The problem Eric is that I think your hands are tied. There has been awesome and tremendous feedback on very specific, dare I say, micro-related issues. Exhibit A, your reply to Ulvarii about perk changes. Exhibit B: Mike's responses to win-trading. Exhibit C: Daniel's response o the Lana face issue.

 

Those are not unappreciated, but understand that for some of us, there are some huge macro-related issues.

 

Is Galactic Command even relevant any more? You asked us for comments specifically related to UCs. About a year ago Keith (is he still the lead producer?) said that legacy currency is here to stay. Fine, but there has been a ton of feedback about how you gutted 5.6 (which got me called a White Knight because I supported it so much).

 

Having a universal, legacy-wide currency does us NO GOOD if it is funneled through a soda straw on one daily planet -- namely -- Ossus because you tied gearing to a new currency, namely Masterwork Shards / Crystals. You are shooting yourselves in the foot because the whole point of GC 5.6 was to do what you want / where you want. A wise decision because you can't create new content fast enough (no one can, not even Blizzard / WoW).

 

I understand the desire to help people leapfrog and not go through GC. But you took it too far. You have now thrown the baby out with the bath water. The game is now boring.

 

I think it's great that you are responding to the micro-questions. But....

 

Well, that sentence finishes itself.

 

TL-DR: I genuinely (not your fault) believe you can't comment on what I care about. I still love you (not in that creepy way).

 

Dasty

+1 to dasty. I agree with everything he says.

The increased communication is nice. But for whatever reason you obviously can't discuss anything i actually care about

Hey all,

 

I can see there is a bubbling concern about our lack of continued response in this thread so I wanted to make sure I pop back in. We have absolutely continued to read this thread. Some of the conversation has gotten a little off topic, but we are still taking in your feedback about feedback in general.

 

 

 

I wanted to highlight this as although I totally get the frustration if there is a feeling we have fallen silent in this thread... we have become much more active in gathering feedback around the forums on a variety of topics. That was ultimately the goal of this thread was to work with you on better ways to gather feedback (which I hope that you feel we are already doing).

 

Keep any feedback related feedback coming as we will continue to keep our eyes on this thread.

 

-eric

This is part of what you need to keep doing to really, truly change the "lack of communication" problem that has been part of this game since near the start. So, for that THANK YOU, ERIC! It really does go a long way when you show that yes indeed, you are still active in threads you started asking for Feedback. Still not quite enough to overcome some of the inclination for long-time feedbackers to trust that things are different, but keep it up. Showing instead of telling will win the day, here... and this is a sign you understand that.

One more hint: As Dasty and others have pointed out, there are still some MAJOR topics, particularly around gearing, that are not being talked about and we need to know why.

Why won't you tell us the reason behind making such a major change to gearing like locking mods/enhancements down so tightly? I can't even use a barrel from my Operative's offhand in my Scoundrel's offhand because they are different weapon types. This is a roadblock in using legacy gear, it makes gearing and playing alts more time consuming and we the players do not understand why you would do this to your game.

Why won't you address the future of the Galactic Command system as a whole? You ask about UCs, but then say nothing about the fact that 5.10 pretty much made GC a non-entity in gearing up. Will we go back to GC at some point? Is this tier of gear just some one-off system?

Gearing in your game is a pretty big deal. You should be talking about these things alongside the discussions about PvP and win-trading (important!), and the other topics that you, and especially Daniel and Mike have been responding to here.

Dasty's post pretty much says the same thing, and probably better than I can here. Bottom line: Improved communication from you guys is very appreciated, and we request that you just expand that now to more discussion topics that matter, like gearing and the gearing system. Thanks for reading, listening, and responding!

.

Hey all,

 

I can see there is a bubbling concern about our lack of continued response in this thread so I wanted to make sure I pop back in. We have absolutely continued to read this thread.

It's alive!

Why won't you tell us the reason behind making such a major change to gearing like locking mods/enhancements down so tightly? I can't even use a barrel from my Operative's offhand in my Scoundrel's offhand because they are different weapon types. This is a roadblock in using legacy gear, it makes gearing and playing alts more time consuming and we the players do not understand why you would do this to your game.

Because the more game-time you have to commit to get the same rewards means Bioware's metrics show increased player activity and engagement.

Before you could half-gear up an Alt playing your Main, now to gear up your Alt you need to earn everything on that Alt. That means more game-time, for those who fall for such a tactic (I admit I am running that treadmill), and Bioware can say to EA "look, we are doing something right, overall play-time per customer is up".

There's no need to ask for clarification on this, there's no hidden agenda based on future gearing mechanics. They increased the grind to make us play more to do less.

There is no great secret to why they did this.

Just as abject lack of honesty in them admitting to it.

All The Best

That means more game-time, for those who fall for such a tactic (I admit I am running that treadmill), and Bioware can say to EA "look, we are doing something right, overall play-time per customer is up".

 

There's no need to ask for clarification on this, there's no hidden agenda based on future gearing mechanics. They increased the grind to make us play more to do less.

t

After the CXP fiasco there was no way I was going to start a new grind, one that was going to require PVE and raiding etc.

Just the idea of them adding a new grind was audacious to me, and I knew then and there I was not going to be a part of it.

I bet anything these latest changes had the opposite affect they were wanting/expecting.

I mean, I bet anything they have lost subs due to this game's design change where they have decided to punish alts and force a lengthy gear grind that makes gearing alts a chore. There's no way these changes have made the game more fun, alluring to new players or apt to retain veteran players.

Because the more game-time you have to commit to get the same rewards means Bioware's metrics show increased player activity and engagement.

 

Before you could half-gear up an Alt playing your Main, now to gear up your Alt you need to earn everything on that Alt. That means more game-time, for those who fall for such a tactic (I admit I am running that treadmill), and Bioware can say to EA "look, we are doing something right, overall play-time per customer is up".

 

There's no need to ask for clarification on this, there's no hidden agenda based on future gearing mechanics. They increased the grind to make us play more to do less.

 

There is no great secret to why they did this.

 

Just as abject lack of honesty in them admitting to it.

 

 

All The Best

This is 100% assumption on your part. It's not a far fetched assumption really, but it is still an assumption.

There IS a need for clarification on this, and I'm far from the only one asking for it. It is a major change to the gearing system and just as you are sure that there is only one purpose to it, I'm pretty sure there are more reasons than just "pump the metrics and make ourselves look good".

Besides, it only works to bump player activity when people don't quit the game due to how difficult it is to gear the multitude of characters we've always been encouraged to make and create and play within the legacy system of this game. When you make a change that throws the legacy system out the window, and changes the gearing system so drastically after it being more or less the same for 7 years of the game's life... it should probably come with at least a few words of explanation from the developers (beyond "this was intended").

Also, Musco said we would be talking about gearing. So... let's do that. Starting with an explanation of how this tier of gear fits into the scheme of things going forward.

They spent over an entire calendar year "fixing" the Galactic Command system and got it to a decent place in terms of gearing alts and tamping down the RNG just to turn around and make all of it a moot point. They talked about how they couldn't put out much content during that time because fixing that system was their priority. We've been withering on the vine while they fix a system that they then obliterated? That doesn't make any sense, and absolutely DOES beg the question: "Why?".

So with all due respect, you may think you have it figured out... but I would rather not assume. They are the planners and the game makers, and I would prefer to hear from them regarding the facts vs. the assumptions of the peanut gallery. If you don't mind, please don't tell them that they don't have to explain it to us because you've got it all figured out. Because I'm not sure you do (until I hear them say: "He's 100% right, this is the only reason this was changed so drastically compared to the previous 7 years of game play). All the same, I'd rather hear it from them. Thanks.

.

This is 100% assumption on your part. It's not a far fetched assumption really, but it is still an assumption.

 

There IS a need for clarification on this, and I'm far from the only one asking for it. It is a major change to the gearing system and just as you are sure that there is only one purpose to it, I'm pretty sure there are more reasons than just "pump the metrics and make ourselves look good".

 

Besides, it only works to bump player activity when people don't quit the game due to how difficult it is to gear the multitude of characters we've always been encouraged to make and create and play within the legacy system of this game. When you make a change that throws the legacy system out the window, and changes the gearing system so drastically after it being more or less the same for 7 years of the game's life... it should probably come with at least a few words of explanation from the developers (beyond "this was intended").

 

Also, Musco said we would be talking about gearing. So... let's do that. Starting with an explanation of how this tier of gear fits into the scheme of things going forward.

 

They spent over an entire calendar year "fixing" the Galactic Command system and got it to a decent place in terms of gearing alts and tamping down the RNG just to turn around and make all of it a moot point. They talked about how they couldn't put out much content during that time because fixing that system was their priority. We've been withering on the vine while they fix a system that they then obliterated? That doesn't make any sense, and absolutely DOES beg the question: "Why?".

 

So with all due respect, you may think you have it figured out... but I would rather not assume. They are the planners and the game makers, and I would prefer to hear from them regarding the facts vs. the assumptions of the peanut gallery. If you don't mind, please don't tell them that they don't have to explain it to us because you've got it all figured out. Because I'm not sure you do (until I hear them say: "He's 100% right, this is the only reason this was changed so drastically compared to the previous 7 years of game play). All the same, I'd rather hear it from them. Thanks.

 

.

WB PennyAnn

Hey folks,

 

Let's talk about gearing as I do have a few things I can pass on. So first and the most important, absolutely keep all feedback coming about gearing in every context. What you do and don't like, what we have done right and what we haven't. Quite literally the team is having conversations right now about how we will build out gearing in "large future update".

 

I do want to state though that there are no large systemic plans changed for 252 / 258. This doesn't mean we may not make minor tweaks but there are no plans to overhaul how gearing works in tier 5. The reason is the team really wants to focus efforts on the future to ensure that when we get to revamping itemization, it is the best it can be.

 

To that point, look for me to start spinning up conversations in the coming weeks regarding gearing. I want to try to gather feedback on specific topics as drilled down as I can to ensure the dev team is getting a good summary of feedback. We are in the early stages of planning for the future of itemization and so now is the best time to help shape what we do.

 

Thanks all.

 

-eric

A minor tweak has the implicit meaning of being quick. This post is a month old. How long does it take exactly to make crystals legacy curreny, to reduce the crystals required to exchange gear, to remove the limitation of UC - Crystal exchange and to add crystal rewards for PVP/GSF dailies/weeklies? An hour? This whole gathering feedback image is anything but believable.

Also, they are never going to admit what they had thought in advance of a major change in gearing system. I bet they have always underestimated the impact of an unpopular - and be honest: uncalled for - changes, but those have always been made in the interest of the investors, which of course does not necessarily are in line with the players'. So don't be naiv.

A minor tweak has the implicit meaning of being quick. This post is a month old. How long does it take exactly to make crystals legacy curreny, to reduce the crystals required to exchange gear, to remove the limitation of UC - Crystal exchange and to add crystal rewards for PVP/GSF dailies/weeklies? An hour? This whole gathering feedback image is anything but believable.

 

Also, they are never going to admit what they had thought in advance of a major change in gearing system. I bet they have always underestimated the impact of an unpopular - and be honest: uncalled for - changes, but those have always been made in the interest of the investors, which of course does not necessarily are in line with the players'. So don't be naiv.

I do not think so either. At least more crystals. Maybe 4 per quest. It's not that hard.....

I do not think so either. At least more crystals. Maybe 4 per quest. It's not that hard.....

You watch, they'll speed it up when the next gear update is close. And everyone will fall into their trap. "Oh thank you thank you, it's so much easier now I can gear up all my toons!". That's the point because BANG new update and new gear! #maniacallaughter

You watch, they'll speed it up when the next gear update is close. And everyone will fall into their trap. "Oh thank you thank you, it's so much easier now I can gear up all my toons!". That's the point because BANG new update and new gear! #maniacallaughter

 

I'd call you cynical if you weren't so damn right...

You watch, they'll speed it up when the next gear update is close. And everyone will fall into their trap. "Oh thank you thank you, it's so much easier now I can gear up all my toons!". That's the point because BANG new update and new gear! #maniacallaughter

 

Gearing up again ?? UGH ! IMHO this is the one thing that needs a bit of work. I'm really tired of having a pile of ... "whatever" left over from previous exchange systems.

New gear is always inevitiable in any MMO. There will never be an end to it. I prefer that custom ( or adaptive) gear remain in place. That gives players a better since of individuality. It's too bad that some of the rewards or drops don't include (as an option ) .. individual components to go inside of said gear ! That would be cool !

WB PennyAnn

Thanks, Lhance! I'm only a forum lurker at this point. I came back around to check out Ossus and the new storyline, but I'm not willing to risk wading into companion bugs and other issues. I suppose I will check them out at some point, likely when I get finished playing through the new content that recently went in for WoW. I have been quite happily leveling characters there from all the new races they have put in the game since I started playing there (6 brand new races, to be exact - and that's fun!). For SWTOR, I guess I will be wandering off again until 6.0 quite likely, but I still keep an eye on these forums and hope for improvements to a game I've loved for a long time. Mainly bug fixes so I'm not concerned about losing companions I worked hard to gain influence with, etc. just for starting the new story and skipping KotFE/ET (which I have zero desire to slog through ever again). The skip mechanic was a very good idea, but like lots of things here, it was not implemented well and resulted in bugs that have outweighed the excitement of new story.

I am very happy for the players of this game to see so many gold posts, especially from new faces that I think will help really change the tide of communication. No one has built up any anger for Daniel or Mike yet, so I feel like there is less push back from the jump at what they have to say, just because we haven't been shaking our fists at them (specifically) to talk to us and quit being silent on important issues here on the OFFICIAL FORUMS.

I don't know if this game will ever return to its heyday, but seeing some signs that it isn't circling the drain quite as rapidly as we all feared bodes well. Hope you are well! Thanks for the shout out. =)

.

Thanks, Lhance! I'm only a forum lurker at this point. I came back around to check out Ossus and the new storyline, but I'm not willing to risk wading into companion bugs and other issues. I suppose I will check them out at some point, likely when I get finished playing through the new content that recently went in for WoW. I have been quite happily leveling characters there from all the new races they have put in the game since I started playing there (6 brand new races, to be exact - and that's fun!). For SWTOR, I guess I will be wandering off again until 6.0 quite likely, but I still keep an eye on these forums and hope for improvements to a game I've loved for a long time. Mainly bug fixes so I'm not concerned about losing companions I worked hard to gain influence with, etc. just for starting the new story and skipping KotFE/ET (which I have zero desire to slog through ever again). The skip mechanic was a very good idea, but like lots of things here, it was not implemented well and resulted in bugs that have outweighed the excitement of new story.

 

I am very happy for the players of this game to see so many gold posts, especially from new faces that I think will help really change the tide of communication. No one has built up any anger for Daniel or Mike yet, so I feel like there is less push back from the jump at what they have to say, just because we haven't been shaking our fists at them (specifically) to talk to us and quit being silent on important issues here on the OFFICIAL FORUMS.

 

I don't know if this game will ever return to its heyday, but seeing some signs that it isn't circling the drain quite as rapidly as we all feared bodes well. Hope you are well! Thanks for the shout out. =)

 

.

Sure, I wondered how you been so thanks for the update. Always enjoy reading your posts so even if you just here periodically that's nice.

I am like you in the way of not playing SWTOR until 6.0, maybe. I will see what they end up adding/fixing/changing in the next substantial update before I log back in.

I am optimistic about the added yellow posts we now have, and the new guys bring a little bit of freshness to the forums, hopefully that continues and perhaps with improved communication the next update will add more things the players enjoy/like instead of game design continuing down the path none of us seem to want.

I wanted to highlight this as although I totally get the frustration if there is a feeling we have fallen silent in this thread... we have become much more active in gathering feedback around the forums on a variety of topics. That was ultimately the goal of this thread was to work with you on better ways to gather feedback (which I hope that you feel we are already doing).

 

Keep any feedback related feedback coming as we will continue to keep our eyes on this thread.

 

-eric

Really appreciate the vast improvement in communitions in general. I think that Mike 🅱️ being so active with the pvp community has been great. Any chance you guys will do another poll on what 8v8 maps people like and what “types” of maps people prefer. Hopefully either you or Mike are able to put in the time to watch the feed back stream Snave organised.

There is still some room for improvement from you guys, especially with regards to mulple questions left unanswered that the community as a whole has been asking and had zero response.... ie, why the change and excessive gear grind and why did you lock enchantments, mods, hilts and barrels to specific gear slots.

Perhaps I'm being optimistic, but Charles and Eric seemed less cagey in today's stream. They touched on a lot of hot topics. They didn't necessarily address them, but they acknowledged them.

I didn’t even know there was a stream.

See this is a major problem when there aren’t any yellow posts to announce these streams are happening.

Eric : Feed Back TM . : make sure ALL social media interviews or pod casts are announced with a dev post ahead of time so that we know about it.

My suggestion would be to story wise going forward utilize established characters - companions that are left canonically for sure alive - a lot more. And not just as a to-do list to tick off via alliance alerts or short cameos but as workhorses going forward. Pretty much everybody else recognisable is dead by now anyway.

Have imp and pub companions fill the slots of throwaway characters in the form of say the tall emo hair jedi and the twilek snarky spec ops.... can't really remember their names despite doing the jedi under siege story for 10+ times, and that's a point in itself me feels.

I didn’t even know there was a stream.

 

See this is a major problem when there aren’t any yellow posts to announce these streams are happening.

 

Eric : Feed Back TM . : make sure ALL social media interviews or pod casts are announced with a dev post ahead of time so that we know about it.

And that links to said streams, casts are in a stickied thread on the Official Game Forums.

All The Best

Perhaps I'm being optimistic, but Charles and Eric seemed less cagey in today's stream. They touched on a lot of hot topics. They didn't necessarily address them, but they acknowledged them.

I listened to the part about the slot locking. I’m glad they realised they messed and and don’t like it themselves.

I am disappointed that they aren’t going to unlock the slots before doing the next gearing system.

From my perspective (as I don’t know how hard this is to do) there seems to be a really simple bandaid fix for this until the next gearing system.

JUST ADD a mod/enhancement vendor to allow people to swap/buy the item they need for that slot. The player would need to swap the current one (aka, already have it) and it would need to be the same gear lvl.

I didn’t even know there was a stream.

 

See this is a major problem when there aren’t any yellow posts to announce these streams are happening.

 

Eric : Feed Back TM . : make sure ALL social media interviews or pod casts are announced with a dev post ahead of time so that we know about it.

Exactly, having them announce in Facebook and Twitter if not even the forums when they are giving an interview or being featured in a podcast would be great. I don't keep up with all influencers so I might miss something if someone I don't keep up with does an interview with them.

Exactly, having them announce in Facebook and Twitter if not even the forums when they are giving an interview or being featured in a podcast would be great. I don't keep up with all influencers so I might miss something if someone I don't keep up with does an interview with them.

I think it should.be here too. I don't have twitter and use facebook as more of a long distance communication tool with close friends and family. If they want to use the other platforms too that's great, but it should be here, even if it comes from Mr Steed (who has already proven to be far better at interacting with the community than Musco anyway).

I think it should.be here too. I don't have twitter and use facebook as more of a long distance communication tool with close friends and family. If they want to use the other platforms too that's great, but it should be here, even if it comes from Mr Steed (who has already proven to be far better at interacting with the community than Musco anyway).

Yeah, fair enough. The forums should get a heads-up as well.

Wow!

You all are wasting your breath thinking something will change. You are feeding the same reaction/feedback void. As long as EA is looking at their stock reports they will continue to fail at making anything enjoyable. The Normies will continue to pay and play, so they will never listen, because they don't have to. :-(

______________________________________________________________________________________________

No question, they need to keep the forums up to date when they do special things like a live stream.

Boggles my mind that they don't automatically keep the forums informed along with other platforms.

I never use Facebook, never use Twitter, if they don't inform us via the forums I will never be aware of any special events BW might be a part of.

Maybe their most vocal critics are on the forums and it was by design they "forgot" to inform the forums they would be doing a stream.

I am sure that's not the case but I do hope they keep the forums in the loop next time if they do a stream or other social event.