Jump to content

7.4.1x - A week of QA. Thoughts?

Darviset

By Darviset
in General Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

Darviset

Darviset

Posted
Posted (edited)

7.4.1x is live and as the conscripted QA, the community has been able to test it now for nearly a week. There are absolutely some things that warrant further discussion. Last Tuesday's patch put some things in motion that are going to change the way that Star Wars is played going forward. First, it's worth noting that Broadsword is a business and as such, they have bills to pay, overhead, sales goals, and strategies to make Star Wars profitable. From time to time, these strategies will conflict w/ community priorities and change the game in ways we can't imagine yet. Let's talk about those that took place last Tuesday.

The new xmog/cosmetic drop rate is a like a virus consuming nearly all loot tables in the open world. This new "gear" has all but replaced viable gear upgrades for some, a source of credits (new money), and jawa junk production thru deconstruction. It has no stats, no value, and can't be sold to vendors, only destroyed. Now most of you are aware of this by now, but by midweek, the effect of this change on me was... I merely stopped looting. How fun do you think Star Wars has been for me to play since Tuesday. Way less fun. Aren't we supposed to be excited about that next shiny loot drop? If the drop rates of these items were a bug or a mistake, Broadsword would have made fixing this a top priority. What was the first hotfix post patch you ask? Had to fix a Cartel Market Bundle mount that was not working as intended. This is a change that is here to stay in some form. Long term, this change will lessen the self reliance of the community thru upgrade/credit/resource reduction and increase the reliance on Broadsword thru the Cartel Market.

Earlier I mentioned sales goals and strategies to increase profitability. What's another thing that Broadsword could change in order to achieve this? Time Played. What happens if they make the daily slog take longer? Enter the Advancement - Reputation nerf. Many will play more and/or longer in order to achieve the same results they were getting prior to 7.4.1x. I can absolutely attest to this fact. I conquest or more toons that I'm comfortable admitting and as I predicted, I'm not even going to be able finish my legacy this week. Sure, I'm a die-hard, sub paying, Star Wars ALTohalic. I haven't decided yet if these changes are really catering to my kind. It feels like this change may be trying to get more out of the occasional player but the jury's still out. This change hurt me. I'm comfortable admitting that. After all the time and money that I've put into this game, I felt a little betrayed if I'm to be honest. 

To wrap things up. These changes are part of a larger strategy to make Broadsword money. I get that. Bills to pay and all. But culturally Star Wars is changing based on this. This was the first week in some time where I found myself not playing as much. Broadsword did give us the obligatory response and acknowledged that there has been some feedback about the patch. Be assured... "They are taking it under advisement." As the player base, the only way we to have to effect change is with our money. Be it subscriptions or Cartel Market purchases. My vote's been cast. I have 20 days of playtime left. This is not to say that should there be a reversal or compromise on the above strategies that I wouldn't return. I do love this game. 

I'd love the hear your thoughts on the effect these changes have had on you.

 

EDIT: There is something that dawned on me this week that I feel is worth adding to this post. In reading some of the Dev justification responses to the Advancement: Reputation Nerf, they mention the addition of other conquest objectives to off set this jaw dropping change. They added...

  • Galactic Seasons: Weekly Objectives - 4 tasks worth 21,125 (weekly task)
  • Galactic Seasons: Progress - Gain a Seasonal level worth 9,500 (daily task)

On Satele Shan server, if I'm not chasing these weekly objectives on Tuesday I may or may not get the group(s) to complete them. The first 2 weeks into the season I've been 7 of 7 for weeklies on Tuesday. That being said... IF you log in and do a little conquest every day you're getting 2 points as a daily and thus the Galactic Season: Progress is going to pay out 3 POSSIBLY 4 times depending on where the login reward awards in the schedule. So at BEST... assuming you finished your weeklies on Tuesday you're going to get 59,125 throughout the rest of the week for these laughable new objectives... So the meager 7,625 per day for post nerf rep and the new objectives comes to 112,500. This is compared to the 301,000 you were getting across 7 days for reputation gains prior to the nerf. Please feel free to check my math. Equitable exchange? I think not.

Edited by Darviset
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Traceguy

Traceguy

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Darviset said:

First, it's worth noting that Broadsword is a business and as such, they have bills to pay, overhead, sales goals, and strategies to make Star Wars profitable.

One of the major requirements of having a business is having customers, and happy ones. Also, it's irrelevant to the fact they have bills to pay. We all have bills to pay. What should be said is Broadsword is a business, as such, they have customer needs to attend to.

7.4.1 was a complete flop, in many ways. It was a sloppy release. If Broadsword doesn't have the time or the man power to test their code, then they should have bitten the nail and uploaded it to PTS. Problems with logging in, finding too much fitted gear, being unable to sell fitted gear... It all could have been found day 1 in PTS.

Nothing about 7.4.1 has been good for profitability. A handful of people have cancelled their subscription.  The Steam player chart does not show good news for this game compared to Season 5, 4, or 3. A large amount of players have been unable to load the game  since Tuesday. They are still to this very second unable to play.

Lastly, nerfing personal objectives, like reputation rewards was neither a strategy nor profitable. Those tokens were apart of the over all arcing reason I logged into the game everyday. It's what I focused 90% of my attention on. By making conquests much more tedious and dull, they are forcing me to move away. This will potentially result  in less game time, which will inevitably lead to fewer cartel coin purchases

 

Edited by Traceguy
  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Darviset

Darviset

Posted
  • Author
Posted
23 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

Honest question, you’ve been subbed on this brand new account since last Wednesday. How do you even know what it’s like at lvl 80 after 6 days? Let alone have a legacy that you can even do conquest on? 

I'm not entirely sure what you mean? I was pretty much a day 1 player of SWTOR and like many have taken a few breaks over the years. The 7.4.1 patch was the first time I felt the need to add my voice here on the forums. I have 28 level 80 toons. 3 Rakata sets shared across them all. 1 deeps, 1 healz, and 1 tank. I'd be surprised if the forums would actually show a creation date for the SWTOR account but perhaps I'm wrong?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Darviset

Darviset

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Just now, TrixxieTriss said:

You do realise we can all see when your account was created? 

TBH I did not know that there was a date listed on the forum account until you asked and Traceguy showed the screenshots. I was super confused why people were calling me a dev. That all being said. Once again... here's the info on my SWTOR.com account. You'd have to inquire to the powers that be as to the discrepancy of these dates.

image.png.36c1954acbe60df8ffb8091a54a62dc5.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites
FrontLineFodder

FrontLineFodder

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Darviset said:

I was super confused why people were calling me a dev.

Because Community trust in Devs is at an all time low.

My Forum profile hays 2022, but I registered SWTOR back in 2011, first Sub when it came to APAC in 2012.

Only started using the forums in 2022

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TrixxieTriss

TrixxieTriss

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, FrontLineFodder said:

Because Community trust in Devs is at an all time low.

My Forum profile hays 2022, but I registered SWTOR back in 2011, first Sub when it came to APAC in 2012.

Only started using the forums in 2022

Maybe it just goes on your first forum post 🤷🏻‍♀️

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Darviset

Darviset

Posted
  • Author
Posted
5 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

 Why the sudden urge to make multiple threads that are basically about the same thing. Surely you can understand in the current climate why this seemed suspicious to some people. 

Sadly someone didn't like my original thread and it was removed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Darviset

Darviset

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

I can still see it. It’s not removed, it’s just further down the page.

Me being a forum noob is not outside the realm of possibility then. lol I was under the impression it had disappeared.

Edited by Darviset
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Darviset

Darviset

Posted
  • Author
Posted
7 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

Maybe it just goes on your first forum post 🤷🏻‍♀️

You got me super curious about this so I called Support. Date of 1st forum post is what i was told.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TrixxieTriss

TrixxieTriss

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Darviset said:

You got me super curious about this so I called Support. Date of 1st forum post is what i was told.

Well there you go. Now we all know 🤣

Thanks for doing the leg work on that one. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TrixxieTriss

TrixxieTriss

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, Traceguy said:

My first post was July 2014, but my joined date for forums matches my account creation date.

Yeah but you and I were posting back then before they updated the forums. Darviset only posted for the first time last week. New forums seem to take your first post as the date created, not your account date.

Edited by TrixxieTriss
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Anhkriva

Anhkriva

Posted
Posted (edited)

Instead of talking about the OP's thoughts and opinions, you turned this topic into some kind of Spanish Inquisition.


Mine shows the date of the first post.

Edited by Anhkriva
Mine shows the date of the first post.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Darviset

Darviset

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Just now, Anhkriva said:

Instead of talking about the OP's thoughts and opinions, you turned this topic into some kind of Spanish Inquisition.

Which clearly no one expects.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DWho

DWho

Posted
Posted

Well, to address the original topic. Making things take longer does nothing to increase revenue for Broadsword. If you're a sub, they get the same from you whether you play 60 hours a week or not at all. The only thing longer slogs does is create the appearance of a server being busy and that only if it is in an area where people would congregate naturally (daily areas and group content). Longer slogs often, in fact have the opposite effect, fewer people subbing as they make the decision the slog isn't worth their in game time. The more likely explanation for the increased slog is that group play is collapsing and they want to try and force people into that style of play (since it is vastly more profitable from a time played perspective to the player). It also draws people's attention away from a compete lack of engaging new content.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...