Your removing 8v8 because you didn't support them enough? You should have realized that things like an endless pre-season and the lack of updates killed it. Had there been more support, more players would have queued.

Apologize to the developers right now.

How dare you ask logical questions on the SWTOR forums.

In addition to being matched by rating the match making system also determines the role of the character (DPS, Tank or Healer) and matches them with an analog of the same rank on the other team. This means that in the Ranked Solo queue you will always have a character of the same role for ones you have! :

Is this role selection working in the same way as the PVE Group Finder Tool where I as an Assault specced Vanguard can either queue as a Tank or a DPS or as a Commando Arsenal I can queue both as a Healer and a DPS.

Or will the selection be based on the current spec that I have slotted before clicking on the queueing button?

If the selection works like the PVE Group Finder Tool, how will this system ensure that selected Healer are genuine Healer, etc?

Maybe like a dozen? Assuming that those dozen care.

 

If you think RWZs were happening before you weren't paying attention, and once they add 4v4 ranked queues it would be a completely dead system. Removing them at this point is housecleaning.

You are a funny man with your ignorance. You're probably on one of the servers from which guilds transfered away to other servers where ranked was/is actually happening.

Meh new hutball is always nice

Anyways tell us more about 2.4 raiding

First of all, you ddin't mention ANY balance changes coming to support your new systems. You have to know internally that some classes are barely being used because they are less viable as dps. Now that you make arena's a simple deathmatch without map elements like fire to instakill people it's gonna make for the fact that pure utlitily over dps isn't that viable anymore for us PvPers. So you need to bring dps / tanks / heals within the same range or as close to possible so some AC's don't feel left out.

If you think utility has no place in arenas then you've never done arenas. And yeah, he didn't announce balance changes, that's completely not the point of this blog post. Read what's there.

Second of all, we have no indication leaderboards are coming? You're still not gonna introducde systems that make competing vs eachother fun and interesting?

I am curious about the leaderboard system, hopefully they'll give more information there.

Third of all, you're getting rid of 8v8 ranked wz's which alot of teams actually enjoyed, and even admit not having the systems to support it being a fun way of doing PvP in the game. You know how you can increase the PvP population? BY INTRODUCING CROSS SERVER Q's for ranked play. Yes it's something the PvP community has asked for for ages and no the PvP community on a per server basis still isn't near big enough to make competing fun and challenging (and not a pure facestomp for some teams or utter defeat for others). Please Alex, PLEASE give us cross server q so the PvP population pool is bigger and the competitve scene will thrive.

See my earlier post, nobody cares about RWZs. And yes, cross-server would have helped, but cross-server ping issues in PvP in SWTOR don't sound like anything I'd care to experience and I'm sure is a big part of the reason they haven't been implemented.

Thirdly I applaud the way you have introduce a system as to not drag out arena matches needlessly, but something I want to address though: does the gass eventually cover the entire playing field, or does it end up funneling you into a small part of the field and you still have to fight it out eventually? The former would make more sense as to not draw out matches beyond a certain timepoint (which for now, is as you say 5 minutes). 3 different warzones is fun but you have to realize if ultility plays less a role in this (in the form of pushbacks, cc, hardcc, pulls, etc) because of no map elements that you can stun people in to kill them more rapidly, again you need to consider balance alot more and give it a higher priority because right now you haven't mentioned anything about it.

DOUBLE THIRDLY IN HEEYAH. But decent question on the sudden death mechanic, and again if you think utility has no place in arenas you need to actually play arenas.

Fourthly, I pray to god you're still working on a PVE/PVP hybrid warzone where you combat eachother with vehicles (or turrets or whatever) to promote the all-out battle feel Star Wars fans know and love. A new warzone & arena map going forward is not enough for the PvP community to look forward to, although it is a very good start of course. But seeing as the arena maps are more about the LoS elements and maybe some dimensions in terms of lower/higher I don't think it takes long for the dev team to introduce a new arena setting, having players test it on the PTS to get rid of imbalances of course.

 

Fifthly, I hope we can still look forward to space PvP aswell.

According to datamined patch files: yes on PvEvP WZ, yes on PvP space assets. Not to say that those will ever be released to the light of day, but they're partly in there.

I thank you enormously for the work you've done so far and hope the resource effort on BW's part will still be there to support the PvP aspect of this game. Alex believe me when I say this I hope you have the freedom and resources to do what you know this game needs.

Agreed.

Didn't you say 2.4 was supposed to be a PVP patch?

You're going backwards, you're removing decent content instead of improving it....

You are a funny man with your ignorance. You're probably on one of the servers from which guilds transfered away to other servers where ranked was/is actually happening.

I'm on Prophecy of the Five, try again.

First a comment.. NEW HUTTBALL MAP!!!

Now some questions.

What about queues as groups of 2 or 3? Will they only be matched with groups as well? This could make the pvp teams specifically group as 3 to roflstomp solo queuers. It'll happen as it already happens in the arenas today. (NON ranked only ofcourse)

How will class utility specifically come in play in such a wz? Stuff like a Vanguards pull, seems less efficient than say a Shadows shadow step as an escape.. Can you elaborate on the design decisions made to try to balance these things out?.

Will we be able to respec while waiting for the zone to begin? Possible screwing up balance?

How is the scoring done? Are the matches really only a few minutes long? Or will it be best of 3 rounds kind of thing? If it's only 1 round, I hope you shorten the wait before start.

Will the arenas use the same brackets? 10-29, 30-54 and 55?

Combat res? What will be done? Commando dps will have a huge asset there.

How will drops be handled? 4 v. 4 means 1 player dropping for even a few seconds means most likely a loss? Will round reset and the smaller team get a replacement? Will this be different for ranked play?

All in all, I'm really looking forward to the feature!

Bonus comment: Will there be a limit to the amount of F2P players on each side and will that be balanced.. Experience tells me that a higher percentage of those compared to subs are, well, not very good ..

How will you balance the rewards with this 4v4 system to a point that does not encourage trade killing?

Seems like it will be WAY too easy to farm ranked comms by having 2 teams just trade wins back and forth... and with your matchmaking system.. their ratings will go up equally as well, only encouraging it more.

The rewards for wins have to be really low, and the points for actual combat action medals need to be high. Otherwise people will just take the easy route. You will need to implement a HUGE number of medals that people can earn to give them something worth actually competing for.

Didn't you say 2.4 was supposed to be a PVP patch?

 

You're going backwards, you're removing decent content instead of improving it....

Does cloning normal WZs with a 8 man queue and giving out ranked comms from it even count as decent content? At least they're putting all new stuff in.

And I really don't understand why people are annoyed at RWZs going. They barely happened before, and they'll never happen after 4v4 arenas. People just don't like any change, they could probably magically remove ping from the game and people would complain about missing that "feeling of weight on using abilities".

Hi Alex.

Could you comment on the possibility of cross server PVP ques.

Also in the blog post it showed a new Hutt ball map. Could you confirm or deny wether or not we will also get new objective maps added in or after 2.4?

Thank you for your blog post and support.

Don't you mean the 4v4 ones? There aren't any new 8v8 maps coming as far as I know. But yes, it seems they are all come in 2.4

There's a new huttball map coming

I'm sad to see ranked warzones go. I'm kinda enjoying them, as it really tests the strength of the individual and the group, as opposed to who you get grouped with you randomly determining a win or loss.

-If the test server finds that certain builds or classes are unwanted for Arenas, do you plan to address that?

-I may have read this wrong, but since arenas are being queued by roles, is there the possibility to have normal warzones queue by roles?

-In your testing with the toxic gas, has anyone been able to send in a group of tank build sins, and wait it out at the center, and beat other classes by sheer HP amount and knocking the other team back into the gas?

So am I understanding this right?

If you queue solo or with a group of 4 (no other grouping size like 2 or 3?) you will be put in either a non ranked 8v8 or arena unless you queue solo or grouped ranked arenas?

I just want to know I got this figured out because a huge debate has been raging on since launch about premades having a huge advantage in the regular queue now it would seem that if 4 solo v a 4 man group in a arena will only add fuel to that fire.

The (spherical) gas cloud slowly moves in on the center of the Arena and once it closes into the center it will cover the whole playing field until the round is over.

Any comment on my other points? Would be greatly appriciated but I understand you're not at liberty to speak on some of those points because you're not allowed to.