One needs active participation and a huge playerbase the other is a customizable gimmick...

But a customizable gimmick a large portion of the playerbase has asked for since the game dropped.

Your response seems to discount and dismiss the complexity of the coding likely involved with implementing the strongholds system into the existing game--which might be equivalent to the level of coding for your desired feature.

"The resources we can devote to a minority of players isn't great, but I imagine to those players it's quite worth it... and I would hope that some folks could be sensitive enough to be happy for those players, at the very least out of the selfish notion that they may one day end up in the minority of some content issue and receive the same consideration if nothing else." -- David Gaider, Bioware

Only one thing can save pvp in this game - its ranked solo and 8-man team Huttball League.

But since you have not plans for it, nothing cannot save pvp future. RIP...

Only one thing can save pvp in this game - its ranked solo and 8-man team Huttball League.

 

But since you have not plans for it, nothing cannot save pvp future. RIP...

One thing can save PvP - names 2 things.

I think you missed a question Eric. Otherwise, I think you've pretty much given a response to most of the questions you will see during the stream. Well, the ones you would actually provide responses to

 

Do you have any plans to keep premades and PUGs separate in warzones?

 

No. As an MMO, we encourage players to have friends and enjoy the game together.

Even the dev team doesn't stick their dick in crazy, I'm pretty sure they'll just leave that as their implicit (obvious) opinion

Well..

 

Time to abandon sinking ship looks like

 

If there ever was a post or time to make you fell like it i think this just did it =)

Agreed,Pvp,atleast competitive play is never going to get any focus in comparison to what pvers get.

I used to think PVP was apart of endgame in swtor,I was wrong its a mini-game that has less dev attention then ingame houses.....

Only one thing can save pvp in this game - its ranked solo and 8-man team Huttball League.

 

But since you have not plans for it, nothing cannot save pvp future. RIP...

The only thing? I would imagine cross server first and then work from there.

why is bolster in ranked pvp? Why not just require a high level of pvp gear?

 

this is a great question, and one we put a lot of thought into when the decision made to keep bolster in ranked pvp. As many of you likely know, in the past we had an entry level set of pvp gear called the recruit set. Wearing this set into a warzone would put you at an “entry level” for pvp. However, having recruit gear in the game created two important factors:

 

1. The player needed to know that this is how pvp at max level worked.

2. The player needed to then get the gear and actually equip it.

 

Although this may seem like something which is obvious to many of you who are more seasoned and hardcore pvpers, these factors being missed led to many players first experience being that they got completely stomped in pvp. Although we understand that there are certainly “dues to be paid” when you play pvp, they shouldn’t come right at the beginning of someone’s pvp career. We also want the ranked population to be as high as possible within the level 55 bracket so we have bolster in place so more players can participate in the system.

 

The best solution for this situation was a systematic approach which puts all players on an even footing when they enter the system. We know that some feel the best solution is to simply make everyone have the same gear and stats when in pvp so that it is purely a measure skill and skill alone. However, we feel that as an mmo, gear progression is a major cornerstone of its long term gameplay. We feel that bolster takes both of those ideas into account and lands as a nice middle ground.

 

It is very unfortunate that bolster has experienced issues since its implementation which certainly created pain points for our pvp community. However we will continue to work to ensure that bolster is working as intended! I think we can all agree that having the first time you pvp be a positive experience will go to great lengths to ensuring that those folks stick around and continue to pvp!

I can appreciate the thought behind this, but this is ranked...To me, that's comparable to NiM ops; you can't walk in with Rakata gear and hope to clear everything. You go in, get your face smashed, then you figure out why. I may be in the minority, but it might actually be a positive to discourage the casual PvP'er from ranked. I see a full 72 geared teammate in regs; no big deal. Ranked, though? C'mon. Bolster gives them the illusion that they're competitive, but it just isn't the case.

Am I great at PvP? I think anyone who's played with me will say no. I still would like to think that folks would rather see me in my 2018 expertise rather than a PvE hero with 1500. Unless they're on the other team...

There for you lazy folks I made a TL;DR

The meme potential of yellow posts is so tragically big.

Thanks for posting this Eric. I just unsubbed because of it. Since I dont play Pokemon, which next expansion feels like, I bid farewell.

http://i.imgur.com/pitKVJD.gif

http://i.imgur.com/pitKVJD.gif

You should care, this game keeps bleeding subs...

I can appreciate the thought behind this, but this is ranked...To me, that's comparable to NiM ops; you can't walk in with Rakata gear and hope to clear everything. You go in, get your face smashed, then you figure out why. I may be in the minority, but it might actually be a positive to discourage the casual PvP'er from ranked. I see a full 72 geared teammate in regs; no big deal. Ranked, though? C'mon. Bolster gives them the illusion that they're competitive, but it just isn't the case.

 

Am I great at PvP? I think anyone who's played with me will say no. I still would like to think that folks would rather see me in my 2018 expertise rather than a PvE hero with 1500. Unless they're on the other team...

While I'd love to agree with you, the ridiculously active solo ranked on our server on Monday would have been even more painful if bolster wasn't implemented. It's just that there's a couple key differences between the NiM ops and Ranked.

The first is that progression PvE doesn't rely on other teams doing the same content, in general a server could only have 8 people in one raid team and those 8 people would be content, whereas population is much more highly valued in PvP. Making it more inclusive to people who actually know how to make gear bolster is a nice thing.

The second is that you can choose not to take a person along with your for a raid, but we, unfortunately, cannot stop people who either are horrible and/or have horrible gear from queuing for ranked. As much as I wanted to, I had no way from stopping the 27k hp/1.5k exp sent, 24k hp/1.2 exp vig guardian in shii-cho form, the 25k hp/1.2k slinger, or the 40k hp/900 exp mando from queuing. Even though they were all so horrible that no team with them won a match, they would have been even worse if they weren't bolstered.

But a customizable gimmick a large portion of the playerbase has asked for since the game dropped.

 

Your response seems to discount and dismiss the complexity of the coding likely involved with implementing the strongholds system into the existing game--which might be equivalent to the level of coding for your desired feature.

 

"The resources we can devote to a minority of players isn't great, but I imagine to those players it's quite worth it... and I would hope that some folks could be sensitive enough to be happy for those players, at the very least out of the selfish notion that they may one day end up in the minority of some content issue and receive the same consideration if nothing else." -- David Gaider, Bioware

I never said anything negative about the actual implementation of capital ships or housing - its a casual game and its a sought after feature so of course they will do well in implementing it. But capital ships and housing could be launched into a dead game whereas the other cant.

Our ship has sailed, all I'm saying. Please, read before jumping on the first train to lecture someone.

Thanks for the effort you've put in to communication here.

Will you be introducing rewards in future Seasons to recognize those players who have achieved the highest of ratings? 1500 seems like a low bar for some players.

 

For starters, we have seen a lot of feedback around this very topic on the forums, please keep it coming. This is a very tricky thing to design around as no matter where you put the breakpoint, someone can potentially feel like they are not getting the rewards they deserve. We took this to heart when trying to decide where best to place the “breakpoint” for reward tiers. For us, giving the Rancor mount to only the top 5% felt like a good breakpoint since that will still make it very rare. We will continue to use player feedback as we make decisions about future seasons rewards, we have no announced changes planned at this time however.

5% of all the people on the leaderboards do not accurately represent 5% of the actual regular pvp playerbase IMO. I bet you've got a ton of people who queued only a few times and said "not my cup of tea"...

So what you end up with is a "top 5%" comprised of over 50% of the people a regular pvp'er sees in the actual arenas.

My numbers are rectally derived, but you get my drift?

I think a cutoff that actually considers a minimum number of matches played would help to create a "truer" sense of accomplishment to receiving the rewards.

What about the issue of 3v4 matches in Arenas?

 

<snip>

 

On the plus side, our rating system takes the 3v4 into account when awarding rating at the end of the match. The team with 4 will not be rewarded nearly as well for winning as they would if it was a normal match, nor will the team with 3 be punished as severely for losing.

If you've EVER played an arena - you know that 3v4 doesn't really work. Unless it's the 3 musketeers going against the 3 amigos and the invisible man, the result is a forgone conclusion. If the 3 lose, there should be NO rating loss. If the 3 win, they should be granted DOUBLE the ratings gain.

Huge rating gaps between players in any given Arena match….

 

Typically this issue occurs when there are not a lot of players in the Arena queue, I think it may help to understand a bit about how our matchmaking works. Matches are based around the original character who is entered in matchmaking and what their rating is. Let’s say a character is 1500 and enters the queue. Matchmaking will start looking for another 7 players to have them play with who are also 1500. At certain time intervals, that rating range is expanded (both up and down) in order to work to fill the match. Over time that range will continue to be expanded, so the “up” and “down” rating from that base player is why you could see a 1200 player and an 1800 player in the same game as they are both 300 rating from the original character in the queue.

This is a TERRIBLE way of doing things, and leads to rock stars teaming up with sesame street characters. There's got to be a better way...just don't make the team if the spread is more than 200 from highest to lowest. The matches become unreasonably frustrating otherwise. I'd rather not have a pop than have to match with people who've NEVER won a match.

Do you have any plans to address overpowered Hybrid builds which are present in Arenas?

 

Our history of class balance shows that we attempt to discourage overpowered hybrid builds when and wherever possible. We are constantly balancing classes and will take action if something is not falling into line with class balance. We will continue to monitor these builds and adjust as necessary.

 

-eric

But you're OK with just regular old "hybrids"? If running the hybrid confers an advantage - then it would get the "overpowered" label. But if it didn't confer the advantage - why would anyone want to run that spec? Hopefully the line between "different" and "overpowered" isn't the issue...

Thanks Eric for taking the time to answer are questions to those posting your whine you all are acting like spoiled children. I have fun pvping every night and could care less about any of the not at this time answers from Eric. Just relax and stop being so spoiled and play the game the only issue i like them to work on is the amount of CC in warzone less CC more game play other then that the rest is just that not an issue end of story.

Awesome that you're happy. Though to the players who have stuck with this game (whom only PvP) and to get answers to every question in either a "no plans" "not on our road map" "significant challenges" you cant blame people for being a tad upset...especially since most of us already knew that one of the biggest issues when it comes to them not being able to tackle issues is population and the one system which will fix this is never going to be implemented.

Such a disappointment. Had to stop reading at the 4th answer, it was just too much to bear.

Reconsider the huttball league at least.

You said in that FAQ that cross-server queues are not on your roadmap. That's fine and dandy, but is there any chance of us getting a reason a why? A lot of answers in that FAQ were 'no' because of limited server populations. It seems obvious to me that cross server queuing (for PvP and PvE) would solve many of the issues.

 

I understand it's expensive and difficult and yada yada yada, but if it is please just say that instead of just saying no to an obviously sensible fix.

Couldn't possibly agree with this anymore. If it's a population issue than wouldn't going to cross server PvP be a simple fix to que times?

Why is Bolster in Ranked PvP? Why not just require a high level of PvP gear?

 

This is a great question, and one we put a lot of thought into when the decision made to keep Bolster in Ranked PvP. As many of you likely know, in the past we had an entry level set of PvP gear called the Recruit set. Wearing this set into a Warzone would put you at an “entry level” for PvP. However, having Recruit gear in the game created two important factors:

 

1. The player needed to know that this is how PvP at max level worked.

2. The player needed to then get the gear and actually equip it.

 

Although this may seem like something which is obvious to many of you who are more seasoned and hardcore PvPers, these factors being missed led to many players first experience being that they got completely stomped in PvP. Although we understand that there are certainly “dues to be paid” when you play PvP, they shouldn’t come right at the beginning of someone’s PvP career. We also want the Ranked population to be as high as possible within the Level 55 bracket so we have Bolster in place so more players can participate in the system.

 

The best solution for this situation was a systematic approach which puts all players on an even footing when they enter the system. We know that some feel the best solution is to simply make everyone have the same gear and stats when in PvP so that it is purely a measure skill and skill alone. However, we feel that as an MMO, gear progression is a major cornerstone of its long term gameplay. We feel that Bolster takes both of those ideas into account and lands as a nice middle ground.

 

It is very unfortunate that Bolster has experienced issues since its implementation which certainly created pain points for our PvP community. However we will continue to work to ensure that Bolster is working as intended! I think we can all agree that having the first time you PvP be a positive experience will go to great lengths to ensuring that those folks stick around and continue to PvP!

 

I think that both points #1 and #2 can be addressed with a gear check. When the player clicks "queue solo" an expertise check is made. If the player does not have 2018 expertise, a popup message appears instructing the player to check their mailbox for their recruit gear set and to equip it. The player cannot enter a queue without 2018 expertise.

Not only do I think that bolster should be removed from ranked, but I also think that it should also be removed from regular 55. You can ensure that a new 55 player still has a decent pvp experience by giving them a starter "recruit" set, which can have the stats of e.g. partisan gear currently or conqueror gear (when 2.7 hits). So, a new 55 would be given a tier 3 pvp gear set and then work towards a tier 2 set and eventually tier1. Every time that a new set of gear is released (e.g. brutalizer gear for 2.7), the former tier 2 gear (e.g. conqueror gear) becomes tier 3 and is either mailed to people, available for purchase at a very low cost, or otherwise somehow given to players. Also, when a new tier comes out, the previous tier 3 loses its expertise (to ensure that somebody doesn't queue with gear that is behind the times).

From there, it's just a matter of controlling the stat differences between the three gear tiers to ensure that there is not an overwhelming advantage for having tier 1 gear over tier 2 or 3, but still enough of a difference to encourage the acquisition of better gear. No more messy situations with bolster in 55. No more PVE 78s getting massacred due to them having low expertise. No more 46 mainhands, etc.

Furthermore, I think that giving everybody a pvp gear set helps with open world situations. PVE players can put on their pvp set, get max expertise, and have a fighting chance.

I think that bolster is excellent sub 55. I wouldn't change a thing there.

Anyway, thank you very much for this post. Even though most of the answers are "no", it's nice to at least know that you guys are thinking about these things.

Awesome that you're happy. Though to the players who have stuck with this game (whom only PvP) and to get answers to every question in either a "no plans" "not on our road map" "significant challenges" you cant blame people for being a tad upset...especially since most of us already knew that one of the biggest issues when it comes to them not being able to tackle issues is population and the one system which will fix this is never going to be implemented.

That's an understatement. If anything we've just grown more weary of this endless shafting so the opposition has just gotten uglier and really there hasn't been any true positivity from the PvP community.

I doubt it'll change any time soon seeing the OP and the responses following so for you post I /agree.

A lack of Open world PvP is a real shame. It is after all what MMO PvP is good at warzones are just a meaningless grind.

Is the reason for the lack of open world PvP tied to the expertise system? Without having a PvP armour set you are at a disadvantage to people that do because of the importance that expertise plays in PvP. With the introduction of expertise and the requirement to complete warzones to get the high end gear it removes the option for a casual person to dip into open world pvp. Or anyone that wants to enjoy open world pvp will find it an up hill struggle unless they also want to do warzones as there are no rewards for open world.

So without a reward system open world pvp will always come second to warzones as doing one offers rewards that make you better in PvP while the open world offers the player nothing. With most people avoiding open world pvp in the areas you mention as it just slows down the quests and does not add to the experience. There needs to be an option to capture areas and hold them and a reason to PvP that effects the game world. Or all you have is devalued PvP into mini games with no lasting effect outside of the coms you can earn.