Galactic Command - Tier 4 and More

[wainot-keel]

Wait.... only T4 will have better chances of getting gear ? Are they trying to make the gear gap even worse ?

wow... just wow....

So those who are capped in rank, will start T4 and will be getting "much more consistently" actual gear. This is brilliant, because any new/returnig player will face a slow *** grind from 1 to 300, dealing with disintigration items one pack after the other.

They are clearly working to make PvP a sucky experience as possible. Nice job

[Quraswren]

Boycotting GC will not solve anything.

The only metrics that matter for any business is paying customers. Any other metric is bulcrap made by people that can't deliver results...

 

So, boycott your subscription, cartel coin purchases, etc.

 

I think that is the ultimate goal given bws 5.0 development and changes up till now and given the bulk of player response.

The best way to get bw to make changes is to leave this game. Don't like it, don't play it. We have been told that numerous times and it more than likely is the only way to solve the problems with 5.0 to date.

 

Get as many as we can to not pay them any money.

 

Ending subscriptions, stop buying market place items or buying CC's. It's all goes back to money talks. The kicker is, it's already being done in small portions. We can almost beat on that given how quickly we got 3 live streams and how fast bw wanted to let gamers know they have plans to change things. Gamers are leaving swtor because of GC and RNG and just how bad that changed the game as well as bw inability to fix it's problems in a timely manner. (or there general lack of ability to do it - aka we can't make GC legacy wide)

 

In the end I think you are right, the only things that really speaks to bw is money at this point. A good game brings in gamers and money. Thats not swtor right now with GC and RNG.

[Sargrith]

Wait.... only T4 will have better chances of getting gear ? Are they trying to make the gear gap even worse ?

wow... just wow....

So those who are capped in rank, will start T4 and will be getting "much more consistently" actual gear. This is brilliant, because any new/returnig player will face a slow *** grind from 1 to 300, dealing with disintigration items one pack after the other.

They are clearly working to make PvP a sucky experience as possible. Nice job

 

One can hope they see the issue this will cause with PvP and remove gear as a part of PvP. By that I mean bolster to a level where no one will have better gear. PvP should be in my veiw as free from Gear making the difference as possible.

[midianlord]

I agree, its exactly how I feel about things right now.

 

 

It's how it's always been.

 

they have NEVER listened to anything the playerbase said, even before launch.

 

They always know better. Just ask them, I;m sure they'll tell you. At this rate, they'll keep telling you, even from the dole-queue.

[GalacticKegger]

Boycotting GC will not solve anything.

The only metrics that matter for any business is paying customers. Any other metric is bulcrap made by people that can't deliver results...

 

So, boycott your subscription, cartel coin purchases, etc.

Agreed. Digging the Galactic Command hole even deeper followed by 5.1.2's flipping us the bird was the last straw. I'll be back and financially contributing big time again after BWA gets fired from the program. Edited March 1, 2017 by GalacticKegger

[Andryah]

Boycotting GC will not solve anything.

The only metrics that matter for any business is paying customers. Any other metric is bulcrap made by people that can't deliver results...

 

So, boycott your subscription, cartel coin purchases, etc.

 

First let's clarify what is meant by "boycott GC": of course you are going to get some GC levels just playing the game at 70. But a lot of players are grinding the crap out of it for gear. "Boycott GC" means stop grinding it aggressively for level and gear.

Why does that have merit, you ask? Because there are a lot of analytics used by the studio to audit where players are playing, what they are playing, and what they are doing overall. IF.. IF.. a large section of the player base are grinding away on GC like they need it capped ASAP... what message to you think the studio sees when it audits player activity? ------> GC is popular and heavily played.

 

If their audits show that a vast majority of players are essentially ignoring GC as a grind focus... guess what.. they end up with a different outcome in their analysis. This result gives more support to players expressed concerns and issues with the current state of GC. Players, collectively, CAN drive metrics that CAN influence the studio's analysis and decisions moving forward.

 

None of which in any way undercuts your point about unsubbing as a form of financial protest. If you are at a place where the game is no longer fun and you do not want to play it or support it anymore... by all means unsubscribe... earlier rather then later in my view. Subscriptions and subscription revenue are also metrics.. but they tell a different story to some degree then an actual boycott of GC.

 

But for players that still like the game, are still having fun, and yet do not support the current state of GC.... playing in a manner so as to avoid deliberately leveling GC... WILL get noticed in the analytics if enough of these players take that approach.

Edited March 1, 2017 by Andryah

[Screaming_Ziva]

Hold tight! We know that you have a lot of questions about why we are doing a new Tier and more Command Ranks. We have forum posts coming this week with a detailed breakdown of all that is coming and changing in 5.2.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

Still waiting.

 

And, before anyone says "It's only Wednesday", that post should have already been written and posted after the Twitter post.

[GalacticKegger]

First let's clarify what is meant by "boycott GC": of course you are going to get some GC levels just playing the game at 70. But a lot of players are grinding the crap out of it for gear. "Boycott GC" means stop grinding it aggressively for level and gear.

Why does that have merit, you ask? Because there are a lot of analytics used by the studio to audit where players are playing, what they are playing, and what they are doing overall. IF.. IF.. a large section of the player base are grinding away on GC like they need it capped ASAP... what message to you think the studio sees when it audits player activity? ------> GC is popular and heavily played.

 

If their audits show that a vast majority of players are essentially ignoring GC as a grind focus... guess what.. they end up with a different outcome in their analysis. This result gives more support to players expressed concerns and issues with the current state of GC. Players, collectively, CAN drive metrics that CAN influence the studio's analysis and decisions moving forward.

 

None of which in any way undercuts your point about unsubbing as a form of financial protest. If you are at a place where the game is no longer fun and you do not want to play it or support it anymore... by all means unsubscribe... earlier rather then later in my view. Subscriptions and subscription revenue are also metrics.. but they tell a different story to some degree then an actual boycott of GC.

 

But for players that still like the game, are still having fun, and yet do not support the current state of GC.... playing in a manner so as to avoid deliberately leveling GC... WILL get noticed in the analytics if enough of these players take that approach.

"Boycott GC" does not mean stop grinding it aggressively for level and gear.

boy·cott

ˈboiˌkät / verb 1. withdraw from commercial or social relations with as a punishment or protest. synonyms: spurn, snub, shun, avoid, abstain from, wash one's hands of, turn one's back on, reject, veto.

 

Boycotting GC means avoiding it entirely, which (to my knowledge anyway) is not even possible when we play. There is no aspect of this game we can play through that tells Bioware we simply do not want the system in any form because it permeates everything. So anything we do in-game will show up as positive for GC in their eminently spinnable metrics. It's an election they have blatantly rigged in their marketing favor.

 

GC is popular and heavily played only because there is nothing else to play.

 

Now if there was a segment of the game's content a subscriber could play that was not tied into Galactic Command then I would say stay subbed and play that segment to send the real message. But since no such segment (other than possibly Space Combat?) exists for subscribers, the only way to truly boycott Galactic Command and send the real message is to boycott the game.

Edited March 1, 2017 by GalacticKegger

[KageRipster]

Are mats going to change in Tier 4 or with the update 5.2.1?

I don't want to get nailed like last time and have a huge inventory of expensive mats that go poof in value and use overnight.

[jedcjedcjedc]

Are mats going to change in Tier 4 or with the update 5.2.1?

I don't want to get nailed like last time and have a huge inventory of expensive mats that go poof in value and use overnight.

 

I also would like to know this. 20+ Void Matter, 30-40 Superior Resource Matrix, and just under 90 Refined Isotopes. I don't really have anything I need to be using them on, so I've just been saving them up.

[PlasmaJohn]

And, before anyone says "It's only Wednesday", that post should have already been written and posted after the Twitter post.

Let's assume for a brief time that they're sincerely trying to improve the game (I know it's a stretch but bear with me).

 

Twitter is great for soundbites. What should have happened was that the detailed post or posts were made first and the Twitter announce should have linked back to the detailed overview. But of course Communications are such a disaster that the Tweet went out like a turd from a flying buffalo with the player base getting nothing but dead air.

 

OTOH if we assume they're doing their utmost to kill this game then they've done a stellar job. A guildy sent around a screenshot to some of us with a severely depleted fleet population. On Harbinger.

 

It's time to vote with your wallets folks. Apparently the huge loss they experienced at launch wasn't enough of a message. They need another reminder how much you hate GC and what it's done to this game.

Edited March 1, 2017 by PlasmaJohn

[Costello]

We can hazard a guess at whats going on with Galactic Command:

 

Setting: Bioware Austin

Producer (P): Come my minions tell me how our subscription figures are up, how the fools buy more cosmetic junk from the Cartel Market and how my bonus this month will be larger than last months!

Community Rep (CR): Well erm... erm... sure its doing great

P: You don't sound sure try it again

CR: ITS DOING GREAT

P: Excellent, now how can we build on the success

CR: Well some people.... I only mention it cause... well some of the less appreciative toxic hateful players are saying ... and I know we don't listen to our players because they are stupid cash cows... but they seem unhappy with the random nature of the gear.

P: But why all the content can be done in blue 200 gear what do they care for more or better gear, we just put those crates in as a time sink!

CR: Well yes they are pretty stupid, but they want better gear for the boxes the worthless scum that they are.

P: Well them increase the drop rate, as long as they keep subbing.

CR: Well if we do that then there maybe uproar from our loyal subscribers that they were shafted.

P: AND? We hate the long term player. I want only new players, that has been our goal all along. I am sure there is a mythical bunch of new players out there that will come flocking to the game, thats who we have been focusing on all this time!

CR: Well yes but these mythical new players don't seem to want to play the game, seems the ungrateful worthless scum that they are they want to play MMO's with decent graphics, combat and end game content with balanced PvP.

P: Stupid Community Rep what do you know anyway. But how about if we introduce 100 new crates and have a better drop rate in them, no one can complain because no one has got one yet so no one can feel cheated.

CR: Thats an Excellent Idea, its already a massive time sink for gear that no one needs that thanks to rng they probably wont get another 100 to 200 hours of grinding will really make them happy!

P: Yes now leave me while I swim in my money Scrooge McDuck style. *queue evil laugh*

 

While I have tried to make this fairly satirical I don't think it takes a genius to work out that the new content in the game is going to be 100 more levels of GC and the next tier of gear. At least in the old days a new tier of gear was accompanied by new content and a 5 level increase with a new ability or some such.

[Quraswren]

Are mats going to change in Tier 4 or with the update 5.2.1?

I don't want to get nailed like last time and have a huge inventory of expensive mats that go poof in value and use overnight.

 

A change in mats usually only comes with an expansion and while it's a guess. We wont be seeing an expansion for a while.

 

These mats should last a while. I'd wager at least though 2017.

[midianlord]

Let's assume for a brief time that they're sincerely trying to improve the game (I know it's a stretch but bear with me).

 

Twitter is great for soundbites. What should have happened was that the detailed post or posts were made first and the Twitter announce should have linked back to the detailed overview. But of course Communications are such a disaster that the Tweet went out like a turd from a flying buffalo with the player base getting nothing but dead air.

 

OTOH if we assume they're doing their utmost to kill this game then they've done a stellar job. A guildy sent around a screenshot to some of us with a severely depleted fleet population. On Harbinger.

 

It's time to vote with your wallets folks. Apparently the huge loss they experienced at launch wasn't enough of a message. They need another reminder how much you hate GC and what it's done to this game.

 

Last time, they had the Craptel Market to fall back on (which I'm pretty sure was the plan all along, the launch/early 1.xx débacle simply moved the time-table up a bit), and the guarantee that people will buy dog**** for whatever price you name if it has the StarWars logo on it.

 

This time....well, they once said that there would never be pay to win in the cash shop, but we should now know all too well what promises from BioWare are actually worth, so...Yeah.

 

Either pay to win, or official announcement of maintenance-mode sooner than Soon, I strongly suspect.

Edited March 2, 2017 by midianlord

[badwolffe]

speaking of mats, will there be a change to the bound to legacy for those whom doesn't craft in this game, I tried to do it for the dvl event and couldn't find any mats to use past the very beginning or the high priced, 500 skill lvl mats

[Andryah]

Twitter is great for soundbites. What should have happened was that the detailed post or posts were made first and the Twitter announce should have linked back to the detailed overview. But of course Communications are such a disaster that the Tweet went out like a turd from a flying buffalo with the player base getting nothing but dead air.

 

Twitter and Facebook are both significant curses on the internet food chain of information, and they are not the only ones either. They are encouraging the dumbing down of all conversations, not to mention they are a primary enabler of false facts, bias, hatred, and discrimination practices by the masses upon any group of humans said people decide to attack.

 

On the one hand.. you could argue that they help expose the nasty underside of society that is there but just normally hidden in actual real face to face communications (where some of what goes on would result in getting face smacked for it). On the other hand, it really does encourage people to be and do "full-stupid".

 

As such, companies are doing themselves no favors by using twitter and facebook to connect with their customers. As for SWTOR... this studio has it's own web site, where it could promote the game in a number of ways, and simply link reference on twitter or facebook to swtor.com. But they don't and have not really done so since 2013. Yeah.. once in a while.. but not in a regular and dependable manner such that players know to come to swtor.com for valid and current information about the state of the game.

 

Personally, I refuse to use either of these social media channels, not just because of the insanity they foster, but they also do not respect user privacy very well at all, and do little or nothing to moderate their user community in any real way. They moderate after the fact, after complaint, and even then.. only if it might result in egg on their face if they don't.

 

Same goes for addictive behaviors with smart phones. The number of times I see a family in a restaurants where they consume an entire meal and never actually look at each other or talk... but rather all continually poke their phones throughout the meal is mind boggling. We have a policy in our home.... when friends or family are visiting, they must leave their phones on the table by the front entry.... no exceptions.

Edited March 2, 2017 by Andryah

[ZETA_SCORPII]

I hope you guys improve the set bonus gear dilemma. I re-subbed recently and haven't gotten anything good in about 30 tier levels. Also, keep the higher Command XP bonus cause of alts. You guys are improving and I hope that trend continues.

[Siniaera]

I hope you guys improve the set bonus gear dilemma. I re-subbed recently and haven't gotten anything good in about 30 tier levels. Also, keep the higher Command XP bonus cause of alts. You guys are improving and I hope that trend continues.

 

They seemed to have nerfed 236 and 242 drop rates, try getting no usable gear in over 150 + crates at tier 3.

 

oh yeah and don't get me started on Unsassembled, gear reached tier 3 and still had 208 legs, so decided to buy, and *** the next crate I loot 240 legs, seriously. Been on swtor a long time, too long.. This is probably the straw too much. Champion bags were already terrible system

***.

Edited March 2, 2017 by Siniaera

[midianlord]

They seemed to have nerfed 236 and 242 drop rates, try getting no usable gear in over 150 + crates at tier 3.

 

oh yeah and don't get me started on Unsassembled, gear reached tier 3 and still had 208 legs, so decided to buy, and *** the next crate I loot 240 legs, seriously. Been on swtor a long time, too long.. This is probably the straw too much. Champion bags were already terrible system

***.

 

I'd be all over crafting all this stuff (less the set-armourings, obviously) both for own-use and to sell a little on the side, and no worries...

 

...If Cybertech and or BioChem schematics ever

 

 

EVER

 

 

Dropped from these worthless garbage-boxes.

 

I know, I know...RNG is R, but after 180+ levels total on three characters, I have (as far as I know) damned near every Artifice, ArmsTech, ArmourTech, and Synth-weaving schematic up to ilvl234 and below.

 

On the other hand, exactly one of the professions I need, which is an ilvl 228 earpiece of no use to a damager or damager/healer hybrid class that I main (Merc, if it matters. Because Absorb and Defense are obviously the stats you stack for those!).

 

I never again can, and never again will trust anything these people say, so I'll just call it now:

 

This is intended, isn't it.

Edited March 3, 2017 by midianlord

[eriksarcasm]

Twitter and Facebook are both significant curses on the internet food chain of information, and they are not the only ones either. They are encouraging the dumbing down of all conversations, not to mention they are a primary enabler of false facts, bias, hatred, and discrimination practices by the masses upon any group of humans said people decide to attack.

 

On the one hand.. you could argue that they help expose the nasty underside of society that is there but just normally hidden in actual real face to face communications (where some of what goes on would result in getting face smacked for it). On the other hand, it really does encourage people to be and do "full-stupid".

 

As such, companies are doing themselves no favors by using twitter and facebook to connect with their customers. As for SWTOR... this studio has it's own web site, where it could promote the game in a number of ways, and simply link reference on twitter or facebook to swtor.com. But they don't and have not really done so since 2013. Yeah.. once in a while.. but not in a regular and dependable manner such that players know to come to swtor.com for valid and current information about the state of the game.

 

Personally, I refuse to use either of these social media channels, not just because of the insanity they foster, but they also do not respect user privacy very well at all, and do little or nothing to moderate their user community in any real way. They moderate after the fact, after complaint, and even then.. only if it might result in egg on their face if they don't.

 

Same goes for addictive behaviors with smart phones. The number of times I see a family in a restaurants where they consume an entire meal and never actually look at each other or talk... but rather all continually poke their phones throughout the meal is mind boggling. We have a policy in our home.... when friends or family are visiting, they must leave their phones on the table by the front entry.... no exceptions.

 

Twitter is good for finding food trucks in cities, and nothing more.

[realArkira]

IF.. IF it was the only pathway to gear.. I would agree with you. But it's not.

 

We were discussing this new addition to GC in our guild last night..... and for the most part were praising our leadership for having both the foresight as to the mess that GC would present, and the leadership to move the guild to completely bypass GC and instead embrace the crafting pathways available and to apply a group effort to ignore GC and gear for 5.x from crafted gear, and later from recipes and materials available to us to progress gear via crafting that is only marginally less then the best drops from crates. It's been a great success, particular with respect to supporting everyone's alts in the new gear progression. Everyone's mains are mostly in 240s now, and alts are in 230+ (which is all most alts actually need)

 

As a guild, we also chuckled at the early addition of tier 4 gear, and later in 5.x teir 5 gear as we could find no real need to chase after it. Sure.. we will gladly open crates when ever we get a new GC level just playing what we want to play... but we consider that "gravy rather then the steak".

 

In the end.. play smarter, not harder very much applies here. Now.. had they provided no other path for gear then GC for 5.x.... our guild may well have discussed and decided to move on to some other MMO..... because GC looked that bad at face value when 5.0 launched.

 

Happily.. the studio did not make GC THE brick wall that some players insist it is. As a guild we looked at the challenge, and picked a path to overcome it that was right for us, and it turned out to actually be faster to gear up then 4.x was for us as a guild. A lot of players apparently do not realize or have not investigated how easy the studio made the crafting approach to gear in 5.x.... from companion improvements, to materials gathering via missions, to recipe drops inside content, to the actual crafting.

 

Perfectly right, which is why I quoted it fully again. To add to this, here is how I worked around "The System":

 

• Alt-Gearing I now do using the craftable 228 and/or 230 pieces of gear. Sure, the are fixed value, but that can be amended to some extent with augments. Also, Synthweaving und Armormech are completely inter-changable, which again gives you more flexibility.
  
• My main has reached the 90-180 GC bracket now and 7 set-bonus gear using 230 and 234/36 armorings in a mix and he, having cybertech, got all the receipes I ever need from the purple gear in crates now, them being the 234 mods/enhancements. The same I will do again once I reached the 180+ bracket and again when hitting 300. But...
  
• I am in no rush. The entire content of the game is still at "Level 50 difficulty". Sure, the numbers have risen, to provide a decent challenge to level 70's, but the mechanics are known and even new bosses can only offer what this old game engine can support - so no worries there.
  
• I do enjoy a little bit of UNRANKED pvp from time to time, but merely to let steam off, not as a way to gear. I've done the math (over 6000 components), so now "I pity the fools" I agree with the sentiment, that "expertise" should have stayed. But maybe it couldn't due to technical limitations of said old game engine, I don't know, but it clearly killed pvp for the casual player like myself. For the most part we are just cannon fodder there, so no point in even trying to be competitive and I won't.
  

 

To sum it up: Tier 4 does not worry me. I will get to it at my own pace and I am sure that eventually 6.0 comes along and with it a complete new set of gear allowing me to skip forward again. Been there, done that in many MMO's and this one, too.

[realArkira]

I'd be all over crafting all this stuff...

 

...If Cybertech and or BioChem schematics ever

 

 

EVER

 

 

Dropped from these worthless garbage-boxes....

 

I noted that too, but found the solution (as mentioned in my previous post): iLvl 234 in purple (not the green or blue nor the gold items) can be researched giving you a 100% (!) chance to learn how to craft it.

[GalacticKegger]

Perfectly right, which is why I quoted it fully again. To add to this, here is how I worked around "The System":

A system that needs to be either worked around or avoided altogether is a system that proves itself useless and needs to be uninstalled. Edited March 3, 2017 by GalacticKegger

[realArkira]

A system that needs to be either worked around or avoided altogether is a system that proves itself useless and needs to be uninstalled.

 

Sure, but until then, see above

[GalacticKegger]

Sure, but until then, see above

Thank you but I'll wait until they bring the original progression and loot systems back. Edited March 3, 2017 by GalacticKegger