I want to begin by saying it is refreshing to see the surge of new players from the Steam community on the game now. It's noticeable in PVP in skill levels and the lack of understanding in some of the objectives. Some veteran players lose patience with them, but I hope the new players will catch on and stick it out and can withstand the toxicity and negative behavior. Unfortunately the latest changes to PVP with 6.1.2d Patch have to be the worst changes yet.
1. 15 minute penalty for leaving a match early - I can understand a penalty for leaving a ranked match. A person leaving a match in ranked effects the ranking as a whole. Being penalized for leaving war zones seems to punish the average players who are just trying to get their dailies in without getting gang raped and farmed in the process. Some players have families, work, have real life responsibilities. Maybe a person only has an hour or so to play SWTOR for a bit before they have to log. That small amount of free time they have has been cut down now with the 15 minute penalty. There are numerous reasons in game why people leave war zones. Sometimes people leave a match because they are tired of playing Huttball for the third or fourth time in a row. Sometimes they leave because they are on the same team with someone who harassed them from a previous match. Sometimes people leave a match early because they are tired of being singled out and farmed dying repeatedly by the opposing team. Sometimes they leave a 4v4 match because they know they are the target. Or perhaps they leave a war zone because the team they are on is more interested in farming than playing objectives. In some war zones there is a point of no return where the game physics make it impossible to come back to victory. Why stay in a match when you know its already lost? Or say you queue in a game after someone has dropped early and you are on the losing team already. Why stay on a losing team when it doesn't even count toward your daily victory (which I will get to in a sec)?
2. One Victory daily and 10 Victories for the weekly - again you are rewarding the die hard players and punishing the part timers. I used to look forward to the daily two to four (four matches max. even if you lose every match) matches knowing if I won the match it counted as double and get my dailies and be done. Now you can play 4, 10, 20 matches and not win a single match. By the time I have lost the third or fourth match the game isn't fun anymore and I have gained nothing in the time I have spent on the game.
Recommendations for better PVP quality of life:
1. Bannering, spitting, laughing, etc. emotes - Bannering is toxic and rude. It's like urinating on someone after you have killed them. Disable these negative behaviors (at least in war zones) instead of encouraging them. It's supposed to be a game, to be fun, to be a break from reality; not create more anger and frustration in a toxic playing environment. Ignoring a player option doesn't work when they can say whatever they want in open chat.
2. Ability to choose/filter your war zones like Flashpoints and Operations - players have been asking for this for years now. What are you waiting for? Give the players a sense of freedom to choose which war zones they play especially with the current 15 minute penalty.
3. Queue players together by their level of proficiency and the amount of damage/healing they average - Currently in game mechanics there are players dealing billions of points of damage or healing. This is an absurd amount of damage/healing now. And then there are average players who are struggling to do a million or two million points of damage or healing. Group players on teams and their opposing teams with persons close to their skill level of play or tiers (Ex. average 1 mill to 3 million DPS/healing, 3 million to 6 million DPS/healing, 6 million - billion+ DPS/healing).
4. Fix the infinite stunning mechanic white bar flaw/continue to balance out character overpowering - this is ridiculous. I have been at full life and been infinitely stunned to death by an opposing team. Some characters like the Juggernauts are still overpowered even when using a Tacticals and armor bonuses. Continue to refine the balance of player classess in PVP.
5. Bring back the previous dailies/weekly of four matches and wins count as double. Win or lose give the players something to accomplish whether they are new part timers or die hard players with hours to kill playing.
I want to begin by saying it is refreshing to see the surge of new players from the Steam community on the game now. It's noticeable in PVP in skill levels and the lack of understanding in some of the objectives. Some veteran players lose patience with them, but I hope the new players will catch on and stick it out and can withstand the toxicity and negative behavior. Unfortunately the latest changes to PVP with 6.1.2d Patch have to be the worst changes yet. 1. 15 minute penalty for leaving a match early - I can understand a penalty for leaving a ranked match. A person leaving a match in ranked effects the ranking as a whole. Being penalized for leaving war zones seems to punish the average players who are just trying to get their dailies in without getting gang raped and farmed in the process. Some players have families, work, have real life responsibilities. Maybe a person only has an hour or so to play SWTOR for a bit before they have to log. That small amount of free time they have has been cut down now with the 15 minute penalty. There are numerous reasons in game why people leave war zones. Sometimes people leave a match because they are tired of playing Huttball for the third or fourth time in a row. Sometimes they leave because they are on the same team with someone who harassed them from a previous match. Sometimes people leave a match early because they are tired of being singled out and farmed dying repeatedly by the opposing team. Sometimes they leave a 4v4 match because they know they are the target. Or perhaps they leave a war zone because the team they are on is more interested in farming than playing objectives. In some war zones there is a point of no return where the game physics make it impossible to come back to victory. Why stay in a match when you know its already lost? Or say you queue in a game after someone has dropped early and you are on the losing team already. Why stay on a losing team when it doesn't even count toward your daily victory (which I will get to in a sec)? 2. One Victory daily and 10 Victories for the weekly - again you are rewarding the die hard players and punishing the part timers. I used to look forward to the daily two to four (four matches max. even if you lose every match) matches knowing if I won the match it counted as double and get my dailies and be done. Now you can play 4, 10, 20 matches and not win a single match. By the time I have lost the third or fourth match the game isn't fun anymore and I have gained nothing in the time I have spent on the game. Recommendations for better PVP quality of life: 1. Bannering, spitting, laughing, etc. emotes - Bannering is toxic and rude. It's like urinating on someone after you have killed them. Disable these negative behaviors (at least in war zones) instead of encouraging them. It's supposed to be a game, to be fun, to be a break from reality; not create more anger and frustration in a toxic playing environment. Ignoring a player option doesn't work when they can say whatever they want in open chat. 2. Ability to choose/filter your war zones like Flashpoints and Operations - players have been asking for this for years now. What are you waiting for? Give the players a sense of freedom to choose which war zones they play especially with the current 15 minute penalty. 3. Queue players together by their level of proficiency and the amount of damage/healing they average - Currently in game mechanics there are players dealing billions of points of damage or healing. This is an absurd amount of damage/healing now. And then there are average players who are struggling to do a million or two million points of damage or healing. Group players on teams and their opposing teams with persons close to their skill level of play or tiers (Ex. average 1 mill to 3 million DPS/healing, 3 million to 6 million DPS/healing, 6 million - billion+ DPS/healing). 4. Fix the infinite stunning mechanic white bar flaw/continue to balance out character overpowering - this is ridiculous. I have been at full life and been infinitely stunned to death by an opposing team. Some characters like the Juggernauts are still overpowered even when using a Tacticals and armor bonuses. Continue to refine the balance of player classess in PVP. 5. Bring back the previous dailies/weekly of four matches and wins count as double. Win or lose give the players something to accomplish whether they are new part timers or die hard players with hours to kill playing.