Seems like some people prefer healing debuff and other proposed changes (by Snave) to hinder (by Bioware). Can anyone tell me how this can address our current "problems"* with Huttball? IMO, It's juts does not change anything at all:

Huttball doesn't need to be changed. Simple as that. This entire "controversy" is a non-issue.

A lot of people seem to be under the impression that operatives/juggs can teleport back to the centre of the map as soon as they score. Fortunately that's not the case. So, who's fault is it that the same operative/jugg keeps scoring?

Your team is at fault. If your team doesn't control mid then they have no hope of winning.

Hinder introduced? Same problem, except now the game will take a full 12 minutes for a loss instead of ending after 6 minutes.

Huttball doesn't need to be changed. Simple as that. This entire "controversy" is a non-issue.

 

A lot of people seem to be under the impression that operatives/juggs can teleport back to the centre of the map as soon as they score. Fortunately that's not the case. So, who's fault is it that the same operative/jugg keeps scoring?

 

Your team is at fault. If your team doesn't control mid then they have no hope of winning.

 

Hinder introduced? Same problem, except now the game will take a full 12 minutes for a loss instead of ending after 6 minutes.

If you are assuming the opposition sucks so much if you can win, that means your team could PASS the ball undisturbed and still win in nearly the same amount of time.

But your idea is also flawed because many of the premades have TWO operatives or more. Considered that?

So after the 1st goal, while the operative who scored returns, the other operative brings the other ball. The 1st operative can even serve as a teleportation target for the 2nd operative WHILE being stealthed, then the 1st reaches the ball stand (in stealth) at the exact moment that the 2nd scores, flashbangs and takes the ball. Don't forget that these 2 operatives have 6 friends who might also help with the AoE stuns and pushes in the ball stand at that time. I executed this tactic perfectly for 4 goals in a row with an operative I have never met and just said one or two chat messages before the match has begun asking him to wait up for my first teleportation.

I really like the fact people are some good at explaining how easy it is to counter operatives yet I have barely seen it happening neither to my side nor to my opposition. I firepulled a few, I got firepulled by a few in my earlier days (now I mostly survive it), but that sums it up, and I don't even play premades...

Currently, premades with operatives win in 3-4 minutes as if there is no opposition, that's a fact. This is not how huttball matches should look, that is also a fact. People who are used to these stacked victories would hate to see them go, that's understandable but doesn't make it justified.

Applying permanent hinder-effect to the ball carrier in huttball will turn that warzone into a complete crapshow.

For what? To encourage passing? Passing is not a desirable action in Huttball. Everybody who's around long enough to have played 8-men ranked HB knows that. Every pass means imminent danger of losing the ball and if up against competent opponents you'll lose the ball more often than not. What a remarkably stupid idea.

Don't ruin HB, I propose a single change:

- 1st ball is free for all, after the first goal only the team who didn't score can pick up the ball (like in real football type sports), if they don't pick the ball up, make it free for all again after some time, say 30s

Here's a more common example of what I'm talking about. I get the ball and roll once across the acid, then a Sorc with phase walk on the top platform pulls me up, and I roll again and I'm nearly in the endzone. It literally takes about 20 seconds to score that way. And don't forget, I'm immune to any stuns or movement impairing effects while rolling. So unless you're playing a class that happens to have a push or pull, your only chance to stop me is between rolls. If you hard stun me, you're not going to kill an Operative 1v1 unless you've got a lot of help (which is often not the case because everyone is usually all over the place during the match). And if you white bar me, I can still be pulled up and just stroll into the endzone. The only chance you have of stopping that score is to push or pull the Sorc off the platform before they pull up the Operative, and not many players are smart enough to anticipate that and be in position to stop it. And even then, I can still roll through the fire pits, it will just take me longer to get to the endzone that way. Most times though it never comes to that because with that Sorc/Operative combo, I'm scoring before the other team can get to me to stop me..

So... An Operative getting pulled by a Sorc is really hard to stop? Not like this applies to any other class, right?

So... An Operative getting pulled by a Sorc is really hard to stop? Not like this applies to any other class, right?

(Good) sniper with Entrench/speed utilities can do the same if not better/faster at original Huttball map. And you cannot pull or push him at all unless another sniper will drop that canister.

These changes sound good as long as the matchmaking changes work out.

I would suggest ending the match if the score is 7-0, or giving the losing team the option to forfeit, there is no sense in drawing one sided matches to 10 points.

Eric, with all of the changes your team is implementing is there any chance that you will allow players to specifically queue for un-ranked arena; allowing players to queue for unranked arena would provide an avenue for players to work on their actual pvp skill and prepare themselves for solo/team ranked.

We will no longer apply Hinder to the ball carrier.

Many thanks for reconsidering! I understand your thought process here, but I think the changes you've outlined below are better suited for attaining that goal : )

New Huttball (and Queshball) Changes

• The Hutt will become bored of a single ball carrier and kill them after 45 seconds (down from 2 minutes)
  
• To win before time expires, the winning team will need to score 10 times (up from 6 times)
  
• The match will now last for a maximum of 10 minutes (down from 13 minutes)
  

I totally welcome these changes, along with the attacker point boost! Only allowing for 45 seconds of carrying the ball ought to promote faster and more varied play (rather than a tank just trudging halfway across the map popping DCDs and getting focus-healed). I paused a bit at needing 10 points, but setting a hard cap of 10 minutes brought a sigh of relief. Six-point games often went to time - getting ten points with the reduced time given should definitely present more of a challenge, and make a team feel all the better when they can pull it off!

Overall, pretty glad at the changes announced, both with the rollback of hinder and with the new time-based changes to promote faster, more competitive play. Should see a lot more ball passing in the future

]Snip.

All excellent ideas. In particular lowering the time the ball can be carried is very good. (Getting rid of Hindered was the best thing, obviously).

In my book then, this makes them not good warzone players. good warzone players understand someone has to play objectives to win.

Winning against out-matched teams has no meaning.

Let's actually look at what winning means in most matches:

Win - Green screen, more UCs

Loss - Red screen, less UCs.

Now let's look at the cost of winning:

Sitting on a node for 10-15 minutes

Rushing a node to stop a cap, getting slaughtered in the process

Queuing cancer comps like double tank/heals or troll comps like four stealth so that you can stall or troll nodes

vs

Actually playing the game for 10-15 minutes

Now let's look at Huttball, which is fairly unique in that playing the objective is actually interactive, it promotes combat, and when you have ~even teams playing the objective is actually fun.

If Bioware wants to encourage players to participate in objectives they need to:

1: Nail down matchmaking

2: Design games modes that have interesting and engaging objectives

3: Provide an incentive for winning (ranked mode/special cosmetic rewards/titles/etc)

Until then I imagine that most people are going to opt for "fun" over a green screen.

Thank you!

The changes to the ball carrier duration is very good as well.

Winning against out-matched teams has no meaning.

 

 

Let's actually look at what winning means in most matches:

Win - Green screen, more UCs

Loss - Red screen, less UCs.

 

Now let's look at the cost of winning:

Sitting on a node for 10-15 minutes

Rushing a node to stop a cap, getting slaughtered in the process

Queuing cancer comps like double tank/heals or troll comps like four stealth so that you can stall or troll nodes

 

vs

 

Actually playing the game for 10-15 minutes

 

Now let's look at Huttball, which is fairly unique in that playing the objective is actually interactive, it promotes combat, and when you have ~even teams playing the objective is actually fun.

 

If Bioware wants to encourage players to participate in objectives they need to:

1: Nail down matchmaking

2: Design games modes that have interesting and engaging objectives

3: Provide an incentive for winning (ranked mode/special cosmetic rewards/titles/etc)

 

Until then I imagine that most people are going to opt for "fun" over a green screen.

As i just finished typing in the other changes thread, objective pvp is as much about strategy as blindly zerging somewhere. I personally hate huttball with a passion, particularly queshball, as they are buggy as crap.

Node guarding is a necessary part of objective based pvp. If zerging dps is your goal, maybe you should just go do arenas.

Hey folks,

 

Based on all of the feedback we have been reading in this thread, we are going to be walking back some of our proposed Huttball changes along with adding a few new ones. Let’s start with what we are not doing:

• We will no longer apply Hinder to the ball carrier.
  
• Ball carriers will once again move at 67% move speed (down from 80%)
  

 

Although we are fine with tanks being the best ball carriers while under the effects of Hinder, we hear your concerns that these changes could cause Huttball to become a stalemate too often. We are also sensitive over your feeling that certain Classes would be too limited and unable to defend themselves while carrying the Huttball, since many defensive capabilities are tied to movement abilities for several Classes.

 

On the other hand, we plan to keep the proposed attacker point changes. We feel that players who properly position themselves to receive a Huttball pass should be rewarded. We also plan to keep the change that prevents stunned targets from catching the Huttball, as it allows characters that lack a knockback ability to have a viable and reliable way to intercept passes. It also has an additional benefit of giving players another reason to use their stun abilities on characters other than the ball carrier. Ultimately, it should mean that you get stunned a little less often while carrying the Huttball.

 

The hinder change was aimed at addressing specific issues with Huttball, and since we are reverting it, we’ll be tackling those issues with some new proposed changes.

 

New Huttball (and Queshball) Changes

• The Hutt will become bored of a single ball carrier and kill them after 45 seconds (down from 2 minutes)
  
• To win before time expires, the winning team will need to score 10 times (up from 6 times)
  
• The match will now last for a maximum of 10 minutes (down from 13 minutes)
  

 

The first change is intended to encourage passing the Huttball and increase tension when attempting to turtle for a win in a close match. The latter two changes will adjust how we approach this Warzone. If you see Huttball as a sport within SWTOR, we want to have the Warzone play out more as “who can score the most points within a 10 minute match” as opposed to “race to 6 points to win.” This will also ensure that all Huttball matches are 12 minutes or less (if you count pre-match). We hope that these changes along with our updates in matchmaking will lead to a lot closer and more compelling Huttball matches.

 

Let us know your thoughts on these changes!

 

-eric

The problem with huttball is to much mobility a normal huttball on any given day roll roll score roll roll score. Huttball should not be determined by how many ops or snipers the other team has. These classes dominate the game I be in for a debuff that makes you drop the ball if you use it more then once while carrying the ball this give the defense to escape. It will stop a lot of the mobility as a good rolling operative can score with little effort. Leading to boring matches of death matching. Back at launch Huttball was fun because it was more of a passing game. Ever since you put in the movement crap it been leave huttball leave huttball. Now mix that with being able to que for the matches you want and we the pvpers will not que for huttball with these changes.... These new changes do nothing to fix that and frankly leave little hope the Dev team will get this right..

As i just finished typing in the other changes thread, objective pvp is as much about strategy as blindly zerging somewhere. I personally hate huttball with a passion, particularly queshball, as they are buggy as crap.

 

Node guarding is a necessary part of objective based pvp. If zerging dps is your goal, maybe you should just go do arenas.

And once again you totally ignored the lack of matchmaking and competitiveness that is the current state of warzones.

If you enjoy stomping pugs or winning vs premades that don't care about objectives then that's a personal decision, but you shouldn't judge others for not enjoying hollow victories.

And once again you totally ignored the lack of matchmaking and competitiveness that is the current state of warzones.

 

If you enjoy stomping pugs or winning vs premades that don't care about objectives then that's a personal decision, but you shouldn't judge others for not enjoying hollow victories.

They are fixing matchmaking at the same time they are making the huttball changes.

I call competition trying to win. In objective based pvp you win by doing objectives, even if that means someone is sitting around at a node no one goes to.

I enioy out-strategizing and better tactical play. I would think thr blind number farming zergers were far more absurd. If all i wanted was for the team who gets the first kill to win, I'd go do arenas. I personally find those far more boring and grindy than any objective match.

you shouldn't judge others for not enjoying hollow victories.

You really are here just to complain about anything eh? Honestly, someone complaining about a win. This is honestly a first for me and that's truly an accomplishment after 6 years on these forums, so congratulations to you! Does this victory make you feel any better?

I am done playing huttball the new changes do not fix the issue with rolling classes. You might as well give instant scoring to rolling classes as soon as they pick up the ball Eric.. This is my feedback not attacking you just stating why i will not que in the new system for huttball.

I want you to watch this video Eric this is what huttball is 28 sec roll score that make for lop sided game play. None of your guys changes do any thing to fix the underline problem.

Right now as it stand my hole guild is refusing to play huttball with the new changes.

We will no longer apply Hinder to the ball carrier.

A couple of folks has cried and you gave up.

We also plan to keep the change that prevents stunned targets from catching the Huttball

Stunned but not mezzed? (whirlwind sleep dart etc?)

The Hutt will become bored of a single ball carrier and kill them after 45 seconds (down from 2 minutes)

Now this is just a bad change. It should be appied to the first version of changes (hinder etc) but you have removed hinder and and now you remove the ability to crawl your ball to the end line vs all these rolls and speed-ups. Where is the logic?

To win before time expires, the winning team will need to score 10 times (up from 6 times)

Terrible. It's like a bad show to watch if your team cannot score even once. People will leave even before the first five points.

Overall you did everything even worse than now.

Can you think/code a little more?

The problem with huttball is to much mobility a normal huttball on any given day roll roll score roll roll score. Huttball should not be determined by how many ops or snipers the other team has. These classes dominate the game I be in for a debuff that makes you drop the ball if you use it more then once while carrying the ball this give the defense to escape. It will stop a lot of the mobility as a good rolling operative can score with little effort. Leading to boring matches of death matching. Back at launch Huttball was fun because it was more of a passing game. Ever since you put in the movement crap it been leave huttball leave huttball. Now mix that with being able to que for the matches you want and we the pvpers will not que for huttball with these changes.... These new changes do nothing to fix that and frankly leave little hope the Dev team will get this right..

The sad truth.

Hey folks,

 

Based on all of the feedback we have been reading in this thread, we are going to be walking back some of our proposed Huttball changes along with adding a few new ones. Let’s start with what we are not doing:

• We will no longer apply Hinder to the ball carrier.
  
• Ball carriers will once again move at 67% move speed (down from 80%)
  

 

Although we are fine with tanks being the best ball carriers while under the effects of Hinder, we hear your concerns that these changes could cause Huttball to become a stalemate too often. We are also sensitive over your feeling that certain Classes would be too limited and unable to defend themselves while carrying the Huttball, since many defensive capabilities are tied to movement abilities for several Classes.

 

On the other hand, we plan to keep the proposed attacker point changes. We feel that players who properly position themselves to receive a Huttball pass should be rewarded. We also plan to keep the change that prevents stunned targets from catching the Huttball, as it allows characters that lack a knockback ability to have a viable and reliable way to intercept passes. It also has an additional benefit of giving players another reason to use their stun abilities on characters other than the ball carrier. Ultimately, it should mean that you get stunned a little less often while carrying the Huttball.

 

The hinder change was aimed at addressing specific issues with Huttball, and since we are reverting it, we’ll be tackling those issues with some new proposed changes.

 

New Huttball (and Queshball) Changes

• The Hutt will become bored of a single ball carrier and kill them after 45 seconds (down from 2 minutes)
  
• To win before time expires, the winning team will need to score 10 times (up from 6 times)
  
• The match will now last for a maximum of 10 minutes (down from 13 minutes)
  

 

The first change is intended to encourage passing the Huttball and increase tension when attempting to turtle for a win in a close match. The latter two changes will adjust how we approach this Warzone. If you see Huttball as a sport within SWTOR, we want to have the Warzone play out more as “who can score the most points within a 10 minute match” as opposed to “race to 6 points to win.” This will also ensure that all Huttball matches are 12 minutes or less (if you count pre-match). We hope that these changes along with our updates in matchmaking will lead to a lot closer and more compelling Huttball matches.

 

Let us know your thoughts on these changes!

 

-eric

After 1st msg in this theme I thought: "finally, these rolling opers now can't do anything on huttballs and we can play again this WZ as it was before rolls" and now I think i'll still don't wanna play Huttbal and Queshball with my friends. And after this can we can choose WZ? If we can i'll never choose these 2 WZ. Idea with Hinder was great, more passes play and more teamplay, and now it's again rolling ball, rename it to rolling ball, it's been a long time not huttball/queshball.

A couple of folks has cried and you gave up.

 

 

Stunned but not mezzed? (whirlwind sleep dart etc?)

 

 

 

Now this is just a bad change. It should be appied to the first version of changes (hinder etc) but you have removed hinder and and now you remove the ability to crawl your ball to the end line vs all these rolls and speed-ups. Where is the logic?

 

 

 

 

Terrible. It's like a bad show to watch if your team cannot score even once. People will leave even before the first five points.

 

Overall you did everything even worse than now.

Can you think/code a little more?

 

 

 

The sad truth.

every huttball since roll was added

After 1st msg in this theme I thought: "finally, these rolling opers now can't do anything on huttballs and we can play again this WZ as it was before rolls" and now I think i'll still don't wanna play Huttbal and Queshball with my friends. And after this can we can choose WZ? If we can i'll never choose these 2 WZ. Idea with Hinder was great, more passes play and more teamplay, and now it's again rolling ball, rename it to rolling ball, it's been a long time not huttball/queshball.

I second that Rollerball Is not fun rather have my toe nails pulled out then play with theses changes. The only fun had in the map is by rolling classes. The only people complaining about hinder was one class the rolling ones

Hey folks,

 

Based on all of the feedback we have been reading in this thread, we are going to be walking back some of our proposed Huttball changes along with adding a few new ones. Let’s start with what we are not doing:

• We will no longer apply Hinder to the ball carrier.
  
• Ball carriers will once again move at 67% move speed (down from 80%)
  

 

Although we are fine with tanks being the best ball carriers while under the effects of Hinder, we hear your concerns that these changes could cause Huttball to become a stalemate too often. We are also sensitive over your feeling that certain Classes would be too limited and unable to defend themselves while carrying the Huttball, since many defensive capabilities are tied to movement abilities for several Classes.

 

On the other hand, we plan to keep the proposed attacker point changes. We feel that players who properly position themselves to receive a Huttball pass should be rewarded. We also plan to keep the change that prevents stunned targets from catching the Huttball, as it allows characters that lack a knockback ability to have a viable and reliable way to intercept passes. It also has an additional benefit of giving players another reason to use their stun abilities on characters other than the ball carrier. Ultimately, it should mean that you get stunned a little less often while carrying the Huttball.

 

The hinder change was aimed at addressing specific issues with Huttball, and since we are reverting it, we’ll be tackling those issues with some new proposed changes.

 

New Huttball (and Queshball) Changes

• The Hutt will become bored of a single ball carrier and kill them after 45 seconds (down from 2 minutes)
  
• To win before time expires, the winning team will need to score 10 times (up from 6 times)
  
• The match will now last for a maximum of 10 minutes (down from 13 minutes)
  

 

The first change is intended to encourage passing the Huttball and increase tension when attempting to turtle for a win in a close match. The latter two changes will adjust how we approach this Warzone. If you see Huttball as a sport within SWTOR, we want to have the Warzone play out more as “who can score the most points within a 10 minute match” as opposed to “race to 6 points to win.” This will also ensure that all Huttball matches are 12 minutes or less (if you count pre-match). We hope that these changes along with our updates in matchmaking will lead to a lot closer and more compelling Huttball matches.

 

Let us know your thoughts on these changes!

 

-eric

These are all changes you plan to make on top of addressing the desync issues your incompetent group of game devs have been struggling with for years right?... right?

I am done playing huttball the new changes do not fix the issue with rolling classes. You might as well give instant scoring to rolling classes as soon as they pick up the ball Eric.. This is my feedback not attacking you just stating why i will not que in the new system for huttball.

 

I want you to watch this video Eric this is what huttball is 28 sec roll score that make for lop sided game play. None of your guys changes do any thing to fix the underline problem.

 

Right now as it stand my hole guild is refusing to play huttball with the new changes.

Have you considered not letting them pick up the ball in the first place or do you think operatives just magically receive it after the ball spawns? Also that video doesn't even show what you want it to show. In the first goal he doesn't even use roll until after the two fire traps. The other team white barred him way too early which prevented them from stunning him in fire and weren't able to kill him. He was totally visible and slowly walked past the fire traps. Any class can do that. And after that the other team doesn't even ATTEMPT to go for the ball at mid, they just let him slowly walk up and grab it. The other team played bad, they had multiple opportunities to stop him and didn't. That's not a class balance issue.