January 5th Livestream Wrap-up

[casirabit]

DreamingElf;9198793]I think some people take a romance option (or request) they don't like too seriously. Just don't romance'em if you don't like them *shrugs*

 

Actually you can say some people take romance options they don't like too seriously and you can also say that some take the romance options they like (or request) too serious as well.

 

I have seen it both ways.

 

I'm not much of an npc romance but that is me but I understand how some like them but there are people on both sides that can take anything too serious.

[Costello]

That was pretty awful by any standards, it doesn't seem that the development team have taken anything on board and are looking to wait for everyone to quit.

 

Do have a question though, with Master Chapters, i.e. the content that you have said would require tier 3 gear and level 50 companions, given the vast increase in difficulty between story and Vet and what can only be an even great increase between Vet and Master has it been tested with all disciplines to make sure it can be completed. There are a number of boss fights (and some trash fights) in Vet mode that are made considerably easier if you have a 60 second stun, off healing, taunts, guards or damage absorbing bubbles you can stick on your companion. Not all disciplines have these things and so just because one class can complete the content it doesn't mean all of them can. Equally not all chapters have companions and not all chapters have permanent companions so level 50 companion isn't always viable.

 

Along with this gating the content behind tier 3 gear, and no guarantee to get a tier 3 drop, even at level 300 what is the point of this content as it will simply reward CXP to get more crates that drop gear you already have because you had to have the gear to complete the content in the first place?

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against answering questions or helping players out.

 

Sure you do, you said so yourself...

 

I get easily annoyed when players start asking questions that we already know the answer to.

 

Don't start holding back on the elitism now.

 

But in a thread that's dedicated to getting answers from the devs, any question that has been answered previously wastes dev time, and decreases the chance to get actual questions answered.

 

It wasn't answered previously. Read Eric's post on these forums - do you see him answering it? I don't.

 

 

Like e.g. "When are companions returning?" - We've had this answered so many times I can't count anymore.

 

We have? So you have a definitive answer on when they are coming back then? BWA giving vague answers isn't giving answers at all.

 

Yet players are continuing to ask because they don't like the answer, and since Charles "loves to talk about companions", he will waste 5 minutes of nearly every livestream on that.

 

The fact you seem to find this an issue makes ...

 

Also if that sort of thing annoys you - the forums probably aren't a great place for you to frequent.

 

... all the more true. If not the forums at the very least these sorts of threads where these sort of questions pop up.

 

No one actually cares what annoys you either so harden up and deal with it champ.

[auroreborealis]

So, guaranteed token drop only from last boss? Sounds really awful. One chance of 8 to get it? It is even worse gambling that we have just now. Not to mention that with this new system ninja looters will rule this world.

If so little chances to get anything useful after completing the whole operation (and some of them are really long, as SnV), what is the reason to make ops at all? It is easier to make xxx amount of wz's to get guaranteed parts. Also, need to say that not every pug is able to finish some ops now, the overall level of people who do ops is extremely low comparing to past days. Dps are especially bad nowdays, and the lack of good gear makes things even worse (i.e. Xeno HM close to impossible with pugs now, since enrage comes at 50% or higher).

So, personally I don't see any reason for me to renew my sub. Just waiting till it will expire. What a shame, the game was so awesome, and after 5.0 turned off to complete nonsence.

[Sargrith]

Here's what we learned for certain. They know there is great hate for rng, but they don't care enough to deal with it. They want rng and will keep it even if they know its hated by some number of players (no going to assume numbers I can't back up). So did they hear us? Yes they know what we need them to.

 

We know they heard our hate for rng just by the number of times it was brought up when it wasn't the topic they wanted to be discussing. So they know our feelings on the topic, they know some of us think the system isn't worth fixing. They know some number of us don't want anything to do with rng. They know we don't think much of their coming "fixes" in 5.1. They know, but they just don't care.

 

So they want more feedback? Well you've fooled me enough. You have all the feedback you need. You know what is wanted. You, the dev, team just refuses to actually act on what you know. Saying you open to feedback is really insulting when we can see for ourselves you don't care what we want.

 

Hey but those who hate rng aren't alone. They also are very aware we want our companions back, but again it doesn't mean enough to them to resolve that issue either. They know we only started playing UPRisings when they made them the unltimate method for cxp, they know this. Thus they also know we really dont like them except as a grinding method.

 

So they are very aware of what we want. Not just for rng but for many topics. They just don't care what we want.

 

I think it was a little less frustrating when they appeared to just not be listening. At least then we might encourage change with posts. Now we know they are aware of what we want. They just don't care is the issue. And I'm not sure how posting anything will change that.

[DarthFletcher]

Feedback

 

1. Why introduce a system no one wanted getting rid of the Token vendor, only to introduce a currency system that is more complex than the 3-tier token system?

 

2. Why is this Kai Zykken main topic every time a steam comes on, he a is a nobody npc, hell in that train of thought I want Ensign Bukura to survive Black Talon and join me, it isn’t happening deal with it.

 

3. Dev are you actually proud that you have reduced some players to standing on Fleet to launch snowballs because you earn more doing F' all than you would completing any daily quests.

 

4. At some point your "stream dream team" which is an idiotic title must come to your senses and do the job you are paid to do, and address the community concerns. Since your 5.0 hit there have been numerous players’ unsub and loose the will to play the game, hell there was a stream from on the best raider on my server last week were their main dude announced he had enough of the crap.

 

Why is your team so Anti-End game and Group content, last night you had the opportunity to ease the end game populace of the game by saying we are working something instead you did what you did last 3 streams and say we will deal with it next week! You cannot avoid this issue, not every player wants to run numerous characters through the stories from start to finish and rinse and repeat.

 

You are aware of how Star Wars Galaxies died right? the dev team pushed forward a new system that removed classes and gratified everyone with a Jedi from that start this wasn't wanted or needed by the community at large and even the community manager bridging the gap between dev and player quit because she didn’t believe in the direction it was taking. So, Eric can you hand on heart tell us your community you are leading that you support RNG Command Crate Gearing, little to no new End Game content to keep your player base happy? if you are happy in the direction then you are already lost

 

All you must do is admit you tried something, it didn't work the way you wanted and when players found their own way to cope you changed the playing field. Which funny enough last night you said you wanted to address the rewards for Ops

 

Let me cast your mind back before xmas... Champion in KP were 20 points each that is fine, but wait the data shows players are running KP we must stop this because WE (BW.EA) need the data to show Uprisings so 5.0.1 you nerf the points received by Champions in KP.... Wait....What! but you could have just left it

 

Let’s address the 10cxp for a Gold mob, Gasp players decide that we don’t want to do Ops or PVP how do I get the best method of CXP yes I will farm these mobs because we are used to farming mobs (Rishi Three Little Pigs) but again the data shows players not doing .....Uprisings......we can have that can we no no no so they get dropped to 1 cxp only be given an increase by 1 to 2 cxp in 5.0.1

 

Are you seeing a trend Dev team, it is bloody uncanny, 5 new Uprisings from now to March, did we as a community ask for such? I think we wanted story driven Flashpoints, where choices matter not this crude I don't need tactics run through and be done in 20mins nonsense.

 

Someone found a post made by the team a while back that promised At least 1 new Operation every year now this is reasonable this would keep you Raid community alive as it gives them a chance to clear all 3 modes whilst the next one pops out but the last true Operation was the Revan that is 2 years ago, seriously? 2 years!

 

The only reason why LucasFilm and Disney have not yet revoked your rights to Star Wars is because the backlash as not reached their door, I am sure if the community at large had enough and sought the one that OWN the Intellectual Property and the ones keeping you in a job knew how their IP was being mishandled it wouldn't end well.

 

So Devs instead of beating about the bush listen to those that you are p'ng off, because trust me it isn’t the F2P or Preferred lot because they aren’t paying nothing to your game, they are not the ones suffering from your lack of ability it is the Subscribers that you are hurting

 

- Revoke the Command Crate RNG have the system drop a token and some lovely cosmetic items but leave actual Gear acquiring to actual boss fights.

 

- Introduce 1 or 2 new Flashpoints per year that are relevant to the current state of the Story

 

- Introduce 1 new Operation per year that is relevant to the current state of the story

 

- Be more open and honest with your community, you will get Great Feedback if we the community like what you have done and you will Negative feedback when we don't like what you have done, if you can't handle this front of shop then have someone else stand up and take your place. But this community deserve Live Stream people that are willing to step up and admit defeat.

Edited January 6, 2017 by DarthFletcher

[TUXs]

In case you didn't know...Uprisings suck. I don't know a single person looking forward to more. What you need to do is stop wasting time, money and resources on meaningless things. Return gearing to how it was in 4.0, which actually encouraged us to play more because all of our 70's could gear up and contribute - lockouts to Ops didn't prevent us from playing the game still, it simply meant we swapped toons...now it's limited to same class alts only. Keep your RNG grab bags as they are, stop pretending to fix the system by making it so ridiculously complex again and just bring back the whole token system. PvPers could use the same token system PvEers do. Have the PvP weekly reward an unassembled NiM piece, just to keep it fair.

 

Stop pretending...you're not fooling anyone any longer.

[casirabit]

In case you didn't know...Uprisings suck. I don't know a single person looking forward to more. What you need to do is stop wasting time, money and resources on meaningless things. Return gearing to how it was in 4.0, which actually encouraged us to play more because all of our 70's could gear up and contribute - lockouts to Ops didn't prevent us from playing the game still, it simply meant we swapped toons...now it's limited to same class alts only. Keep your RNG grab bags as they are, stop pretending to fix the system by making it so ridiculously complex again and just bring back the whole token system. PvPers could use the same token system PvEers do. Have the PvP weekly reward an unassembled NiM piece, just to keep it fair.

 

Stop pretending...you're not fooling anyone any longer.

 

Sorry Tux, with this I am going to disagree with you on. My boyfriend and I actually enjoyed the uprisings due to our time restrictions as of late. We are able to do these within the time we have to play and for us they were fun because we were able to do them together.

[Threjyan]

yesterdays stream was so depressing..*sigh*

 

none of what they said fixed any of the crap they did with gearing up system in 5.0 - it tried to minimize.

 

who am i folling..i want new ops, and this will never happen. FU BWA for hurting my feelings

[TUXs]

Sorry Tux, with this I am going to disagree with you on. My boyfriend and I actually enjoyed the uprisings due to our time restrictions as of late. We are able to do these within the time we have to play and for us they were fun because we were able to do them together.

You can't disagree with me silly...I don't know you Casi I said "I don't know anyone", not that nobody liked them...but of all the people I know in-game, I do not know a single person who enjoys them. Not ONE. On the forums, there's always someone who will say they do...and for 2-player content, I can see their allure to you two...I just don't play with any 2-player groups.

[Costello]

I don't know anyone that likes uprisings.

 

Some constructive feedback. If you are going to put group content in don't turn it into a speed run CXP grind. It causes experienced players to get pissed off with new people coming to them cause they are taking too long and don't know what they are doing. Which because no one actually enjoys the content is pissing the experienced players off as they are only doing it for the quickest route to CXP.

 

The goal of any content but especially content where you should travel at the speed of the slowest member should be enjoyment and having time to participate. It comparable to space baring through flashpoint dialogue only much much much worse as here new players can be replaced by a healing companion and who is probably more use.

 

Speaking of which Story mode must be completable by the 4 worst DPS classes learning the ropes. For all thats holy its story mode, its meant to be to experience the story, yet if you get 4 DPS it can be far too difficult to forefil this role, in many respects easier for them to queue on Veteran and get a balanced team. Which isn't the design, start balancing 'Story' for 4 Mdps that are horribly squishy and any time off target results in massive drop in DPS.

 

But lets face it if the dev team is listening they don't care or don't know what they are doing.

Edited January 6, 2017 by Costello

[PlasmaJohn]

In case you didn't know...Uprisings suck. I don't know a single person looking forward to more. What you need to do is stop wasting time, money and resources on meaningless things.

Afraid I'm with Casi on this one. I don't think the Uprisings concept was a bad thing at all. I think it's a great compliment to Flashpoints and Ops.

 

Where I think we can agree is that they don't come close to covering the demand for the meatier content. If Ben thinks this will satisfy those looking for fresh PVE content he's in the wrong industry (but we know that). I think it's a travesty that they've skewed the CXP to cook the metrics.

 

Why pay for the extra servers?

TL;DR: There's very little cost savings in doing that.

 

The capital expenditure of the hardware has been fully depreciated by now and that's the lion's share of the cost. Bandwidth is expensive but once you're in a tier, additional servers, especially low traffic ones barely have an effect on that expense. HVAC is similar but once you've sized it for the datacenter adding or dropping whole racks doesn't make much of a difference. Power isn't all that expensive on a per server basis.

 

INB4 "Oh but APAC" - While turning off a rack has a minimal financial benefit decommissioning a whole datacenter is another thing entirely. That doesn't even begin to get into how awful Telstra was/is (one of the world's worst monoplists).

[TUXs]

Afraid I'm with Casi on this one. I don't think the Uprisings concept was a bad thing at all. I think it's a great compliment to Flashpoints and Ops.

Unless I'm mistaken, I don't believe I know you either?? I agree, they have their niche, but it's one that Heroics fill just fine. I still don't know a single person who wanted more 2-4 man content...

[casirabit]

Unless I'm mistaken, I don't believe I know you either?? I agree, they have their niche, but it's one that Heroics fill just fine. I still don't know a single person who wanted more 2-4 man content...

 

Well on heroics how many times have you seen anyone die from it. On the uprisings depending on the type you are doing , you can die or in the case of one we did the other day with 2 other individuals, if someone doesn't know what they are doing they can cause the group to wipe.........

[TheGloob]

I just want to say that I have been a Merc my entire swtor career. Please do not nerf the Mercenary to the point where we are no longer viable in pvp. I hear a lot of complaining about Mercs being over powered. Well I just want to say that I had to wait 5 years for this to happen and I don't want a bunch of whiners to sway the decision of the developers to change the Mercenary. The Mercs are still beatable in pvp. We are just not able to be TROUNCED by ALL other classes now! Thank you!

 

Deltasixxsixx- The Harbinger

[TUXs]

Well on heroics how many times have you seen anyone die from it. On the uprisings depending on the type you are doing , you can die or in the case of one we did the other day with 2 other individuals, if someone doesn't know what they are doing they can cause the group to wipe.........

I've only done these on the Legendary setting - even 2 manned a few - I don't know the drop off in difficulty with SM, but I have a feeling if 2 people can complete Legendary, 2 would find the SM versions no more challenging than a Heroic.

[TheGloob]

One idea that might be a solution is to implement a system in game that teaches people the proper rotation of their characters. For example...in the system in place you highlight certain moves that are supercharged or proc'd! Why not utilize the same highlighted system to teach people when to use certain moves in succession of a previous move! I believe the hardest thing for average players to become great players is the ability to know their class rotation. ALOT of new players have no idea that their is a specific rotation to output the highest dps, or heals! If you were able to teach people these rotations while levelling I believe we would have a lot more players able to down the hardest content because they are aware of what priority moves are to be used to maximize their rotations!

 

This is a subtle solution to a lot of horrible dps and healers!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Deltasixxsixx- the Harbinger

[Rankyn]

CXP needs to be increased for heroics.

Originally it was 20 plus whatever we could expect to farm from golds while we did them.

 

After the gold nerf, the payout on the heroics themselves need to be increased to make up for the loss.

[PallyHk]

So you can only get gear from PVP and Raids? This is basically even worse than it was before. I'm interested in neither. This update once again does nothing for the casual gamer and this does not make me want to keep my subscription up.

 

Unassembled gear should be buyable for tokens at a vendor. You get more tokens if you do Flashpoints and PVP and even more if you do Raids. Raid bosses should just drop a whole bunch of tokens.

 

Heroics and Uprisings: Boxes only tokens, X amount of tokens for every hour spent doing it.

Flashpoints: 200% of the amount you would get from Heroics and Uprisings.

PVP: 200% of the amount you would get from Heroics and Uprisings.

Raids: 400% of the amount you would get from Heroics and Uprisings.

Edited January 6, 2017 by PallyHk

[JattaGin]

I've only done these on the Legendary setting - even 2 manned a few - I don't know the drop off in difficulty with SM, but I have a feeling if 2 people can complete Legendary, 2 would find the SM versions no more challenging than a Heroic.

 

I have played two Uprisings so far. Both in SM. My main is a commando medic which I have played almost since the beginning of this game. I have healed my groups through HM operations without issues. I'm very good at my class.

 

In both these Uprisings, my peeps died like flies. It was ridiculous. Their health bar went from 100% to 0 within very few seconds. While my heals were channeling, they were already dead. I didn't understand what is happening, but I could see that no one moved out of stupid, did any CCing, interrupting, cleansing and whatnot. Probably bad gear as well.

 

My perception of these two Uprisings was so disastrous that I couldn't make myself queue for one more ever since. And that was in the first week after 5.0. Maybe I was just unlucky. But well, my excitement about those new uprisings is immense.

 

That said, I still don't mind the new command system. I never cared about gearing up. I can do all content I nowadays play nekkid. Both me, and my chars.

[PallyHk]

I have played two Uprisings so far. Both in SM. My main is a commando medic which I have played almost since the beginning of this game. I have healed my groups through HM operations without issues. I'm very good at my class.

 

In both these Uprisings, my peeps died like flies. It was ridiculous. Their health bar went from 100% to 0 within very few seconds. While my heals were channeling, they were already dead. I didn't understand what is happening, but I could see that no one moved out of stupid, did any CCing, interrupting, cleansing and whatnot. Probably bad gear as well.

 

My perception of these two Uprisings was so disastrous that I couldn't make myself queue for one more ever since. And that was in the first week after 5.0. Maybe I was just unlucky. But well, my excitement about those new uprisings is immense.

 

That said, I still don't mind the new command system. I never cared about gearing up. I can do all content I nowadays play nekkid. Both me, and my chars.

 

All KOTET content suffers from difficulty spikes.

 

Either bad design or simply the lack of playtesting, but KOTET Chapters and Uprisings both have insanely varied damage coming from enemies. Sometimes trash mobs give you trouble right before you easily take on a boss. Damage comes in spikes, especially in Uprisings. It is basically as if the difficulty kept jumping between story and hard modes all on its own.

 

Oddly, this was never the problem with KOTFE which is otherwise very similar. No idea why this is, maybe there was not enough testing done.

Edited January 6, 2017 by PallyHk

[PlasmaJohn]

Unless I'm mistaken, I don't believe I know you either?? I agree, they have their niche, but it's one that Heroics fill just fine. I still don't know a single person who wanted more 2-4 man content...

You don't, I play mostly on the Imp side these days

 

I was disagreeing with the "they stink" comment instead of the you don't know anybody that likes them one. Uprisings feel more group tuned than the Heroics do now and their end boss fights are more interesting.

 

While I agree that Ops should have been an all-hands-on-deck priority by the end of last year I also think we do need some fresh FP's (and PvP attention and GSF). To be fair what was needed was a "real" expansion that covered all player niches over the course of a year. The "single focus" crap has to stop. The money they blew on the Blur trailers would have been much better spent to fund that development.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Sorry Tux, with this I am going to disagree with you on. My boyfriend and I actually enjoyed the uprisings due to our time restrictions as of late. We are able to do these within the time we have to play and for us they were fun because we were able to do them together.

 

Same I like uprisings also just not enough to solely warrant my sub, they also lose their enjoyment factor quite quickly and become repetitive for no meaning. If they dropped gear and were a means of progression that wasn't GC points then that repetitive nature isn't such an issue as I'm always getting something but as it stands with GC it's just repetition for the sake of repetition.

Most fail to see that for casual players in a time limited sense GC is basically moot - don't have time to even reach new tiers and thus can never really start getting really interesting drops. Thus GC isn't even a thing to me and the game just basically removed all drops for no reason - for me personally.

 

If they released the amount coming in January every 2 months I'd consider subbing for a month every 2 or 4 months to play through them but that would be about it and that's after I consider the nature of any "protest non sub" against GC.

 

I'm more likely to sub because I've managed to accumulate billions in escrow over the months and want to buy more packs to replen my inventory because that's actually mt favorite part of the game now ... sad huh?

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Unless I'm mistaken, I don't believe I know you either??.

 

Seriously stop arguing for the sake of arguing. You clearly started your whole point with ...

 

In case you didn't know...Uprisings suck.

 

A counter to that does not depend on whether or not you know people.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

I have played two Uprisings so far. Both in SM. My main is a commando medic which I have played almost since the beginning of this game. I have healed my groups through HM operations without issues. I'm very good at my class.

 

In both these Uprisings, my peeps died like flies. It was ridiculous. Their health bar went from 100% to 0 within very few seconds. While my heals were channeling, they were already dead. I didn't understand what is happening, but I could see that no one moved out of stupid, did any CCing, interrupting, cleansing and whatnot. Probably bad gear as well.

 

My perception of these two Uprisings was so disastrous that I couldn't make myself queue for one more ever since. And that was in the first week after 5.0. Maybe I was just unlucky. But well, my excitement about those new uprisings is immense.

 

That said, I still don't mind the new command system. I never cared about gearing up. I can do all content I nowadays play nekkid. Both me, and my chars.

 

I had similar experiences in both flashpoints and operations ( still do in flashpoints and would in operations if groups were still forming ) and strangely enough I continued to do them.