Galactic Command Gearing Roadmap - Coming This Week

[TUXs]

Excellent point! Or what they also could do is a reverse bolster for PVP. Let me explain.

 

I totally agree that not only should the two not have to mix, but that the gear requirements for nightmare mode should be achieved by rewards attained from that very difficult work not simply PVP. You can accomplish this by NOT adding expertise. Here is how I propose to do it:

 

#1. Come out with a gear set ONLY obtainable thru the PVE system (OPS, nightmare or whatever) and make that gear supreme since it is the most difficult way to obtain it.

 

#2. Introduce a reverse bolster. Anyone who has this gear equipped while entering a WZ will be bolstered DOWN to the highest obtainable PVP gear in any WZ.

 

#3. Keep expertise out of the game and achieve both giving PVP players the enticement to advance to PVE HMs or NM modes because his top gear will allow him the instructory level of PVE gear. Something us PVP players lacked with expertise gear.

 

#4. Have a less toxic environment between the "PVP" crowd and the "PVE" crowd because now they are both viable players using their current gear in either instance of game play.

 

I think it would be a win win to introduce reversed bolster to this game and introduce an entire new gear set for NM modes or HMs of PVE.

 

Just my thoughts on this. Thank you.

I have long thought that "expertise" should have been an instanced PvE stat, not a PvP stat, so this is similar to something I have long thought should be done...whether it's called Bolster or Expertise, I really don't care.

 

I'd be fully in favor of something like this, but...that 6-piece bonus would need to be something new PvPers could easily obtain. To do that, every GC/CXP crate from 1-90 should drop a set piece with bonus. Make getting the basic gear easy for everyone.

 

Other than easy to get starter gear and set bonuses, I love the proposal. Gear shouldn't be the factor in PvP.

[LJ_Gibbs]

People, people.

 

Those of you wanting them to get rid of... or help us a little with the RNG are loking at the world with rose-colored glasses.

 

They did RNG for one reason... and one reason only. With the gear behind a subwall, they needed to drag out what subs were left as long as possible.

 

Why are we getting one boss instead of a whole OP? Because I think they FINALLY realized that had they not announced some sort of new raiding content, whatever subs that were left would be gone fast. So why not rush ONE boss out the door? Keep the subs that still have some sliver of hope for endgame raiding content.

 

The more I think about it... the more it burns me up.

[Lhancelot]

They'll probably screw this up just as bad as the 5.1 rework and will require a rework after this one, but don't worry guys we got an announcement for a rework of a rework for a system nobody wanted but Ben "Thrill of the Hunt™" Irving and Charles "Who is Lord Scourge?" Boyd lmfao

 

It's hard to not be jaded, and it's hard to not agree with you.

 

Everyone HATES RNG being the backbone of the new gearing system but instead of considering to remove it, they plan to "improve" upon it.

 

I have faith that it will work out great.

 

I also love how urgent they are to take care of the mess. Only after countless unhappy customers flooded the forums have they FINALLY responded.

 

We are so used to complacency and apathy that we actually feel we need to thank the community manager for responding to us on the forums after THEY created an immense cluster.

[yeldarbnotned]

I've seen the opposite...the amount of white knights in game is enormous compared to what you see on the forums.

 

Also funny that everyone in my guild is happy to get gear for doing whatever they want, and have made several comments to that effect.

 

Funny how that works.

 

This post is odd. The old system was much better in every regard for players to get gear however they want.

 

I could run flashpoints and get 208 gear. I could run hard mode flashpoints and get 216 gear. I could do story mode ops and get set bonus 216 gear. I could run hard mode ops and get 220 set bonus gear. I could get tokens for Eternal Championship and trade for optimized 220 gear. I could get crystals from pvp and be geared in 208 within a few days. I could save crystals from heroics and dailies and get gear that way.

 

Now I can do all of this stuff for the next 90 levels and 150 hours still getting 228 greens just to destroy it. Oh what fun.

[Talon_strikes]

Agreed. It's been a year away from the forums for me and TUXs has always been a straight shooter.

 

BW's use of the word Operations in a cohesive sentence got our attention and brought me back in, so I am trying everything within reason to get our Harbinger guilds reconstituted. But GC for anything other than a solo achievement system will continue to be a deal breaker. Frankly, they should have released KotFE as a separate single player KOTOR 3 and left SWTOR alone. But that's just us.

 

At least BWA is trying to bridge that gap by having simultaneous solo & group operations tracks. The problem is they are blindly adamant about using CXP for both and the audience they are trying to placate by announcing the return of Operations want nothing to do with it.

 

Anyway, it is good to hear his voice of reason again.

Wow GK. You've certainly changed over the years on these forums. Glad I don't see you (or anyone else for a while now) accusing anyone being critical of simply "posting riff-raff" and being "a sock puppet account".

Edited January 31, 2017 by Talon_strikes

[PlasmaJohn]

They did RNG for one reason... and one reason only. With the gear behind a subwall, they needed to drag out what subs were left as long as possible.

I agree with that speculation. If true then they have a fundamental misunderstanding of what motivates people to acquire gear. Instead of the predicted Second Coming of returning and new subscriptions they've touched off Ragnarok by implementing a widely despised grind gated by a paywall.

 

Why are we getting one boss instead of a whole OP?

Either they finally got the "it's the content stupid!" hint ... or Ops finally came up on their "let's make everybody but X mad" development strategy.

 

Actually this smells like somebody did in fact revise the development schedule. I think KotET was intended to be yet another chapter a month boondoggle where the 9-15 filler chapters were the selection of returning companions. Since the plans got shifted to developing an Operation they have to deliver something between now and when it was completed.

 

While it's not ideal I accept the schedule for what it is. BWA is significantly underfunded. In part because of the design team that can't hit a barn with a bazooka. In part because somebody is overfocused on number of subs as the measure of their performance.

 

Because of how this will be release I expect that this Op will be uncommonly well tested and well tuned. But that will only happen if and only if BWA makes a real effort to heal their very poor relationship with the community. They need to not only listen they need to understand. They need to make promises and more importantly keep them.

[Wayshuba]

While I can't speak for everyone I do know that bringing the pre-4.0 end game system back in preparation for a cadence of Ops releases would reconstitute our Harbinger guilds. That's 90+ legacy accounts with 100% cooperation. Realistically, at least half that would return. The only people I see who would be in an uproar are solo players who don't want to see new group content for fear of actually having to group up to play it. But I believe BW is curing that by having both a solo ops track and a group ops track. So even that won't be an issue any longer.

 

Here is the problem you have. Any serious guild player (meaning they have been with a guild through multiple MMOs, not necessarily just hardcore raiders) move on to another MMO (because that is what they like to do). Some originally with the intention they will come back if and when BW gets their **** together, but then they run into a problem. The MMO the move too puts out new content on a regular basis. Puts out new raids every three to four months. Releases expansions that take MONTHS to play thorough the content and then they look back at SWTOR and say to themselves, did I really settle for so little.

 

The problem is, BW needs YEARS to put out enough new content for a returning player to have anything new to do. Think about this from the viewpoint of someone who left say in Feb. 2015. He/She comes back today, wants to check out the new raids and discovers not a single new raid has been added to the game since they left in Feb. 2015. What do you think their viewpoint would be? Most likely that the game is in maintenance mode.

 

BW has enough issues with them being woefully short on content delivery versus every other AAA MMO on the market when it comes to content production. In this, they are dead last. So, when they should be focusing 100% of their resources on content production, they squander what little they have on things like a new pack opening experience (cause that was really needed) and the GC System (which is now sucking up a ton of their development time fixing something that wasn't broken).

 

This is not getting fixed. And anyone who thinks it is is simply deluding themselves. Sure, some are okay with the system, but most are not. The sheer volume of livestreams and threads from BW with the community are evidence enough this is hurting them (like they were told it would do).

 

Just like the first six months after launch, it has become apparent this title is in trouble. This next six months in SWTOR will be an interesting time for many - but at least not for me.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Wayshuba

[Fygee]

The solution to me is simple.

 

If you're going to go RNG, make it fair. Give players a fair chance to get good equipment with it, and trade for items that they need or want. Stingy RNGs just piss people off and make them feel like their time, effort, and money were wasted. Nobody wants to feel screwed when playing a video game for leisure.

 

More crates are good, but it's still far less satisfying, and still less viable than just having higher odds of getting something worthwhile in the crates you're already getting.

 

Would you rather find a hundred dollar bill in a stack of singles, or would you rather dig for one in a giant pile of pennies?

 

Ditto for the Cartel Market packs, where you have a higher chance of winning on a jackpot on a real gambling machine than getting a platinum item in these packs.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Fygee

[aethell]

There is absolutely no excuse for not having the system replaced well before now. No excuse whatsoever. With any luck EA will take note and make appropriate staffing changes very soon.

 

Speaking of, where did your Fire Ben signature go? Did they make you take it out or was it your choice? (Am I mis-remembering that you had one? Maybe I am confusing you with someone else?)

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Hell no. We dropped 10 bosses and 8 of them gave nothing of value and no whole gear tokens at all. 8 boss in 10 and they were a huge waste of time.

 

Thats not fun. It's not entertaining and it sure isn't exciting. The content is too old for that but at least if they dropped gear the reward would be worth the time spent doing that old content.

 

At this point we do not have that except for the last boss and well that disproportionate percentage just isn't good.

 

Sooo you are saying you only find the content fun if it's giving you gear? You do realise the content will still be "too old" if it had better gear drops right?

 

Don't get me wrong, I think each boss should have gear drops as they did before but I just don't understand some of the arguments being put up and get worried BWA read them and just ignore them because they aren't actually making a good case for gear drops.

[gabigool]

This is not getting fixed. And anyone who thinks it is is simply deluding themselves. Sure, some are okay with the system, but most are not. The sheer volume of livestreams and threads from BW with the community are evidence enough this is hurting them (like they were told it would do).

 

Just like the first six months after launch, it has become apparent this title is in trouble. This next six months in SWTOR will be an interesting time for many - but at least not for me.

 

That said, IMO it certainly could be fixed. There's nothing stopping this title from regaining some credibility if the next six months bring some rationality back.

 

First - The announcement of new Operations-ish content is a positive. However without an early commitment from studio leadership that there is more coming shortly after these 5 bosses - they're ****ed.

 

Second - they need to announce something for the PvP'ers. More maps + the ability to opt in/out of arenas.

 

The problem this studio has is that it doesn't understand the importance of maintaining its communities. This requires content at a reasonable cadence, of high quality, and with proper support.

 

The manner in which PvP has been neglected in this game is mind blowing. With a bit more content, a little more respect given to ranked rewards, far more effort to stamp down on cheating, and a serious interest in actual class balance this game could have a huge PvP population.

 

Likewise, with a more modern structure around raiding, realistic-cadence content drops, 4 difficulty modes and timely bug fixing the Ops community could be huge in this game as well.

 

This studio insists on doing everything but the correct course of action. If I didn't love the game so much, it'd be comical. They do 95% of something, and let the last 5% wreck the whole thing. And then when people don't love it, they look at metrics and assume it's because the 2 million subscribers they had at launch must have really always wanted instanced solo cartoon content all along.

 

At the end of the day - creating Ops content because subs are stampeding to the exit should not be their plan. And I'm certain that it is. The correct course of action would be to create Ops content because they are starting to do things properly, and this is simply step one on that path.

 

Obviously none of this matters if the gear system doesn't radically change. The gear system can kill the game on it's own.

 

The game is certainly fixable. I promise you, if you had someone that truly wanted this game to be amazing again in charge it could be. Instead, we get improved pack opening experience and a 17-step CXP gain modification program to drive RNG based loot for completing recycled recycled recycled content.

 

It could be fixed though.

[JonConstantine]

how about changing the fact that you can get the same set piece more than one time? i got the same boots for my sin tank 3 times...

[jimmorrisson]

Do people really want to go back to 4.0 and replay old operations (some 5 years old) to gear up?

...

Do people think that all the people that have quit would return to replay old operations. You can play them now and get unassembled components, so its only really a speed thing and if its fun whats the rush cause 5 year old ops are fun right.

 

Yes go back to 4.0 vendor system for PvE and PvP. Keep gameplay interrupting DVL banners, CXP and Command Crates for the few who like it.

[Tarbuch]

Hey folks,

 

In one of my previous posts I highlighted that beyond the changes we made in Game Update 5.1 that there are more coming. 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 will be starting in the next few weeks and will go through to Game Update 5.2. They 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.
  

That isn't a comprehensive list, but it gives you an idea of some of the things we are looking to address based on your feedback. Just in case I was quiet about Galactic Command for a few days I want you to know that we are listening and more changes are coming. Look for my post later this week!

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

It does not matter how fast we can get the crates whether it is 1 per hour, 2 per hour or 10 per hour, it does not remove the RNG element from the gears received. The amount of disintgrated items is vast compared to useless items gotten from the crates. Empty shells from the crates is also useless garbage, if i need legacy bound i can hand is alliance crates.

The Java junk is not usefull in 5.0 since the rank 10 crafting materials are not available from the Java vendors.

[AscendingSky]

Speaking of, where did your Fire Ben signature go? Did they make you take it out or was it your choice? (Am I mis-remembering that you had one? Maybe I am confusing you with someone else?)

 

You're not misremembering. EAWare took it out. They took it out of mine too, without warning, just a note after the fact that I needed to 'respect the developers'.

 

Yeah... that kind of censorship doesn't make me respect anyone, by the way.

Edited January 31, 2017 by AscendingSky

[Darkesong]

Hi Eric,

 

I'm not some fancy game developer but these changes would seem to encourage players to not play the game until they're implemented. For example, if someone said to me there was an expected price drop in something I'm looking to buy in a month then I'd probably just not buy it for a month.

 

Now I've never developed an mmo so excuse me if I'm oversimplifying things here but why on earth would a player not just unsub and then resub when you finally get around to fixing this clearly broken from implementation system?

 

I've never managed a shoe shop so maybe I'm missing the instant "keep paying money for the game" part of this post but all I read is:

 

1: Stop playing the game for now, do something else! We'll reward your time far better soon

2: Please stop PvPing! If you do it in a month you'll get much greater rewards - And for the love of God don't buy anything for the next 6 weeks

3: You know those alts we massively encouraged to level for 12x XP and DvL? Well leave them on the shelf for a while longer and perhaps we'll help them.

 

Any chance you could possibly address these pretty gosh darn valid concerns?

 

Holy crap, this. I thought exactly the same thing when I read the post. Why should we break our backs, and pay you well for it now, when it will be better in a couple of months? Really not seeing the motivation to remain subbed, if that is the case. Might as well just work on leveling alts until things improve.

 

ALSO: several folks have brought it up, but the thought of painfully grinding out a piece and then immediately getting it (after 30-40-or more) boxes with no tier is so traumatic I can't even bring myself to spend the unassembled components I've managed to store up through equally painful pvp I had no real desire to engage in other than to hang out with guildies. Can't you add some method of getting the components from PVE sources? And PLEASE come up with a method to trade tier in or mitigate the possibility of duplicates somehow. The soul crushing RNG is bad enough as it is, don't add insult to injury. :c

Edited January 31, 2017 by Darkesong

[RswanBing]

You're not misremembering. EAWare took it out. They took it out of mine too, without warning, just a note after the fact that I needed to 'respect the developers'.

 

Yeah... that kind of censorship doesn't make me respect anyone, by the way.

 

Really ? In what way saying someone must be fired (and not without arguments, they're everywhere in these forums) is a lack of respect ? This isn't a critic about the individuals, but about their work, and they perfectly know that.

 

And they are giving lessons about respect ? What about the many times dev's have taken players for fools ?

 

I agree with you, this kind of behaviour really doesn't make me respect them more, quite the opposite.

[AscendingSky]

I guess that's a solution for new and relatively new players.

 

Musco seems to forget that they run DvL event just before 5.0, so a huge part of the community already have A LOT of alts and the legendary status...

 

EAWare seems to have a recurring case of amnesia, honestly. They forgot how RNG loot boxes were near universally loathed in 1.0 for PvP, and how they had to get rid of them. And then they forgot how in 3.3 they made it easier to gear your alts for PvP and PvE and everyone rejoiced. They encouraged us during 4.0 to make a ton of alts for DvL, and then in 5.0 they forgot they did this too and then promptly gave us a pathetic excuse of an RNG gearing system that outright punishes you for spending time on your alts instead of your main.

 

It's terrible, just terrible. And it all started happening after Ben Irving took over as lead producer. Just saying...

Edited January 31, 2017 by AscendingSky

[AscendingSky]

Really ? In what way saying someone must be fired (and not without arguments, they're everywhere in these forums) is a lack of respect ? This isn't a critic about the individuals, but about their work, and they perfectly know that.

 

And they are giving lessons about respect ? What about the many times dev's have taken players for fools ?

 

I agree with you, this kind of behaviour really doesn't make me respect them more, quite the opposite.

 

I guess they're just thin-skinned and would rather cover up criticism than address it. I heard they were banning people from the last livestream if they said anything about devs needing to be replaced/fired, and now I completely believe it.

Edited January 31, 2017 by AscendingSky

[ScottishDrunk]

• 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.
  

 

1. You could try scrapping the GC system and putting it back the way it was

2. You could try scrapping the GC system and putting it back the way it was

3. You could try scrapping the GC system and putting it back the way it was

 

There's all your points resolved.

Edited January 31, 2017 by ScottishDrunk

[RswanBing]

I guess they're just thin-skinned and would rather cover up criticism than address it. I heard they were banning people from the last livestream if they said anything about devs needing to be replaced/fired, and now I completely believe it.

 

In case some people haven't read it, this is Ben Irving about Galactic Command:

 

"We took a risk here; we took a shot. I think we got most of it right, but there are things that we didn't get right. And that was providing goals for those who are doing the hardest content and providing specific gear-chase items. So two weeks after we launch, we reviewed that data and had a heart-to-heart discussion with ourselves to say this is what we've got to do. It's the right thing to do for the game."

 

They reviewed DATA and had a heart to heart discussion with THEMSELVES to decide this system must stay. That says all about respect for players, he doesn't even mention them.

 

Maybe this behaviour is what makes people wanting He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named fired. If at least he was able to recognize when things are going wrong, he wouldn't have this problem imo. And people will continue to think, no matter what they censor or not.

 

At some point he should maybe wonder why people say that, that would be way more productive than covering what he doesn't want to see.

Edited February 1, 2017 by RswanBing

[MaximumOwnage]

I have long thought that "expertise" should have been an instanced PvE stat, not a PvP stat, so this is similar to something I have long thought should be done...whether it's called Bolster or Expertise, I really don't care.

 

I'd be fully in favor of something like this, but...that 6-piece bonus would need to be something new PvPers could easily obtain. To do that, every GC/CXP crate from 1-90 should drop a set piece with bonus. Make getting the basic gear easy for everyone.

 

Other than easy to get starter gear and set bonuses, I love the proposal. Gear shouldn't be the factor in PvP.

 

Absolutely agree. Bonus sets (entry level) must be easy to obtain. That is the piece of the puzzle missing right now. Especially for new players who hit top level and are kicked in the face with this gear grind to get a set bonus armor set.

[Death-Hammer]

Hey folks,

 

 

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).

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

Can we assume this means you are raising the weekly Command boost xp level cap as well?

[DanNV]

In case some people haven't read it, this is Ben Irving about Galactic Command:

 

"We took a risk here; we took a shot. I think we got most of it right, but there are things that we didn't get right. And that was providing goals for those who are doing the hardest content and providing specific gear-chase items. So two weeks after we launch, we reviewed that data and had a heart-to-heart discussion with ourselves to say this is what we've got to do. It's the right thing to do for the game."

 

They reviewed DATA and had a heart to heart discussion with THEMSELVES to decide this system must stay. That says all about respect for players, he doesn't even mention them.

 

Maybe this behaviour is what makes people wanting He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named fired. If at least he was able to recognize when things are going wrong, he wouldn't have this problem imo. And people will continue to think, no matter what they censor or not.

 

At some point he should maybe wonder why people say that, that would be way more productive than covering what he doesn't want to see.

 

The hubris in his statements is absolutely amazing. But what he thought "was right for the game" has just about sunk it. With luck EA will take notice and make the necessary staffing changes. If they do it quick, they might even keep the game from totally sinking. (That's questionable since it will take an investment in real cash to do everything that needs to be done to bring it to a competitive place.)

[DanNV]

Absolutely agree. Bonus sets (entry level) must be easy to obtain. That is the piece of the puzzle missing right now. Especially for new players who hit top level and are kicked in the face with this gear grind to get a set bonus armor set.

 

My answer for PVP has been to set a level of stats and everyone gets bolstered or reduced to that set with whatever stat mix they prefer based on the gear they are wearing. Then it's a matter of skill and how you prefer to stat your character for your play style. It's no longer a gear based system.