Of the ones I am aware of

 

• Fondor Escort and Hypori Escot can now be completed with the thing you are protecting destroyed.
  
• New Cov Ice Field cannot be completed as Hardpoint cannot be damaged.
  
• No health bars appear over any special ships that previously had health bars.
  

Also: Blaster damage has been significantly reduced (at least at high gear levels, will have to check lower levels)

 

Tested with both Grade 6 beam charger/ Grade 7 beam generator and grade 7 charger/7 generator. Will try to do tests when I can find a grade 6 generator to see if the +100 damage per shot is the thing that is bugged. I'm not so sure the Hardpoint cannot be damaged so much as we cannot see its health to tell that it is. If I'm correct and blaster damage is reduced, there simply isn't enough time to take out the hardpoint. I know that almost every single time I've failed the mission it is because I needed at least another few seconds to destroy the hardpoint, and reducing blaster damage would make it impossible to finish the mission.

 

This may only be a matter of perception, but damage from colliding with objects appears to have gone up as well.

Edited September 17, 2013 by Luneward

Ship blaster damage has been lowered to a point that it is nearly (if not completely) impossible to complete the heroic space missions. I was having a rough time in the "Impossible Sector" as well. If this was intended, I'd like to mention the fact that even with previous damage levels, I still was not able to complete all of the heroic space missions with top level ship gear, there are two that I absolutely cannot complete and one that is not worth the time and effort wasted in trying. My point being, they were hard enough, if not a little too hard. Also, collisions of any kind take away 80 to 90% of my ships health, even with shields at 70%. Not to mention, when clicking the "retry space mission" choice upon failure, I'm being booted out of game to desk top. What gives?

I was running the heroic space missions (Baros Ambush and Thanium Disruption) after today's patch and found them very difficult -- I usually find them easy, having done them every week since they started. The Sith ship near the start of Baros Ambush took far longer to kill than usual (which is 7 missiles and full blasters for as long as it takes to launch 7 missiles) -- it took all the missiles and all the blasters I could fire until I had to break off to hit the capital ship bridge, about twice as long. I suspect that the Advanced Power Conversion Module is bugged and keeps the blasters at low power no matter what the setting (all the standard ships took 2 pairs of blaster bolts to kill on either power setting).

 

If I remember correctly, didn't this exact same bug happen before?

Ship blaster damage has been lowered to a point that it is nearly (if not completely) impossible to complete the heroic space missions. I was having a rough time in the "Impossible Sector" as well. If this was intended, I'd like to mention the fact that even with previous damage levels, I still was not able to complete all of the heroic space missions with top level ship gear, there are two that I absolutely cannot complete and one that is not worth the time and effort wasted in trying. My point being, they were hard enough, if not a little too hard. Also, collisions of any kind take away 80 to 90% of my ships health, even with shields at 70%. Not to mention, when clicking the "retry space mission" choice upon failure, I'm being booted out of game to desk top. What gives?

 

Copying my text from my post in Customer Services:

 

I was running the heroic space missions (Baros Ambush and Thanium Disruption) after today's patch and found them very difficult -- I usually find them easy, having done them every week since they started. The Sith ship near the start of Baros Ambush took far longer to kill than usual (which is 7 missiles and full blasters for as long as it takes to launch 7 missiles) -- it took all the missiles and all the blasters I could fire until I had to break off to hit the capital ship bridge, about twice as long. I suspect that the Advanced Power Conversion Module is bugged and keeps the blasters at low power no matter what the setting (all the standard ships took 2 pairs of blaster bolts to kill on either power setting).

 

If I remember correctly, didn't this exact same bug happen before?

This is consistent with other reports. Please provide details around which missions/enemy ships have this issue.

 

Currently known:

Zosha Advance - Capital ship shield generators no longer have health bars

New Cov Ice Field - Sateillite Hardpoint has no health bar

Escort missions: (Syvris Evacuation and others) All currently have the escort ship with no health bar.

 

Edit: Damage Issues

The culprit does seem to be the Power Conversion module. I went into Impossible sector and Zosha advance to test it out. In Impossible Sector it took two shots (two presses of the fire button or four blaster bolts) to take out a small ship regardless whether the module was on or off. In Zosha advance it took three shots (six blaster bolts).

Edited September 17, 2013 by Luneward

How could an update, that didn't have a single patch note relevant to space, break it so dramatically? Were there fixed exploits or back-end preparations/modifications that lacked corresponding publishable patch notes?

Blaster damage is definitely very week. Ran the LLanic Assault and Syrvis Evacuation Missions on alts and targets took twice as long to eliminate. Also crashed into that same wall on Syrvis with no chance of avoidance.

 

Just ran the Impossible Sector mine mission and had same issues with all top Grade 7 upgrades on the ship. Felt like I was using grade 1 stuff, but fortunately completed it.

 

As a subscribing customer who spent cartel coins to get those ship upgrades, I'm even more disappointed that an innocent looking patch with no mention of space mission fixes actually broke the space missions. Seriously Mr. and Ms. Developers, I want to cut you guys some slack, but there's really no excuse for it.

 

It's these kind of things that make me rethink subscribing - as much as I love this game, this stuff is very disappointing.

Edited September 18, 2013 by Evil_Kabbage

How could an update, that didn't have a single patch note relevant to space, break it so dramatically? Were there fixed exploits or back-end preparations/modifications that lacked corresponding publishable patch notes?

 

Computer programs are phenomenally complicated things. We tend to think of them as compartmentalized, "this doesn't have to do with that, so why would this break that", etc... But the code is actually a complicated juggling act of different processes that have to do with lots of different things, and sometimes a misplaced semicolon can break part of a program that has absolutely nothing to do with the part you actually changed. In a way, it's easier for bugs like this to slip through, because if you're making edits to costumes and ground vehicles and modifying companion animations and things like that, why the hell would you think to even check space missions to see if you broke anything?

 

That's all assuming that they -weren't- setting up some changes for future content and made a mistake in the actual code relating to space missions. Either way, mistakes like this are inevitable in any MMO. The test is in how they get it fixed, for me.

My Grade 7 blasters are definitely doing a lot less damage than previously. Either that or the Improved Power Conversion Module isn't working.

I don't know if it's just me, but since the patch I have noticed that the other spaceships seem to require a lot more damage to destroy that they did before. I've been playing the last "Normal" Space MIssion (The Impossible Sector as Republic and Acendancy Barrier as Imperial) for several weeks grinding the rep as I had not the time to practice completeing the HC ones, so I have acquired a good "feel" for how much damage it takes to destroy the mission targets.

 

Since the patch, it seems to require a lot more effort to complete, the "normal" ships take more blaster fire to destroy, the bonus ships which could be destroyed with 3/4 missiles now need 5/6 and concentrated blaster fire, and the engines for the fighter carriers , 3 or 4 missiles instead of just 2. This with all the upgrades as sold by the Cartel Market. I'm still completing the missions, but its a lot harder than it was and all changed overnight.

 

Has anyone else noticed something similar?

Edited September 21, 2013 by Julesmat
Correcting/adding mission titles

It is either the ship equipment or the missions themselves. However, considering this is noticeable on every mission I would lean toward gear or the abilities that modify the gear... Regardless space is broke bad.

Can confirm that the grade 7 improved power conversion module does not affect blaster damage in #1 key mode. Enemy ships take the same number of blaster shots to kill whether it is turned on or off.

Since the latest patch came out, here's a partial list of the problems that I've been having with space missions - and given that I achieved max rank with the Imperial First Mobile Fleet in the first week is was possible to do so (i.e., capped reputation gain every week until I hit Legend) and then continued playing space missions for a long time afterward, I suggest that you don't just brush me off with a "perhaps you're not trying hard enough" response.

 

Problem #1: Taspan Ambush.

 

The path in Taspan Ambush now makes you fly THROUGH THE ASTEROID, killing your ship. According to a friend of mine with Republic alts, this is also true of the Republic equivalent.

 

Problem #2: Kanz Minefield.

 

The satellite hardpoint seems to be invincible. Normally, I regard Kanz Minefield as one of the easier Level 50 space missions (far less annoying than, say, Cha Raaba Assault), but I just tried to complete it FOUR TIMES and failed, because no matter what I did to the satellite hardpoint, it just wouldn't die.

 

Problem #3: Less damage generally.

 

On all missions, I'm finding that my laser cannons are doing about half (or less) the damage of that which I'm accustomed to them doing. What gives, BioWare? Did you slip in a nerf of the laser cannons, or are they simply not working due to a code glitch?

 

I understand that problems happen, especially in a game as complex as SWTOR - one line of code here stuffs up other ones there, and the like. But if I hear another "You'll have to wait for the next expansion pack to tome out before we address your concerns" (as happened when ship parts glitched out during the last content update before 2.0), then I will be.....most displeased.

(removed due to post being compiled into this thread - reads out of context here) Edited September 20, 2013 by DAMossimo
ambiguous context due to thread consolidation

Just want to agree with everyone here that the blaster damage is significantly lower than it was before the patch, or the enemy got a big buff. I currently cannot complete the Kabal Station Defense quest due to only being able to kill about 20 of the 30 bombers, and that is full out blasters, missles, and EMP. Before the patch this was one of the easier ones for me to complete. The EMP seems weaker as well, doesn't destroy the larger vessels as well as it used to. The Jedi Ships are also much, much harder to destroy. In Kanz Minefield, same problems, plus, as I think someone mentioned earlier, the health bar above several hardpoints seem to have disappeared.

 

The power conversion blaster fire seems to be the same regardless of which mode I am in. This is true in the level 50 quests as well as the lower level quests on lower level toons, so regardless of which Grade of equipment I am using.

So, unless I'm misreading the situation, you are going to take down the live server tomorrow to fix CZ-198 and a lowbie space mission but leave the Heroic space missions broken until at least Tuesday?

 

Please tell me this isn't the case. People paid real money to gear ships for the heroic space missions that have been broken just as long (since Tuesday) as CZ has!

 

The problem is 100% reproduceable and glaring. It should have been looked into when tickets started coming in Tuesday. I gotta say that I don't plan on buying grade 8 ship parts off the Cartel Market to play the fabled "SSSP" if it ever materializes with the track record and attention these space heroics have had given to them.

FYI I was also having a ton of trouble today with New Kovor Ice Field with the same complaints as many others feeling like my blaster firepower was significantly reduced. Remembering back to a time when the level 7 beam generator was bugged, I tried to swap out the old one I had held on to (the 10 shots/sec at 100 dmg/bolt) and tried it again and blew through it with ease.

 

Previously I had the exact same problem as it seemed like the satellite hardpoint was invincible, however once I swapped to the older beam generator I cleared the mission and all the bonus missions on the first try. For whatever reason, it seems like the beam generator is bugged again. FWIW I made zero other changes, I only changed the beam generator and instantly was able to see a HUGE increase in firepower.

 

Try it out and report back here since Bioware apparently doesn't test this stuff out very effectively on their own.

Same issue with New Kov Icefield. All Grade 7 ship parts, but it feels like my damage has been significantly reduced. I watched a video of someone going through it from an earlier patch with the same gear, and they were destroying things at a much faster rate than I can. Currently cannot kill the satellite hardpoint because I can't 1) do enough damage, or 2) it's invincible.

Same problem here, had to abandon Ardis Outpost Forticiation and New Cove Icefield after the patch. It feels like my lasers hardly do any damage on the target, I can't take the hardpoint down in icefield and the bombers and the sith ships take far less damage in Ardis outpost. Again the grade 7 ship parts have been affected by a bug, maybe the same one has been re-introduced because it's exactly the same as it was back then.

Looks like the this morning's patch did not address the power converter issue. Not that they said it would, but a kid-trapped-in-an-adult's-body can dream... Guess I'll just park that starship in the hangar again... sigh...

FYI I was also having a ton of trouble today with New Kovor Ice Field with the same complaints as many others feeling like my blaster firepower was significantly reduced. Remembering back to a time when the level 7 beam generator was bugged, I tried to swap out the old one I had held on to (the 10 shots/sec at 100 dmg/bolt) and tried it again and blew through it with ease.

 

Previously I had the exact same problem as it seemed like the satellite hardpoint was invincible, however once I swapped to the older beam generator I cleared the mission and all the bonus missions on the first try. For whatever reason, it seems like the beam generator is bugged again. FWIW I made zero other changes, I only changed the beam generator and instantly was able to see a HUGE increase in firepower.

 

Try it out and report back here since Bioware apparently doesn't test this stuff out very effectively on their own.

 

Thanks Shenlon,

 

You've isolated the problem to the beam generator. I couldn't get my hands on a grade 6 one - schematic or built, but using a lowly grade 5 generator made it just possible to complete the missions (with a few failures). This is absolutely the problem.

 

This is the same exact problem from before isn't it?

 

There's the problem BW - the community has done the leg work for you. Now fix it again please.

 

And please don't put it off until the next major patch like you did last time leaving it broken for weeks.

I noticed that Duma Strike and Cha Raaba are subtly different also. Asteroids have been moved a few metres or so, making you hit them from angles where you normally could avoid them. I fly space missions nearly daily and mostly blind, it doesn't take long to feel that something is strange and off.

 

On the positive side, space finally got hardcore. Nobody will ever mock little Anakin's flying skills again. He got through with his barrel rolls where I didn't!

Edited September 20, 2013 by Ahkreeah