Okay, this isn't an all in one fix for PVP... there are a lot of problems there (why did they unfix the stun-stun-stun-stun... you have full resolve? still stun-stun-stun-sleep-hold-stun... still full resolve? wow you have a lof of hit points almost dead, good thing you are still stunned... oh your stun break is up... try it so we can laugh at you while you are still stunned.) ANYWAY...
So I was thinking, we have 4 wz... blah... okay I can accept that you want quality wz and don't want to just add stupid boring wz. BUT now we have 3 tiers of wz 10-29, 30-54, and 55. This still is kind of a mess when you are 30 and the other team is full of 50+ toons. BUT 10-29 is actually fun, and 55 is fun-ish (you either get stomped, or it is a close battle to the end).
SUGGESTIONS:
(1) Make each wz a little different in each tier. For example, Alderaan Wz, in tier 1 (10-29) you would get the speeders going to snow and grass and mid when you win the turret (like now), in tier 2 (you would only get the speeder that goes to mid (like they are doing in 2.3), in tier 3 you do something different for example.. the turrets reset after X-amount of time or points gone. (like every minute the turrets reset and you have to get them again) another option would be when the turrets reset that the speeder on both sides change to just go grass, or just go snow, or just go mid.
The whole idea is this: make tier 1 easy and fun, make tier 2 more challenging but not "hard mode" and make tier 3 very challenging/dynamic. This not only makes the same wz different, but the pvp experience different throughout the game.
Void star: tier 1, the wait time when you die is 50% shorter, tier 2 is 25% shorter, tier 3 is the same as current.
Even better for voidstar: Make is shorter, by only attacking or defending, not both.
Ancient hypergate: does anyone actually like this one? lol ... I would make it so that if one side gets 6 obs, it would cause the other side to reset (explode) for tier 3, not after a period of time. Then that side would get all of the potential points.
Nova Coast: Tier 1: you don't have to control 2 to get the bunkers to take damage. Tier 2: like it is currently. Tier 3: companions. (yep, I said it! why not!... do you take your heals, or do you take a DPS companion to send after the healers?)
HuttBall: I love huttball, why would we change it? you know how you have the heal terminal things and the speed terminal things... Well add some more of those, but for resolve or hold protection and a bubble shield (maybe that either absorbs dmg, prevents being jumped to or pulled, etc). SO, tier 1: same, tier 2: when you PASS THE BALL a random new buff/debuff terminal appears for the team that PASSED THE BALL. ;-) tier 3: someone needs to channel to drop the fire pits :-O or the pits go up and down and random (not taking turns) so both can be up or down. or may the end-zone has a force field that needs someone to channel to drop it ... like in LS in section X .. wow, that would be a pain in the arse... delete that idea. lol A BETTER idea for Huttball, would be to have different arenas (layouts) for the different tiers... or better yet... have 2 different layouts for each tier. It is SO easy to make the PVP experience more variable/different. Why on earth is there only one map for huttball???
NEW Warzone: DeathMatch... this Wz would have different "environments" which would basically be the underground arena ... 4v4? 6v6? 8v8? Whatever the number of people x2 is the number of kills vs deaths you can have to win or lose. For example: 4v4, there is a wait mechanic to re-enter the arena [so when you die you go into a penalty box like in voidstar. When you are killed you are -1 point to your team, +1 point to the other team. first team to +8 (4v4) wins... so it isn't you die and you are out, like laser tag. Plus, team A kills someone they are +1 and the other team is -1. Team B kills two people, so they get +2, which takes them from -1 to +1. So this could go on forever with a balanced team? Or what if there is a team of healers?! The arena will start to fill with gas that does increasingly more damage over time if no one dies, or just after a period of time (will have to game test which).. but the match won't last forever due to a mechanic that is triggered.
NEW Warzone: There was a star wars the clone wars episode, where Obi-wan was made to look like a bounty hunter and anakin thought he was dead... etc. The bounty hunters were made to do this like arena type puzzle where their abilities needed to be used to either help someone or if they didn't have an ability someone would have to die. Anyway, the whole idea is trying to get through the gauntlet with as many people alive as possible. Perhaps you have two teams of 4 or 6 or 8 run the gauntlet against each other. You can use things like the grappling guns for the +10 fleet datacron, and the shield dropping guns from SectionX LS, and the pass ball power from huttball (to throw something to a location to trigger something) hmmm it is a warzone though... maybe the teams can see each other and use those things to effect the other team (so two people have mines that they can throw and you need one for the puzzle and the other can be thrown at the other team.... I'm sure they could think of some fun stuff.
Other ideas: The tiers... like I mentioned 30-54 is annoying when you are 30ish and really not fun (there is nothing you can do but get stomped on) I think it makes fewer people PVP until they are higher level... I moved to a new server and remade my main and alts so I noticed that I at least was like this. I PVP's a ton from 10-29 and then it stopped until I was 45 and had my "nuke" power from the spec tree. I've noticed lately (probably because of the double XP weekends) that the lvl 55 tier is really slow .. but dbl xp weekends and people leveling alts... that last tier should be like 52 or 53 to 55. It takes like a couple days (if that) to go from 50 to 55... that last tier could be 51-55. Not sure that would make it better.
Other ideas: double the credits and/or comms you earn at 55. There is little reason to PvP after you hit 55 and get all the PvP gear. They keep telling us the next-next release (2.4) is going to be a PVP update. I would suspect they are going to add new gear since it is out of sync with OPs. They should make the OP comms and the PvP comms interchangeable (hence, you earn the same type of comms for top tier PvP that you do for ops.. or maybe you have to buy them with Wz/Ranked comms.. I think it would be better to earn them straight out 2 if you lose and 4 if you win or something like that.. like boss drops) Then the weeklies give comparable number of comms to the weeklies for OPs. There would also be the same weekly cap on the Comms (since they are the same as the Ops comms)
Other idea: I know most people don't care about seeing the numbers on things... in my humble opinion, I think if you have a person waiting in a queue/line that they should know an estimate of how long they will be in the queue and how many people are ahead of them (hence, where they are in the queue). The groupfinder and the wz queue, should both tell me how big the queue is, and where I am in the queue. [so I know if I should go craft, or gather, or level, or do whatever]
Other idea: Priority Queueing! I am tired of hearing people quit a wz instantly when there are no healers... maybe to try to balance the teams better... certain specs (X number of points in a spec tree, in certain tiers) are put on deck regardless of queue position. [so making sure a team has at least one healer, when available...so you don't wait for a healer for a team to go... if there isn't one, fill it with a tank or a dps... but if there are 20 healers in a queue and you have 80 people total in a queue... spread the love around a little bit]
Anyway, just some ideas that I was thinking about over the past few months of returning to the game. Even if they don't do any of these things.. maybe it will spark some ideas.
I haven't purchased the expansion yet... but I thought that it said that it continued our class stories? (like in the preview videos). Is this not the case? Someone mentioned that the new planet has a story and that it is chapter 4? (so, does that mean it is the same for everyone?)