went through 200 levels and the grinds for alts.

 

4.) EA issues survey because the devs have lost credibility with the exec.

 

5.) The team in Austin suddenly can't ignore the feedback anymore as the exec in EA tells them how they are moving further development of the game to Redwood Shores as this team has obviously IGNORED the feedback of the customers and they want it in the hands of a competent team who won't upset paying customers with half-baked game design.

 

Did I miss anything?

 

We can only hope this is what happens. I'd like to know the EA executives do that kind of research, and I'd like the hope of getting a new dev team that actually listens to players.

[Morrolan]

It does seem rather strange that this survey suddenly came out. I don't remember such a survey for 4.0.

 

If it is EA, and they actually read the feedback, unlike the team in Austin, and the sub counts are dropping fast, I would not want to be a fly on the wall when that information comes out.

 

Clearly a significant number of players have unsubbed, this survey plus the changes just announced in the live stream

all point to this.

[DarthSpuds]

Yeah.. previous stream convinced me to cancel my sub. This stream has already convinced me that it's going to stay canceled. Garbage.

 

^ This

 

All The Best

[AshenK]

too little too late.

 

at this point the only thing i want to see is this game finally get a shut down notice.

[Teranic]

As a Subscribed Member since beta I'm deeply disappointed in the recent Command point changes. I'm a part of a HM Progression group which is now pointless. The Previous 224's are barely good enough to finish story modes and not many hard mode ops. And until our group gets to the next tear in command points which will take ages were stagnating on boring SM operations. Now focusing on HM or NIM operations is not as important as farming storymode, PVP and other stuff to add command points. The changes take away all purpose to being a part of a HM progression group any more. The schematics that are dropping on bosses are almost signficantly leaning towards tanking gear. The DPS checks can't be done with prior 224 gear. It's a mess. I'm concerned that this may have been the significant mistake comparable to what finally crashed Star Wars Galaxies. You shouldn't fix what isn't broken.

[jedip_enguin]

As amusing as it is to watch them tie themselves in knots trying to say 'our system is hot garbage' without actually saying it still speaks volumes that the system made it into the game in the first place and that whoever is in charge of making these kinds of decisions thought it was a good idea despite all previous evidence to the contrary and a strong wave of negative feedback.

[Transcendent]

I like your signature. I'd play this game with a bag over my head if I could.

 

I changed it, I'm unashamed to be greedy

 

Not like it'll work in 14-15 days time anyway, because I'm not reupping my sub until I see what BioWare deems is a fair amount of unassembled components to unassembled pieces ratio and then how many pieces + tokens are required to swap for one piece of gear.

 

Let alone they still haven't addressed the CXP grind rate, CXP rewards available for that 300 level grind per character, nor the lack of new content for that grind. I don't include "Uprisings" as new content, which is why I still haven't set foot in one.

 

I'll resub when they resolve those issues, if they ever decide to listen to what the players are trying to tell them.

[Avinler]

As a Subscribed Member since beta I'm deeply disappointed in the recent Command point changes. I'm a part of a HM Progression group which is now pointless. The Previous 224's are barely good enough to finish story modes and not many hard mode ops. And until our group gets to the next tear in command points which will take ages were stagnating on boring SM operations. Now focusing on HM or NIM operations is not as important as farming storymode, PVP and other stuff to add command points. The changes take away all purpose to being a part of a HM progression group any more. The schematics that are dropping on bosses are almost signficantly leaning towards tanking gear. The DPS checks can't be done with prior 224 gear. It's a mess. I'm concerned that this may have been the significant mistake comparable to what finally crashed Star Wars Galaxies. You shouldn't fix what isn't broken.

 

And this is how BioWare Austin has destroyed end-game PVE content in this expansion and there's still no indication that anyone in a decision making role within BioWare Austin understands the situation. They have not released new end-game PVE content of note in 24 months now (Uprisings and Star Fortresses don't count, those are mini-Flashpoints at best).

 

The Galactic Command system might have been viable if there were new SM Operations to run while earning CXP to gear up for HM Operations, but in a state of affairs without new Operations for 24 months it's not viable to set back players by 3-6 months arbitrarily. The Galactic Command system is an abject failure and this game is becoming an embarrassment.

[Avinler]

As amusing as it is to watch them tie themselves in knots trying to say 'our system is hot garbage' without actually saying it still speaks volumes that the system made it into the game in the first place and that whoever is in charge of making these kinds of decisions thought it was a good idea despite all previous evidence to the contrary and a strong wave of negative feedback.

 

I just feel bad for the community-facing employees at BioWare Austin at this point. It's not like Eric is the person that decided to implement an oppressive system that's devoid of joy, but he also can't go on a livestream and say that the executives at BioWare Austin are out of touch with reality and unconcerned with the player experience as long as they can hit revenue targets.

[Beddawi]

I am an end game content player who loves doing HM Ops, however recently my job has made it so I can't commit week to week with my raid team. However on my own time I can heavily drop into a Flashpoint and/or Uprising. Now I still plan on helping my team intermittently do HM Ops. Because so I feel there needs to be a way for those of us who can't commit week to week in Ops a way of obtaining tier gear and specific pieces if we're putting in the time like PvP players. Why not add a similar system with Unassembled Components and Unassembled Gear piece vendor like PvP system with the new change to GCS. I feel Ops players should get it quicker but for those of us that grind out our play time in a different manner(Flashpoints/Uprising), due to RL, we should have a better way of obtaining certain pieces other than RNG.

[Deewe]

Factor three: A game's direction can be influenced by putting different directors in charge. Look at Final Fantasy 14. That game was a mess. They fired the old crew and put a new crew in charge and told them to "fix the game!" They actually did. The new director is great. I'd say he's a good developer, and his team really fixed the game up after losing money.

Been there since before launch and I'm afraid we are at this point. Unless they move the decisions makers to another game, SWTOR will continue to drop and will never recover, even less be the jewel it should be.

 

Guess they don't have the budget they need, but the one they have they don't spend it wisely ; like working on revamping classes when bug fixes and content were needed. It makes no sense. They did not have the luxury to revamp the classes, even less displease the players doing so.

 

It is very sad because whatever wrong they did they are still persons and rest assured they worked very very hard for the last 10 years. They direly need a new direction, someone with a fresh eye still being able to pinpoint the major issues and mark scores very fast with quick wins.

 

Right now feels like the team is in survival mode, trying not to get fired and being able to pull good enough data for the execs like: we have way more play time than ever so people like what we are doing yet the economy is hard so they can't afford to pay anymore for playing... still we are milking wealthy players more than ever with the CM!

Edited December 17, 2016 by Deewe

[Justair]

My main concern is that PvP activities hand out CXP for everyone, even players who stand AFK in a corner, while for PvE you need to run the most difficult*....

 

I can do 50-100 pug matches a week... and I can't honestly say I've ever seen anyone afk farm PVP.. in SWTOR. I am kind of wondering if you do any PVP.. you do realize that if another player kills your char and you don't leave the safe area your kicked out right?

Edited December 19, 2016 by Justair

[Justair]

I kind of like the RNG style myself.. It gives access to all the gear thru every type of activity and also gives you something to strive towards over the course of the next year. I haven't even really done the chapters yet as I was gearing up (somewhat..) to my satisfaction first. Lots to do..

 

Tokens for the unlucky is ok (.. I guess) but the unassembled stuff seems to add a unnecessary step. Regardless, don't make it to easy..

Edited December 19, 2016 by Justair

[Sargrith]

I can do 50-100 pug matches a week... and I can't honestly say I've ever seen anyone afk farm PVP.. in SWTOR. I am kind of wondering if you do any PVP.. you do realize that if another player kills your char and you don't leave the safe area your kicked out right?

 

Only if you release, if not you can stay dead for a good long while. Also your assuming they didn't hide somewhere so as not to be killed.

 

Its a terrible system and their changes are not real ones. They sound ok but when you look you see it's just a smoke screen. One ua per raid group and still tied to the broken command rank system.

 

They aren't really willing to do right by us is all these changes mean. They need to accept that using their broken command system as the primary gear source is not what we want. Keep it as a secondary method if they love it so but do not involve it in the primary system. Every op boss must drop a ua that does not require worthless command anything to make a set piece. That would be a start.

[Justair]

Maybe so.. but good tanks and healers are always keeping an eye on other players. Looking at health bars seeing where they are on the map and such... and I can't say I've ever seen anyone afk play it. Oh sure the odd time something goes on where a player leaves the keyboard but it's so rare as to not even be a issue. Edited December 20, 2016 by Justair

[Sargrith]

Maybe so.. but good tanks and healers are always keeping an eye on other players. Looking at health bars seeing where they are on the map and such... and I can't say I've ever seen anyone afk play it. Oh sure the odd time something goes on where a player leaves the keyboard but it's so rare as to not even be a issue.

 

 

Ever notice two or worse three guards on a node, never a call and the node changes hands? Lots of times they people were afk farming medals. Often I see it with a stealther who hides by a captured nod and never gets involved. It happens, happens a lot more in ranked now a days when people just sucidie to get it over faster.

 

The system needs to be replaced as the main method of gearing or I don't see this ending well. The devs know there is a call for the system to be replaced but they dont seem to want to listen to that. Shame. I do enjoy the game but this system is a poison.

[Tsillah]

Maybe so.. but good tanks and healers are always keeping an eye on other players. Looking at health bars seeing where they are on the map and such... and I can't say I've ever seen anyone afk play it. Oh sure the odd time something goes on where a player leaves the keyboard but it's so rare as to not even be a issue.

 

I think it's not intended quite so literally. You can indeed not just do nothing the entire match, but you can just walk around and basically nothing that really contributes to the fight at all and I've already heard complaints about that. The thing is you get rewarded even if you're a terribad player. Sounds nice, but why do you not get points when you lose in a FP or Uprising for example?

 

That's the biggest thing. Apparently to encourage people to play PvP you have to give them stuff for showing up, in PvE you have to actually achieve something. I get that to some degree because the difficulty of the warzone and your chance to win is relative to the players on both teams. If you have a premade group vs some pugs, then the premade will generally be unbeatable. That's why I think that you cannot combine raiding and pvp in the same gearing system. They are completely different things. If you want to beat a boss in HM or NiM you might wipe on them for weeks without reward, whereas you can lose every match in pvp for weeks and get gear for it.

 

I think that's one of the fundamental flaws in GC and at least the 5.1 changes they propose show that they got that. It's a mystery to me why they needed to learn that to begin with but ok.

[PlasmaJohn]

That's why I think that you cannot combine raiding and pvp in the same gearing system.

The important part of PvP is pitting skill against skill. Instead this terribad system puts gear over all.

 

This (should be) easy enough to fix: Set the Bolster so that everybody is bolstered up to the highest ilvl. Sell ilvl 204 armorings with set bonuses for credits. Bam, PvP is back to where it should be before this brain damaged idea got foisted on us.

[Tsillah]

The important part of PvP is pitting skill against skill. Instead this terribad system puts gear over all.

 

This (should be) easy enough to fix: Set the Bolster so that everybody is bolstered up to the highest ilvl. Sell ilvl 204 armorings with set bonuses for credits. Bam, PvP is back to where it should be before this brain damaged idea got foisted on us.

 

I never was a fan of gear in pvp. For pvp I tend to play shooters mostly cause there is no gear difference. It's something that's been part of MMO PvP though so I suppose that's to be expected.

 

But in 4.0 it was quite easy to get BiS PvP gear and that certainly changed. I think I still have some of that recruit gear we got years ago. That might work with bolster...lol

[PlasmaJohn]

I never was a fan of gear in pvp. For pvp I tend to play shooters mostly cause there is no gear difference. It's something that's been part of MMO PvP though so I suppose that's to be expected.

 

But in 4.0 it was quite easy to get BiS PvP gear and that certainly changed. I think I still have some of that recruit gear we got years ago. That might work with bolster...lol

lol... Think I still have the blue welfare set they used to mail us once you hit 50.

 

Still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my second Sent. on JC has 47 Valor. But I do vaguely remember being into regs for 3 or 4 weeks at one time.

[Hebruixe]

I wonder if they can turn this ship around fast enough to survive the damage already done?

 

"Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"

[Khevar]

"Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"

David Farragut or Peter Quincy Taggart?