So there I was, sitting in front of my bathroom mirror. I says, self, we need to have a little chat. And so we did. As it turns out, the reflection of me in the mirror is actually the guy who's calling the shots regarding PvP development in SWTOR. Crazy stuff huh?

Here's a transcript of our conversation. Sorry, no video, I had just come out of the shower and was naked.

(If you think the following is actually representative of the direction SWTOR PvP is taking, stop for a moment and breathe. It's simply a parody. A joke. Lighten up, Francis.)

Will we ever be able to choose a specific Warzone to queue for?

 

This is a goal we have, and we're not sure of the best way to implement it. We have concerns about populations, and making sure that everyone has a team to play with. That being said, it's something we're considering, but we're just not sure how to do it without breaking stuff yet.

 

Have you considered implementing a Huttball League?

 

We recognize the level of depth this would add to the game, and we're on board with you. We furthermore recognize the profit opportunities inherent with adding something so rich and complex, so we've decided to appoint a team to begin identifying the technical hurdles. Sometime next month we'll have a rough map and hopefully the available resources to do it. I'll be in touch.

 

Why is Bolster in Ranked PvP? Why not just require a high level of PvP gear?

 

This is a great question, and one we put a lot of thought into when the decision made to keep Bolster in Ranked PvP. It is very unfortunate that Bolster has experienced issues since its implementation which certainly created pain points for our PvP community. Having said that, we're going to remove it from all Ranked PvP for the time being, and see how it goes. If ya'all hate it worse, then we'll put it back. But we're actively interested in trying to improve the Ranked Scene, and we'll give this a shot.

 

Will you be implementing Cross-server queuing?

We have no plans at this time to implement cross-server queues. It's very far outside the capabilities of the infrastructure this game was built upon. We want to do it, but it's akin to putting tires on a boat. Difficult to do that and keep the boat afloat.

 

Will you be introducing rewards in future Seasons to recognize those players who have achieved the highest of ratings? 1500 seems like a low bar for some players.

 

Yeah, 1500 was a low bar. We set it there to see if there was any real interest. We'll be ramping it up gradually as the seasons progress.

 

Will you be bringing back 8v8 Ranked Warzones?

 

Yup. There's actually no real reason this was removed, outside of shifting focus away from the arenas. We think they can coexist, so we'll be putting them back together in Season 2.

 

Are there any plans of expanding open world PvP?

 

Don't be silly, the game goes boom every time you guys organize any world PvP. Sorry, but this one's just not in the cards, ever. Can't have a picnic on Everest, can't have Open World PvP in SWTOR.

 

Are there any plans to address teams having healer hybrids in Arenas fighting against teams without a healer?

 

Nope. If the enemy team can handle the loss of direct heals and direct damage caused by having this hybrid, then good on them for making it work. We're all for encouraging creativity within the game, not stifling it.

 

What about the issue of 3v4 matches in Arenas?

 

Yeah, this irritates people worse than anything. We think it'd be better to simply end the match when this happens, and have no ratings change on either side. Come 2.7.1, this will be changed. Those found to be exploiting this by yanking out their ethernet cable when things go poorly for them will eventually be found, and banned, because that's just lame.

 

 

Matchmaking will sometimes place the same Advanced Classes on the same teams. An example would be 4 Powertechs against 4 Assassins. Are there any improvements planned here?

 

This is a great question, we agree that this is certainly less than optimal. Matchmaking should certainly be better about how it assigns classes across each team and we will be actively looking to make improvements. No timeline right now on those changes but it is on our radar.

 

Huge rating gaps between players in any given Arena match….

 

This is directly tied to the population. When the other issues are addressed, and population rises, this will become a thing of the past.

 

What about players who “sync queue” to specifically play each other, AKA match fixing?

 

This is an issue which is again due to the amount of players in the queue. If a group of 8 players wanted to fix the queue to play against each other, they may be able to do so at some weird “off time” for their server. However, we have systems in place to detect these types of actions and when Season 1 ends, those players will find themselves without any rewards at all.

 

Do you have any plans to address overpowered Hybrid builds which are present in Arenas?

 

Our history of class balance shows that we attempt to discourage overpowered hybrid builds when and wherever possible. We are constantly balancing classes and will take action if something is not falling into line with class balance. We will continue to monitor these builds and adjust as necessary.

So there you have it. Things around here are looking up. Mirror-me said so. Then again...maybe he was lying about his position at Bioware...

Casual game is casual. No point.

Parody thread is parody. Point self-evident.

Casual game is casual. No point.

/thread

/thread

Spoken like someone who thinks I'm trying to say otherwise.

Cashogy is just bitter because the community didn't give him the warm fuzzies he hoped for after his class questions. Plus the "FAQ" Musco posted (hint, parodied here) pretty much nail-gunned the competitive scene around here.

It's still fun to poke the beast from time to time. I was temporarily banned for posting this in another thread, but I had left it yellow, and didn't make it explicitly clear that it was a parody...so here it is again, because I would like to see people's reactions to MY "answers" - because they're just as feasible for Bioware to have said - if they had the care that we all do.

I wouldn't be surprised if this thread got deleted for impersonating a BW employee LOL.

As far as your cross server answer, we know that's not true because they literally said season 1 would have cross server back in 1.2-1.3. Yes they obviously are capable of lying, but they wouldn't have said that if it were really THAT difficult. We'd have x server by now if EA actually invested a small fraction of the hundreds millions they've gotten from the CM ALONE back into the actual game.

I wouldn't be surprised if this thread got deleted for impersonating a BW employee LOL.

 

As far as your cross server answer, we know that's not true because they literally said season 1 would have cross server back in 1.2-1.3. Yes they obviously are capable of lying, but they wouldn't have said that if it were really THAT difficult. We'd have x server by now if EA actually invested a small fraction of the hundreds millions they've gotten from the CM ALONE back into the actual game.

No it is true. Middle managers and marketing people don't always have the most firm grasp on what their developers can accomplish. Should they have checked with their dev's more thoroughly before promising cross server back in the day? Absolutely, but getting an accurate estimate on the effort / time x server would have required would have required telling said dev team that most of them where about to get laid off. So... yeah

What language is that? It seems like a lot of words for "no" cuz thats all BW has planned.

no thing

No it is true. Middle managers and marketing people don't always have the most firm grasp on what their developers can accomplish. Should they have checked with their dev's more thoroughly before promising cross server back in the day? Absolutely, but getting an accurate estimate on the effort / time x server would have required would have required telling said dev team that most of them where about to get laid off. So... yeah

Do you actually think cross server would be hard to implement if this game had any respectable budget compared to what it should have lol? No, we would've had cross server if EA hadn't panicked and fired everyone after 170k people-or whatever it was- rage unsubbed when they delayed rwzs the night before 1.2.

Gone from suck to blow....sums it up.

What language is that? It seems like a lot of words for "no" cuz thats all BW has planned.

 

no thing

Nah man, there's some "Maybe" and some "Probably, if we can figure it out" in there.

But again, it's my parody, not a Bioware statement, etc. etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if this thread got deleted for impersonating a BW employee LOL.

 

As far as your cross server answer, we know that's not true because they literally said season 1 would have cross server back in 1.2-1.3. Yes they obviously are capable of lying, but they wouldn't have said that if it were really THAT difficult. We'd have x server by now if EA actually invested a small fraction of the hundreds millions they've gotten from the CM ALONE back into the actual game.

Wasn't that promise made before they sacked a whole bunch of devs ?

 

Gone from suck to blow....sums it up.

 

No it is true. Middle managers and marketing people don't always have the most firm grasp on what their developers can accomplish. Should they have checked with their dev's more thoroughly before promising cross server back in the day? Absolutely, but getting an accurate estimate on the effort / time x server would have required would have required telling said dev team that most of them where about to get laid off. So... yeah

Ya, so the actual developers said cross server would be coming during the 1st (and only) guild summit. This wasn't some marketing team or middle man saying it, that came from the devs. They've all been fired since, but if those devs thought it was possible, I'm not sure why it would all the sudden stop being possible. It's just not at the top of the list for being added and they wouldn't be able to funnel money into new operations and player housing, etc.

I don't blame them for spending money where the player base is, just don't come telling me that everyone thought it was possible a year ago and now its technologically challenging. "Lack of resources" is actually lack of funding. While the game is making money, EA approves where that revenue can be funneled back into the game or not.

Ya, so the actual developers said cross server would be coming during the 1st (and only) guild summit. This wasn't some marketing team or middle man saying it, that came from the devs. They've all been fired since, but if those devs thought it was possible, I'm not sure why it would all the sudden stop being possible.

The "ONE GUY" who knew how to make it happen was in the pile that got fired.

I lol'd

Ya, so the actual developers said cross server would be coming during the 1st (and only) guild summit. This wasn't some marketing team or middle man saying it, that came from the devs. They've all been fired since, but if those devs thought it was possible, I'm not sure why it would all the sudden stop being possible. It's just not at the top of the list for being added and they wouldn't be able to funnel money into new operations and player housing, etc.

 

I don't blame them for spending money where the player base is, just don't come telling me that everyone thought it was possible a year ago and now its technologically challenging. "Lack of resources" is actually lack of funding. While the game is making money, EA approves where that revenue can be funneled back into the game or not.

▲ This and this ▼

http://i.imgur.com/yWLqx.jpg

Water under the bridge at this point but would be very nice if they gave it another go. If there's a will (and investment) there's a way.

The "ONE GUY" who knew how to make it happen was in the pile that got fired.

Had to be. They seemingly kept a plethora of designers with how quickly the CM gets updates, but apparently they fired everyone who had skills at programming.