I'm very glad Bioware responded so fast to the issues of pure RNG gearing introduced with Galactic Command, but the system proposed in the Dev Stream is unfortunately an unnecessarily convulted chimera of all the previous systems with all the negative aspects mixed together and brought back. There's no need to bring back what was NOT good about previous systems and disregard what was GOOD about Galactic Command gearing idea. Introduce ONE new currency, the Command Tokens, and work with them as the supplemntary (& complimentary for doing harder and bigger-group-based activies) system along with RNG Command Crates.

 

1 WZ - 1 Command Token (alternatively 1 Unassembled Component)

1 SM Boss - 1 Command Token (alternatively 1 Unassembled Component)

1 Galactic Command rank - 1 Command Token

 

New Gear Vendor Tier 1 - 10 Command Tokens per Piece (alternatively also + 10 Unassembled Components).

 

1 Ranked Warzone - 2 Command Tokens

1 HM Boss - 2 Command Tokens (EV/KP bosses excluded)

1 NiM Boss - 3 Command Tokens

 

New Gear Vendor Tier 2 - Tier 1 Price x2

New Gear Vendor Tier 3 - Tier 1 Price x3

 

I think it would help achieve a few key things:

- 1) no return of loot drama, arguments or ninjas returning in any form, all dropping tokens assigned to each players. GC system was a big relifef for the greater raiding population that does NOT keep Excel spreedsheats of dividing loot and Master Loots everything with 1 unquestionably trustworthy leader. Tons of raiding happens in PUGs, why re-introduce the worst aspect of the Unassembled Gear drops back into the game again? The system you proposed means that some lucky players and some ninjas will walk away fully geared Week 1 by doing every Operation and tons of WZs while others will be left with only RNG Crates. Why allow this to happen when you can have assigned Command Tokens/Unassembled Components for everyone participating Ops/WZ group effort, vastly increasing the gearing-rate by allowing people to do as many Operation bosses & Warzones as possible while still keeping control of it it and making it fair?

- 2) no RNG ops token random drops on top of RNG rolling for said drops on top of RNG Command Crates rolling (on top of ninjas, greedy guilds etc)

- 3) no big disparency between PVE and PVP reintroduced back for no reason, I find it really troubling in the stream proposal to let PVPers purchase direct pieces while PVEers need to get through 2 new RNG gates to get specific drops, especially as queuing for a WZ and getting Command Components is much different than killing Ops bosses

- 4) no THREE new currencies weirdly mixed and gated between each other for the same gear, defeating the whole point of Galactic Command streamlining of the clunky mess of the endgame gearing, currencies and rules used to be. There is NO point reintroducing Unassembled Gear & Components to block players from "cashing in" their retroactively granted Command Tokens Week 1 instantly because those with most time, luck or ninja skills will STILL walk out fully geared Week 1. It's pointless to make the system so awfully convulted just to allow some to still bypass it anyway. If it has to be done, add Unassembled Components to BOTH PVP and each Ops boss as assigned loot for each player but you should not add rollable Unassembled Gear back into the game.

- 5) Solo/casual players still rewarded for bad luck in RNG Command Crates, every 10 (or 20) Ranks they would be able to buy a specific piece to make up for lack of worthy loot in their Crates. If you're already giving solo/casual players access to best gear, make it an actual access, not a facade. Current droprate of purples in GC system is clearly no greater than 10% and that doesn't even take duplicates or worthless Clicky relics into account. No Solo players will have full set until well into 200s. Reward them for persistiency in leveling up their Command Ranks as well despite bad luck in RNG. PVPers and PVEers would still be vastly favoured in the new system by being able to aquire much more Command Tokens/Unassembled Components by doing countless WZs/Ops.

 

Additional suggestions would include:

- Replace Cartel Certificates as currency with Command Tokens - let people buy WORTHY vanity items & decorations for a highly valuable endgame currency, I think it would be an appropirate currency for such items and connect vanity and gameplay aspects of the game

- Perhaps 1 Uprising should reward 1 Command Token/Unassembled Components as well, comparatively in time to 1 unraked Warzone, both use the same Gear

- Perhaps 1 Flashpoint should reward 1/2 Command Tokens/Unassembled Components as well

 

Keep it clean, simple, supplementary to RNG Command Crates, rewarding for persistiency in leveling up the Ranks for all thus as fair as possible, as conflict-free & drama-free as possible and once again simple & clean.

Edited December 16, 2016 by Pietrastor

I agree with this suggestion 100% as it is a fix that will cater to all parties not just those who do ops or warzones, which I feel was one of the main strengths of galactic command which remains pretty unchanged for players who do not partake in certain activities. Its a convoluted 4.0 gearing system with another system that does not really work.

/signed

Very nice suggestion!

+1 to this!

A simple system with no headache for anyone involved. Rewarding and solving a good deal of problems. Simpler IS better and this is clear and easy to understand for everyone.

I lie this.

I vote for this as well. Saves me the long post I was going to make.

+ 1 Me gusta

Sounds good to me

 

/signed

 

+1

 

#thumbsup

This idea makes too much sense. They'll never go for it.

 

Excellent suggestion though. Would definitely soften the RNG aspect of those stupid crates. Kudos to you, OP.

/Signed and +1

I would love this.

A far better solution than the drops plus the command tokens. Just make it straight up tokens with everybody getting the same amount, no loot drama. Seen too many guilds implode across many mmos over loot drama and favoritism not to mention loot ninjas in pugs.

A far better solution than the drops plus the command tokens. Just make it straight up tokens with everybody getting the same amount, no loot drama. Seen too many guilds implode across many mmos over loot drama and favoritism not to mention loot ninjas in pugs.

 

That's why I agreed with it, it sounds as if there is no changes incoming for those not doing operations or pvp, leaving the rest of the players with a broken system, I could grind all 300 levels doing activities other than those until I am blue in the face and still have nothing to show for it.

It's a reasonable, fair, effective solution. It would take the "suck" out of the game for me, and most players I know. This is a perfectly elegant solution I would love. I don't even mind if each chapter dropped a token. Or other stuff.

 

The problem is simply that it doesn't involve the anchor that is GC. We all need to understand that given the choice between two solutions:

 

A) A perfect one, that would make everyone happy, but does not involve GC;

 

B) A convoluted circus that most players are not happy with, but involves GC;

 

We will get B.

 

Fully behind this. A shame Ben will not be.

The problem is simply that it doesn't involve the anchor that is GC.

 

How exactly? the system does incorporate the GC system as players will still get command tokens per GC rank which would work well for many just on it's own but then it has supplements with the token ideas in operations and warzones.

 

Those players who do those activities still would gain at a much faster rate than those that do not, yet players can still reach it without albeit at a glacial pace.

It's a reasonable, fair, effective solution. It would take the "suck" out of the game for me, and most players I know. This is a perfectly elegant solution I would love. I don't even mind if each chapter dropped a token. Or other stuff.

 

The problem is simply that it doesn't involve the anchor that is GC. We all need to understand that given the choice between two solutions:

 

A) A perfect one, that would make everyone happy, but does not involve GC;

 

B) A convoluted circus that most players are not happy with, but involves GC;

 

We will get B.

 

Fully behind this. A shame Ben will not be.

Good point, but also solvable. They should add Unassembled Components in addition to that to BOTH PVE/PVP. 10 Unassembled Components + 10 Command Tokens for 1 Piece. But why would they even THINK about bringing back Unassembled Gear as rollable pieces in Operations, infesting the endgame with even more RNG and bringing back drama, ninja and other issues? This is the main point here, why insist on bringing back something so outdated and inferior? Assign Unassembed Components as tokens to each player for defeating each boss, set a price for gear and add some Command Token Price and a hundred issues and flaws are avoided.

Edited December 16, 2016 by Pietrastor

How exactly? the system does incorporate the GC system as players will still get command tokens per GC rank which would work well for many just on it's own but then it has supplements with the token ideas in operations and warzones.

 

He's talking about the idea that an activity such as flashpoints and story chapters drop a direct amount of Command Tokens. If you turn these into the vendor for a piece of set gear, you can gain an entire set of gear without ever touching a single command crate. The "solution" to incorporate Galactic Command into this new system is adding the Command Token as a guaranteed drop to the loot box system. Essentially, you still have to chase some GCXP and participate in Galactic Command (but without relying on the tideous RNG) and then gain set bonus items.

 

If you have drops from close to every activity in the game, and the Command Token from the loot box is only a bonus, we'd move into a territory where GC is not required for anyone to progress. This would see many people ignore Galactic Command as a whole, and it would crook their numbers into a direction of "Galactic Command is not used at all. It was a waste of development time."

 

Imagine this as a Cartel Market scheme with credits attached:

 

I have the chance to gamble for an item on the CM, or I can buy them with credits on the GTN. Regardless, someone has bought said items from the GTN. There is no way to circumvent this system. Someone bought something from the CM, and their metrics show sales are there.

 

If we assume Command Tokens drop everywhere as guaranteed drops (like credits), and I can purchase these set gear pieces from a vendor, why should I use Galactic Command to begin with? I can simply pick the most efficient way to farm Command Tokens through activities and ignore any bonus roll on the GC. It'd be like adding a vendor for the newest pack on the fleet - everyone would just snipe certain items for in-game currency and not bother with the CM. That would drive metrics down considerably.

 

Bioware needs to sell the GC system as something players actually use on a frequent basis. This is why B) is the logical answer. They won't just turn 180° towards a system that sees most players just farm Command Tokens without ever touching GC in a reasonable level.

 

Without sounding like a pessimistic jerk - the proposed system makes sense and is logical, but it won't happen. It'd see the Galactic Command feature become complimentary. What we should be arguing is that every aspect of the game should get the same safety mechanic that warzones have. The new system is reasonable enough as a compromise between two parties. We should now see how that compromise can be added upon. I think having every aspect of gameplay have their own safety net with different lengths of acquisition (depending on difficulty) would be a far better argument. This system needs to involve the set tokens and the Command Tokens as they are.

 

infesting the endgame with even more RNG and bringing back drama, ninja and other issues?

 

This seems to be a very redundant argument. Most PUG runs I did in this game for the past two years had one simple rule - one set token per player. Period. That rule was not negotiable. Everyone got a secondary leader icon, and that icon would be removed as soon as you got a token. Someone without a token received a rare crafting material.

 

I've been raiding for 3+ years, and I have yet to encounter a bad case of ninja looting and gear drama. I don't want to know, and I certainly won't ask. But I know many people who simply applied the rule above to all PUGs and had no issue at all with gearing their characters in 4.0.

Edited December 16, 2016 by Alssaran

Very nice write up OP. Tkae some internet points +1 +2 +3......

 

A much cleaner system than what we have or their so called solutions just presented yesterday.

 

Very nice indeed.

It's an interesting idea, however you definitely favors PVP over Ops. PVP gets rewards at a much faster rate than Operations and has no risk of not getting anything. People in operations may spend an hour or two on a single boss (and for some, it may be 2+ hours a night, a few nights a week for weeks before they actually get past the boss.

I like the premise. Better then what they are planning. The new approach disclosed yesterday is actually a double grind (crates + unassembled pieces), which makes for more effort if they follow through.

 

I think you are missing one key thing though.... they plan on making players grind for A LOT of tokens from crates, not just one token for one piece of gear. How do we know this? because they said command tokens would be a guaranteed drop from each crate. What we do not know yet is what they have in mind for vendor pricing in terms of tokens.

 

I think they are going to force their calculated hours/effort grind for a full set of tier 3 gear, and regardless of how it is implemented.... players are going to have to do the time. The only real thing they have addressed is a vendor based safeguard, and more portability of rewards to alts ... but they are freezing non-OPs, non-PvPers out of the vendor safeguard. And I don't think the OPs and PvP players have yet thought through the implications of what is coming.... more grind, but with a safeguard of eventually getting set bonus gear and other items.

Edited December 16, 2016 by Andryah

I've been raiding for 3+ years, and I have yet to encounter a bad case of ninja looting and gear drama. I don't want to know, and I certainly won't ask. But I know many people who simply applied the rule above to all PUGs and had no issue at all with gearing their characters in 4.0.

 

It's rare but it's happening. I've seen it twice - both times in a guild run in 4.0. After that if i ever got in a pug organized by members of that guild, i just warned the other pugs and left.

snip

 

Fair enough, but that's why you regulate what drops command tokens so only on the final boss of a operation for example, this way at least early on players gain 1 ops command token to 1 crate command token it will still involve the GC crates with ops being a supplement since running ops will increase cxp.

 

It's an interesting idea, however you definitely favors PVP over Ops. PVP gets rewards at a much faster rate than Operations and has no risk of not getting anything. People in operations may spend an hour or two on a single boss (and for some, it may be 2+ hours a night, a few nights a week for weeks before they actually get past the boss.

 

Your right about favouring pvp so maybe you only issue tokens on some kind of daily, it would even it up a little if you changed it to this rather than after every single warzone.

I like this. +10

/signed

 

Great idea. I completely agree. They should just give everyone unassembled components for participating in PvE and PvP content. In order not to make gearing easier than intended, they can arrange the unassembled components required for each piece accordingly. Everyone would get what they deserve. Basing gearing on chance has always been bad idea.

+1 000 000 to OP suggestion

 

i normally dont post on forums but this i had to sign.

i disliked the gearing system in the past cause it always had a sort of RNG feeling to it concerning the rolls for loot.

if they make it so that everyone just gets a command experience token to gain command experience and a command token for wich they can buy gear when they got enough saved up , it would be an alot cleaner system for everyone.

it would make pvp and pve balanced , it would split PVE and PVP again , get rid of the ninja loot and the looting drama.

they can apply this for every content. basically let everything drop one command token , then itl just be command token grind for gearing.

the higher the tier gear the more tokens u need.

itl be as simple as that

In other words it would make everyone happy this way.

it would get rid of RNG and still be a new system.

Edited December 16, 2016 by YodaIntoTheSky