And this is your excuse?

[Vember]

Yep, one dev had a kid so we've had five months of merc/sniper/sorc healer dominance.

 

 

Has this dude been on paternity leave for five months?

[americanaussie]

Yep, one dev had a kid so we've had five months of merc/sniper/sorc healer dominance.

 

 

Has this dude been on paternity leave for five months?

 

sorc healers aren't overpowered.

 

and no. 12 weeks.

[Vember]

sorc healers aren't overpowered.

 

 

Yeaaa they kinda are

[Sarova]

Because Bioware decided that PvE and PvP should share stats when they eliminated expertise. Trust us, we hate it even more than you PvE-only folks do.

 

So blame them, if you need to blame anyone. But sorry, the state of warzone balance trumps you not being able to beat Vaylin. (hint: kite her into the healing orbs and stay inside her melee range and its an easy fight)

I completely agree. I can't believe someone is in here complaining about their merc needing help against Vaylin. Not every fight is a simple face-smash; tactics matter.

 

Back on topic - I'm at a loss to understand their poor excuses. Lightning Sorcs are particularly bad at the moment in all areas. When PvE soloing I have switched my companion to damage because their output exceeds mine. In random PvP I just accept that death is coming swiftly and be thankful for the end & the unassembled components. I haven't noticed any additional survive-ability with better gear either. My healer Sorc does slightly better but only if guarded (low chance of this in random WZ especially in the 4v4 matches).

[jimmorrisson]

Companies which give their employees child leave should be commended. However the fact that one person is responsible for class balancing in addition to Musco apparently taking over Tait's workload is not a good sign.

[TUXs]

Companies which give their employees child leave should be commended. However the fact that one person is responsible for class balancing in addition to Musco apparently taking over Tait's workload is not a good sign.

One person has always been responsible for balance...this is nothing new.

[Andryah]

Yeah but it's not company management fault. The leave is too temporary to train up a new person and the person on leave may have the most experience at the classes to balance them. You don't want someone coming in saying...Mercs need more power, let's nerf sorcs, sages, snipers, slingers, and let's take away some mobility from Scoundrels, operatives, and Assassins.

 

No. You don't want people lesser in the know. The employee on paternity leave will be back soon to review the data his team is collecting and start making some plans. We need to get out of the I DEMAND IT YESTERDAY mentality and start being sympathetic human beings.

 

Exactly.

 

That and he made it clear this was not the only person working class balance (though it appears the negative narratives either did not read that or refuse to understand it). Now the staff member on leave may be the lead subject matter expert.

 

I certainly would not want class balance changes made with an incomplete balance team (especially with a subject matter expert missing) .. as that would likely not end well in terms of balance decisions.

 

This thread has not disappointed.. it continues to demonstrate how really petty toward the studio some of the players of this game really are.

Edited April 10, 2017 by Andryah

[Ottoattack]

There is a class balance dev and there is more than one :eek:. Out of curiosity, what do they do on daily basis

 

To echo what other posters mentioned, class balance issues are not something that came out last week and delaying work as excuse that someone is out is unacceptable. I am a CPA and the tax deadline is in a week, if I am out this week (and probably a bit more) cuz my wife had a baby, is definitely acceptable and expected. The fact that I sat on you tax return all the way till today and now I cannot deliver because I have a family emergency, is inexcusable.

 

TBH, I could not care less why you BW did not delivered, but the fact is that you have not. What is even worse, is you are not even committing to a time table. Well, there is a reason why EA is considered one of the worst companies (and got the title twice in a row) and that this game is not been doing good lately.

 

BW, PR hint, if you cannot deliver , do not talk about why you did not deliver, but how and when you will. Talking about why, even when for legitimate reasons (one person in a company is out surely is not) is nothing more than pin pointing a target on yourself.

Edited April 10, 2017 by Ottoattack

[Ottoattack]

I'll take a crack at it. Class changes always piss off players. Did you see how many were ready to quit over the Dvl gear bug being fixed? If they nerf mercs, will mercs storm the forum in protest?

 

They probably didn't want to make any changes that could potentially upset the playerbase at the moment.

 

You will never be able to make everyone happy, but is that the problem or is it that BW arrogant/ignorant approach and comments, like preservative problem and L2P is what pisses off the player?

 

The annihilation marauder response that causer a major backlash last year, was not cuz a poor dev was trying to help and the mean player base devoured him alive for it. It was an arrogant dev telling the player base L2P, and the player base response was on the same level, learn to design, exaggerated as always. But masses cannot be controlled.

Edited April 10, 2017 by Ottoattack

[Andryah]

BW, PR hint, if you cannot deliver , do not talk about why you did not deliver, but how and when you will. Talking about why, even when for legitimate reasons (one person in a company is out surely is not) is nothing more than pin pointing a target on yourself.

 

While I actually agree with you.. most players in the forum apparently do not. Go read the "merge server demand threads" and you will see that what you propose is not acceptable to the more negative players. They (the negative players) not only demand answers, they also demand the exact answers that they want and the actions that support those answers.

Edited April 10, 2017 by Andryah

[Andryah]

You will never be able to make everyone happy, but is that the problem or is it that or is it BW arrogant/ignorant approach and comments, like preservative problem and L2P is what pisses off the player?

 

I have yet to play an MMO in all my years of playing where regardless of what a studio does or does not do regarding class balance changes... some players will be pissed off about it.

 

It really is a no win situation for MMO studios... though if you get it close enough... most people will just move on and play. But of course we always have a small clutch of armchair designers ready to swoop in and condemn any and every class balance change, most often in the context of their own special interests.

 

There is a reason most studios do class balance infrequently.

[Ottoattack]

While I actually agree with you.. most players in the forum apparently do not. Go read the "merge server demand threads" and you will see that what you propose is not acceptable to the more negative players. They (the negative players) not only demand answers, they also demand the exact answers that they want and the actions that support those answers.

 

Well, if BW take a specific position on the server merger issue that would be nice. SILENCE IS NOT GOLDEN. Is it better than lame excuses, that is debatable.

[Ottoattack]

I have yet to play an MMO in all my years of playing where regardless of what a studio does or does not do regarding class balance changes... some players will be pissed off about it.

 

It really is a no win situation for MMO studios... though if you get it close enough... most people will just move on and play. But of course we always have a small clutch of armchair designers ready to swoop in and condemn any and every class balance change, most often in the context of their own special interests.

 

There is a reason most studios do class balance infrequently.

 

My experience with other games (including early stages of SWTOR) is quarterly and about 4-6 weeks after a major expansion. BW is way behind the any other major studio in this respect.

Edited April 10, 2017 by Ottoattack

[Sargrith]

So again, if i DO NOT PVP, WHY should my mercenary be nerfed??? Are you going to come help me against Vailyn? NO. Are you going to come help me against Valkorion? NO. So why should i have my abilities cut and chopped?? Whenever i need help, there NO ONE to offer any help, so why should you be strong?

Answer to that.

 

 

You realize you got your current defensive buffs because of PvP balance right? So without PvP you wouldn't have those defenses that are currently over the top. And seriously you need those to do anything in story mode?

 

The big changes that would help the only real nerf would be to the spammable AoE slow from sabo gunslingers, maybe remove the heal to full from one of the merc defenses,....and not sure anything else needs nerfing.

 

Sages deserve more dps, Guardians and PT deserves to be tougher in DPS builds.

 

We can talk sage healing, tanks other than shadows, and stealth another time.

[AscendingSky]

Yeah but it's not company management fault. The leave is too temporary to train up a new person and the person on leave may have the most experience at the classes to balance them. You don't want someone coming in saying...Mercs need more power, let's nerf sorcs, sages, snipers, slingers, and let's take away some mobility from Scoundrels, operatives, and Assassins.

 

No. You don't want people lesser in the know. The employee on paternity leave will be back soon to review the data his team is collecting and start making some plans. We need to get out of the I DEMAND IT YESTERDAY mentality and start being sympathetic human beings.

 

No one is in an I DEMAND IT YESTERDAY mentality. They're in the "Class balance has been an issue for five months since 5.0 dropped, and you're claiming the reason nothing has been done about it is because one person in particular JUST NOW went out on paternity leave?"

 

Babies take nine months to come out on average. You have plenty of advanced warning about them! It's reasonable to assume EAWare knew back in December, when 5.0 came out, that this dev was going to have to go out on paternity leave at around this time, as his partner was most likely four months along and would definitely have known she was pregnant at that point. They could have planned around it. They could have trained other people to take over this guy's duties while he was out on his (completely deserved and congrats to him!) paternity leave. But they didn't, and now they are using the excuse of this ONE PERSON being out on leave as the reason that THEIR ENTIRE DEVELOPMENT TEAM has not been able to come up with class balance fixes in THE ENTIRE FIVE PREVIOUS MONTHS before the one dev in question went out on leave. THAT is the problem.

 

Despite what Andryah tried to say about me in an earlier post (that I called them out on and they are now refusing to acknowledge), I am not saying it is the fault of the developer out on leave. Absolutely not; he deserves his leave. It's a management competency problem; they should have been fully prepared for this and able to cover the absence of one dev, but somehow they weren't.

Edited April 10, 2017 by AscendingSky

[Soljin]

No one is in an I DEMAND IT YESTERDAY mentality. They're in the "Class balance has been an issue for five months since 5.0 dropped, and you're claiming the reason nothing has been done about it is because one person in particular JUST NOW went out on paternity leave?"

 

Babies take nine months to come out on average. You have plenty of advanced warning about them! It's reasonable to assume EAWare knew back in December, when 5.0 came out, that this dev was going to have to go out on paternity leave at around this time, as his partner was most likely four months along and would definitely have known she was pregnant at that point. They could have planned around it. They could have trained other people to take over this guy's duties while he was out on his (completely deserved and congrats to him!) paternity leave. But they didn't, and now they are using the excuse of this ONE PERSON being out on leave as the reason that THEIR ENTIRE DEVELOPMENT TEAM has not been able to come up with class balance fixes in THE ENTIRE FIVE PREVIOUS MONTHS before the one dev in question went out on leave. THAT is the problem.

 

Despite what Andryah tried to say about me in an earlier post (that I called them out on and they are now refusing to acknowledge), I am not saying it is the fault of the developer out on leave. Absolutely not; he deserves his leave. It's a management competency problem; they should have been fully prepared for this and able to cover the absence of one dev, but somehow they weren't.

 

This...

 

5.0 has been in the works for quite a long while and even the most basic of planning and use of foresight would lend to a balance pass in the works a few months max after the Exp dropped.

 

Bioware is well aware class changes will always end up needing a balance sweep soon after because of their choice of testing methods.

 

If the guy has Paternity leave then take it...So what. But Bioware is responsible for either requesting he make arrangements within his group or making them for him to temporarily back fill his position.

 

On the other hand if you do not have the resources available none of these things would likely happen...And my guess is that's the case.

 

This game is being strangled to death budget wise and is failing on many fronts as a result. It's not a shocking revelation by any means, it's an old game that has struggled with monetization from the very start.

Edited April 10, 2017 by Soljin

[DarthWoad]

Exactly.

 

That and he made it clear this was not the only person working class balance (though it appears the negative narratives either did not read that or refuse to understand it). Now the staff member on leave may be the lead subject matter expert.

 

I certainly would not want class balance changes made with an incomplete balance team (especially with a subject matter expert missing) .. as that would likely not end well in terms of balance decisions.

 

This thread has not disappointed.. it continues to demonstrate how really petty toward the studio some of the players of this game really are.

 

You seem to be ignorant of the fact that a pregnancy doesn't happen instantly.

 

They had plenty of time to plan around it, for the "lead" class balance guy to tell the others what to do. It's called planning. In your "years of project management" (which you constantly feel the need to announce to everyone all the time), I'd expect you to understand what planning means (or maybe you refuse to understand it).

Edited April 10, 2017 by DarthWoad

[AscendingSky]

You seem to be ignorant of the fact that a pregnancy doesn't happen instantly.

 

They had plenty of time to plan around it, for the "lead" class balance guy to tell the others what to do. It's called planning. In your "years of project management" (which you constantly feel the need to announce to everyone all the time), I'd expect you to understand what planning means.

 

Maybe Andryah thinks babies come from storks still?

[stoopicus]

Maybe Andryah thinks babies come from storks still?

 

Don't be silly. He thinks they come in CXP crates, and he sees no problem with that at all.

[TUXs]

Maybe Andryah thinks babies come from storks still?

Everybody knows that pregnancy is 100% RNG...

[Kirtastropohe]

I think the issue is that the company refuses to deal with things in an effective manner. You will always have players who are completely unreasonable, but the majority will understand the constraints of finances, time, development cycles. That being said, these people will also understand what a reasonable time frame is for correction, as well as when the company isn't doing things well on a customer relations front.

 

There are some basic things that have to be paid attention to. The sniper/slinger 70% spammable AOE slow is inexcusable to have let though. Same for the Merc/mando multihealthbars (unless you just wait and let them shoot you and not touch them). To have not addressed this pvp match breaking crap for 5 months is really not acceptable. There is no excuse, period.

 

The needed changes didn't require a lot of thought either. Many people have voiced viable changes to the abilities involved. It doesn't take 5 months plus to realize that it's probably a bad idea to give a class an ability to constantly drop something on players that slows them for 70% and continues even when they're stunned, especially when it can be placed over the areas that you've required players to go to in order to do the WZ objectives. How does this require a lot of thought to fix?

[Rion_Starkiller]

If they nerf mercs, will mercs storm the forum in protest?

 

This.

 

The easiest fix is to nerf mercs. The more difficult, and more appropriate, fix would be to beef up some classes/specs.

[Darkside]

This game's development is becoming a really long running joke.

[Faylestar]

I've been in their offices a few times.

 

Based on their staff size and methods of delegation at that time, and knowing some of the people who were there that arent anymore, I fully accept that answer as a legitimate reason why things arent getting addressed in a reasonable timeframe.

 

Now, the other question, "Should that be a reason" is a resounding no.

 

 

Since this is Texas, it's probably unpaid leave though... but still a legal entitlement.

 

Texas does not have specific Maternity leave provisions (Only California, New Jersey and Rhode Island have paid maternity leave provisions), and as such, it is covered under national FMLA guidelines (12 weeks protected leave), unless the employer has established those provisions on their own.

[Rion_Starkiller]

Texas does not have specific Maternity leave provisions (Only California, New Jersey and Rhode Island have paid maternity leave provisions), and as such, it is covered under national FMLA guidelines (12 weeks protected leave), unless the employer has established those provisions on their own.

 

Yeah, but BW (EA) is a multi-national company, so I'm sure they have their own policy in place that goes beyond TX minimum laws. Heck, the company I work for even has paternity leave.