And this is your excuse?

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

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.

 

I have to agree with you. True class balance is a pipe dream, it's never happened before and it never will. By the same token, you do have to try to at least mitigate it when instances arise where the inbalance is particularly noticable and having a strong impact on a sizable portion of a player base.

 

As things are right now, I can't think of a time in this game where the class imbalance was worse than it is now. Even smash monkey time wasn't as bad, they did insane damage, yes, but at least they weren't all that difficult to kill.

 

5.0 is Reign of the Ranged. Mercs and Snipers are insanely strong in both offense and defense and they have no weaknesses. Mercs are walking trinitys, High DPS, they can out tank tanks and have healing to levels that are obscene for a supposed DPS spec. Snipers aren't a far cry from this either, however, their strong posistion is more with regard to melee than other ranged. Snipers vs melee, however, is even worse than mercs vs melee.

Both classes are simply far too strong.

 

Traditionally, higher DPS should be given to melee because they suffer from more limited uptime than ranged do, ranged also tend to take less damage than melee do [i'm generalizing of course], what BW did was reverse that balance and in doing so gave mercs and snipers veritably no weakness.

 

Of course skill levels and knowledge of class play into the equation a great deal, and just because someone plays a merc or sniper doesn't mean they are automatically going to perform better than melee or sorc dps. But all things being equal, they have the potential to completely outstrip the rest of the classes.

 

Plasma probe, which is becoming every more popular and frequently seen in WZs is wreaking havok. Most snipers are now Engineering so they gain access to it and its simply make QoL for melee utterly miserable, in some cases determining which side can or cannot win with regard to objectives, and it is really starting to effect players ability to enjoy pvp.

 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do the math on this. The devs were already hearing the concerns about the ranged menace before 5.0 even dropped when people found out about all the new dcds mercs were getting. Going live and since than confirmation of these concerns has been raised on the forums continually.

 

To be fair, Mercs and Snipers did need some love coming out of 4.0. What they ended up getting was enough to ensure their dominance over all other classes, all things being equal. They simply were given too much.

 

Add to this many examples of players of Mercs and Snipers themselves stating that they are too powerful [ and I give these people a great deal of credit for manning up like that, I really do] I'm not sure what more it could take to make the devs realize this is a big issue for players in PVP [PVE too but to a lesser extent i think], and people are at thier wit's end over the imbalances.

 

The longer this situation continues as is, the worse it's going to get, we don't want a state to occur wherein so much resentment builds up that when mercs/snipers do get some balancing changes the other players don't start hunting them in revenge! heh

 

The reality is there is a very strong chance that any meaningful class balance will not be forthcoming. I agree with some of the other posters that there is very likely a concern on the part of the devs that if they make meaningful changes to class balance they run the risk of pissing off the players of the OP classes. While the alternative is pissing off the rest of the players, that's already happened and they may be opting for the devil they know.

 

I don't think they realize just how unhappy many players are with the state of PVP which is unfortunate, because it's not only going to cost them, it's going to cost us too. The game goes under, everyone loses.

Edited April 10, 2017 by WayOfTheWarriorx

[Ottoattack]

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.

 

I am pretty sure the Federal Law is 12 weeks. Though this applies to the woman giving birth though. For the guy, most states hget nothing. I would not be surprised that EA having the minimum legally required.

[Faylestar]

While its getting outside the scope of the conversation:

 

 

I am pretty sure the Federal Law is 12 weeks. Though this applies to the woman giving birth though. For the guy, most states hget nothing. I would not be surprised that EA having the minimum legally required.

 

FMLA requires employers to provide the same allowances for Paternity leave as they do Maternity leave as long as the individual is eligible* AND it includes child-caring provisions. If the time is being provided only for Birth of a child and/or incapacitation due to pregnancy, it is not required to be offered to anyone other than the birth mother. If they are not covered by FMLA, but ARE covered at the state level (many states have provisions on unpaid family leave protections), those requirements may not apply.

 

 

* The company must have at least 50 employees concurrently employed for 20 weeks within 75 miles AND the employee has worked for the current employer for 12 months AND the employee has worked 1250 hours in the prior 12 months to the first day of leave (~26hours/week).

 

Exception to above is the Key Employee Exception (if the employee is among the top 10% of earners at a company AND it can be established that an extended leave would cause the business significant economic harm AND other compensation is made.

 

 

 

I get to explain stuff like this to people every day because woo regulatory bookkeeping.

Edited April 10, 2017 by Faylestar

[Andryah]

Maybe Andryah thinks babies come from storks still?

 

I've seen many cases over the years where the pregnancy is not disclosed, particularly if it is not the wife who is the employed party, until late in the term... as in not until the last trimester of pregnancy. There are a variety of reasons why people choose to disclose late, and they are for the most part valid reasons.

 

People continuing to snark and go pejorative and trying to denigrate and downplay the importance/validity of a new family member coming are just sick selfish people in my view. There are plenty of reasons to be critical of a range of studio decisions for SWTOR.......but going full-emo over a staff member being on maternity leave and thus impacting normal workflow is NOT one of them.

[Jdast]

I've seen many cases over the years where the pregnancy is not disclosed, particularly if it is not the wife who is the employed party, until late in the term... as in not until the last trimester of pregnancy. There are a variety of reasons why people choose to disclose late, and they are for the most part valid reasons.

 

People continuing to snark and go pejorative and trying to denigrate and downplay the importance/validity of a new family member coming are just sick selfish people in my view. There are plenty of reasons to be critical of a range of studio decisions for SWTOR.......but going full-emo over a staff member being on maternity leave and thus impacting normal workflow is NOT one of them.

 

Your self-righteous indignation would carry a lot more weight if, in fact, any one individual in this thread had done that. Even with the limitations you speak of with respect to timing of announcements, I only see people faulting the company for their handling of the situation.

 

I know you liken yourself to the forum den mother whose vast cornucopia of historical experience of managing complex projects, understanding of heuristics, and keen (dare I say unequaled) insight into human nature affords you the luxury of lecturing us on how, where and when to post but...

 

Please know that some of us think you are nothing but a smug tool.

[tummiswtor]

"One of the class designers just had a kid but once he is back they will dive into that." .

 

Yeah. I saw that. Even if it's true, I cant believe how they could say something like that. It's unprofessional.

[HiltoftheDragon]

I've seen many cases over the years where the pregnancy is not disclosed, particularly if it is not the wife who is the employed party, until late in the term... as in not until the last trimester of pregnancy. There are a variety of reasons why people choose to disclose late, and they are for the most part valid reasons.

 

People continuing to snark and go pejorative and trying to denigrate and downplay the importance/validity of a new family member coming are just sick selfish people in my view. There are plenty of reasons to be critical of a range of studio decisions for SWTOR.......but going full-emo over a staff member being on maternity leave and thus impacting normal workflow is NOT one of them.

 

Do us a favor and go back through this entire thread and quote every statement you read pertaining to players personally attacking this person taking a leave for his/her new child.

 

We're waiting.

 

Yeah. I saw that. Even if it's true, I cant believe how they could say something like that. It's unprofessional.

 

Heh yea, i spoke earlier in this thread stating that i just cant take these streams seriously anymore. Its like watching a freaking comedy show. Eric, and whoever is with him on the stream arent in sync with each other at all. They're pretty much each others yes guy. Its like they have no idea or plan on what they're going to talk about. Instead its just random little remarks and clueless statements. I would agree that using a persons new born child as a blatant excuse for not properly keeping this game in the shape it should be in utterly disgusting.

Edited April 10, 2017 by HiltoftheDragon

[DarthWoad]

People continuing to snark and go pejorative and trying to denigrate and downplay the importance/validity of a new family member coming are just sick selfish people in my view. There are plenty of reasons to be critical of a range of studio decisions for SWTOR.......but going full-emo over a staff member being on maternity leave and thus impacting normal workflow is NOT one of them.

 

I challenge you to quote one person who did exactly that in this thread, or anywhere on this forum.

 

Again, the point has flown straight over your head. I would suggest you take a minute and actually READ what people are typing, rather then instantly jumping into the thread and attacking them for criticising something Bioware has done.

 

I will explain to you in plain english. People are not upset that someone had a baby. They are upset that Bioware didn't properly plan around this. We were told someones having a baby as an excuse for why there isn't any class balance updates. THAT is the issue here. But of course you can ignore everything i said and blindly defend them as usual.

[DarkSaberMaster]

I challenge you to quote one person who did exactly that in this thread, or anywhere on this forum.

 

Again, the point has flown straight over your head. I would suggest you take a minute and actually READ what people are typing, rather then instantly jumping into the thread and attacking them for criticising something Bioware has done.

 

I will explain to you in plain english. People are not upset that someone had a baby. They are upset that Bioware didn't properly plan around this. We were told someones having a baby as an excuse for why there isn't any class balance updates. THAT is the issue here. But of course you can ignore everything i said and blindly defend them as usual.

 

Why are any of you surprised about Andryah's posts? It is totally in character for this person to take **** that nobody has said and make comments about it. And to full on defend this studio. It's business as usual for him/her.

 

And since I know that he/she can't resist responding to anything on this board, let me just say this. If you (Andryah) had the experience as you say you do, in project management, you would know that when you run a shop, section, team, whatever, you cross train people in various duties. Meaning as in that you don't have one person who does everything and is your single point of failure. This situation being exactly that. If work stops because one person is gone for whatever reason, you have a failed business/work plan. Even if that person is the team lead, you train someone else to fulfill that slot so work does not stop. That's Leadership 101. It's called delegation of authority when it comes to a leader. And that is what everyone is upset about. But as usual, you chose to let that fly over your head and attack everyone for something nobody said.

 

In closing. You're whole TLDR essay was plain bs.

Edited April 11, 2017 by DarkSaberMaster

[AscendingSky]

I've seen many cases over the years where the pregnancy is not disclosed, particularly if it is not the wife who is the employed party, until late in the term... as in not until the last trimester of pregnancy. There are a variety of reasons why people choose to disclose late, and they are for the most part valid reasons.

 

People continuing to snark and go pejorative and trying to denigrate and downplay the importance/validity of a new family member coming are just sick selfish people in my view. There are plenty of reasons to be critical of a range of studio decisions for SWTOR.......but going full-emo over a staff member being on maternity leave and thus impacting normal workflow is NOT one of them.

 

Except absolutely no one in this thread is blaming the employee for going out on paternity leave. They're blaming EAWare for 1) not having sufficient staff resources to cover things if one single employee goes out on leave, and 2) not preparing for this eventuality properly. Period, end of story.

 

In all honesty, this situation feels like EAWare throwing this unnamed employee under the bus to me. It wasn't our business why that employee was out, but by telling us he went out on paternity leave and that's why we couldn't get any class balance changes for the next several months, they were basically casting blame on him. Fathers get enough crap about how they don't need leave like mothers of babies do, they don't need their own companies selling them out and setting them up as the bad guy.

 

You're building a huge Wicker Man-sized strawman here and beating on it to try to give yourself the moral highground. Instead, you're doing what you're accusing everyone else is doing--snarking, going pejorative, and denigrating and downplaying players for voicing their criticisms of EAWare's bad management practices. You still haven't addressed the false accusations you've made against me on the subject, which were quite pejorative, insulting, snarky, and denigrating as well! Practice what you preach, white knight.

Edited April 10, 2017 by AscendingSky

[MrBorsh]

gz with a new kid

[LordDelectus]

Paternity leave is just as important as maternity leave.

 

I agree. This is an advanced industrialized nation. I am a ruthless capitalist and totally against big government, but reproduction is the entire purpose of our species. It is essential. I would rather not be too pushy or demanding on women, nor their male partners...I say that again PARTNERS, in the days and weeks after the birth of a child. I am not a feminist, but I do think the key to a healthy society is a healthy family and that involves both the parents of a child supporting the child and each other, parenting is a partnership. Life is not as easy as it was in the 50's. Men can and should chip in, I would argue it makes us better fathers and husbands. I would rather not be seen as a sperm-donor and an ATM, or bill-paying service.

 

That said, Austin has serious HR issues if they have no cross-training or back-up plan for occurrences like this. An earthquake that destroys their offices? Yah. Disruptive.

 

The birth of a child...somebody has cancer....somebody is on vacation. These things can and do happen in places of business. This is not a small family-run shop. They should have their $%^& organized and things should proceed rather fluidly when these things happen.

[HiltoftheDragon]

Except absolutely no one in this thread is blaming the employee for going out on paternity leave. They're blaming EAWare for 1) not having sufficient staff resources to cover things if one single employee goes out on leave, and 2) not preparing for this eventuality properly. Period, end of story.

 

In all honesty, this situation feels like EAWare throwing this unnamed employee under the bus to me. It wasn't our business why that employee was out, but by telling us he went out on paternity leave and that's why we couldn't get any class balance changes for the next several months, they were basically casting blame on him. Fathers get enough crap about how they don't need leave like mothers of babies do, they don't need their own companies selling them out and setting them up as the bad guy.

 

You're building a huge Wicker Man-sized strawman here and beating on it to try to give yourself the moral highground. Instead, you're doing what you're accusing everyone else is doing--snarking, going pejorative, and denigrating and downplaying players for voicing their criticisms of EAWare's bad management practices. You still haven't addressed the false accusations you've made against me on the subject, which were quite pejorative, insulting, snarky, and denigrating as well! Practice what you preach, white knight.

 

That right there was the major mistake made. Why would a company just blurt out private information like that......unless its a lie.

 

/smh

Edited April 11, 2017 by HiltoftheDragon

[Darklighter]

"One of the class designers just had a kid but once he is back they will dive into that." - Is it an excuse that there is no balance for more than 4 months? Next time u will say "one of the our operation designers have a kid and we will not do operations 2 years" oh, shi...

 

Try to play Sage/Sorc DD in PvE, or try to play WZs on that class against Maras/Sentinels, i don't say about Commando/Merc. Good Job, BW. Nice excuse.

 

Have you seen a pic of the SWTOR team? It's like 10 people. WoW has more than that working on a single class in game.

 

This game is on life support.

[Sarova]

From the patch notes:

Warzones

Increased the requirements to earn Damage Done, Healing Done, and Damage Prevented medals

My main in a lightning sorcerer. I've lost the PvP will to live...

[Smuglebunny]

My belief is that the SWTOR team is composed of no more than 20 people including programmers and decision makers.

 

EA needs to fire them ALL and re-staff or just let the game go. Having it go on like this is destroying the reputation of both EA and Bioware.

[Talon_strikes]

I've seen many cases over the years where the pregnancy is not disclosed, particularly if it is not the wife who is the employed party, until late in the term... as in not until the last trimester of pregnancy. There are a variety of reasons why people choose to disclose late, and they are for the most part valid reasons.

 

People continuing to snark and go pejorative and trying to denigrate and downplay the importance/validity of a new family member coming are just sick selfish people in my view. There are plenty of reasons to be critical of a range of studio decisions for SWTOR.......but going full-emo over a staff member being on maternity leave and thus impacting normal workflow is NOT one of them.

Your posts never cease to bewilder me.

[AscendingSky]

Your posts never cease to bewilder me.

 

They just keep beating that same strawman, ignoring all the posts calling them out on the fact that NO ONE is slamming the employee for taking time off to deal with a new baby. NOT A SINGLE PERSON IS BLAMING THE EMPLOYEE FOR THE DELAY IN CLASS BALANCE. Everyone's blaming EAWare, but Andryah can't have anyone slighting them! White knight to the extreme!

Edited April 11, 2017 by AscendingSky

[EnzoForMe]

The fact that they actually said in a livestream to their paying customers that content is being delayed because one of their employees had to take paternity/maternity leave is shockingly unprofessional and presents a front of the situation being out of their hands when really it comes down to poor planning by the studio.

 

Leave is easy to plan for, companies do it all the time. You allocate additional resources and people ahead of time to make sure there is minimal to no impact on the product. The fact that 1 person could delay class balancing is implausible unless this game is being run on an absolute skeleton crew, which is likely. And even so, I still can't believe they shared a private detail about their employee in such a careless and bizarre way.

Edited April 11, 2017 by EnzoForMe

[AscendingSky]

The fact that they actually said in a livestream to their paying customers that content is being delayed because one of their employees had to take paternity/maternity leave is shockingly unprofessional and presents a front of the situation being out of their hands when really it comes down to poor planning by the studio.

 

Leave is easy to plan for, companies do it all the time. You allocate additional resources and people ahead of time to make sure there is minimal to no impact on the product. The fact that 1 person could delay class balancing is implausible unless this game is being run on an absolute skeleton crew, which is likely. And even so, I still can't believe they shared a private detail about their employee in such a careless and bizarre way.

 

Yeah, as I said earlier in the thread, EAWare was basically throwing that guy under the bus, pointing angry customers his way to blame for why they didn't have class balance issues addressed yet. I think giving up that kind of private information about an employee is illegal in Texas too, though I'm not a lawyer so I can't say that for 100%.

[Maladon]

None of us had sex with that man's wife, why is her pregnancy our problem??

[HiltoftheDragon]

Yeah, as I said earlier in the thread, EAWare was basically throwing that guy under the bus, pointing angry customers his way to blame for why they didn't have class balance issues addressed yet. I think giving up that kind of private information about an employee is illegal in Texas too, though I'm not a lawyer so I can't say that for 100%.

 

As im sure the guy on leave has already read all the posts here, and who knows where else.......will certainly return to the duties waiting for him (since they have no one else that can do it) and clean up the fuster cluk that eric and his cronies have caused him. I would personally have a bit of resentment towards my employer if they did that to me.

Edited April 11, 2017 by HiltoftheDragon

[Jett-Rinn]

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

 

Yet month after month you keep paying them.

[Soljin]

Yet month after month you keep paying them.

 

It's the only Star Wars IP on the market that is not ancient....Of course people are still paying and playing. Imagine if the game was managed well how large the player base would be...

[Belegnole]

Not having a backup or fallback plan for a missing employee is a rather large failing for management. It is also something that I am not expecting from a professional company. Especially when I am a paying subscriber.

 

On the other hand I am very happy for the new parent.

 

Congrats! by the way

 

As to blaming it on said person, well that's just proof of a very small team.

 

and really... those of us that have been here a long while shouldn't expect to get what we expect anyway....right?

Edited April 12, 2017 by Belegnole