1. Keith worked at WoW as GM/CS, started at Bioware as CS and worked his way up.
   
2. Initially no plans to participate in forums but changed the strategy, if it's appreciated (which it looks like it is), more devs will join future on.
   
3. Bioware writes an internal roadmap, send to higher-ups, approval or adjustments and then dates are set, delays initially due to approval not coming.
   
4. 5.3 and 5.4 (Released in August) with major class changes
   
5. Provide better incentives, based on player feedback for Open World PvP
   
6. Cross server never happening, data center upgrades (1 of 3 upgraded) will enable server merges in the future, technical limitations relating to guilds, ships, and banks. If happening, likely to a new server with a new name.
   
7. Group Finder Overhaul to make it easier to create a group, see what roles are available and better incentives to play rare roles.
   
8. Shadows and character visibility improvements, new mechanics, and effects from future operations bosses.
   
9. Better incentives for players to do "tougher" flashpoints (Rishi, Blood Hunt), possible 2nd tier of MM FP.
   
10. Mistake to focus only on story, dev team now focuses on all aspects of the game in internal roadmaps, fewer details but regular 90-day plans and more details as new patches get closer.
    
11. Continued open discussion with players, please provide a "Why" you want a change/nerf/buff/type of content so devs get a context.
    

(Source) - Reddit wrap-up thx to RikuvonDrake

Couple of comments:

#6: Cross server never happening:

I know some thinks SWTOR is doomed because of this.

Personally I think cross sever queues totally remove the interaction with the players especially as most think they can be a jerk as they won't ever play again with their actual group.

The true issue is server population. If they fix the server population removing the dead ones then we won't need anymore cross server queues.

#7: Group Finder Overhaul

Need to allow players to queue for alts.

Other than that we direly need a one button Build, Gear and UI switch.

1. 5.3 and 5.4 (Released in August) with major class changes
   
2. Group Finder Overhaul to make it easier to create a group, see what roles are available and better incentives to play rare roles.
   
3. Better incentives for players to do "tougher" flashpoints (Rishi, Blood Hunt), possible 2nd tier of MM FP.
   
4. Mistake to focus only on story, dev team now focuses on all aspects of the game in internal roadmaps, fewer details but regular 90-day plans and more details as new patches get closer.
   

 

#7: Group Finder Overhaul

Need to allow players to queue for alts.

Some comments:

I fear a bit for the rewarding of playing rare roles, I suspect healer and tank. It could create a lot of misuse, that DPS put themselves as tank or healers on que relying on being carried in the hopes of better rewards. I can only hope their is a failsave in game or a mechanic making it "unworthy" to try to cheat the system. Players can get so creative with trying to get an advantage as proven often enough.

I would very welcome to return of the tiers of the flashpoints. It was so much easier to say to somebody "Sorry this is Lost Island, you need better gear or a better rotation aso." without raising too much bad feelings. If you end in Blood Hunt today with lesser geared (besides bolster), lesser experienced, it is just a very frustrating experience for all of the team. Personal opinion of course. And that suggestion with queing for alts would rock, but I have troubles imagining the technical workout. If you que for an alt and do something on main... if the que fires would gf toss you out to log in screen no matter what you do right in this moment and enforces to relog on the alt? I can see some problems there... but maybe my technical skill is too low.

I am not impressed with class changes, especially the Sage healer and its performance in Hm and NiM ops but willing to wait and see.

 

 

Couple of comments:

#6: Cross server never happening:

I know some thinks SWTOR is doomed because of this.

 

Personally I think cross sever queues totally remove the interaction with the players especially as most think they can be a jerk as they won't ever play again with their actual group.

The true issue is server population. If they fix the server population removing the dead ones then we won't need anymore cross server queues.

 

#7: Group Finder Overhaul

Need to allow players to queue for alts.

Other than that we direly need a one button Build, Gear and UI switch.

 

I agree with the the bolded part! I mean it has it advantages, certainly, but it removes something from the server and its community! (IMO)

7. and 9. are good things. Flashpoints badly need a revamp to get me to play again.

Flashpoint's available also need to be tied to story progression. Only add FP's to group finder as the storyline you've completed would have relevant. (Tie each FP to getting your class story to the planet wih the intro droid on the planet's it occurs.)

10., well, it wasn't so much a focus on story, but rather a focus on a story that didn't fit with the game. What was made should of been a separate game, not an MMO.

I would of loved to have three new chapters for each main class, instead of the whole slew where all eight main classes are badly fit into one mold. 24 chapters vs 24 chapters, and it would save on PC voice acting as each chapter wouldn't need 16 player character voices, but rather just two.

The thing is, it would take a more skill full writer to do it that way, weaving each class as a separate character in a story.

I remember my excitement when they said they were going to return to story, I thought that meant a return to story in the way SWTOR had done in chapters 1-3. I was sorely disappointed.

10., well, it wasn't so much a focus on story, but rather a focus on a story that didn't fit with the game. What was made should of been a separate game, not an MMO.

 

I would of loved to have three new chapters for each main class, instead of the whole slew where all eight main classes are badly fit into one mold. 24 chapters vs 24 chapters, and it would save on PC voice acting as each chapter wouldn't need 16 player character voices, but rather just two.

 

The thing is, it would take a more skill full writer to do it that way, weaving each class as a separate character in a story.

 

I remember my excitement when they said they were going to return to story, I thought that meant a return to story in the way SWTOR had done in chapters 1-3. I was sorely disappointed.

THIS! They'd have gotten a lot better response if they'd done this instead of the "one size fits ALL (Jedi/ Sith) classes. Even if they'd done a different story for force users & non force users.... It'd have been better than what we got. It'd have given players a reason to take more than 2 characters through the stories, and a chance to flesh out better overall stories.

It'll be interesting to see how they do, and the reactions of players now that they're focusing on "a lil bit of everything" instead of "all in on _______."

Hopefully they've learned from their mistakes.

Cross server never happening, data center upgrades (1 of 3 upgraded) will enable server merges in the future, technical limitations relating to guilds, ships, and banks. If happening, likely to a new server with a new name.

 

Group Finder Overhaul to make it easier to create a group, see what roles are available and better incentives to play rare roles.

 

Better incentives for players to do "tougher" flashpoints (Rishi, Blood Hunt), possible 2nd tier of MM FP.

 

Mistake to focus only on story, dev team now focuses on all aspects of the game in internal roadmaps, fewer details but regular 90-day plans and more details as new patches get closer.

.

So that's how they're going to deal with the technical issues for server merges. They're going to move everyone to a new server.

That's really smart, actually. I hadn't thought of doing that.

The group finder upgrade would be a massive quality of life change. Right up there with reducing the quick travel cool-down.

I'm really happy to hear this stuff. It's important that they make the game as accessible as possible to anyone who is considering coming back.

If thy want to make FP's relevant again, are them what they were to begin with.

You geared up via FP's in order to do SM ops

Gave you a better idea of how your class worked opposed to making an insta 65 and jumping right into a tanking role in S&V having never done it before.....

Some comments:

I fear a bit for the rewarding of playing rare roles, I suspect healer and tank. It could create a lot of misuse, that DPS put themselves as tank or healers on que relying on being carried in the hopes of better rewards. I can only hope their is a failsave in game or a mechanic making it "unworthy" to try to cheat the system.

When I played WoW before Legion they got round this by making a minimum equipped gear level (it used to include all gear in inventory but iirc that was removed). In addition, if you joined a queue as tank or healer ONLY gear useful to that spec dropped for you. This forced people to do other game content to get appropriate gear from other sources before being able to queue for raids and also made it harder for people to cheat the system by queuing as tank/healer when they were only intending to dmg. The kick system was also pretty good - you had to give a reason and a minimum number had to agree with you so people who failed to carry out their roles got kicked pretty quickly. If BW have the resources to design something similar it could work.

Some comments:

I fear a bit for the rewarding of playing rare roles, I suspect healer and tank. It could create a lot of misuse, that DPS put themselves as tank or healers on que relying on being carried in the hopes of better rewards. I can only hope their is a failsave in game or a mechanic making it "unworthy" to try to cheat the system. Players can get so creative with trying to get an advantage as proven often enough.

Could not agree more. Back in 2.x, when I was still actively pugging hm fps, one of the tricks I saw quite often was dps queueing in as tank or heal, hoping I guess someone in the group could cover for them or would respec and make up the difference. It never ended well, for anyone

Tying the drops to the role you queued for sounds like a great step towards minimizing that, though.

1. Initially no plans to participate in forums but changed the strategy, if it's appreciated (which it looks like it is), more devs will join future on.
   
2. Bioware writes an internal roadmap, send to higher-ups, approval or adjustments and then dates are set, delays initially due to approval not coming.
   
3. 5.3 and 5.4 (Released in August) with major class changes
   
4. Provide better incentives, based on player feedback for Open World PvP
   
5. Cross server never happening, data center upgrades (1 of 3 upgraded) will enable server merges in the future, technical limitations relating to guilds, ships, and banks. If happening, likely to a new server with a new name.
   
6. Group Finder Overhaul to make it easier to create a group, see what roles are available and better incentives to play rare roles.
   
7. Shadows and character visibility improvements, new mechanics, and effects from future operations bosses.
   
8. Better incentives for players to do "tougher" flashpoints (Rishi, Blood Hunt), possible 2nd tier of MM FP.
   
9. Mistake to focus only on story, dev team now focuses on all aspects of the game in internal roadmaps, fewer details but regular 90-day plans and more details as new patches get closer.
   
10. Continued open discussion with players, please provide a "Why" you want a change/nerf/buff/type of content so devs get a context.
    

1. so Keith didn't want to get involved in the community of the game he joined at first? whats with that?

2. typical standard mmo proceedure.

3. thats all well and good, but the main focus on the game has always been on PVE content, so long as it makes sense.

4. never really cared for PVP, not even open world PVP. the best incentive that could be given is putting it down and reorganising the game maps to remove all traces of it. i can't see how it can be made better when a lot of the playerbase recently left the game over GC.

5. of course not, it's the reason i have never once replied in any thread related to cross server merges, it costs money, time and other resources and it takes it all away from the game itself to do all that. i can't see it happening at any point.

6. remove GC and that's how you can make an instant improvement on the GF system as point 1. as for point 2: remove the role system entirely and force players to pick an advanced class, and their spec and as soon as the spec is confirmed, lock down the role. for example a smuggler chooses sawbones, they are locked into the healer role until they respec. into something like dirty fighting where the role is locked into dps. avoids cheating the system and you have to respec before each GF content. at least this way you don't have healers with dps tags or tanks with dps tags any more, they will have little choice but to play their role or be forced to respec.

7. we will see if any of that will happen.

8. Ties into point 7: new mechanics, blood hunt desperately needs a new mechanic with Jos and Valk to replace that absurb knockback mechanic with something equally challenging but without having to worry about where one has to step and place jos and valk during the fight or how a healer get targeted at the wrong moment by target swap and gets punted off the side.

9. as mentioned in point 3, thats all well and good, but the major point of swtor is it's PVE content like storyline, by taking away from that there isn't much holding anyone to the game outside heroic runners, raiders and pvp'ers. eventually that will get dull enough that they will start leaving at some point.

Someone else mentioned it before on this thread, the story content doesn't need to be ignored, it's just the way it was done with FE and ET, it didn't fit with the previous storylines. everyone wants the fight between the republic and empire back. so it's an even bigger mistake to focus less on the story because FE and ET and do none at all.

10. i've mentioned it time and time again since it came with 5.0, removal of GC and i've even stated the reasons why enough times as well in other threads; its destructive, its divided the community, its set the game on fire and it has shafted the prefs and f2p'ers. it has served no one and the rewards are generally crap anyway for all that pointless grind. RemoveRNG.

When I played WoW before Legion they got round this by making a minimum equipped gear level (it used to include all gear in inventory but iirc that was removed). In addition, if you joined a queue as tank or healer ONLY gear useful to that spec dropped for you. This forced people to do other game content to get appropriate gear from other sources before being able to queue for raids and also made it harder for people to cheat the system by queuing as tank/healer when they were only intending to dmg. The kick system was also pretty good - you had to give a reason and a minimum number had to agree with you so people who failed to carry out their roles got kicked pretty quickly. If BW have the resources to design something similar it could work.

The issue with minimum gear is RNG CXP. Some really unlucky people will get locked out of content that they maybe able to complete because they don't get the right RNG wins. Not everyone wants to pvp to get gear.

I don't pve and only pvp, but I am feeling a little of the reverse. If I want to gear up fast I have to do pve because getting gear "only" in pvp is terrible.

I'm not against the idea of minimum gear lvl for content. I actually agree it should happen like we used to have for ranked pvp. But under the current gearing regime, it is impossible to enforce fairly.

More changes need to be made for gearing before bringing in a system like minimum gear requirements.

I would also like an update to the kick system, but for pvp. The current one we have doesn't work properly. We have an on/off credit bot or CXP farmers and bot issue. The CXP farmers go and stand in corners, give up and stand at nodes or just don't try. Most of don't care about a win. This is the same for pvpers as people trying to get people to carry them in pve content without the right gear.

Currently you can only kick a person in pvp if you have over half the team doing so. The issue is most don't even know there is a kick option and also if the person enters combat the kick is reset. So all they need to do is attack the nearest person to cancel the kick and then you have to try and get everyone to do it again, but most are engaged in combat and it's impossible to coordinate. We also can't kick before the match starts. I know there can be abuse of kick systems, so they would need to be careful in what they do, but it is long over due for an overhaul.

Could not agree more. Back in 2.x, when I was still actively pugging hm fps, one of the tricks I saw quite often was dps queueing in as tank or heal, hoping I guess someone in the group could cover for them or would respec and make up the difference. It never ended well, for anyone

 

Tying the drops to the role you queued for sounds like a great step towards minimizing that, though.

You don't have to worry about ploys like that with pure DPS classes =]

If thy want to make FP's relevant again, are them what they were to begin with.

 

You geared up via FP's in order to do SM ops

THIS very much THIS!

Before it was good you had the level 55 Hard mode FPS as they gave you good gear. SM ops had no bolster and you needed gear for it. The way the system is setup now is silly, there is no incentive to do Master Mode FPS, the loot and rewards are not worth it. Maybe to do Hammer station for CXP, but nothing more.

1. Keith worked at WoW as GM/CS, started at Bioware as CS and worked his way up.
   
2. Initially no plans to participate in forums but changed the strategy, if it's appreciated (which it looks like it is), more devs will join future on.
   
3. Bioware writes an internal roadmap, send to higher-ups, approval or adjustments and then dates are set, delays initially due to approval not coming.
   
4. 5.3 and 5.4 (Released in August) with major class changes
   
5. Provide better incentives, based on player feedback for Open World PvP
   
6. Cross server never happening, data center upgrades (1 of 3 upgraded) will enable server merges in the future, technical limitations relating to guilds, ships, and banks. If happening, likely to a new server with a new name.
   
7. Group Finder Overhaul to make it easier to create a group, see what roles are available and better incentives to play rare roles.
   
8. Shadows and character visibility improvements, new mechanics, and effects from future operations bosses.
   
9. Better incentives for players to do "tougher" flashpoints (Rishi, Blood Hunt), possible 2nd tier of MM FP.
   
10. Mistake to focus only on story, dev team now focuses on all aspects of the game in internal roadmaps, fewer details but regular 90-day plans and more details as new patches get closer.
    
11. Continued open discussion with players, please provide a "Why" you want a change/nerf/buff/type of content so devs get a context.
    

(Source) - Reddit wrap-up thx to RikuvonDrake

 

Couple of comments:

#6: Cross server never happening:

I know some thinks SWTOR is doomed because of this.

 

Personally I think cross sever queues totally remove the interaction with the players especially as most think they can be a jerk as they won't ever play again with their actual group.

 

The true issue is server population. If they fix the server population removing the dead ones then we won't need anymore cross server queues.

 

#7: Group Finder Overhaul

Need to allow players to queue for alts.

Other than that we direly need a one button Build, Gear and UI switch.

No dude, without cross-server queues this game IS DOOMED. Even if they merge servers, it wont save many of them, for example only one french server has decent population, the others are just DEAD which mean even if they merge these servers it wont help at all. Same with german servers where t3m4 has not bad population, yet when you queu warzones or flashpoints you always see same faces (many players are already sicked because of it) but even if you merge all german servers - again it wont change much since other german servers are DEAD.

Even wow implemented cross-server queues because of some online issues on particular servers, and language barrier is not causing any problems there. Iam playing on tre and i often see same players on warzones and operations lol, i often see same playing styles. It was ok at the beginning until i realised that fighting same people is actully boring.

about class balance. Well, they must react faster to such problems, so much time players suffering because of opped mercs and snipers, so much games wasted... yet bioware just started to fix it only now, and even today i fought 4 mercs on warzones which bursted everyone down in seconds.

+ numerous buggs (jump-instant die/under textures;bugged clothes (often see my jedi valiant armor stretches in wrong side; operatives with ball in huttball warzone showed in one place whilst they are already far away; bugged armor preview etc)

+ slow pvp gearing progression, several months of time is needed in order to obtain enough UC to gear up from 236-248

Overall, the condition of the game is BAD.

No dude, without cross-server queues this game IS DOOMED. Even if they merge servers, it wont save many of them, for example only one french server has decent population, the others are just DEAD which mean even if they merge these servers it wont help at all. Same with german servers where t3m4 has not bad population, yet when you queu warzones or flashpoints you always see same faces (many players are already sicked because of it) but even if you merge all german servers - again it wont change much since other german servers are DEAD.

So, I guess this game is DOOMED, then... Keith already has said that cross-server won't work.

1. so Keith didn't want to get involved in the community of the game he joined at first? whats with that?

 

2. typical standard mmo proceedure.

 

3. thats all well and good, but the main focus on the game has always been on PVE content, so long as it makes sense.

 

4. never really cared for PVP, not even open world PVP. the best incentive that could be given is putting it down and reorganising the game maps to remove all traces of it. i can't see how it can be made better when a lot of the playerbase recently left the game over GC.

 

5. of course not, it's the reason i have never once replied in any thread related to cross server merges, it costs money, time and other resources and it takes it all away from the game itself to do all that. i can't see it happening at any point.

 

6. remove GC and that's how you can make an instant improvement on the GF system as point 1. as for point 2: remove the role system entirely and force players to pick an advanced class, and their spec and as soon as the spec is confirmed, lock down the role. for example a smuggler chooses sawbones, they are locked into the healer role until they respec. into something like dirty fighting where the role is locked into dps. avoids cheating the system and you have to respec before each GF content. at least this way you don't have healers with dps tags or tanks with dps tags any more, they will have little choice but to play their role or be forced to respec.

 

7. we will see if any of that will happen.

 

8. Ties into point 7: new mechanics, blood hunt desperately needs a new mechanic with Jos and Valk to replace that absurb knockback mechanic with something equally challenging but without having to worry about where one has to step and place jos and valk during the fight or how a healer get targeted at the wrong moment by target swap and gets punted off the side.

 

9. as mentioned in point 3, thats all well and good, but the major point of swtor is it's PVE content like storyline, by taking away from that there isn't much holding anyone to the game outside heroic runners, raiders and pvp'ers. eventually that will get dull enough that they will start leaving at some point.

Someone else mentioned it before on this thread, the story content doesn't need to be ignored, it's just the way it was done with FE and ET, it didn't fit with the previous storylines. everyone wants the fight between the republic and empire back. so it's an even bigger mistake to focus less on the story because FE and ET and do none at all.

 

10. i've mentioned it time and time again since it came with 5.0, removal of GC and i've even stated the reasons why enough times as well in other threads; its destructive, its divided the community, its set the game on fire and it has shafted the prefs and f2p'ers. it has served no one and the rewards are generally crap anyway for all that pointless grind. RemoveRNG.

1)He was being honest. He didn't have to get involved with the community. He could have gone the silent route like in the Ben Irving era and the game would still float above because it's Star Wars. But he cared about the game and decided not to go that route which is great.

3)It's still good to provide incentive for world pvp.

4)That's stupid and selfish of you. Oh because you do not care I guess nobody cares right?

6)Remove roles?? What?? Your thoughts on this sound honestly really bad.

8)So you want a mechanic that's challenging but not frustraring? I don't think you realize that with challenge often frustration comes naturally if you aren't able to overcome the challenge right?

9) You aren't being realistic. Everyone and their mother knows that Bioware Austin doesn't have the same budget as they did in launch. It's the case for many MMOs. By focusing on all aspects they naturally can't bring 5 hours of cutscenes in each like with KOTFE and KOTET. They aren't ignoring it but not putting it above everything else which is wise.

10) ALso CG isn't going anywhere and I do think at the point it's now it's a solid system.

I finally had the time and environment to actually listen to the podcast. In my opinion they "hit it out of the park" and Keith did a great job. I would love to hear those edited/deleted parts as I think they would be funny and insightful of what's to come 😉.. I like the idea of them releasing them 12 months into the future after things have been delivered 😊

I really like this medium of communication because forum posts can often be interpreted wrongly or there isn't enough followup on questions (I understand time restraints and the amount of questions). I'll admit that in the 5 years of playing swtor I've never listened to the badfeelings guys and I was impressed by some of the questions they put to Keith. I was more impressed that Keith answered them and the responses didn't sound like polly speak (short for a politician response, ie dodging questions).

I would love to see these guys make that a regular thing with Keith because I think those in house Bioware casts were lame and did more harm than good. No offence to Musco, but it's hard to take him seriously at times when he's in front of a camera. Maybe Keith could bring some guys along from different departments occasionally, but I think the one vs one interview/talk works well.

I'm a pretty harsh critic at times about Bioware and I often focus on the negative before the positive. I also wear my emotions on my sleeve and can at times lash out if I'm really pissed at something.

But I think part of the reason is my passion for the game. I'm a massive SW fan and have been since I saw the original in 1977 (yes I'm that old). A lot of my friends think it's "cute" that I'm such a big fan, but think it's weird that I've got every book, all of my original figurines, some that are still in packaging (I know, what sort of kid does that) and I'm still collecting. I've also played every SW game ever made and it's my SW fandom that originally pulled me away from my Warcraft addition I started way back in 1995 and culminated with WoW.

I've loved this game since I started playing it. The MMO aspect after coming from WoW got me hooked and I've pretty much exclusively played this game daily for 5 years up until this years flop of 5.x, which has reduced my play time to a few days a week. One of those reasons is because I'm first and foremost a pvper now after playing for 5 years and pvp took a massive negative hit in enjoyment for me. I play pvp for skill vs skill. I could live with the CXP grind because Bolster was still ok when 5.0 launched, but then they nerfed it and created a gear gap. Pvp became less fun over night because I have no interest in gear vs gear pvp. I will play more and for longer periods if it's skill vs skill. I don't need an incentive to play pvp. Most dedicated pvpers feel the same way and disencentives like gear grind make me play less and has nearly made me unsub this year.

I post a lot in these forums because I care, if I didn't I wouldn't post because I get no enjoyment from trolling others.

Keith, Eric, team.. if I've stepped over the line occasionally I apologise and it's not personal (mostly ). Since Keith took over its been a rocky road for me because my faith gets built up and then squashed by something that I vehemently disagree with. The trust for the company over the years has been eroded so much that I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But let me say, this communication is doing its job of restoring some of that trust. Listening to Keith in that podcast made a huge impact because honestly, I was unsubbing this month over the class changes and not enough info about population issues. The fact that Keith openly talked about those, especially the servers and actually seemed to care and grasped the issues both sides of that discussion are having is just amazing. I now have faith that those population density issues are actually being discussed and they are going to attempt to fix them (soon I hope).

I play from Australia and Ping/lag is a big issue for me (I mean really big) and so is population density. Because of the differing time zones and shrinking population, I have found it hard to get reasonable pop times for pvp. In March last year we had a APAC prime time of several hours that popped every 2-5 mins at most. Now it's nearly non existent. Knowing Keith cares is what's keeping me subbed for now.

Please Keith, see if you can make the Badfeeling podcasts a regular thing for you. For me, hearing you talk and knowing you are listening only adds to the trust you are fostering with your forum posts.

Well done and sorry for the essay. As usual I had a lot to say and my passion got the better of me (again).

I finally had the time and environment to actually listen to the podcast. In my opinion they "hit it out of the park" and Keith did a great job. I would love to hear those edited/deleted parts as I think they would be funny and insightful of what's to come 😉.. I like the idea of them releasing them 12 months into the future after things have been delivered 😊

 

I really like this medium of communication because forum posts can often be interpreted wrongly or there isn't enough followup on questions (I understand time restraints and the amount of questions). I'll admit that in the 5 years of playing swtor I've never listened to the badfeelings guys and I was impressed by some of the questions they put to Keith. I was more impressed that Keith answered them and the responses didn't sound like polly speak (short for a politician response, ie dodging questions).

I would love to see these guys make that a regular thing with Keith because I think those in house Bioware casts were lame and did more harm than good. No offence to Musco, but it's hard to take him seriously at times when he's in front of a camera. Maybe Keith could bring some guys along from different departments occasionally, but I think the one vs one interview/talk works well.

 

I'm a pretty harsh critic at times about Bioware and I often focus on the negative before the positive. I also wear my emotions on my sleeve and can at times lash out if I'm really pissed at something.

But I think part of the reason is my passion for the game. I'm a massive SW fan and have been since I saw the original in 1977 (yes I'm that old). A lot of my friends think it's "cute" that I'm such a big fan, but think it's weird that I've got every book, all of my original figurines, some that are still in packaging (I know, what sort of kid does that) and I'm still collecting. I've also played every SW game ever made and it's my SW fandom that originally pulled me away from my Warcraft addition I started way back in 1995 and culminated with WoW.

 

I've loved this game since I started playing it. The MMO aspect after coming from WoW got me hooked and I've pretty much exclusively played this game daily for 5 years up until this years flop of 5.x, which has reduced my play time to a few days a week. One of those reasons is because I'm first and foremost a pvper now after playing for 5 years and pvp took a massive negative hit in enjoyment for me. I play pvp for skill vs skill. I could live with the CXP grind because Bolster was still ok when 5.0 launched, but then they nerfed it and created a gear gap. Pvp became less fun over night because I have no interest in gear vs gear pvp. I will play more and for longer periods if it's skill vs skill. I don't need an incentive to play pvp. Most dedicated pvpers feel the same way and disencentives like gear grind make me play less and has nearly made me unsub this year.

I post a lot in these forums because I care, if I didn't I wouldn't post because I get no enjoyment from trolling others.

 

Keith, Eric, team.. if I've stepped over the line occasionally I apologise and it's not personal (mostly ). Since Keith took over its been a rocky road for me because my faith gets built up and then squashed by something that I vehemently disagree with. The trust for the company over the year has been eroded so much that I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But let me say, this communication is doing its job of restoring some of that trust. Listening to Keith in that podcast made a huge impact because honestly, I was unsubbing this month over the class changes and not enough info about population issues. The fact that Keith openly talked about those, especially the servers and actually seemed to care and grasped the issues both sides of that discussion are having is just amazing. I now have faith that those population density issues are actually being discussed and they are going to attempt to fix them (soon I hope).

I play from Australia and Ping/lag is a big issue for me (I mean really big) and so is population density. Because of the differing time zones and shrinking population, I have found it hard to get reasonable pop times for pvp. In March last year we had a APAC prime time of several hours that popped every 2-5 mins at most. Now it's nearly non existent. Knowing Keith cares is what's keeping me subbed for now.

 

Please Keith, see if you can make the Badfeeling podcasts a regular thing for you. For me, hearing you talk and knowing you are listening only adds to the trust you are fostering with your forum posts.

 

Well done and sorry for the essay. As usual I had a lot to say and my passion got the better of me (again).

While I loved reading your, essay, and how BW (Keith) is slowly restoring your faith I think that we shouldn't put Musco and Keith beside one another. Keith and Musco (and excuse the movie reference) is like DJ and Kevin Hart, Hart is the comedic relief to DJ's "straight" character. That's what I believe Musco is trying to be, "the comedic relief" dev, or "the fun dev". I think we can also see this in both of their individual roles, and it is because of this that I believe Musco is allowed a little more leeway.

So, I guess this game is DOOMED, then... Keith already has said that cross-server won't work.

Yep, that what iam telling about. As a person who plays on one of the french server, and t3m4 i can truly say that these server's populations are shrinking fast. A small bunch of players queuing and fighting each other on warzones, and same with operations. Many have left to tre but also many dont want to do so because of guild ships and a high number of alts to transfer. Cross-server queues among all eu servers and among all usa servers would save this game, but nah Keith said that they don't want to save it and with cross-server queues prohibition they just made a death sentence to swtor. The only thing left is merge ALL EU servers and ALL USA servers so bad population Would not be an issue but i don't see this going to happen.

Yep, that what iam telling about. As a person who plays on one of the french server, and t3m4 i can truly say that these server's populations are shrinking fast. A small bunch of players queuing and fighting each other on warzones, and same with operations. Many have left to tre but also many dont want to do so because of guild ships and a high number of alts to transfer. Cross-server queues among all eu servers and among all usa servers would save this game, but nah Keith said that they don't want to save it and with cross-server queues prohibition they just made a death sentence to swtor. The only thing left is merge ALL EU servers and ALL USA servers so bad population Would not be an issue but i don't see this going to happen.

So, then I guess all that is really left to do is for all of us to quit if the game is guaranteed to die. ¯\_ツ_/¯

So, then I guess all that is really left to do is for all of us to quit if the game is guaranteed to die. ¯\_ツ_/¯

Keith eluded to them having the ability to have mega servers with their new hardware. If you can corral new and returning players into the same locations where the largest current player base is in the game, optimal populations will be available for doing group content.

Keith eluded to them having the ability to have mega servers with their new hardware. If you can corral new and returning players into the same locations where the largest current player base is in the game, optimal populations will be available for doing group content.

I know that, the dude I quoted was talking about cross server, not mega server.