These are fixes that, in my opinion, are incredibly important to the success of the game's PvP system. Class balance issues are left out of the mix because that's a whole different issue.

In addition to the problems, I've listed some possible fixes. Many of them are good starting points for other ideas. Please, if you have any suggestions for other possible fixes, post them, and if they're good, I'll update the thread, giving credit.

1. Voidstar

The problem:

With two equally geared, equally skilled teams (assuming they do have some skill), the game will never leave the first room. No one will get through. The game doesn't move forward, and it's just a slow, boring, zergfest. Rarely are games decided by which team reached the datacore quicker, or a close 6-5. Most of the time, it's 0-0, 1-1, or 6-0.

Possible fixes:

• Put a limit on number of respawns for defending team per door. Similar to how it's done for the two red barriers, but more lives. Testing would have to take place to determine the best number, but I'd start with something like 20 for the team.

• Make the respawn timer shorter for offense or longer for defense.

• Make the spawn for offense closer to the objective or make the spawn for the defense further from the objective.

• Instead of the doors facing the same way, have one face east and the other face west, making it imperative for a team to strategically balance the number of players they allocate to each side. Or simply make the doors further away from one another.

2. Medal System

The problem:

With the way it's set up, certain classes get medals much easier than others. Some classes simply cannot get a 2.5k heal or a 2.5k hit until 50 and gear comes into play. Healing classes get much lower medals unless they do damage, which rewards that particular play style, but leaves the pure healers wanting. Tanks can get 3 medals almost instantly (2k, 5k, 10k in one life defense).

Possible fix:

• Reward commendations based on a multiplier of damage, healing, defense, objectives. For example, 100k dmg = 100k healing = 50k defense = 2000 objective as far as how many commendations are rewarded.

• Overhaul the system

3. Champion bag system

There's already a great thread on this, so I won't talk about it.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=204881

4. Farming kills

The problem:

You can blame it on the system or you can blame it on the people in it, but people hate being the recipient of a 5-0 Huttball in 5 minutes, then 10 minutes of farming much more than people like doing the farming. In addition to the Huttball farming, I've been in games where people open all of the doors in Voidstar, only to farm for the next few minutes. Obviously, it cannot be done with as much cruelty as the 10 minute Huttballs, but it's still very troublesome.

Possible fixes:

• Make each ball score cut the time remaining by a certain number of minutes or reduce the number of scores required for victory. A lot can be done in these terms.

• A perpetually increasing bolster buff for the team not carrying the ball, or for the team on their half of the field. For example, after 2 minutes of being on your half, you're given a certain level of bolster, increasing your health, damage, mitigation. Obviously, a lot of testing would have to be done to balance this.

5. Expertise / Gear Scaling

The problem:

Class balance issues aside, the scaling of gear in general is really high. If you get into a Warzone as a fresh 50 DPS with 12k life going up against another straight DPS with 16-17k life who has a full Champions set, you're at an incredibly huge disadvantage. Not only does he had 40% more health than you, but he also does 10% more damage and takes 10% less damage. That's a huge advantage he has, in addition to the fact that he's likely more skilled due to the time investment he's made.

Possible fixes:

• Lower the amount of expertise on gear or lower the gain you get from it.

• Not sure if this is already the case or not, but make expertise gains non-linear and diminish at higher ratings. For example, a 50 expertise increase when you have 0 to start with will give you a higher yield than 50 expertise when you have 400 to start with.

• In general, make the ratings on items much closer to one another. Going from a green 102 item to a purple 136 is huge, and makes the gap that much bigger. However, going from a green 102 to a purple 116 is not as huge, and would make the gap much smaller, giving less geared players a chance.

6. Ilum

I'm not prepared to tackle this one because I've only been there for around 3 or 4 hours, and it's just a mess. I have no suggestions for a fix because of a refusal to ever really go back.

Bonus

Wins not counting / Warzone Daily

The problem:

The daily Warzone requires three wins to complete and get a bag. Some victories aren't counted for whatever reason, lengthening the time it takes to complete the daily. In addition, when you're constantly put on a team that cannot win, it is overly frustrating especially if you're a class that cannot directly contribute to the objective of the game as well as other classes such as an Operative/Scoundrel or Marauder/Sentinel in Huttball.

Possible fixes:

• Fix the wins not counting.

• Instead of 3 wins, change to 3 wins or 6 completed.

Games shutting down because >8 people on one side

The problem:

Title says it all.

The fix:

It's pretty obvious, I'd say.

Games starting with <8 players on each side (thanks to Kernall and many others for posting)

The problem:

Gaming beginning with less than 8 players per side gives a huge advantage to the opposing team.

Possible fixes:

• Halt the starting of the Warzone until at least 7 people on each side are in the game.
  
• Begin the game with a 15-20 second warning as soon as 8 people per side are in the game.
  

Targeting

The problem:

This for me is a massive problem in games like Huttball where it is actually important to target the ball carrier....fine if they are standing alone, but troublesome if they are in a group and time is of the essence.

 

Hard to tell who you have targeted and difficult to tell who is the ball carrier.

Possible fixes:

• Make nameplates larger (or have the option) and make them clickable.
  
• Improve overall targeting priority
  
• Make the person who is targeted more easily to distinguish from others by adding some kind of glow/arrow/different color nameplate/etc.
  

Please help by contributing suggestions for fixes of these issues.

TL;DR: Read the big words.

#3 is not the greatest idea. i agree with the medals thing but not the "pass the ball x number of times". i cant find the post but as someone said people would be fighting over who gets to carry the ball and/or score

my idea is just to make bags for each type of gear with each bag giving comms for that particular set. each bag has a lvl requirement to open so no lvl 20 valors with full champ gear

What about ability delay in warzones?

That's my number one concern atm.

I have my own gripe, and it applies to mostly Voidstar and Huttball, so it applies to this thread.

get rid of the respawn shields.

the maps are big. the objectives are spread apart. after I die and respawn, assuming I'm RIGHT THERE when the respawn shield goes down, I'm STILL a good 30 seconds away from combat. throw that shield up and now I'm 45 seconds away from combat.

this leads to my other gripe that applies to respawn shields: getting kicked for not leaving the respawn area. more than once I've respawned, missed the timer and had to wait and so I start typing in chat and then miss the next timer (the shield is CLEAR. the timer circle thing is WHITE. it's easy to miss the timing) and then bam, I'm kicked from the match.

just my 2 cents.

In regards to the gear thing, oranges with daily mods in them are 124, if anyone is using 102 gear at 50 then they have been vendoring upgrades for the last few levels...

I have 2 level 50's, one of them being a fresh 50. On the fresh 50, most of my gear is 112 gear, but a few of it is 102. With the daily/Correlia commendations, it can be increased, but I'm mostly talking about the gear disparity between a fresh 50 and an experienced 50.

#3 is not the greatest idea. i agree with the medals thing but not the "pass the ball x number of times". i cant find the post but as someone said people would be fighting over who gets to carry the ball and/or score

 

my idea is just to make bags for each type of gear with each bag giving comms for that particular set. each bag has a lvl requirement to open so no lvl 20 valors with full champ gear

Sounds like you're talking about two different things. What exactly is your suggestion for the medals one? I very much like your bag commendation suggestion. It has worked in the past, and people are used to it.

What about ability delay in warzones?

That's my number one concern atm.

I left it off because it also plagues the PvE world (even if it does affect us more), and I wanted to keep this purely PvP related.

I have no problem with voidstar and certainly dont find it boring if neither side doesnt get out of the first room as long as we are having a good battle. Putting in 'lives' will make it incredibly easy to walk over the defenders. You just gank them. Everyone hits the same person, they die very fast, you gank the next person and so on. If the attacker is always having people come back, then there is no risk to them and the defenders will be decimated.

You note that putting in lives would turn the game into an "attack the same person" type of game. If that's not what your team is doing right now, then something's wrong. Being able to CC a person and plant is not currently an option due to the long plant time. Your only option is to kill the other team, and focusing players down is the most efficient way to do that.

I have a much larger issue with the way the Warzones are implemented. Far too often the matches will start 5v8 or 6v8, leaving the short team at an incredible disadvantage. Voidstar is probably the worst example of this.

I'm rather disappointed that they didn't put in some sort of protection to prevent short handed matches from starting to begin with.

I have a much larger issue with the way the Warzones are implemented. Far too often the matches will start 5v8 or 6v8, leaving the short team at an incredible disadvantage. Voidstar is probably the worst example of this.

 

I'm rather disappointed that they didn't put in some sort of protection to prevent short handed matches from starting to begin with.

This right here is the biggest problem, and voidstar is the worst for it. At least in Civil War you can make a valiant effort to hold them off, but having the team with more breeze through to the datacenter before your op fills out is terrible.

Voidstar

The game can start with 8 players on the attacking team and 5 players on the defending team. The defending team has an insurmountable disadvantage right from the start. The shutdown sequence may start but aborts a person trickles in a few minutes later.

This scenario plays out reasonably often for the team on the lower pop faction (usually Republic on many servers).

The barrier shouldn't drop unless team numbers are balanced at the start.

The same scenario plays out similarly with Alderaan and Huttball but the nature of these warzones means you at least have a chance of recovering from a poor start - Voidstar is extremely difficult to come back from.

Edit: lol, the above two posters posted the same thing as me although I was typing this at the time. Guess it shows you this is an issue.

Regarding Ilum, it was broken before and at least now there is a reason to go there. The problem is if none of the other side comes to the center, your side spends hours riding around trying to ninja bags from each other. I've done the daily the last three days and will not sure I will again. The need for 30 armaments or kills is way too much with as few of the opposing side comes to fight, or so few armaments on strange respawn timers.

Why not have the armaments spawn at center, northern, and southern with needing 20 or so. Just a tweak to make the change with good intentions actually fun.

You missed off Targeting.

This for me is a massive problem in games like Huttball where it is actually important to target the ball carrier....fine if they are standing alone, but troublesome if they are in a group and time is of the essence.

Hard to tell who you have targeted and difficult to tell who is the ball carrier.

I have a much larger issue with the way the Warzones are implemented. Far too often the matches will start 5v8 or 6v8, leaving the short team at an incredible disadvantage. Voidstar is probably the worst example of this.

 

I'm rather disappointed that they didn't put in some sort of protection to prevent short handed matches from starting to begin with.

Thanks for posting. I added this one to the "bonus" section.

What about ability delay in warzones?

That's my number one concern atm.

100% becouse if this is not FIXED after this month,, im gone. Maybe we should make videos

And put it on youtube, mabye not, not have no one to play with if we do this.

And ilum.. what a joke.

I have my own gripe, and it applies to mostly Voidstar and Huttball, so it applies to this thread.

 

get rid of the respawn shields.

 

the maps are big. the objectives are spread apart. after I die and respawn, assuming I'm RIGHT THERE when the respawn shield goes down, I'm STILL a good 30 seconds away from combat. throw that shield up and now I'm 45 seconds away from combat.

I agree with this. It makes the game more about luck than it should be in my opinion. I've had really close games that I know we lost just because a few of us happened to miss the timer at a crucial time.

You missed off Targeting.

 

This for me is a massive problem in games like Huttball where it is actually important to target the ball carrier....fine if they are standing alone, but troublesome if they are in a group and time is of the essence.

 

Hard to tell who you have targeted and difficult to tell who is the ball carrier.

Thanks. I added this one as well to the bonus section, and I added a few potential fixes. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Also, let's stick to topics we as a community can assist in fixing. We all hate ability lag, but we have nothing meaningful to contribute on that topic other than to vent our frustration.

Bonus

 

Wins not counting / Warzone Daily

 

The problem:

 

The daily Warzone requires three wins to complete and get a bag. Some victories aren't counted for whatever reason, lengthening the time it takes to complete the daily. In addition, when you're constantly put on a team that cannot win, it is overly frustrating especially if you're a class that cannot directly contribute to the objective of the game as well as other classes such as an Operative/Scoundrel or Marauder/Sentinel in Huttball.

 

Possible fixes:

 

• Fix the wins not counting.

• Instead of 3 wins, change to 3 wins or 6 completed.

This to me is the most infuriating of problems having just logged off having played 19 warzone matches, and still not completed my daily, in total i had 5 wins, and my count still remains at 2/3 completed. As a healer its all the more frustrating when your healing people that seem to be completely useless! The win/loss ratio seems bad some days through rotten luck, and more salt in the wound via wins not registering is infuriating! Your solution of 6 completed or 3 wins seems like a sound idea imho, to people like me that have limited time to play it would be a nice solution!

llove it

Ilove it

This to me is the most infuriating of problems having just logged off having played 19 warzone matches, and still not completed my daily, in total i had 5 wins, and my count still remains at 2/3 completed. As a healer its all the more frustrating when your healing people that seem to be completely useless! The win/loss ratio seems bad some days through rotten luck, and more salt in the wound via wins not registering is infuriating! Your solution of 6 completed or 3 wins seems like a sound idea imho, to people like me that have limited time to play it would be a nice solution!

Yeah, I think the 6 played or 3 wins would be a good change for the daily quest. Playing 19 Warzones and still not getting the daily is absolutely ridiculous.

I agree with this. It makes the game more about luck than it should be in my opinion. I've had really close games that I know we lost just because a few of us happened to miss the timer at a crucial time.

While I agree that the force shield may be problematic, getting rid of it completely on Voidstar would be problematic. It would become fully impossible for the attackers to win without some sort of a delay on defender respawns. Think of how hard it is to place the bomb as-is.... Now imagine if the everyone you just killed was instantly back in battle. I think the better solutions would be individualized respawn timers that starts for each person as they die.