Warzone Date Change and 5.6 Details

[Tahana]

How much will Master's Datacron cost?

 

My guess is either the same or more.. Definitely won't be less.

[DanNV]

To the first part of your question, it is giving you UC instead of CXP, not Command Tokens, so that is not impacted. I do not believe there is a choice on what items break down into but a general rule is stuff with stats breaks down to UC, everything else is CXP. There may be exceptions but I believe that was the guiding principle.

 

There is no longer a cap on UC because it isn't actually tracked via the currency tab any longer. It is now a stackable bind on legacy token in your inventory (allowing you to move it across characters).

 

Also related to that is UC costs and accrual. Costs for all items via UC will be doubled in 5.6, BUT, everywhere you previously gained UC (Warzones, Missions, Ops) will also double. This totally breaks even, there is no change to current rates for gaining and spending UC. The team set those numbers higher to be able to get the values for breaking down items from Galactic Command in place.

 

-eric

 

So, the bright idea here is to make the UCs we currently have be able to buy half of what they can now. Who thought that was a good idea or wouldn't cause you more PR problems?

[AlienEyeTX]

There might be a pretty significant mutiny if they started giving out set-bonus gear for free...It is highly likely it would be static gear. What color would be the only question.

 

Green, I bet. Just the basics to allow your character to do things at level.

[Costello]

It was actually mentioned in the roadmap, but it was a small mention so I think most people missed it.

 

We are producing a blog on it but I can give some basics. It is purchased from the CM (similar to the 60 and 65 tokens), and will be tradeable (so it can be sold on the GTN). It then gives you an item which you use on a character. That item will level you to 70 and place you on your Class ship (whether you have one or not from story, this doesn't impact your ability to get it naturally). It will also give you a set of starter gear for level 70.

 

It does not progress story at all so you could even use it on a brand new level one.

 

-eric

 

This would appear to be a genius move. Anyone returning or new coming to the game will be able to pay 20 bucks (or whatever it costs) and have their level 1 bumped to level 70 and given a full set of 220 gear or whatever. They then get to play the original story, the best part of the game while every so often increasing their CXP rating. So much so that by the time they have finished enjoying the story and get to the constant betrayal story line of 5.0 onward they will likely already be command rank 200 and plenty of unassembled tokens. No doubt confused by all the whiners on the forums saying CXP grind is too hard.

 

Whats not so clear though is why these new and returning players are looking to play tor now. I know there is a new film soon to be released but there was TFA, rogue one, 4 seasons of rebels and none of that seemed to draw them enmass. Worse yet if you look at the content of 2017 I doubt many people would think the game was going anywhere other than maintenance mode.

 

So inline with this rather clever idea to allow new people to come in enjoy the story all the while being level synced to make it easy but still offer CXP what is the plan to get people to want to try the game out with new characters. Is there an expansion announcement on the way or more species choices or a new class that will make this all seem a good time to get involved in tor role a level one character and bump them to 70.

[Savej]

Can we get an idea on the unassembled comm returns for disintegrations?. I'm curious to get an idea if I should be stockpiling crates for this. Thanks.

[LordTurin]

So, the bright idea here is to make the UCs we currently have be able to buy half of what they can now. Who thought that was a good idea or wouldn't cause you more PR problems?

 

This is a valid concern. Eric/Keith, please make sure they double the UCs we currently have as well.

[varietasplus]

Also related to that is UC costs and accrual. Costs for all items via UC will be doubled in 5.6, BUT, everywhere you previously gained UC (Warzones, Missions, Ops) will also double. This totally breaks even, there is no change to current rates for gaining and spending UC. The team set those numbers higher to be able to get the values for breaking down items from Galactic Command in place.

 

-eric

 

 

So ultimately you devaluate the effort/time a player has spent gathering UC. Since we can not transfer those currently between alts and higher tier stuff costs approximately 300 UC, a significant ammount of fractioned UC will lose half of its value (up to 150 per toon). Also, we lose the option to reserve current UC for the last pieces we are going to miss (we can not foretell which items RNG will/won't drop, but we need to spend the UC before patch is applied and item prices double).

 

You could have simply prevented this problem by reducing the ammount of UC granted by disintegration and leave gear exchange prices and mission grants unchanged. I find the intention behind this decision extremely disgusting.

[PennyAnn]

I really would appreciate clarification/confirmation of this, as I am on the waiting list to buy raid runs from a guild on the EU server, but can't while transfers are off. I would feel so sick to the stomach if I heard they wouldn't transfer with me.

 

If they are in your legacy bank, they will not transfer with you. If you are transferring a character to another server and you want that money to transfer with you... you withdraw it from your legacy bank before you move the character and have that money in their inventory instead.

[kodrac]

This would appear to be a genius move. Anyone returning or new coming to the game will be able to pay 20 bucks (or whatever it costs) and have their level 1 bumped to level 70 and given a full set of 220 gear or whatever. They then get to play the original story, the best part of the game while every so often increasing their CXP rating. So much so that by the time they have finished enjoying the story and get to the constant betrayal story line of 5.0 onward they will likely already be command rank 200 and plenty of unassembled tokens. No doubt confused by all the whiners on the forums saying CXP grind is too hard.

 

Good catch. I hadn't thought of the CXP angle in auto leveling to 70 and still having content to do.

[varietasplus]

It was actually mentioned in the roadmap, but it was a small mention so I think most people missed it.

 

We are producing a blog on it but I can give some basics. It is purchased from the CM (similar to the 60 and 65 tokens), and will be tradeable (so it can be sold on the GTN). It then gives you an item which you use on a character. That item will level you to 70 and place you on your Class ship (whether you have one or not from story, this doesn't impact your ability to get it naturally). It will also give you a set of starter gear for level 70.

 

It does not progress story at all so you could even use it on a brand new level one.

 

-eric

 

As a PVPer, I have complained many times that warzones sub max level are the slowest way to level a toon, especially with the endless queue times:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=932682

 

Also, you no longer gain anything by playing low level warzones, unlike the warzone commendation era. With this new option, who is going to play low level warzones anymore?

 

Don't get me wrong, I am really happy about the option, for it is extremely irritating to keep on playing the first chapters of KoFTE/KoTET to get all my alts to level 70 in reasonable time, but I would rather do it via PVP if you only bothered to alter the XP granted for warzones.

 

Finally, what I do not like about this CM consumable system is that it does not seem to differentiate between jumping from level 10 to 70 and jumping from level 65 to 70. I am certain there should be at least two different items, an expensive one without level limitations and a cheap one that only increases 5 levels. That would be an acceptable compromise.

[PennyAnn]

Also related to that is UC costs and accrual. Costs for all items via UC will be doubled in 5.6, BUT, everywhere you previously gained UC (Warzones, Missions, Ops) will also double. This totally breaks even, there is no change to current rates for gaining and spending UC. The team set those numbers higher to be able to get the values for breaking down items from Galactic Command in place.

 

-eric

 

This (again!) punishes the people who actually play the game regularly, grinding the UCs the way you wanted us to... and now they will be worth half of what they are today when 5.6 hits! This is something you guys need to carefully consider. All the good will that you would have gotten for implementing what should be a QoL improvement will be wiped away by the frustration and anger that devaluing our previous efforts causes.

 

This will force a situation where we will have to spend the UCs we currently have in order to keep their current value (and not lose 50% of the time and effort we've put into collecting them), but won't have the benefit of them being legacy wide before they tank in value. It's actually a punishment for this "QoL upgrade" - we only get UC disintegrations at the cost of 50% of our previous UCs collected. That's a terrible deal. Plus, many of us have been grinding those UCs non stop knowing that they would soon be legacy wide. All that time and effort to get cut off at the knees?

 

You'd be doing the players a bigger favor to keep it just like it is and only changing the part where it's legacy wide. But it's too late for that now, I'm sure (and I'm not suggesting that you waste the time of the coder who has been so diligently working on this to get it done in time for the update)... so I would suggest you double the value of the UCs on every player's characters with the "upgrade" so that we don't get robbed of half our UCs when this update goes live. Do not punish us all for the sin of actually continuing to play this game... I beg you.

[JattaGin]

To the first part of your question, it is giving you UC instead of CXP, not Command Tokens, so that is not impacted. I do not believe there is a choice on what items break down into but a general rule is stuff with stats breaks down to UC, everything else is CXP. There may be exceptions but I believe that was the guiding principle.

 

There is no longer a cap on UC because it isn't actually tracked via the currency tab any longer. It is now a stackable bind on legacy token in your inventory (allowing you to move it across characters).

 

Also related to that is UC costs and accrual. Costs for all items via UC will be doubled in 5.6, BUT, everywhere you previously gained UC (Warzones, Missions, Ops) will also double. This totally breaks even, there is no change to current rates for gaining and spending UC. The team set those numbers higher to be able to get the values for breaking down items from Galactic Command in place.

 

-eric

 

This is one of the best explaining yellow posts I ever read on this forum in all these years. Gotta give kudos where kudos is due.

[Qouivandes]

i hadnt really considered the implication that my current UC amounts will be worth half of what they are now. But, i guess, since it "totally breaks even" i should be stoked, brah.

[ImmortalLowlife]

Hey folks,

*snip

 

• Significant changes to Group Finder (new UI, all queuing in one place, upgraded rewards, solo activities added).
  
• Legacy-wide Credits and Unassembled Components.
  

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

Can you elaborate on the "solo activities added to GF" exactly how does that work and for what purpose?

 

Definitely looking forward to legacy credits!

Thanks for the info!

[Elssha]

There is no longer a cap on UC because it isn't actually tracked via the currency tab any longer. It is now a stackable bind on legacy token in your inventory (allowing you to move it across characters).

 

-eric

 

Eric - with legacy cargo space at a premium since the merger, and (AFAIK) no future plans to increase the max bay counts), could UC's not remain a legacy currency without a cap, with the option of changing them into a pack via vendor for people transferring servers (the way command comms worked in 4.0, except the default being a legacy-wide as opposed to a toon specific currency)?

 

I appreciate the ability to move it between servers, but beyond that (rare) occurrence there really is no advantage to keeping it out of the currency tab... and a lot of disadvantages.

[JediVektor]

This (again!) punishes the people who actually play the game regularly, grinding the UCs the way you wanted us to... and now they will be worth half of what they are today when 5.6 hits! This is something you guys need to carefully consider. All the good will that you would have gotten for implementing what should be a QoL improvement will be wiped away by the frustration and anger that devaluing our previous efforts causes.

 

This will force a situation where we will have to spend the UCs we currently have in order to keep their current value (and not lose 50% of the time and effort we've put into collecting them), but won't have the benefit of them being legacy wide before they tank in value. It's actually a punishment for this "QoL upgrade" - we only get UC disintegrations at the cost of 50% of our previous UCs collected. That's a terrible deal. Plus, many of us have been grinding those UCs non stop knowing that they would soon be legacy wide. All that time and effort to get cut off at the knees?

 

You'd be doing the players a bigger favor to keep it just like it is and only changing the part where it's legacy wide. But it's too late for that now, I'm sure (and I'm not suggesting that you waste the time of the coder who has been so diligently working on this to get it done in time for the update)... so I would suggest you double the value of the UCs on every player's characters with the "upgrade" so that we don't get robbed of half our UCs when this update goes live. Do not punish us all for the sin of actually continuing to play this game... I beg you.

 

 

This^^

[PennyAnn]

There is no longer a cap on UC because it isn't actually tracked via the currency tab any longer. It is now a stackable bind on legacy token in your inventory (allowing you to move it across characters).

 

Having it on the currency tab doesn't keep it from being used across characters (like Command Tokens work). Making it an item in your inventory is actually more burden than relief - now you have to have room to carry them, remember where you put them, and it raises the possibility of losing them by making them an actual item. Plus, Legacy Bay storage is becoming ever more cramped, especially now that people are combining multiple servers worth of items into a single space.

 

This isn't the deal breaker that cutting the UC value of already collected components in half is to the players - but it isn't really helping like it could be, either. Why do Quality of Life upgrades have to be paired with some kind of down side? Can't we have a win/win scenario somewhere? I think we're kinda due for one, and it'd make your job a lot less punishing and you guys a lot more appreciated by those of us who have been here since launch. It would make it a lot easier to be happy about the changes you're making, and believe me... we really want to be happy about them!

 

It's like... you're so close...

[Foambreaker]

...

There is no longer a cap on UC because it isn't actually tracked via the currency tab any longer. It is now a stackable bind on legacy token in your inventory (allowing you to move it across characters).

 

Also related to that is UC costs and accrual. Costs for all items via UC will be doubled in 5.6, BUT, everywhere you previously gained UC (Warzones, Missions, Ops) will also double. This totally breaks even, there is no change to current rates for gaining and spending UC. The team set those numbers higher to be able to get the values for breaking down items from Galactic Command in place.

 

-eric

 

Remember to double the UC when you convert it to items to offset the doubling you did for disintegration conversion.

[alireza_md]

Hey folks,

 

Quick update on Game Update 5.6. As we are getting closer to the launch of Update, we feel we need just a little bit more time to really bring the new Yavin Warzone up to quality. We are going to pull it out of Game Update 5.6 (launching 11/28), instead it will now launch as a part of 5.6.1 only two weeks later on 12/12. We apologize for the delay in the Warzone, we know that there is a lot of excitement for it and we are eager to get it to you as quick as we can.

 

This date change does not impact any other elements of the Game Update. As a reminder, here are some of the bigger things coming in two weeks with 5.6 (this is not a comprehensive list):

• New Flashpoint on Copero, a planet in the Chiss Ascendency (Solo Story, Group Story, Veteran, and Master Modes) and the continuation of the Alliance traitor storyline.
  
• The return of Raina Temple.
  
• Nahut, the third boss in the Gods From the Machine Operation (Story and Veteran modes).
  
• New GSF Deathmatch map set in the orbit over Iokath.
  
• Significant changes to Group Finder (new UI, all queuing in one place, upgraded rewards, solo activities added).
  
• Legacy-wide Credits and Unassembled Components.
  
• Changes to Galactic Command disintegration (gear now disintegrates directly into Unassembled Components to help mitigate RNG).
  
• New item, the Master’s Datacron. This allows you to take any existing character and boost them to level 70; this boost does not progress story.
  
• And more!
  

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

Thank you for the update. Would you please give us more information about how the legacy-wide credits will work for F2P/preferred status players?

[kopalame]

There is no longer a cap on UC because it isn't actually tracked via the currency tab any longer. It is now a stackable bind on legacy token in your inventory (allowing you to move it across characters).

 

Why can't you make it a legacy wide currency like command token is now? That is so infinitely more convinient.

[Tsillah]

Why can't you make it a legacy wide currency like command token is now? That is so infinitely more convinient.

My guess is that they want to stay away form having too many currencies. I'm not sure for example whether or not we'll have a new currency for the new FP for example like they did with Umbara. Personally I hope it will be the same currency as Umbara so it keeps Umbara relevany and give people 2 FPs to do instead of 1. But it's still unclear how we would earn those new purple augments, so I'm just guessing here.

[Deewe]

To the first part of your question, it is giving you UC instead of CXP, not Command Tokens, so that is not impacted. I do not believe there is a choice on what items break down into but a general rule is stuff with stats breaks down to UC, everything else is CXP. There may be exceptions but I believe that was the guiding principle.

 

-eric

HI Eric,

 

am I reading wrong that it will make leveling command ranks way slower as disintegrating items won't give anymore CXP?

 

Look like the system looks better once we are at lvl 300 but getting there will take way more time.

[ShadowGovernator]

So BioWare devalues the thousands of UC we have stored on our characters by 50%!!

Good job BW and thanks for communicating this in due time to your paying customers.

I guess there will be a long que at the UC gear vendors on the fleet before 5.6 hits in less than two weeks, when players realize that their hard earned UC are being cut in half, for no good reason!

 

 

As for your failure to deliver one tiny warzone on time, well it fits with your inability to deliver a single operation this year and I am no longer shocked at your constant failure I kind of expected it.

[Tsillah]

So BioWare devalues the thousands of UC we have stored on our characters by 50%!!

That is your choice.

 

They are only devaluated by half if you choose not to spend them before 5.6 comes out, because the prices aren't doubled yet. Add to that, that they announced this ahead of time and people have been given the chance to hoard unopened crates to be opened when 5.6 hits and I'm thinking it's really not as bad as you want to make it sound now.

[Eshvara]

As for your failure to deliver one tiny warzone on time, well it fits with your inability to deliver a single operation this year and I am no longer shocked at your constant failure I kind of expected it.

 

At least it is still worth your sub!