Feedback from a subscriber and why I'm losing faith in the game.

Just to note OP if you want to provide Bioware this feedback without getting agitated in the process email them. I know lots of people think the forums are a good place for communication with the devs, but as long as so many different people can reply to your thread it will never be a a good place. Anything posted here is subject to discussion and that is what is going on here. I can only imagine how frustrated you might be with some responses, but I recommend not even browsing this thread. You left your feedback, the devs will probably see it and you won't need to care what the community thinks. I'd still say to ensure the feedback reaches them you should also email them directly. Direct emails are far better forms of communication IMO.

If you write a well-mannered, non-inflammatory post to these forums asking for help with lag, people will help you. I've seen it happen time and again.

There are many sources of lag in any game, and the vast majority of these are not within the domain of control of the game's publisher. Only one is - server lag. The interesting thing about server lag is that just about everyone will experience it at just about the same time. That's the type of lag we saw in KDY for the first several weeks, before they fixed it.

If that's not the case, if only a fraction of people in the area you are in see the lag when you do, then there's nothing BioWare can do to help you.

You have to help yourself by figuring out what type of lag you're getting then addressing that appropriately. Again, make a nice, friendly post to these forums with this as the specific topic, show some patience, humility, and a willingness to listen and try things, and people will help you.

This is the first I've ever heard of this problem. Yes, the ticket system should probably not get stuck like this. But my gosh, man, 65 tickets?! Thicker skin, go with the flow.

What the heck are you reporting people for?

Of all the times I've heard any legitimate complaint of hackers, BioWare was on them like stink on... bantha droppings... immediately.

But hacks will exist in any game. Get a screen cap / video of it if you can. Then report it through the proper channels here.

The current team has communicated more real information more frequently than any before it. It didn't just stop. It's still happening. Again, more than ever.

When Musco first came on and he, like every single one of his predecessors, said they would communicate more frequently and provide better information, this cynic decided to count. Yep. I counted. Pretty lame, right? But I had heard it before and I wanted data to throw back in his face when he failed.

Result? More frequent posts with real content by far than any of the predecessors and it's still going strong. Best communication team by far and I'm impressed with what they've done.

Check DevTracker. You'll see it.

Could they do more? Probably. But they're never going to tell you about anything they don't have nearly ready to go, out of concern of customer disappointment when the inevitable... bantha droppings... happen and they are unable to deliver.

CS tickets are not meant for reporting. Right click, report, select reason. But be warned, if you are only reporting for foul language that isn't directed at a player, your report will most likely be ignored. The game comes with a chat filter to avoid seeing the language if you do not want to.

Excellent post OP! EXCELLENT!

Lack of developer communication is the biggest issue imho. And yes, I don't count 1 sentence codex stolen lore as developer communication

Wow, really? They are just words. Welcome to the internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbZhpf3sQxQ

OP brings up some good points ...

*Lag*
I get a LOT of lag moving around on fleet and in the Tactical FPs. But those are the only places where it consistently effects gameplay for me. I get some occasionally on Alderaan and Ilum, but for the most part my connection is stable.

*My tickets are full.*
That's a LOT of tickets. I'll average a few a week (bug reports or ninja looters mostly) and currently have none open. So I have no idea how one account can have 65 still pending - unless they happened in such rapid fashion that they were mistaken for a DoS attack.

*Hackers*
Pretty sure there are hackers in PvP because there are (unfortunately) hackers everywhere. Something to consider is premades pwning GSF as well as unranked WZs which gives the impression of hacking. Get 3 Maras synchronizing Predations in Huttball on Ventrilo and it gets ugly fast. Get 3 escorted Gunships triangulating with an escorted bomber on Ventrilo and it gets ugly fast. To borrow from one of my all-time favorite comedians ... ranked premades invading unranked WZs typifies the "pussification" of PvP.

I still play both, but not as much as I used to because competing with premade kill zones as a solo player isn't much fun.

*Queue times*
I have zero queue issues with WZs, GSF - or even GF when I queue as a tank - on Harbinger, Jedi Covenant or Begeren. However GF, when I queue as DPS, is a totally different story. I've left queues after having been in them for 30 minutes queued as deeps. But it's like that for every MMO with holy trinity grouping systems. The tactical flashpoints would be a great solution if they could just fix their friggin' lag.

*Developer communication.*
Personally, I could not care less if dev either doesn't personally respond to my requests or is withholding information about something they are working on and not ready to divulge. Dev tracker and the Cantinas are enough for me in that regard. I'm okay with just not being that damned important.

Having said that, there are bugs that have remained since beta. LOTRO also has some. WoW also has some. STO also has some. Every MMO that's ever been made and is still going has some. They are annoyances to be sure. But so is the POS Windows operating system the game runs on ... and the occasional CO bottleneck it runs through ... and the game's threading which all but bypasses my gorgeous killer graphics card and heads straight for the CPU's throat ...

*Team balancing*
GSF has a way for the teams to balance classes before the WZ begins. The players just have to communicate during class selection. Ground WZs do not have that luxury because the classes are fixed upon player entry into the queue. Which takes me back to the issue of premades having such an insurmountable advantage in a solo environment.

You mentioned concern over WZ finder not seeming to balance the teams' roles out. Here's a question: wouldn't a role-centric PvP system create the same queue time problems that the role-centric GF system has now?

The ToS do not mean "no cussing". We are not in kindergarten here, and the occasional f-bomb, idgaf, ****, ffs, or f u, is not in and of itself disruptive to chat. Now if someone is just spewing a constant stream of obscenities without any actual discussion, that would be reportable.

This is pretty much it. Due to some poor decisions and optimizations, even a relatively "high end" system can have these issues. I used to see the exact same issues as you until I upped my RAM to 16GB and moved to an SSD. With 16GB, I have 10-12 in use while playing SWOTOR. That means that if you have 8GB or less, the system will have to use HDD virtual memory. If you have a mechanical HDD, then you have just now double-downed on the slowness.

In PVP there are certainly hacks. I have three times seen a Sorc using Force Barrier sail down the ramp and across the goal line in Huttball to score. Not sure how that works using just the given game mechanics.

Nice post btw!

But SWTOR Unleashed does help. That being said, without 16GB of RAM it is only slight (to load all the recommended files onto the RAM drive you need 12GB free RAM).
Agreed, but what will improve the PvE queue times is incentives to queue in underrepresented roles. Blizzard did it with WoW to great success (DPS queue times were cut in half).

I noticed a small improvement when I turned off nameplates

Maybe they did try, and came to realization that it is not possible or at best extremely resource intensive (AKA thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars in equipment upgrades) and therefore stopped trying.

I hate to say it, but I agree. When I saw that number I thought, "***?!?"
Just a little cynical are we now?


I think this above all else regarding your tickets is true. OP, Have you thought that maybe it has gotten to the point where you are akin to the boy who cried wolf? CS, "OMG yet another ticket from him."