That is your choice.

 

They are only devaluated by half if you choose not to spend them before 5.6 comes out, because the prices aren't doubled yet. Add to that, that they announced this ahead of time and people have been given the chance to hoard unopened crates to be opened when 5.6 hits and I'm thinking it's really not as bad as you want to make it sound now.

Just because you have a char with UC's doesn't mean it also has pieces to upgrade.

Some of us are saving UC's on mains to use on alts. Or alternatively, saving UC's as well as Crates on alts so we don't have the 242 bases to upgrade from or the knowledge of which 248's we didn't get through RNG.

But that's not the big issue. The big issue is all those people who played a lot of PvP/GSF in the past few months and will NOT be aware of this change. Those people WILL be angry, and there WILL be backlash on the forums as the reward for their months worth of effort gets cut in half.

HI Eric,

 

am I reading wrong that it will make leveling command ranks way slower as disintegrating items won't give anymore CXP?

 

Look like the system looks better once we are at lvl 300 but getting there will take way more time.

Yes, that is a side effect that became apparent already when it had turned out certain items would give UC instead of CXP. As a result, gear progression may become ultimately slower, since you have to reach CXP 300 first to really benefit the new system (presuming you get more UC for higher tier stuff).

Hey folks,

 

Quick update on Game Update 5.6. As we are getting closer to the launch of Update, we feel we need just a little bit more time to really bring the new Yavin Warzone up to quality. We are going to pull it out of Game Update 5.6 (launching 11/28), instead it will now launch as a part of 5.6.1 only two weeks later on 12/12. We apologize for the delay in the Warzone, we know that there is a lot of excitement for it and we are eager to get it to you as quick as we can.

 

This date change does not impact any other elements of the Game Update. As a reminder, here are some of the bigger things coming in two weeks with 5.6 (this is not a comprehensive list):

• New Flashpoint on Copero, a planet in the Chiss Ascendency (Solo Story, Group Story, Veteran, and Master Modes) and the continuation of the Alliance traitor storyline.
  
• The return of Raina Temple.
  
• Nahut, the third boss in the Gods From the Machine Operation (Story and Veteran modes).
  
• New GSF Deathmatch map set in the orbit over Iokath.
  
• Significant changes to Group Finder (new UI, all queuing in one place, upgraded rewards, solo activities added).
  
• Legacy-wide Credits and Unassembled Components.
  
• Changes to Galactic Command disintegration (gear now disintegrates directly into Unassembled Components to help mitigate RNG).
  
• New item, the Master’s Datacron. This allows you to take any existing character and boost them to level 70; this boost does not progress story.
  
• And more!
  

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

I wouldn't care if it came out at Xmas because I would prefer things to be working than broken.

That is your choice.

 

They are only devaluated by half if you choose not to spend them before 5.6 comes out, because the prices aren't doubled yet. Add to that, that they announced this ahead of time and people have been given the chance to hoard unopened crates to be opened when 5.6 hits and I'm thinking it's really not as bad as you want to make it sound now.

Except that it isn't really our choice. In order to spend them, you have to have the gear tokens to upgrade. If I'm grinding UCs on various characters and stacking them with the knowledge that they become legacy wide and able to be spent by the characters that have the gear tokens to exchange with them, I'm now out of luck (or well, out of half of my "luck").

Suddenly all of that time and effort is going to be cut in half because they can't add in a perk without making it cost something to the people who have stuck by this game and continue to play it. While it's a small favor to at least know this a little bit ahead of time, it's still something they could solve for those who have been playing the game the way they want us to (and putting up with the utterly dreadful state of PvP), and will suffer a 50% decrease in the value of that effort unless the circumstances are just right.

That just seems needlessly unfortunate, and reduces the overall benefit of something that could have been a nice QoL update, but now will be shadowed by this side effect of having to "make room" for disintegration values at the cost of devaluing a player's previous effort. It's lazy.

Except that it isn't really our choice. In order to spend them, you have to have the gear tokens to upgrade. If I'm grinding UCs on various characters and stacking them with the knowledge that they become legacy wide and able to be spent by the characters that have the gear tokens to exchange with them, I'm now out of luck (or well, out of half of my "luck").

 

Suddenly all of that time and effort is going to be cut in half because they can't add in a perk without making it cost something to the people who have stuck by this game and continue to play it. While it's a small favor to at least know this a little bit ahead of time, it's still something they could solve for those who have been playing the game the way they want us to (and putting up with the utterly dreadful state of PvP), and will suffer a 50% decrease in the value of that effort unless the circumstances are just right.

 

That just seems needlessly unfortunate, and reduces the overall benefit of something that could have been a nice QoL update, but now will be shadowed by this side effect of having to "make room" for disintegration values at the cost of devaluing a player's previous effort. It's lazy.

Said way better than what I had planned to say.

It does make me wonder exactly how low the disintegration values are going to be. If it takes 10 or 20 disintegrated pieces to get one, they've screwed up yet again.

It's been well over 2 years since EA did anything with this game that didn't involve abusing that poor pooch.

Said way better than what I had planned to say.

 

It does make me wonder exactly how low the disintegration values are going to be. If it takes 10 or 20 disintegrated pieces to get one, they've screwed up yet again.

 

It's been well over 2 years since EA did anything with this game that didn't involve abusing that poor pooch.

Thanks, Dan!

I am guessing they are going to be much, much lower than we'd like. I'd be willing to bet most of my in-game credits on that being the case, in fact. They traditionally low-ball these things because they always, always fear people getting gear "too fast". At this point in time in this expansion (nearly a year old now), this should not be a factor that they concern themselves with, honestly.

But, doing a little math mixed with speculation:

Current Gemini MK-5 pieces cost (in UCs)

Mainhand/Offhand weapon at 324 (648)

Right side pieces = 270 (548)

Left side pieces = 216 (432)

(These will all be doubled after the patch to the amount indicated in brackets)

They needed disintegration amounts for the following gear levels:

230 (blue + purple), 234 (blue + purple), 236 (gold), 240 (blue + purple), 242 (gold), & 246 (blue + purple)

They quite likely also added in a disintegration value for 248 in line with the above, even though people likely won't disintegrate 248s apart from accidently.

It will really depend on how many of each gear piece they intend for you to disintegrate in order to earn enough UCs to purchase an upgraded piece.

But with the PvP Daily being 10 UCs (anywhere from 2-4 matches, and will soon be 20 UCs), I am willing to bet that none of the disintegrations will even give you double digit UCs each. As it stands, you will have to do a month's worth of Daily PvP matches to upgrade an Offhand or Mainhand weapon, alone (pretty much the same as it is now - 32.4 daily PvP rewards equals upgrade to MH or OH). So that kind of gives you an idea of the value they are putting on these in terms of PvP effort. Disintegrating is much less effort, so I'd expect the value you get back for it to be much, much lower. Again, speculation... but based on their current set-up.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm also basing this speculation on the fact that 100% of the time Bioware announces things like this, gets us excited at the possibility of it NOT being a drag anymore, it still mostly is. It moves the needle, but not by very much at all in the end.

This is why sacrificing 50% of the current UCs you've earned is a real stab in the back in exchange for this. It's very likely going to be a complete lose/lose.

(Edited to add: but I hope I'm totally wrong)

To the first part of your question, it is giving you UC instead of CXP, not Command Tokens, so that is not impacted. I do not believe there is a choice on what items break down into but a general rule is stuff with stats breaks down to UC, everything else is CXP. There may be exceptions but I believe that was the guiding principle.

 

There is no longer a cap on UC because it isn't actually tracked via the currency tab any longer. It is now a stackable bind on legacy token in your inventory (allowing you to move it across characters).

 

Also related to that is UC costs and accrual. Costs for all items via UC will be doubled in 5.6, BUT, everywhere you previously gained UC (Warzones, Missions, Ops) will also double. This totally breaks even, there is no change to current rates for gaining and spending UC. The team set those numbers higher to be able to get the values for breaking down items from Galactic Command in place.

 

-eric

Hey Eric, thanks for the update. On behalf of the small yet eager 16m community - do you think it'd be possible for you to adjust the component drops for 16m NIM clears? Both rewarding those who clear them, and also giving that extra incentive to clear them. In case the dev team has concerns over this, bear in mind that very few groups clear the Apex (currently 100 components) bosses, so this change only impacts a small part of the playerbase. Nevertheless, it's a simple and easy update to components that I can't see a compelling reason to not include in 5.6.

Hope this reaches you.

My regards,

Glor

Thanks, Dan!

 

I am guessing they are going to be much, much lower than we'd like. I'd be willing to bet most of my in-game credits on that being the case, in fact. They traditionally low-ball these things because they always, always fear people getting gear "too fast". At this point in time in this expansion (nearly a year old now), this should not be a factor that they concern themselves with, honestly.

 

But, doing a little math mixed with speculation:

Current Gemini MK-5 pieces cost (in UCs)

Mainhand/Offhand weapon at 324 (648)

Right side pieces = 270 (548)

Left side pieces = 216 (432)

(These will all be doubled after the patch to the amount indicated in brackets)

 

They needed disintegration amounts for the following gear levels:

230 (blue + purple), 234 (blue + purple), 236 (gold), 240 (blue + purple), 242 (gold), & 246 (blue + purple)

 

They quite likely also added in a disintegration value for 248 in line with the above, even though people likely won't disintegrate 248s apart from accidently.

 

It will really depend on how many of each gear piece they intend for you to disintegrate in order to earn enough UCs to purchase an upgraded piece.

 

But with the PvP Daily being 10 UCs (anywhere from 2-4 matches, and will soon be 20 UCs), I am willing to bet that none of the disintegrations will even give you double digit UCs each. As it stands, you will have to do a month's worth of Daily PvP matches to upgrade an Offhand or Mainhand weapon, alone (pretty much the same as it is now - 32.4 daily PvP rewards equals upgrade to MH or OH). So that kind of gives you an idea of the value they are putting on these in terms of PvP effort. Disintegrating is much less effort, so I'd expect the value you get back for it to be much, much lower. Again, speculation... but based on their current set-up.

 

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm also basing this speculation on the fact that 100% of the time Bioware announces things like this, gets us excited at the possibility of it NOT being a drag anymore, it still mostly is. It moves the needle, but not by very much at all in the end.

 

This is why sacrificing 50% of the current UCs you've earned is a real stab in the back in exchange for this. It's very likely going to be a complete lose/lose.

 

(Edited to add: but I hope I'm totally wrong)

They are adjusting the carrot so that we still chase it, but without giving us any real ability to get closer to it. It's just like EA reducing the cost of the hero's in BF2, but also reducing payouts, so the unGodly amount of time to obtain still applies.

"Here look at this shiny ball!" - Dev Team

@Eric - Can you please publish (Like week+ before patch notes) the disintegration rate for each item?

I'm not going to lie - this determines if I waste another month with this game or say thanks for the name clean up and go inactive for a bit. I agree with PennyAnn and others that the ratio changes sort of shaft us folks with UC's already. Coupled with the "If" the conversion ratio is horrible then you all didn't really make a "QoL" improvement that actually improves anything.

Suggestion: Double all UC's we have in hand now during conversion to Legacy Bound. Doing the slight of the hand devaluation of existing and then double cost for purchasing is just smoke and mirrors. You guys almost look too blatantly trying to shaft us in this news so I hope you have GOOD news some place. Too many vague details lately that look like lies (See 4 characters to 300 - oh wait we meant 4 different. OR West Coast Region, East Coast Region servers - oh wait we meant same location different region servers).

They are adjusting the carrot so that we still chase it, but without giving us any real ability to get closer to it. It's just like EA reducing the cost of the hero's in BF2, but also reducing payouts, so the unGodly amount of time to obtain still applies.

 

"Here look at this shiny ball!" - Dev Team

But they are also making you regurgitate half of the carrots you actually managed to snag during the last few months on top of that. It's even worse than the little "oh we're making it easier, except we're not" dance that they normally do. It now involves a punch in the gut on top.

But they are also making you regurgitate half of the carrots you actually managed to snag during the last few months on top of that. It's even worse than the little "oh we're making it easier, except we're not" dance that they normally do. It now involves a punch in the gut on top.

Welcome to SWTOR 2017? lol.

I feel your pain though. I just wish our pleas didn't fall on deaf ears.

But they are also making you regurgitate half of the carrots you actually managed to snag during the last few months on top of that. It's even worse than the little "oh we're making it easier, except we're not" dance that they normally do. It now involves a punch in the gut on top.

Yep. And I expect your math above is probably right, if not a bit generous. We'll know it's really bad if they refuse to announce the numbers well ahead. (Just like they did with the prices for gold comp gifts.)

Welcome to SWTOR 2017? lol.

 

I feel your pain though. I just wish our pleas didn't fall on deaf ears.

And that is why I am playing ESO 5 or more nights a week instead of playing SWTOR other than to raid and why i am now a monthly sub, I can stop as soon as I want.

Please feel free to leave out the horrible changes for deception. We don't need those in 5.6 either.

Does he mean the spec? Or the way they leave out the bad news?

It was actually mentioned in the roadmap, but it was a small mention so I think most people missed it.

 

We are producing a blog on it but I can give some basics. It is purchased from the CM (similar to the 60 and 65 tokens), and will be tradeable (so it can be sold on the GTN). It then gives you an item which you use on a character. That item will level you to 70 and place you on your Class ship (whether you have one or not from story, this doesn't impact your ability to get it naturally). It will also give you a set of starter gear for level 70.

 

It does not progress story at all so you could even use it on a brand new level one.

 

-eric

You might as well get rid of levels. They don't belong in MMOs anyway. The big advantage I see, is that you can start the gear grind earlier.

You might as well get rid of levels. They don't belong in MMOs anyway. The big advantage I see, is that you can start the gear grind earlier.

Well look, if they are going to keep this current gear grind, then why not? They should drop levels. Of course, there would be no more lowbie pvp.. but fine.

I am curious, what gear level is going to be included with the boost? 230?

Would you be able to divulge any information on this Master's Datacron? Is it a one-time use per account? Is it something we can buy or are granted? I don't remember reading or hearing about this item.

 

EDIT: Darthscotty beat me to the punch on this. Glad to know I'm not the only one that might have "missed something" in the Road Map or other communications.

They talked about it 2 months or so ago, i believe they talked a little about it in their last Livestream, and probably is also mentioned in the Autumn report as well.

Nothing big to discuss, but just how much it will cost from the Cartel Market, most likely.

Considering that most people still don't know how hypergate/opg/huttball and voidstar are working. I'm not too sad about the delay ^^

Kinda curious though if we'll get the same funny bugs as in opg when it launched and you died when entering an area, that was really refreshing

Also, I love yavin, really excited about it!

Eric/Keith,

Come on now. If costs will double for UC purchased gear in 5.6 — our current UC, once it converts to tokens MUST DOUBLE TOO right? Else that would just absolutely make no sense at all and just devalues efforts made for no reason. Please say this isn’t so.

If not, it is not too late to put that logic in there. Don’t do this to us.

Also related to that is UC costs and accrual. Costs for all items via UC will be doubled in 5.6, BUT, everywhere you previously gained UC (Warzones, Missions, Ops) will also double. This totally breaks even, there is no change to current rates for gaining and spending UC. The team set those numbers higher to be able to get the values for breaking down items from Galactic Command in place.

Will the UC we have in our currency tabs also be exchanged to double the amount of legacy items, or should we spend them right now before they're devalued?

And... Eyes fix? Without that you really should priorize the warzone. the story can wait until eyes (and general reflection on glossy armor) are fixed.

Eric/Keith,

 

Come on now. If costs will double for UC purchased gear in 5.6 — our current UC, once it converts to tokens MUST DOUBLE TOO right? Else that would just absolutely make no sense at all and just devalues efforts made for no reason. Please say this isn’t so.

 

If not, it is not too late to put that logic in there. Don’t do this to us.

This.

That would mean that EAWare had finally learned that their Paying customers do not want extra grind imposed on them for no good reason, or even worse reduce the value of that grind players have already endured by 50%!

Given the enormous backlash (-675.000 down-votes on Reddit, the biggest in Reddit history by -650K votes) from disgruntled paying SW-BF2 customers this week, due to all heroes being locked behind a huge wall of grind forced EA to back paddle a bit, by reducing the amount needed to unlock the heroes, but also reduce the credits payout in the game and put in timers, like come back in 15hours, no more credits for you until then.

I really don't think that EAWare has learned a thing, they say that they listen, but that's useless, if they do not act on the feedback that they get - even acting too slowly can become very fatal.

Will the UC we have in our currency tabs also be exchanged to double the amount of legacy items, or should we spend them right now before they're devalued?

Well what people are doing now is stacking crates to open them and disintigrate for UCs. However, with this costs increase I dont think you will exactly be able to affort whole 248 gear sets. I have many 242s which I got from leveling alts to rank 300 so I want to turn those into 248, but I think i rather do as much of them now, when its still "cheap".