Blueprint fragments are considered "junk"

[Kilekrn]

Not a big fan of stealth nerfs and even less of a fan of companies that do it. I won't be giving any more money to Broadsword, and I am logging off for the last time today. Quit making the game worse for the people who are paying you to play it.

[Ahndri]

4 hours ago, JoeStramaglia said:

We've added new objectives to help offset the loss that encourage you to play Galactic Seasons in the same manner that the Reputation one did but lowered the effect that the Reputation objective gave in its place. 

So instead of ~336,000 CP across however many characters per server in a week from the Advancement: Reputation objective, you can now get:

~22,000 for Galactic Seasons Weekly Objectives, once weekly

~10,000 Galactic Seasons: Progress, once daily

~8,000 Advancement: Reputation, once daily

For a weekly total of ~148,000 across characters per server

 

Did someone have a bad math moment? This is in no way equivalent, and it's obvious that the devs just want to control how players play the game. If I'm paying to play this game (and I am), if I want to log in for five minutes, pop a rep token and log out for the day, and collect my Conquest on three characters a week doing that, that should be up to me. 

What I'm really seeing here, is that the devs don't want players collecting Tech Frags this easily, because that filters down into the GTN, making materials for high-level augs more expensive, so then players need to play more to grind credits to pay more for augs, or play more to grind more Conquest and/or more Tech Frags to have more to spend. This is just a way to slow players down and make it more grindy while trying to dictate how players play, which is a good way to make people decide to just not log in at all.

[Thraka]

 

Wow, I can't believe you guys knew this would hurt small guilds and people with lots of alts and you did it anyway. You basically destroyed many people's whole endgame with this. If you imagined somehow this would increase retention, I'd say you are WAY off the mark. Given that I can now no longer keep up on conquest with my alts, I am not incentivized to grind harder. I am just incentivized to stop logging in at all.

Unsubbed. This was a totally unforced error, and indicates a PROFOUND lack of understanding of your paying customers.

[VegaMist]

15 minutes ago, Thraka said:

 

Wow, I can't believe you guys knew this would hurt small guilds and people with lots of alts and you did it anyway. You basically destroyed many people's whole endgame with this. If you imagined somehow this would increase retention, I'd say you are WAY off the mark. Given that I can now no longer keep up on conquest with my alts, I am not incentivized to grind harder. I am just incentivized to stop logging in at all.

Unsubbed. This was a totally unforced error, and indicates a PROFOUND lack of understanding of your paying customers.

Agreed. They really don't understand that most of the players have limited time to dedicate to the game. We like sensible goals which we can complete relatively painlessly, receive the satisfaction from said completion, and move on to doing whatever we actually logged in to do whether it's story, raids, PVP, GSF, decorating Strongholds, playing Space Barbie, etc. When said goals become too time consuming for whatever time each of us has, we'll just stop doing them which also creates immediate dissatisfaction from the moment one logs in. And that leads to a logical conclusion of why subscribe (or log in) at all if the game experience leaves you unsatisfied.

At this point, I personally feel they should stop any future updates until they hire some decent usability engineers as well as a good QA department (the amount of bugs introduced in every release makes it feel like there is barely if any QA process). Oh, but they totally fixed that floating bottle - such an amazing accomplishment - and made sure to include that fix in the patch notes.

[Furrlock]

A lot was written already about negative impact of Reputation Objective change. I am adding my voice (and voices of at least 3 others) to let it be known that there are many of us who are very disappointed with that change. Degree of disappointment can be judged by fact that it is my 1st post in 11 years of playing a game.  I understand and accept that every game have to include a fair amount of grinding. However, the latest change will gravely increase the amount of grinding for conquests (on top of what already has been built into Galactic Seasons objectives). I am not looking to take up a second job of SWTOR. Instead, I feel motivated to find more enjoyable alternatives for my time and money.

[Thraka]

20 minutes ago, VegaMist said:

Agreed. They really don't understand that most of the players have limited time to dedicate to the game. We like sensible goals which we can complete relatively painlessly, receive the satisfaction from said completion, and move on to doing whatever we actually logged in to do whether it's story, raids, PVP, GSF, decorating Strongholds, playing Space Barbie, etc. When said goals become too time consuming for whatever time each of us has, we'll just stop doing them which also creates immediate dissatisfaction from the moment one logs in. And that leads to a logical conclusion of why subscribe (or log in) at all if the game experience leaves you unsatisfied.

At this point, I personally feel they should stop any future updates until they hire some decent usability engineers as well as a good QA department (the amount of bugs introduced in every release makes it feel like there is barely if any QA process). Oh, but they totally fixed that floating bottle - such an amazing accomplishment - and made sure to include that fix in the patch notes.

 

You know what really grinds my gears? They just did a fire sale on level 80 boosts. They knew this was coming and they dropped the price on boosts to sell more cartel coins, knowing people would end up unable to really use the characters they boosted due to this nerf. It's absolutely rotten.

[VegaMist]

4 minutes ago, Thraka said:

 

You know what really grinds my gears? They just did a fire sale on level 80 boosts. They knew this was coming and they dropped the price on boosts to sell more cartel coins, knowing people would end up unable to really use the characters they boosted due to this nerf. It's absolutely rotten.

I didn't even think of that. And you're correct - it's rotten.

[LJ_Gibbs]

6 hours ago, JoeStramaglia said:

Reputation Conquest Objective
The amount of Conquest points earned for the Reputation Conquest Objective was reduced. This particular objective was over-represented in objectives completed and needed to be balanced. We've added new objectives to help offset the loss that encourage you to play Galactic Seasons in the same manner that the Reputation one did but lowered the effect that the Reputation objective gave in its place. 

 

DID NOT NEED BALANCED.  You just made me not able to log into as many toons as I did before. Thanks for giving me time to play other games.

[Taurax]

7 hours ago, JoeStramaglia said:

Hey folks!

...There is still an item to collect the same way you collected Reputation currency in the past. However, it is for Achievement tracking only and progress is granted when you collect it - you're safe to sell them for credits! It’s worth noting that these will cease to drop when you’ve unlocked the achievement.
 

So, why have them drop at all?  How about some sort of counter "you found a blueprint", but make it automatically give you credits instead?  Why the added step to collect them, then sell them?  Other than to save/store for preferred and FTP players to cash in later.  

I'm a little disappointed in the thought this whole GS was given.  I'll complete it to have something to do, but really the rewards aren't that exciting to me.  I'll be remaining preferred until the end of the season.  

[ytrenor]

7 hours ago, JoeStramaglia said:

Hey folks!

We are seeing reports from players who are confused with how the Galactic Seasons 6 currency functions. This was not originally included in the GS6 article, but the two intended changes below will be reflected there and in the patch notes as well. 
 
Reputation Track
Galactic Seasons 6 does not have a Reputation track like previous seasons. There is still an item to collect the same way you collected Reputation currency in the past. However, it is for Achievement tracking only and progress is granted when you collect it - you're safe to sell them for credits! It’s worth noting that these will cease to drop when you’ve unlocked the achievement.

Reputation Conquest Objective
The amount of Conquest points earned for the Reputation Conquest Objective was reduced. This particular objective was over-represented in objectives completed and needed to be balanced. We've added new objectives to help offset the loss that encourage you to play Galactic Seasons in the same manner that the Reputation one did but lowered the effect that the Reputation objective gave in its place. 

These changes will be reflected in future Seasons as well, however, we know they can have an outsized effect on smaller guilds and will be keeping a close eye on the data over time and make adjustments as needed. 
 

Imagine if THIS had been revealed and explained in the livestream And the Coppero SH a surprise upon login today. All the questions about the new junk vs old GS reward track would have been mitigated, minimizing a ton of frustration and confusion, and you'd have receive a ton of "thank you" message for the Coppero SH.

You guys knows nothing about communication.

Plus, hidding the reputation CQ points, bad, bad, bad communications.

Every stream, when you say "we want to communicate more/better", I just don't trust you, and then comes D day and the result confirms it: your words where indeed, worth nothing.

* "you" means Broadsword

Edited March 13 by ytrenor

[LJ_Gibbs]

Bottom line people.... THEY DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK.

[DeannaVoyager]

9 hours ago, TheFiveOhFirst said:

I think the CQ objective change, is at best, ill advised. What does "over-represented" even mean in this context and further why does it matter in the first place?

It means they want more people to go afk in pvp and gsf, apparently. Those points, which have been absurd for years now, were not nerfed.

[Shayddow]

ok, I started the galactic season quest with a 44th level I have on Shae Vizla. (She's my highest level chiss on that server).

The quest instructions state that you can start the quest at level 24.

Well, She is currently on Hoth in the story. The quest wants her to complete 3 flashpoints: Legacy of the Rakata

false emperor &

Directive 7.

In the story one encounters False Emperor after completing the Story and doing ILUM.   This was originally a LEVEL 50 quest.

In the story one does Legacy of the Rakata  when doing SOR: which one originally in the story AFTER Ilum & Makeb : level 55-60.

Directive 7 is usually offered when one is on Voss or Corellia at around level 47-48.

SO what part of this is intended for LEVEL 24????????

 

[Daystiny]

With the reputation cq nerf, you encourage people to do more grinding of content they do not really want to play, instead of playing the content, they enjoy. How is that going to effect customer satisfaction (aside from the incredible customer satisfaction effects of stealth nerfing this)?

On a side note, since I am not using the PTS: Was this issue already present on the PTS or was it also hidden from there?

 

[CharlieFreak]

7 hours ago, Ahndri said:

What I'm really seeing here, is that the devs don't want players collecting Tech Frags this easily, because that filters down into the GTN, making materials for high-level augs more expensive, so then players need to play more to grind credits to pay more for augs, or play more to grind more Conquest and/or more Tech Frags to have more to spend. This is just a way to slow players down and make it more grindy while trying to dictate how players play, which is a good way to make people decide to just not log in at all.

I think this is a good analysis - it's the ongoing desire to change the economics in the game. I'm not against the goal, just the lazy way it's been attempted and the associated communication failure. You can't just hit one specific thing for this goal - it requires a lot more consideration to avoid the loss of loyalty as described above and in many other posts.

There have been other changes in the game in the last year that left a bad taste and most people got over it. But this time you've gone too far.

[Anhkriva]

7 hours ago, Ahndri said:

 

What I'm really seeing here, is that the devs don't want players collecting Tech Frags this easily, because that filters down into the GTN, making materials for high-level augs more expensive, so then players need to play more to grind credits to pay more for augs, or play more to grind more Conquest and/or more Tech Frags to have more to spend. This is just a way to slow players down and make it more grindy while trying to dictate how players play, which is a good way to make people decide to just not log in at all.

If they wanted to slow down the acquisition of Tech Frags for solo players, they would nerf the daily quests in the Interpreter's Retreat which give a total of 300 fragments and can be completed in 3-4 minutes in total, and not slow down the conquest which gives 500 per week.

[Davgoso]

Next up SD-0 and The First, beat them and you'll get 5k conquest points each. Whoop!

[VilianSW]

Just adding another voice of "I'm not able to cap cq on all my alts anymore, so I'm gonna play less instead of more".
Another voice of "why the useless junk in my inventory".
Another voice of "why GS story wants me to do old fps I don't enjoy doing anymore".
And, finally, a voice of "I do not want to have non-removable NPCs in my shiny new Copero SH".

And, as much as I'm all for romancing companions, even Date Nights don't make the update a good one - same date mission over and over again, week after week, will be just so very sad instead of exciting.

[sriiky]

Like many others on the forum - I too find this a disappointing move.

Reputation Conquest Objective was over-represented? how? who did it affect adversely? Like the dev themselves say, this nerfing is primarily going to affect the small/solo guilds & new players. Also going to make gaming difficult for players like me who like to play the story content and at the same time keep try to achieve 100k CQ on most of my other alts. Also what new objectives are there that compensate for the reputation points? the only new ones are the two single use GS weekly objective and daily ones.Kindly listen to the players and roll this back

Also no reputation in the GS6? so basically we grind to collect 'junk' and it then is literally junk? Whoever came up with this bright idea? and I wonder what was being smoked at the meeting when this was proposed as a possibility? seriously?

another disappointed player

[CharlieFreak]

Just now, sriiky said:

Like many others on the forum - I too find this a disappointing move.

Reputation Conquest Objective was over-represented? how? who did it affect adversely? Like the dev themselves say, this nerfing is primarily going to affect the small/solo guilds & new players. Also going to make gaming difficult for players like me who like to play the story content and at the same time keep try to achieve 100k CQ on most of my other alts. Also what new objectives are there that compensate for the reputation points? the only new ones are the two single use GS weekly objective and daily ones.Kindly listen to the players and roll this back

Also no reputation in the GS6? so basically we grind to collect 'junk' and it then is literally junk? Whoever came up with this bright idea? and I wonder what was being smoked at the meeting when this was proposed as a possibility? seriously?

another disappointed player

You found the only CQ compensation there is and yes, it's a complete joke. People don't hide or obfuscate the truth unless they think it won't go down well...

I'd started to feel confident that the new devs had a firm hand on the wheel but the rep nerf and the weirdness with 'junk' rewards makes me feel like they're driving with their eyes closed.

[MishraArtificer]

And here I was just about to put in a request to the Suggestions box, asking them to revert the Reputation trophies back to manually clicking them so I don't waste Advancement: Reputation Conquest Objectives just trying to advance through the story.

@JoeStramaglia, was this your idea? I saw you in the replies earlier, and you seem to be the only one even remotely defending the change. This is going to seriously negatively affect player retention as most of us actually have lives outside of the game (shockingly)...not to mention solo players like myself.

Please revert this Conquest change.

EDIT: And refusing to add it to the official Patch Notes until after the patch dropped? Whoever thought that was a good idea should be officially censured.

Edited March 13 by MishraArtificer

[jiati]

15 hours ago, JoeStramaglia said:

Reputation Conquest Objective
The amount of Conquest points earned for the Reputation Conquest Objective was reduced. This particular objective was over-represented in objectives completed and needed to be balanced. We've added new objectives to help offset the loss that encourage you to play Galactic Seasons in the same manner that the Reputation one did but lowered the effect that the Reputation objective gave in its place. 

I am not surprised that you left this change for us to discover after the fact. The only reason I have been grinding away at the new reputation tracks is because it facilitates conquest. Making this change without seeking player feedback tells me all I need to know. You knew it would be unpopular and that there would be pushback. Things like this are why we have lost trust in you. You guys might want to hire some folks who actually play this game because it is clear to me you have lost touch with your customers.

Edited March 13 by jiati

[jiati]

15 hours ago, Ryukomaru said:

So what I am seeing, is the GS reward track, is just filled with useless junk? and literally just junk?  That someone said, hey lets reward the players with literal junk, and you all agreed that was a good idea?

Did you play the last season? If you clicked on the depository 50 times, you were awarded a secret achievement called "It's Just Trash". It feels like they are playing a joke on us. It's all just junk. At least while we were converting that currency in to reputation tokens, we were rewarded with conquest points and legacy titles (some of those titles were good). Apparently Broadsword can't swing that anymore. 

[YaddleTwo]

16 hours ago, RaneTheExile said:

Was the Reputation CQ overpowered?  Yes.  But nothing about how this was done is fair.  Stealth changing it was a bad call.  Dropping it all the way down from ~45k to ~7k was a bad call.  Giving us "replacements" that only work during Galactic Seasons was a bad call.  There needs to be more balancing done across the board if this is to remain at such a low level.  Maybe increase the stronghold bonus cap from 150% to 175%?  200%?  Give every existing objective a bump of 10%? 20%?  Conquest has been getting more and more irritating ever since it was bumped up from 50k to 100k and this change makes it even less enjoyable.  Having to grind content I don't want to do to cap a toon for the week vs. an easy bypass to finish a toon is very annoying.  Maybe come up with more variety than what currently is "do heroics on every planet and kill mobs."  This will definitely hurt small/solo guilds and really harms the community who can't play tons but still wants to hit conquest on at least a few toons each week.

Sincerely,
Extremely Disappointed 😅

 

16 hours ago, RadarOMalley said:

Honestly, I'm not sure what this accomplishes? Are people exploiting this in some way that has an impact? What is the harm that was being done? You can only use a rep token for CQ once a day so the impact should be relatively minimal. Why are we "fixing" problems that are not really problems? That's an honest question. 

 

16 hours ago, Davgoso said:

I really didn’t enjoy GS5 or whichever the one with the evil droid and dark spores was, I’m not really that bothered about whether there’s a reputation task with it. What I am concerned about is the sheer drop in value from Advancement Reputation in terms of conquest provided.

What is the rationale behind reducing it so significantly? I find that when you’re trying to hit your 100k each week this is a big help when you’re strapped for time. I don’t see why you wouldn’t have put it down to 20k/35k. 

I think this will probably be it for me. My sub was already cancelled last month and I don’t think I can commit the time each week to trying to get 100k without things like this, especially considering I’ll spend so long trying to make that across a number of characters that I won’t have a chance to enjoy the new content.

Please reconsider.

 

 

16 hours ago, Laureen said:

So ... what was already a CHORE (no Sir, grinding galactic points is not fun) has been made even worse !

I'm a solo player who does no group content and you've made galactic season uninteresting for me. I was already on the verge of quitting (sub runs out next month) and I think you've clearly shown me the exit sign.

Thanks, but no thanks !

 

15 hours ago, VegaMist said:

Thank you for clarifying. Why is this the first time we are getting this information? This is a major change and should have been communicated at the same time you announced GS6.

So you just stealth-nerfed it in? This seems short-sighted as well as just plain rude. We complete Conquest Objectives and GS objectives for different reasons - unrelated to each other. The way most of us used Reputation Conquest Objective specifically (only available once a day on one toon, as a reminder) was to meet Conquest objectives on more alts, and often on the ones we don't play that much. Would lack of it all of a sudden "encourage" players to play the toons they don't normally play? In most cases, NO. When we play Galactic Season objectives, we do it for GS rewards (and sometimes GS story if it's worth it - this part has been declining so far from season to season). Can we sometimes complete one while doing the other? Sure. But that's usually a side effect rather than intent.

The nerf would definitely limit the ability of smaller guilds to complete the conquest objective goals. Oh, yeah you know that don't you?

So, you consciously decided to actively hurt smaller guilds as well as individual players. Wow, Slow clap 👏.

Do you guys have some internal competition going on who would enrage your players the most? Cause that's what it felt like for the last can't even say how many months.

 

15 hours ago, SithLikeTraps said:

That is actually a very good question. I'm pretty sure that if we get the average statistics of the conquest points gained per week then the top % would go to the PVP and GSF objectives, but they didn't nerf that did they?

 

15 hours ago, donpaulieone said:

80% is not a reduction, it is practically an elimination And, it was ironically never communicated. This decision needs to be reconsidered. @JackieKo please do right by the community and escalate this matter. It will turn people away from playing, and greatly impact the alt-friendly game SWTOR is. Thank you!

 

15 hours ago, Lirtoo said:

I have a one-man guild and was dependent on the CQ Reputation points to reach 500k a week. I am a casual player who play what I enjoy when I feel like it. GS with reputation made me log in and play more content. I accepted the grind of recycled content during GS1-5, but the new update requires me to grind four times more content to reach 500k to get guild rewards. However, I won't do it. Personally, doing GS6 has completely lost its purpose because you removed CQ reputation. I won't unsub, but play less because of this change, which I assume is the opposite of what you intended with this update.

 

14 hours ago, Smegaman said:

Really not happy about:  "The amount of Conquest points earned for the Reputation Conquest Objective was reduced " and that it was not part of the patch notes. It will force an unwanted change to how I normally play the game.

 

11 hours ago, Thraka said:

 

Wow, I can't believe you guys knew this would hurt small guilds and people with lots of alts and you did it anyway. You basically destroyed many people's whole endgame with this. If you imagined somehow this would increase retention, I'd say you are WAY off the mark. Given that I can now no longer keep up on conquest with my alts, I am not incentivized to grind harder. I am just incentivized to stop logging in at all.

Unsubbed. This was a totally unforced error, and indicates a PROFOUND lack of understanding of your paying customers.

 

3 hours ago, VilianSW said:

Just adding another voice of "I'm not able to cap cq on all my alts anymore, so I'm gonna play less instead of more".
Another voice of "why the useless junk in my inventory".
Another voice of "why GS story wants me to do old fps I don't enjoy doing anymore".
And, finally, a voice of "I do not want to have non-removable NPCs in my shiny new Copero SH".

And, as much as I'm all for romancing companions, even Date Nights don't make the update a good one - same date mission over and over again, week after week, will be just so very sad instead of exciting.

 

I ran out of reactions so have to resort to quoting (that needs to be increased too btw)

 

I'm a mostly solo player also with ghost town guilds that i keep going for memories sake and the fact that once in a blue moon my other friends pop in too. But i also cannot play for 12 hours a day several days a week either! Reputations were never an issue

 

At this point i say just undo every change since 7.0 and lets retool everything, including getting rid of GS altogether because this is getting ridiculous.

GS are not stories, new dialog boxes are not stories either for that matter and this is just not making anything better.

 

Sorry, i apologize, i'm a little frustrated atm I just want to play and have fun not constantly feel like i have to play how you want me to play in order to do stuff. And this game was getting a lot of traction again and people were coming back and new youtuber's were making videos about it again just before the 7.0 drops and then suddenly millions were left with saying "wut".

 

I would much rather go back to having to kill x amount of something and getting new armor that actually makes me better that i can also actually get and not just drool at looking at a vendor for an op that i can never do being a mostly solo player.

 

[DawnAskham]

11 hours ago, Taurax said:

So, why have them drop at all?  How about some sort of counter "you found a blueprint", but make it automatically give you credits instead?  Why the added step to collect them, then sell them?  Other than to save/store for preferred and FTP players to cash in later.  

I'm a little disappointed in the thought this whole GS was given.  I'll complete it to have something to do, but really the rewards aren't that exciting to me.  I'll be remaining preferred until the end of the season.  

Adding a bunch of 'rewards' to the Seasons track that are vendor garbage or an an item that boosts mob drops of the same vendor garbage is insulting.

Whoever came up with this idea and thought players would find it engaging and rewarding is an idiot.

Edited March 13 by DawnAskham