Dev Post AlexModny Posted January 15, 2015 Dev Post Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) Hello PvPers! Season 4 is planned to last roughly 3 months, starting with Game Update 3.1 and ending with Game Update 3.2. As of right now, Game Update 3.1 is planned to go live in about a month (and is already on PTS, so please check it out!). However, as always, this is subject to change. After the end of Season 4, we would normally have a Pre-Season lasting a few weeks to a few months. However, for Season 5 there will be no Pre-Season – we will go straight from Season 4 to Season 5. We decided to nix the Pre-Season because there will not be a gear tier update for PvP in Game Update 3.2, which negates the main reason we had Pre-Seasons in the past (Allowing as many players as possible to gear up during that time). This does not mean we are doing away with Pre-Seasons forever or that there won’t ever be new tiers of PvP gear, just that Season 5 will not have either of those things. I also wanted to assure you that we continue to read and value your feedback when it comes to the Ranked PvP experience and rewards suggestions. Two of the adjustments we will be enacting is that the Top 96 title in Season 4 will be Class specific (akin to what it was in Season 2) as a result from this forum’s feedback. Secondly the Tier 3 rewards (lowest) will have a floor rating in Season 4. We will watch the season and see where ratings are then set where the cutoff number will be, but characters with very low rating will not be receiving any rewards. The goal here is to reward players that are participating in the spirit of ranked play. These are minor adjustments to be sure, but nevertheless is an example of upcoming changes based on your feedback. Be on the lookout for more updates regarding Ranked PvP in the future including rewards and other developments. We are very excited about 2015 for Ranked Seasons and hope that y’all are too! As always, looking forward to your feedback! Edited February 13, 2015 by TaitWatson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyFG Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Fantastic news! Send my regards to Eric Moscow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerba Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Whoa, must have missed the memo; when did we switch to a 12-week content schedule? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lattervane Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Does BW have any intention of fixing the extreme unbalance in the pvp environment right now? It's a little disheartening to see developers talking about class balance and focusing on ... Jugg/Guardian Tanks and Assassin/Shadow Tanks but absolutely NO WORD on Mara/Sents, Merc/Commando's, and Sniper/Gunslingers. How can you guys prioritize putting tanks at the top of your list of things to balance? If you were serious about listening to the community you would see that what's important to the players is class balance not season rewards. Make a post addressing the class balance as a whole and what your intention is towards each class going into Season 4 and 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TezMoney Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Thanks for the update. The removal of the inbetween gear tier pre-seasons a good idea. I'd also again like to put forward additional changes I'd like to see in ranked: First I think it would get people more interested in playing ranked if the awards were released near the beginning of the season. You don't have to give us details or the tier brake down, basically just a sneak preview type with a general idea of what to expect at the end of the season. With a goal to work toward people will be more inclined to queue, but then comes the issue of people getting a decent rating early and just sitting on it until the details are released later in the season. This creates sort of a lull in activity midway through. To encourage continued participation I suggest adding win totals along with the rating requirements of each tier. For example: Tier 3: 10 wins + T3 Rating Tier 2: 50 wins + T2 Rating Tier 1: 100 wins + T1 Rating Top 96 will have to have 150 wins to be eligible for the titles. Basically you would release the number of wins needed for each tier in the beginning of the season along with the awards preview, then near then end of the season give the detailed info on awards and rating requirements. Another cool idea would be to release the details a little at a time throughout the season as teasers, just to get the community buzzing. The number of wins I gave are easily obtained by anyone who attempts to be active in ranked throughout the season, or super active in that last month or so. It be OK if Tier 3 had no win requirement but I think Tier one HAS to have at least a 100 win gate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korevas Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) Personally I'm somewhat hesitant to cheer for harder to get rewards, because right now, it's extremely tedious to get into a ranked match at all. On my server, if you're not playing at prime time it's next to impossible to get more than one ranked match per hour, if that. Is there any news on the "better than cross-server" front that might help with that? Edited January 15, 2015 by Korevas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evolixe Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 You have a LOT to do before allowing any sort of ranked season to go live will become acceptable. Look, we want to help.. But there is seriously not enough communication between the community and the devs/bioware staff. Aelanis xinika and myself could work you wonders with ideas on how to balance the Assassin (and probably a couple of ideas on sorcs and pt's too) class for PvP and keep PvE in line as well. We want to. Give us the oppertunity. We're also not the only ones.. But you really should sit down and have a deeper chat with top players from various problemclasses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmajamma Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) As always, looking forward to your feedback! Lol. Good one, Alex! Edited January 15, 2015 by Jimmajamma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyDragonflame Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Before Season 4 starts, we wanna see nerf of sins and sorcs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxeDragoneth Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) Two of the adjustments we will be enacting is that the Top 96 title in Season 4 will be Class specific (akin to what it was in Season 2) as a result from this forum’s feedback. Secondly the Tier 3 rewards (lowest) will have a floor rating in Season 5. Two very excellent bits of news. How can you guys prioritize putting tanks at the top of your list of things to balance? Maybe because Tanks were nearly non-existent in solo ranked and nothing but guardbots in Group ranked? Not to mention Juggs have been the big brother of tanks, leaving Sins as a decent alternative and having a PT tank gimp the team dramatically. The balance changes between the three tank classes have been good and brought them closer to eachother. I do agree that we need better class balance across the board, but that's been the case since the game was made.. Edited January 15, 2015 by AxeDragoneth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teclado Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Secondly the Tier 3 rewards (lowest) will have a floor rating in Season 5. This is excellent. Don't reward the trolls and AFKers. I do believe that there are a few issues remaining, however. The suggestions made my TezMoney above should be considered. I'm fairly certain that it has been far too easy for some to achieve top tier or even all galaxy titles by working the group ranked system (see the number of players who reached tier 1 with only 10 wins in S3 and tell me that seems legit). Requiring a minimum number of wins would at least make it much more difficult to work the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlrikFassbauer Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 This is excellent. Don't reward the trolls and AFKers. I do believe that there are a few issues remaining, however. The suggestions made my TezMoney above should be considered. I'm fairly certain that it has been far too easy for some to achieve top tier or even all galaxy titles by working the group ranked system (see the number of players who reached tier 1 with only 10 wins in S3 and tell me that seems legit). Requiring a minimum number of wins would at least make it much more difficult to work the system. tl;dr : Make the system as difficult as possible ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarrinMarshall Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 So, judging from this post, in addition to not getting any new gear for long while, theres no mention of actual PVP warzone content either, which means the same o same o without any new zones to look forward to? Terrific. P.S. If you start nerfing Sins, You better start nerfing Sorcs, Powertechs, and Jugg/Guardians as well or you could do the right thing and just tweak upwards the crap classes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackopsranger Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Be sure t o set minimum expertise or remove bolster for ranked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prodiigy Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 You have a LOT to do before allowing any sort of ranked season to go live will become acceptable. Look, we want to help.. But there is seriously not enough communication between the community and the devs/bioware staff. Aelanis xinika and myself could work you wonders with ideas on how to balance the Assassin (and probably a couple of ideas on sorcs and pt's too) class for PvP and keep PvE in line as well. We want to. Give us the oppertunity. We're also not the only ones.. But you really should sit down and have a deeper chat with top players from various problemclasses. The day bioware takes advice from two average assassins . And who haven't played in a long time is the day I cancel my sub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teclado Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 tl;dr : Make the system as difficult as possible ! Make it as difficult as possible for cheaters to work the system while simultaneously encouraging people to play more for the shiny rewards, yes. Absolutely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evolixe Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 The day bioware takes advice from two average assassins . And who haven't played in a long time is the day I cancel my sub. You won't be missed, ta taa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capote Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) The saddest part is that the entire work of the PvP team (1-man, true) is resumed to season starts/endings and rewards. Even with the current state of class balancing he seems really thrilled. Then he comes with minimal changes (that should exist for years and wouldn`t take a day of work) and announces it as if it were some awesome news. Edited January 15, 2015 by Capote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarackian Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 I'd say this is all meaningless if you don't do something about class balance. If the changes to tanks are the only changes you're making before the season starts, it will be regarded as a meaningless season or, at the very least, a season in which some classes are not invited. To put it more simply, you need to help out the advanced classes that are basically cannon fodder: Mercs, Marauders Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaiyne Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 So you're letting Madness sins go as is... that's funny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TezMoney Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) So you're letting Madness sins go as is... that's funny You don't know all what's in patch 3.1, nor if they have other patches planned before 3.1. Edited January 15, 2015 by TezMoney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeNaCe-NZ Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Is anything going to be done about the win trading cheats for ranked? After this recent PVE exploit pretty much all we here is "but BW do nothing about the win trade cheats in PVP" and many conclude it's actually a much bigger deal/issue than the current PVE exploit that went around ( however much thy may just be trying to cover their own butts ). So in the spirit of fairness shouldn't BW do something about this or at least make a statement/stance on this as they had done with the PVE exploit? Or is it really not that big of a deal/widespread and those that are making a big deal of it in the PVE threads are just trying to deflect blame? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaiyne Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 You don't know all what's in patch 3.1, nor if they have other patches planned before 3.1. It''s on the PTS homie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TezMoney Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 It''s on the PTS homie. Patches don't get changed from PTS to live? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haystak Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Patches don't get changed from PTS to live? Logic would dictate that given a month, that we should expect to see more changes. Historically however, BW has reguarly let the ball drop on balancing before continuing on with the season. So expect sins pts, and sorcs to remain largely unchanged, unless their is something glaringly wrong with pve balance. In other words, get to work on those special classes, as the current state of balance looks to be here to stay for the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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