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Tier 1 – 3 Changes Coming in 5.2


EricMusco

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Hey folks,

 

Coming with Game Update 5.2 we are making substantial changes to how Command Crates work, specifically focusing on drop rates for gear. Perhaps the single-most repeated comment about Command Crates is they do not feel rewarding due to the random nature of the contents of the crates. To resolve most of these issues, we’ve added ways for both PvP and PvE players to target specific gear slots and obtain those items directly.

 

For players looking to gear up through Galactic Command working through a Tier can feel like a grind since your rewards don’t change. You can get that same Premium belt at Command Rank 70 that you got at Rank 1, which is frustrating when you are trying to complete your class set.

 

Starting with Game Update 5.2, drop rates of better quality items (Legendary and Artifact) will get higher as you gain Command Ranks in a given Tier, while lower quality items’ (Premium and Prototype) drop rates will go down. What this means is you are encouraged to continue increasing your Command Rank as your drop rates of more desired items get higher as your Rank increases.

 

Let’s look at a Tier 2 and 3 example. Right now this is an approximation of gear drops for the entire Tier:

  • Premium (green): High drop rate
  • Prototype (blue): Medium drop rate
  • Artifact (purple): Low drop rate
  • Legendary (yellow): Very low drop rate

After 5.2, gear drops get much better as you progress through the Tier. Let’s say you were getting close to the top of your Tier, this is what your drop rates will look like:

  • Premium: No longer drop
  • Prototype: Medium-low drop rate
  • Artifact: Medium-high drop rate
  • Legendary: Medium drop rate

As you can see from the above example, after 5.2 you will be able to get higher quality gear for your characters more consistently as you progress through each Tier. This will also help in addressing concerns about the inability to get set bonus gear from Command Crates (in addition to the Operations drop changes we are making at the same time). Keep in mind, these drop rate changes apply to Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Tier 4 works a little differently and is discussed in more detail in this thread.

 

These are the improvements we are making to Command Crates in Game Update 5.2. Let us know what you think.

 

-eric

Edited by EricMusco
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Hey folks,

 

Let’s look at a Tier 2 and 3 example. Right now this is an approximation of gear drops for the entire Tier:

  • Premium (green): High drop rate
  • Prototype (blue): Medium drop rate
  • Artifact (purple): Low drop rate
  • Legendary (yellow): Very low drop rate

After 5.2, gear drops get much better as you progress through the Tier. Let’s say you were getting close to the top of your Tier, this is what your drop rates will look like:

  • Premium: No longer drop
  • Prototype: Medium-low drop rate
  • Artifact: Medium-high drop rate
  • Legendary: Medium drop rate

As you can see from the above example, after 5.2 you will be able to get higher quality gear for your characters more consistently as you progress through each Tier.

These are the improvements we are making to Command Crates in Game Update 5.2. Let us know what you think.

 

-eric

 

The elimination of Premium from the crates would have been a welcome change for me, but the deal breaker is the unspecified RNG drop rates and no duplicate mitigation. My personal drop rate resulted in was one usable upgrade (I don't count clicky relics as anything except trash for instance) per 30 or so crates. At command level 240 ish (I think, it's been a while since I bothered) I still didn't have a 5.x set bonus and had 6 slots still unfilled and had tons of duplicates like 6 relics of the same type, 3 or 4 chests, 2 gloves, 3 or 4 ear pieces, and only one set piece drop that was higher than Tier 1.

 

Without some duplicate mitigation and/or some idea what the drop rates *actually* are (medium-low, Medium-high and Medium mean nothing), I have no desire to pay for a grind up to Tier 4, (and would have had no time to do so on alts).

 

So, good luck, I'll check back in with 6.0 maybe.

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The elimination of Premium from the crates would have been a welcome change for me, but the deal breaker is the unspecified RNG drop rates and no duplicate mitigation. My personal drop rate resulted in was one usable upgrade (I don't count clicky relics as anything except trash for instance) per 30 or so crates. At command level 240 ish (I think, it's been a while since I bothered) I still didn't have a 5.x set bonus and had 6 slots still unfilled and had tons of duplicates like 6 relics of the same type, 3 or 4 chests, 2 gloves, 3 or 4 ear pieces, and only one set piece drop that was higher than Tier 1.

 

Without some duplicate mitigation and/or some idea what the drop rates *actually* are (medium-low, Medium-high and Medium mean nothing), I have no desire to pay for a grind up to Tier 4, (and would have had no time to do so on alts).

 

So, good luck, I'll check back in with 6.0 maybe.

 

Although we aren't going to expose exact drop rates, I think I can add a little clarity to the relative drop rates listed above. To your point, with these new rates you will have a much better chance of getting a set bonus quality item (Artifact and Legendary) than you would one without (Prototype). Basically, at the top of a tier, majority of your items will be of a set bonus bearing quality. That is in contrast to today where at all levels, Premium and Prototype are the most likely items you will get.

 

-eric

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Although we aren't going to expose exact drop rates, I think I can add a little clarity to the relative drop rates listed above. To your point, with these new rates you will have a much better chance of getting a set bonus quality item (Artifact and Legendary) than you would one without (Prototype). Basically, at the top of a tier, majority of your items will be of a set bonus bearing quality. That is in contrast to today where at all levels, Premium and Prototype are the most likely items you will get.

 

-eric

 

Thank you for the clarification, it is good to see this feedback from BWA's side.

 

These changes don't do it for me, but as I said, good luck, and I'll likely check back with 6.0 to see if the game is more what I enjoy, and doesn't just lead to frustrations due to my perceived personal horrid RNG luck (which I don't foresee ever getting better).

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Although we aren't going to expose exact drop rates, I think I can add a little clarity to the relative drop rates listed above. ...

 

There can be no clarity without actual rates. I can say the chances of you accessing my wallet later this month, come renewall time greatly and exponentially increased. Now going from a 0.000000001% chance I stay subbed to a 0.001% chance is an exponential increase, but would that be in the Low, Medium or High range of re-sub?

 

Without floor and ceiling drop rates, the walls built of increased rate statements cannot stand.

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Although we aren't going to expose exact drop rates, I think I can add a little clarity to the relative drop rates listed above. To your point, with these new rates you will have a much better chance of getting a set bonus quality item (Artifact and Legendary) than you would one without (Prototype). Basically, at the top of a tier, majority of your items will be of a set bonus bearing quality. That is in contrast to today where at all levels, Premium and Prototype are the most likely items you will get.

 

-eric

 

But what about duplicates?

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But what about duplicates?

 

Jesus understanding is hard.

 

Duplicates are frustrating right now because of the likely hood to get a set piece is too low. Now, you will have more set pieces drop, so just do like any other game, and live with the fact there is some RNG. Just way more forgiving now.

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But what about duplicates?

 

This. You're certainly taking a step in the right direction, improving the quality of gear in the crates as we advance in each tier, and I do appreciate that. But it's not going to be enough if I go through ranks 75-90 and get some 230 set piece boots four times and three different clicky relics I don't want.

 

Even in my earliest days of scripting (mIRC, lol), I knew to code the 'shuffle' function on an mp3 player to keep track of songs played, and to not play them again til they've all been played. Can you not apply the same logic to gear slots?

 

For example, you have 14 gear slots (count implants and relics separately, because you will need two). Start them all out with a 7.14% chance to be the item that drops when RNGsus decides to bless us with a BiS piece for that tier. When said piece drops, lower the chance for that piece on that character by X%, and distribute that chance among the remaining pieces. This would probably going a long way towards alleviating concerns players have for getting the same pieces over and over, then leaving that tier with only half the set as they move onto the next one.

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To resolve most of these issues, we’ve added ways for both PvP and PvE players to target specific gear slots and obtain those items directly.

I don't see anything posted about PvE players being able to target specific gear slots.

 

Nevermind, all these posts linking to posts is very confusing.

 

Although, as other people said, what about duplicates? We need a way to be able to exchange duplicate pieces for something we can actually use.

Edited by Screaming_Ziva
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I don't see anything posted about PvE players being able to target specific gear slots.

 

Go to the operation gear update thread. Farm EV/KP and profit (except for MH).

Edited by bdatt
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There can be no clarity without actual rates.

*snip*

 

I understand that there isn't full clarity without all of the details, but let me see if I can get one step closer.

 

In the example from above, if there are 3 item grades each with a medium'ish drop rate, you could make infer that medium in that context means around a 33% drop rate (since there are 3 and they are relatively equal).

 

Again, that isn't the 100% actual drop rate, things are subject to change, and my other community manager disclaimers. Still, that walks one step closer to the actual drop rate line for you!

 

-eric

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Thank you for the clarification, it is good to see this feedback from BWA's side.

 

These changes don't do it for me, but as I said, good luck, and I'll likely check back with 6.0 to see if the game is more what I enjoy, and doesn't just lead to frustrations due to my perceived personal horrid RNG luck (which I don't foresee ever getting better).

 

Um. they are bringing back loot tables in operations so you can gear up that way as well.

Edited by mastersdr
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Eric,

 

Are there any plans to allow solo PVE players a way to choose specific upgrades similar to what PVP players have now with unassembled components and to what Group PVE will have shortly with the Operation Loot changes coming in 5.2?

 

Whether it's 5 unassembled components from a planetary weekly at level 70, or from the GC planetary mission...something like that would be greatly appreciated by the players who choose not to participate in many (or any) group activities.

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Although we aren't going to expose exact drop rates, I think I can add a little clarity to the relative drop rates listed above. To your point, with these new rates you will have a much better chance of getting a set bonus quality item (Artifact and Legendary) than you would one without (Prototype). Basically, at the top of a tier, majority of your items will be of a set bonus bearing quality. That is in contrast to today where at all levels, Premium and Prototype are the most likely items you will get.

 

-eric

 

Eric, on the tier 1 you normally get the green 228 but they are basically like the purple 228. Why not just take out the green 228 and just add the purple ones instead. Yes people can craft them, which is what I do. I destroy the green 228 since I already have the purple ones. It really makes no sense that the green and purple 228 are basically the same stats. It should be changed or just take out the 228 from the drops and just do the 230 drops from the command crates.

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Eric,

 

Are there any plans to allow solo PVE players a way to choose specific upgrades similar to what PVP players have now with unassembled components and to what Group PVE will have shortly with the Operation Loot changes coming in 5.2?

 

Whether it's 5 unassembled components from a planetary weekly at level 70, or from the GC planetary mission...something like that would be greatly appreciated by the players who choose not to participate in many (or any) group activities.

 

Im sorry, but you should not have access to top end gear doing heroics. They are ridiculously easy, and you dont NEED that gear for it. And this would cause people to just do senselessly easy content in order to get the best of the best gear, which should NEVER be possible.

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I thought this was to make gearing simpler, because the players were too stupid (IQ somewhere between a rock and a pot plant) to understand tokens. Between changing drop rates as you change level and ops and pvp components this seems a lot more difficult to understand.

 

That aside is there sufficient content coming with 5.2 to justify a new tier of gear. Cards on the table, most the content to get CXP is content introduced before 5.0. Hell I have been PvPing cause its the easiest way to mass up GC, it has though led me to hate the game and how horribly balanced PvP is and **** MDPS is in most maps and how OP silly little things stealth, 60 second stuns, immunity bubbles, knockbacks, self-healing to full every 3mins, escapes and teleports etc are that I'm not sure I will even make it to 5.2 let alone another 30 hours + of grinding to gear up. So is the team adding 30 hours of content to go with the new 30 hours of grinding for gear or have you thrown in the towel and decided that the next tier of gear is content and will make pvp both balanced and fun or the combat engine enjoyable in PvE?

 

Cause lets face it at this point, most the classes are about rotation suffering from ability bloat and cool down management as opposed to any dynamic combat or feeling like being part of the star wars universe. If the combat was engaging in and of itself then the grind wouldn't be so bad but I doubt there is many people that would play heroics or ops or pvp (unless they are one of the over powered class/in a premade ganking pugs) just for the fun of the experience. Making x number of boxes new grind seem crazy if you don't have the content to go with it.

Edited by Costello
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This is a step in the right direction, but the following need to be added as well. Otherwise, this is still going to be a frustrating experience:

 

1. "On Use" relics must go. At the very least, they should not be part of BiS gear of any tier. That is just a cruel joke and a total misunderstanding of what BiS gear means.

 

2. A player should be guaranteed a complete set when they reach the top of the tier. When I hit 300, I should have one complete 242 Legendary set.

 

3. There should be protection against duplicate BiS items dropping in the crates; at least until player has received a complete set for that tier.

 

It amazes me that people seem to think the problem is that "the grind does not feel rewarding". That misdiagnoses the problem, so no wonder that the solutions proposed are inadequate and incomplete. The problem is that "the grind does not gear the player currently." Solve that: try to find a way to gear the player fully in 230s, 236s, 242s and 248s by the end of each of the corresponding tiers. You'll receive (nearly) universal praise.

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Im sorry, but you should not have access to top end gear doing heroics. They are ridiculously easy, and you dont NEED that gear for it. And this would cause people to just do senselessly easy content in order to get the best of the best gear, which should NEVER be possible.

 

What about soloing Eternal Championship, Uprisings, Veteran/Master Flashpoints, and Veteran/Master Chapters.

 

I find doing those things more difficult than being in groups doing story mode operations. It would be nice to be rewarded for such too.

 

I'll concede about heroics.

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Oh! Someone asked me this on Twitter and I wanted to make sure it is captured here as well. The contents of your Command Crates is determined when you open them (think of how it works with Disciplines). So any Tier 1-3 crates you have prior to 5.2 will have the adjusted drop rates if you open them after 5.2 goes live.

 

-eric

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This is a step in the right direction, but the following need to be added as well. Otherwise, this is still going to be a frustrating experience:

 

1. "On Use" relics must go. At the very least, they should not be part of BiS gear of any tier. That is just a cruel joke and a total misunderstanding of what BiS gear means.

 

2. A player should be guaranteed a complete set when they reach the top of the tier. When I hit 300, I should have one complete 242 Legendary set.

 

3. There should be protection against duplicate BiS items dropping in the crates; at least until player has received a complete set for that tier.

 

It amazes me that people seem to think the problem is that "the grind does not feel rewarding". That misdiagnoses the problem, so no wonder that the solutions proposed are inadequate and incomplete. The problem is that "the grind does not gear the player currently." Solve that: try to find a way to gear the player fully in 230s, 236s, 242s and 248s by the end of each of the corresponding tiers. You'll receive (nearly) universal praise.

Excellent post! It is a step in the right direction, I give them credit for finally making substantial changes, but there's still the elephant in the room, the same one that's been here since 5.0 dropped...RNG.

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This is a step in the right direction, but the following need to be added as well. Otherwise, this is still going to be a frustrating experience:

 

1. "On Use" relics must go. At the very least, they should not be part of BiS gear of any tier. That is just a cruel joke and a total misunderstanding of what BiS gear means.

 

2. A player should be guaranteed a complete set when they reach the top of the tier. When I hit 300, I should have one complete 242 Legendary set.

 

3. There should be protection against duplicate BiS items dropping in the crates; at least until player has received a complete set for that tier.

 

It amazes me that people seem to think the problem is that "the grind does not feel rewarding". That misdiagnoses the problem, so no wonder that the solutions proposed are inadequate and incomplete. The problem is that "the grind does not gear the player currently." Solve that: try to find a way to gear the player fully in 230s, 236s, 242s and 248s by the end of each of the corresponding tiers. You'll receive (nearly) universal praise.

 

I disagree.

 

1) While on use relics aren't BiS for dummy parsing, there are fights where more concentrated dps is better than overall fluff during non-critical part of fights.

2) BiS should not be guaranteed by grinding easy content. The possibility of getting there with good RNG is fine. If you want to guarantee non-set bonus and "A" mods fine, not BiS.

3) Debatable but you then approach the guaranteed BiS from grinding KOTFE chapters. I'd prefer a random unassembled piece, so it can be shared with an alt if duplicate, not elimination of duplicate pieces.

Edited by bdatt
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Oh! Someone asked me this on Twitter and I wanted to make sure it is captured here as well. The contents of your Command Crates is determined when you open them (think of how it works with Disciplines). So any Tier 1-3 crates you have prior to 5.2 will have the adjusted drop rates if you open them after 5.2 goes live.

 

-eric

 

So its best to stockpile crates as your moving through the GC rank to maximize the chance of getting good drops. That would be to wait to GC level 60 or so and then start opening tier 1 crates etc.

 

This just seems that it is going to make galactic command feel less rewarding as for the first 60 or 70 levels in any new tier your best off not opening any crates so for these levels you wont be getting any reward.

Edited by Costello
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I understand that there isn't full clarity without all of the details, but let me see if I can get one step closer.

 

In the example from above, if there are 3 item grades each with a medium'ish drop rate, you could make infer that medium in that context means around a 33% drop rate (since there are 3 and they are relatively equal).

 

Again, that isn't the 100% actual drop rate, things are subject to change, and my other community manager disclaimers. Still, that walks one step closer to the actual drop rate line for you!

 

-eric

 

Is there any benefit to NOT opening Command Crates until the release of these changes?

 

Which rule set will a box earned under the current rules, but not opened until the new rules follow?

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