Why Bioware is so hush hush for overall plans for open world pvp!

I think that sometimes we take the job of a dev for granted (including myself)

Every change has a lot of implications, just look at all those people QQing here each day. Therefor you need to do extended analysis before you launch anything, this means that the process is slow.

Also world pvp, I dont think there is an easy solution but im sure they are working hard on it - fortunatly I dont do world pvp as much so Im not to fuzzed about it.

I would how ever suggest that they had more people hired to answer threads like this. I think there is too little communication with the community. Just my opinion.

seemed pretty clear when they said " back to the drawing board". It was on one of the guild summit feeds

Yes they could tell us what they are doing. Here's how they can do it without a ton of ************ and moaning and would shut the trollers up.

There have been several ideas presented on fixing Ilum. No one idea is perfect, but all of them are better than what we have now.

BW compiles 3 different ideas from all the suggestions. In detail but how much doesn't need to be overkill. Give us sketches (of the zone), primary changes (e.g. smaller/altered map, additions/deletions from map, objectives, rewards/consequences, etc.). They are going to have that all laid out in a prototype design anyway, just summarize it. Lastly state a rough estimate of design time for each prototype. Make a disclaimer that the estimate is only that and is subject to change.

They take those three ideas and set up a poll in this forum and make it a sticky. If there is no clear decisive winner, pick the top two for a runoff and the highest vote wins. Allow comments of any suggestions that do not warrant a redesign of the prototype. Restrict comments to suggestions only.

It shouldn't take that long to get the design specs summary. When they are ready, start the poll and run it for a week. If there's a runoff, make it only 3 days. Trust me, this thread will get a ton of attention. Now BW can easily say this is OUR game and their PR will be very happy.

Make it available asap on the test server. Send out private invites for a few scheduled tests (allowing players to copy one 50 character over to test). Restrict access to only invited Ilum testers during that time. Get feedback on bugs and only mandatory change suggestions and update. Trivial changes can be added later in patches if needed. This is important, allow participants to post their impressions back in this forum. That way everyone knows what's going on. Come down hard on flamers but don't squash concerned posts.

Now we will know exactly what we are getting. This will definitely create a reason to resub. Win/win.

This is true. Happens with anything in life.

We are not asking to fix classes. This is about Ilum right or did I post in the wrong thread?

Which doesn't justify, in any way, BW opting to say nothing. Some players are always satisfied - we call them fanbois.

I would think this. But I'm sorry, with at least 100 million dollar budget ( maybe more) over 5 years of development, and 800ish employees working on the game..... This is a poor excuse for an MMO. Take away the V.O. and the Star Wars name and what type of game is left? A AAA MMO!? Hardly.

This game was half arsed and rushed, and feels dated. The PVP was a complete after thought and it's too late to go back and fix things with a weak engine.

I have played F2P MMO's that have had way smaller budgets and had a smoother launch with more ingame basic MMO' and PVP features than this game.

This game was never billed as a PvP-centric game.

This game doesn't feel dated. Are there things that need addressed and fixed? Yes. Let's be honest here, there are things in WoW which have never been fixed either. How's Vanish treating you?

Really? I've seen some shaky F2P conversion launches.

What would you like to see a MMO developer do to encourage "world PvP"? Keep in mind that this world PvP system must not lead to changing class mechanics which will impact PvE or warzones.

From my experience, many players do not regard world PvP as that important to them. No fairness can be enforced and typically victory goes to the side that had the element of surprise or the greater numbers. Actual skill typically does not apply. It's very difficult to get a large playerbase interested in something like that. This is why warzones have more appeal, they have a higher degree of "fairness".

They flat out said they are working on redoing Ilum but will take time so they are pulling emphasis away from it until fixed.

They also said they are planning full RvR options in the future ... not just Ilum-like, but FULL RvR. Of course this will take time.

So somehow the OP knew about the guild summit, was most interested about this subject alone yet completely missed the information about it and took the time to whine on the forums instead of researching it. Typical.

I was going to post this, but was beaten to the punch.

They aren't being secretive at all. They flat out told us what they're doing with open-world pvp (abandoning it for now until they can come up with a better idea).

Indeed. But the PVE is uber carebear and linear too so whats your point?

Yes it does feel dated, it can't even handle two full ops groups in the same area without lagging horribly. Games released 4 years ago that look almost as good can handle 100's in the same area = this game is dated.

And WOW sucked too, too linear and carebear as well, and there was open world pvp in wow past vanilla? huh, must be talking about two different wow's. Bottom line WOW sucked, and I'm not from that community, assume more.

Well let's see, for starters how about an engine that can support more than 8 v 8? Once they got that, how about zones that are bigger and more open in the world, and the ability to take others bases with a siege engine. And how's about making each planet with both factions not only quest in the same areas, but also make each planet it self an object that can be capped, which would work towards goals of global galaxy domination which while held would grant a buff or an unlockable planet to the current leading faction in the war?

I dunno, just some ideas thrown out there that would be better than what the brain childs at Bioware came up with for 5 years time and probably over 100 million in funding. I know, I know, that all went to voice acting, which is nice the first time through, after that, not so much.

this is what happens when big publishers such as EA and huge fan bases pressure a developer to release a game "on time"

What does that have to do with PvP?

If you are talking about having multiple raids of players in Ilum attacking each other, very few MMO servers can handle that. Look at the problems WoW had with Wintergrasp. They finally instanced it into a pseudo-battleground.

There was open world PvP, always has been in WoW. It was marginalized by a PvP system to hand out gear rewards - but at the core, there has always been open world PvP.

Again, this game was never designed to be a heavy PvP hitter. Take a look at recent history, MMOs and PvP do not mix very well in the first place. MMOs that have tried to make PvP their main offering typically have not had good success.