Galactic Command Gearing Roadmap - Coming This Week

[DanNV]

His point is that if you're getting twice as many rolls of the proverbial dice in the same time frame then as a practical matter your odds are twice as good as they were before.

 

Which is, statistically, incorrect. Your odds are exactly the same. Each box is an independent chance that does not rely in the previous box and has no effect on the next box. And, I expect if they double the drop rate of boxes they will halve the drop rate of what is in boxes, intending to keep the time it takes to get to a full set of gear constant while trying to make it look like they are listening to us.

[DanNV]

For those that wwant this game to e shut down, lets wait two years and see if there are rumors about new star wars rpg

 

I don't think anyone wants the game to be shut down. The problem is the lack of development and the lack of response to paying customers may well cause a sufficient drop in customers that the game gets shut down.

[TUXs]

I'm not so sure.

 

I don't so much think they're afraid to walk it back as much as they still don't believe they need to.

 

I honestly think they truly don't understand how bad it is. At some level, reading some of the posts I'm not sure many players do yet either. To be fair though, most players don't need the gear and as such don't feel the pain. But to have content in the game that necessitates even decent gear, this system cannot be how it is acquired.

I think you may be right Gabigool. I know players in the past have threatened to quit and they come back a week later...but I don't think that's happening this time and I don't think Bioware realizes it yet.

 

As for the people not realizing it yet - those are mostly either your solo players, who finally have a chance at top tier gear, or the same 5 defenders of everything Bioware...there aren't many at all who don't seem to understand just how bad 5.x has been.

Oh, I agree. You described the fallacy of sunk costs well enough in your previous post. I should probably have phrased it as

 

"I think they are convinced they HAVE to make GC work."

This is an interesting take on the current situation...I think you may be on to something.

The forums evolve and devolve with the game.

EXACTLY!!! The forums 100% represent the state and mood of the game...in this game and every other game you see.

[AscendingSky]

His point is that if you're getting twice as many rolls of the proverbial dice in the same time frame then as a practical matter your odds are twice as good as they were before.

 

That's a fallacy, really. Your odds stay the same for each spin of the virtual roulette wheel no matter how many boxes you've opened or how often you open them. Sure, you get more spins on the wheel (if their changes actually do increase CXP gain in any significant way), but the odds on said wheel remain as terrible as before.

Edited February 1, 2017 by AscendingSky

[casirabit]

I think you may be right Gabigool. I know players in the past have threatened to quit and they come back a week later...but I don't think that's happening this time and I don't think Bioware realizes it yet.

 

As for the people not realizing it yet - those are mostly either your solo players, who finally have a chance at top tier gear, or the same 5 defenders of everything Bioware...there aren't many at all who don't seem to understand just how bad 5.x has been.

 

This is an interesting take on the current situation...I think you may be on to something.

EXACTLY!!! The forums 100% represent the state and mood of the game...in this game and every other game you see.

 

Going to disagree here Tux. I may not be a fan of the RNG part of the command boxes but I am far from negative. I still have fun and laugh quite a bit on the game. So the current situation has nothing to do with my attitude. I have learned a long time ago, you have control of your own attitude and you can choose whether to let things bother you or just go on and enjoy the day. I chose to enjoy the day. Being negative doesn't help anyone.

[Kawiki]

That's a fallacy, really. Your odds stay the same for each spin of the virtual roulette wheel no matter how many boxes you've opened or how often you open them. Sure, you get more spins on the wheel (if their changes actually do increase CXP gain in any significant way), but the odds on said wheel remain as terrible as before.

 

Unless your time is the currency that spins the wheel. Then your odds are actually getting better per hour (dollar) that you will get something useful.

[TUXs]

Going to disagree here Tux. I may not be a fan of the RNG part of the command boxes but I am far from negative. I still have fun and laugh quite a bit on the game. So the current situation has nothing to do with my attitude. I have learned a long time ago, you have control of your own attitude and you can choose whether to let things bother you or just go on and enjoy the day. I chose to enjoy the day. Being negative doesn't help anyone.

I enjoy my day as well, this has nothing to do with how you act and feel irl, we're talking about the state of the game, not our own mental health...which would be an odd thing to post about on a games forum to begin with

 

SWTOR is not in a good spot right now Casi. Many players aren't happy with the state of the game and we're at the lowest population we've ever had. The game has stagnated and taken steps backwards to failed and frustrating systems of the past. I'm being realistic about the state of the game, not "negative"...there's nothing I'd like more than to be cheery and upbeat about what is coming to the game and what they were doing to improve it...but I'm not. Bioware hasn't done anything to slow the flow of players leaving...

[GalacticKegger]

You need to realize, GC will not be leaving us. at least not this year. You want content the way you want it, BW has to balance what all players want. They are trying to make it better and had better be quick about it, but they will not be reverting to 4.0, that just isnt going to happen. Hopefully they will come to a compromise that we can live with. The suggestion that they eliminate crates gained from 1-30 is a good one, those levels shift the results by a lot. The 3.0 ops with HM and hardmare modes only was just as big of a mistake as 5.0 GC. They need to find a happy medium that satisfies a majority of their customers.

I do indeed realize that GC will not be leaving us, courtesy of "fallacy of sunk costs" that @stoopicus astutely pointed out. And I was referring to pre-4.0, not 4.0 cuz ... ya. Which is what makes me sad because whether our guild sticks it out or becomes a ghost town for good hinges on Eric's update tomorrow.

 

What we want to hear is this:

 

"We announced last year that we would be announcing group content later in the year. We did that, and we used 5.0 to test out Galactic Command in an end game environment. We found that it can work well as a single player achievement system, but does not work well in massive group end game environments expected of all true MMOs. Which is why in our last Livestream we disclosed our intent to have both a solo Operations track and a group Operations track.

 

So we are pleased to announce that Galactic Command will be retained for the solo player end game progression system. At the same time we are returning to the end game progression and loot system our group end game players and guilds enjoyed during Shadow of Revan, but with the improvements that 4.0 would have made to it.

 

We are also announcing that from now on story will either be group story that can be played solo, solo story that can be played in a group, or there will be a solo story track and a group story track similar to what we announced for operations. We are still working on that so stay tuned!

 

In the meantime, we ask that our incredible fans step forward and join the Public Test Server to help us make SWTOR the best Star Wars MMORPG it can be.

 

We are indeed listening."

 

Alas ... I'm guessing none of this will happen and all but a few story-only stragglers in our guild will vanish for good. As for my wife and I, we may or may not stick around as preferred. She likes the KotFE and KotET stories but hates that we were not allowed to play through them together. Since we can't play through expansion stories together and with our end game guild decimated, there's really no reason to sub for the expansions. There is always more alts my wife and I can play through vanilla together, but we can do that for free. And we've been with our guild for over 5 years, so switching won't happen if there is anyone left.

 

Fortunately we stockpiled all the GC unlocks in preparation for this, so we are set to make this our occasional trip down vanilla memory lane. I wish I could accurately convey how badly this all hurts ...

Edited February 1, 2017 by CommunityDroidEN

[DarthDymond]

Which is, statistically, incorrect. Your odds are exactly the same. Each box is an independent chance that does not rely in the previous box and has no effect on the next box. [/Quote]

That's a fallacy, really. Your odds stay the same for each roll of the dice no matter how many boxes you've opened or how often you open them. Sure, you get more spins on the wheel, but the odds on said wheel remain as terrible as before.

The point isn't the odds per box, the point is that because they're doubling how many boxes you get for the same amount of effort, then that amount of effort is now yielding improved odds.

 

Say it takes [X] Warzones to get a command crate now, after this change [X] Warzones will get you two command crates. And while each individual crate's odds won't have changed (that would be the gambler's fallacy), your overall odds for getting the gear you wanted out of [X] Warzones will have improved because of having two crates instead of one.

 

(My probability and statistics is rusty, but I believe, for example, that if you have a 5% chance of getting a certain item from one crate, you'll have a 9.75% chance from two. I admit I was talking fast and loose when I said the odds were "twice as good" - that is technically incorrect.)

Only if drop rates remain constant.

 

Given we do not know this, then as i said, stop presenting speculation as reality, misinformation leads to disappointment when not met.

 

Are there not enough disappointed people already on this forum?

And, I expect if they double the drop rate of boxes they will halve the drop rate of what is in boxes, intending to keep the time it takes to get to a full set of gear constant while trying to make it look like they are listening to us.

If they change the drop rates for the worse at the same time, then yes, that would obviously impact the overall odds. But I think that's a pretty big assumption to make based on "I expect BW to do bad stuff."

Edited February 1, 2017 by DarthDymond

[Tsillah]

Which is, statistically, incorrect. Your odds are exactly the same. Each box is an independent chance that does not rely in the previous box and has no effect on the next box. And, I expect if they double the drop rate of boxes they will halve the drop rate of what is in boxes, intending to keep the time it takes to get to a full set of gear constant while trying to make it look like they are listening to us.

 

I would suggest taking some probability classes, because you are essentially both wrong. I could try to explain it but I'll just give a quick description and not go into too much detail.

 

In order to reach a specific goal, having more chances does improve your overall chance to reach that goal. Each individual box has the same exact chance but with multiple attempts your overall chance to reach your target does increase, it just doesn't double your chances and you will never reach a 100% chance as each additional attempt adds an increasingly smaller amount to your overall chance of success. That means that no matter how many you open, it's still possible in theory to never be successful but that chance does get smaller and smaller, just never zero.

 

Check it with a math teacher if you want.

[Ratajack]

I do indeed realize that GC will not be leaving us, courtesy of "fallacy of sunk costs" that @stoopicus astutely pointed out. Which is what makes me sad because whether our guild sticks it out or becomes a ghost town for good hinges on Eric's update tomorrow.

 

What we want to hear is this:

 

"We announced last year that we would be announcing group content later in the year. We did that, and we used 5.0 to test out Galactic Command in an end game environment. We found that it can work well as a single player achievement system, but does not work well in massive group end game environments expected of all true MMOs. Which is why in our last Livestream we disclosed our intent to have both a solo Operations track and a group Operations track.

 

So we are pleased to announce that Galactic Command will be used for the solo player end game progression system. At the same time we are returning to the end game progression and loot system our end game players and guilds enjoyed during Shadow of Revan, but with the improvements that 4.0 would have made to it.

 

We are also announcing that from now on story will either be group story that can be playable solo, or there will be a solo story track and a group story track similar to what we announced for operations. We are still working on that so stay tuned!

 

In the meantime, we ask that our incredible fans step forward and join the Public Test Server to help us make SWTOR the best Star Wars MMORPG it can be.

 

We are indeed listening."

 

Alas ... I'm guessing none of this will happen and all but a few story-only stragglers in our guild will vanish for good. As for my wife and I, we may or may not stick around as preferred. There is always more alts my wife and I can play through leveling story together, but we can do that for free. We've been with our guild for over 5 years, so switching won't happen if there is anyone left. So I suppose with no guild to chase end game with there'd be no reason to expedite the leveling process, so there'd be no reason to consult the Cartel Market or make Legacy purchases with anything other than credits as we already have all the GC unlocks in preparation for this.

 

I wish I could accurately convey how badly this all hurts ...

 

4.0 apparently spoiled too many people with regards to gearing.

 

I do not expect any area of the game to return to the 4.0 easy mode gearing in which a player could hit level today and be BIS geared within a week, if not within a day or even a few hours.

 

And let's be honest, that seems to be what the vast majority of the crying about GC and CXP boils down to.

 

I notice a few common points in almost every thread about GC and CXP. It seems that if you check any thread about GC or CXP, it will not take more than a few posts before you see one in which the poster talks about "taking too long to gear", "wanting be geared within a week", "Every tier 1 box should contain a purple set item" or some other complaint about gearing not be fast and easy enough any longer.

 

 

Does that mean I think GC and CXP is perfect? No. It definitely needs some improvement, but gearing does not need to go back to the easy mode, lightning speed gearing that was 4.0, IMO.

[GalacticKegger]

4.0 apparently spoiled too many people with regards to gearing.

 

I do not expect any area of the game to return to the 4.0 easy mode gearing in which a player could hit level today and be BIS geared within a week, if not within a day or even a few hours.

 

And let's be honest, that seems to be what the vast majority of the crying about GC and CXP boils down to.

 

I notice a few common points in almost every thread about GC and CXP. It seems that if you check any thread about GC or CXP, it will not take more than a few posts before you see one in which the poster talks about "taking too long to gear", "wanting be geared within a week", "Every tier 1 box should contain a purple set item" or some other complaint about gearing not be fast and easy enough any longer.

 

 

Does that mean I think GC and CXP is perfect? No. It definitely needs some improvement, but gearing does not need to go back to the easy mode, lightning speed gearing that was 4.0, IMO.

I was actually referring to pre-4.0 ... even pre-3.0 if it was possible. I updated my post's 1st paragraph to reflect that. My apologies mate. Edited February 1, 2017 by GalacticKegger

[Ratajack]

I was actually referring to pre-4.0 ... even pre-3.0 if it was possible.

 

That would make you one of very few people who is not throwing a temper tantrum, threatening to quit, or unsub if they do not bring back "EZ mode, hit max level today and be BIS geared tomorrow" gearing.

 

 

I do find some humor in the fact that so many people have "quit and walked away, never to return" yet they are still here posting on the forums, with nothing positive to say. Guess they really haven't walked away, have they?

[Bristol]

Related to the content of the boxes:

 

The Jawa Bits that drop do not disintegrate at a conversion rate that makes sense to me anyways.

 

The numbers are from memory, so bare with me:

1. 15 Green Jawa bits disintegrate @ 10 CPX/Bit: 150CXP
   
2. 8 Blue Jawa Bits disintegrate @ 10 CXP/Bit: 80CXP
   
3. 2 Purple Jawa Bits disintegrate @ 10 CXP/Bit: 20CXP
   

 

So, the CXP RNG lottery has me praying for the least valuable drops because through some screwy logic loophole: the one with the least actual in-game value has the most Galactic Command value and the one with the most actual in-game value ends up having the least Galactic Command Value.

[Bristol]

(My probability and statistics is rusty, but I believe, for example, that if you have a 5% chance of getting a certain item from one crate, you'll have a 9.75% chance from two. I admit I was talking fast and loose when I said the odds were "twice as good" - that is technically incorrect.)

 

Your calcs appear to be correct:

1 Box: 5.00%

2 Box: 9.75% [ 1 - (1-0.05)^2 ]

3 Box: 14.26% [ 1 - (1-0.05)^3 ]

4 Box: 18.55% [ 1 - (1-0.05)^4 ]

5 Box: 22.62% [ 1 - (1-0.05)^5 ]

...

100 Box: 99.41% [ 1 - (1-0.05)^100 ]

...

200 Box: 99.996% [ 1 - (1-0.05)^200 ]

...

300 Box: 99.99998% [ 1 - (1-0.05)^300 ]

 

So yeah, someone with bad luck, even after 100 boxes still has a 0.59% chance of not getting whatever had a 5% drop chance.

 

or

 

For every 100,000 accounts that open 100 CXP crates, 592 accounts will still be left with NOTHING.

Edited February 1, 2017 by Bristol

[GalacticKegger]

That would make you one of very few people who is not throwing a temper tantrum, threatening to quit, or unsub if they do not bring back "EZ mode, hit max level today and be BIS geared tomorrow" gearing.

hehe. It wasn't easy mode, unless by easy you mean less muddled. It was never easy until the boss fight mechanics were on farm which normally took months for all but the elite end game guilds.

 

Depending on team capabilities and how many bosses there were being locked out each week, on average it took a month or two to gear up in normals, then another 2-3+ months or so to gear up in HMs. That was for one character and one spec. Do that for additional characters and by the time you had 4 toons (a main & an alt per side) geared up and ready for more, a new gear tier with fresh content for it was added. And the more content they added the longer it took to progress. Hard cores who could keep up were gearing multiple alts and specs to fill multiple roles for variety.

 

What made gearing slow or fast was comm price adjusts and drop rates. If analytics showed that players were gearing too fast all they had to do was raise comm vendor prices or decrease the amount of comms that bosses would drop.

 

The gear itself? It was just like any other group MMO worth it's weight in end game progression. Sometimes a piece dropped that no one could use. At which point it was RE'd and the mats rolled on which eventually were crafted into BoE purples and put into gbank or sold on the GTN. If a piece dropped that was an upgrade which multiple characters could use, then those players needed against each other for it. 16-player operations had better gear than 8-player operations but took longer to gear up in because there were twice as many characters competing for drops.

 

Once gear was obtained then there were additional progression paths like comms & crafting to add better or more finely tuned hilts, barrels, armorings, mods, enhancements and augments. But that's only where it started, as all this was more or less a gateway to the BIS tier piece acquisition process which was well defined, fixed and farmable.

 

Nothing EZ Mode about it except for how innately intuitive the whole system was.

 

Galactic Command is an intentionally convoluted RPG achievement grind they are using to fill the void left by the lack of new large group end game content. Pre-4.0 end game progression was content-based, not achievement-based. That's what we want to get back to. Hopefully a new commitment to ongoing large group endgame content production will see a return of the pre-4.0 end game progression system that was designed for it. While the solo Operations track can use the solo-centric Galactic Command for its end game advancement system.

 

I do find some humor in the fact that so many people have "quit and walked away, never to return" yet they are still here posting on the forums, with nothing positive to say. Guess they really haven't walked away, have they?

Is that what this is all about? Wanting people to walk away? Edited February 2, 2017 by GalacticKegger

[Ottoattack]

I would suggest taking some probability classes, because you are essentially both wrong. I could try to explain it but I'll just give a quick description and not go into too much detail.

 

In order to reach a specific goal, having more chances does improve your overall chance to reach that goal. Each individual box has the same exact chance but with multiple attempts your overall chance to reach your target does increase, it just doesn't double your chances and you will never reach a 100% chance as each additional attempt adds an increasingly smaller amount to your overall chance of success. That means that no matter how many you open, it's still possible in theory to never be successful but that chance does get smaller and smaller, just never zero.

 

Check it with a math teacher if you want.

 

This absolutely correct.

 

To explain quickly how this works, I will assume the odds of obtaining a purple piece from a box is 10% (0.1) and the odds of not doing so is 90% (0.9).

 

If you open 1 box the odds are 0.9 for nothing 0.1 for purp

If you open 2 boxes, nothing odds go down 0.81 (0.9 x 0.9) and purp up to 0.19.

At 10 boxes nothing is 0.35 (0.9 ^10) and purp up to 0.65.

At 50 boxes nothing is 0.005 (0.9 ^50) and purp up to 0.995.

 

Yes, you have a 10% chance to obtain a purp if you open 1 box, but the odds go up to 99.5% if you opened 50 boxes.

 

Increasing CXP gain rate will increase the odds of you getting an item quicker, however, it is not a proportional relation and there will be some unlucky soul that may still not get an item at the 50th box. The problem of course if you are missing 1 specific piece, the odds of getting what you need, even while opening many boxes are abysmal. Assuming 10% rate for purp again, the odds are getting a specific piece in 50 boxes is 30%.. (odds here are 99.29% for nothing and 0.71% for what you need).

 

Even if CXP gain rate is increased 10 folds, it is still not a reliable way to gear, and you can be stuck forever missing MH or set piece.

 

I said this earlier in the post, GC can be a supporting system for gearing, but should not be the primary system.

Edited February 1, 2017 by Ottoattack

[ShinDoRai]

the ppls that dont get it why cxp is bad should be now acknowledged by everyone that use his brain for min/max and playing all aspects.

 

some only have a flashlight, and play games like that just for the fun.

and some turn the lights on in that room

and some use night vision specs to play

 

slotmachine 1 spin 750 credits --- getting certificates almost impossible/mount

one crate 1 level grind for CXP --- gold gear bis impla/relikt, gear at all (maybe not so bad, but bad enough)

 

so go play slotmachine gearing if u like it, over and over 2-5 year only content. where the past 2 years only story content dropped. and giving us instead of flashpoints; rather tacticals, uprisings, eternal championship, gsf and more uprisings in 3 ways from noob to hc difficulties. after u nerfed all in wrong way

 

if u only had made from this things more raids and fps, nobody would cry.

dont know why this game lost its pace.

 

 

rant spoiler:

and why in the hell always this stupid 5 level raising.

this last 10 levels are way to short for this stupid fast pushing forward 12x EXP, level sync,

removing comp gearing op-all fits one- not gearable none min/max gearing,

streamlining, nonsense singleplayer level pushing !? you devs watched to much "the gambler" fxxk you kinda

removing skills/trees/stats and replaced what nobody supports, certainly not new players/Han'solo's storyplayers that didnt even use skills in their bars till today what is esential in gameplay. then wherewas your part to teach them how to play = new players,new to mmo at all or switcher from other mmos ?

mmos are games that always have/must be supported by time sinks and training time.

its like a gym. pay ur sub, but dont expect to look like arnold after 5 days.

it takes time and years to be pro or on level with others. who would have thought

did all changes helped in the end BW, at all? poor tutorials in this game. looks like the devs need some

why so much work when it was well set, but bad polished and fixed, with bat nukes.

why didnt u made it easyer in the 1. way? like a short tutorial. where a npc guid/escort u all over the fleet/skills/quests on fleet/crating. on such stages u could use some text selected conversations like the alliance conversations.

let them fight with bots for a pvp round to show objectives and such.and stunlocks are boring in pvp. thats not skill. bursting them away with skills and slows is much more fun. and bolster didnt helped at all

like valki the time stops and a ghost apears and introduce things

it feels like watching south park grounded vindaloop

 

-- Customer service said that one of us needed to put on the headset and come get you, and that's why I'm here.

I know it's hard to grasp, Eric, but I was the one sent by customer service to try and convince you that none of what you've seen is real. This call may be recorded to ensure good customer service in the future.

What was the name of the person who first called you for customer service? Oh, yes, yes, yes! That I can answer.

You are stuck in a paradox.

It turns out there are three things you cannot do in virtual reality.

You cannot die, you cannot get grounded, and you cannot call customer service.

This is why you are having problems.

You just don't get it, do you?! So, then how much of what has happened was in virtual reality? What's wrong with you?! That does not matter! There is only one thing that matters! What? Have I answered your questions satisfactorily and offered good customer service? That doesn't make sense! That's the paradox! Please, my friend! Please! I am not real! You are not real! Have I answered your questions and provided good customer service? This call may be recorded! You're getting it now! Yes! Yes, you've answered all my questions, and I am pleased with the customer service I've been provided!

 

all easy, but went wrong. this ip this dev lightspeed combined with €A

 

 

sry seriously couldnt resist

Edited February 1, 2017 by ShinDoRai

[Quraswren]

4.0 apparently spoiled too many people with regards to gearing.

 

4.0 was quick gearing but to be honest. I have no problem with clearing content and getting gear. You beat the boss, you get the gear. I cannot find fault in that design.

 

Tweek it a bit to slow down the gearing. Add in GC as a sub level of gearing for those that cannot bet the harder group content (or even easy group content) so they can still have the gear goal even if at a slower pace with the added benefit of do any content

 

Clearing content to get gear isn't something I call a spoiled gamer thing.

 

I do not expect any area of the game to return to the 4.0 easy mode gearing in which a player could hit level today and be BIS geared within a week, if not within a day or even a few hours.

 

Seeing as how that was impossible even in 4.0 it really doesn't matter. You geared fast and running alts helped gear a main but you are so far off in your assessment I have to wonder did you play 4.0?

 

And let's be honest, that seems to be what the vast majority of the crying about GC and CXP boils down to.

 

Sorry but that statement would also be wrong.

 

I notice a few common points in almost every thread about GC and CXP. It seems that if you check any thread about GC or CXP, it will not take more than a few posts before you see one in which the poster talks about "taking too long to gear", "wanting be geared within a week", "Every tier 1 box should contain a purple set item" or some other complaint about gearing not be fast and easy enough any longer.

 

Of course they talk about taking to long to gear. There is something called a reasonable amount of time and then there is 5.0 to which there is nothing reasonable about it. Combine that with the RNG crates and just how terribly bad that RNG is, well it's no wonder gamers hate it after having 4.0. We don't necessarily need 4.0 back exactly how ot was but it was a whole hell of a lot better than 5.0. Like I said, tweak 4.0 with a bit slower gear distribution times and keep GC for those that cannot or will not do group content. You're not reading enough if thats all you got out of gamers posts about how bad GC and RNG is.

 

Does that mean I think GC and CXP is perfect? No. It definitely needs some improvement, but gearing does not need to go back to the easy mode, lightning speed gearing that was 4.0, IMO.

 

Fast but not as fast as you imagined. Not nearly at the speed you mentioned that the bulk of swtor could ever accomplish.

[gabigool]

That would make you one of very few people who is not throwing a temper tantrum, threatening to quit, or unsub if they do not bring back "EZ mode, hit max level today and be BIS geared tomorrow" gearing.

 

Hyperbole, man.

 

Most people I know thought HHM was stupid.

 

3.x gearing would be welcomed.

[realleaftea]

By Friday of this week I am going to make a forum post highlighting a roadmap of changes you can expect to address the feedback you have raised around gearing in Galactic Command. These changes [...] are intended to address the following:

• Greatly increase the rate at which you earn Command Crates. Our goal is that you earn one Crate every 30 minutes, or less (on average).
  
• Looking at improvements we can make to Unassembled Components and Unassembled Pieces.
  
• Make gearing more alt-friendly.
  

Hi Eric,

I'm not strictly against the Galactic Command system, simply because the /roll mechanism is a mess. You have to trust your 'master looter', players decide individually whether to roll once or per item, and whether to include materials, decorations, etc. or not. Furthermore, teammates can roll for each other (trading items afterwards), the token vendors aren't intuitive and the 'bound-item' restriction is more a 'spend-credits-to-insert-mods-into-legacy-gear' one.

 

IMO, it's mainly the last point combined with the fact that bosses have dropped both 220 & 224 tokens in highlighted operation why players keep claiming 4.0 was an 'alt-friendly' system.

 

All in all, I would always prefer a system with personal loot, no matter if it's based on tokens, commendation crystals or reputation vendors. And yes, it would be ok for me to have something similar to a galactic command that uses CXP as a progression measurement rather than commendation crystals... At least as long as completing an operation would result in a level up and a crate that contains an item.

 

See, I don't have to have a known drop for every operation boss I face. It's more about the challenge not the loot. Why should I stop running ToS (Revan) as soon as I got my offhand weapon? Failing to defeat a certain boss can still be ok despite the fact that the 'invested-time-per-reward' ratio is surely one of the worst imaginable. And to have a discussion about who gets the only item drop, is definitely not the most satisfying part about it.

 

You see Eric, the proposal to double the CXP rewards (60min => 30min) won't achieve much as long as the command crates still have an insignificant chance to get an item. I'd rather have the chance for an item doubled than the rate at which I obtain a crate. It's less frustrating.

 

A short calculation:

If I assume a 100% chance that a command crate contains exactly one out of 14 gear pieces... it would still require me to open 45.5 crates on average to get all 14 items.

 

1st piece of gear: 14 out of 14 = every crate will provide a missing item

2nd piece of gear: 13 out of 14 = on avg. 14 / 13 crates required to find a missing item

...

13th piece of gear = 2 out of 14 = on avg 14 / 2 crates required to find a missing item

14th piece of gear = 1 out of 14 = on avg 14 / 1 crates required to find the last missing item

 

In total: 14/14 + 14/13 + ... + 14/2 + 14/1 = 45.5 crates

 

This doesn't include the fact that you can wear two identical implants and doesn't include the fact that there are multiple variants of relics.

 

So in order to give players a reasonable chance to get all the tier1 items before they reach the appropriate level for tier2, command crates ought to have a chance close to 100%. (a 50% chance f.e. would require 91 crates on average)

 

Also keep in mind that the chance to get the last piece is significantly lower than the chance to get a 3rd or 4th item. This can be really depressing. 14 pieces out of 45.5 crates ... that's still more than 30 'fails'. Possible fixes are to introduce a 'joker' reward that can be turned into any item or to alter the disassemble option to provide a player with parts that allow him to obtain a missing pieces (as a fail-safe mechanism).

 

But to make crates more appealing might still enrage players who are in for the loot.

 

I wish I could, at least once in my lifetime, see MMO devs say 'Sorry guys, we ****ed up. We apologize and are reverting our changes.'

I once experienced such a rollback. It was a disaster. The equivalent to cartel coins spent during this period were lost (not the same DB), players lost achievements accomplished during that time, the downloader went nuts and the reverted source code reopened known bugs & exploits.

Edited February 1, 2017 by realleaftea

[Voblat]

There has never been any proven or announced changes to drop rates in GC crates. I'm not the one "inventing" things here.

 

I never said there had been. I just pointed out that nothing has been said about drop rates, at all.

 

Therefore, telling people that drop rates will double is wrong. We do not know how drop rates are affected until people get their hands on the new system.

 

I am inventing nothing, merely asking you to stop doing so. We do no know what the drops will be like, that is all you need to say, because it is all we can say with the information available.

[ShinDoRai]

gearing could be even much easyer for all and everybody. but that needs alook over the edge.

or look for a sample of how a solution could be made.

Evolution of cxp !

 

looking up for it

looking downwards hurts too much my neck

[Kyuuu]

what about fixing reflect which is still broke, and merc 3 dcd heals.... one of which reflect all on spec that both dps and heals so they have base heal too.

 

yes they can be killed still if one thinking like they should when fighting a jugg, but 3 dcd that heal them 1 of which is reflects, 2 of which can heal them to full. why not just give everyone 3 dcd that heal and reflect if you gonna destroy balance do it right and destroy it on all classes at once. Responsive Safeguards should be on PT.

 

Then again I also believe there should be NO base heals for classes that can be heal or dps, heal skills should be restricted to heal spec, taunts and guard should be restricted to tank specs.

 

DCD that heals are fine but not stupid amounts of them.

[DanNV]

As long as gearing is based on RNG, people are going to get frustrated, get mad and quit the game. It really is that simple and all you have to do is look around to see it.

 

I gave two possible fixes here http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=911737 . The second is probably the better of the two considering it takes into account PVP and PVE instead of requiring a retooling for PVP on top of changing PVE. GO ahead and hang onto GC and CXP as a method of giving shinies and so on and people will be happy with it and Ben doesn't have to admit he totally screwed up with GC he can show it's still in the game.