Hey, guys --

 

We care a lot about the fact that you care about the appearances of your characters. In fact, the Mod system is my baby, largely because it allows players to customize their appearance to your liking. We have another, similar, one of my babies coming in the near future, which will allow even greater customization (you guys may have seen me hinted about it in recent interviews). Short form: this is real important to me, and we're not happy that we've created a situation that makes people unhappy. We didn't think through the ramifications of the bugfix that we've made, and we're acutely aware of the financial angle (cartel coins as well as in-game credits on the GTN) involved.

 

We are still discussing potential fixes to the issue -- and there will be fixes -- but there are ramifications to all fixes. Players should keep in mind that previously, we had players who were upset in the other direction. We have a couple of directions that we can go, but we need to explore a couple of things, and regardless, it is not a fix that can happen instantaneously. I do think we can get something in a patch very soon.

 

We are pretty sure we can avoid a solution that forces players to spend additional cartel coins, and I'm not interested in letting a situation linger that leaves the player's faith in what we are offering on the cartel market in a reduced state. It is incredibly important to me, and the rest of the SW:TOR team, that players have a high degree of confidence in the market as a whole, and how we deal with issues like this. This has been a learning experience for us, and won't happen again.

 

In short: we'll fix this. Give us a little time to do so.

 

Damion Schubert

Lead Designer, SWTOR

If we had more communication like this, a lot of the fallout of problems could be generally avoided.

As to discussing the fix(es) - there have already been suggestions about having a vendor who can exchange the "corrected" version of the gear into the "incorrect" version of the gear, using the gear piece in question as a token. Will that be part of your meeting?

Let me just say that I am SUPER HAPPY that the Phantom, Spymaster & Trailblazer Gear is finally looking as it was Intended!

Anyone could have known this was coming so I hope devs won't listen to the endless whine of people who didn't pay attention and will change it back to the crappy way it looked before.

It looks AWESOME now.

Anyone could have known this was coming so I hope devs won't listen to the endless whine of people who didn't pay attention and will change it back to the crappy way it looked before.

 

It looks AWESOME now.

What about if the add a new item which has the old, "incorrect" look, for people who like it and the current Phantom set gets to stay all frilly and glowy, does that work?

What about if the add a new item which has the old, "incorrect" look, for people who like it and the current Phantom set gets to stay all frilly and glowy, does that work?

this is just a massive temper-tantrum.

everything is subject to change in MMOs. you agree to that fact when you accepted the TOS.

Hey, guys --

 

We care a lot about the fact that you care about the appearances of your characters. In fact, the Mod system is my baby, largely because it allows players to customize their appearance to your liking. We have another, similar, one of my babies coming in the near future, which will allow even greater customization (you guys may have seen me hinted about it in recent interviews). Short form: this is real important to me, and we're not happy that we've created a situation that makes people unhappy. We didn't think through the ramifications of the bugfix that we've made, and we're acutely aware of the financial angle (cartel coins as well as in-game credits on the GTN) involved.

 

We are still discussing potential fixes to the issue -- and there will be fixes -- but there are ramifications to all fixes. Players should keep in mind that previously, we had players who were upset in the other direction. We have a couple of directions that we can go, but we need to explore a couple of things, and regardless, it is not a fix that can happen instantaneously. I do think we can get something in a patch very soon.

 

We are pretty sure we can avoid a solution that forces players to spend additional cartel coins, and I'm not interested in letting a situation linger that leaves the player's faith in what we are offering on the cartel market in a reduced state. It is incredibly important to me, and the rest of the SW:TOR team, that players have a high degree of confidence in the market as a whole, and how we deal with issues like this. This has been a learning experience for us, and won't happen again.

 

In short: we'll fix this. Give us a little time to do so.

 

Damion Schubert

Lead Designer, SWTOR

If you're looking for ideas, here's one that may satisfy everyone. For each armor set that received a revision, create two different armor sets, or versions. One set, or version, has the old appearance. The other set has the new appearance. Convert the existing armor into tokens that can be traded for one set or the other. Problem solved.

this is just a massive temper-tantrum.

 

everything is subject to change in MMOs. you agree to that fact when you accepted the TOS.

I thought it was a reasonable compromise :/

Some of you need to cut Joveth a break. He's got very little of the information at a given time.

 

Damion comes in, having ALL of the information, and this is why he looks like a first class communicator. For a Dev - he is...but if you switched the two people into each other's roles...the same people piling on Joveth would be piling on Damion.

 

I, for one, appreciate Joveth's efforts to get into the fray early. It's not without risks but for me its better then silent mode.

Very true, and I'd say: don't shoot the messenger. If I were Joveth, I'd probably have been cursing left and right the past 24 hours. Having to deal with a bunch of VERY unsatisfied customers on one side, and getting different answers about the matter from the other side. And now that someone finally made a decision to try and solve the matter in an as acceptable manner as possible to all those affected, he doesn't even get to bring the good news.

So yes, Joveth, I'm sorry for laying the fire on your heals the past day, and my apologies for those who are even worse than I am and almost get personal on this matter. You got cornered, but then, so did we all. Even the development team got stuck in a corner, since solutions to keep as many customers satisfied as possible are going to take resources. Resources they had wished to use on other matters as well, though I hope not too much damage is done in that regard.

But, I hope you're not going to hate your job over this, since you did try your best to sort this out as soon as it came up. And while it can be fun at times, every job comes with its own frustrations. This was definitely a frstrating risk you run on your job. So let's just hope it won't happen again.

I get told all the time if I have something to say, I should say it here... so here I go:

Why have certain items that have existed in the game for a little while suddenly been changed???

For instance, the Phantom Armor chest piece... Why does it now have the same ruffled shoulders the Revan top has? Why add shoulders to it at all?? One of the reasons I liked it was because it was a hoodless top, black, no fancy WoW shoulder stuff etc. It was a nice simple plain 'casual' top if you like. Now, might as well wear Revan's.. or at least do us body type 3's a favour and make the Revan mask not clip with the new hood.

The Trailblazer top. What a great, casual Scoundrel or BH top. Not all armored up, so decent for Rp, or just to look laid back. Instead, today I find it has a new shoulder piece... for what??? And an enlarged collar. It's ugly compared to what it was. Annoying that I spent time/cash to get it AS IT WAS.

There are other items too, but I'm sure people know what I'm talking about. Even the Spymaster stuff has been played with... Although I actually don't -mind- that, it's still enough to make me go meh.

Lastly, not fair to rant without at least giving a possible solution... and to me it's simple. Instead of being lazy, imho, add them as NEW items... perhaps Enhanced Phantom Armor etc. And don't mess with items people have spent time getting things to match with. And, on that note.. lease stop jsut colouring exiting Speeders and passing them off as 'new' in CC packs that people pay real cash for. Enough is being made from this little enterprise that I would think a little more creativity could be added.

Anyway.. as a subbie, and someone who's spent more than my fair share on CC's and such, I felt I had the right to speak my mind. So I have.

Kierman

I get told all the time if I have something to say, I should say it here... so here I go:

 

Why have certain items that have existed in the game for a little while suddenly been changed???

 

For instance, the Phantom Armor chest piece... Why does it now have the same ruffled shoulders the Revan top has? Why add shoulders to it at all?? One of the reasons I liked it was because it was a hoodless top, black, no fancy WoW shoulder stuff etc. It was a nice simple plain 'casual' top if you like. Now, might as well wear Revan's.. or at least do us body type 3's a favour and make the Revan mask not clip with the new hood.

 

The Trailblazer top. What a great, casual Scoundrel or BH top. Not all armored up, so decent for Rp, or just to look laid back. Instead, today I find it has a new shoulder piece... for what??? And an enlarged collar. It's ugly compared to what it was. Annoying that I spent time/cash to get it AS IT WAS.

 

There are other items too, but I'm sure people know what I'm talking about. Even the Spymaster stuff has been played with... Although I actually don't -mind- that, it's still enough to make me go meh.

 

 

Lastly, not fair to rant without at least giving a possible solution... and to me it's simple. Instead of being lazy, imho, add them as NEW items... perhaps Enhanced Phantom Armor etc. And don't mess with items people have spent time getting things to match with. And, on that note.. lease stop jsut colouring exiting Speeders and passing them off as 'new' in CC packs that people pay real cash for. Enough is being made from this little enterprise that I would think a little more creativity could be added.

 

 

Anyway.. as a subbie, and someone who's spent more than my fair share on CC's and such, I felt I had the right to speak my mind. So I have.

 

 

Kierman

They weren't changed, they were corrected to match what was advertised because they were implemented incorrectly in the first place as stated on 12/12/12,.

For instance, the Phantom Armor chest piece... Why does it now have the same ruffled shoulders the Revan top has? Why add shoulders to it at all?? One of the reasons I liked it was because it was a hoodless top, black, no fancy WoW shoulder stuff etc. It was a nice simple plain 'casual' top if you like.

The lead designer has already replied in this thread regarding the changes, but here's the short version of the story:

The Phantom Armor chest piece was initially advertised on the Blockade Runner's packshot WITH the shoulders thingie.

Those people that bought the packs for a chance to get it (because they actually liked the way it looked) were disappointed that it looked as simple as it did and voiced their dissatisfaction in the forum (you can search and you will find the thread I'm talking about).

Bioware then promised to fix the bug.

When Bioware did fix the bug, another group of people was disappointed because they liked the simple look.

A million threads and mod/dev replies later, we know that they will provide a way for people who liked the "incorrect" design to keep it just like that.

release a copy of the former armors (the ones that ppl were using before this patch) that are tradeable for the new patched and corrected ones., If u want to keep the new ones in the current form them fine, if not u change the shell and voila. Not big deal. Put a temp vendor in both fleets and thats it. Only binded shells can be replaced so theres no way to flood the market with any duplicate piece

btw the new ones are AWFULL

OK - how about such solution:

Devs will add NPC vendor that holds 4 versions of each set - ie. MK-1 with/without augment slot and MK-2 with/without augmentslot (feel free to find them other nice names ). This NPC would allow to EXCHANGE pieces 1:1 without any costs.

The only disadvantage would be cost of extracting mods from our current gear but 24k Cr per piece wouldn't ruin our purses and at least this we can sacrifce for BW mistake.

OK - what do you think folks ?

release a copy of the former armors (the ones that ppl were using before this patch) that are tradeable for the new patched and corrected ones., If u want to keep the new ones in the current form them fine, if not u change the shell and voila. Not big deal. Put a temp vendor in both fleets and thats it. Only binded shells can be replaced so theres no way to flood the market with any duplicate piece

btw the new ones are AWFULL

LOL.. great minds think alike

I was late 1 min ....

If we had more communication like this, a lot of the fallout of problems could be generally avoided.

 

As to discussing the fix(es) - there have already been suggestions about having a vendor who can exchange the "corrected" version of the gear into the "incorrect" version of the gear, using the gear piece in question as a token. Will that be part of your meeting?

It would have been avoided if people read the Dev Tracker and made themselves aware that the armor designs were bugged and that a fix was coming then asked Bioware to implement the unintended set as well. All this drama was simply brought on by the ignorance of those refusing to make themselves aware of the known issues then complain when something unintended gets fixed.

It would have been avoided if people read the Dev Tracker and made themselves aware that the armor designs were bugged and that a fix was coming then asked Bioware to implement the unintended set as well. All this drama was simply brought on by the ignorance of those refusing to make themselves aware of the known issues then complain when something unintended gets fixed.

At the time I wasn't aware that the Phantom Armour was the same as the un-named armour in some of the Cash Shop pictures - I don't make a habit of finding out everything in each and every cartel box. I suppose I'll have to do so in the future (or simply avoid buying anything that comes from the Cash Shop).

I still don't understand why wanting a compromise on the armour design (particularly given that the incorrect Phantom armour design was allowed to exist for so long) makes me such a terrible, awful person, but I guess I'll just have to live with being a terrible, awful person.

It would have been avoided if people read the Dev Tracker and made themselves aware that the armor designs were bugged and that a fix was coming then asked Bioware to implement the unintended set as well. All this drama was simply brought on by the ignorance of those refusing to make themselves aware of the known issues then complain when something unintended gets fixed.

What a stupid and overplayed argument. You get bonus pontification points though.

Hey, guys --

-snip-

Damion Schubert

Lead Designer, SWTOR

Now THIS is communication. Thank you for this. And CM team, please take note, this is what we're looking for when it comes to issues in the game.

What about if the add a new item which has the old, "incorrect" look, for people who like it and the current Phantom set gets to stay all frilly and glowy, does that work?

I think it's a great suggestion.

It would have been avoided if people read the Dev Tracker and made themselves aware that the armor designs were bugged and that a fix was coming then asked Bioware to implement the unintended set as well. All this drama was simply brought on by the ignorance of those refusing to make themselves aware of the known issues then complain when something unintended gets fixed.

It is completely reasonable for people to have checked the appearance in the preview window and bought based on that. Since it's not common that gear changes appearance after it's in game, other than minor clipping issues, there's no reason most people would have ever considered checking for such a thing. Your attempt to throw all the blame on the players is ridiculous.

It would have been avoided if people read the Dev Tracker and made themselves aware that the armor designs were bugged and that a fix was coming then asked Bioware to implement the unintended set as well. All this drama was simply brought on by the ignorance of those refusing to make themselves aware of the known issues then complain when something unintended gets fixed.

Hi, I'm Asuka And I've nothing better to do than post repeatedly absurd arguments about how people should constantly check the forums every time they pay for an item they like in case the developers have already decided to change it's appareance later.

Joveth & Damion, thank you both for your honest replies. As other people have said, this is _exactly_ the sort of communication I'm looking for and I appreciate it when I see it (just like I complain when I don't! )

To you both, I tip my hat.

Hi, I'm Asuka

Nooo, it's multiplying! And I thought putting the first one on ignore would make it go away!

Nope. I'll cry here, just to annoy you.

 

Besides, what you said can be said for any scam: nobody forced the scammed person at gunpoint to give in to the scam. That would be robbery. But deception and unethical practice are what makes a scam.

 

So yeah, thanks for answering the question for me: scam it is.

It wasn't unethical. They said it was a bug to be fixed, so it'd match the armor that is in teh cartel pack. That was no scam, it was a mistake from the get go.

Nice try, but no cigar.