Returning Player (maybe). Wondering, are Conquest Kills of 5.8a-5.9 are Alive & Well?

[Raytal]

Founder who maintained a continuous subscription since beta was wondering if the Conquest changes made in 5.8a and doubled down on in 5.9 which killed the game for me (and I cancelled my subscription), including two-thirds of my guild are still alive and well? Wanted to hear from the community on this before I told the guildies who left with me that they "heard" their community and fixed that broken mess.

 

If its still lousy? Any suggestions you can make, to make it palatable would be appreciated, and I'll pass that along.

 

Thanks all -

 

Ajow

[xordevoreaux]

Surprisingly, the rest of us who stayed somehow managed to do just fine with conquest. My light-side guild made over 500k points last week, and with the latest patch, whose notes you can read, they lowered the lowest-tier requirement from 200k to 170k.

 

So.

 

What precisely was your guild trying to do that somehow made all those people in it (2/3 of course could mean 6 out of 9) collectively feel that conquest was untenable, or that somehow something magic happened that would bring them back?

[Darevsool]

So, no, they haven't gotten rid of the conquest changes that made meeting conquest goals on multiple alts a week (as in 5 or more alts) VERY VERY difficult, if not impossible some weeks.

 

Many conquest goals are still once per legacy per day.

There are more "unlimited" conquest goals than there were at first, but some of them are limited by the type of content - at least on a per toon basis. (Oricon missions for example...technically unlimited in the conquest window, but you can only do them once a day per toon).

 

If you used to get a ton of conquest points by running all 8 Nar Shaddaa heroic missions, and then switching to a different toon to do it again....that is still forbidden by the 5.8 changes.

[Darevsool]

I do want to mention that they did add the "rampage" category, which helps a little, but again, it's only once a day per legacy.

50 kills

100 kills

150 kills

With maximum SH bonus that's about 1/3 of your conquest points...

some times there are weeks with 3 different rampages

other weeks there's only 1 or 2 different ones (multiple planets).

 

There's also a "socialite" conquest category.

Do 3 group "missions" via group finder, get some points. Do 2 more for 5 total, get more points.

Also, once per legacy per day.

[Raytal]

Yeah. May have been greater that two-thirds actually.

 

reading the patch notes is meaningless without real player experience to tell us if they are equally valueless. hence my post. No?

 

nice to see they lowered the conquest tier - i guess that's meaningful...super.

 

I was referring to the number of repeatable versus, non-repeatable, versus one character only quests for conquest credit. You know...the changes that made running multiple alts worthless.

 

never expected any magic given the dev team involved. was simply hopeful.

[Raytal]

So, no, they haven't gotten rid of the conquest changes that made meeting conquest goals on multiple alts a week (as in 5 or more alts) VERY VERY difficult, if not impossible some weeks.

 

 

Thank you Darevsool - that's the kind of details I was looking for. Much Appreciated! Ajow

[TUXs]

So, no, they haven't gotten rid of the conquest changes that made meeting conquest goals on multiple alts a week (as in 5 or more alts) VERY VERY difficult, if not impossible some weeks.

 

Many conquest goals are still once per legacy per day.

There are more "unlimited" conquest goals than there were at first, but some of them are limited by the type of content - at least on a per toon basis. (Oricon missions for example...technically unlimited in the conquest window, but you can only do them once a day per toon).

 

If you used to get a ton of conquest points by running all 8 Nar Shaddaa heroic missions, and then switching to a different toon to do it again....that is still forbidden by the 5.8 changes.

Yup...exactly this. I can cap 2-3 toons most weeks with my casual play, but I don't see how anyone could cap more than 5ish given the legacy restrictions.

[Raytal]

Yup...exactly this. I can cap 2-3 toons most weeks with my casual play, but I don't see how anyone could cap more than 5ish given the legacy restrictions.

 

Thanks TUXs. Shame they haven't changed that. Going to be the deciding issue for me and the rest. Appreciate the heads up. Ajow

[yeldarbnotned]

What is your goal for conquest?

 

If your goal is to earn encryptions for the flagship, four players could hit their personal conquest goals on three alts each, then their cumulative score would surpass the lowest guild conquest threshold (4*3*15,000=180,000 ). Hence, your guild would earn 12 encryptions. This is very doable with rampages, etc.

 

If your goal is to earn augment components with the same handful of guildies, well you would have to grind a ton of warzones, gsf, and/or add crafting into the mix to meet the higher thresholds for medium and high yield planets.

 

If your goal is to win planets, you can forget about it. For example, there are three very large guilds on Star Forge. Usually only three planets are available per week, these three guilds each choose a different planet. I may be mistaken, but I have only seen two of these guilds go head to head since the new conquest 5.8 changes. I remember that well, because this allowed my guild to win the third planet. The only other time we were able to win a planet was during a conquest called Flashpoint Havoc. This conquest had five planets because balmorra and taris each have a imp/pub side. Thus, it gave us an opportunity to win one of the other two planets. The only other chance you will have to win is during the conquest "Total Galactic War." This one has all the planets available but only pops like twice a year.

Edited October 3, 2018 by yeldarbnotned
edit

[Macarrin]

Surprisingly, the rest of us who stayed somehow managed to do just fine with conquest. My light-side guild made over 500k points last week, and with the latest patch, whose notes you can read, they lowered the lowest-tier requirement from 200k to 170k.

 

So.

 

What precisely was your guild trying to do that somehow made all those people in it (2/3 of course could mean 6 out of 9) collectively feel that conquest was untenable, or that somehow something magic happened that would bring them back?

 

The changes were one of the main reasons I took a 5 month break. I won't say how many, but I had invested a lot of time and money/credits in server slot expansions in order to fill in whatever role was needed in an ongoing basis for my guild's conquest activities. And in one fell swoop, over a dozen toons and the gear invested in them were basically sidelined.

 

While I was preferred I did do a few daily areas once a week, but I came back because of people, not changes made to conquest. And of the myriad alts that my previous game play style left me with, they've been logged in once each, to remove any stored items or credits they have before going to the back of the list to be ignored going forward.

 

So while it's still possible to to carry on with business as usual if you only did conquest on a half dozen or less, if you had invested significant amounts of time and resources into a large number of alts for conquest it should be understandable that there was a fair amount of bad feelings.

 

Some would say, adapt and keep going. Well, I did - i adapted by not playing for nearly half a year. And I wasn't the only one. I understand that it is the nature of the genre for things in MMOs to change, and sometimes change fast. That doesn't negate the fact that some of those changes can leave a bad taste in the mouth.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Macarrin

[PennyAnn]

The changes were one of the main reasons I took a 5 month break. I won't say how many, but I had invested a lot of time and money/credits in server slot expansions in order to fill in whatever role was needed in an ongoing basis for my guild's conquest activities. And in one fell swoop, over a dozen toons and the gear invested in them were basically sidelined.

 

While I was preferred I did do a few daily areas once a week, but I came back because of people, not changes made to conquest. And of the myriad alts that my previous game play style left me with, they've been logged in once each, to remove any stored items or credits they have before going to the back of the list to be ignored going forward.

 

So while it's still possible to to carry on with business as usual if you only did conquest on a half dozen or less, if you had invested significant amounts of time and resources into a large number of alts for conquest it should be understandable that there was a fair amount of bad feelings.

 

Some would say, adapt and keep going. Well, I did - i adapted by not playing for nearly half a year. And I wasn't the only one. I understand that it is the nature of the genre for things in MMOs to change, and sometimes change fast. That doesn't negate the fact that some of those changes can leave a bad taste in the mouth.

 

This 100% hits the nail on the head.

 

Anyone who thinks people are just sour grapes for being upset about the conquest changes just doesn't understand that there are many of us who spent a TON of time, money and effort to be conquest superstars for our guild, enjoyed playing the game more, which meant spending more money, and there was really no harm, no foul overall with the old system (barring the fact that any reset would likely keep rewards from going out correctly, which to their credit they have seemed to managed to get fixed). But the new system in all other ways was changed unnecessarily and touted to do an awful lot of things that it actually does the opposite way now. It certainly didn't stop the same 3 guilds from conquering all planets on every single server, every single week. In fact, it assured this would happen more easily than before, locking out all others from ever getting a title for their guild.

 

All the conquest changes did was to ensure we played the game less. For some of us... MUCH less. I don't even play it at all now. And the Conquest changes are 100% responsible for this and the cancellation of my subscription for the first time in almost 7 years. I'm only able to post here because I guess I haven't been logged out of the forums yet to need to relog and reset my posting status/ability.

 

Not just because of my situation, this is not something to make light of for it's impact on the game. They have done a few things to make it a little easier to get more than one or two characters through conquest, but if you have an army that you paid Bioware to build and loved playing, you are still out of luck and in the cold (unless there is an exploitable bug somewhere in the conquest objectives, which has happened frequently but for most of us, is no way to "win").

 

.

Edited October 3, 2018 by PennyAnn

[kodrac]

In before a certain someone jumps in to

1. tell you all you're doing it wrong
   
2. has the data to prove it
   
3. won't show the data
   
4. replies to every post in order to drown out any meaningful and/or helpful discussion/feedback
   

Edited October 3, 2018 by kodrac

[DWho]

In before a certain someone jumps in to

1. tell you all you're doing it wrong
   
2. has the data to prove it
   
3. won't show the data
   
4. replies to every post in order to drown out any meaningful and/or helpful discussion/feedback
   

 

I was just thinking that he'll probably show up soon. He seems to be able to sniff out those threads. I guess not as many people were getting rewarded as he thought since they lowered the small guild conquest target.

[xordevoreaux]

The changes were one of the main reasons I took a 5 month break. I won't say how many, but I had invested a lot of time and money/credits in server slot expansions in order to fill in whatever role was needed in an ongoing basis for my guild's conquest activities. And in one fell swoop, over a dozen toons and the gear invested in them were basically sidelined.

 

While I was preferred I did do a few daily areas once a week, but I came back because of people, not changes made to conquest. And of the myriad alts that my previous game play style left me with, they've been logged in once each, to remove any stored items or credits they have before going to the back of the list to be ignored going forward.

 

So while it's still possible to to carry on with business as usual if you only did conquest on a half dozen or less, if you had invested significant amounts of time and resources into a large number of alts for conquest it should be understandable that there was a fair amount of bad feelings.

 

Some would say, adapt and keep going. Well, I did - i adapted by not playing for nearly half a year. And I wasn't the only one. I understand that it is the nature of the genre for things in MMOs to change, and sometimes change fast. That doesn't negate the fact that some of those changes can leave a bad taste in the mouth.

 

I've 118 toons across 4 accounts and they all get logged into at least once a month and I've 36 characters on my main server, with less than a handful under 70, and all in some progression toward 248/236.

 

So in terms of investing time in characters, let's talk. You're not the only one alt-heavy around here who's felt the change with conquest.

 

But that doesn't mean I shriveled up and died for 5 months, either.

Edited October 4, 2018 by xordevoreaux

[Darevsool]

If you've found things to do with all of your alts that isn't conquest related, that's great for you!

 

Personally, I was playing to complete conquest on as many toons as possible.

Some weeks it was 5 or 6, other weeks it was 10-15.

 

It may not be a reason to play that most people can appreciate, but it kept me pretty engaged in the game, and most importantly, ONLINE.

[TUXs]

If you've found things to do with all of your alts that isn't conquest related, that's great for you!

 

Personally, I was playing to complete conquest on as many toons as possible.

Some weeks it was 5 or 6, other weeks it was 10-15.

 

It may not be a reason to play that most people can appreciate, but it kept me pretty engaged in the game, and most importantly, ONLINE.

I agree completely. Alt play should be 100% encouraged, keeping people here, logged in, spending time and money HERE, not in another game. Had it not been for alts, I wouldn't have bought half of the outfits I have...those outfits are bought with CC's, which is real money, extra money, that is being spent here, not somewhere else.

 

I get that it sucked for smaller guilds, but that's a problem with the scoring system, not alt play. There were a million better ways to tweak Conquests to be more appealing to smaller guilds...killing alt play was NOT it.

[Damask_Rose]

But that doesn't mean I shriveled up and died for 5 months, either.

 

I didn't shrivel up and die either, but I barely touch conquest anymore and that was the only reason I did group content. For me, it wasn't so much that they crippled the number of alts I could complete conquests on since I only used a few for conquest, it was that in their efforts to make us diversify playstyle they stripped out a lot of the conquest targets I enjoyed doing. Then my once large and active conquest guild nearly died, so the conquest activities I enjoyed doing with them don't happen anymore. Where once we could field a full raid and rotate fresh players in for hours to farm plague bosses, now it's rare to see two other players. It's sad, demotivating and was completely unnecessary.

[taxidermis]

I can sympathize with both sides.. 2 years ago I had 8 Alts that I religiously ground cq on in begeren colony. Was alot of fun and even in a small 20 person guild we managed to win planets by religiously doing lockouts etc etc. Now I have 1 main. Who I have to admit, joined one of the "top 3 guilds on starforhe" to get cq. But for me it's fine. I now work 50 to 60 hours each week AND have a family to spend time with. So I play about 6 hours a week.. and I find that the changes allow me to cap cq on my main in about 2 hours or less playing casually. The guild I'm in runs multiple lockouts. So 2 a week plus my weekly pvp and gsf gets me close. I usually do a killing champion guards to top it off. Bam done. Still have time to play a bit of story.

 

And honestly y'all should look into joining one of the mega guilds . Besides a very infamous previous guild on SS I have had good experiences on star forge with usually 30 or more people online and most of them friendly and helpful. It's awesome when u can ask for a group for literally any activity in game and find 3 or 4 plp in guild who want in b4 even having to pug.

 

So yes I can see both sides but the way I see it all mmos change and while we can provide feedback and hope for change.. the happiest players are those of us who adapt

[taxidermis]

I didn't shrivel up and die either, but I barely touch conquest anymore and that was the only reason I did group content. For me, it wasn't so much that they crippled the number of alts I could complete conquests on since I only used a few for conquest, it was that in their efforts to make us diversify playstyle they stripped out a lot of the conquest targets I enjoyed doing. Then my once large and active conquest guild nearly died, so the conquest activities I enjoyed doing with them don't happen anymore. Where once we could field a full raid and rotate fresh players in for hours to farm plague bosses, now it's rare to see two other players. It's sad, demotivating and was completely unnecessary.

 

Find a new guild or at least join your servers custom chat channels. I had a day off yesterday and on star forge the channel is /cjoin allies. I joined 2 sm and 1 hm Eyeless runs and 2 full run DP groupfinder as well as a tonorros courtyard and my 3 mm flashpoints as a dps on my mara and merc. All pugs all within a 4 hour window. All through the custom chat channel. I only saw one of the group's pugging on fleet.

[Darevsool]

I can sympathize with both sides.. 2 years ago I had 8 Alts that I religiously ground cq on in begeren colony. Was alot of fun and even in a small 20 person guild we managed to win planets by religiously doing lockouts etc etc. Now I have 1 main. Who I have to admit, joined one of the "top 3 guilds on starforhe" to get cq. But for me it's fine. I now work 50 to 60 hours each week AND have a family to spend time with. So I play about 6 hours a week.. and I find that the changes allow me to cap cq on my main in about 2 hours or less playing casually. The guild I'm in runs multiple lockouts. So 2 a week plus my weekly pvp and gsf gets me close. I usually do a killing champion guards to top it off. Bam done. Still have time to play a bit of story.

 

And honestly y'all should look into joining one of the mega guilds . Besides a very infamous previous guild on SS I have had good experiences on star forge with usually 30 or more people online and most of them friendly and helpful. It's awesome when u can ask for a group for literally any activity in game and find 3 or 4 plp in guild who want in b4 even having to pug.

 

So yes I can see both sides but the way I see it all mmos change and while we can provide feedback and hope for change.. the happiest players are those of us who adapt

 

Joining one of the "mega" guilds was the only way I could finish my Conqueror title.

Once I was done, I said a polite 'thank you' in guild chat and left the guild to go back to my main one.

 

So, obviously, I don't have a problem putting an alt into a different guild to obtain the titles.

 

However, I feel that it SHOULD be done via competition. (Not HAS to be done, but SHOULD be done.)

Conquest is, after all, the ultimate form of PVP that encompasses ALL aspects of the game.

Whether you prefer alt-ing it up, or running lockouts, or going through and completing each of the possible point categories because you're a completionist...ideally it would work for all play styles.

 

It used to, before 5.8.

 

Now, because of the legacy restrictions, it doesn't anymore.

 

The points can be lowered all they want, it doesn't fix the problem at many players, due to how they prefer to play, are feeling left out and reducing game time because of it.

 

I posted on my guild's webpage that I wouldn't be contributing this week as it's just starting to feel like too much of a grind. And I haven't done anything with it this week so far as I've been leveling up a JK specifically to go through the story (never did Dark Side JK...so this is a first).