lies, tequila is good

I'm pouring some now in a show of solidarity.

Just got home, tequilia....is bad.

 

I'll update this in a bit, lol.

Shweet.

Ok so where do I start....

Wow, that was a first for me, never been to any online gaming dealies like that before, but truth be told, it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of PvP frustration to vent, but even before I got into any of it, it was decidingly clear the team was well aware of how most feel around here (especially in regards to Bolster). Having said that, my plan was to let the Q/A session go on without me asking anything, as I wanted to chat with Eric/Bruce after the Q/A session during the "making rounds", but I was somewhat urged to ask about Bolster, and luckily I was the last question picked. I did NOT however, get as much time with Bruce as I would have liked, he was literally pulled/pushed/knockbacked/CC'd, mez'd and taunted all night lol. But towards the end, I did get a few minutes with him, and went over some quick things while my mind was cluttered with massive amounts of free tequila (note to self, BAD, BAD & BAD to wait that long with that much alcohol). In no particular order...here we go:

Bolster: In a nutshell, they are very aware of player concerns about Bolster, unhappy that they didn't get it working properly fast enough, and they plan on very much keeping it around. Bolster will in FACT, be applied to Arenas as well. I also asked why they decided to use Bolster as opposed to a more legit Recruit Mark III set, and essentially they felt too many fresh 50's (at the time) were simply not using it period. I was little irked at that, since tbh that's on the player, and others shouldn't be penalized for a drooler, but they felt if Bolster is applied then all parties would be essentially benefit for the better. They are continuing to improve Bolster, are aware of some issues that are still live, and as I said are very much committed to making it work. IMO, and I think many others agree, Bolster would be fine for PvP...it would just be nice to remove the "not-intended" issues that come along with it. Either way, it's here to stay so, our best bet is to keep reporting whatever issues we see on it, and get it posted, as that helped them a lot with the massive amount of feedback.

Arenas: As some of you have seen posted, the Maps are spectacular and just kick-azz looking. They really want these to succeed, and after listening to them about it, the team working on it is really excited about them. TDM (Total death match) is literally the theme. I've never done arena based PvP, but having heard plenty about it through the years, I think something like this would be epic. My only personal concern is, how much will it take away from Ranked activity?

Ranked PvP: Once Bruce sat down, I think the first things I said was "Ranked PvP, let's chat". Sadly we were interrupted a few times with peeps coming in and out (was late peeps saying g'bye and what not), but he was absolutely aware that Ranked has been abused. While I won't quote verbatim, where the game was at from June 2012 when Rankeds first came out to July 2013, many changes have happened for TOR. Short form is, Rankeds will get the attention it deserves. I pressed on Match-making via ELO, and allowing DC'd peeps to return, but as soon as I got to that he was being pulled out by the other members who were leaving.

World PvP: Forget any BIG OWPvP development people. It's not going to happen. As some of you early birds are aware of, Illum was a gross disaster on 2 fronts: Lag and Faction Balance. Faction balance is up to the players, but essentially this game just cannot handle large scale (and we all know it). I had commented that the Gree event was actually a huge buff to OWPvP, since it actually encourages peeps to leave the Fleet, and while some get angry with "forced PvP", on PvP servers it's a lot of fun. I suggested if we got more events like that on a more frequent basis, that could really help in that PvP aspect.

Gunslinger/Sniper 'Roll-Bang". Bruce was NOT aware of this issue, but said it was NOT intended for GS/Snipers to /jump-roll "in place", however he didn't say using it against a wall was unintended. He was a bit shocked by that, and quickly wrote that down on his notepad, and said expect a fix at some point. I did mention the Shadow/Sage issues, and he is aware of them as well.

*************

I arrived early, around 5PM at the bar, and kicked it till they closed it down for an hour at 6PM. I was 5th in line of about 400+ peeps (around the block), and introduced myself to Eric Musco, who promptly introduced me to Courtney Woods and Bruce Maclean. These 3 have the game at heart, and I could tell they very much appreciate working with the game. On a side note, do not ignore Courtney when asked to keep it down, she will rip your head off!! Essentially, I felt like I didn't get to have that "in-depth" chat with Bruce, but I also felt he was getting heavy agro and did not want to add to it. I got the impression these people are well in touch with how the community is feeling on many fronts, whether PvP, PvE, Crafting, Space, RP, etc. I think the Live Q/A had about 10-12 questions asked, before they broke it up and began the mingling aspect, and I was happy to see the majority of the questions being asked was about PvP. Lot of players dove right in, and they did an excellent job responding back. One thing to note, 2.4 is a little ways off, and they do plan to get more info. out to us as development continues. I wouldn't worry about 2.4 being a /disappoint, I really had the impression they want to give us a SOLID update and not fluff.

On that note, since I'm still feeling the Tequila going through my system, I wanted to thank all the peeps who sent me all those PM's here, as well as our Facebook page. I literally went down to this thing because I enjoy TOR PvP, and hopefully I was able to give a little insight to what they had in mind, I really do wish I had more time with them, it was more challenging than I thought.

Lastly, big thanks to Eric and Bruce for taking the time to make some time, lol. Courtney, I wanted to RP with you towards the end, but by like the 3rd or 4th tequila shot I'm not sure how my /emote ability would have been But really, glad to have you guys representing this game.

PSS: To the morons who swiped my TOR gifts, I hope you get beat down by premades for the rest of the month!! You know who you are!!

Ok so where do I start....

 

Wow, that was a first for me, never been to any online gaming dealies like that before, but truth be told, it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of PvP frustration to vent, but even before I got into any of it, it was decidingly clear the team was well aware of how most feel around here (especially in regards to Bolster). Having said that, my plan was to let the Q/A session go on without me asking anything, as I wanted to chat with Eric/Bruce after the Q/A session during the "making rounds", but I was somewhat urged to ask about Bolster, and luckily I was the last question picked. I did NOT however, get as much time with Bruce as I would have liked, he was literally pulled/pushed/knockbacked/CC'd, mez'd and taunted all night lol. But towards the end, I did get a few minutes with him, and went over some quick things while my mind was cluttered with massive amounts of free tequila (note to self, BAD, BAD & BAD to wait that long with that much alcohol). In no particular order...here we go:

 

Bolster: In a nutshell, they are very aware of player concerns about Bolster, unhappy that they didn't get it working properly fast enough, and they plan on very much keeping it around. Bolster will in FACT, be applied to Arenas as well. I also asked why they decided to use Bolster as opposed to a more legit Recruit Mark III set, and essentially they felt too many fresh 50's (at the time) were simply not using it period. I was little irked at that, since tbh that's on the player, and others shouldn't be penalized for a drooler, but they felt if Bolster is applied then all parties would be essentially benefit for the better. They are continuing to improve Bolster, are aware of some issues that are still live, and as I said are very much committed to making it work. IMO, and I think many others agree, Bolster would be fine for PvP...it would just be nice to remove the "not-intended" issues that come along with it. Either way, it's here to stay so, our best bet is to keep reporting whatever issues we see on it, and get it posted, as that helped them a lot with the massive amount of feedback.

 

Arenas: As some of you have seen posted, the Maps are spectacular and just kick-azz looking. They really want these to succeed, and after listening to them about it, the team working on it is really excited about them. TDM (Total death match) is literally the theme. I've never done arena based PvP, but having heard plenty about it through the years, I think something like this would be epic. My only personal concern is, how much will it take away from Ranked activity?

 

Ranked PvP: Once Bruce sat down, I think the first things I said was "Ranked PvP, let's chat". Sadly we were interrupted a few times with peeps coming in and out (was late peeps saying g'bye and what not), but he was absolutely aware that Ranked has been abused. While I won't quote verbatim, where the game was at from June 2012 when Rankeds first came out to July 2013, many changes have happened for TOR. Short form is, Rankeds will get the attention it deserves. I pressed on Match-making via ELO, and allowing DC'd peeps to return, but as soon as I got to that he was being pulled out by the other members who were leaving.

 

World PvP: Forget any BIG OWPvP development people. It's not going to happen. As some of you early birds are aware of, Illum was a gross disaster on 2 fronts: Lag and Faction Balance. Faction balance is up to the players, but essentially this game just cannot handle large scale (and we all know it). I had commented that the Gree event was actually a huge buff to OWPvP, since it actually encourages peeps to leave the Fleet, and while some get angry with "forced PvP", on PvP servers it's a lot of fun. I suggested if we got more events like that on a more frequent basis, that could really help in that PvP aspect.

 

Gunslinger/Sniper 'Roll-Bang". Bruce was NOT aware of this issue, but said it was NOT intended for GS/Snipers to /jump-roll "in place", however he didn't say using it against a wall was unintended. He was a bit shocked by that, and quickly wrote that down on his notepad, and said expect a fix at some point. I did mention the Shadow/Sage issues, and he is aware of them as well.

 

*************

 

I arrived early, around 5PM at the bar, and kicked it till they closed it down for an hour at 6PM. I was 5th in line of about 400+ peeps (around the block), and introduced myself to Eric Musco, who promptly introduced me to Courtney Woods and Bruce Maclean. These 3 have the game at heart, and I could tell they very much appreciate working with the game. On a side note, do not ignore Courtney when asked to keep it down, she will rip your head off!! Essentially, I felt like I didn't get to have that "in-depth" chat with Bruce, but I also felt he was getting heavy agro and did not want to add to it. I got the impression these people are well in touch with how the community is feeling on many fronts, whether PvP, PvE, Crafting, Space, RP, etc. I think the Live Q/A had about 10-12 questions asked, before they broke it up and began the mingling aspect, and I was happy to see the majority of the questions being asked was about PvP. Lot of players dove right in, and they did an excellent job responding back. One thing to note, 2.4 is a little ways off, and they do plan to get more info. out to us as development continues. I wouldn't worry about 2.4 being a /disappoint, I really had the impression they want to give us a SOLID update and not fluff.

 

On that note, since I'm still feeling the Tequila going through my system, I wanted to thank all the peeps who sent me all those PM's here, as well as our Facebook page. I literally went down to this thing because I enjoy TOR PvP, and hopefully I was able to give a little insight to what they had in mind, I really do wish I had more time with them, it was more challenging than I thought.

 

Lastly, big thanks to Eric and Bruce for taking the time to make some time, lol. Courtney, I wanted to RP with you towards the end, but by like the 3rd or 4th tequila shot I'm not sure how my /emote ability would have been But really, glad to have you guys representing this game.

 

PSS: To the morons who swiped my TOR gifts, I hope you get beat down by premades for the rest of the month!! You know who you are!!

 

Awesome stuff Pistols, thanks for the write up.

No open world pvp because the game engine can't handle it.

thanks for the confirmation. pretty much guarantees my departure when ESO arrives.

Good work Pistols.

/respect

Good work Pistols.

 

/respect

Tried my best to get as much as I could, little amount of time and alcohol can be a real pain.

pistols i love you

I second this

Btw, if you wanna hear Pistols, just go listen to the Q&A recording on TOR Wars. Like he said... He was the last question. I could hear you try to extract every bit of info you could on that, haha! Peeps wouldn't shut up though.

Thanks Pistols

No open world pvp because the game engine can't handle it.

 

thanks for the confirmation. pretty much guarantees my departure when ESO arrives.

Is ESO going to have it? I'm not sure "Open world" really matters to me too much, but just larger scale would work. I get the feeling that might be out as well.

While not specifically a pvp issue, was their anything said about the GCD bug/ability delay/hitching/whatever else you call it? I could imagine this issue becoming increasingly noticeable in smaller fights, such as 4v4 arenas, where every use of a gcd matters.

Nope no mention sadly, and again I think this is one of those issues that is plagued by the current engine. Understand this has been the biggest issue in the game since launch, so I don't see any way they could fix it without ditching the Hero and moving to another engine, which is unlikely ever going to happen.

Nope no mention sadly, and again I think this is one of those issues that is plagued by the current engine. Understand this has been the biggest issue in the game since launch, so I don't see any way they could fix it without ditching the Hero and moving to another engine, which is unlikely ever going to happen.

if only they would change engines... that would be glorious.

if only they would change engines... that would be glorious.

I would be terrified if they announced this. I would have to make a request that they let me back my characters up myself as well as their back up.

I would be terrified if they announced this. I would have to make a request that they let me back my characters up myself as well as their back up.

well yeah lol. but if they did it right, it would great.

i think they would basically have to rebuild the entire game tho; probably not gonna happen

well yeah lol. but if they did it right, it would great.

 

i think they would basically have to rebuild the entire game tho; probably not gonna happen

They would need Disney's money to do that I guess XD

They would need Disney's money to do that I guess XD

they could get it if they wanted.

lets look at SWG for a second. it lasted 8 years, and many would not consider it to have been a successful MMO after the CU and then NGE. yet i lasted for 8 years somehow.

lets say that SWTOR is gonna last 8 years. why not spend the money to improve your engine (which is arguably the worst thing about the game, and has the largest impact on all other game aspects), and then benefit in the long-term by attracting more customers over those 8 years?

its a long-term investment in the game. which, sadly, is something i dont think EA is interested in. if they were, they could surely get the money from Disney. the better this game is, the more people want to play it. and the more people that play it, the more money that all involved parties make off of it.

they could get it if they wanted.

 

lets look at SWG for a second. it lasted 8 years, and many would not consider it to have been a successful MMO after the CU and then NGE. yet i lasted for 8 years somehow.

 

lets say that SWTOR is gonna last 8 years. why not spend the money to improve your engine (which is arguably the worst thing about the game, and has the largest impact on all other game aspects), and then benefit in the long-term by attracting more customers over those 8 years?

 

its a long-term investment in the game. which, sadly, is something i dont think EA is interested in. if they were, they could surely get the money from Disney. the better this game is, the more people want to play it. and the more people that play it, the more money that all involved parties make off of it.

I think if they built the game on another engine, it would be called SWTOR 2 as everything would likely have to be thrown out. Should still have the voiceovers in WAV files at least I guess.

I think if they built the game on another engine, it would be called SWTOR 2 as everything would likely have to be thrown out. Should still have the voiceovers in WAV files at least I guess.

yeah thats what i was saying before, theyd have to remake the game basically. which isnt gonna happen. itd be a huge financial investment, and EA isnt into those kind of business ventures

they could optimize the engine. ive heard that thrown around but dont know what it means exactly other than it sounds good

i think that at this point, there is just too much involved with proper optimization that it would be just as costly/time consuming as starting over.

i mean, why else would stupid bugs like the ops chat bug still be around since launch, if not that the devs just couldnt fix it?