I just don't understand why they didn't continue with Galactic Command, after it was tweaked and changed it had become a nice system of leveling. Yes, there was still an element of RNG but one that could be easily circumvented. Honestly I don't see why the 252 and 258 gear couldn't have been Tier V in Galactic Command.

GC reinvented was apparently not grindfesty enough to keep people occupied and they were leaving in droves because of a lack ot grind.

/sarcasm if it wasn't abundantly clear.

(2) In some ways for a lot of people who are not on the elite NiM raid teams with all the timed runs under their belts, this is actually a gift for people who want those NiM ops achievements: HM/NiM players, maybe they can actually beat those apex bosses now, farm those vanity items.

 

I think that this is a very sly gift to people who are somewhat out of range of doing that but have always wanted to.

Oh man... thank you. Haven't laughed so hard in quite a long while.

Oh man... thank you. Haven't laughed so hard in quite a long while.

Yep, its funny when people think someone is joking about something thats got validity, huh?

Those are very valid points of critique... *snip snip*

Yll, you brought this thread up too late, most of the people that were willing to put forth energy into explaining why this gearing system is for the birds have either quit or become apathetic.

It sort of reminds me of the conquest patch that was met with overwhelming criticism then was totally ignored by the SWTOR overlords.

The same thing happened then too, basically people flooded the forums with thousands of pages of feedback and after a few months when it became clear the overlords cared not, people either quit the game, or simply had no choice but to adapt to a conquest system they disliked.

I think I made my position clear on the topic, and have no more energy to express it lol.

I hope change for the better comes to SWTOR, it would be nice to see many of the features I once loved on this game were brought back but history shows SWTOR never backtracks.

They never reverse course they just dump more questionable gameplay changes onto the game which inevitably have only made the game less enjoyable to play. Not to mention more buggy.

Large patches only exacerbate the bug issues as time goes on, because they just keep layering code onto code never addressing many of the previous bugs so it just all snowballs.

1) I would just say that I disagree that crafting should be the fastest way to get the gear. Why should it be? Should you be able to get the best stuff by just sitting around camping, or by showing mastery of mechanics, rotation, situational awareness, social organization - true skill and effort - it's clear what should be rewarded with the best stuff.

It doesn't matter if you disagree or not. The Devs have been saying Masterwork 258 gear was going to be crafted since the Fall Roadmap on September 5, 2018. They've reaffirmed it in forum posts and Twitch streams. Their intention is that crafting is going to be the fastest pathway to 258 gear. There are materials called "Forgotten" Somethings which only drop from Master Mode Gods from the Machine. That Dulfy article was from Oct 13 after the livestream, but the resource requirements have not changed since the PTS. Presumably the Forgotten Somethings drop in a manner similar to the unassembled Gemini MK-5 legendary 248 tokens that used to drop from VM GFTM, for example, the Forgotten somethings needed for, say, mainhands and offhands only drop from Izax.

The resource requirements are absolutely insane though.

If you open the spoiler you'll see the requirements. On average, you need 16 reinforced isotope stabilizers, 26 charged matter transubstantiators, 31 Iokath Recombinators, and 400 relics of Ossus per gear piece you want to craft. This is not fast at all, in my opinion, especially regarding the CMTs, and that runs counter to the stated developer intent.

What that means, is that even the MM GFTM groups will have to grind MDCs like everyone else, since the amount of materials they have to stockpile is ridiculous. What's the point of intentionally giving the MM raiders the advantage of the exclusive materials (the Forgotten Somethings) when you simultaneously handicap them by making the other materials insanely high?

2) Well, it depends how you look at it, I mean if you view it like I do, that 252/8 gear is a bonus, then you're not losing anything. Your old crap and system still is useful and now you can get something extra.

That would be ok, if the gear weren't for pvp. By removing pvp gear and not having some sort of anti-Bolster or cap on a person's gear rating, an argument can be made that its going to be important to have this gear to be competitive in pvp. You can certainly make counter-arguments about how skill > gear, or objective play > stats, or the two arguments I've made which is that A) these pieces are going to be trickling into matches very slowly, because of the grind and B) each individual piece only increase the total stat budget, on average, by 0.36%, or roughly 28 points total of mastery/endurance/tertiary stat. But the fact remains that the edge is still there for 258 gear over something lower, and you cannot just see "258 gear" as both the gateway and reward for only operations … it has implications for top-end pvp as well. And the Devs recognized this dilemma, and increased Bolster to 252. But, there remains considerable debate as to whether that's enough.

3) I'll agree with you that it's a tedious grind.

That wasn't even my point. My point is that the game has so much content, it is nice to be able to do all sorts of a variety of content and be able to contribute to both your guild's progression in conquest and your own through Galactic Command. Instead of encouraging people to experience all the game has to offer, it forces people to play in one zone and, for the most part, one type of content. I mean, for all weeks, one of the two MDCs you can acquire during a week come from that zone, and the only reliable source of 252 gear is from a weekly from that zone as well (although I admit that I don't know what, if any, direct assembled gear pieces drop in MM GFTM). Furthermore, as I calculated above, even if you are a solely crafter and Master Mode raider, you still need those Relics of Ossus. At an average of 400 per piece, that's more than two days of grinding dailies in that zone. I don't know about you, but it takes me a good 90-120 minutes to get through all three heroics and the dailies per toon. That doesn't leave you a ton of time for, you know, operation progression, the thing YOU said you are interested in. Point #3 isn't about the tedium, but rather forcing you into that zone instead of encouraging you to do all the content the game has to offer. If you are an exclusive ops player or an exclusive PVPer you cannot avoid that zone and still get the gear.

4) Well I think the fundamental disagreement I have with you is how you view this: glass half empty or half full, I see half full. Unless you're a competitive ranked person, no one is forced to get 258 gear. I look at it as an opportunity, you see it as a burden.

We've never before had a system where using your alts to fuel gear progression for a main or two handicapped those alts to the same degree. Yes, we had the whole Ultimate/Elite/Basic commendation thing but there were a lot more sources of Ultimate Comms than there are Masterwork Data Crystals.

That would be ok, if the gear weren't for pvp. By removing pvp gear and not having some sort of anti-Bolster or cap on a person's gear rating, an argument can be made that its going to be important to have this gear to be competitive in pvp. You can certainly make counter-arguments about how skill > gear, or objective play > stats, or the two arguments I've made which is that A) these pieces are going to be trickling into matches very slowly, because of the grind and B) each individual piece only increase the total stat budget, on average, by 0.36%, or roughly 28 points total of mastery/endurance/tertiary stat. But the fact remains that the edge is still there for 258 gear over something lower, and you cannot just see "258 gear" as both the gateway and reward for only operations … it has implications for top-end pvp as well. And the Devs recognized this dilemma, and increased Bolster to 252. But, there remains considerable debate as to whether that's enough.

For all we know, the average win % or average overall contribution of a player with top tier gear and 2nd tier/bolstered gear may be minimal or even negligible. People have this gantasy idea that bolster doesnt really even out the playing field, when its obvious that there are so many more variables that play a part in pvp success beyond just gear (which, again, may be negligible).

GC reinvented was apparently not grindfesty enough to keep people occupied and they were leaving in droves because of a lack ot grind.

 

/sarcasm if it wasn't abundantly clear.

Good one altho... jokes aside... I have a feeling that was the actual line of thought, because otherwise I can't explain why the devs would introduce yet another grindfest. Like, Keith or Erix or Charles can feel free to contradict me here, but I have a feeling the devs judged the situation wrong not by a mile but by lightyears. They have completely misjudged what the players wanted and when they went on the PTS they ignored what players told them about the gear and merrily moved forward with their own plans.

I don't like to be critical towards Bioware because I love their games and I love SWTOR, but this was a bad, bad decision. Especially the decision to bind the mods and enhancements to the anatomical gear pieces, so leg enhancements can only fit into leg enhancements. That is the most ridiculous decision they have made and I implore the devs to change it back to how it used to be with previous gear.

Part of the problem IMHO with the grindfest is that it's so limited.

- There's one Op (out of what, ten that exist in the game) for that one mat. If you're a raider you cannot even play a variety of Ops to get the mat; you have to go up against GftM again and again.

- In the same vein it appears that only the boss Op on Ossus will drop the crystal needed for the 258 weapons. None of the others.

- If you're doing dailies to try to earn 252 gear, you've got one set of dailies on one planet.

- Even the PvP seems to be limited to one thing.

- You can only earn the currency for the Ancient Tomes on one planet.

Even if the intention was to have people gearing slowly and thus grinding longer, doing the same Op and the same dailies over and over again just gets mind-numbingly boring. At least with GC you could do heroics or Ops or PvP or whatever you wanted and gain CXP toward the crates.

Part of the problem IMHO with the grindfest is that it's so limited.

 

- There's one Op (out of what, ten that exist in the game) for that one mat. If you're a raider you cannot even play a variety of Ops to get the mat; you have to go up against GftM again and again.

 

- In the same vein it appears that only the boss Op on Ossus will drop the crystal needed for the 258 weapons. None of the others.

 

- If you're doing dailies to try to earn 252 gear, you've got one set of dailies on one planet.

 

- Even the PvP seems to be limited to one thing.

 

- You can only earn the currency for the Ancient Tomes on one planet.

 

Even if the intention was to have people gearing slowly and thus grinding longer, doing the same Op and the same dailies over and over again just gets mind-numbingly boring. At least with GC you could do heroics or Ops or PvP or whatever you wanted and gain CXP toward the crates.

Zing zing ba da bing ba da boom (spelling?) Completely agree.

They create these beautiful planets in a galaxy far, far away and suddenly funnel us through a soda straw to Ossus and two Ops.

Given resource constraints, BW simply cannot create content fast enough to maintain this course, at least for me as a subscriber. That was the beauty of Galactic Command 5.6 (Nov. 2017). We could play anywhere and still advance and RNG was curtailed to a reasonable amount.

For those who say, well, GC still drops UCs and can drop 252 gear (I've received 2 so far from crates [one from a T3!} and 1 MWS), the drop rate is far too low. It makes more sense to run alts through Ossus and get redundant gear you disintegrate because it is 175 UCs -- far more than the 10 or so you get from a crate.

Bottom line: They have disincentivized (notice my correct spelling of that word ) playing outside of Ossus and 2 Ops, one of which appears to require VM (Hive Queen for the new Crystal).

Eric foreshadowed that "big changes" are forthcoming. I hope they elaborate more soon. I don't mind grinding for gear -- as long as it is fun and varied. But, as much as I like extinguishing farm fires...

Dasty

P.S. Basically everything Phalczen said I agree with in full. So much so, he must be brilliant. My guess is the devs are aware of these issues, though, so I somewhat agree with Lhance that I'm not sure how much more new perspective we can add.

P.P.S. I'm not against Ossus serving as an option to help leapfrog newly minted 70s, but by gutting Galactic Command 5.6 to present they threw the baby out with the bathwater.

Really I dont care about the grind, it has always been there, likely always will. Wasn't even surprised with the locking of enhancements and mods really. They have ALWAYS hated when the playerbase comes up with variants on the classes after all.

Really the grind is pretty alt friendly, as long as you use legacy gear and with the dress up system in place you can keep the look of your toons intact now.

The only real complaint I had was in the excessive crafting and locking required material behind the NIM raiding. That seemed stupid to me.

Part of the problem IMHO with the grindfest is that it's so limited.

 

- There's one Op (out of what, ten that exist in the game) for that one mat. If you're a raider you cannot even play a variety of Ops to get the mat; you have to go up against GftM again and again.

 

- In the same vein it appears that only the boss Op on Ossus will drop the crystal needed for the 258 weapons. None of the others.

 

- If you're doing dailies to try to earn 252 gear, you've got one set of dailies on one planet.

 

- Even the PvP seems to be limited to one thing.

 

- You can only earn the currency for the Ancient Tomes on one planet.

 

Even if the intention was to have people gearing slowly and thus grinding longer, doing the same Op and the same dailies over and over again just gets mind-numbingly boring. At least with GC you could do heroics or Ops or PvP or whatever you wanted and gain CXP toward the crates.

The limited available areas for the grind is par for the course when new content is released. After about 6 months to 1 yr, expect them to open up the available rewards to all content, so other weeklies and ops should also end up providing MWS's. This is how it has panned out in the past, so there is already a precedent that has been set. I dont see how people can be up in arms with the claim that this is a problem. Its almost always been this way.

The limited available areas for the grind is par for the course when new content is released. After about 6 months to 1 yr, expect them to open up the available rewards to all content, so other weeklies and ops should also end up providing MWS's. This is how it has panned out in the past, so there is already a precedent that has been set. I dont see how people can be up in arms with the claim that this is a problem. Its almost always been this way.

I made the mistake of opening this thread on my tablet so was able to read this post, but I'll take one for the team.

<<takes big gulp of martini>>

The statement I am quoting is 100% absolutely categorically false.

When 5.0 Galactic Command was introduced in 2016, the entire raison d'etre / point was you could do a plethora of activities in a variety of different places. That was the entire purpose because they knew they couldn't release content fast enough so they wanted to introduce a gearing system that IMMEDIATELY opened up and made old content viable through the introduction of the currency CXP.

The criticism, justified IMHO, was that it was too RNG-based. This was partially corrected with 5.2 and fully corrected IMHO in 5.6 in November 2017.

Now, CXP is almost completely irrelevant outside of CMT acquisition.

Once again, the poster I am quoting is FLAT OUT EMPIRICALLY WRONG.

Take a look at Dulfy's pretty picture of the whole range of stuff you could do when Galactic Command was first introduced:

http://dulfy.net/2016/11/29/swtor-galactic-command-guide/

Note her quote: "You get Command XP from pretty much all game activities except for killing regular monsters." And, pretty soon even regular monsters granted CXP!

<<takes sip of martini>> Why am I so good at this?

Dasty

I made the mistake of opening this thread on my tablet so was able to read this post, but I'll take one for the team.

 

The statement I am quoting is 100% absolutely categorically false.

 

When 5.0 Galactic Command was introduced in 2016, the entire raison d'etre / point was you could do a plethora of activities in a variety of different places. That was the entire purpose because they knew they couldn't release content fast enough so they wanted to introduce a gearing system that IMMEDIATELY opened up and made old content viable through the introduction of the currency CXP.

 

The criticism, justified IMHO, was that it was too RNG-based. This was partially corrected with 5.2 and fully corrected IMHO in 5.6 in November 2017.

 

Now CXP is almost completely irrelevant outside of CMT acquisition.

 

Once again, the poster I am quoting is FLAT OUT EMPIRICALLY WRONG.

 

Take a look at Dulfy's pretty picture of the whole range of stuff you could do when Galactic Command was first introduced:

 

http://dulfy.net/2016/11/29/swtor-galactic-command-guide/

 

Note her quote: "You get Command XP from pretty much all game activities except for killing regular monsters." And! Shortly after, even regular monsters granted CXP.

 

Why am I so good at this?

 

Dasty

I hate to find myself agreeing with Olag - it feels weird . But I think you missed the point being about “new content.” I think what he was saying is that when there is new content, the best new stuff is usually gated to that for a while. That’s been my experience but I should caveat that I’m VERY slow and don’t play enough (still finishing KOTFE). I won’t see Ossus for a year or so anyway.

Which brings me to the point of the OP. I was vocal about this tier needlessly dragging in PvPers. It was my ONLY criticism. I want to ignore this tier (and devs were, intifially at least, clear that this tier would only be needed for MM GOTM Ops). The problem is because we have a shared PvE/PvP gearing system, that means PvP is needlessly affected. So far, I haven’t seen much of an issue. But soon there will be a noticeable gear advantage for people who’ve grinded the gear. But from the outset this was meant to be a grind for those especially who chose to gear with the “workarounds” to gearing via MM GOTM.

Why is this a “problem”? Shouldn’t people who grind have an advantage? The reason it’s a problem is because if you don’t PvP, you can COMPLETELY ignore this gear if you want. That means even NiM raiders who don’t do MM GOTM can totally play whatever they want and just leave this gear for Keith and the people the devs said clearly it was made for. But for PvP, you will eventually have to deal with this gear and since (unlike last tiers) you can’t get this gear by PvP other than through an intentislly “ludicrous” (their word) grind, PvPers CANNOT ignore this tier. Even casual, average-skilled PvPers like me will have it even worse now.

The simple answer was, for this tier, to bolster PvP to 258. Remove the need to grind this gear from PvP entirely - as it wa never interned to be PvP gear. Any bolster to less than BiS simply doesn’t achieve the goal of gating this gear to MM GOTM Ops. Fix this one thing, and at least I will be totally fine here...

I hate to find myself agreeing with Olag - it feels weird . But I think you missed the point being about “new content.” I think what he was saying is that when there is new content, the best new stuff is usually gated to that for a while. That’s been my experience but I should caveat that I’m VERY slow and don’t play enough (still finishing KOTFE). I won’t see Ossus for a year or so anyway.

 

Which brings me to the point of the OP. I was vocal about this tier needlessly dragging in PvPers. It was my ONLY criticism. I want to ignore this tier (and devs were, intifially at least, clear that this tier would only be needed for MM GOTM Ops). The problem is because we have a shared PvE/PvP gearing system, that means PvP is needlessly affected. So far, I haven’t seen much of an issue. But soon there will be a noticeable gear advantage for people who’ve grinded the gear. But from the outset this was meant to be a grind for those especially who chose to gear with the “workarounds” to gearing via MM GOTM.

 

Why is this a “problem”? Shouldn’t people who grind have an advantage? The reason it’s a problem is because if you don’t PvP, you can COMPLETELY ignore this gear if you want. That means even NiM raiders who don’t do MM GOTM can totally play whatever they want and just leave this gear for Keith and the people the devs said clearly it was made for. But for PvP, you will eventually have to deal with this gear and since (unlike last tiers) you can’t get this gear by PvP other than through an intentislly “ludicrous” (their word) grind, PvPers CANNOT ignore this tier. Even casual, average-skilled PvPers like me will have it even worse now.

 

The simple answer was, for this tier, to bolster PvP to 258. Remove the need to grind this gear from PvP entirely - as it wa never interned to be PvP gear. Any bolster to less than BiS simply doesn’t achieve the goal of gating this gear to MM GOTM Ops. Fix this one thing, and at least I will be totally fine here...

No offense, you did miss the point. The issue isn't grinding in terms of TIME. It's WHERE you grind and what content is profitable in terms of cost-benefit analysis.

They are two categorically different things. One is time length. The other is where and how you do it.

I actually agree with him that many MMORPGs open up gearing after a certain period of TIME. But that's not what we are talking about here.

As the saying goes: Location, location, location.

Dasty

I made the mistake of opening this thread on my tablet so was able to read this post, but I'll take one for the team.

 

<<takes big gulp of martini>>

 

The statement I am quoting is 100% absolutely categorically false.

 

When 5.0 Galactic Command was introduced in 2016, the entire raison d'etre / point was you could do a plethora of activities in a variety of different places. That was the entire purpose because they knew they couldn't release content fast enough so they wanted to introduce a gearing system that IMMEDIATELY opened up and made old content viable through the introduction of the currency CXP.

Where to begin.....

Firstly, galactic command crates are NOT new content. GC was a new loot system, not new content. And guess what? It used OLD and new content. They were made available in both new and old content because GC was never meant to be the primary gearing system, as BW has stated time and time again.

Secondly, the new content that was introduced in the 5.0 era was Tyth, which was THE ONLY content that you were able to directly acquire any BIS tier shells/gear Even NIM content didnt drop the gear, because no new NIM content was released at that time.

You can agree or you can mis-remember. The precedent was, and is, set. Its consistent. The arguments are also consistent(ly bad). But i digress.

Now, CXP is almost completely irrelevant outside of CMT acquisition.

I am willing to bet that most newly levelled 70 toon will get full 246 gear before they get full 252 gear. That doesnt sound irrelevant to me.

Where to begin.....

 

Firstly, galactic command crates are NOT new content. GC was a new loot system, not new content. And guess what? It used OLD and new content. They were made available in both new and old content because GC was never meant to be the primary gearing system, as BW has stated time and time again.

 

Secondly, the new content that was introduced in the 5.0 era was Tyth, which was THE ONLY content that you were able to directly acquire any BIS tier shells/gear Even NIM content didnt drop the gear, because no new NIM content was released at that time.

 

You can agree or you can mis-remember. The precedent was, and is, set. Its consistent. The arguments are also consistent(ly bad). But i digress.

 

 

I am willing to bet that most newly levelled 70 toon will get full 246 gear before they get full 252 gear. That doesnt sound irrelevant to me.

Let's agree to disagree. I'm pretty sure the people I care about will note that the only relevant point of your post...which proves my point, is your use of the word "directly".

I don't expect you to understand or care. Others will and do.

Dasty

No offense, you did miss the point. The issue isn't grinding in terms of TIME. It's WHERE you grind and what content is profitable in terms of cost-benefit analysis.

 

They are two categorically different things. One is time length. The other is where and how you do it.

 

I actually agree with him that many MMORPGs open up gearing after a certain period of TIME. But that's not what we are talking about here.

 

As the saying goes: Location, location, location.

 

Dasty

Pretty sure this is what I said....

Pretty sure this is what I said....

I interpret "for a while" as time, not location based. We agree on TIME. Olag was talking about particular LOCALES. GC 5.0 explicitly did NOT do that.

You completely misread my point.

/shrug

Dasty

I interpret "for a while" as time, not location based. We agree on TIME. Olag was talking about particular LOCALES. GC 5.0 explicitly did NOT do that.

 

You completely misread my point (and Ion's).

 

/shrug

 

Dasty

No. You misinterpreted. I’m saying for a while as in how long with my playstyle it will even take me to get to the LOCATION: Ossus. Olag was referring to gating of newest items to the newest content areas. By definition, that does not apply to 5.0, which itself didn’t introduce new “content.” I am saying this is consistent with my memory of things too.

Read my post again. I’m not referring to the time length of the content grind to get there. Working through the story at the pace i do (taking multiple years to get up to KOTET), means I won’t arrive at the location of Ossus (today’s newest content) for a long time now - and probably well after Ossus gating will even matter. Just read my post again Dasty...

EDIT: just to be even clearer. I’ve been able get tons of Odessen stuff now, years later, that previously you could only get by doing KOTFE. For example I have a stack of legacy bound thingies that are supposed to turned into Dr O, Hylo, etc. I’ve had these and I don’t even recall how I got them. But it wasn’t from KOTFE because I had never done it. Etc.

Let's agree to disagree. I'm pretty sure the people I care about will note that the only relevant point of your post...which proves my point, is your use of the word "directly".

 

I don't expect you to understand or care. Others will and do.

 

Dasty

The whole conversation is about gated gear acquired through a limited area. Key words are pretty important.

No. You misinterpreted. I’m saying for a while as in how long with my playstyle it will even take me to get to the LOCATION: Ossus. Olag was referring to gating of newest items to the newest content areas. By definition, that does not apply to 5.0, which itself didn’t introduce new “content.” I am saying this is consistent with my memory of things too.

 

Read my post again. I’m not referring to the time length of the content grind to get there. Working through the story at the pace i do (taking multiple years to get up to KOTET), means I won’t arrive at the location of Ossus (today’s newest content) for a long time now - and probably well after Ossus gating will even matter. Just read my post again Dasty...

 

 

EDIT: just to be even clearer. I’ve been able get tons of Odessen stuff now, years later, that previously you could only get by doing KOTFE. For example I have a stack of legacy bound thingies that are supposed to turned into Dr O, Hylo, etc. I’ve had these and I don’t even recall how I got them. But it wasn’t from KOTFE because I had never done it. Etc.

I'm sorry, but you did misinterpret.

I've never before seen gear that is intended to be used for all play areas of the game gated to a single planet, a single Op and a single boss. That is unusual and as Dasty already mentioned a departure from what is in the CXP system.

- Wherever you play, you can buy mods to gear yourself up to level 65 without any fuss. You can earn credits to buy those mods in any quest, Op, flashpoint, or playing the GTN.

- The minute you hit level IIRC 66, it doesn't matter where you are in the game or what you're playing, the NPCs will begin to drop Outlander gear that you can use to upgrade beyond what the level 65 mods offer. Again, this happens in Ops, in flashpoints, and everywhere else.

- The minute you hit level 70, you start earning CXP from all activities- as Dasty noted in referencing the Dulfy guide - for boxes for gear and UCs. You can run around the game killing random NPCs, or do Ops, or whatever, and you will still earn.

- When PvP gear was a thing it was earned only via PvP activities, as far as I know, but it wasn't just one Huttball map or warzone.

This is very different from what is now being offered, which is universal gear that is only obtainable from completing a very limited range of activities on a single planet with that planet's currency.

And in past situations where there's been planetary currency it's not been "opened up." You can't do a thing with Ziost currency outside of Ziost or use Iokath shards anywhere else., and there are some instances where they eliminated or almost eliminated the ability to earn the currency while not making the vendor items available in another way (ie, the vendors who still take an obsolete currency for companion gifts that you can find on DK).

I made the mistake of opening this thread on my tablet so was able to read this post, but I'll take one for the team.

 

<<takes big gulp of martini>>

 

The statement I am quoting is 100% absolutely categorically false.

 

When 5.0 Galactic Command was introduced in 2016, the entire raison d'etre / point was you could do a plethora of activities in a variety of different places. That was the entire purpose because they knew they couldn't release content fast enough so they wanted to introduce a gearing system that IMMEDIATELY opened up and made old content viable through the introduction of the currency CXP.

 

The criticism, justified IMHO, was that it was too RNG-based. This was partially corrected with 5.2 and fully corrected IMHO in 5.6 in November 2017.

 

Now, CXP is almost completely irrelevant outside of CMT acquisition.

 

Once again, the poster I am quoting is FLAT OUT EMPIRICALLY WRONG.

 

Take a look at Dulfy's pretty picture of the whole range of stuff you could do when Galactic Command was first introduced:

 

http://dulfy.net/2016/11/29/swtor-galactic-command-guide/

 

Note her quote: "You get Command XP from pretty much all game activities except for killing regular monsters." And, pretty soon even regular monsters granted CXP!

 

<<takes sip of martini>> Why am I so good at this?

 

Dasty

I absolutely agree with Dasty here, Galactic Command, after all the changes and tweaks, was a system that allowed you to gear up with any activity ingame. You could do it through PvP, Dailies, Heroics, OPS, basically whatever you'd like to do you could do to gain CXP. Whatever type of player you were, all the paths were open to you.

Ossus, while an amazing daily area, ended that.

With the Ossus gear the only way to get what you need for the gear is PvE. You can't do PvP, you can't so story, you can't do the other heroics if you want to gear up. Sure, you can go do all the dailies but they've only become a CXP farm to get Command Crates which in turn are solely used now to churn out Unassembled Components. That's what Galactic Command has been reduced to and what all the other content ingame has been reduced to: meat for the Ossus gear grind, nothing more and nothing less.

That's what Dasty is pointing out, that before Jedi Under Siege you could walk any path in Galactic Command and you'd progress your gearing up the way you want it to. Now there is only one way, a PvE grind and all the rest of the endgame content is merely meat for it, it's no longer a valid gear progression path on its own.

I'm sorry, but you did misinterpret.

 

I've never before seen gear that is intended to be used for all play areas of the game gated to a single planet, a single Op and a single boss. That is unusual and as Dasty already mentioned a departure from what is in the CXP system.

 

....

Where did you get that this gear was intended to be used for all play areas? This isn't accurate -- and in fact, this is my problem with this gear tier (as I've laid out many times). As the devs have stated explicitly, this gear is intended to be used only for MM GOTM (I'm going to reference my pre-launch post on this which breaks down the livestream.) At ~18:40 of the livestream the devs say that no other content in the game will be scaled to the new tier. Only MM GOTM will need this tier (of course, this has problems for PvP which I've laid out in the linked post).

Unfortunately, without understanding this (and it's been poorly communicated by the devs), the conversations and comparisons to past situations will necessarily be off. Because at no other time that I can recall since launch has there been a tier of gear only needed for one specific, limited piece of content. But it's that part which is unprecedented, not the idea of initially gating new items/rewards to new content areas....

Where did you get that this gear was intended to be used for all play areas? This isn't accurate -- and in fact, this is my problem with this gear tier (as I've laid out many times). As the devs have stated explicitly, this gear is intended to be used only for MM GOTM (I'm going to reference my pre-launch post on this which breaks down the livestream.) At ~18:40 of the livestream the devs say that no other content in the game will be scaled to the new tier. Only MM GOTM will need this tier (of course, this has problems for PvP which I've laid out in the linked post).

 

Unfortunately, without understanding this (and it's been poorly communicated by the devs), the conversations and comparisons to past situations will necessarily be off. Because at no other time that I can recall since launch has there been a tier of gear only needed for one specific, limited piece of content. But it's that part which is unprecedented, not the idea of initially gating new items/rewards to new content areas....

PvPers have been complaining in droves about how the gear is necessary to keep up.

The gear makes other play areas easier, such as anything beyond KOTET which is not level locked or scaled.

Technically a story player didn't "need" 248 gear either, but by having CXP be earnable in all areas of the game, and having bonuses and achievements for getting toons from each class to level 300, they made incentives for story players to aim for it.

If you claim that the gear is only needed for one Op, it's even MORE problematic. They've laid out an entire gear system, dailies and a weekly reward for one Op while providing no incentive for anyone else to play through Ossus and ailenating every other group of players. That's creating the MMO equivalent of the Spruce Goose, with a tremendous amount of wasted time and resources that could have better been spent making a Tier V that was accessible to all.

Where did you get that this gear was intended to be used for all play areas? This isn't accurate -- and in fact, this is my problem with this gear tier (as I've laid out many times). As the devs have stated explicitly, this gear is intended to be used only for MM GOTM (I'm going to reference my pre-launch post on this which breaks down the livestream.) At ~18:40 of the livestream the devs say that no other content in the game will be scaled to the new tier. Only MM GOTM will need this tier (of course, this has problems for PvP which I've laid out in the linked post).

 

Unfortunately, without understanding this (and it's been poorly communicated by the devs), the conversations and comparisons to past situations will necessarily be off. Because at no other time that I can recall since launch has there been a tier of gear only needed for one specific, limited piece of content. But it's that part which is unprecedented, not the idea of initially gating new items/rewards to new content areas....

That is not true, the argument "if you don't do MM GotM you don't need the gear" is absolutely false. For example, staying competitive in PvP isn't just relying pon skill, gear plays a huge factor as well. Sure we have bolster, but that only goes up to 252 and we have 258 as the highest gear now. If you want to compete, you need the gear as well.

The devs have intended for stuff to work a certain way numerous times in the past, but reality proved them wrong. Sure, their intent might have been for the gear to only be used for MM GotM, but that's not what's actually happening in game. Their intentions are being rendered obsolete as we speak. The gear is there and people will work to get it. They will obtain an advantage over others in for example PvP so that will force others - if they want to compete - to get the gear as well. Eventually you'll have to have the gear to stay useful ingame, so what you're saying is false.