I'm a bit confused about the decision to add an item modifier that will be ignored by the balance team for both PvE and PvP. Especially considering they will be gated 100% behind RNG. Essentially, the players that have the best luck on their rolls and how many items they get with amplifiers rolled on them will be in the best position for certain achievable things, such as Ranked PvP Top 3 positions, World First clears for the new operations content, or credit making schemes, like Achievement/Mount/Title runs of existing Operations content.

 

You know that there are a lot of players that want to have perfect BiS gear. Hell, there are RPers that like to brag about being in perfect 258 gear, even though they have no real use for it other than bragging. I feel like the backlash about amplifiers, once they are released and the chances of getting them rolled on gear are felt out by the community, will rival that of Galactic Command upon its' initial release.

One thing that came up when discussing the stream with some people is the effect Amplifiers will have on the weapons slot. You guys mentioned that Amplifiers will be tied to shells of gear, which we assumed also includes weapons, so how is this suppose to effect pre-onslaught weapons (such as ranked pvp or gree legacy weapons) or cartel weapons that we currently are using? are we gonna see weapons added to the outfit designer? or are we expected to use weapons with desired Amplifiers and forgo the weapons we used to use if we are targeting the hardest content in the game and/or are seeking to min/max our gear?

 

Along with that how much of a power gain are expected to get from this "bonus" stat. Are they meant to be extremely small, 1 or 2%, or are they more significant than that, you gave the example of armor penetration so would we potentially see 30% armor pen on a piece of gear? And does it scale with the item rating of the gear, i.e. a nightmare quality chest piece will have higher amplifiers stats than a story mode quality chest piece, or are all pieces of gear going to potentially receive the bonus from amplifiers regardless of item quality?

Edited May 30, 2019 by Huskernutz

You guys mentioned that Amplifiers will be tied to shells of gear, which we assumed also includes weapons, so how is this suppose to effect pre-onslaught weapons (such as ranked pvp or gree legacy weapons) or cartel weapons that we currently are using? are we gonna see weapons added to the outfit designer? or are we expected to use weapons with desired Amplifiers and forgo the weapons we used to use if we are targeting the hardest content in the game and/or are seeking to min/max our gear?

 

This is a VERY important question because weapon choice is a major draw for so many of us. I use several weapons from the Gree event currency, as well as several high-value weapon shells either bought on GTN or with CC (hello Unstable Arbiter gear!)

 

If you guys aren't yet thinking about adding weapon looks to the Outfit Designer, then please do. That would completely solve the issue.

IMO ... the success of all of the new stuff will be summed up in one word: Accessibility.

 

1. For some if any of the gear is their estimation too easily obtained.... they will compalin

2. For others if it's too hard to get said gear.... there will be another out cry.

3. If it's too rare (regardless of how or when a player gets it ... ) there will be even more

 

IMO... If it's all the same to everyone I'd like to see more of actually HOW and WHEN we get the good stuff. See how it works first hand ... then make comments. Frankly we haev a LOT to digest. Good stream ... good information.

 

OH and umm .. Eric .. for whatever it is worth .. give it your best shot ! Hang in there bud. And maybe at some point in time please release information on some other topics as well.

I'm a little unclear as to whether these amplifiers are a temporary addition that wear off after a period of time or something that is afixed to a mod or shell permanently.

 

As someone who crafts and also likes to participate in competitive play in the best gear I can at the same time am I going to be able to swap between amps easily and without cost or have I got it alll wrong?

Sure thing, I can hit both of those! Weapon shells will NOT have amplifiers while they are not available in Outfitter.

 

Let me ask the opposite then: When you finally get around to adding weapons to the outfit designer (the sooner, the better), will you revisit this and have them added retroactively?

...and here I was all ready to advise you to not stand right in front of your amp with your axe of choice...

My first reaction to this addition was, frankly -- why?

 

By your own admission they seem to be pretty inconsequential in terms of balancing, which is fine --particularly given all the other new gearing changes. And while I'm certainly not opposed to the idea, it strikes me as as a potential waste of development time.

 

Until we know the details about how much these amplifiers improve stats, I'm kind of meh. You seemed to go out of your way during the stream to suggest they don't impact balance -- which begs the question: Why introduce them then in the first place?

 

Dasty

Edited May 30, 2019 by Jdast

My first reaction to this addition was, frankly -- why?

 

By your own admission they seem to be pretty inconsequential in terms of balancing, which is fine --particularly given all the other new gearing changes. And while I'm certainly not opposed to the idea, it strikes me as as a potential waste of development time.

 

Until we know the details about how much these amplifiers improve stats, I'm kind of meh. You seemed to go out of your way during the stream to suggest they don't impact balance -- which begs the question: Why introduce them then in the first place?

 

Dasty

 

 

There are players (Maybe 1/2%) of SWTOR who do the hardest content, who gear to the leanest min/max of gear. Amplifiers are a chance to give them hours of gameplay hunting to get that 0.5% stat increase to push their build to the extreme. Think of games like Diablo and some of the player mentality there.

Basically my concern is how these things will add up to being overpowered.

 

Something like armor pen can be insane on a marauder/sentinel or snipe/gunslinger cause much of their damage is kept in check cause it is physical damage.

 

So, if each gear piece gives 2% armor pen and we got 14 pieces it builds up to 28% armor pen wich is huge and will be a big problem in PvP.

So, try to keep these things from spiraling out of control.

If the same pieces give 0.75% each for example then it's a more manageable 10% armor pen.

 

Basically, i'm concerned these things will get out of control if they are damage increasing or healing increasing stats. Because it will make the damage even more bursty and i don't think the burst is low as it is. It is quite strong. People get blown up quite easily. It really can't be getting any worse. It actually needs to go down or max hp needs to go up.

 

This is the only feature of the gearing system i am seriously concerned about atm.

Edited May 31, 2019 by Nemmar

I'm a little unclear as to whether these amplifiers are a temporary addition that wear off after a period of time or something that is afixed to a mod or shell permanently.

 

As someone who crafts and also likes to participate in competitive play in the best gear I can at the same time am I going to be able to swap between amps easily and without cost or have I got it alll wrong?

 

Its a extra stat/boost that is added to your piece of gear, and also mods. (enhancements and armorings as well.) So take for example your bracers. They can have 3 amps on at once, or with chest piece there will be 4, or with earpiece there is only one. They can all be the same or different, based on the RNG system that gives them.

 

 

I know a lot of people have no clue what this game is, but the mobile game of Sword Art Online Integral Factor, has this on weapons and gear. When you craft a item, it has a chance of giving a boost, +1-10 attack, +1-10 defense, +1-10 evade, ect ect. Basically same thing here, but the amps are not limited to just stats, exp and gathering boosts as well. And each shell and mod (enhancements and armorings) will have a potential for a amp bonus added to it.

There are players (Maybe 1/2%) of SWTOR who do the hardest content, who gear to the leanest min/max of gear. Amplifiers are a chance to give them hours of gameplay hunting to get that 0.5% stat increase to push their build to the extreme. Think of games like Diablo and some of the player mentality there.

 

^ Yep this.

Some people just want the minimum to get the content done, others want to go high and others want to push it to the max. This lets them.

Quite honestly folks this is why I said what I did about accessibility. Regardless of how frequent .. or if these items are crafted (man someone's going to make a small fortune here !) ...

 

Accessibility is the key to the balance. I hope this makes sense. for PvE players the balance equates as to how fast they can succede in moving through areas where the better drops are at ... consquently better gear ... etc. etc.

 

For PvP it's considerably more important that the balance of the game is kept in check.

 

Aside from this ... I REALY do plan on reserving my final review on all of these new items until we get things in motion. Only then can we know for certain how well balance things are. This is not a rant... just a calm review of what we know right now !

Thanks for the stream guys.

 

The amplifiers are the one thing I really wanted to give my feedback on. Perhaps there just isn't enough info on how these work, but I'm a little confused as to the role amplifiers play in the gearing ecosystem. Tacticals seem to play a role of defining your playstyle, set bonuses maybe less so but still can modify your abilities, mods "uninteresingly" change your stats (more item rating, more damage). So where do amplifiers come in. From the sound of it, they simply sound like increased damage, survivability, etc. I'm not clear what they provide that mods don't. It seems like amplifiers provide the same sort of effect, only with less of an impact.

 

The main difference I see is they are locked behind a further wall of RNG. While mods have fairly simple RNG (gear will randomly drop approximately higher than around your gear level), the RNG on amplifiers sounds more random as there are more options (healing etc.) Furthermore, the RNG will be behind a credit sink for rerolls.

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of tying gearing into the economy (so I'm also a little frustrated with augments, but that's a whole other thing), but I see this as an even bigger problem with an added RNG element, which I believe will lead to frustration.

 

TLDR; Is the reward of amplifiers adding anything interesting to the game that isn't already there? And is the added frustration of RNG worth that reward?

No hype about this. the current system is already a head hash, this one seem to go deeper.

 

Please make it simple and clear.

Sure thing, I can hit both of those! Weapon shells will NOT have amplifiers while they are not available in Outfitter.

 

I don't want to get too specific yet but the % value of amplifiers is very small. Obviously if you get a very small bonus on multiple mods it can add up but the overall impact is not a substantial one in anyway. It is mostly about tweaking and customizing.

 

-eric

 

Will there be weapon appearance? I hate the idea of finding a great, stat'd weapon shell (if that's a thing), but have it clash with my outfit.

Amplifiers are the only thing I'm definitely iffy about, while it seems there are multiple ways to get the one you'd like I'm a bit worried about balancing this one out. Sure it allegedly won't affect balance but if so why introduce it anyway? I guess I'll wait and see, as well as hope they are not completely worthless and unbalanced. Edited May 31, 2019 by FlameYOL

.delete Edited May 31, 2019 by EmperorRus

I am happy with those new updates just want to give some suggestions about this game. As we know we move very further in this game its a long journey from 2008 beta version to first alpha version in 2011. But those some new players like me still feels that why did I don't got those old items of the game. Like I can't even play that HK55 droid story line of KotFE but its OK. Also we didn't get Grand Statue of Revan. Its not your fault neither the fault is our. Players like me may start the game very late maybe because we don't know about the game or just by seeing so much GB to download maybe we didn't download it. Talking about me, I don't know about the game. I never searched Star Wars games. I an happy with those old Star Wars games. But when I played it back in 2015 for the first time, I am in love of this game and still spend like 16 to 18 hours playing this game. But still I don't know that you will give us chance to get those deco and other quests and materials from those old packs. I know this new update will end many available currencies but still I think there must be a way to get those things. If I know about this game earlier I will definitely buy the SoR pre order expansion. I can do anything for this game, but what to do now? You guy say it. Although you guys are doing best job. I really appreciate it and I really do have respect for you guys. Hats off.

So wait, is it random what amplifiers are attached to each thing?

 

Like if I get, say, a Versatile Armoring, and it has an accuracy modifier to it, but I want alacrity?

 

I assume the reroll/recalibrate will allow us to rerandomize it...but then what happens if we get something even worse?

 

I think there should be a non-random way to get the amplifiers you want, please.

 

I certainly hope there won't be any random amplifiers as egregious as, say, a Shield stat on a Versatile armoring

I think amplifiers will be game breaking.

 

U can have one per mod and shell each. That is a buttload of extra dps/survivability or even both since certain things can only have certain amps.

 

I think stat bloat is enough already as is, we really do not need any more of it.

 

PVP is going to be not very enjoyable once ppl start stacking all the right things and melt ppl even faster than they do now. It was made clear that amps r not required to complete specific content. So once u have all the right ones, all content will be a face roll even more so than just having the usual end game BiS gear.

 

IMO this is a very unwelcome change for balance reasons across all content, not to mention that absolute mayhem from having to have several different sets for seemingly all specs. Just too much.

Edited May 31, 2019 by Benirons

My biggest concern is that this is done right the first time. No doubt this will be iterated upon as time goes to improve it but there's one thing I think absolutely needs to be well thought out for the initial implementation - no inventory space taken!

 

Please we don't need actual items taking up space in our inventories for this. Please make a tab that we can access them all from or even just attach it to an already existing tab like our utilities screen. Absolute worst case make them items that are consumed so they can be eliminated from our inventories quickly.

Let me see if I understand this correctly:

1. Every shell, armoring, mod, enhancement in the game will have an amplifier upon its creation (whether that is from a vendor, loot drop, lootbox, or craft). The type of amp is randomly generated upon creation.

2. You can re-roll that amp for credits and MANUALLY pick what you want from a set of options specific to that type of item (not just do another loot roll).

3. Amplifier stat amounts are static across the board, and are not affected by item rating, rng, or anything similiar.

 

If these are all true, I am perfectly ok with amplifiers, as they look like an extra layer of customization according to role, playstyle, type of content. There are amps you might want for pvp but not pve.

 

If some gear comes with amplifiers and others do not, via RNG or not, I am going to have a problem with that.

If Amplifier stat amountsvary/change via any type of RNG, I am going to have a big problem with that.

 

When you started talking about Amplifiers, the first thing that came to mind was a certain other game's titanforging catastrophe, and that type of thing is the worst thing you could add to this game.

 

I am not as worried as some about the balancing. You can re-balance a game. Un-implementeing a bad system is a much harder thing to do after its introduced.

Edited June 1, 2019 by matthaxian