Is playing PvP and group PvE with empty moddable gear against the ToS?

[Talon_strikes]

I ask this because I remember a few people used to queue for group PvE and/or PvP and play solely as a base class and not an advanced class from leveling to endgame. What are your thoughts on this?

 

On one hand, some people will automatically rush to call this trolling, and for PvP also would consider this throwing and/or win-trading, and that sounds plausible at the mere surface. However, I could see how the player would genuinely want to challenge themselves much further, just like they could when they never chose an advanced class. I mean, it may not be the intended way to play, but the infrastructure of the game still allows you to play with empty shells and no relics and implants.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Talon_strikes

[Udoroththefinal]

If you want to be a detriment and a waste of a group slot to do it on your own solo where you can be as non competitive as you want

 

Don't do it in group oriented actives and place greater burden on the rest of your team to carry

[JediAkemi]

I'm not sure how much difference it makes as long as they have something in every slot on their character sheet... does Bolster care whether a piece of armour has anything it?

No, seriously, do you need to have parts in your modifiable armour for it to be bolstered?

 

I remember when KotFE first dropped and we had to do a bunch of PvP to get M1-4X. As a weird kind of protest*, I bought the slavegirl set from Nar Shaddaa for my Jedi Sentinel main to wear in warzones and never put any parts in it.

 

* I utterly despise PvP as a melee damage dealer. I can rarely, if ever, keep up the way I need to. My logic was "I'm doing this against my will... what better way to symbolise that than wearing the slavegirl bikini, which is completely inappropriate combat attire anywhere outside of Malaterra"

 

 

With the addition of Unassembled Components, I've found it necessary to attempt pvp again on my Sentinel. It's still a whole lot better as my Commando or my Operative (stealth mode ftw), but I usually take it seriously now as her... though I have done the 'slavegirl bikini protest' in a couple of Huttball matches, because I hate Huttball and just can't take that garbage seriously... but unless I have heals, I'm worse than useless in Huttball regardless of what my character is wearing so c'est la vie.

[mmmbuddah]

I'm not sure how much difference it makes as long as they have something in every slot on their character sheet... does Bolster care whether a piece of armour has anything it?

No, seriously, do you need to have parts in your modifiable armour for it to be bolstered?

 

I remember when KotFE first dropped and we had to do a bunch of PvP to get M1-4X. As a weird kind of protest*, I bought the slavegirl set from Nar Shaddaa for my Jedi Sentinel main to wear in warzones and never put any parts in it.

 

* I utterly despise PvP as a melee damage dealer. I can rarely, if ever, keep up the way I need to. My logic was "I'm doing this against my will... what better way to symbolise that than wearing the slavegirl bikini, which is completely inappropriate combat attire anywhere outside of Malaterra"

 

 

With the addition of Unassembled Components, I've found it necessary to attempt pvp again on my Sentinel. It's still a whole lot better as my Commando or my Operative (stealth mode ftw), but I usually take it seriously now as her... though I have done the 'slavegirl bikini protest' in a couple of Huttball matches, because I hate Huttball and just can't take that garbage seriously... but unless I have heals, I'm worse than useless in Huttball regardless of what my character is wearing so c'est la vie.

 

Unassembled components were introduced specifically for pvp actually, which is why you only get them for pvp activities. You can get set pieces through ops and GC for pve very , VERY easily. There was actually going to be a valor requirement for the gear you buy with those at first, but BW conveniently forgot to implement that. Set gear is not nearly as important for PvE, except for maybe NM ops, as it is for pvp.

[Icykill_]

I don't think the issue is wether people have gear equipped or not. It's why they don't have it equiped.

Lots of people queued without gear in pvp are either bots farming XP to lvl and then CXP at lvl 70. The others are just trolling or farming CXP too. Most of the ones which look like ledgit players that have no gear seem to be CXP farmers who go AFK all match.

If they don't have it equipped and it's because of those above reasons, then that's an issue.

While it may not technically be against the TOS, the bots are definitely against it. Over the last few days there have been about 2-3 bots a day in different pvp brackets on Harbinger, you have to vote to kick from the WZ or they just suicide or run and cap and run off and leave it unattended. They are easy to tell because they all have nonsensical naming with random letters, fhridndiejek.. etc.

the difficult part is to get your whole team to vote to kick. If the bot enters combat the kick vote resets and you all have to do it again. It would be good if Eric would tell us how many votes are required to kick these bots.

AFK players who are only in the match to farm CXP are even more annoying. At least the bot does more than hide in a corner, most of the AFK players are stealths too. So they can be standing close enough to make it look like they are doing something, but in reality they're essentially not in the game. Most people won't vote these guys out because they aren't sure.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Icykill_

[Icykill_]

Unassembled components were introduced specifically for pvp actually, which is why you only get them for pvp activities. You can get set pieces through ops and GC for pve very , VERY easily. There was actually going to be a valor requirement for the gear you buy with those at first, but BW conveniently forgot to implement that. Set gear is not nearly as important for PvE, except for maybe NM ops, as it is for pvp.

 

It's also faster to get the gear in operations etc. the grind to solely do it in pvp is horrendous. As a pvp only person, it takes hundreds of matches just to get lvl 2 gear for one character, but try doing it over 4 character as I'm trying to do and so far I've got 3 lvl 2 pieces of gear.

The whole system is turning me off even more than before because they said it was supposed to make things more Alt friendly, but how many "years" is it going to take me to gear 40+ alts I have.

Prior to 5.0, I had all my lvl 65s fully geared for pvp, I'd say about 25 were lvl 65. I love playing all my alts and I've spent considerable time and money opening character slots, gearing slots, buying gearsets and recustomising their looks to make them all different.

Now I pretty much can't play them, I'm stuck on 4 and to fully gear each of them it will take me over a year, probably 2 years at this rate. I may have been able to do it quicker, but this new system has cut my play time to a third of what it used to be. It's a major turn off and instead of playing 4-6 hours everyday, I now play 2-3 hours, about two to three times a week.

It's been suggested that RNG CXP was introduced to make people play the game longer to achieve their gearing goal. But I can tell you it has had the opposite affect on me and many others. Gaming is supposed to be enjoyable and relaxing, not a job that becomes boring and a massive grind. I've already unsubbed my second account because I can't gear so many alts. I'm also not joking about my alts either, with both accounts I have about 40+ toons. I played nearly everyone of them in Pvp.

I honestly can't imagine what changes Bio have planned for 5.2 that would allow me to play all my alts to gear them and get me to activate my second account again.

Even if they make the grind a little faster, I still think I'd be looking at a full year to gear a handful of my alts. If that's the case I doubt I'll make it to June/July before I end up quitting in frustration.

[-Highsteel-]

Question shouldn't be, "Is it a ToS violation". What it should be is, "Why would someone do it?"

[JediAkemi]

Another reason I pvp is to get the schematics for item modifications - I can't always do an Op with my Republic guild, and haven't done any Imp-side since SoR, so pvp is another place for them. My Sentinel's the only character I have in tier 2 at the moment so if I want those schematics (which I do) it's HM Ops or PvP with her.

[JLazarillo]

Unassembled components were introduced specifically for pvp actually, which is why you only get them for pvp activities. You can get set pieces through ops and GC for pve very , VERY easily. There was actually going to be a valor requirement for the gear you buy with those at first, but BW conveniently forgot to implement that. Set gear is not nearly as important for PvE, except for maybe NM ops, as it is for pvp.

To be fair, while there should be some fixing of it in 5.2, for the time being, if you need a specific piece of gear, Command is pretty crappy next to PvP grinding, although I'd agree that in general, it's not like they've made PvP sufficiently rewarding so as to "force" people who don't want to to participate.

 

I've struck a nice balance, really, PvP-ing with my more PvP-friendly backup alts and getting general progress with them that I wouldn't have otherwise, while earning for some specific set bonus gear for my mains that I can pass over with Legacy armor.

[Talon_strikes]

I'm really surprised how off-topic this discussion went. Carry on folks. Carry on.

[fushnchips]

When I used to level with the DvL gear I never put any upgrades into it and that took me all the way to 70 I don't think there is any reason to either but I would say if people que up in ranked then that's another story..

[Talon_strikes]

When I used to level with the DvL gear I never put any upgrades into it and that took me all the way to 70 I don't think there is any reason to either but I would say if people que up in ranked then that's another story..

Yesterday I encountered a Sorc specced as a healer queuing solo ranked with empty gear shells. You can guess how that went!

Edited March 15, 2017 by Talon_strikes

[fushnchips]

Yesterday I encountered a Sorc specced as a healer queuing solo ranked with empty gear shells. You can guess how that went!

 

If it's Ranked report them for griefing it's a clear attack on players going in with no gear in shells and Bioware should and will take the action required for those dirt bags that ruin the high end pvp game play.

[Icykill_]

I'm really surprised how off-topic this discussion went. Carry on folks. Carry on.

 

That was my fault, sorry.

[Icykill_]

Yesterday I encountered a Sorc specced as a healer queuing solo ranked with empty gear shells. You can guess how that went!

 

They need to impliment a similar system they had for ranked requiring ranked gear before you could enter, just set it up so that you can't queue with empty shells and you can't change them once you pop.

[Mithros]

I ask this because I remember a few people used to queue for group PvE and/or PvP and play solely as a base class and not an advanced class from leveling to endgame. What are your thoughts on this?

 

On one hand, some people will automatically rush to call this trolling, and for PvP also would consider this throwing and/or win-trading, and that sounds plausible at the mere surface. However, I could see how the player would genuinely want to challenge themselves much further, just like they could when they never chose an advanced class. I mean, it may not be the intended way to play, but the infrastructure of the game still allows you to play with empty shells and no relics and implants.

 

They are not challenging themselves when they are participating in group activities.

 

Empty shells are fine for the personal missions (one of my new toons ran with an empty shell on the starter world last night) if someone wants some challenge.

 

They are not okay when you are dragging other people along.

[americanaussie]

They are not challenging themselves when they are participating in group activities.

 

Empty shells are fine for the personal missions (one of my new toons ran with an empty shell on the starter world last night) if someone wants some challenge.

 

They are not okay when you are dragging other people along.

 

This. It's not challenging themselves. It's blatant trolling.

[Severith]

I'm really surprised how off-topic this discussion went. Carry on folks. Carry on.

 

It's exactly on point. It's disruptive gameplay, which is against the terms of service. The proof of the disruptive gameplay is the examples given above by other posters.

[Talon_strikes]

It's exactly on point. It's disruptive gameplay, which is against the terms of service. The proof of the disruptive gameplay is the examples given above by other posters.

But I did provide context which makes the accusation of "disruptive gameplay" really ambiguous, and I know that virtually all game mods don't operate in that manner. They need concrete proof, and it's really hard to show that when this game's infrastructure allows you to play with no mods in your gear.

 

Plus, remember that people who used to play as a non-advanced class in group activities were never banned. I think what BW opted to do instead is remove the option to play as a base class. This addressed the issue and fixed it while not sanctioning anyone under ambiguous context.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Talon_strikes

[Rion_Starkiller]

Unassembled components were introduced specifically for pvp actually, which is why you only get them for pvp activities. You can get set pieces through ops and GC for pve very , VERY easily. There was actually going to be a valor requirement for the gear you buy with those at first, but BW conveniently forgot to implement that. Set gear is not nearly as important for PvE, except for maybe NM ops, as it is for pvp.

 

Remember when PVP set bonuses were different than PVE set bonuses?

 

Ahh, the good old days.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Rion_Starkiller

[AllisonLightning]

This. It's not challenging themselves. It's blatant trolling.

 

The only time I've ever gone in with empty shells is accidentally on PvP lowbies at leavel 10 and I was at the gear vendor the instant I was back in Fleet, my face red with embarrassment. It's now the first thing I check and I'd kill anyone doing this at 70- and doing it in PvE is a pure troll- I don't care how cheap you are- fill your gear slots and make sure all your mods are in place.

[Torvai]

Is playing PvP and group PvE with empty moddable gear against the ToS?

 

 

And yes, I know this is 4.0, so what? Bolster takes care of stats in almost the entire game.

[Icykill_]

Is playing PvP and group PvE with empty moddable gear against the ToS?

 

 

And yes, I know this is 4.0, so what? Bolster takes care of stats in almost the entire game.

 

Not against TOS

 

It's 5.0 now, not 4.0

 

Bolster doesn't work that way. If you have nothing in the shells is gives you some stats, but nothing even close to what you should have. It's always easy if to tell who has empty shells because their health will be much lower than everyone on your team

[Yezzan]

It's not against the ToS and I do not see how that could be an actionable offense. For PvE, it's easy: vote kick. The reason for not wearing gear or selecting a role is irrelevant. Those things are for people who are RPing with friends who would have already been aware of why they are doing it.

 

Why would you PUG in no gear, except to be a troll?

[JediAkemi]

Why would you PUG in no gear, except to be a troll?

 

Because I can't take Huttball seriously

But as I said further up the thread, unless I'm on my healers, I'm worse than useless in Huttball even when I'm actually trying so it's not like the "slavegirl bikini protest" is going to make a difference.