PvP On Iokath

[Severith]

Hey folks,

 

With the launch of 5.2 “The War for Iokath” we wanted to be sure to encourage PvP wherever possible. It is a part of the design of the Missions on Iokath that players will be running into each other fairly often. This afforded us the opportunity to make PvP more of a focus beyond just a place for open world PvP to occur. Here are some of the things that set Iokath apart as it relates to PvP:

• In open world PvP, enemies and allies will be determined by the Faction you choose to fight for, not the faction your Class is a part of.
  
  • Ex: If you are Trooper who chose to fight for the Republic, you will be flagged as an enemy against a Jedi Knight who is fighting for the Empire.
    
  • Choosing which Faction to side with has no effect on your character outside of Iokath.
    

  [*]You will be able to loot Iokath specific currency from other players that you kill. You will not actually be stealing that currency from them, but it will “drop” from them similar to how it works for NPCs.

  [*]On Iokath you can spend that currency to do special things such as piloting a walker. You will be able to pilot the walker in the same area as other players and use said walker for murderous intent against enemy players.

 

As you can see there are some specific additions that we are making in 5.2 to really encourage open world PvP play. Let us know if you have any questions about these changes.

 

-eric

 

Eric,

 

Every time a multiplayer game has a currency that's lootable from players, but doesn't actually cost the defeated player anything, ends up with people starting a pvp farm. This is where players are killed over, and over again without fighting back, to give their friends easy currency.

 

This is compounded by your Iokath faction mechanic. People of the same Empire/Republic side, and probably of the same guild, will intentionally chose different sides in order to farm each other.

 

Please, for the love of SWTOR, pass on to the devs that there needs to be a mechanic to disrupt this type of player farming meathod. I would recommend a timer lockout on particular accounts. "If you've looted currency from a character on this account you may not loot from the same account for x amount of time."

 

If something along those lines is not implemented, you should expect many players to have all of the rewards from such currency a few hours after the patch goes live, rendering the work and achievements of non exploiters worthless.

 

Thank you.

[t-darko]

Seriously? You're releasing an open world PvP zone with the way classes are balanced right now? Not only that but are offering zero insight ON class balance?

 

Well done.

 

So driving a nail into a piece of wood should take the equal amount of time with a screwdriver as with a hammer!? OFC will some classes benefit more than others in an OPEN world pvp situation or are you the one demanding that running an 100 meters race in flippers should be able to do as fast as without!?

 

And Mates, Balance in swtor PvP does not evolve around class, it evolves around the Hole trinity of heals-dps-tank vs heals-dps-tank.

[Sitara]

Why on earth do you think that's even a possibility? What have they ever done in the past that forced you to PvP to enjoy some new content? Is there ANY other PvP only area that you're forced to go into to complete daily reputation missions? No...there is not. Why would you think Iokath would be the first? If you don't want to PvP, stay in the PvE instance. It's common sense.

 

 

They have....when HK 51 appears to be a Comp you must go to a Vendor who was on Tatooine in a open PvP Area. Long ago before the phase thingie. I need a whole group to get me there to buy the things i needed for my HK.

[Sarova]

Hey folks,

As you can see there are some specific additions that we are making in 5.2 to really encourage open world PvP play. Let us know if you have any questions about these changes.

 

-eric

Since Lightning Sorcerers are currently a weak PvP class (probably the weakest), what exactly are you doing about this? Or do you plan on having us either exclude ourselves from PvP areas and therefore what looks to be a big part of 5.2 or be everyone's easy target? My main is lightning I will not change spec just because you and your colleagues don't know what to do about the imbalance.

[DarthConsum]

What happens if you want to group up and you are a different faction

[TUXs]

They have....when HK 51 appears to be a Comp you must go to a Vendor who was on Tatooine in a open PvP Area. Long ago before the phase thingie. I need a whole group to get me there to buy the things i needed for my HK.

And in what way do you think HK-51 was a necessity? Was he optional or were you gated from advancement if you didn't get him?

[mmmbuddah]

Since Lightning Sorcerers are currently a weak PvP class (probably the weakest), what exactly are you doing about this? Or do you plan on having us either exclude ourselves from PvP areas and therefore what looks to be a big part of 5.2 or be everyone's easy target? My main is lightning I will not change spec just because you and your colleagues don't know what to do about the imbalance.

 

Correction. Plasmatech VG / Pyro PT are the weakest classes in the game.

[casirabit]

EXACTLY right!!!

 

You've NEVER been forced Casie...EVER. Vanity items are not required and I have no issue at all with them being locked behind PvP. Things some players "want" are used as carrots to entice you to try other aspects of the game, and that's more than fine with me. You've never been forced to PvP.

 

True, and normally I would agree that they don't do this but after what they did to the gearing (and mark you I don't have a problem with) and people that have a problem with the way gearing is done now, do you wonder why people want clarification on the different instances?

 

And all that it would take to settle this discussion, is a very simple post from one of the devs regarding the separate instances, which would then close the issue.

Edited March 29, 2017 by casirabit

[TUXs]

...but after what they did to the gearing... you wonder why people want clarification on the different instances?

That actually makes sense then. 5.0 was a HUGE step backwards to a failed system of gearing...I can understand your concern.

[Sargrith]

Will something be done to help the non-stealth classes detect stealth classes in open world PvP? If ops and shadows had distinctly lower dps then other always giving them the opening shots might work but when they are some of the top dps classes.....not so much so. So will there be something to balance this out to make it more fair for everyone?

[EricMusco]

What about class balance eric, are there fixes or not? Answer this please And dont answer with i dont know, answer with a simple yes or no.

 

Edit: some more of your favorite smileys to encourage you to talk about class balance :rak_03::rak_03::rak_03::rak_03:

 

There are no Class balance changes currently planned for 5.2. I will keep you guys updated on when any Class changes will be coming in the future as soon as I have that information.

 

-eric

[Nightblazer]

Eric question for you. Currently when playing I can choose my instance to be PvE or PvP. If I choose to be in a PvE instance, does the open world PvP flag get disabled. Just like how it does currently with Outlaw's Den?

[EricMusco]

If I will be forced to do PvP ... I would honestly think about to quite the game! Never thought that day would come but as a pve player who only wants to enjoy the story and finally get her hubby back, this will be a NO GO for me!

Please Eric make it totally clear what kind of impact your PvP Visions for Ioktah have to all the PvE Players! For me, I can say, I would not survive a single minute on Iokath! Please Eric, don't break my heart!

If I'm not able to get my hubby back bc of those PvP actions I would hate you so much ...and I don't want to hate you at all. But this would be a Gamebreaker for me and, like I did in WoW, I would draw consequences!

 

Iokath will behave like all other open world areas in the game. If you are in a PvE instance, you will not experience any PvP unless you flag yourself or attempt to go into an enemy base (which could get you flagged).

 

-eric

[t-darko]

Iokath will behave like all other open world areas in the game. If you are in a PvE instance, you will not experience any PvP unless you flag yourself or attempt to go into an enemy base (which could get you flagged).

 

-eric

 

In other words; the area will behave like the game did on shared planets before the PVE/PVP instances were implemented!

Edited March 29, 2017 by t-darko

[Nightblazer]

Iokath will behave like all other open world areas in the game. If you are in a PvE instance, you will not experience any PvP unless you flag yourself or attempt to go into an enemy base (which could get you flagged).

 

-eric

 

I've gone into places like Outlaw's Den, enemy bases on a PvE instance and I never get flagged. I used my mount to go through castle organa on alderaan and I never got flagged.

[mmmbuddah]

In other words; the area will behave like the game did on shared planets before the PVE/PVP instances were implemented!

 

yay! I miss that.

[mmmbuddah]

I've gone into places like Outlaw's Den, enemy bases on a PvE instance and I never get flagged. I used my mount to go through castle organa on alderaan and I never got flagged.

 

You dont get flagged anymore. You used to. Now since they have the seperate instances for pve and pvp, you dont get flagged. This place will clearly be special.

[Zindoki]

What about fixing some of the underlying game engine issues/bugs like rubberbanding and class bugs?

[Zhiroc]

I loathe PvP in al forms. No matter what incentives are offered, I will not participate in any of it. I stopped at Eternal in DvL because there was no way I'd try to get any Valor. I'm at Valor 0 on all my chars, and I've never even queued for a WZ. When I happen to be in a PvP instance (for PvE reasons), if someone attacks I generally just sit back, wait to die, res back at a med center, and continue on doing what I was doing (or decide to change if there's too much PvP going on to avoid it).

 

SWTOR is not alone in this regard. I even played EVE Online for about 2 or 3 years and can probably count on one hand how many times I fired at a player ship.

[Zhiroc]

Iokath will behave like all other open world areas in the game. If you are in a PvE instance, you will not experience any PvP unless you flag yourself or attempt to go into an enemy base (which could get you flagged).

 

-eric

 

I'm not exactly sure that that means because there is no more concept of "flagging"--you're either in a PvP instance or you're not.

[casirabit]

Iokath will behave like all other open world areas in the game. If you are in a PvE instance, you will not experience any PvP unless you flag yourself or attempt to go into an enemy base (which could get you flagged).

 

-eric

 

Thank you for this.

[DarthZaul]

There are no Class balance changes currently planned for 5.2. I will keep you guys updated on when any Class changes will be coming in the future as soon as I have that information.

 

-eric

 

Class balance can't wait. Sorc DPS is completely broken and needs fixing for a new raid. We don't even take them to HM any more .

[KittyKat_Karrot]

There are no Class balance changes currently planned for 5.2. I will keep you guys updated on when any Class changes will be coming in the future as soon as I have that information.

 

-eric

 

That is completely unacceptable. 5.2 is way overdue as it is. Delaying balance changes even further is just ludicrous.

[Thaladan]

There are no Class balance changes currently planned for 5.2. I will keep you guys updated on when any Class changes will be coming in the future as soon as I have that information.

 

-eric

 

1- thank you for this clear and honest answer.

 

2- this is terrible. balance in PvP is destroyed like never before because of overpowered arsenal mercs and sorcs heal.

 

3- you don't mesure how it's terrible...you can't propose 24 specs and find normal that there are 3 above all.

 

iokath new PvP things will not be good just because of this.

Edited March 29, 2017 by Thaladan

[Ottoattack]

There are no Class balance changes currently planned for 5.2. I will keep you guys updated on when any Class changes will be coming in the future as soon as I have that information.

 

-eric

 

I knew this was coming, but the "I will keep you guys updated on when any Class changes will be coming in the future as soon as I have that information" is a no no. It needs to be specific timing now not undetermined date in the future.

 

You cannot wait more than 5 month after an expansion with no class balance. This is the first time ever I see a big title MMO or ARPG wait more than 2 month (including all previous SWTOR expansions) without class balance changes after expansion/game release. It says much about the dev team, BW and EA commitment to the game, which seem to be very little.

Edited March 29, 2017 by Ottoattack