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Meet the Developers: Rob Hinkle


CourtneyWoods

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When is swtor going to move beyond stun based pvp? I dont care about op or underpowered classes. Its been over a year and resolve despite all the pr and lack of dev time spent on it is still the same. Its he who can chainstun the most wins.

 

This game has lost over a million people and this pvp's biggest issue a year in still remains chainstuns.

 

We need less pr saying resolve is fixed and actual REAL dev time addressing the matter not cartel market time actual dev time regarding the lack of resolve and making the game not stun based pvp.

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Thanks for answer my question Rob.

 

I've seen it mentioned by some theorycrafters that the weakening blast stacks do in fact stack the poison damage (I haven't really had the opportunity to check myself), but even if that's true, I'd much prefer to just have my own stack and not share. :cool: Especially if a less-geared sniper ends up stealing most of my buff that I was about to use for Cull.

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Stealth classes recently had a nice tweak, however, operative and deception are in most cases behind other classes in dps, when we are talking the specifik stealth spec concealment and deception. With a minor tweak i think you could see alot change for the classes making them more viable.

 

Concealment, make hidden strike useable out of stealth but no knockdown maybe tweak the energy out off stealth so it wont be spamable.

 

Deception (assassin in general) some boxes with either accuracy, crit rating or willpower would be nice to bring stats on par with other classes.

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...

 

Debaucher:the vast majority of the pvp community that visits the forums feels dissapointed from the lack of replies from the PvP development team. Since you read the forums, would you be kind enouph to start replying to any constructive threads?

 

Also, any chance we get more Warhammer online Scenarios in SW:TOR? Ancient Hypergates is a success and personally, i 'd love a version of the Battle for Praag scenario revamped for the Star Wars universe. Perhaps in a Corellia setting, since its an urban enviroment and it matches the story of the planet?

 

Last but not least, the community needs a solid update on the future of ranked warzones/competitive play in general. Perhaps on the next "state of the game" article?

 

Rob:

  • I agree, I haven't done a good job closing the feedback loop on the forums and that is something I would like to try to correct.
  • Glad to hear you are enjoying Ancient Hypergate! New Warzone ideas are floating around the team being discussed, and we definitely look at other games for possible influence when we are coming up with ideas. We aren’t 100% decided on the next gametype yet, and there are definitely some WAR inspired versions in the mix.
  • I’ll see what I can do about getting a good “State of the PvP Game” update out, to let everyone know what we are thinking and what is coming up. I think people will be excited!

 

Prove it, Rob. We all know EAWare's employees are masters of promises. We rarely see those promises delivered. Start engaging in this forum's discussions. By yourself or by proxy, we don't care. We just want something out of you besides "you will be excited", because right now you sound like a drug dealer promising us a new "thing" and all we expect is that you will "stick one up there " as you usually do.

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Rob:

We certainly look at ToRParse for data, but like all other data sets it is limited in what it shows and what context influences it. For example, if I were to sort the top DPS value on Kephiss in EC 8-man mode, I would immediately see that a Mercenary is listed at the top of the charts. However, if you dig into the charts, you can see that part of that number is based on a bunch of trash kills that have influenced the final result. When we detach the source (the player) from the log, it makes it much more difficult to look at context. All of that being said, we really want to do better about collecting raw logs directly from the player, with the hope that will really help us properly react to the feedback we receive.

 

[/b]

 

Does the team consider damage from trash mobs as insignificant then? Are non-boss fights not considered a part of the game experience? If this is the case why isn't aoe damage significantly increased for all classes so we can get onto the important parts of the gaming experience the boss fights? Or do you think that trash should be removed as you don't consider them to be relevant to the fight?

 

If we look at the Kephiss encounter in EC during the fight there are a number of trash mobs that appear, surely being able to kill them quickly and thereby give the healers and tanks a break as well as avoid any mechanics that might cause damage is a good thing. And therefore should not be ignored in working out the various class contribution to the encounter.

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Does the team consider damage from trash mobs as insignificant then? Are non-boss fights not considered a part of the game experience? If this is the case why isn't aoe damage significantly increased for all classes so we can get onto the important parts of the gaming experience the boss fights? Or do you think that trash should be removed as you don't consider them to be relevant to the fight?

 

If we look at the Kephiss encounter in EC during the fight there are a number of trash mobs that appear, surely being able to kill them quickly and thereby give the healers and tanks a break as well as avoid any mechanics that might cause damage is a good thing. And therefore should not be ignored in working out the various class contribution to the encounter.

 

It's not that trash mobs are insignificant.

 

It's that Merc does mediocre/average damage on every part of that fight except the Trandoshan adds. They appear on the leaderboards for the fight purely because of being able to AoE down the Trenchgutters. Without those packs of strongs in the encounter, Merc wouldn't even be on the list at all. The other classes that are perennial chart toppers have none-too-shabby AoE damage, and significantly better single target damage as well.

 

The point is that the TORParse leaderboards don't entirely reflect game balance, though you can draw some pretty obvious conclusions.

 

Edit: I'm more legitimately concerned about the process that let the current state of Rage/Focus and bubble stuns go live. Rage/Focus needed quality of life improvements, but it's been live long enough that it should've been identified as being overtuned long ago. Likewise, it would take the class teams only a few rounds of 50 PVP to see how poor of an idea bubble stuns were. Doesn't change that Sorc/Sage needs some balancing love in PVP, but their solution wasn't thought the whole way through.

Edited by Omophorus
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i truly hope this can be an interactive and constructive topic.

 

meaning, it should not take another 2 weeks to form and wordsmith answers to these questions and topics.

 

like the guy who used the drug dealer analogy, pretty spot on.

 

if you want to START doing the right thing, and perhaps regain the confidence and loyalty of the community and playerbase, interaction and honest conversation will go a long way.

 

it's ok to admit you made mistakes. it's ok to say the game is not balanced. (it is not, and if you honestly DON'T know that, then please, DON'T respond). i can easily prove this in a couple hours of gameplay and a couple of minutes of parsing research.

 

i'm sure their is much the community doesn't know behind the scenes, or do they need to. but, the lack of communication and acknowledgment of flaws is going to be a significant factor in the success going forward, i believe.

 

it has been MONTHS of imbalance and poor PvP balance, as well as underpowered, insignificant classes.

 

listen to your community, participate in active, hot discussions. what have you got to lose, other than more subscribers/players?

Edited by T-Assassin
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Rob:

  • I agree, I haven't done a good job closing the feedback loop on the forums and that is something I would like to try to correct.
  • Glad to hear you are enjoying Ancient Hypergate! New Warzone ideas are floating around the team being discussed, and we definitely look at other games for possible influence when we are coming up with ideas. We aren’t 100% decided on the next gametype yet, and there are definitely some WAR inspired versions in the mix.
  • I’ll see what I can do about getting a good “State of the PvP Game” update out, to let everyone know what we are thinking and what is coming up. I think people will be excited!

 

The above reinforces my worst fears! (reinforces != confirms)

 

The only concrete thing you say above is "ideas for new WZ". How about addressing the problem of "too many one sided matches, not enough close matches"? This is a problem for both rated WZ and regular WZ.

 

How about giving us the ability to do 8v8 challenge matches (perhaps these have no commendation or XP rewards)? The ability to self schedule matches (even if they give zero rewards) opens up so many possibilities e.g. player run tournaments.

 

How about the HUGE problem of disconnects in RWZ? E.g. allow reconnects to rejoin the WZ rather than having to soldier on 7v8?

 

Of course, it goes without saying that you should deliver on the promise of a Season 1 of RWZ.

 

I fear you will continue to ignore these important structural issues in favor of rolling out yet another WZ, level 55 skill trees et cetera.

Edited by funkiestj
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The short answer is, "No." But here's the long answer....

 

Duty Officers are items. Remember that, first and foremost.

 

The quality of a Duty Officer is attached to that item, and not a modifier that is stacked on top of a base item.

 

All "Kaitlyn Eloise McMillan" Duty Officers have the exact same stats and quality, just the same as all "Phaser Beam Array Mk XI [Dmg]x2" have the exact same stats and quality.

 

Attempting to modify their quality, and that of any associated Active Roster Power, is not technologically possible. The only way to 'fake' this, would be to create 4 quality levels of every single Duty Officer in the database.

 

At this point of time, there are a monstrous number of individual Duty Officer items available in Star Trek Online - I couldn't even guess at the number, but it's at least tens-of-thousands. This amount of data has already caused us issues internally with structuring reward tables, and maintaining the Doff system as a whole, among other things. And the only way in which we could perform the item upgrade you are requesting, would be to increase that massive amount of data by around 300%.

 

Furthermore, Doff Assignments are not capable of reading the input they are given. The only information that an Assignment can read from an input, is whether or not it meets the requirements we have set in place. Requirements that have to be set to "and" and never "or". This means that, in order to allow you to upgrade a specific Duty Officer Item, into a higher quality version of the same item, we would have to hand craft a separate Assignment for every single upgradable Doff in the game.

 

It's not impossible. But I hope you can see why there's a snowball's chance in hell that it's ever going to happen, using the current Duty Officer system.

 

I'm just leaving this here as an example of an actual Dev, actually addressing the players, and giving an actual answer. And even tho the answer was a resounding NO, the forums did not explode, the game did not die overnight, and in general life moved on.

 

Take a lesson.

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I'm just leaving this here as an example of an actual Dev, actually addressing the players, and giving an actual answer. And even tho the answer was a resounding NO, the forums did not explode, the game did not die overnight, and in general life moved on.

 

Take a lesson.

 

An extremely interesting and well argued no though....

 

I agree with your point the more developed dev posts even if the summary is "no", "hell no" or "you're joking, right?" tend to produce better responses than the usual EA PR approved fluff that seems to be the hallmark of the limited communication in this game.

 

Probably the best example of how to do it I have found on this forum is the dev post in the species request poll talking about what is practical given the engine and given that constraint what is practical for story and lore. Admittedly not everyone responded well to the post which is unfortunate but the response was overwhelmingly positive that the dev had taken time to respond and even more explain their stance - even though the answer was mostly "this won't work because". The "because" is really important in these kind of posts.

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The other issue is telling your customers "its costs to much to do that" you never ever tell your customer that it makes the company look bad and it made him look incompetent just very poor customer relations.

 

 

An extremely interesting and well argued no though....

 

I agree with your point the more developed dev posts even if the summary is "no", "hell no" or "you're joking, right?" tend to produce better responses than the usual EA PR approved fluff that seems to be the hallmark of the limited communication in this game.

 

Probably the best example of how to do it I have found on this forum is the dev post in the species request poll talking about what is practical given the engine and given that constraint what is practical for story and lore. Admittedly not everyone responded well to the post which is unfortunate but the response was overwhelmingly positive that the dev had taken time to respond and even more explain their stance - even though the answer was mostly "this won't work because". The "because" is really important in these kind of posts.

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Rob:

We certainly look at ToRParse for data, but like all other data sets it is limited in what it shows and what context influences it. For example, if I were to sort the top DPS value on Kephiss in EC 8-man mode, I would immediately see that a Mercenary is listed at the top of the charts. However, if you dig into the charts, you can see that part of that number is based on a bunch of trash kills that have influenced the final result. When we detach the source (the player) from the log, it makes it much more difficult to look at context. All of that being said, we really want to do better about collecting raw logs directly from the player, with the hope that will really help us properly react to the feedback we receive.

 

Actually, the problem with that log (I assume you mean Cay'liy) is not the Trandoshan adds, but rather the fact that the combat log and/or parser bugged, resulting in an aborted parse. The *only* part of that fight which is represented in that combat log is the trandoshans, which is obviously misleading. The second-highest DPS is a scoundrel (and a guild mate of mine), who has a similarly abbreviated parse due to Vanish. The highest *legitimate* parse on that leaderboard is, to no one's surprise, a Powertech. Continuing down the line, we have a Maurader and a Commando, then a Vanguard, a Sniper, a Gunslinger, etc…

 

A better fight for this is the Dread Guard in Asation, where the 8 man HM charts read like a list of FOTM classes.

 

I'm not quite as skeptical as most; I do think that the class balance in this game is at least within spitting distance, all things considered. However, it could be a lot tighter. My aforementioned scoundrel guildy rolled a vanguard just for kicks. He decided to main swap when he discovered that his vanguard was doing 250 DPS more than his scoundrel…where the vanguard was in 58s and 61s and his scoundrel was in min-maxed 63s. That should never happen.

 

If nothing else, torparse has a phenomenally good repository of combat logs from the game's top tier PvE players. While I would be very surprised if Bioware were actually using torparse's leaderboards to make decisions, they absolutely should be data-mining the repository to augment their own analytics. This sort of thing is very important, I think. When the community as a whole has come to a (essentially unchallenged) conclusion about the state of a particular class, Bioware should pay attention. When that same community can provide a mountain of empirical evidence to back up this opinion, Bioware should act. All we're asking is that the class balance should stem from the data. Right now, the data isn't looking very positive for certain classes.

Edited by KeyboardNinja
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Hi Rob

 

I hope you're ok and well, I have a question well more of an idea really which I think would be a good idea is it possible instead of going around with just one companion you give us the option to go around with two of our companion just like in "Knights of the old republic 1 + 2" ??? :)

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Well I know insulting the devs and BW won't get a response, but its really disheartening to see that it takes two weeks to get a response from them in a thread they encouraged us to post questions in. Well anyways I wanted to ask Rob if there are any plans to help Scoundrel/Operative getting back on their feet. I know the healing tree's are awesome right now, but their Scrapper/Concealment tree's are not doing great.

 

Plenty of players in the Scoundrel community are calling for a finisher move, something that we can use to finish off our rotation. We are asking for the same finisher move that plenty of other classes already have, something that we can use on Targets below 30% health.

 

I posted a suggestion in both the scoundrel forums and the suggestion box, but I wanted to post in as many places as I could so I might get a response back.

 

My suggestion is actually really simple and honestly wouldn't change the class much and wouldn't take much effort to change. Currently we have two PvE abilities that can only be used on incapacitated NPC's, we have Headshot and Cheap shot. Both are basically the same, the range is the only difference, and they share the same CD. My suggestion is to change the Cheap Shot into our finished for Scoundrels. This ability requires melee range, just like most of the Scoundrel's other abilities. We would still have one more PvE ability to use on incapacitated NPC's.

 

Giving Scoundrel's this ability would help us with some more sustained DPS, it would not make us OP or allow us to "Run around in groups stun locking people", and it wouldn't give us more burst which is what most non-stealthers hated about this class.

 

So here's crossing my fingers for some kind of response...

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Hello everyone,

 

Please discuss the Meet the Developers: Rob Hinkle blog in this thread!

 

If you have any questions for Rob, please ask them here. In the near future, we'll have some answers from him for you!

 

I call this thread a lie and I call Courtney a liar. There apparently is no Rob Hinkle. Or at least he is not working for this company. How else can you explain him being introduced without any kind of response from him?

Considering how little Courtney and others at support do, I guess they fill their time with bogus threads like this. Probably so they can laugh at us when we take them serious.

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Thanks for answer my question Rob.

 

I've seen it mentioned by some theorycrafters that the weakening blast stacks do in fact stack the poison damage (I haven't really had the opportunity to check myself), but even if that's true, I'd much prefer to just have my own stack and not share. :cool: Especially if a less-geared sniper ends up stealing most of my buff that I was about to use for Cull.

 

A similar thing seems to be happening with the Deathmark from Madness tree. I don't know if that was ever addressed, but I wonder if the same thing is happening, like one affliction getting bonus from both stacks.

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you're steering the discussion in a different direction.

 

i've never said Merc is the only class with issues. i'm debating the fact that Mercs DPS is VERY substandard compared to its mirror. and that range has MINIMAL impact in PvE, as it is a dance, and you can learn the moves. hence the MP VG parse...an almost 80% ranged fight, with LOS...VG vs sniper...i've recorded the highest parse ever submitted. evidence...

 

the majority of scripts involve moving, and mercs relying on casting severely hinders their DPS in both PvE and PvP realms.

 

DPS is not fine. mercs are not fine. nor are others...my discussion and argument is with mercs. that is who i am representing.

 

and you have not acknowledged, or responed to, a single item we were discussing previously.

 

you said Mercs are fine because they have range vs. VG's 10m limitations...yet, you just debunked that by acknowledging marauders and such parse higher...what are you talkiing about? remember the "closing the gap"? i do. you better get back to engineering, as debating and proving supporting evidence is not your strong suit.

 

and it was BW that claimed all DPS specs should be ~5%...so, YES they should be within 5%...um, cuz they effing said so!

 

I didn't debunk anything I said. Marauders have 4m range (I.e. 6m less than PTs and have damage adjusted accordingly...again range changes and damage changes).

 

Also, mercs may not be "optimal" but optimal doesn't happen...ever. There will always be someone snivelling about their class getting dumped on or neglected.

 

If mercs are so broken...how is it that the mercs and commandos in my guild can pull their weight in progression operations...yet you claim that's impossible? Sometimes you have to look in the mirror man. Commandos are no better off than mercs either...in fact...mercs regen more energy and attacks cost less. The system of 1/12ths means troopers are off by .25 per attack. Their regen is also off because of this! So you can attack more times for the same amount of energy than they can. It's been proven. Stop complaining.

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I didn't debunk anything I said. Marauders have 4m range (I.e. 6m less than PTs and have damage adjusted accordingly...again range changes and damage changes).

 

Also, mercs may not be "optimal" but optimal doesn't happen...ever. There will always be someone snivelling about their class getting dumped on or neglected.

 

If mercs are so broken...how is it that the mercs and commandos in my guild can pull their weight in progression operations...yet you claim that's impossible? Sometimes you have to look in the mirror man. Commandos are no better off than mercs either...in fact...mercs regen more energy and attacks cost less. The system of 1/12ths means troopers are off by .25 per attack. Their regen is also off because of this! So you can attack more times for the same amount of energy than they can. It's been proven. Stop complaining.

 

you are terrible at debating, plain and simple. i NEVER said Mercs/Commands can't pull their weight in OPs...NEVER...quote my post, please.

 

if you truly think Merc/commando is fine, you are a dolt.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=548897

 

now, i don't expect you to read through the 100+ pages of insight and information, PROVING how gimped mercs are, compared to other classes. i don't expect you to even know of the post similar to this that reached 60+ pages.

 

why? because you're talking out your arse.

 

i've shown you PROOF...i've provided evidence, parses, and in-game examples and experience.

 

all you've done is claim you're an engineer (which i'm starting to believe, because most of the engineers i deal with in electronics, have no social or logical thinking outside their expertise, which is the only thing you have proved).

 

you have brought NOTHING in terms of backing up your debate with hard evidence.

 

explain to me the leaderboards on torparse...explain to me this (ripped from another post):

 

further evidence:

 

Merc/Commando performances. from torparse.com

 

HM KP:

BT- 2 top 50

J&S- 1 top 50

Foreman- 4 top 50

Fabricator- 5 top 50 (and i was told that fight don't count)

Karaaga- 4 top 50

 

EV HM:

XRR- 4 top 50

Gharg- 3 top 50

SOA- 9 top 50 (look at shadows/sins!!)

 

EC HM:

Z&T- 4 top 50

F&S- 1 top 50

Vorath- 4 top 50

Keph- 12 top 50 (hmmm)

 

TFB HM:

WH- 4 top 50

CHK- 1 top 50

Op9- 10 top 50 (and i know why)

Keph- 0 (ZERO) top 50

TFB- 2 top 50

 

Merc is being outperformed, MASSIVELY!! hold their own, sure...outperformed, TOTALLY.

 

deny that, and you're a fool...

 

or, PROVIDE EVIDENCE to support your side of the debate.

 

*EDIT* get your mercs and commandos in your guild (LOL, my guild CAN'T have both Merc and Commando, but you're "special") to come in here and tell me how "fine" their DPS is...how fine it is compared to snipers, marauders, sentinels...how they are within the +/- 5% DPS BW claims they are, or should be. i'd love to read it...oh, and ask them to provide evidence, too...please...parses, numbers, SOLID evidence...not opinion and hearsay.

Edited by T-Assassin
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First...my guild has a pub and imperial branch as well as several other games...so differentiating is not something I normally have to address.

 

Second...who doesn't want to burn down mobs faster? Nobody...ask the guy parsing 2288 on his annihilation marauder if he thinks it's enough...I bet he says no.

 

It's ok...you are just not happy with MORE than adequate...you want BEST...mercs weren't designed for that. You want a heavy armor wearing more mobile sniper without cover. I get it...guess what though? IT DOES NOT EXIST! What you see is what you get!

 

If you concede they are adequate...what else could you ask for? Some pvp fixes? Ok...fine...but you're not on about pvp...you want a tankmage. You can't have it....now what?

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First...my guild has a pub and imperial branch as well as several other games...so differentiating is not something I normally have to address.

 

Second...who doesn't want to burn down mobs faster? Nobody...ask the guy parsing 2288 on his annihilation marauder if he thinks it's enough...I bet he says no.

 

It's ok...you are just not happy with MORE than adequate...you want BEST...mercs weren't designed for that. You want a heavy armor wearing more mobile sniper without cover. I get it...guess what though? IT DOES NOT EXIST! What you see is what you get!

 

If you concede they are adequate...what else could you ask for? Some pvp fixes? Ok...fine...but you're not on about pvp...you want a tankmage. You can't have it....now what?

 

First off have you even played a merc in PVP recently? If not play one the come back and tell us what you think

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First off have you even played a merc in PVP recently? If not play one the come back and tell us what you think

 

he's lost, dude....he says Merc DPS is "fine"...

 

yet, i've proven, through thorough evidence, otherwise. and his comeback is, "i want this, i want that", which i never said. he never disproves anything i say with facts or evidence, just hearsay and opinion.

 

all i'm asking for, and trying to prove, is Merc DPS is HIGHLY underperforming versus other classes. and i'm not saying other classes are not in the same boat...

 

also, i've never even asked for any nerfs...

 

just proving that Merc would benefit in PvP and PvE scenarios if they weren't so easily interrupted and able to cast on the run or instantly...all PvE parses PROVE this, and PvP...well, there's over 160+ pages of evidence and complaints...i don't even need to justify that!!

 

it is BW, not me, that stated all DPS classes would be +/- 5% within on DPS...and i've proven otherwise.

 

yet, i still cannot get a legit response or argument explaining why this is.

 

you ask ANY Merc that has played PT (or pub equiv.) and they will agree...if they disagree, then they can prove me wrong through performance...i.e. parses.

Edited by T-Assassin
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