Maintenance: March 13, 2020

[DanielSteed]

All servers are once again available, thanks everyone!

[MacCleoud]

*The health of most non-boss encounter NPCs has increased in all difficulties for the Karagga's Palace Operation.

 

*The effects of Bolster have been increased in Master Mode Operations, this change is being made to alleviate concerns around the removal of the Veteran's Edge player buff in Game Update 6.1.

 

 

 

The ptach notes seem spare. What about all the class changes on PTS? Are they being implemented today or not?

 

No. this is 6.1b. The class changes and what not are in 6.1.1.

[CoiledNine]

Hello everyone,

 

We will be taking the servers offline on March 13, 2020 to deploy Game Update 6.1b. Based on testing over this past week, we feel these changes are in a good state to push live. The changes can be found in the patch notes attached below.

 

Details:

DATE: March 13, 2020

TIME: 6:00AM - 8:00AM PST (1300 - 1500 GMT)

VERSION: 6.1b

 

Patch notes are available here: http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes.

 

Thank you for your patience as we maintain Star Wars™: The Old Republic™!

 

I thought this was some kind of joke. If this is your "nerf" to KP farming, you'd best come up with something better. Because it hasn't stopped anything, and those of us who don't partake are getting a little frustrated over the lack of GF pops for literally EVERYTHING ELSE in the game. I'm not the first to point this out, and I don't think I'll be the last.

[StrikePrice]

The concern about KP farming is so weird. So, let me understand the logic. It's okay to kill the same mobs over and over and over again in Spammer Station, but not okay in KP. Please explain this to me. There's nothing KP farming accomplishes that cannot be accomplished by running Spammer Station over and over (which is what people do).

[xordevoreaux]

The concern about KP farming is so weird. So, let me understand the logic. It's okay to kill the same mobs over and over and over again in Spammer Station, but not okay in KP. Please explain this to me. There's nothing KP farming accomplishes that cannot be accomplished by running Spammer Station over and over (which is what people do).

 

It's the secondary effects of farming, not the farming itself.

 

The quick increase in conquest points meant guilds were getting wildly ahead of other guilds on the conquest boards, putting the other guilds at a wide competitive disadvantage for those wishing to not only make the boards but perhaps serve their guild members by acquiring a planet and thus acquire achievement titles, and so forth.

 

So there were complaints.

 

It just so happens that those very same complaints advertised the KP trash run to everyone who didn't already know about it. So between the time the complaints grew loud to the time (today) when BW finally did something about it, everybody's brother was on the KP trash run train.

 

Give it a week, the highly-competitive guilds will find yet another quick shortcut to beating everyone else on the conquest boards.

Edited March 13, 2020 by xordevoreaux

[StrikePrice]

It's the secondary effects of farming, not the farming itself ,,,

Great post, thank you. I agree with you. In essence, there is a subset of players that will always find the most optimal way to accomplish a goal. At least KP farm is democratized where everyone can benefit from it. The next thing the big guilds do may not be and that gives them an even wider advantage. People have to understand that the big guilds are running KP farms all day long. They play more than most -- they are going to "win" (whatever that means) based on that alone whether it's KP farm or Spammer Station.

 

What I don't understand it BW rationale that if "players are killing the same mobs over and over, something is wrong" (paraphrase). That's basically the definition of endgame MMO PvE. I think the truth of the matter is that KP farm was too democratized for BW's liking because it allowed too many people to make their conquest goals, thus lowering the prices on crafting materials and reducing the rapid deflation they are looking to get (stupidly by the way, because ti's costing them real money).

[JattaGin]

Why do you guys always try to take the fun out of your own game. I just don't understand.

 

Was it* fun though?

 

*(KP mob farming.)

 

People are farming KP because your conquest system sucks. Do you fix it...NO... do you fix a completely broken crafting system, NO..Do you fix any of the other garbage you have messed up and broken or made un fun, NO. But you need a special patch to Nerf something players are doing in response to your failure to provide alternatives. YOU are the problem, not the way people are playing the game.

 

I mean, you're not wrong...

[MacCleoud]

There was also the bonus XP you get from being in a 16 man OP being converted into Conquest Points. The increase in health was to increase the time it took to kill the mobs, not "fix the problem". The "fix" will come when they only take the base XP to be converted excluding the bonus XP.

[StrikePrice]

There was also the bonus XP you get from being in a 16 man OP being converted into Conquest Points. The increase in health was to increase the time it took to kill the mobs, not "fix the problem". The "fix" will come when they only take the base XP to be converted excluding the bonus XP.

How is that a fix? It will simply take longer to accomplish the same task. And, since it's removed across the board, it affects everyone. People who are willing to grind day and night are always going to come out ahead in an MMO structure. :shrug:

[Alanbra]

Was it* fun though?

 

*(KP mob farming.)

 

 

 

I mean, you're not wrong...

 

Indirectly, yes. Some people feel they have to make their conquest totals because they sell the purple mats for credits. Now you could go rampage on a planet and kill 50, then 100, then 150 random mobs for about 16k points,

 

or you could join a kp farm and get 22k points in ten minutes. Relatively speaking, the kp farm is more fun, and takes a lot less time so you can spend time doing what you want in the game instead of grinding out conquest points.

[DarkTergon]

Doubling the health of the enemies did nothing, didn't slow it down much. If they really want to nerf it, they have to reduce the CQ points people get from the trash mobs. BUT it still won't stop big guilds grouping up and doing activities. They can still sapm FP's, or kill planet mobs, use their ship for the extra conquest options. Nothing is going to stop big guilds from continuing what they are doing, people will always find a quicker way to get CQ, then move on to play the content they want.

[StrikePrice]

Doubling the health of the enemies did nothing, didn't slow it down much. If they really want to nerf it, they have to reduce the CQ points people get from the trash mobs. BUT it still won't stop big guilds grouping up and doing activities. They can still sapm FP's, or kill planet mobs, use their ship for the extra conquest options. Nothing is going to stop big guilds from continuing what they are doing, people will always find a quicker way to get CQ, then move on to play the content they want.

Exactly. What's nice about it now is that it's PUG-able. That opens it up to everyone.

[robertthebard]

There was also the bonus XP you get from being in a 16 man OP being converted into Conquest Points. The increase in health was to increase the time it took to kill the mobs, not "fix the problem". The "fix" will come when they only take the base XP to be converted excluding the bonus XP.

 

The real fix will be when they do what Standing Stone games did in DDO when they had this kind of problem:

 

The rewards for the quest weren't paid until the quest was completed. Not sure how that would translate here, since it was an optional that was literally being exploited there, not just whacking some moles, but unless they do something along these lines, it's not going to stop.

[TrixxieTriss]

The real fix will be when they do what Standing Stone games did in DDO when they had this kind of problem:

 

The rewards for the quest weren't paid until the quest was completed. Not sure how that would translate here, since it was an optional that was literally being exploited there, not just whacking some moles, but unless they do something along these lines, it's not going to stop.

 

Seems like an easy and logical fix. I wish they’d consider that approach for many things in the game. Sadly, I think if they haven’t thought about it already, this good idea will be drowned out from this thread because of all the time zone quibbling going on. Plus the less than positive responses.

 

Remember people, Musco is on extended leave and Daniel and team have taken over. Since then, the communication has gone up 100% or more if you believe 100% isn’t the ceiling.

 

And even though I’m a massive critic of Bioware and especially Musco’s performance as a community manager, I think we need to tone down our usual rhetoric or Daniel and team might stop listening and turn into Musco clones.

 

My suggestion for the mean time would be to give them some slack. If you have to critique, be a bit more polite and less aggressive in your responses.

Plus, it’s important to not paint these guys as the baddies. I’m nearly 99% sure they are passing on real feed back to the dev team (I only have a 1% opinion that Musco does).

 

Let’s give them some time to settle into the role while Musco isn’t around to contaminate the process.

 

One last thing, remember these guys aren’t the decision makers, they are the conduit to communication between us and the dev team. If the dev team doesn’t listen or give them info to pass onto us, they can’t do more than say the dev team is aware of it. And if we continue to quibble and nit pick about what they post, they will be less inclined to communicate back with us. At which point it goes back to being a one channel and not two way.

 

This argument used to be made to support Musco, but he doesn’t communicate like these guys are and he’s a more senior member of the swtor team and I dare say has more influence than these guys. It’s why he lost the confidence of so many of the players.

Edited March 14, 2020 by TrixxieTriss