Gearing Changes in 5.1.1 and 5.1.2

[Alec_Fortescue]

It's all about cxp but what of class balance? :{

[DHTarez]

So true...but Lost Isle was a nightmare back then.....curse you EL for making me run it a million times....curse you and of course thank you for it because it was such a blast and such a challenge back then.

 

Didn't say it was easy

But it was a example of a way to get top tier set bonus gear piece that was not an operation or a nightmare boss. And I ran it so many times I lost count. A challenge I still look back on and remember fondly as it was so awesome when you completed it. But then again back then running hard mode flashpoints were pretty much required to gear up for story mode operations unlike more recent times when flashpoints became nothing in the progression and could be ignored.

 

Anyway gaining crates of things to destroy for more CXP faster does not solve the gearing problem of RNG, just means more trash and/or duplicates to wade through hoping for a usable piece of gear. Leaving us frustrated and annoyed and feeling like we are wasting our time.

 

• The crates should be dropping unassemebled tokens to handle duplicates and gearing alts
  
• Everything* should be dropping unassemebled components so everyone can work towards a specific piece of gear to fill in the gaps or poor RNG punishment and not have to do things in game they don't want too like PVP or operations.
  
• And unassemebled components should be legacy bound
  
• and a true LEGACY perk should exist for increase all characters in the legacy CXP gain not some overly priced character perk. I and many others have too many characters to make this characters perk usable or affordable. Someone needs to understand what Legacy perk is compared to character perks. Very Very different things. BW said we were getting a legacy perk but what we got was a character perk. Not the same thing.
  

And these changes should have been made weeks ago.

 

*when I say "everything" I mean it. If a mission is completed it should award unassemebled components. That way no one is forced to play something they have no desire to do just to help get the gear they need.

[jimmorrisson]

4.0 the weekly hm dropped top end gear.

4.0 is a poor example to use.

 

They jumped the shark in 4.0 with their free fall approach to gaining high end gear. Which does not justify the state of GC/Cxp right now.... just that it was just a bad a move as GC in 5.0 has been, though in the opposite extreme.

 

Bring back 4.0 gearing and just call the update 6.0.

Bonus points will be awared if the 3.0/4.0 gear is actually from 3.0/4.0 (Dark Reaver/Deceiver/Exemplar)

[HelinCarnate]

it depends.

 

the 100% is references as the static, default amt.

 

so.. if you did something. and it paid out 1000 cxp. that's the 100% If your cxp boost equation was. 100% + 250% event bonus. then you'd be at 2500 or 250% of normal. now... if you had 100%-base + 250% event + 100% boost thinige. then you'd be at net gain of 350% of "bonus" so... 3500 total cxp.

 

or in a more game centric sense/example every time you do a warzone, you're likely to ding a lvl. (as 1k cxp from a warzone... isn't that uncommon) if it's base +event+ boost+ whatever extra (dvl bonus etc) OR probably similarly. every fractured run will be at cmd rank. ...or at least that's what i'm curious to see if is possible, as that will be *******. dinging a cmd rank every 8 minutes or so.

 

etc

 

Yea I guess it really depends on what they mean by 250%. If they mean exactly what was stated "During this event all CXP earned will be increased by 250%." That would mean 1000 with no other bonuses would change to 3500. Since an increase of 100% would mean that 1000 would be 2000, an increase of 200% would be 3000 and so on. But if they mean that CXP is now 2.5x higher than before then 1000 would be 2500. So lets hope they mean exactly what they say.

Edited February 3, 2017 by HelinCarnate

[FireFoxed]

How far back do you want to go?

In 1.2, hard mode Lost Island final boss dropped the Rakata chest piece (set bonus top tier). So there is a place a non-operation non-nightmare boss dropped top tier gear.

 

In the same patch Rakata gear was made obsolete by the release of Explosive Conflict.Try again.

[Death-Hammer]

I think these changes are a positive first step in the right direction. I also think the unassembled tokens received from pvp should be greatly increased. But, I like these changes.

[jozinkopucik]

Thank you, at least its speeing up.

[Deewe]

In this set of changes, not yet. We are still looking into Crate contents to see where changes should be made. It would be a much more substantial change from our side to update the contents and so although we are definitely open to doing so, we wanted to take these steps first.

 

-eric

Eric,

 

why can't you just go back to the 3 tiers of tokens once for all?

 

Also the new systems added much more complexity and junk into our inventory. You guys totally failed the goal of simplifying it for new players and more casuals. It's just a mess now.

 

On another note, I personally enrage each time I loot a crafting recipe. The crafted gear is not worth wasting time and inventory room on it either. I want to opt out of it once for all or be able to send it to people who care.

 

Regarding PvP I noticed you guys aren't even trying to patch the hole you shoot in the knee: no fixing of the bolster.

PvP should never be about gear at all but tactics and situational. Ever wondered why in every FPS/RTS the players have the same choice of gear and stats? This is especially true with the eSports that are milking millions $$$.

 

All CXP Packs that you earn from drops and Missions are now Bind on Legacy.

That is barely a plaster on a haemorrhage.

 

Like many others I parked all my alts since 5.0 and it won't mitigate the issue that much. I'm getting burnt on playing the same character again and again through the same content.

 

Same character + same content + grind = cut sub.

Edited February 3, 2017 by Deewe

[RandyL]

Thanks for the information on the changes, Eric. And I'm glad to see these changes to CXP rates implemented in just a few days. With that said, I hope you continue to listen to the feedback you are getting on RNG. It doesn't bother me so much personally because I don't rely on PVP or Ops as a primary activity, but for those that do, they are losing their minds trying to gear.

 

I hope you can find a way to appease these players. Maybe by putting a gear token in the weekly rewards for PVP and operations? That way a player is guaranteed a piece of gear they can use for these activities.

 

>The PvP Daily and Weekly Missions now reward a batch of Unassembled Components.

 

Hopefully you extend this change to GSF as well. Would be nice to get those crafting boxes PVP players get as well. No, you don't need traditional gear for GSF, but we do need to it to do other content and it would be nice to be able to earn it while playing GSF (which needs all the incentives it can get to motivate players).

[Zipacnaa]

I appreciate you listening to concerns. I welcome these changes, and will keep playing the game. I must admit this new form of communicating with your subsribers and players is positive!

 

Let's hope for many more years to come

[Ottoattack]

The 5.1.1 changes are 100% useless.

 

The 5.1.2 changes are not defined. Ya, I get "CXP" and "UC" increase, but how much is it?

 

You (devs) guys are done. This is the third time you change the system without changing anything, so I can conclude: you guys are ignorant, arrogant or both.

[GalacticKegger]

Our guild's closed PTS application was denied because out of our 93-player accounts there were not enough active subscribers to qualify. Galactic Command is the reason why. So merely adding CXP buffs with token and comm stop gaps to soften the RNG blow won't be nearly enough for us.

 

The new op plan looks fine and we wanted to get excited again. But retaining the GC lottery system killed that buzz in a hurry. If they go back to something that resembles pre-KotFE and permanently remove RNG from group end game, then we have already decided to take a look at it. Until then they may as well just cut to the chase and put Command Crates on sale in the Cartel Market.

Edited February 3, 2017 by GalacticKegger

[Deewe]

The 5.1.1 changes are 100% useless.

 

The 5.1.2 changes are not defined. Ya, I get "CXP" and "UC" increase, but how much is it?

 

You (devs) guys are done. This is the third time you change the system without changing anything, so I can conclude: you guys are ignorant, arrogant or both.

Most certainly they don't have a big enough team to fix the game appropriately,

[Radzkie]

In this set of changes, not yet. We are still looking into Crate contents to see where changes should be made. It would be a much more substantial change from our side to update the contents and so although we are definitely open to doing so, we wanted to take these steps first.

 

-eric

That's cool that you guys are so open to it. I'm looking forward to all the changes.

 

Thanks for being so active on the forums btw.

[Sargrith]

In the same patch Rakata gear was made obsolete by the release of Explosive Conflict.Try again.

 

No need. All the people stating 4.0 already answered your question.

[Spectre-Dragon]

Hey Bioware,

 

why don't you guys just skip the "Unassembled Gear Pieces/Components" so that only Command Tokens are needed maybe at least for the Tier 1 pieces? (best in my opinion would be for all Tier, but i don't want be greedy ^^)

I mean in that way players can collect their first, let us say access gear, at lvl 70 more specific and easily.

I think in that way, especially for the PVE/Story gamers is more useful than any CXP-Boost or whatever you are planning in this way. But i can't see that your coming patches would solve any problems on long time.

Edited February 3, 2017 by Spectre-Dragon

[eriksarcasm]

K. Thanks I guess.

[DZechman]

I'm glad to see that the issue of CXP acquisition rates is being addressed, and I always appreciate when the announcement includes commentary on the why along with the what and the when. Thank you, sincerely.

 

But...

 

...this is still putting the cart before the horse. The randomness is the real problem. Getting random rewards means we have no choice in what we get in return for paying our subscription and playing the game.

 

The ultimate irony is that this is from the studio who insists:

 

CHOICES MATTER

 

Give us more choices, not fewer choices. It's that simple.

[GrandLordMenace]

Hey folks,

 

As I mentioned earlier this week, we have quite a few changes planned for gearing over the next few Updates. Let’s go over what they are, when they are happening, and why!

 

Game Update 5.1.1 – Coming February 7th

• All Command Experience Points (CXP) gains, CXP Boosts, and CXP Legacy Perks are now additive instead of multiplicative.
  
  • This change is being made to setup for the greatly increased CXP gains that are possible in 5.1.1 (if you love math click the spoiler tag below for what this means in greater detail)

  [*]New CXP leveling event. This event will run until Game Update 5.2 in April. During this event all CXP earned will be increased by 250%.

  • The goal is that you will earn one crate every 30 minutes or less. The 30 minute time-frame is for a Tier 3 crate (meaning 1 and 2 will be even faster).

  [*]All CXP Packs that you earn from drops and Missions are now Bind on Legacy.

  • This change is to help a player distribute CXP around their Legacy if they choose to do so.

  [*]We are introducing a new 100% CXP boost in addition to the existing 15% and 25% boosts. This boost can be purchased from the Command Token vendor or the Cartel Market. This boost only works up to Command Rank 180 and lasts 2 hours (Command Tokens) or 3 hours (Cartel Market).

  • The goal of selling this boost for Command Tokens is that it allows higher Command Rank players to use their Tokens to greatly accelerate leveling their alts (you can also buy them on the CM or GTN).

 

Game Update 5.1.2 – Coming February 28th

• We will be rebalancing the CXP rewards you earn from Operations. Boss kills will now award more CXP than they did previously. The Operations Weekly has had its CXP reward greatly increased.
  
  • Operations CXP rewards are below where we would like them to be and so we are increasing their CXP value from both gameplay and Missions.

  [*]Group Finder Daily CXP Rewards are being added. Completing the Daily Group Finder Bonus will award you with a bonus CXP Pack.

  • We wanted to ensure there were great CXP incentives to participating in Group Finder. By making it a CXP Pack it has the added bonus of being Bind on Legacy so you can use it on whatever character you would like.

  [*]The completion Mission for Flashpoints have had their CXP values greatly increased.

  • Flashpoint CXP rewards are also below where we would like them be to and so we have added a much larger CXP bonus for completing their respective Missions.

  [*]The Flashpoint and Uprising Weekly Missions have had their CXP rewards increased.

  • Our goal is to really encourage players to play multiple types of content for the best rewards. We want to encourage playing a diverse set of content, not a singular activity (although you can always still do that if you prefer)

  [*]The PvP Daily and Weekly Missions now reward a batch of Unassembled Components.

  • This is one of the changes we are making to help players in getting Unassembled Components faster. It also incentivizes dabbling into PvP often.

  [*]We have increased the Unassembled Components that are awarded to players after completing Ranked and Unranked Warzones.

  • Not only did we want to reward playing Warzones through Missions, but we also wanted to ensure that those of you who play primarily Warzones each day could work towards purchasing gear quicker.

 

In the future

• Unassembled Components and Legacy. We understand your Legacy is important to you and we agree with that, we are looking at ways to address that in the future.

 

These are all of the changes you can expect in 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 for Galactic Command. As you can see there is a lot happening and we want to hear what you think. As we go through these updates we will continue to monitor feedback and data to see what other adjustments may need to be made!

 

-eric

 

 

 

Let’s take a look at what the change from multiplicative to additive means. Warning, if you don’t like math, you’re not going to enjoy this 

 

The way CXP and its respective boosts work right now is that the % increases multiply with each other, hence the term multiplicative. Assuming that normal CXP gains =100%, this is what multiplicative boosting looks like:

 

CXP + legacy boost + CXP boost

100% * 10% * 25% = 137.5% CXP earned

 

Here is a more extreme example to see where this gets complex:

CXP + legacy boost + CXP boost + highlighted activity + DvL Bonus

100% * 10% * 25% * 20% * 15% = 189.75% CXP earned

 

As you can see, the more boosts you add into the equation the more difficult it becomes to tell how much of a bonus you are actually getting. Since we are going to be running a 250% CXP event and adding a 100% boost. We thought this would be a good time to make that math cleaner for players to figure out and so that our % boost wouldn’t get difficult to manage. Now, the same math from above would look like this:

 

CXP + legacy boost + CXP boost

100% + 10% + 25% = 135% CXP earned

 

CXP + legacy boost + CXP boost + highlighted activity + DvL Bonus

100% + 10% + 25% + 20% + 15% = 170% CXP earned

 

One thing you will notice is that the % you earn with additive is lower than that of multiplicative. That is one of the reasons that we are making this change under the new event, so that you aren’t actually losing any CXP earned. We also will factor this into future changes to ensure that the additive change isn’t a nerf to the CXP you earn. Especially since our goal is to ensure you are earning it faster, not slower.

 

Do not introduce another boost exclusive to the CM. Make the 100% boost from command tokens usable at any level, just shorter. It's a mark of BWA's greed to have the CM actively be required for optimal gearing. This is pay to win and inexcusable.

[Malachi_Bane]

Eric, one more change you HAVE to make by 5.1.2. Not this week perpaps, but by the end of by the end of the month, or I am done.

 

The green stuff in the command crates needs to go. Completely. Blue un-optimized pieces without set bonuses can stay. In the end, Command Crates should only drop gear that is a possible upgrade. Greens get trashed 100% of the time and are used by nbody.

 

See, getting 90 crates of Rank 1, say, three times faster is a welcome and necessary change. However, because each Rank of crates contains 3(possible rarity)*14(slots) = 42 possible non-vanity gear drops, the chances of getting 14 purples/golds out of 90 crates are still very, very bad.

 

Heck, you can automatically grand each character all 90 Tier 1 Command Boxes RIGHT NOW and after opening them all maybe 3-5% will have a complete set bonus, with most other people getting 3 Helmets, 4 Chest Pieces, 7 Implants and so forth. HOW IS THIS ACCEPTABLE?

 

Proceed with the changed outlined for 5.1.2 - they sound pretty reasonale. But also, get rid of all green stuff from command crates. 90 crates worth of CXP gains should net you 2-3 duplicate copies of the complete set, not two-thirds of it. Do it, and the system can work. But hurry up, because there are already multiple people who got their characters into tier 3. Increasing CXP gains by 250% will increase their numbers vastly. How many of them will reach Rank 300, only to end up with maybe 8 out of BiS pieces and no set bonus because of so much green trash they kept getting from the boxes and get pissed enough with this system to finally leave for good?

[Joonbeams]

In this set of changes, not yet. We are still looking into Crate contents to see where changes should be made. It would be a much more substantial change from our side to update the contents and so although we are definitely open to doing so, we wanted to take these steps first.

 

-eric

 

This is pretty disappointing. In particular the fact that this issue wasn't even addressed in the original post - still seems like an afterthought if that. Not even mentioned in the "in the future" section. And even here, the only commitment is to "look" into the issue further. You still have not actually committed, even in principle (and even without detail), to radically improving the quality of crate contents. I'm at a loss as to how this isn't the PRIMARY issue you're addressing at this point...

[DarthScruffy]

Eventually, you guys are going to have to look at items you really don't want to touch in the GC system. There's a pretty good case for adjusting the CXP thresholds downward if your target is 1 box/hour with more demanding content giving more. Something on the order of 2xxx for T1, 3xxx for T2 and 4xxx for T3 seems about right. T1 is what gives basic access to ops. However, you've made it clear this is a nonstarter.

 

Upping disintegration numbers would be another way of speeding up the gearing process (which is what you are looking to do right now). Again, this seems to be a nonstarter from streams.

 

Giving an ability to bypass up to 5% of the overall 300 grind would help with transition between tiers, if that's an issue. I tend to not be a fan of this, but as long as it is just a "move to level" and not "move to level with payout", it seems that the low payout rate makes this acceptable.

 

Finally, the actual probabilities of getting gear could be upped.

 

All of these things would help a system that is generally too stingy, too slow and with transitions between tiers that are too long (though the last is less important than the others).

[Sargrith]

This should have been better done. The largest cry I saw for was a reduction in the pain that is RNG. Most wanted that way before any change to the speed of cxp gain. I really thought it was a clear message. It was both sides even those who might have been seen as white knights seemed to agree that reduction in RNG would really be the big help and increasing the speed of cxp without that was a bad idea......

 

I am shocked and unhappy they didn't understand that or accept that.

[Toraak]

Do not introduce another boost exclusive to the CM. Make the 100% boost from command tokens usable at any level, just shorter. It's a mark of BWA's greed to have the CM actively be required for optimal gearing. This is pay to win and inexcusable.

 

what do you mean exclusive to the CM? if you read the post, it was said the 100% can be gotten from Command Tokens, or from the CM. this is not a pay to win.

[Wayshuba]

In this set of changes, not yet. We are still looking into Crate contents to see where changes should be made. It would be a much more substantial change from our side to update the contents and so although we are definitely open to doing so, we wanted to take these steps first.

 

-eric

 

You guys really, really need to stop playing people for fools. On Monday, October 17, 2016 you gave a livestream (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/95573503) where you mentioned the contents of the crates were still being discussed and hadn't been determined yet. Six weeks later, early access for the expansion launched. It has now been nine weeks since the expansion launched and an estimated 10-12 weeks for the 5.2 patch. So six weeks to do it, but 21 weeks to adjust it. Not buying it in the slightest.

 

It always seems you can do something when it benefits BW, but when it comes to your customers it suddenly becomes difficult and time-consuming.

 

Plain and simple, stop being blatant lairs. The truth is, and you know it, that RNG is not exciting, it is frustrating. You also know that you have no intention of fixing the crates because it is all you have at this point to hold subs - even though subs are fleeing out the door. Do you guys even know how to read metrics? Your customers can see through the charade and BW, at this point, deserve to lose as many customers as can be with the abuse and resentment you treat them with.

Edited February 3, 2017 by Wayshuba