100 new Galactic Command levels and exciting new gear rewards, on the way!

[Storm-Cutter]

GC was more for the casual player to get the chance at gear and other items....

 

The doublethink is that casual ( few hours a week) players won't get CXP fast enough before the cap rises, but then unless you're a casual raider then you'll probably not need BiS gear. On the flipside, now that PvP gear and PvE gear are the same, even a casual player wants to be competitive in PVP - and so they should be.

 

The Bantha in the room is that there's precious little content to justify all the grind for BiS. No matter how many times Boiware recycle it, old content is old content. The more they divert resources into fixing, patching, tweaking, adjusting, buffing, nerfing and tinkering something that didn't need fixing, the longer it is going to be before anything substantial comes our way.

 

100 more levels of grind won't keep the wolves from the door or the vultures circling forever.

[Valceanu]

agreed that new content should be high on the priority list. Let's see what happens with Iokath and the new Op they are apparently working on... if we got at least that much during the course of every major patch (between 5.0 and 6.0 and so on) id be reasonably happy to grind in between. Edited February 27, 2017 by Valceanu

[AmadanNaBrona]

New gear? What is that? Has anyone seen an official word on what "new gear" is? Is BIS changing to 248? Does "new" mean the 242 stuff that never drops from T3 crates will finally start dropping? OR Does is mean there will just be different worthless crap from the previous worthless crap?

[Eli_Porter]

agreed that new content should be high on the priority list. Let's so what happens with Iokath and the new Op they are apparently working on... if we got at least that much during the course of every major patch (between 5.0 and 6.0 and so on) id be reasonably happy to grind in between.

 

We're also getting Master Uprisings in 5.2.

[Toraak]

I think you're confusing the grind to get gear with the grind at a CHANCE to get gear. Currently it is possible to grind all the way to rank 300 (soon 400) and still not end up with a properly geared toon, let alone any alts.

 

Your looking at the wrong grind then. Ignore the crates (they're bonus) Grind the unassembled components (you can't lose to the RNG gods gearing through the components). Anything you get through crates will just be a bonus for you, and the only thing your grinding doing this is the components, not the CXP. (you'll just inadvertently get CXP while grinding the components as a bonus.)

[Rheshalea]

This sucks.

 

I unsubbed after checking out 5.0 and finding the Galactic Command an alt-unfriendly grind, not because I feel any need to gear up any of my alts, but because it made me feel guilty if I played any other character than my main.

I resubbed when BWA boosted the CXP amounts, because I had cooled down, and I missed playing the game, and the quicker CXP gain means I don't feel as guilty anymore when I play an alt.

 

Still. My main is at GC level 44 or so. I play solo. I don't have anything to gear for, so now that I get the gambling crates at a reasonable pace, I'm actually fine with the system. YES, it could and should be better. It probably shouldn't BE at all. But I, personally, can accept it and enjoy the game as long as I make myself forget the gargantuan amounts of levels I still have ahead of me on all my characters.

 

It is, for me, psychological. As I said, I play solo and I don't need the best gear. But still, when there's a juicy carrot dangling in front of your face, you tend to go for it. For how long, though?

[Mharz]

Start Rant.

 

I rarely log into the forums because they're so little good and positive information here but in this case I really felt I needed to give it a go in the interest of the game I played since launch for 5 years.

 

First, let's start off with the biggest running joke in the community.

 

@Ben - RNG is not exciting. I'm sorry man. You don't understand good game mechanics and you don't understand MMO players. Working towards a goal, solo or in a group is fun. Working towards gearing a toon or a few toons if you have time is fun. In the words of a famous Spanish Swordsman, "I don't think that word means what you think it means."

 

The Command System is weak. It's one more grinding wheel to hop on with little to no substantial reward for players. By grinding away, you get a "chance" to get gear. I know of players personally that have pushed through to command level 300 and still barely have any 242 gear. Most people don't have it and most won't be getting it. Most people I've talked to about it (bias here on being a raider and talking to raiders) consider this system in general a horrible joke.

 

Gearing is WRONG. The most successful MMO of all time is WoW. The game has been around way longer than anyone ever expected and there are a lot of reasons. One reason is gearing. They don't make up horrible gearing systems that the community clearly hates and then after months of negative feedback add 100 new levels of pain and stupidity to the mix.

 

No new content that people enjoy. Uprisings aren't fun. Doing the same chapters over and over again in new and harder modes is not fun. Flashpoints were fun. Raids were fun. Stop wasting development staff time on things people don't enjoy and get back to the things people do enjoy. Flashpoints and raids that support great Bioware story arcs. I know people will claim Uprisings sorta do that but I disagree. Too short, no substance.

 

How to fix things:

 

1. Admit failure and move on. Apologize to the community for the horrible content and tell us you're going to listen and make things better. Then actually listen to player feedback. Pick a group of players to advise development and listen to them. Ask them what they think of ideas and new changes. Make the community feel like we matter. Give everyone in the game something to show them you're serious about making the wrongs right. Heck even a BS reskinned cartel market speeder would mean something.

 

2. Stop hiding things from the community. If you know you're working on a new operation, tell us. If you have metrics that suggest play style is one way, share them. If you think a class needs a nerf, share it. Open communication is key.

 

3. Revise the command system. My first impulse is just remove it. I think it's that bad and many other players agree. It serves little purpose and only adds frustration to a game that should be fun. If you can't bring yourself to do that, make a few tweaks.

 

3a. Keep the 350% CXP rate as it's been for the past few weeks. Make that the new normal.

3b. Increase Operations CXP boxes to 10X what they are now. Several of us have done the math and we find that it's more efficient to "cheese" through HM flashpoints, or HM chapters to get more CXP per hour. That shouldn't be. The operation should be the most rewarding as it takes the most coordination to make it happen. One good player can decide to run HM chapters and make them happen. It takes at least 8 average players to do an operation. Reward group play but don't penalize solo play.

3c. Make every command crate drop 10 command tokens minimum with a chance for more.

3d. Sell gear for command tokens at a reasonable level. This allows for some chance that you randomly receive a piece in a box early but also ensures that if you get to level 300 you will have enough command tokens to buy an entire set of gear. Maybe not the best gear tier but say 240 set pieces. This keeps the element of chance in opening boxes but rewards players with something even if they aren't "lucky" during the crate opening.

 

4. Gearing from raids MUST change. My personal opinion is to revert things to pre-5.0. This makes the most sense, this is how most successful games do it, and this is how SWTOR should do it. That said, if you think the rest of the world is wrong tweaking within the existing game could be done.

 

4a. Every boss drops a piece 100% of the time but it's random. Similar to pre-5.0 but with an element of chance.

4b. Every boss drops a number of command tokens which can be used to buy gear. See 3d above for details.

4c. Add in additional CXP bonuses for daily and weekly raids as desired.

 

5. PvP changes. Gearing through PvP is too slow. Math up kids and figure out how many matches it would take to get a full set of gear by only PvPing. Now figure how many hours that would be. The ROI for PvPing is horrible and the changes announced are almost insulting to the PvP community. Rates for wins should be 10X what they are now and rates for losses should be 5X what they are now. And nerf Mercs! (sorry had to be said).

 

6. Stop changing the names of things we all know. There are three raid modes. Story, Hard, and Nightmare. Change them back so we can all talk the same language. There are three modes for Chapters, Story, Hard, Nightmare. Make it so. You get Warzone comms from Warzones not unassembled components. Bosses drop set-piece tokens not whatever the hell someone renamed them. You want to make the game easier for casuals, then stop making up new words for the same old things. Words mean things.

 

I think this is a healthy start.

 

Please. No more command levels. No more wasted time on things that the player base doesn't enjoy.

 

Respectfully,

 

A subscriber since launch.

 

/Rant

Edited February 27, 2017 by Mharz
Forgot to include PvP changes

[Halinalle]

4a. Every boss drops a piece 100% of the time but it's random. Similar to pre-5.0 but with an element of chance.

 

EV/KP HM spam much?

 

Only way you could avoid that is that all bosses before last boss would drop 230s. Only last boss would have specific 236 drop.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Halinalle

[Mharz]

EV/KP HM spam much?

 

Only way you could avoid that is that all bosses before last boss would drop 230s. Only last boss would have specific 236 drop.

 

Good suggestion. I could support that change.

[Icykill_]

Well this should be interesting to see what the rewards are and so on but remember keep the posts to a good level and express concerns in a good way.

 

 

 

Are they F'ing stupid. Wow I just came back to day from a break. Time to leave again

[Eli_Porter]

so well get to craft up to 246 with max gear being 248? that seems fairly reasonable ... is that the same gap between craftable and "drops" as currently exists?

 

Pretty much the same gap, yes. Still can't craft set bonus armorings but that's what unassembled components and operations are for.

[Bobby_McDonald]

Finally 100 more levels. And finally the gear I bought with components becomes obsolete. When can we expect the next exciting upgrade? Edited February 27, 2017 by Bobby_McDonald

[Valceanu]

Pretty much the same gap, yes. Still can't craft set bonus armorings but that's what unassembled components and operations are for.

 

wasnt aware you could craft that close to the top right now... i really need to check out some numbers...cause that actually seems rather reasonable... if that is the case i dont get what the raging is about ... yeah there are adjustments to be made, kinks to be worked out but the system doesnt seem gamebraking in any way... not to me at least.

 

Finally 100 more levels. And finally the gear I bought with components becomes obsolete. When can we expect the next exciting upgrade?

 

well no it wont be obsolete... youll trade it in for better...

[Spoonwithyou]

the buff lasts until april 10th i think and you get a command level each game you play/win up until tier 2 were it takes about 2 games to win and tier 3 is also 2 games to rank up. i dont understand how its hard to get these command ranks i am at 260 and havent played very much also have 3 pieces of tier 3 the rest is tier 2 i have played i think 300-400 ranked games and its all from that pretty much. i have also done some ops and gotten a few pieces, what is all this complaining about the command ranks lmao and gear??? i just came back i think 4 weeks ago and i have achived all of this and have not played hardcore but on the weekends. so either everyone on this game is super lazy or they are just super lazy and want free gear, also this update is about 20-25 days away your telling me you cant get 300 command rank by then with the 250% boost??? come on guys this game isnt that hard to play and enjoy, you also should try being nice to your devs, they do listen btw.

[DisIzMe]

Translation - voice actors are still on strike, group content is not ready, they have to do SOMETHING to keep at least some subs. There is no content they can magically pull out of their pockets since game is surviving on bread crumbs budget. Its either grind of galactic proportions or nothing else to keep people paying.

There is nothing else they can do. So if you dont like it like me - leave this place of ineptitude or learn to deal with it. They will not cancel galactic command. Just like Obi Wan ,its their only hope of survival.

[Talon_strikes]

This is not exciting. The game itself is exciting, but not this system.

[JediAkemi]

My issues with the current system.

1 - Flashpoint bosses don't drop gear at level 70... even if it's just blue 220 (and purple 228 for bonus bosses and final bosses) an actual gear drop on top of the exotic crafting material and CXP token would feel more rewarding to me (and help offset the repair costs when people keep doing stupid things and getting us all killed over and over in Maelstrom Prison ).

 

2 - Unassembled Components only from PvP & GSF. Why? Why not add some to the reward for Ops and HMFPs? PVE group players need bad luck protection too... heck, I'd add 1d4+1 components to every crate and double (if not triple) the component reward from PvP & GSF... though quite why the best way to get the components is through GSF eludes me.

 

3. Every Ops Boss should drop Unassembled Gear. End of story.

 

4. The current CXP rates from the event should be the absolute minimum.

[Darevsool]

You guys are in some serious denial if you think MORE GC levels/CXP grinding are what the players want.

 

There are too many problems with the system that you're not addressing.

 

RNG factor from the crates.

Duplicate item factor from the crates (if this is lessened by not stripping out mods and putting them in other skins, PLEASE LET US KNOW THAT).

plus the many other issues presented all over the forums.

 

One I haven't seen so far is what happens on the "slow" servers like POT5.

 

Very few PVP pops so people aren't able to get the unassembled components very quickly.

End Game crafting mats are virtually non existent on the GTN so you can't craft any 234 or higher items unless you're in one of the few guilds that does ops. (see lack of PVP for the other way to get the mats...from the weekly pvp quest reward box)

 

Leave the current CXP rate as the new baseline. You're adding 100 levels and ending this bonus soon. You've really already done the "last thing" you should have done with this system (adding 100 levels) there's no need to make it even worse by slowing everything down again.

[Spoonwithyou]

You guys are in some serious denial if you think MORE GC levels/CXP grinding are what the players want.

 

There are too many problems with the system that you're not addressing.

 

RNG factor from the crates.

Duplicate item factor from the crates (if this is lessened by not stripping out mods and putting them in other skins, PLEASE LET US KNOW THAT).

plus the many other issues presented all over the forums.

 

One I haven't seen so far is what happens on the "slow" servers like POT5.

 

Very few PVP pops so people aren't able to get the unassembled components very quickly.

End Game crafting mats are virtually non existent on the GTN so you can't craft any 234 or higher items unless you're in one of the few guilds that does ops. (see lack of PVP for the other way to get the mats...from the weekly pvp quest reward box)

 

Leave the current CXP rate as the new baseline. You're adding 100 levels and ending this bonus soon. You've really already done the "last thing" you should have done with this system (adding 100 levels) there's no need to make it even worse by slowing everything down again.

 

its 90cc to transfer to a more populated pvp server TRE and Harb

Edited February 27, 2017 by Spoonwithyou

[Darevsool]

its 90cc to transfer to a more populater pvp server TRE and Harb

 

Not the point.

[Sargrith]

Your looking at the wrong grind then. Ignore the crates (they're bonus) Grind the unassembled components (you can't lose to the RNG gods gearing through the components). Anything you get through crates will just be a bonus for you, and the only thing your grinding doing this is the components, not the CXP. (you'll just inadvertently get CXP while grinding the components as a bonus.)

 

Your right of course, but that turns this "you will get gear doing anything" to you will only get good gear through PvP. That's not really fair to large groups that wont touch PvP with a 10 foot pole. And operations aren't a good replacement for PvP, you will get specific pieces but you would need to be doing NiM to actually get BiS anytime and even then not so much so.

 

So you can PvP and never be any good always losing but be guaranteed the gear you want. Or you can do ops have to have a good team never mind being solid yourself and you might eventually get the gear. I see an inbalance in a system that works like that.

 

This is a shame, its about time a certain someone was moved on and they changed leads to someone willing to move away from this mess of a system. I believe this game cannot get to where it should be with the current lead and possibly team, I just have no faith in them at this point and frankly I don't see why I should. Lets hope this is their last gasp and someone higher up steps in soon.

[Spoonwithyou]

Not the point.

 

sure it is transfer servers you will have more people to play with. unless your to old school and your stuck in your ways and have to be on a certain server which doesn't matter at all anymore, there are pve and pvp instances on every server now so its best to go were the population is.

[curulz]

the buff lasts until april 10th i think and you get a command level each game you play/win up until tier 2 were it takes about 2 games to win and tier 3 is also 2 games to rank up. i dont understand how its hard to get these command ranks i am at 260 and havent played very much also have 3 pieces of tier 3 the rest is tier 2 i have played i think 300-400 ranked games and its all from that pretty much. i have also done some ops and gotten a few pieces, what is all this complaining about the command ranks lmao and gear??? i just came back i think 4 weeks ago and i have achived all of this and have not played hardcore but on the weekends. so either everyone on this game is super lazy or they are just super lazy and want free gear, also this update is about 20-25 days away your telling me you cant get 300 command rank by then with the 250% boost??? come on guys this game isnt that hard to play and enjoy, you also should try being nice to your devs, they do listen btw.

 

Not everyone does PVP, nearly exclusively by the sound of it. Lets split the difference and say you did 350 ranked WZs in 4 weeks. at 15 mins a pop, that's 3 hours per day on average. So maybe not really hard core as you say, but that's still a healthy investment of time that not everyone can do. Because you're only seeing things from your point of view, so dismissing others as "lazy" is very myopic.

[Darevsool]

sure it is transfer servers you will have more people to play with. unless your to old school and your stuck in your ways and have to be on a certain server which doesn't matter at all anymore, there are pve and pvp instances on every server now so its best to go were the population is.

 

Many players, not even counting myself, have things on the slow/dead servers that can't transfer. Guild Ships being the first thing I'm thinking of.

 

Bioware needs to fix the problem of how this system works. Telling someone to simply transfer servers doesn't fix anything at the point it needs to be fixed, with the game design.

[Eli_Porter]

Your right of course, but that turns this "you will get gear doing anything" to you will only get good gear through PvP. That's not really fair to large groups that wont touch PvP with a 10 foot pole. And operations aren't a good replacement for PvP, you will get specific pieces but you would need to be doing NiM to actually get BiS anytime and even then not so much so.

 

Crates/GTN can get you consistent 240 gear which is sufficient NiM-level gear. BiS isn't as important for PvE as it is for PvP.

 

I agree operation drop rates could use a buff though.