Why are story mode uprisings so hard?

[klizilii]

The way story mode uprisings are tuned, they are very hard to solo and seem way too hard for story mode content.  They are noticably harder than veteran mode uprisigns.

[LD_Little_Dragon]

It's just poor naming.  Story uprisings are the equivalent of Veteran flashpoints and meant for a group.

[Buekur]

Story mode Operations cannot be solo'd either.  Uprisings are not meant to be solo'd.

[Ardrossan]

I hate uprisings. Sub-only group content is short-sighted. You need people in queues, doesn't matter if they're paying or not. In the case of uprisings, the queue was so slow because people would rather do FPs or Ops. If they were soloable, even if they were a middle ground between story FPs and veteran FPs, I would absolutely do them.

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

16 minutes ago, Ardrossan said:

I hate uprisings. Sub-only group content is short-sighted. You need people in queues, doesn't matter if they're paying or not. In the case of uprisings, the queue was so slow because people would rather do FPs or Ops. If they were soloable, even if they were a middle ground between story FPs and veteran FPs, I would absolutely do them.

Uprisings are like the persona non grata of group content. Making them soloable, I think, would be the only way to salvage them at this point as people who are adverse to group content/playing with others may see them as a nice extension of content they can do.

Edited May 26, 2023 by WayOfTheWarriorx

[eabevella]

I miss the time when Uprisings are easily soloable.

I guess I'm one of the few people who actually like the stories of Uprisings. To me those stories added more interesting aspects of the Alliance, namely events related to surveillance and political/territorial conflicts that are perfectly for a non-Force sensitive "Commander" to manage.

[DawnAskham]

Uprisings are copy / paste maps with copy / paste enemies put into the game and labeled 'group' content to try and placate 'group' players after the disaster that was KotFE and the two years of 'story chapter of the month - no new group content' period.

They were unrewarding garbage when they were added, and have since been abandoned and left to rot because why bother doing something like increasing the rewards or retuning them so the difficulties match flashpoints (story = solo, vet = 4 randos, MM = 4 reasonably competent players with a tank / healer / 2x dps).

The only thing they have done is stick a whole lot of points on CQ and sometimes a Seasons objective, which probably took the intern an hour to accomplish, which is probably more time than they wanted to spend on uprisings.

IMO they should have become the role-neutral 4 random players spam for XP and rewards small group content, with vet flashpoints still tuned for a tank / healer / 2x dps - tuned lower than MM / similar to today, just without Kolto stations.

Edit to add: Story can be solo'd, though some are way more difficult than others, and all take more time than I'd ever bother at the current tuning (Firefrost is probably the quickest).

Edited May 26, 2023 by DawnAskham

[Sonicphoto]

Depends on the Uprising, I solo the Firefrost one for the galactic season story mode and did well, as long as you use a character with self heals, plus the uprising had a couple of kolto stations around. Granted, the bosses are spongier to take down but it seemed all right otherwise. Probably can't do them with every class though, just those that can sustain extra heals on top of the comp ones.

[TrixxieTriss]

It’s sad cause I used to be able to do some of the highest lvl of Up Risings solo. Now it’s impossible to do some on the easiest lvl solo. They literally took away a possible solo activity for a whole bunch of people. The easiest lvl should all be possible solo. Not saying they should be face roll easy. But they should be all doable like they used to be. Then if people want to group, they can do the harder version. 

Edited May 27, 2023 by TrixxieTriss

[LD_Little_Dragon]

They were way too easy at one point because the enemies were level 70, and the players were level 75 (no level sync).  That wasn't the difficulty level they were intended to be.

Although I did take advantage of being overpowered to get a lot of achievements.  Intended or not, it was fun to have the story uprisings actually be  easier then open-world story areas.

[TrixxieTriss]

2 hours ago, LD_Little_Dragon said:

They were way too easy at one point because the enemies were level 70, and the players were level 75 (no level sync).  That wasn't the difficulty level they were intended to be.

Although I did take advantage of being overpowered to get a lot of achievements.  Intended or not, it was fun to have the story uprisings actually be  easier then open-world story areas.

That’s true, but I mean after that & before 7.x. They also tweaked them to be harder. 7.x just made them worse.

[recalcitrantIre]

On 5/27/2023 at 5:34 AM, DawnAskham said:

They were unrewarding garbage when they were added, and have since been abandoned and left to rot because why bother doing something like increasing the rewards or retuning them so the difficulties match flashpoints (story = solo, vet = 4 randos, MM = 4 reasonably competent players with a tank / healer / 2x dps).

there was a short period at the beginning of 5.0 where I think Fractured and Inferno were very good for command point farming, but it didn't last particularly long because in standard Bioware fashion they nuked the command point rates of those pieces of content into the ground and the player perception of them never recovered

Bioware just really does not seem to have a good handle on balancing content rewards based on time investment and particularly in 7.x, uprising rewards are extremely sub-par; at the very least in flashpoints you can eventually get halfway decent gear out of them

then storywise they're just this awkward aborted "arc" that has no real relation to anything else, just this nebulous common instigator/bankroller with anti-Alliance sentiment

I'm not sure why they're still kept as a distinct thing to themselves, they'd probably service the game better by being refactored into flashpoints and at the very least given the same basic reward scheme as current/traditional flashpoints

[Stradlin]

On 5/26/2023 at 8:07 PM, Ardrossan said:

I hate uprisings. Sub-only group content is short-sighted. You need people in queues, doesn't matter if they're paying or not. In the case of uprisings, the queue was so slow because people would rather do FPs or Ops. If they were soloable, even if they were a middle ground between story FPs and veteran FPs, I would absolutely do them.

 

Restricting them sub only and leaving it that way was def a huge mistake. They never really found a way to make them rewarding either, not towards the beginning of their implementation at least. Recently, they got hurt further when devs knowingly made them MORE LIKE FPs, by removing some of the delicious crowd-fights. 

 

All this is a huge shame,Uprisings are def  a bit more..modern, intensive and replayable  take on the aging FP formula. Sometimes, in Uprisings, mobs actually do things. Which is quite different to anything you ever  find in ye olde Hammer Station.

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by Stradlin

[DawnAskham]

8 hours ago, Stradlin said:

 

Restricting them sub only and leaving it that way was def a huge mistake. They never really found a way to make them rewarding either, not towards the beginning of their implementation at least. Recently, they got hurt further when devs knowingly made them MORE LIKE FPs, by removing some of the delicious crowd-fights. 

 

All this is a huge shame,Uprisings are def  a bit more..modern, intensive and replayable  take on the aging FP formula. Sometimes, in Uprisings, mobs actually do things. Which is quite different to anything you ever  find in ye olde Hammer Station.

 

Flashpoints tend to have a significant tie-in to the story (especially the newer ones - discounting the lowbie OG ones like Hammer, Athiis, etc), use unique maps and environments, and specific to newer ones, have more unique, interesting, and engaging mechanics.

Uprisings are pure copy / paste maps with copy / paste 'story' filled with formulaic bosses (almost every boss is a bullet sponge with some basic design that adds nothing more than time to prolong the fight - spamming circles, adds, stuns, bad spots; going immune; porting away; etc) and copy / paste trash.

If they had made these the role-neutral spam for XP and rewards content, put them all in the group finder, and actually tuned them to be as advertised (fast and engaging) content, they might have a place (IMO that would also require the 'story' version to be tuned for solo players and be a part of the Activities > Solo tab).

Instead, they are just a cheap, subpar version of flashpoints.

And to add insult to injury, they require a subscription and are far less rewarding.

Edited May 28, 2023 by DawnAskham

[black_pyros]

14 hours ago, DawnAskham said:

they require a subscription

They don't. The only repeatable* content that requires a subscription is operations.

*Of course for non-repeatable content like access to max level and latest expansion story you need a one time subscription.

[Stradlin]

16 hours ago, DawnAskham said:

Flashpoints tend to have a significant tie-in to the story (especially the newer ones - discounting the lowbie OG ones like Hammer, Athiis, etc), use unique maps and environments, and specific to newer ones, have more unique, interesting, and engaging mechanics.

Uprisings are pure copy / paste maps with copy / paste 'story' filled with formulaic bosses (almost every boss is a bullet sponge with some basic design that adds nothing more than time to prolong the fight - spamming circles, adds, stuns, bad spots; going immune; porting away; etc) and copy / paste trash.

If they had made these the role-neutral spam for XP and rewards content, put them all in the group finder, and actually tuned them to be as advertised (fast and engaging) content, they might have a place (IMO that would also require the 'story' version to be tuned for solo players and be a part of the Activities > Solo tab).

Instead, they are just a cheap, subpar version of flashpoints.

And to add insult to injury, they require a subscription and are far less rewarding.

 

Yeah, that significant tie-in to the story is awesome..for first couple of times, or when you revisiting an FP you've not seen in months.  ending up doing  Black Talon for Nth time, sitting through all that dialogue you know by heart by now? Yeah..fun.   Uprisings were clearly planned for something else besides story,  and with higher tolerance for repetition in mind. They have lots of potential but never really reached it.  Unfortunate decision to leave them for subs, plus disappointing rewards see to that. The whole system is missing a reputation vendor I'd say.

 

Huge majority of Uprising bosses aren't any more formulaic than their FP counterpars. Like..take, say, Destroyer of the Worlds. Think of the bosses of that place alone, and compare them to most of everything FPs will throw at you. First boss there is unlike anything you'll find in FPs. Beyond that, road to those bosses  is so much more intense and lively with Uprisings. In FPs, you have these static, lame groups of mobs standing around, waiting to be attacked. In practice, if group is experienced it just turns into this exercsise of seeing how many of them you can skip. The "copy paste trash" you speak pretty often actually does something, when player char gets near. Instead of just waits to be attacked first. That alone makes Uprising trash so much more modern and interesting than their FP counterparts.

 

 

Uprisings are  different to Story FPs and made for a  different purpose. No Uprising can compare to playing BT for the first time. Every Uprising is so much more fun  than BT, by the time you seen both the Uprising and BT like 12  times. 

 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by Stradlin