The goal of 5.1 was to give a method for people to supplement Galactic Command so that aside from Command Crates, they could work towards a specific piece of gear. We did that through introducing Unassembled Pieces and Unassembled Tokens. We also added the start of some help for Legacies with Command Tokens as a Legacy Currency and the Legacy Perks.

 

5.1 was just the start of the changes though, and my post above was to let you know when to expect more specifics!

 

-eric

Then here's what I suggest you do Eric...

 

• Make 230 gear the only thing that drops from loot boxes from 1-90. 230 gear is "intro" gear, NOT end game gear

 

•Add a ZERO to the end of all the PvP rewards because the current gain is so minimal that it's insulting. It's not an "alternative" way to grind gear, it's a joke...and we can see right through it

 

• Double/triple all CXP rewards, at the minimum. Your stated goal of one box per 30min is so unreachable right now for the average player that it's not even close. It's taking me 2-hours between boxes and I'm doing only activities that reward CXP, I'm not even playing what I want to play

 

• Make Ops more lucrative. Increase the random drop to be a little more reliable - OR - remove lockouts on Ops so we can run it 100 times in a week if we want

 

• Make FPs matter

 

• Make Uprisings worth learning, because right now, they aren't

 

See, the mistake you guys are making is thinking that we're playing just to gear our toons...we're NOT. We're playing because we enjoy the content we DO have. Uprisings aren't even all that bad, they just suck in terms of rewards. Our alts, the ones you've encouraged us to grind since launch, they've allowed us to keep playing despite the ridiculous lockouts and limits we have on some of the games content. Let us use those alts - let us gear those alts.

 

CXP should be used the same way DvL was - as added rewards, not THE reward. If you would have kept gearing the way it was and you gave away a Cartel Pack for every CXP level we gained, players would have showered you with subs (not sandwiches). You misread WHY we play. You have failed to understand what kept us here...it's not the damn gear, it's the parts of the game we DO enjoy...not the gear we need to do them.

 

Gear can't be both the 'reward' AND the limiting factor in doing the games content.

Edited January 31, 2017 by TUXs

Eric,

 

 

I DON'T WANT GALACTIC COMMAND.

 

I don't want crates. I don't want unassemled parts or unassemled tokens. I want our Pre-4.0 endgame progression, loot and comm system back. you're killing me.

 

Fixed that for you. Changed the "WE" to "I" and the "us" to "me". I like GC, and I love the fact that I basically have another 300 levels after 70 to work for. I also love that I get gear for doing whatever the flipping hell I want to do, which is awesome.

 

Any tweaks or changes to the system is a plus for me. I don't want to go back to 4.0. Keep up the good work BW, as far as I'm concerned.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Vember

Our goal at launch was 60 minutes per crate. Right now we are seeing times both below and above that goal with an average time per crate being little higher than our target, but not much. It is one of the data points we looked at to plan for our new target. Which if you are math savvy, our new goal is you will get crates twice as fast as before (or more).

 

For reference, people doing aggressive CXP farming are already doing so at a rate quite a bit faster than every 60 minutes. Our new targets are that someone will get a crate every 30 minutes, without a boost.

 

-eric

 

 

Get rid of RNG, anything else you do itsn't a real fix. You know that, so do we.

Recently shifted over to FF14 in my week or so playing that I have found the following distractions quite useful

 

1. Main story chain

2. Class story chain to get additional skills unique to the role

3. Fates (open world events which last 20min or so, kill any amount of mobs and get rewarded for doing it)

4. No need for alts as one character can pretty much do all so you are rewarded for being one character

5. I have spent the last 2 days Chocobo racing! think of Swoop racing on a large chicken! somethingTOR could have added but alas couldn't be arsed.

 

Granted some of the complexity of this game is that it runs on a far more superior game engine which allows for stunningly beautiful graphics. Oh and not mention the shed load of content to work through from 4 man to 24 man content.

 

The rewards in a dungeon are obviously RNG but hey that doesnt matter because you can get gear in 3 ways! Standard gear can be obtained doing any number of side quests, crafting and buying from vendor, the better gear drops from the better bosses as you progress along.

 

All in all the team behind FF14 have proven on multiple levels that they are listening to their paying customers, by taking down FF14 when people complained about how broken it was to release A Realm Reborn and making it one of the best MMOs I have played in a very long time. I see shades of Galaxies, I see shades of WoW but it is fueled and looks after the Final Fantasy lore much better than currently done by EA/BW.

 

So TOR just became my 2nd MMO now due to the 5.0 and your inability to understand your playerbase, and FF14 will be my main.

 

Shame to leave a SW title behind but to alter Padmé line in Revenge of the Sith

 

" I don't know you anymore. SWTOR, you're breaking my heart. You're going down a path I can't follow."

These are pretty gosh darn valid concerns .

 

It is fair to say that if someone solely cares about gearing their character, they would consider waiting for these changes to go in place before playing. That is why we had a few goals in making my post yesterday:

1. We are being open that changes are coming.
   
2. We are going to provide details on what is changing, and when, so that you know what to expect.
   
3. We want to start rolling these changes out ASAP. I said the changes will start in the next few weeks, but the goal is the first changes will happen very soon (likely next week).
   

If someone really wants to wait for changes to take affect before playing, that's ok! However, I think there is other fun to be had without just gearing their 70 (level an alt to 70 in prep for the changes, finish up legendary status, etc).

 

-eric

 

Eric,

 

Tell Ben and the team to stop screwing around. Read all the posts in this thread (yes it's going to take a bit of time.) Do you see a theme? We, your customers, do not want or like RNG crates for gearing. It really is that simple. If BW wants to keep customers, the RNG crates for end game gearing need to go and they need to go last week. The little incremental changes aren't going to cut it. Print out this thread and hand it to the dev team. Make them actually read it. The team needs to stop hearing what they want to hear and actually pay attention. You're bleeding subs and the little "fixes" aren't stopping it. We're moving on to other games and once that happens, people aren't coming back. I was talking to a former guildie last night, in ESO, and he's now subbed there and flat out said he doesn't think there's anything you could do, other than maybe free game time, that would get him to come back. How many more are like him and now playing ESO, FFXIV, WoW, or some other competitor's game? Ben and the team have had almost 4 months of negative feedback at this point. There is absolutely no excuse for not having the system replaced well before now. No excuse whatsoever. With any luck EA will take note and make appropriate staffing changes very soon.

These are pretty gosh darn valid concerns .

 

It is fair to say that if someone solely cares about gearing their character, they would consider waiting for these changes to go in place before playing. That is why we had a few goals in making my post yesterday:

1. We are being open that changes are coming.
   
2. We are going to provide details on what is changing, and when, so that you know what to expect.
   
3. We want to start rolling these changes out ASAP. I said the changes will start in the next few weeks, but the goal is the first changes will happen very soon (likely next week).
   

If someone really wants to wait for changes to take affect before playing, that's ok! However, I think there is other fun to be had without just gearing their 70 (level an alt to 70 in prep for the changes, finish up legendary status, etc).

 

-eric

 

 

Sure there are other fun things to do. Unless you have done them all given the age of the content we have. 2-5 years old for most if it. Thats really old to expect gamers to keep doing and thinking it has the same expereince it did years ago.

 

Simply doing that extremely old content on another difficulty level for a RNG crate turned out to be a one of hte most unrewarding gaming experiences one could have. A general lack of entertainment doing old content for what is largely a gamble to see if all that time you just wasted in that extremely old content gets flushed down the tubes as if you never did a thing.

 

You have to see how thats a problem.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Quraswren

Our goal at launch was 60 minutes per crate. Right now we are seeing times both below and above that goal with an average time per crate being little higher than our target, but not much. It is one of the data points we looked at to plan for our new target. Which if you are math savvy, our new goal is you will get crates twice as fast as before (or more).

 

For reference, people doing aggressive CXP farming are already doing so at a rate quite a bit faster than every 60 minutes. Our new targets are that someone will get a crate every 30 minutes, without a boost.

 

-eric

 

BW is totally insane. People doing it way faster are farming and grinding until their eyes bleed. That does not make happy players. Again, I don't care if I get a crate every 5 minutes, the system is still totally FUBAR. The RNG is garbage, the system is garbage and whoever came up with it is a fool. So, let me be as plane as several other people have been. GET RID OF GC for end game gearing. Now. Right now. Not in 6 months when you have no subs left, not even next week when more have left. RIGHT NOW.

Edited January 31, 2017 by DanNV

1. We want to start rolling these changes out ASAP. I said the changes will start in the next few weeks, but the goal is the first changes will happen very soon (likely next week).
   

We're talking about something as simple as changing a number. Get it started THIS week Eric. EVERY day you delay, you lose more and more players...this has got to light a fire under you guys.

BW is totally insane. People doing it way faster or farming and grinding until their eyes bleed. That does not make happy players.

EXACTLY!!! They're using the few hardcore grinders as a barometer for everyone. There are extremes on both sides and frankly, I'm sick of grinding CXP just to continually get ****. I haven't taken a piece of gear out in over 20 levels.

Our goal at launch was 60 minutes per crate. Right now we are seeing times both below and above that goal with an average time per crate being little higher than our target, but not much. It is one of the data points we looked at to plan for our new target. Which if you are math savvy, our new goal is you will get crates twice as fast as before (or more).

 

For reference, people doing aggressive CXP farming are already doing so at a rate quite a bit faster than every 60 minutes. Our new targets are that someone will get a crate every 30 minutes, without a boost.

 

-eric

 

Eric, among many other issues with GC the one over whelming theme that needs to be relayed, it doesn't matter if we get crates faster as long as they are still unrewarding and you can go 40 levels and not receive anything useful.

This needs to be addressed it is causing massive frustration, it's not fun or rewarding.

New players trying to get their entry gear 230 with a set bonus are not getting it after 100 hours of grinding, no matter how fast crates are awarded if this doesn't change the response will be exactly the same.

lol

Poor Eric

This stubborn producers are destroying this guy

Peace Eric

These are pretty gosh darn valid concerns .

 

It is fair to say that if someone solely cares about gearing their character, they would consider waiting for these changes to go in place before playing. That is why we had a few goals in making my post yesterday:

1. We are being open that changes are coming.
   
2. We are going to provide details on what is changing, and when, so that you know what to expect.
   
3. We want to start rolling these changes out ASAP. I said the changes will start in the next few weeks, but the goal is the first changes will happen very soon (likely next week).
   

If someone really wants to wait for changes to take affect before playing, that's ok! However, I think there is other fun to be had without just gearing their 70 (level an alt to 70 in prep for the changes, finish up legendary status, etc).

 

-eric

 

I don't know, where the problem is. If s.o. wants to be geared actually, it's possible by just playing the game. Since launch of 5.1 we equipped our raid through unassembled gear pieces & unassembled components. We are nearly finished (16 pieces missing to be full 236+ on all 10 main characters). These "concerns" are unfounded in my opinion.

 

However, I would appreciate every change, that improves the gearing process. If not, we are more or less fine with the current system. Gear is coming on it's own by progressing through harder content, as it should be normally in a mmo.

 

Concerning to Command Crates, I have a serious suggestion: Don't change the time, we need to get Crates, but buff the drop-rate of useful gear. With my current activities I am able to earn 4-5 Crates per day. It is very unexciting to get the 12th earpiece or the fifth belt and is is much more unexciting to get trash. 1 legendary and 2 purple per 10 crates seems to be a better rate.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Exocor

Our goal at launch was 60 minutes per crate. Right now we are seeing times both below and above that goal with an average time per crate being little higher than our target, but not much. It is one of the data points we looked at to plan for our new target. Which if you are math savvy, our new goal is you will get crates twice as fast as before (or more).

 

For reference, people doing aggressive CXP farming are already doing so at a rate quite a bit faster than every 60 minutes. Our new targets are that someone will get a crate every 30 minutes, without a boost.

 

-eric

Why you are sticking to that crate buisness? People hate it. Little to nobody likes those crates. Why wont you just remove the whole cxp thing from the game and make a system that is just simple. You wanted to remove the crystals (commendations) from the game because they were to complex, and you rolled out a cxp system. Ok, system would be good if it wasnt based on RNG. But instead of doing a system taht is simpler than commendations you rolled out a patch 5.1 that is actually way more complicated than commendations were. And infact all you should do with commendations based system is just remove them, grant basic set for creds, remove elite and ultimate sets, leave everything as it was and voila. System is simple and gosh darn so little work done. System is alt friendly as it was before, and no crazy grindfest is done. Or you could introduce the last boss loot rule to pve if you want to make things go slower.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Forren-Midosea

These are pretty gosh darn valid concerns .

 

It is fair to say that if someone solely cares about gearing their character, they would consider waiting for these changes to go in place before playing. That is why we had a few goals in making my post yesterday:

1. We are being open that changes are coming.
   
2. We are going to provide details on what is changing, and when, so that you know what to expect.
   
3. We want to start rolling these changes out ASAP. I said the changes will start in the next few weeks, but the goal is the first changes will happen very soon (likely next week).
   

If someone really wants to wait for changes to take affect before playing, that's ok! However, I think there is other fun to be had without just gearing their 70 (level an alt to 70 in prep for the changes, finish up legendary status, etc).

 

-eric

 

As a PvP player, it's about gearing to be competitive since you broke Bolster. We aren't gearing because we like the pretty purples/gold, we're gearing to play the content. Now, as I'm levelling a DPS Sorcerer and a few mirror classes, I do have characters to level but I don't want to put in the effort just to get disappointed- I'm not even playing my level 70 tank, my Immortal Juggernaut in warzones because she can't do what she is designed to which is tank.

 

Do I need to add more characters to that tragic menagerie? Or are you actually fixing it so we can alt happily?

 

 

Our goal at launch was 60 minutes per crate. Right now we are seeing times both below and above that goal with an average time per crate being little higher than our target, but not much. It is one of the data points we looked at to plan for our new target. Which if you are math savvy, our new goal is you will get crates twice as fast as before (or more).

 

For reference, people doing aggressive CXP farming are already doing so at a rate quite a bit faster than every 60 minutes. Our new targets are that someone will get a crate every 30 minutes, without a boost.

 

-eric

 

I echo concerns that any crate increase won't change the garbage drops. I've grinded through about ten crates in two days and they were almost completely garbage (double of a relic) on my main and getting the same faster doesn't help. Twice as fast, twenty times as fast- if I'm getting countless orange shells, junk and doubles- it isn't really worth a darn.

Since launch of 5.1 we equipped our raid through unassembled gear pieces & unassembled components.

Uh huh lol. How many pieces of gear are you claiming you've gotten through unassembled components exactly??

lol

Poor Eric

This stubborn producers are destroying this guy

Peace Eric

 

I agree. I appreciated Eric asking Ben directly in live stream if Galactic Command System would be done away with.

 

Eric knows players hate it.

Uh huh lol. How many pieces of gear are you claiming you've gotten through unassembled components exactly??

 

Yeah, no kidding - it's been approximately 150 hours since 5.1 launched. Do tell us how many T3 set pieces you have bought through components in that time.

Edited January 31, 2017 by stoopicus

-eric

First I'd like to take the opportunity to say that I very much appreciate the current frequency of posting and even taking some baby steps towards engaging the community. If you can keep up the former and improve the latter I think you'll find the tenor of the forums will settle down.

 

Keep this thought in mind: If you have nothing to talk about you're not doing your job. Even if everything is all roses there always something to discuss.

 

Our goal at launch was 60 minutes per crate. Right now we are seeing times both below and above that goal with an average time per crate being little higher than our target, but not much. It is one of the data points we looked at to plan for our new target. Which if you are math savvy, our new goal is you will get crates twice as fast as before (or more).

My math is a bit rusty so pardon me if I get some of the terminology wrong. I'm finding it extremely hard to believe that on a normal distribution (aka bell curve) that people are getting one crate per hour within one standard deviation.

 

For reference, people doing aggressive CXP farming are already doing so at a rate quite a bit faster than every 60 minutes. Our new targets are that someone will get a crate every 30 minutes, without a boost.

Did you word that funny or did you actually mean that to hit the new 30 min/crate target you have to adopt the super aggressive tactics (eg. fractured spam, KotFE Master mode Ch.1 grinding, etc.)? *points back* look at that bell curve and aim for 1 standard deviation.

 

--

 

While it sounds like you guys are trying to fix the CXP rate, RNG is a much worse demotivator. That has to be fixed as well.

 

Stop running an MMO like it's a phone game.

Tweaking and supplementing the GC system is great, but whatever you do, please don't remove it the way some hardliners are calling for.

 

Letting all playstyles advance along a unified track towards the BiS gear is a positive change for the game, and if the trade-off for having that unified track is that progress along it needs to be throttled, then on balance that's still worth it.

Fixed that for you. Changed the "WE" to "I" and the "us" to "me". I like GC, and I love the fact that I basically have another 300 levels after 70 to work for. I also love that I get gear for doing whatever the flipping hell I want to do, which is awesome.

 

Any tweaks or changes to the system is a plus for me. I don't want to go back to 4.0. Keep up the good work BW, as far as I'm concerned.

-- agree. Now you can get gear not only from ops but from any objectives (almost).

 

Why wont you just remove the whole cxp thing from the game and make a system that is just simple.

- because we wait when you will finally stop crying with others and START play. If you are too lazy with others then its this ppl problem, not BW problem. A lot of ppl with this system get full gear .. others choose eternal complain mode.

 

Eric knows players hate it.

- and Eric knows now ppl is so lazy to play. A lot of weeks need wait to new expansion and all of you still want get everything in few days. No comment. Edited January 31, 2017 by Trlance

5.2. They are intended to address the following:

• Greatly increase the rate at which you earn Command Crates. Our goal is that you earn one Crate every 30 minutes, or less (on average).
  
• Looking at improvements we can make to Unassembled Components and Unassembled Pieces.
  
• Make gearing more alt-friendly.
  

-eric

 

My suggestion is: Leave command crates RNG, slightly increase the rates like 25% faster, and every 5 levels on the 5 the crate pops a set piece that you do not already have. Seems quite simple.

level 1-4 = same normal random junk

level 5 = Some set bonus piece like head.

etc... And after char has all the set bonus pieces, every 5 pops the things like earings, implants.

 

So there is no need for tiers really, the first set pops completely once every 5 levels, then moves on to the next. 230s first, then so on. This way you get your t1 set by the time you end what is tier 1.

 

Because my problem with simply giving more chests is, with my luck so far I feel I would need to pop a chest every 10 seconds in order to get 1 set filled in the first year of game play. Increasing chests pops if they are fully random may not quite do it.

 

For alt-friendly: in 4.0 alts earned pvp comms and sent to higher chars, perhaps something like that on here also. Alts could earn command-comms to be sent to higher players.

These are pretty gosh darn valid concerns .

 

It is fair to say that if someone solely cares about gearing their character, they would consider waiting for these changes to go in place before playing. That is why we had a few goals in making my post yesterday:

1. We are being open that changes are coming.
   
2. We are going to provide details on what is changing, and when, so that you know what to expect.
   
3. We want to start rolling these changes out ASAP. I said the changes will start in the next few weeks, but the goal is the first changes will happen very soon (likely next week).
   

If someone really wants to wait for changes to take affect before playing, that's ok! However, I think there is other fun to be had without just gearing their 70 (level an alt to 70 in prep for the changes, finish up legendary status, etc).

 

-eric

 

Eric,

 

If you have played since beta, like I have, then the ONLY thing that you can do in game is gear your toons. There is nothing else to work for in this game.

 

You created a system where I am forced to play my main and not have any fun doing so.

 

Your team has done nothing to add to conquest, create new reputation, create new events etc.

 

There is not reason to play the game right now until you fix Galactic Command. Honestly, there is no reason to play the game until GC is fundamentally altered or removed.

 

Here is what you NEED to do to fix it.

 

1.) Get rid of green/blue gear

2.) Create purple non-set gear. Only 3 tiers, purple non-set, purple set, and legendary

3.) Increase drop rates

4.) Increase crate drops

 

I would prefer that the system be removed entirely. Even if you make the very simple changes above, I have been burned so badly by Bioware's promises that I'd almost need to be paid to want to invest in this game again.

 

You guys need to seriously create some sub rewards to apologize for GC.

 

Finally, Galactic Command was a stupid way to keep folks subbed. Other games actually provide sub rewards for logging in. You give me no reason to want to login.

 

Here is what you should do to get people to login and play your old content.

 

1.) Daily login reward for subs

2.) Weekly login reward for subs who have logged in for 7 straight days

3.) Daily mission rewards ( rare armors etc) for running content such as running HM Lost Island to get a Revan Mask etc.

4.) New capital ship decks etc or items to work for (ops deck, pvp terminals, combat arena so that guild members can train in pvp together etc)

 

I login to warframe every day because I get a reward for doing so. They have alert missions and mini-events for running their content to give cool rewards.

 

GC is grinding. The loot drops are awful and I have no enthusiasm to login and play.

I just won't bother doing anything any more. Took me ages to level to command rank 300, got no 242 gear.

 

Then 5.1 pretty much rendered command rank useless because you can only buy tokens to farm more levels that don't get you anything. Now they are gradually nerfing it so everyone can half-arse it. What if you already did it the hard way? Oh well, bummer.

 

5.1 also introduced a "new" form of grind - pvp,/gsf unassembled components. Because let's face it, only a few guilds have the people and the skill to complete Master Ops so the vast majority of players is doing pvp or just settling for less, waiting for a better days.

 

Now if I put myself into playing a lot of pvp/gsf for unassembled components to try and gear up to 242, in BW's continued attempts to unscrew this they are changing the system again. In all likelihood there will be a nerf to the amount of components needed to buy gear in the near future. So if I don't save them, I will end up where I was after I leveled up my command rank....screwed. If I save them up, BW might decide to throw away this system too.

What's the purpose of gearing up the hard way, just give them a couple more months or so to make up their minds, save yourself the pain.

 

No need to mention all this took away all the fun the game had left.

 

When 5.2 hits, people will probably still be unhappy with it too and rage, ask for gear and class changes. So new changes are to be expected ...To God knows what, everything...again.

 

I used to care, used to rage. Now it's just meh. Like someone said in the previous comments,, I too have had a lot of love for SWTOR and I'm sad to have to leave it after so many years.

We're talking about something as simple as changing a number. Get it started THIS week Eric. EVERY day you delay, you lose more and more players...this has got to light a fire under you guys.

 

I have a huge admiration for you, the way you're still trying to make these guys open their eyes should be rewarded.

 

But I'm afraid you're wasting your time, they're trying to maintain the system, that's why they choose to make little changes one after another. They perfectly know players don't like it, but the main goal is "a long grind for a long sub", that's the only plan they had with 5.0, so even if they're forced to make changes now, they will try to limit these changes the best they can.

 

And of course, there's a brilliant, omniscient producer, the one who knows what's good for the game (as said by himself after 5.0) who just refuse to admit he made a mistake. IMO, he's the problem, he doesn't want much change, because that would mean he failed.

 

That would not happen with a passionate team, who cares FIRST about making a great game and love and play their game. Passionate people have no problem with admiting a mistake because the most important to them is the game. We all know that's not the situation here.