What is your opinion of Galactic Command after the recent changes?

[DWho]

Personally, I think it is fine. I have geared multiple alts with 244-248 gear just using my main to gather the mods and then sticking them in Legacy gear. For what I do, I don't need 30 toons all in BIS gear (or for that matter having set bonuses). I have a group of characters I run OPs with and they have BIS and set bonuses but everything else doesn't need it so whatever rate I gain new pieces at works for me.

[PennyAnn]

I pretty much still hate it. They've made some better tweaks in trying to return some semblance to the way it was before they pulled this crap on us; but it is probably more convoluted now than it was before with the simple crystal/vendor, Ops boss drop, PvP gear vendor system before.

 

In that regard, I'm still of a mind they need to turn Galactic Command into a side "fluff grind" that would include cartel market items in their RNG boxes and simply roll us back on how gearing works. It isn't going to happen, I know. Just saying my opinion is that this is a failed, and terrible idea, for a mmorpg. I know there were good intentions behind it... but the implementation left a lot to be desired.

 

How I'd rather see it go:

• Either return the crystal vendors method or implement one, and only one, token currency for the game. No matter what you do... you're earning this one type of token for everything.
  
• Address the real confusion with the past gearing system. Keep gear naming simple. Example: Jedi Knight Tank Gear in the naming on vendors instead of a different name for each armor set every new gear bump.
  
• Allow Galactic Command to be a supplementary aid to gearing but not the main source of gear. Instead, add random items from CM (legacy bound) to it to make subscribing desireable to participate in it.
  

 

The above allows those that still wish to get their gear through a pointless RNG grind to do so. While it would return a pretty cut and dry "Do x thing, get x gear, or pick out x gear from vendor with token" process to those of us that wish you'd never touched that process to begin with. The added bonus would be that by adding the chance at getting CM items via Galactic Command probably would drive more people to resubscribe. Please note that I'm not asking for items to have 90% drop rate or anything like that. Just knowing there is a 1% chance at getting something nice would be enough for a lot of players even if all items are BoL and not up for trade or sell on the GTN. And, finally, what I feel was probably the real source of the problem to begin with... simply make vendor named gear (for classes) easier to discern through keeping Gear Naming stupid simple. This is Jedi Knight Tank Gear, This is Jedi Knight DPS Gear... right in the item name rather than changing to convoluted names every time there is a gear bump up.

 

My post can largely be disregarded though as I know it isn't going to happen. Once a major change is allowed to be pushed to live you're pretty well stuck with it in the mmorpg industry. Rollbacks are a rarity now. And this is exactly why we shouldn't be so quick to judge people that are voicing concerns over changes being presented on a Test server. The wait and see approach is often not a good idea in an mmorpg. Why? Once you disinterest a group of your players-- it is very hard to get them back with whatever put them off still in play.

 

There are cartel market items in the GC packs - Chance Cubes. They contain cartel market items in them. The drop rate is low, as you mention. But they are already doing that (and it is not giving GC any benefit or encouraging more people to subscribe, even if it's a nice addition to what was previously a spot that just dropped schematics in your crates).

[PennyAnn]

I have to disagree, I think that the inital GC system was really bad but the system that we have today, apart from the slow process of getting high endurance tanking mods and enhancements, is far better than what we have had historically. I have always played the PvE part of SWTOR and thus might be a bit ill-informed of the PvP gearing, but at least from a PvE perspective. Gearing today is far easier, quicker and better for the vast majority of the player base, sure you can argue that why would people who only do heroics and stuff get full BiS, but they are facing the RNG with crates and will gear up and gain crates far slower than people who run Operations/Flashpoints/Warzones.

 

Sure, there are multiple things that could be improved, but based on what we have had prior at launch, during 2.0, during 3.0 or during the dreadful "highlighted hard mode" period of 4.0, the current Galactic Command system is very well designed based on what type of player base swtor has.

 

At 5.0 launch there was a cap on CXP. Talk about frustrating! Zero gear dropped in operations. 100% of your gear was based on crates, and less of it dropped (more useless green/blue and unmoddable gear has been slowly phased out over time). They have added command boost items purchased with command tokens that any character can use at any tier, they have slightly improved CXP rates here and there (though it overall needs more work).

 

I agree with you, compared to 5.0 launch the system is infinitely better. Does it still need work? Yep. It does. But if you read my post with the spoilers a page or two back and the "history" of GC via patch notes, it's hard to argue that it has not improved at all.

[Tsillah]

At 5.0 launch there was a cap on CXP. Talk about frustrating! Zero gear dropped in operations. 100% of your gear was based on crates, and less of it dropped (more useless green/blue and unmoddable gear has been slowly phased out over time). They have added command boost items purchased with command tokens that any character can use at any tier, they have slightly improved CXP rates here and there (though it overall needs more work).

 

I agree with you, compared to 5.0 launch the system is infinitely better. Does it still need work? Yep. It does. But if you read my post with the spoilers a page or two back and the "history" of GC via patch notes, it's hard to argue that it has not improved at all.

It certainly has improved from what it was but the direction of improvement they chose also created other issues along the way. We went from near impossible to get your gear together to mind numbingly easy to get BiS gear.

 

I hardly play anymore at the moment because honestly it hurts my head because it's so easy to do that I can't get myself to do it anymore. I seem to constantly hit my tolerance for dumb repetitious activities. Dumb cause they're stupidly easy and repetitious because they are quick runs.

 

But then I also get tired of doing the same ops in the harder modes over and over again as well and the pool of players to do them has also thinned a lot. Currently I'm mostly waiting on news about the next expansion. Just need to get some excitement back. I've taken more and longer breaks with the game in the last two years than ever before and I'm on the brink of another break again. I pretty much have only played half the year in 2017 and 2016. This year might end up the same or worse if that expansion doesn't bring it.

[PennyAnn]

It certainly has improved from what it was but the direction of improvement they chose also created other issues along the way. We went from near impossible to get your gear together to mind numbingly easy to get BiS gear.

 

I hardly play anymore at the moment because honestly it hurts my head because it's so easy to do that I can't get myself to do it anymore. I seem to constantly hit my tolerance for dumb repetitious activities. Dumb cause they're stupidly easy and repetitious because they are quick runs.

 

But then I also get tired of doing the same ops in the harder modes over and over again as well and the pool of players to do them has also thinned a lot. Currently I'm mostly waiting on news about the next expansion. Just need to get some excitement back. I've taken more and longer breaks with the game in the last two years than ever before and I'm on the brink of another break again. I pretty much have only played half the year in 2017 and 2016. This year might end up the same or worse if that expansion doesn't bring it.

 

I log in less frequently now than ever, but I haven't ever taken an official "break" as yet. I like your idea of gear sets for specific activities... but this is the same group that couldn't even manage to produce separate sets for PvE and PvP any longer and got rid of the expertise stat. So as much as it might benefit all of us, I don't see it going in that direction.

 

But it needs to go in SOME direction, and fast. The boredom factor is real, and next week's patch doesn't offer much to relieve that. I'll stick around if I know big things are coming up in a month or two, but I doubt I will unless that is the case. We're running out of January already, and people can only spin their wheels and wait so much.

[Tsillah]

I log in less frequently now than ever, but I haven't ever taken an official "break" as yet. I like your idea of gear sets for specific activities... but this is the same group that couldn't even manage to produce separate sets for PvE and PvP any longer and got rid of the expertise stat. So as much as it might benefit all of us, I don't see it going in that direction.

 

But it needs to go in SOME direction, and fast. The boredom factor is real, and next week's patch doesn't offer much to relieve that. I'll stick around if I know big things are coming up in a month or two, but I doubt I will unless that is the case. We're running out of January already, and people can only spin their wheels and wait so much.

To be honest, in the end I have no idea what's going on at Bioware Austin. Is it all a staff issue or a budget issue? Or are there creative problems and they just ran out of ideas? I just don't know for sure why things have been going the way they've been going. Plenty of guesses, but I can't be sure.

 

So I thought, well let's put some ideas down here and maybe they see it. Maybe it makes sense somewhere. I can't judge what people would like over the larger player base but I just feel that what we have now is not working in the sense of keeping people or bringing them back. So I have an alternative idea because I do feel that they're not using the existing content in a useful way and there are opportunities. I'd hate to just complain about what is and not come up with ideas. That's too easy.

 

The irony is that with 5.0 they wanted to bring in a reward system that was simpler and made all content relevant but it lead to most content being ignored and arguably the most convoluted, complex reward system we've had here.

 

What I hope is that Bioware really gets the message that all players are not the same and it's important to recognise different playstyles...and reward them accordingly. Not everyone the same.

 

Personally, I see 6.0 as the expansion where Bioware will show what they are about and what lies in store. Server merges are a double edged thing. It's a negative because it's an admission of failure that they couldn't turn the population decrease around, but it can also be a new foundation for a new direction that could mean growth for this game, however small...actual growth rather than decreasing further is a big deal.

 

But I don't think they can do it unless they come with an expansion that restores faith and makes people believe. I know there's a core group of players that will play this game till the doors close no matter what. Surely though when that's all that's left the doors will close. I just think we're not that far from that point though. Not as far to feel relaxed about where this game is going.

 

I actually want it to do better but GC is just hollowing everything out. The problem is that this game has lots of content that hardly anybody plays. So that discourages other players from it as well especially if it's group content they want to do but can't find other players for. That's also why I think making existing content relevant again is a good thing and GC doesn't do that because that just makes people go for whatever gives most CXP and forget the rest.

 

Oh well, you get my point as it is. I just keep rambling on because I just hope that Bioware can turn this game around towards a positive direction.

[PennyAnn]

Oh well, you get my point as it is. I just keep rambling on because I just hope that Bioware can turn this game around towards a positive direction.

 

You and me both.

[Jdast]

This post deserves repeating. It is frustrating to try and help BW out when so many people apply what I think is a jaundiced view given the initial implementation disaster that was 5.0. This is hands down the best post I have read on this forum since my return in late 2016. And, no, I'm neither dating nor a guildmate of Penny Ann. She also didn't ask and may not desire this accolade, but I'm pretty arrogant and felt it deserved. Please note her PennyAnn's points about room for improvement, this isn't a sycophantic post at all.

 

First - let me apologize for the length of this post, but I wanted to give the changes to galactic command a complete look. I will put each section of "changes" under a spoiler tag to keep this post from seeming too overwhelming.

 

The Galactic Command system is greatly improved since the launch of 5.0. Here's a little history gleaned from patch notes for the course of 5.0, with my opinions about each change that was made along the way. For reference: Keith came on board right before patch 5.2 went live, so changes from 5.2 on were under his direction.

 

CXP Weekly Cap:

 

At the launch of 5.0 there was actually a CXP cap that they claimed was "not easy to hit" and then players went out and promptly hit it without using exploits or glitches. They had to significantly increase this cap in 5.1. I think they either raised it so significantly at that point as to make it invisible or did away with it completely, but it has always been a "hidden cap" so I haven't ever seen or hit it myself or heard of anyone else hitting it either outside of the original launch cap. It was only put in to protect against exploiting, which we all know Bioware is not good about detecting themselves before they put content into the game on the live servers.

 

Whether it was removed or made so large that you no longer ever notice a cap, it is good that this is no longer an issue. A CXP cap should never have existed in the first place, IMHO.

 

 

Operations Gear Drops in GC:

 

Remember - when 5.0 launched there were NO gear drops at all in Operations. This was a big mistake with the system. To rely 100% on RNG crates for gear was an unmitigated disaster. To their credit, even if they didn’t recognize what a horrible idea this was before ever launching 5.0, we didn’t have to wait long for them to start backing off this whole idea.

 

By 5.1 the last boss of operations dropped a guaranteed Unassembled Gear Piece, plus a very low % of earlier bosses might drop Unassembled Gear Pieces plus they introduced Command Tokens that you now had to spend alongside those Unassembled pieces at the vendor to cash them in. Better than launch, but still not great as the % chance for earlier raid bosses was way too low, and the RNG of what piece the last boss might drop was not ideal either.

 

By 5.2, ALL operations bosses now dropped gear tokens, and the final boss dropped 2 pieces (doubled for 16m). They also made these drops the Legendary version for SM and HM, but for some dumb reason only the last boss in NiM dropped Legendary, the rest being prototype and artifact level (from Tier 4) for NiM raiders. That would have been okay, if you could exchange those for Legendary gear, but you can’t. They made the new raid bosses from Gods from the Machine drop a tier higher legendary than other raids - Tier 3 for SM and Tier 4 for Veteran (making it a better source of 248s than NiM raids... LOL). The only reason this wasn't really an issue was because there was only 1 boss in the game.

 

Even making the best gear drops come from the new raid, I still don’t see a lot of people forming up groups for it outside of SM when it is the group finder operation of the day. Perhaps though people are like me, waiting for this operation to be complete before they attempt progression on it. Either way, returning gear drops to raids was an essential change to this system, and probably had the biggest impact over all of any of the changes they made. Why it wasn’t this way from the very beginning, I have no idea. But raid bosses should always drop gear tokens – and it took them longer than it should have to rectify this wrong. Thanks, Keith. This was a great way to come on the scene as the new producer. Fixing this won you a gold star from me and many others who like to raid.

 

 

 

CXP Boosts and +% Events:

 

It wasn't very long (patch 5.1.1) before they added non-Cartel Market boosts - purchased with command tokens, because people were overflowing with these and no gear tokens to use them with, so they needed to find a way for us to spend those and not be capped all the time. They ran their first 250% CXP bonus event, and made it so that you could share the CXP packs that mobs dropped usable by all in legacy.

 

In update 5.2, they changed a lot of the Command Boosts to not require lower tiers to use, so now there was only a couple of Command Boosts you could purchase with your Command Tokens, but at least they worked for whoever used them at whatever GC level/tier.

 

5.2.2 - The "Commanding Legacy" Debacle. "A new Command XP Legacy Perk, Commanding Legacy, is available for purchase. This perk can only be purchased once you have reached Command Rank 300 on a character and it increases all Command XP gains within your Legacy by 25%. This perk stacks with all other bonuses and only affects Command Ranks 1-299." This is quoted directly from the patch notes, but as we all know this is not exactly correct in terms of how this legacy “perk” worked and was a PR nightmare from 5.0 that was only bested by removing west coast servers without telling anyone beforehand. GG, Bioware.

 

It seemed like never more than a month or two went by before they ran another double CXP event, even though many of these were messed up by not activating properly, or having to be moved around due to massive/unexpected downtime with patches. Remember 5.4a and 10 hours of waiting, anybody? Even so, it wasn’t more than a couple of months in between those events, so they were pretty frequent. I personally hoped that they would just double the CXP permanently so they didn’t have to rely on these events to draw people to playing the game only when the CXP rates were better, but it never happened.

 

In patch 5.5, they changed the Command Crate slot that used to only be schematics and added Command XP boosts and consumables (and grand chance cubes, etc.) to give you more sources of CXP inside a CXP crate. I actually get those way more than I actually get schematics now. This was a nice improvement also because all I usually did was disintegrate schematics that didn't need because I got them the first week of GC anyway.

 

 

"Hey, let's add another currency!":

 

For whatever reason, they added Command Tokens as a legacy-wide currency that appeared in your currency tab and required that you spend those to cash in an Unassembled Gear Piece. Why you couldn't just turn in an Unassembled Gear Piece for an "assembled" piece of gear 1 to 1 will never make sense to me, but I suppose they had their reasons.

 

They then added Unassembled Components to PvP such that you could buy gear with those from the newly added PvP vendors on the fleet. These were NOT legacy wide, but you could turn them in to purchase an unassembled gear piece. You just had to hope that you had those UCs on the character that needed a gear piece, or you were buying set gear that you could rip out and put into legacy gear if it was not for that character.

 

In 5.2.2, they also added a new crafting mat to the Command Tokens vendor because again, we had too many of these piling up due to the unkindness that is RNG gearing not giving us the unassembled gear drops to use with the tokens to buy gear. Yet, Bioware was handing those Command Tokens out like candy at Halloween. So they added that Iokathian crafting mat in there for the new Tier 4 recipes that people have to now buy and craft with – so at least we got another option besides CXP boosts to spend those tokens on. But the best change in this patch with regards to spending Command Tokens was to throw out the 230 unassembled gear pieces and just let players buy an entire 230 set directly from the vendor on the fleet. Honestly, this was a great change that they should have implemented from the very beginning - gearing/catch up with alts is now possible to at least the 230 level! A second Keith gold star for this one!

 

In 5.5 they added Unassembled Components to Master Mode Operations bosses, giving you another way to earn those outside of PvP. I wished at the time that there would have been even more options to earn those, but it wasn’t long before…

 

5.6 came along and made Unassembled Components legacy wide and added them to Command Crates in the form of Disintegration for gear with stats in place of CXP. This was the second big and best change that Keith made to the entire system, along with dropping gear in raids like it used to be. They got the disintegrations ratio pretty right, IMHO and I found that I no longer struggled to gear alts at all. I am able to earn enough UCs per week of just regular play time (for me) to upgrade a couple of pieces of gear a week, sometimes more if my play time is heavier. Making them legacy wide was also wonderful, even if I wish they had made them a legacy wide currency tab item like Command Tokens are – not sure why that wasn’t possible but honestly it is still an outstanding improvement. A final but HUGE gold star for Keith for this change.

 

 

GC Amounts Adjusted, and Adjusted, and Adjusted Again:

 

So, from the beginning, it just seemed like they were watching very closely for the methods that people were earning CXP the fastest so they could rush to nerf it into the ground, no matter what that method was. Anything receiving a CXP rate increase was content that no one was doing so they were trying to make it more worthwhile to encourage people to do it. However, to this day they have failed to raise CXP across the board that grinding 6 year old content is worth it, and the burn out factor is very real.

 

One of the first patches to 5.0 nerfed the hell out of Champion and Gold Level mobs to combat the fact that everyone and their brother was standing in the first area of KP and farming them like mad. They dropped that rate from 20 per champion mob to 5. Or going to Quesh and farming Collicoids. I still have a screenshot of all the NiM raiders on Harbinger standing in a pile on Quesh pulling group after group of Collicoids in a massive ongoing farm fest. That was all quickly nerfed down from giving you 10 CXP to giving you 1. Ouch. Then they brought it back up to a whopping 2. They also had to make all trash mobs in Ops reward zero CXP - as those were also being farmed.

 

By 5.1.2 they were now raising CXP rewards of weekly missions, operations, flashpoints some, but nerfing the Fractured Uprising significantly because it was the "new fastest way" to farm CXP.

 

By 5.2 it was story chapters (specifically, The Knights of the Fallen Empire Chapter 1 “The Hunt” and Chapter 2 “A Dream of Empire”) that got the nerf hammer. Too many people farming it = CXP nerf in the next patch, guaranteed. They did at least give all mobs you killed a CXP value, and increased the base rate to be slightly less than the base rate during the +250% CXP event.

 

5.2.1: Not enough people doing Iokath dailies, let's buff those PLUS give them a CXP consumable and see if anyone will make use of this brand new planet with dailies... please? Pretty please, players?

 

5.2.2: Now that we look at it, nobody is really doing GSF either. Let's boost that rate. But they also did a good thing making the disintegration better across the board – basing it on command tier and quality of item.

 

With patch 5.4, the level 50 Daily areas received an accidental boost to their CXP via a bug. Bioware wasn’t able to fix that bug for almost a month and a half, and many people leveled the hell out of characters filling the daily areas for the first time in a very long time. This led to a discussion with Keith that at the time made me hopeful that they would see that they needed to raise CXP values across the board.

 

In patch 5.5a, they rolled out their “solution” to the buggy daily areas, reducing the CXP down from what it was, but not quite as far down as it started. They raised the value of the weekly mission in those areas, and slightly raised the daily missions themselves. It was nowhere close to the fat CXP rates that saw those planets full of mission runners on a daily basis, and the population quickly sank back to its formerly mostly empty level.

 

In patch 5.6 they nerfed Hammer Station CXP in yet another example of “too many people are farming this for CXP, must nerf!”, but as of yet have not done a sufficient job of increasing CXP to the point that anyone is much interested in it unless there is a Double CXP event happening.

 

 

Overall Assessment in my opinion:

When it became obvious that they were not going to get rid of Galactic Command, I was happy to see them make efforts at improving it as a system. I think it is extremely innovative in terms of finding a way to provide all levels of gear to players regardless of the content they are playing. The problem lies in the stingy rewards for those activities. It becomes obvious when you look at the reward amounts that Bioware wants you to play a certain way, play certain content, and help them meet benchmarks that lets them check the boxes next to their desired “metrics” of who is playing what content. It also is too grindy. Look, I understand that every single MMO on the market includes a grind somewhere – leveling, gearing, reputation, etc. But it has to feel worthwhile to motivate you to do it. Only when the CXP levels are at “bonus event” or “bugged to be way higher than we intend” levels has it ever felt that way. This is apparently not just a feeling for me, but for many as you can see the surge of people around during bonus CXP events. So they have some work to do to make it acceptable enough that we don't see the population rise and fall so dramatically.

 

The biggest factor really will be new content. Uprisings were a new kind of content put in the game last year, but they haven’t added any new ones and have instead gone back to the Flashpoint format with snippets of story to check both boxes of “new group content” and “story line” stuff. But it’s hollow and feels like the Uprisings are now just another game mode that is going to be ignored after implementation. I don’t necessarily mind if they only do one new raid a year, as long as the raid is good, complete, and goes into the game as part of a larger expansion that includes planets with daily quests, explorable areas (that are not instanced), and a decent CHUNK of story line that isn’t chasing our traitor companions around the galaxy and failing at ever accomplishing anything.

 

However, none of that is in review of the CXP system, except that if/when they do add said content, they reward it with a decent amount of CXP for the effort, along with everything else in the game to encourage us to continue to grind on it while we wait in the interim between content patches.

 

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far. <3

Edited January 20, 2018 by Jdast

[PennyAnn]

This post deserves repeating. It is frustrating to try and help BW out when so many people apply what I think is a jaundiced view given the initial implementation disaster that was 5.0. This is hands down the best post I have read on this forum since my return in late 2016. And, no, I'm neither dating nor a guildmate of Penny Ann. She also didn't ask and may not desire this accolade, but I'm pretty arrogant and felt it deserved. Please note her PennyAnn's points about room for improvement, this isn't a sycophantic post at all.

 

Thanks, Dasty! Much love, friend. =)

[ExarSun]

I log in less frequently now than ever, but I haven't ever taken an official "break" as yet. I like your idea of gear sets for specific activities... but this is the same group that couldn't even manage to produce separate sets for PvE and PvP any longer and got rid of the expertise stat. So as much as it might benefit all of us, I don't see it going in that direction.

 

But it needs to go in SOME direction, and fast. The boredom factor is real, and next week's patch doesn't offer much to relieve that. I'll stick around if I know big things are coming up in a month or two, but I doubt I will unless that is the case. We're running out of January already, and people can only spin their wheels and wait so much.

 

I am in the same shoes...years on this game...and last year they only offered 1-2 days worth of content and the option to mindlessly grind old content for rng boxes...epic fail. I have always been on 6 months recurring sub, but I have cancelled it as of few weeks ago, so I have little more than a month remaining and then a very long break if not permament....and I dont see how there will be any secret expansion and content of that sorts.

Instead I suspect it will more of the last year's if not worse. As for the different sets for different activities - I love the idea, though as you mention, this team can't even separate PvE from PvP sets, so I think its a little bit too much to ask.

[Tsillah]

I am in the same shoes...years on this game...and last year they only offered 1-2 days worth of content and the option to mindlessly grind old content for rng boxes...epic fail. I have always been on 6 months recurring sub, but I have cancelled it as of few weeks ago, so I have little more than a month remaining and then a very long break if not permament....and I dont see how there will be any secret expansion and content of that sorts.

Instead I suspect it will more of the last year's if not worse. As for the different sets for different activities - I love the idea, though as you mention, this team can't even separate PvE from PvP sets, so I think its a little bit too much to ask.

It's definitely not too much to ask...but perhaps too much to expect.

 

All I know is that RotHC was an expansion where people complained there wasn't enough content in it to call it an expansion when it released and in essence every expansion has gotten smaller since then, particularly the last two.

 

The server merges came for a reason and I think that the expansion size tells a big part of that story.

 

I hope that 6.0 will really turn this game around, it's what I'm asking for. But also here I don't really expect it. But I have to ask it because even the fact that this is the only SW MMO out there is losing its value for me now.

[TheRandomWolf]

I honestly wish there was a better way for me to gear up my main and alts. I honestly believe that a rating of 230 is enough.... but even so, I have a hard time gearing up my characters. Most of them are forced to use Level 68 gear because apparently having more than 500 tokens isn't enough for one character... and that just seems off.

 

In Guild Wars 2 I could just use currency earned in dungeons to buy new gear. I could complete reward tracks or just buy it off their version of the Trading Post for reasonable prices. In TERA all I'd have to do to obtain basic endgame gear would have to be through dungeons or questing.

Edited January 20, 2018 by TheRandomWolf

[Resputin]

I liked it when 5.0 came out and I even like it more with the improvements they made. I enjoy all concepts of the game. I play GSF, PVP, Operations, Daily Heroics, Conquest, collect achievements and more. I been here from launch and never unsubbed due to always creating my own content while I wait for new content to arrive. I have completed a lot of HM Ops and only Nim I ever did was EV/KP. Before 5.0 everything I did except for operations was fun but not rewarding as it gave you no gear towards advancing your character. Its nice to do some heroics and build command pts to obtain a chance to get gear and possibly get capped gear. Pre 5.0 I had 0 chars with capped gear because I didnt run Nims Operations. Now since 5.0 I have 6 toons at command rank 300, 1 toon at 275 and one toon at 250. I have 3 capped toons with gear at 248. Three other toons at command rank 300 are at 246/248 gear. RNG might not be friendly at times but at least you get a chance at loot. Its easy to get 246 gear which is better than ultimate gear since it has a set bonus and ultimate gear was top gear without set bonus. Only difference is now you can obtain 248 gear without doing NIM OPS. Edited January 20, 2018 by Resputin

[kirorx]

What I like

 

1) Gaining CxP for any type of content. I have a Tier 4 commando that I never finished the main storyline with, now I can play the main story with him and still get CxP toward gear.

 

2) It's really not that long of a grind, once you dont "grind" and just play the game

 

3) 230 gear set for Command Tokens at level 70 (awesome). You can do all the basic end game content with this stuff.

 

-----------------------------------------

 

What I would like to see

 

1) Relics, Implants and Earpieces to be bound to legacy. My JK has the earpiece my SW needs, and it never drops on my SW.

 

2) Trade in gear. Trade in pants for shirts or Trade in Belt for bracers.

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

What I dont like

 

1) The RnG while not terrible, can be frusterating. When you are down to those last one or two pieces, they never seem to drop ARGH. I mentioned before though that a trade in system would be nice.

[Resputin]

I honestly wish there was a better way for me to gear up my main and alts. I honestly believe that a rating of 230 is enough.... but even so, I have a hard time gearing up my characters. Most of them are forced to use Level 68 gear because apparently having more than 500 tokens isn't enough for one character... and that just seems off.

 

In Guild Wars 2 I could just use currency earned in dungeons to buy new gear. I could complete reward tracks or just buy it off their version of the Trading Post for reasonable prices. In TERA all I'd have to do to obtain basic endgame gear would have to be through dungeons or questing.

 

It only got better with 5.0 for you. Before 5.0 you had to settle for the highest planet gear or do SM Ops. Now you can buy the highest planet gear and just play and start getting 230 gear once your 70 without doing any ops. If you want you can still do SM ops to gear. Can even probably buy 230 gear cheap on the gtn. Not sure though since I dont use the GTN to buy gear.

Edited January 20, 2018 by Resputin

[Tsillah]

Its easy to get 246 gear which would be the same as the ultimate coms gear.

No it would not be the same. The ultimate comm gear had poor stat itemization and no set bonuses. So it's definitely not the same.

[Andryah]

I honestly wish there was a better way for me to gear up my main and alts. I honestly believe that a rating of 230 is enough.... but even so, I have a hard time gearing up my characters. Most of them are forced to use Level 68 gear because apparently having more than 500 tokens isn't enough for one character... and that just seems off.

 

Crafted 246s are reasonably inexpensive (by todays credit standards in this game) and are plentiful on the GTN. 230s, even more so. They serve well for most needs, save for the hardest group content in the game, and even then... 246s server pretty darn well. Any good guild probably has a crafting factory set up with it's ranks as well and can add additional leverage for guild members to acquire them (ie: for cost of materials only, etc. etc).

 

In Guild Wars 2 I could just use currency earned in dungeons to buy new gear. I could complete reward tracks or just buy it off their version of the Trading Post for reasonable prices. In TERA all I'd have to do to obtain basic endgame gear would have to be through dungeons or questing.

 

We used to have the equivalent prior to 5.0 here as well. However, you could never buy the best gear via this method... so it never really offered access to players who did not do PvP or OPs to acquire top end gear.

 

In addition, you can do just fine with gear drops from missions or random world drops in this game and completely ignore the GC approach if you like. They will be 228s, sans set bonus, and are not modable, but unless you are doing ranked PvP or the most difficult OPs modes, you really do not need better gear for this game. You may want better gear, but you really do not need it.

[Resputin]

No it would not be the same. The ultimate comm gear had poor stat itemization and no set bonuses. So it's definitely not the same.

Yeah fixed it. So that even states how much better the new system now is then before.

[casirabit]

Crafted 246s are reasonably inexpensive (by todays credit standards in this game) and are plentiful on the GTN. 230s, even more so. They serve well for most needs, save for the hardest group content in the game, and even then... 246s server pretty darn well. Any good guild probably has a crafting factory set up with it's ranks as well and can add additional leverage for guild members to acquire them (ie: for cost of materials only, etc. etc).

 

I just crafted some 246 for my boyfriend, since he doesn't play that much and is still at tier 1. I only need 2 more schematics for him to have a complete set.

[foxxycandy]

Completely revert it to where it was and then figure out a gearing system for the PvEers that goes past raiding.

 

Other than that, there is nothing that will make me care for an RNG based system.

[denavin]

RNG = Random Nothing Generator

GC = Garbage and Crap

GCX = Garbage and Crap is so eXciting.

 

There... Galactic Command makes me feel like I'm pounding my head against the wall all while I hearing Ben, Charles and Eric, tell me how "It's Fun and Exciting".

[Jdast]

RNG = Random Nothing Generator

GC = Garbage and Crap

GCX = Garbage and Crap is so eXciting.

 

There... Galactic Command makes me feel like I'm pounding my head against the wall all while I hearing Ben, Charles and Eric, tell me how "It's Fun and Exciting".

 

Wouldn't it be neat if they made it so that RNG was minimal by making it so that crates you get doing anything drop a UNIVERSAL LEGACY WIDE currency that you can use to upgrade yourself by buying shells ALL THE WAY TO BiS?

 

Oh wait, let me get out of my HOT TUB TIME MACHINE and realize they did that starting November 28, 2017.

 

Gee, what does this DISINTEGRATE button do?

 

Ooh, I get this thing called UNASSEMBLED COMPONENTS! Yum!!!!

 

Gee, on the fleet there is VENDOR which sells GOLD SHELLS for THE EXACT ITEM YOU WANT...and the currency is wait for it, wait for it...for those who guessed UNASSEMBLED COMPONENTS you win an INTERNET WAFFLE (because waffles are better than pancakes, duh)!!!!!

 

So, if the current system gives me a currency which allows me to buy the EXACT BiS item I want....wait for it... wait for it...

 

IT IS NOT RNG.

 

Dasty

Edited January 21, 2018 by Jdast

[VirtualMorrigan]

RNG = Random Nothing Generator

GC = Garbage and Crap

GCX = Garbage and Crap is so eXciting.

 

There... Galactic Command makes me feel like I'm pounding my head against the wall all while I hearing Ben, Charles and Eric, tell me how "It's Fun and Exciting".

 

I couldn't agree more. I had a bout of brief hope when the dailies were "bugged" and got my main and secondary to 300, opened a couple of hundred crates between them by now and neither of them has a T4 gold item yet. It feels pointless and waste of time, and I am no longer interested.

[DWho]

I couldn't agree more. I had a bout of brief hope when the dailies were "bugged" and got my main and secondary to 300, opened a couple of hundred crates between them by now and neither of them has a T4 gold item yet. It feels pointless and waste of time, and I am no longer interested.

 

Wow, you are either exaggerating or are the unluckiest person on the planet. I have at least half a dozen BIS gold shells/relics/earpieces and dozens of purple pieces sitting in my Command stash along with almost 1500 UCs (I had maybe 20 of those when the disintegrations were implemented). My main could be in full 248s if I cared to do it (only 1 piece left and I'm sorta waiting for that to drop from the crates instead of buying it because I'm in no hurry). All my major level 70 alts are in at least 244s all geared from stuff the main got in crates. Something must be wrong with your random number generator because the pieces aren't that rare. In a couple of hundred crates at GC 300 you should have gotten at least a half dozen or so pieces.

[TrixxieTriss]

I was curious about this, seeing many varied opinions on the matter. I will hold my opinion for the end.

 

When Galactic Command was first released I believe the reaction was mostly negative. Casuals that were used to getting gear from vendors and collecting commendations for gear, mats and companion gifts were not happy, and naturally Hardcore players were generally furious.

 

The system, as I understand its current state, has corrected some of the problems with its launch state, but It still requires some changes IMO. My opinion is that the system, in its current state is pretty good for casuals but still lacking for hardcore players.

 

I have posted suggestions on how they could improve the system, and will not repeat those suggestions here in this post...I would only ask the community if they feel Galactic Command has improved, if so in what way, and if it does have merit in what way should it change for the future?

 

What, if any changes would make it appealing to all player types?

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Nothing really changed that much. It was all smoke and mirrors (Biowares favourite way to “fix” something)

When they increased the amount of unassembled components you picked up, everyone was happy, but at the same time they doubled the cost of unassembled components when buying gear. So in reality the increase was negated by the rise in cost, hence the smoke and mirrors fix.

 

If they’d increased the amount picked up and left the costs the same, it would have been a fix. What they need to do is reduce the cost of the gear again. Maybe not back to previous levels, but a third reduction would be ok.