New Conquest System: First Impressions

[ThomasStarWars]

Here are my thoughts:

 

• This has KILLED alt play. Alts were a BIG part of Conquests...and this damn game.

• Crafting changes are going to hurt more players than Bioware ever imagined. Crafting, while dominating, was also a KEY PART of this game. Gathering mats was an activity...buying mats drove the GTN. Conquest was a HUGE credit and mat sink...that's gone. Crafting, while dominating, was also a HUGE part of gameplay. Players would gather mats while waiting for other people to do stuff with, it was a down time activity, a solo activity, and a too many people in a group already alternative activity...you needed it...

• PvP and GSF changes are just atrocious. Revert those...this was a ridiculous change.

• No conquest credit for the Op of the day is just stupid...or for FPs, or anything group related...

• Legacy wide goals are a TERRIBLE idea...again, it kills alt play.

 

Bioware, the old conquest system certainly had its flaws, but they were NOTHING compared to this. Alts, and MANY alts, are GOOD for this game...stop punishing players with them. Last week I capped like 7 toons on personal Conquest...that's a record for me. Ya know what the best part was? I didn't even TRY to...I simply played those toons...that will never happen under this system.

 

First KOTFE, singlular story with no replay value for alts, at least for me. then KOTET, with the galactic command. at first anti-alts. now this. the last good piece of content for me as a solo player. anti-alts.

[PorsaLindahl]

/snip... I decided that the devs were probably smarter than me and had put more thought into it and had it handled...

 

I think that's where everybody made the wrong assumption. Maybe they need to start screening their staff better with this test to insure that they have a modicum of intelligence.

[TUXs]

Maybe they need to start screening their staff better with this test

Oooh...I wonder how accurate that test is. Are there any of those machines where I live? I'd love to find out how smart I am

[OolaForcebeamer]

So......how much did Disney pay you to kill the game?????????

[Loadsamonie]

So......how much did Disney pay you to kill the game?????????

 

Why would Disney deliberately want to kill off something that makes them money. Disney is the essence of corporate greed, sandbagging an avenue of profits goes against their interests.

[Lxndra]

The interface.

 

While not perfect, you used to have a conquest interface that allowed the user to view all the conquest tasks, with easily recognized, *colored* icons on sight, in a table format. That allowedthe user one glance for the whole picture. Now, you've taken out color (which had a meaning in the previous interface, attached to type of task) and put it in a must-scroll list. Don't you understand that you haven't "streamlined" anything? You have added steps, removed key indicators and made figuring out what tasks are worth what points needlessly more arduous.

 

Converting a *TABLE* to a single field scroll-heavy LIST is not an improvement. This is the kind of thing you see when people who either learned or are used to designing on one platform (say... oh, CONSOLES) think the principles are the same on a different one.

 

Roll back. Please - you didn't need to do this. Please Bioware, we are the last of your diehard fans. We understand resources have been diverted... how can you justify paying someone who doesn't understand UX for PCs to change something that wasn't broken in order to make it clunkier? There are so many things in this game that are broken. Please, please, stop "fixing" the stuff that isn't.

[TTuck]

Seriously!!!!

 

Hey folks,

 

We are looking into the Solo Ranked Mission rewards. It looks like the changes that we made to their rewards in Game Update 5.7 reverted and so they are not currently giving their intended reward. I will pass on more information as I have it.

 

-eric

 

You have 45 pages of complaints about the new conquest system. You have daily repeatable parts that allow some people to do them once per character and some to do once per legacy. You have people getting points for killing World bosses on Ilum while they are on their guild ship. And you are looking into the rewards for solo ranked pvp without even commenting on all the other issues from yesterday's patch. Just how out of touch with your customers are you??

[SmorgishBorg]

Sanguine Galaxy and Sanguine Bounty Guildmaster Reporting in,

The System Looks a lot Better, I like the new management screens. The Goal Chart Should List which Conquests are Repeatable and don't. I like the Pull down that lists Points/Repeatable/Ect yet the missions themselves don't have a unlimited icon.

The Goals. You may be hearing a lot of feedback on bugs, Killing 5 ect grants wampa & worm cheevie ect.

My Main issue with the goals are they seem a little extreme for our era and players. WIN Unranked pvp... No one likes PvP unranked... so theres really no point in queing up a lose if your not rewarded for participation with the conquest system... some small amount. I like the new Objective for GSF... Still Your hampering the Ques not allowing some Participant points there, only awarding wins.

Crafting. Yes I see that you need 10 Invasion force for one goal.. I'm Leary on this being a guildmaster knowing all the crafting in the game. Your asking for a Million Credits for one 5k reward.. the crafting system on GTN is not cheap by any means, Grafted/Attachments Run 15-40k per on normal crafting weeks.. The mats themselves are easy sure. This kind of grind seems a little much... Perhaps 5 Invasion forces.. crap even 3 would be more appropraite. for 5k

Alts that like to conquest.

I run 48 level 70 toons.. Alot in-game are Alt-aholics like me. Repeatable missions SHOULD INCLUDE Operations and there Bosses. I Don't Have Lockout sickness dissorder... I can Run, and Have over 30 Operations in 1 week. Shouldn't The goals for Operations and there Bosses Be Repeatable? for us with many alts this will help alot of the conquesters, and Raiders out.. Not everyone wants to be in Ranked/Unranked PvP or GSF all day long because they NEED to get there conquest. But over the last few years WE DID. Rewarding ALTS REPEATABLE GOALS like OPERATIONS shouldn't be hard to Transition... The One player gets Locked out of ops, and if he Does it SM/HM/NIM mode, Shouldnt he be rewarded for RAIDING hard.. and helping the community?

Questions on the Conquest Board itself-

There are 5 Player names up top right on the menu.... What are these, cant hover the names for explanation why there even up there.

The Daily Missions or Repeatable have a Mission Icon near them.... Why?

Clicking the Box to list the objective in the windows... DO YOU NEED this on for Points to be earned?

I did 2 days of Gree on Smorgishborg... Didnt get rewarded for the 2nd days missions..... is it One go then over for Planatary Heroics? Event Heroics?

 

Overall I Applaud the New Changes to our System and Congratulate your efforts here!! Thank you for letting us get in some advice to your teams. You guys work damn hard and our community loves you for it. Looking forward to many more years on Shan Server working the player side for you guys.

[TrixxieTriss]

Seriously!!!!

 

Hey folks,

 

We are looking into the Solo Ranked Mission rewards. It looks like the changes that we made to their rewards in Game Update 5.7 reverted and so they are not currently giving their intended reward. I will pass on more information as I have it.

 

-eric

 

You have 45 pages of complaints about the new conquest system. You have daily repeatable parts that allow some people to do them once per character and some to do once per legacy. You have people getting points for killing World bosses on Ilum while they are on their guild ship. And you are looking into the rewards for solo ranked pvp without even commenting on all the other issues from yesterday's patch. Just how out of touch with your customers are you??

 

I killed the world boss on Illum while doing a Korriban Heroic. After that, the Dark Council became very scared of me and made me the Emperor,

 

But seriously, you are right, this is out of hand. The outrage the community has expressed and the feed back on bugs, etc and the thing they decide to respond to is about solo ranked rewards not working

[Antonitze]

Totally agree on that one. And sorry for asking, i am just too lazy to read 46 pages, but... How do I understand which objectives are legacy-based and which are not? And why I happen to NOT get a points sometimes? Do I have to tick the objective I am up for or what?

 

 

Here are my thoughts:

 

• This has KILLED alt play. Alts were a BIG part of Conquests...and this damn game.

• Crafting changes are going to hurt more players than Bioware ever imagined. Crafting, while dominating, was also a KEY PART of this game. Gathering mats was an activity...buying mats drove the GTN. Conquest was a HUGE credit and mat sink...that's gone. Crafting, while dominating, was also a HUGE part of gameplay. Players would gather mats while waiting for other people to do stuff with, it was a down time activity, a solo activity, and a too many people in a group already alternative activity...you needed it...

• PvP and GSF changes are just atrocious. Revert those...this was a ridiculous change.

• No conquest credit for the Op of the day is just stupid...or for FPs, or anything group related...

• Legacy wide goals are a TERRIBLE idea...again, it kills alt play.

 

Bioware, the old conquest system certainly had its flaws, but they were NOTHING compared to this. Alts, and MANY alts, are GOOD for this game...stop punishing players with them. Last week I capped like 7 toons on personal Conquest...that's a record for me. Ya know what the best part was? I didn't even TRY to...I simply played those toons...that will never happen under this system.

[Stellarcrusade]

Not quite 100. 62 to be exact, if you have the 150% stronghold bonus.

 

What BW should have done was:

 

• Put size limitations on their Small, Medium, Large Planets. Meaning if guilds have 100 members or less, then they're locked into the Small Planets. 101-300 members for the Medium Planets. And 301-500 members for the Large Planets. And have more than one planet option for each "Tier."
  

 

The idea of locking guilds into planets has 2 flaws, 1.) How will guilds get titles for other planet sizes, and 2.) You cannot go by number of members, some small guilds have to fill up with rarely active or seasonal members to get a little bump on activity. It should be measured by number of active hours of guild player time.

 

To solve both of these problems, instead all planets should have the same points requirements, but every guilds conquest gains to be divided by number of active player hours. That way an enourmous guild will get like 500k conquest for the week, and so will a small guild if they both focus hard on conquest. I realize its not a perfect formula, but some metric similar to this that rewards the small and large guilds equally is the ONLY serious way to allow ALL guilds to compete on a level playing field.

 

Keep in mind nearly everything is easier for larger guilds, its easier to get groups, premades, training, help doing things, resources, discussion. There is no reason why conquest needs to be easy for big guilds. Player bases will be more motivated and competition would be more fun if this was level no matter guild size.

[KendraP]

Ok, now that I've had a chance to play and my intial fury worn off a bit, time for an attempt at more constructive criticism.

 

Musco: I genuinely feel the team had good intentions. The new credit sinks were supposed to help with scammers and exploiters, the new tiers on conquest should have been helpful for smaller guilds, and you want to encourage people to try a wider variety of content.

 

This is all well and good. The implementation however, is absolutely atrocious. I have mentioned multiple times my efforts at guild ship expansions. I understand that I have guildies to help. As the guild leader, however, i do not ask my people to do anything i cannot or would not do myself. As a leader the responsibility for managing the guild and its funding is mine. I have never and will never require donations of any kind from guild members. Again, they should want to donate for the greater good provided their leadership is setting the example. Heck, I've given guildies who stumble on hard times game time cards so they can continue playing.

 

This has worked astonishingly well for my small crew in the past. We almost always managed a win in the old system despite having merely 10 active players, all of whom have jobs and real lives as well. This is basically a subscription based game, after all. Have to pay the bill to play!

 

My point in this is simple: the changes hurt not just the scammers and exploiters, or even the GTN players. It directly hurts everyone who abides strictly by the rules. Especially those of us who, like me, fund primarily through heroics, crafting, etc. I try to keep around 50 mill on hand in my legacy. Any time i expand a room in the guild ship, it comes from this as i leave my guild bank funds for repairs, summons, and guild emergencies. Ironically, your credit sinks have hurt those of us at the bottom of the economy far more than the scammers and exploiters you were targeting.

 

Now lets talk the changes to conquest. The idea was good - encourage the BBBers of the galaxy to shoot for higher rewards while those of us with lesser resources could aim for a more achievable goal. In practice this failed atrociously. The guild rewards on the larger planets are, quite frankly, not worth the trouble, especially once you inevitably patch the bug allowing people to get 10k essentially free.

 

The crafting changes went entirely unnanounced, even in the patch notes the day before. This level of non-communication is unnacceptable. I have one officer i rely on to craft, and explain the crafting economy to me. I support him by providing mats of all forms, using ops/pvp runs, jawa junk, or simply buying them for him. He uses a large amount of his personal resources here as well. Here again, we are screwed and in this instance, by a simple lack of communication.

 

Point values and repeatability: I fully admit to being a raging altoholic. I have nearly 50 characters on satele shan alone, of which 13 are guardians (and 5 juggies). I capped 11 of these last week (2 scoundrel healers, a shadow tank, and 8 of the guardians), mostly through pvp, but with the occasional gf op, mm fractured, or fp as well. Under the previous system, you could play nearly whatever content you enjoyed and still meet your goal. This was a very good thing!

 

Perhaps in an effort to stop the larger guilds from crunching their way to victory you unbelievably nerfed point gains from spammable content. One pvp victory per legacy per day amounts to a practical joke. Although i don't particpate in it, I'm certain its the same for star fighter. Why remove points from the daily FP reward? And finally, I harbor serious doubts thwt anyone's idea of fun consists of spamming battle of ilum for conquest caps.

 

I request that repeatable group content be set like it was before - with relatively low but spammable points. I understand that perhaps you want more people to try different content. Encourage this by maybe, having a daily rotating double point bonus on pvp, gf ops, fps, gsf, or whatever. Eliminating points from such things entirely is a slap in the face to those of us who enjoy it.

 

Bugs and lack of communication: There is a reason I group these together. Being completely honest, i was having considerable difficulty last night in merely telling what was intended and what was unintended. In other words, what is a bug and what was done by design? What do the different icons next to each objective mean? What is supposed to be repeatedly per toon vs per day vs one time and how do we tell. And finally, why were such things not explained to us, either beforehand or at launch? This is another example of the atrocious lack of communication.

 

Play testing: I would simply like to know why the PTS isn't utilized. Surely there are players out here who would be willing to help so we can avoid such issues in the future. Basically, another step that would greatly endear you to your long time customers.

 

In conclusion, I wish to remind you I came to swtor for the story. I have stayed for my friends. As guild leader I am losing my ability to contribute and therefore am completely failing in the attempt to run a smaller guild without resorting to scammers or GTN games. I feel point values and repeatability are entirely unfair, that crafting changes were made poorly, and that there is an utter lack of communication with the player base. I would like the issues addressed as soon as feasibly possible. I do not wish to leave swtor, as I doubt any other mmo has the same level of story or immersion, and this is where my friends are. That said, should these issues not be addressed in a timely manner (in all likelihood, should I not see the promise of changes to include a detailed plan on how they are going to be made), I will be gone when my current time ends in 16 days. Please prove to me my long term commitment, talent, and money are worth your basic attempts at communication.

[Loadsamonie]

PVP - Solo Ranked Missions | 03.21.2018, 03:40 PM

Hey folks,

 

We are looking into the Solo Ranked Mission rewards. It looks like the changes that we made to their rewards in Game Update 5.7 reverted and so they are not currently giving their intended reward. I will pass on more information as I have it.

 

-eric

 

Are you kidding me with this? Alt play is dead, PvP and GSF incentive is dead, Conquest is virtually impossible to cap on a single toon, guild growth has completely stagnated, people are unsubbing en masse over this debacle, and your priority is to fix a bug in Solo Ranked Missions?

 

Before I read this, I genuinely believed there was nothing this man could say that would have surprised me. But yes, ladies and gentleman, this man can sink below the ground and get halfway to China.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Loadsamonie

[Rion_Starkiller]

What's the big deal about Conquests anyway?

 

I don't really get it... were you actually doing Conquests? What for? 50k and 2 crappy SRM's? a few repeat decos? A legacy title and achievement that everyone got 2 years ago?

 

Effort vs reward has always been way off. Now it's actually worse. The best way to show your displeasure is to ignore Conquests entirely.

 

I'm actually glad the attempt was made to improve conquests because it seems like BWA understands that game health is relative to guild health. The real shame is that the old, tired system actually seems better than the new one.

Eric, you and Keith are both complete idiots. You could care less about the players of this game or the content of the game it self. You are only there for a paycheck and I hope you get fired for your inability to communicate to us in a timely fashion. There are 45 pages of pure RAGE that you refuse to acknowledge. Your Title as Community Manager is a Joke. Do your Job or go and find a different one.:mad:

 

Oh, get a grip.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Rion_Starkiller

[ShadowGovernator]

Overall I Applaud the New Changes to our System and Congratulate your efforts here!! Thank you for letting us get in some advice to your teams. You guys work damn hard and our community loves you for it. Looking forward to many more years on Shan Server working the player side for you guys.

 

What are you drunk?! - the system sucks on every freaking level!

Go and sleep it off.

Not you BioWare - you need to roll-back this stupid patch right now.

[CaptRogue]

• No conquest credit for the Op of the day is just stupid...or for FPs, or anything group related...

 

WHERE on earth did ANY of YOU get that it's not rewarding for Op of the day?!

I got conquest points (1875) for every toon I ran through EV last night!

That is a FREAKING daily people per toon.

Even Dulfy says it's a repeatable daily! http://dulfy.net/2018/03/20/swtor-5-8-conquest-guide-and-schedule/

 

• Legacy wide goals are a TERRIBLE idea...again, it kills alt play.

 

Where is there "Legacy Conquest Goals"?

I've yet to see that. Even Dufly doesn't even mention it.

[ThomasStarWars]

WHERE on earth did ANY of YOU get that it's not rewarding for Op of the day?!

I got conquest points (1875) for every toon I ran through EV last night!

That is a FREAKING daily people per toon.

Even Dulfy says it's a repeatable daily! http://dulfy.net/2018/03/20/swtor-5-8-conquest-guide-and-schedule/

 

 

 

Where is there "Legacy Conquest Goals"?

I've yet to see that. Even Dufly doesn't even mention it.

 

The pvp warzone objective is 0/1 win and thats per day per legacy

[AlainaFlute]

WHERE on earth did ANY of YOU get that it's not rewarding for Op of the day?!

I got conquest points (1875) for every toon I ran through EV last night!

That is a FREAKING daily people per toon.

Even Dulfy says it's a repeatable daily! http://dulfy.net/2018/03/20/swtor-5-8-conquest-guide-and-schedule/

 

 

 

Where is there "Legacy Conquest Goals"?

I've yet to see that. Even Dufly doesn't even mention it.

 

For some accounts its repeatable on different toons. For my account, it isn't. The new system is buggy as hell.

[ThomasStarWars]

For some accounts its repeatable on different toons. For my account, it isn't. The new system is buggy as hell.

 

they need to fix the bugs, they need to add back warzone participation, and remove the legacy cooldown on it. also add back the random flashpoint queue, for infinite objective rounds

[CaptRogue]

Are you kidding me with this? Alt play is dead, PvP and GSF incentive is dead, Conquest is virtually impossible to cap on a single toon, guild growth has completely stagnated, people are unsubbing en masse over this debacle, and your priority is to fix a bug in Solo Ranked Missions?

 

Before I read this, I genuinely believed there was nothing this man could say that would have surprised me. But yes, ladies and gentleman, this man can sink below the ground and get halfway to China.

 

Oh grow up!

You assume a ton mate. lol It's barely been implemented 24hrs & you have all these "X is dead" "guilds are stagnating" "ppl are unsubbing", etc.... Where is the proof of all the people unsubbing?? You mean the few that are growing this thread by leaps & bounds? The ones spreading incorrect data & then raging on it?? Yeah that's a vocal minority.

 

My gosh, you all act like Conquest was a HUGE thing you did each week. You capped, EVERY freaking alt you had & didn't grind a dang thing. Yeah right!

 

Quit frying Eric for answering a legit concern about Solo Ranked Rewards, which is a BUG!

Conquest, is NOT a bug, it's working as intended & they are watching this thread making notes. Will they roll it back? NO. Will they change it in the future. MAYBE. But crucifying the man in charge of making announcements & harassing him is UNCALLED for.

 

It's getting quite shameful to even read these posts as some of you really need to get a life & step out of the game for some fresh air.

 

I get that this game was a relaxing thing. But this new change has nothing to do with you relaxing.

Like I was told a long time ago: "will this affect your life in a week? Month? Year?". Put it in perspective & relax. It's just a virtual reality. NOT real life.

[CaptRogue]

For some accounts its repeatable on different toons. For my account, it isn't. The new system is buggy as hell.

 

Ok well that does need fixed. All mine so far are allowing it that I've run.

 

But jeeze we all know BW's track record, there are going to be major bugs on it. lol

We are their PTS players btw. lol

[ThomasStarWars]

Ok well that does need fixed. All mine so far are allowing it that I've run.

 

But jeeze we all know BW's track record, there are going to be major bugs on it. lol

We are their PTS players btw. lol

 

so far, they have removed the only incentives for playing alts for me and doing conquest in general. they removed the pvp conquests and random flashpoint queues that the previous system had. (my play style)

[DisposableHeero]

Where is there "Legacy Conquest Goals"?

I've yet to see that. Even Dufly doesn't even mention it.

It is difficult to tell because of the bugs, but most if not all of the non-repeatable or daily repeatable goals are per legacy. So there are harsh harsh diminishing returns on the time it takes to reach a personal goal for every character after the first. This hurts a ton of guilds where a few dedicated players cap many toons each week. Got your War Zone win on your main today? You can't win more warzones on alts for points, because its 1 win per day for the legacy, not the character. With all of the goals being per character, it makes no sense to have anything be limited across the legacy.

[TUXs]

WHERE on earth did ANY of YOU get that it's not rewarding for Op of the day?!

I got conquest points (1875) for every toon I ran through EV last night!

That is a FREAKING daily people per toon.

Even Dulfy says it's a repeatable daily! http://dulfy.net/2018/03/20/swtor-5-8-conquest-guide-and-schedule/

 

Where is there "Legacy Conquest Goals"?

I've yet to see that. Even Dufly doesn't even mention it.

1875 points isn't even a tiny dent in my 20k per toon...and I can do that Op once. If there were points awarded for it, I didn't see where they were on my list...which is what I went by. TFB was a one time shot...I did that instead of EV (7500 points)

 

By "Legacy" I mean TFB was a one time thing. The killing of the 2 Ilum guys was a one time thing per Legacy.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, and I hope I am, but I didn't see anything telling me what was repeatable and what wasn't...so how can you tell exactly? The new system is atrocious imo. I'm glad you like it Kaff...but you're the only person I know who does.

[Quraswren]

I don't really get it... were you actually doing Conquests?

 

SNIP...

 

Yea, we still do it. Conquest was one of the last guild group activities that had a goal tied to it. A bit of competition with other guilds. Even in doing some really old and stale content. It was a group effort the entire guild could get behind in an event type situation and hand out mediocre rewards. It was still entertaining for the guild given we are a conquest guild mainly.

 

bioware has made sure to screw that up royally with this patch. I don't mean like a little screw up that can be looked over but hidden crafting changes, putting in more grind on what already had grind, limiting points to nearly every group activity. Limiting the ability to play alts.

 

It's a screw up on biowares part of epic proportions for one of the last group / guild activities that had a fairly decent goal to achieve as a guild.

 

It's such a bioware screw up I'm having trouble seeing how bioware didn't see it. Changes like this are why bioware and incompetent get put together so often.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Quraswren