lol this whole thread is amazing. OP, credit for your attendance on the forums but you really do protest too much about gearing. Higher level gear is a reward for consistent players. It does give an advantage but it's not game breaking. As long as people are augmented fully and stimmed, bolster raises them to a competitive level. I'd argue that in reality, most games (regs and ranked) are won and lost by basic skill, and indeed I see players ranging from <2k dps to >4k dps with the same gear. Players who know how to defend and position and those that don't know how, with the same gear. Some players get globalled in 5 seconds and i'm like "ain't no gear gonna fix that."

You said:

"the only pvp in the game that doesn't have gear issues or big gear gap is pre 70 pvp"

then acknowledged

"Sure there can be ability imbalance and some could say skill imbalance"

Yes. Pre-70 has huge ability imbalances as low levels miss key defensives, abilities and utilities (and as other people have noted, bolster there isn't as balanced as you think). In 70's, everyone has their full ability range and the ability to choose suitable utilities for pvp.

Find top players on your server and discover how they go with 208 gear, for instance. Do they sit in a corner and wait for the opponent to take pity cause they're 'undergeared', or do they run in and dominate because they're better than their opponents?

If you're still caught up in the idea that gear is letting you down, gtn has plenty of lvl 240 mods, enhancements, implants, hilts/barrels etc. Aside from (being generous) the hilt and barrel, I'll bet that it doesn't make as big of a difference (in a real match) as you think.

250 bolster was a mistake. They fixed that. Let's move on and enjoy being rewarded with better gear for playing at a high level.

On the flip side, that also mean less premades, so it's a toss up I guess. And it's [/url]

I take this back. It would appear that Scare Bears are once again running their premades in lowbies on TRE. So sad that people will resort to healer premades in lowbies, but I guess kids will be kids.

Sometimes i like to dream about blizzard made swtor. It could easily be the most succesfull game ever

I used to be a crazy Warcraft fan until MoP. Started disliking the gameplay long before that, but the lore and the Warcraft skin kept me going, until mop. Now i can't stand it.

I would hate for me to start hating the Old Republic too, after they destroy it as they did Warcraft. I would rather have Bioware's questionable design decisions, but staying true to the core of the game, than a shallow, uninspired, watered down hogwash.

I take this back. It would appear that Scare Bears are once again running their premades in lowbies on TRE. So sad that people will resort to healer premades in lowbies, but I guess kids will be kids.

LoL 😂

EA isn't the problem and given SWTOR is the second incarnation of a Star Wars MMO- a theme park is a gold mine, a traditional MMO- where Star Wars nets the crowds is stories otherwise, you're just drawing from the MMO crowd after the initial Star Wars fans check it out and they don't last forever.

 

The problem is who is currently assigned to running SWTOR and the fact EA need to suck up the bad publicity and intervene. I can't blame EA for Bioware-esque style 'we know what we're going- gamers are judgemental morons who don't know what's good for them so respect our artistic integrity and applaud our talent' which galls me because for a company that has made good games over the years, they do attract some egomaniac control freaks who drive them into the ground because they 'can't be wrong' and put them in positions of power.

 

And if I get censored for writing that, it's because it hits close to home.

I would buy it being an EA issue long before a bioware issue. There is a reason EA has won "Worst company in America" twice, and they have a loooong history of cash shops and microtransactions like the cartel market running and/or ruining there games I believe it was the latest SimCity that had those issues, as well as DRM "always online"issues. EA is just a garbage brand.

I would buy it being an EA issue long before a bioware issue. There is a reason EA has won "Worst company in America" twice, and they have a loooong history of cash shops and microtransactions like the cartel market running and/or ruining there games I believe it was the latest SimCity that had those issues, as well as DRM "always online"issues. EA is just a garbage brand.

They won that award because of Mass Effect 3, the backlash against Bioware for that reflected so badly- reflecting on it, it's especially embarrassing considering The Bank of America was in that contest, and immature as frell. Always online has become a lot of games and it's not as bad as Ubisoft who had a person in charge refer to PC gamers as pirates and really did have an always online policy across all their games via uPlay.

I'm not saying EA aren't into microtransactions and aren't your typical big publisher but a considerable amount of heat has come from decisions taken by Bioware where they literally refuse to accept fault for things that upset their player base. EA apologized and refunded like mad for the SimCity debacle- when's the last time a dev or community manager here actually apologized?

They won that award because of Mass Effect 3, the backlash against Bioware for that reflected so badly- reflecting on it, it's especially embarrassing considering The Bank of America was in that contest, and immature as frell. Always online has become a lot of games and it's not as bad as Ubisoft who had a person in charge refer to PC gamers as pirates and really did have an always online policy across all their games via uPlay.

 

I'm not saying EA aren't into microtransactions and aren't your typical big publisher but a considerable amount of heat has come from decisions taken by Bioware where they literally refuse to accept fault for things that upset their player base. EA apologized and refunded like mad for the SimCity debacle- when's the last time a dev or community manager here actually apologized?

While I don't know too much about Mass Effect or SimCity, I do know from reading gaming articles that Bioware is a shell of who they used to be. Once EA bought them, most of the talent either left or was moved to other EA projects.

I think Bioware are really just a front for EA. While Bioware may have some autonomy, at the end of the day they report to EA and they hold the purse strings and I would assume they apply a large amount of influence on certain things.

With EA holding the SW licence from Disney, they can just palm off work to their multiple studios under the EA banner. All you have to do is look at how a lot of EA games end up, to know that EA aren't doing the IP justice.

I think Disney made a huge mistake in assigning EA the sole licence for the IP. I think it was just a lazy move by Disney to say "here's the licence, go make a heap of games for us". All that did was lock that into a group studios that may or may not have the talent to make such games.

What would have been better is to keep Lucas Arts (gaming office) going and get them to chose the most appropriate studio for each particular game. They still could have farmed projects to EA if that's who they wanted for something. But now the SW IP is locked into a EA system of doing things for X amount of years. If they F up a game they just blame that studio, when really it should be EAs responsibility to make them all successful. Plus remember EA is run by accountants, not gamers like studios used to be.

I think if a hugely successful quality developer like Blizzard or even one or two of the boutique gaming houses out there were to be given a project like swtor, the game would be legendary and end up being one of the all time SW games.

Sometimes i like to dream about blizzard made swtor. It could easily be the most succesfull game ever

I don't think that KOTOR lovers would agree to that.

There is a reason EA has won "Worst company in America" twice,

Given by people who had not the slightest idea of what the Bank Of America did - or outright didn't want to know (as they weren't affected.

Giving EA this award was an outright very selfish manoeuvre.

I don't think that KOTOR lovers would agree to that.

Have you seen that video with the complete graphics overhaul of KotOR? Its like the graphics of skyrim ultra with the gloss of need for speed. It was crazy.

Given by people who had not the slightest idea of what the Bank Of America did - or outright didn't want to know (as they weren't affected.

 

Giving EA this award was an outright very selfish manoeuvre.

Yes there are worse companies that affect our day to day life more. This is just an example of how bad EA is as a company in context of the gaming industry and games we play.

While I don't know too much about Mass Effect or SimCity, I do know from reading gaming articles that Bioware is a shell of who they used to be. Once EA bought them, most of the talent either left or was moved to other EA projects.

 

I think Bioware are really just a front for EA. While Bioware may have some autonomy, at the end of the day they report to EA and they hold the purse strings and I would assume they apply a large amount of influence on certain things.

Actually the founders left over this and the Mass Effect 3 debacle and it wasn't for EA, it was for the fact that what they did hadn't been well received and they blamed the players for it. You had writers who came out and leaked what had happened with that and the opening start of what this game was, class stories aside, was all Bioware. They had an exodus after both games.

Sim City required a persistent connection, there were technical issues and from refunds to free games, EA did put work into fixing the discontent. The problem with their lack of connection has been they can't anticipate problems because as said, they aren't gamers. They are good with customer service but they depend on the studios heavily so while the big instructions like 'retain subscribers and increase revenue' might come down from them, they have issues which I think certain studios take advantage of.

Yes there are worse companies that affect our day to day life more. This is just an example of how bad EA is as a company in context of the gaming industry and games we play.

And it was backlash from a game's ending and the fact the now departed CEO (who was a tool) kept saying stupid things around the same time. People really, really didn't appreciate being told they were terrible for not respecting their artistic integrity. EA didn't make two egomaniacs kick out the other writers and they didn't make various figures in Bioware at the time, outright attack players and treat them like garbage. They might have had responsibility for the dumb DLC message but that was solely on Bioware and no matter how badly they were acting, it wasn't on the same level as literally destroying people's lives and no one should be using this in an argument against EA.

Actually the founders left over this and the Mass Effect 3 debacle and it wasn't for EA, it was for the fact that what they did hadn't been well received and they blamed the players for it. You had writers who came out and leaked what had happened with that and the opening start of what this game was, class stories aside, was all Bioware. They had an exodus after both games.

 

Sim City required a persistent connection, there were technical issues and from refunds to free games, EA did put work into fixing the discontent. The problem with their lack of connection has been they can't anticipate problems because as said, they aren't gamers. They are good with customer service but they depend on the studios heavily so while the big instructions like 'retain subscribers and increase revenue' might come down from them, they have issues which I think certain studios take advantage of.

 

And it was backlash from a game's ending and the fact the now departed CEO (who was a tool) kept saying stupid things around the same time. People really, really didn't appreciate being told they were terrible for not respecting their artistic integrity. EA didn't make two egomaniacs kick out the other writers and they didn't make various figures in Bioware at the time, outright attack players and treat them like garbage. They might have had responsibility for the dumb DLC message but that was solely on Bioware and no matter how badly they were acting, it wasn't on the same level as literally destroying people's lives and no one should be using this in an argument against EA.

EA games all started to get micro transactions etc about the same time. Wouldn't it be possible the cartel market was a directive from EA as well as F2P? Or it could have just been a reaction to the market doing similar things.

IMO I think going F2P as much as they did to make the bulk of their money off the cartel market was a bad move. If they'd just wanted to get people to try the game they could have given them a 30 day pass or even 60 days as well as limited the lvl they could go up too. This is what a lot of other games do. I think they lost a lot of subscribers when they changed that model.

Not only that, but because they basically gave F2P most of the game for free, those F2P just kept demanding more free access while us subscribers subsidised them.

Now wether part of that idea was EAs or not, as with most things in this game, it was poorly implemented. I do blame Bioware for not having quality control. Over the years they have had some good ideas, but they never follow them through to their logical conclusion, so they never implement them properly. It's like they have collective ADHD and get distracted half way through an idea or implementation and move onto the next thing. There is zero attention to detail and this is where lots of the bugs and player rage comes from. I think that is poor management, but also a side affect of F2P and the cartel market taking resources from the game.

I think they realised that F2P wasn't the best idea and that's why they decided to not give the story for free and only give it to subs. Now they've brought in CXP which F2P don't have access to and they are complaining about it. But they always relent with the F2P demanding more access and eventually give them some access as the expansions get older, I expect they'll do the same with CXP soon.

They've really dug their own grave because they've alienated all of the core subscriber player base and driven most of us away over the last 2 years. Now the game can't survive without F2P because there just wouldn't be enough people.

What Bioware need is to get some quality control and either listen to their core player base or hire some developers who are also gamers and can help steer the game in the right direction. Certain people such as the CMs and some others (Ben) should have time put aside at work to get in and play the game as part of the community and this should be mandatory. They wouldn't need to play at home, althought that should be encouraged. I think if they were actually part of the community, they might have a better understand of what players want and we would probably never have most of the issues we do because they would be their issues as well, so they wouldn't cause them to start with.

you do realize F2P players usually make up more of a games profit margins then subs?

In successful hybrid MMOs... it's not the fault of them that it isn't here, just more mismanagement by Bioware Austin and I may have no intention of ever playing as a non-sub now but they really aren't the problem plaguing this game. They are apparently good scapegoats for the fact they couldn't turn this around.

While I don't know too much about Mass Effect

Having in mind your forum signature, you will love it, heh.

Seriously though, you said you were canceling your sub. Use that opportunity to experience the awesomeness that is playing the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time.

PS : The current xcp system is a copy paste form the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer gear system, except it works there.

*sry for offtopic*

Having in mind your forum signature, you will love it, heh.

Seriously though, you said you were canceling your sub. Use that opportunity to experience the awesomeness that is playing Mass Effect trilogy for the first time.

 

PS : The current xcp system is a copy paste form the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer gear system, except it works there.

 

*sry for offtopic*

Concur, but keep in mind that it's a FPS. Story and world are amazing, I can't recommend the ME trilogy highly enough.

They're adding 250% xp again, so there goes any fun in mids and lowbies 😢😢

All I've seen is about CXP, not XP itself unless the engine is so simple (wouldn't be surprised), that they can't boost one without the other.

All I've seen is about CXP, not XP itself unless the engine is so simple (wouldn't be surprised), that they can't boost one without the other.

Here's a link

http://www.swtor.com/info/in-game-events?intcmp=sor_bwa-mkt-t-us-lp-117

Sometimes i like to dream about blizzard made swtor. It could easily be the most succesfull game ever

If blizzard made it several mechanics would be put in to make certain classes non viable for pvp. There are a few devs who have done pvp well or as well as we will probably get. Blizzard is not one of them.

Tanks are less than useless in WoW pvp, so be careful what you wish for.

Not entirely true as long as you pick the right talents. I've been playing WoW and just returned here. I play a Druid tank and I know my role in each type of battle ground. Sometimes I am running flags and sometimes I am protecting my healer. If you understand those basics, you can do fairly well on a tank.