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PvP: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.


djvapid

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Before I go into the polar extremes, I want to begin with this: This thread is entirely subjective, if you plan on flaming or trolling don't waste your time, just move on. I'm not hating on the game nor am I absolutely loving it. I'm simply making an observation (although in the case of PvP, you'll probably notice they're quite a few more things I dislike than I like).

 

The Ugly:

 

*** Huttball ***

 

For starters, I (remember the whole subjective thing before you jump up and down and call blasphemy) can't stand this game. It has absolutely no story whatsoever and only seems to have been added so that when the opposing faction isn't queing up for PvP, you can still get thrown up against your own people.

 

But then again, I'm a big fan of things -making sense-. So watching a bunch of Sith and Jedi run around playing sports just doesn't strike me as...er...right.

 

I could stomach it every once in awhile if not for a glaringly game-breaking glitch that is continuously exploited by players. You can stand on the platform that spawns the ball and lay waste to your enemies and/or heal your teammates and you are -completely- untargetable to anyone not also standing on the platform. It's been reported a number of times and has been there since beta but Bioware has yet to fix it.

 

In summary, I hate this Warzone. A lot. I wish I could give better reasons to dislike it, but I honestly can't. I must be shallow in that regard but I guess that's me. Some of you might disagree, some might agree. Don't take it personal if I don't share the same ideals as you.

 

The Good:

 

Okay, with that out of the way (pretty much my biggest gripe being the existence of Huttball) I'd like to move on to the things that I absolutely enjoy. It would be stupid for me not to recognize the good.

 

1) Voidstar and Alderaan - I love these Warzones. You've got great military objectives and smooth gameplay. I have yet to discover any bugs or glitches (other than one particular time I got stuck in the door for an entire game because /stuck wasn't working, but I haven't been able to replicate the bug so I chalk it up to bad luck), so there's that.

 

2) Buffs effect everyone nearby. I can't stress enough how convenient that is. Having to buff each person seperately would be a headache.

 

3) Teamwork and strategy. These two warzones require quite a bit of teamwork and communication - which is a good thing even if your team isn't particularly good at it. Why? Because you might be getting out-classed in toe-to-toe combat, but you can still win. And even if you don't, you still get rewarded for it, which leads me to...

 

4) Reward system and MvP - I have to say, players are amazingly considerate of healers at the end of the game. Almost always, the healer gets voted MvP. Which is a great way to stretch out some extra rewards and the under appreciated healer deserves it every time. I'm glad players are aware of this "unspoken" rule. If your healer does well, you vote for him and so far from what I've seen, that's almost always been the case. The rewards system is great outside of that too. It's a good supplement to questing when you are bored/tired of it.

 

5) Helpful community. I've never been turned away when I had questions about PvP. I have to say, it's one of the best communities I've been around. Sure, you have your occasional jerk, but overall, people are more than happy to give you a few pointers. I've gotten my butt handed to me on a number of occasions and the player (if in the same faction as me - usually when dealing with Huttball) will often, when confronted is pretty damn cool. Makes it so hard to hate the guys that kick your butt!

 

6) Room for improvement. The system is great and Bioware has left the doors wide open for TONs of new content, warzone maps, etc. I can't wait to see what else they have in store.

 

The Bad:

 

You'll notice that many of my observations are related to bugs or game mechanics improvements. It's always easier to complain about the bad stuff, which probably makes writing this that much easier. But I never whine without looking at things from both sides of the spectrum and you've already heard what good things I have to say...so...without further due...

 

1) Brackets - Let's be honest, bolster just doesn't stack up to a level 50 running around ghetto stomping lowbies. In my opinion, brackets need to be introduced for, at the very least, level 50's, seperating them from everyone else. Disagree if you like, but anyone who watches, whether you're on the tail end of the beating or the one doing the beatdown, it's just down right lopsided at the moment.

 

Side note: For those of you who aren't sure what bolster is, it's basically a buff to your two main stats to equate everyone on the same "level" with eachother. There are some clear issues with this, but maybe that's just subjective? I'd like to know what you guys think.

 

2) Ops Groups Que - Right now, you can only group up with 4 people and que into a match. I'd like to see Ops groups capable of queing up. I don't see why this should be a problem at all, in fact. So you're que'd up solo and you run into a pre-made team that just hands you your butt? Chalk it up to a loss and move on. Or get your own group together.

 

3) Grouping Glitch - As it stands, grouping up and then joining the warzone que can be rather inconvenient when the game is over. Right now, after a warzone, your group prior to joining is completely disbanded, forcing you to all group back up again before you que up. It's not game-breaking, but it sure is annoying.

 

4) Auto-Que - I don't mind it. It's pretty useful, but many times I forget to turn it off (particularly when I'm grouped with people). I think there should be a way to toggle this "auto que" on and off. At the moment, if you uncheck it, it checks itself back on after the next match. Another issue that isn't game-breaking, but again: annoying.

 

5) Warzone Que - As it stands, you can /not/ que up for whatever you want. You're thrust into a random warzone every time. For me, for example, I hate Huttball and I wish I could avoid it completely. I -insist- we be allowed to choose which Warzones we que up for. Some people may argue that this will increase your waiting time. Well, it'd be setup in a way that it was entirely optional so that people like me can play what we want to play. We could check all three options, or just one. But either way, it's the /choice/ to do so that is important. And frankly, I don't mind waiting if I know I'm not going to be forced into Huttball 16+ times in a row before I finally get a Warzone I personally enjoy.

 

6) Leavers - At the moment, you can bail out of a Warzone and immediately que back up for another with no repercussions. I think there should be a hold on your character for a brief amount of time. 15 minutes seems to be the magic number, before you can que back up again.

 

7) Botters - Yes, we're barely two weeks in and I'm starting to see them /all/ over the place. There's no easy method of reporting them and even so, they go on for /days/ before a game master (or whatever you want to call them) actually gets around to kicking them and punishing the player. I say there should be some method of voting system in place that allows us as a team to vote out a player. Now, some people will argue what is stopping us from voting off someone who we think "sucks"? Well, nothing. But there is no /perfect/ method. So at least put in some form of system that either allows us to easily report these botters or kick them from the game entirely. The ticket system, as it stands, is incredibly inconvenient for reporting players. (This goes for inappropriate behavior and excessive vulgarity as well.)

 

So, as you can see, I've got quite a few gripes and not so many "good" things to say. I recognize the fact that this game hasn't been out very long - but if people don't speak up about what they like or dislike, game developers will never know what we, the customer, want to see in the game. I feel like as long as we do things constructively, they'll listen and improve the game for the better of us all.

 

I'd like to know what you all think. What you like and dislike - feel free to comment below! Thanks for your time if you read all this. :)

 

EDIT: I completely forgot about one more thing I have a problem with. When I click and/or activate an ability, it generally takes /several/ attempts before the ability goes off. Perhaps this is a mixture of lag on my part and server lag. Perhaps it is something else entirely? Either way, it's pretty crappy and I don't think I'm the only one experiencing this.

Edited by djvapid
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Even Jedi and Sith need credits, right?

 

And I think I agree with most of your "The Bad" points, I just can't remember all of them at the moment.

 

Edit: Ah yes, the point I didn't agree with: Leavers. I don't think that there should be any punishments until there are brackets, it's just not fun being farmed in voidstar.

 

The good I can't remember at all.

 

Edit: I hate voidstar. It reminds me of Strand and it's about as fun as TP'ing your own house, getting caught by the police, being forced to pay a fine, then having to clean up afterwards. At least, it is so for Republic on Kathol Rift, because it's always and invariably either lost badly (usually we don't even get past the first door when we assault, and they just steamroll through to the core) or we facestomp them. Either one or the other, I've never experienced a "close" Voidstar match. In fact, I normally only drop group on Voidstar, and I wait 15 minutes afterwards anyways because I don't want to risk being put back into the same match.

 

The Ugly: Hey, don't be baggin' on my Huttball, I love that game aside from not being able to carry the ball being the squishy gunslinger that I am. I always wonder why the vanguards standing right next to me with full health throw the ball to me instead of just running ahead or throwing it to somebody who won't die from a couple melees' sneezes. :p

 

I'm going to add my own point and say that I'd like another warzone. Similar to Huttball in that faction doesn't matter and it's controlled by the Hutts and Baron Deathmark is always saying something about the "FERG-DOGS!" but different in that instead of being an assault match, it's a complete deathmatch with no other objective than to kill the enemy. I think it'd be the perfect way to introduce what seems obviously wanted by the Republic on Kathol Rift (a warzone where you get points for just killing people), and it would provide something other than Huttball for the over-populated faction.

Edited by knarral
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I love Huttball myself.

 

I don't want a deserter debuff. Sometimes I get stuck behind the door in Voidstar and get booted because it doesn't open in time. I don't want punished for this. I've heard several people be unhappy about being booted for various reasons as is that they have no control over.

 

I agree on a voting system to remove inactive players.

 

I don't really care if they add a system to choose which match you queue for. That could actually affect queues for everyone as a whole. In the future it may be a nice thing to try, but I don't think it would be highly successful.

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The East and West sides of Alderaan need to be far more different in terms of themes, i play both factions and get confused calling incoming. Now before you say im bad or whatever, 99% of games im in I am the ONLY person who calls incoming or even talks at all the entire damn game.

 

Can't wait for UI mods, going to just write a PVP one that allows for scrubs to click a GO HERE button that people with the mod will see so they can react

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At the post above: lol.

 

I'm a Republican and I just say "Left" and "Right" because they are on the left and right sides of the map, not because it is left in relation to me or the starting zone. Or does it flip itself around for the imps?

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The East and West sides of Alderaan need to be far more different in terms of themes, i play both factions and get confused calling incoming. Now before you say im bad or whatever, 99% of games im in I am the ONLY person who calls incoming or even talks at all the entire damn game.

 

Can't wait for UI mods, going to just write a PVP one that allows for scrubs to click a GO HERE button that people with the mod will see so they can react

 

The map /can/ be pretty confusing, but if everyone recognizes the fact that you can orient "right" and "left" without matching them up with "east" and "west", you're good anyway.

 

I like the warzones the way they are designed as far as appearance and geography goes. I'm not disliking that at all. In fact, I'd like to see a wider variety of maps under the same guidelines.

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I love Huttball myself.

 

I don't want a deserter debuff. Sometimes I get stuck behind the door in Voidstar and get booted because it doesn't open in time. I don't want punished for this. I've heard several people be unhappy about being booted for various reasons as is that they have no control over.

 

I agree on a voting system to remove inactive players.

 

I don't really care if they add a system to choose which match you queue for. That could actually affect queues for everyone as a whole. In the future it may be a nice thing to try, but I don't think it would be highly successful.

 

Like I said, it /may/ effect que times for everyone, being able to choose, but I'd imagine most people would que up for all of them, particularly if they're just grinding commendations. It's a speculation, but I think it's safe to say that this one is pretty feasible.

 

I am pretty confidant they will institute freedom of choice in warzones. But as of right now, I believe the biggest game breaker for PvP is the lack of brackets.

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