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Since they virtually never come to this forum, I think we should take the initiative and pound that thread with all that we've said over the years about the rampant cheating and wintrading in ranked and how nothing is being done to stop it.

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Since they virtually never come to this forum, I think we should take the initiative and pound that thread with all that we've said over the years about the rampant cheating and wintrading in ranked and how nothing is being done to stop it.

No. That's not the place to go complaining about any specific problem, whether it's ranked or storymode issues, bugged companions etc.

That thread is specifically to explain how communication can be improved upon between players and BW. Which, btw if they improved upon that would benefit those concerned about ranked and the problems in it atm.

All sections of the game need better communication to and from players/BW, there are literally hundreds of issues in the game and ranked ELO manipulation is just one.

No. That's not the place to go complaining about any specific problem, whether it's ranked or storymode issues, bugged companions etc.

 

That thread is specifically to explain how communication can be improved upon between players and BW. Which, btw if they improved upon that would benefit those concerned about ranked and the problems in it atm.

 

All sections of the game need better communication to and from players/BW, there are literally hundreds of issues in the game and ranked ELO manipulation is just one.

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

:rak_01::rak_01:

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

And all you'll do is get them to shut down completely again spamming PvP issues on that.

Work on one thing at a time.

And all you'll do is get them to shut down completely again spamming PvP issues on that.

Work on one thing at a time.

Exactly.

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

Even if they came to this forum and begged for suggestions I would not bother.

This game needs:

a) New management - as in fire everyone except for key developers and critical staff. The current ones are useless and burned out.

b) A lot more resources (money and qualified staff).

c) New servers (Australia / Asia)

d) Focus on advertising and a much better F2P model.

e) A complete overhaul of the game a new vision (bug fixes and long term plans and development).

This could be a great and popular game again if the above was met, I truly believe that, but it is clearly not happening. So don't bother with constructive criticism, the current management will only manage to destroy the game further.

Thanks everyone for the feedback feedback so far. I think this is a great framing Lhancelot so I wanted to take your post and hit some of the things you brought up, especially the questions. I have been working on some things to enhance communication and since some of them specifically involve win-traders, I can speak pretty directly to your post.

 

You mention the team being more active on the forums and so let me hit a few places where this can / will occur in the future:

• Some of you may have caught that a few months ago there was a job listing for a Community Coordinator. Dan joined us a few months ago and is the other member of the community team. However, the vast majority of Dan's responsibilities are behind the scenes (social media, blog writing, screenshots, and more). However, we may get to a point of having him step more into the forums especially around things like blog feedback.
  
• Win-traders! With the next Ranked Season starting soon, that means that we have been working on gathering all of the data, player reports, and are taking action against cheaters in Ranked. The person who has been handling that action in this round is a Live Producer that works with Keith and I named Mike. He is actually working on a forum post to talk about win-trading and what is happening. I would expect to see that from him by Monday. Going forward he can then engage with you about win-trading or anything else he is working on that is related to the community.
  
• QA - Our Quality Assurance team actually spends a large amount of time combing the forums for issues. Both bugs and feedback which they help in documenting and passing on to the dev team. We are in process on getting a "general" QA account that they can use to communicate with all of you more regularly, especially about bug status.
  
• Dev team - This is where I know all of you are "most hungry" for information. Getting dev team time to get into the forums can be tricky but we will continue to look for opportunities to do this. I have also been trying to get more in-depth write-ups including things like design goals from the dev team that I can pass on.
  

That is a few instances where I am trying to drive more communication to all of you that isn't just me posting information. Getting more of the team engaging with you will hopefully help in getting more communication going between you and the dev team.

 

Thanks.

 

-eric

Here's his response so far to feedback as well as the issues in Ranked WZs in case you guys missed it.

I brought it up as an example how people have been complaining about the cheating going on for ages and getting no response on the forums, an example of how they seem to ignore the players and never respond to the players.

Here's his response so far to feedback as well as the issues in Ranked WZs in case you guys missed it.

 

I brought it up as an example how people have been complaining about the cheating going on for ages and getting no response on the forums, an example of how they seem to ignore the players and never respond to the players.

Thank you, but I straight up think he is lying. It is all spin and empty promises.

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Since they virtually never come to this forum, I think we should take the initiative and pound that thread with all that we've said over the years about the rampant cheating and wintrading in ranked and how nothing is being done to stop it.

NO, please don’t. The thread over there doesn’t need to be diluted and derailed. The derailing of important threads and dilution of them often contributes to import I fomation or feed back being missed,

I think Lhance outlined the argument enough and further added, Musco should engage this topic in the pvp forums. If they dont engage it here, then we know Muscos thread is just lip service and bull **** meant to put out a fire and posting anything in it is a waste of time because they won’t do anything anyway.

Just wait till Monday and see if he does.

/popcorn.

I doubt anythings going to happen. maybe some pre written "we'll think about it" by some community aid logged into eric account. dont care really. this expansion is too far gone and to close to ending for any change to be impactful.

Thank you, but I straight up think he is lying. It is all spin and empty promises.

I pointed out in my post over there that most people now feel this way, including the usual BioWare defenders.

This really is his last chance to change and make us believe again. If he swings back to his old way of doing things, that will be it. Nobody will ever believe a thing they say again, most already don’t.

I hope he proves us wrong, but my heart says you are probably right in your assessment.

then we know Muscos thread is just lip service and bull **** meant to put out a fire and posting anything in it is a waste of time because they won’t do anything anyway.

I mean we know this already, dont we? Why else would he post just before quitting time on a friday?

Musco is obviously lip service and bs, because thats the only community managing he apparently has time for.

Not sure what a community manager does, but its apparently not managing the community.

I mean we know this already, dont we? Why else would he post just before quitting time on a friday?

 

Musco is obviously lip service and bs, because thats the only community managing he apparently has time for.

 

Not sure what a community manager does, but its apparently not managing the community.

In politics it’s call the “Friday trash”.

It’s when they throw out something they hope will be out of the news cycle by Monday.

You probably saw I wrote a very lengthy post over there and that is the last chance they’ll get from me if they don’t change.

No more will I sit back and give them the benefit of doubt.

I’ve been hypercritical in the past, but the **** storms that will come from me moving forward will be epic until they ban me from the forums. There will be no holding back because it will prove none of the feed back we give is ever listened too.

This is Muscos last chance to prove he’s not full of it. The balls in his court, the game is nearly finished, let’s hope he finally realises it’s crunch time from the communities perspective and not just another fire to put out.

I mean we know this already, dont we? Why else would he post just before quitting time on a friday?

Well. I am going to try to think on it with a positive outlook. At least he posted on the topic. That alone is a pretty significant thing when you think about it.

By posting on it today, this gives Eric time to read and consider everything everyone writes to him and respond appropriately.

If he responded to everything more things would come up, so perhaps this way by the time he does respond people will have gotten all their angst out and posted less emotionally and more reasonably. He can then interact a little easier by that point.

This is wishful thinking that this will happen, I know.

I am just trying to not be pessimistic and distrustful but it's hard not to be after the track record here.

its sad that your expectations are so low that a single followup is such a difference.

So true.

its sad that your expectations are so low that a single followup is such a difference.

lol yeah.

I quit my sub though, it aint like they are doing anything that is going to bring me back to the game anytime soon at the rate they are going.

I can afford to be optimistic now, I am no longer in the game enjoying the pain and suffering you guys are still a part of.

I kicked my SWTOR habit, all I got left holding me to the game is the forums right now and that's due to run out eventually.

what ultimately kicked this game for me was a revelation. I login for one reason only, solo ranked. I find all pve content boring, scripted and impossibly repetitive, as well as lacking utter challenge. would I have more fun in NiM? I highly doubt it. the only thing that would change is my rotation would be important.

I dont enjoy regs anymore, the only fun ones are hypergate, NC, VS and CW which frankly the classes have outpowered after so long. a maras pred gets them to any objective en masse in seconds. and now OPG huttball and yavin outnumber the good ones. (yes it is "5 to 4" but when you just dont enjoy 5 out of 9 maps they seem to pop so much more)

then desync in this game is bad, but the worst thing I deal with is server lag, my character is always 5-10 meters behind where he is on my screen. ever since west coast servers were shutdown I have to press dcds twice to make them work, and I have to literaly hop in place for a full second to pick up a pvp powerup and people can chase me/run from me when there should be no way for them to hit me or to far to hit.

so back to how SR has been the only content I login for and what changed in the past month. the only thing Im doing solos for is to one day have furious gear.... but you see.. its not as simple as that anymore. the game is no longer fun, its frustrating, irritating, and generaly a pointless hour sink as I realise Im just going through the motions. so I asked myself... "what is the point of having an epic looking armor in a stupid game? all games have a cool thing or two but I dont play those" and I couldnt come with an honest answer anymore. it is a stupid and dumb game. and having the furious gear is not going to fix any of the endless dayin day out annoyances.

but the worst thing I deal with is server lag, my character is always 5-10 meters behind where he is on my screen. ever since west coast servers were shutdown I have to press dcds twice to make them work, and I have to literaly hop in place for a full second to pick up a pvp powerup and people can chase me/run from me when there should be no way for them to hit me or to far to hit.

Welcome to my world. As an apac player I had this happen on the west coast servers too and even though I’ve now got an new ISP and faster international connection to the US and hence to the east coast, it’s still the same ping as before (my ISP was ****). But, even with the same ping, the ability activation lag is worse and so often the position lag Fs me up so I get stuck in obstacles, the ground or fall through the map.

Ranked was hard on the west coast (dead before DCDs activate), but it’s damn impossible on the east coast. I really miss my 19ms ping I use to have to the apac servers.

Something that you will think is strange is the extra ping actually highlights when people cheating. I don’t know the technical reasons behind it. All I can guess is we get use to the high lag, when there is any lag spike you instantly know because it can be game breaking. But when you can see there was no spike and only one player or guild causes this unexplained or unmeasurable lag, it’s apparent they are lag switching. I believe people who ordinarily have low lag don’t even notice it because to them, it may seem a stutter and not game breaking.

So often people say it’s because of my already high ping and I can’t tell the difference, but I also run ping Plotter while I play and I can see when there is a problem. I will always give people the benefit of doubt until I investigate properly and I track those players over many games to define if it’s only them. There is no easy way to determine if someone is lag switching and it requires a lot of time investigating it before you can be 80-90% sure that’s what’s happening. But you can never be 100% sure unless you are sitting right next to them or watching them stream.

The lag switching also looks different to the actual desync in the game, but is often mistaken for desync. Especially as the desync has gotten worse and everyone instantly assumes lag like issues must be the desync.

Hacking is hacking. People who can’t tell the difference don’t fully understand all the class abilities or the game’s mechanics... and bugs.

Anyway, enough about cheating.

The reason I wanted to respond was tell you what I do to minimise any possible lag or game interruptions and hopefully they might work for you too.

Let me first explain that I have a very good PC, but that doesn’t mean I cannot stream line or tune its performance like a race car to minimise any ingame interruptions. All cpu and memory usuage can add micro stutters (which isn’t an issue is you ha e good ping).

1. Make sure every windows app and service not needed to actually play the game is turned off or disabled. There are many guides on how to do this. I know from experience if I don’t set it up like this I can get micro stutters or interruptions and when you add that to high lag, it’s very noticeable.

2. Don’t run programs in the back ground unless you have too and make sure they are low resourced ones that won’t cause their own resource stutters.

3. If you have a good router, set up QoS to make sure you have priority over all other network traffic. Or better yet, stop other devices from accessing the network while you play. (I do this through an App for my router).

4. Don’t run your graphics set up at ultimate or have shadows on. Even with a great system, you will get lag issues in this terribly optimised game.

5. Don’t use wireless peripherals.

6. Check what path your ISP sends you to the servers and if there are any ping problems along the way or if it’s unstable (lots of spikes or packet loss).

7. Firewall and antivirus software can often cause tiny lag/interrupt stutters. If you are using Norton, there is an option to turn it onto silent mode. This doesn’t disable it or make you vulnerable, it just stops the software from doing any background tasks or constantly accessing the cpu or memory.

8.. The last thing is I use WTFast gaming VPN service. Without it, my ping is 20ms higher and it’s unstable. Using WTFast smooths out the ping spikes and reduces my lag. This may or may not be something that will help you as it’s different for everyone.

I hope some of that was helpful and you can minimise any lag you are getting

the game is no longer fun, its frustrating, irritating, and generaly a pointless hour sink as I realise Im just going through the motions. so I asked myself...

When you reach this point just take a break.

You may find if you just stop logging in for a bit, your patience returns and you can sort of recharge your battery so-to-speak. I mean do not log in not for a minute. Take a 2-4 week break.

I think of it as flushing my brain when I take breaks from games and often times I can come back and find enjoyment again.

My reason for stopping is more than just needing a break I refuse to do this gear grind and having locked in mods only put icing on this turd cake.

When you reach this point just take a break.

 

You may find if you just stop logging in for a bit, your patience returns and you can sort of recharge your battery so-to-speak. I mean do not log in not for a minute. Take a 2-4 week break.

 

I think of it as flushing my brain when I take breaks from games and often times I can come back and find enjoyment again.

 

My reason for stopping is more than just needing a break I refuse to do this gear grind and having locked in mods only put icing on this turd cake.

The problem is, take a break and play what?

black desert online, csgo, deus ex, assassins creeds, catch up on nintendo switch/3ds... really any console game lasts about 3 months these days for 60 bucks.

Im currently putting real effort into csgo mechanics as well as finally enjoying my 3ds and my psp vita. I also have several single player steam that well.. I just never got around to really getting into, what with swtor eating my time.

The problem is, take a break and play what?

Well, I went back to WOW but that lasted 2 weeks. I tried to get into it, and couldn't. I even tried to mess around with Banderal there and even his effervescent personality couldn't keep me there! I just can't get into WOW.

I just stepped away from games, I spend more time on music production, watching movies, TV, etc. lol some things not exactly healthy habits but I have improved on my music stuff so that's a plus.

SWTOR and other MMOs tend to pull me in and not let me go, so I suppose a MMO break has proven to be beneficial for me, at least for now.

I just couldn't handle the idea of doing a new gear grind, especially when I was still working on gearing many of my alts. A new gear grind and forced PVE activities sounded bad enough to make me disengage from SWTOR before they even released 5.10.

I hope they make game design changes and go back to being alt friendly and make gearing alts easier as well as customizable like it was in the past. A change in the meta would be nice too, the present meta of classes is stale.

I want to see some classes get makeovers. Like sorcs, PTs, sins, etc. Removing guard from DPS would be nice too. Make tanks real tanks with high survivability and low damage by making defensive stats useful. Stuff like this would lure me back.

Well, I went back to WOW but that lasted 2 weeks. I tried to get into it, and couldn't. I even tried to mess around with Banderal there and even his effervescent personality couldn't keep me there! I just can't get into WOW.

Heh. I think I only lasted a couple more weeks than you did. I'm kinda with trixie on the bows and swords thing. Why does EVERYTHING have to be fantasy themed. I was actually pretty hopeful for Secret World when that came out - being a modern setting game. But that didn't hold my interest for very long either.

I just stepped away from games, I spend more time on music production, watching movies, TV, etc. lol some things not exactly healthy habits but I have improved on my music stuff so that's a plus.

Yep, I look at my guitar sitting on my couch and think... "I should really be practicing China Grove right now." In fact...