Hey folks,

 

Since the launch of Knights of the Eternal Throne, we have received a lot of great feedback about the gearing changes we made through Galactic Command. In this post, I want to highlight the changes we are making next week. However, we know this will not address all of your concerns, so let’s also talk about additional changes we plan to make.

 

Our primary goal for Game Update 5.1: Defend the Throne was to allow players to work towards specific pieces of gear through PvP and Operations. Additionally, we wanted to provide a means to help players gear their other Characters. Here are the changes coming next week:

• New currency: Command Tokens - This currency comes from Command Crates. Each Crate will drop Command Tokens based on the Tier of the Crate (Tier 1 – 5 tokens, Tier 2 – 8 tokens, Tier 3 – 12 tokens). These tokens are a Legacy-wide currency and will be retroactively granted (based on your Command Rank) when 5.1 launches.
  
• New currency: Unassembled Components – This currency is a reward for playing Warzones and Galactic Starfighter and can be used to purchase Unassembled Gear Pieces.
  
• New currency: Unassembled Gear Piece - These drop from Operation bosses or are purchased with Unassembled Components and can be turned in along with Command Tokens for specific pieces of gear. The last boss of each Operation has a 100% chance to drop Unassembled Gear Pieces (2 pieces for 8-man, 4 pieces for 16-man). Each other boss in an Operation has an increasing chance to drop them (the second boss having a higher chance than the first boss, and so on). Refer to this forum post to see where each item slot will drop.

 

With these new currencies, players will be able to go to new vendors and purchase specific items. Here are some of the vendor details:

• Unassembled Component Vendor: On this vendor you can turn in Unassembled Components to purchase a specific Unassembled Gear Piece. You can only purchase Tier 1 Unassembled Pieces in this way. However, you can turn in Tier 1 pieces along with Unassembled Components to upgrade them to Tier 2 and 3 respectively. Refer to this forum post for more details on this vendor.
  
• Unassembled Gear Piece Vendor: With this vendor you can turn in one Unassembled Gear Piece for a specific slot (ex: Unassembled Helm Tier 1) along with Command Tokens for that respective piece of gear. Refer to this forum post for more details on this vendor.

 

The changes listed above are really focused on allowing players to work towards a specific piece of gear. However, we also wanted to allow players to level their alts a bit quicker and so here are some of the changes coming for that:

• New Character Legacy Perk: Increase all Command XP Earned by 2/4/6/8/10%.
  
• New Command XP Boost: This can be purchased with Command Tokens and provides a 15% boost (this boost stacks with the Legacy perk but not the MTX boost). This boost only works per Tier at the following costs:
  
  • Tier 1 – 20 Command Tokens
    
  • Tier 2 – 28 Command Tokens
    
  • Tier 3 – 44 Command Tokens

 

The above changes are coming next week with Game Update 5.1! Additional concerns you have raised are listed below:

 

Operations Lacking for CXP

We have been looking at all of the places that players can earn CXP and although our intent is that Operations (especially Veteran/Master) would be the best source of CXP, that is not true currently. We have been working to rebalance the CXP gains of Operations across the board so that they are at least on-par with the best sources of CXP in the game. We plan to include these changes with Patch 5.1.1, but we will give you more information on scheduling once we lock it down.

 

Galactic Command Gearing Alt-unfriendly

One of the biggest concerns expressed is Galactic Command forces a player into working only on one character. Although that wasn’t our intention, we agree with you. For starters, in 5.1 we are implementing the Legacy-wide currency of Command Tokens, legacy bound boosts you can purchase with Command Tokens, and the legacy perk to speed up leveling. We know that isn’t enough, so we are exploring additional options so that when you are playing any character, there is a way to potentially provide benefit to all other characters in your legacy as well. I have no specifics to share at this time, but I am working to have more details available for our January 26th Livestream.

 

Command Rank Leveling Speed

We monitor Command Ranks across the game, along with player feedback on the rate at which players are leveling. The Legacy perk and additional boost will help speed up leveling, but we will continue to review. Let’s see how it feels after 5.1. We’ll discuss with you and make further adjustments, if needed.

 

New Endgame Content

We know addressing the gearing concerns is only half of the equation. Whether it came from the forums, social media, or even focus groups, the feedback is that you want more large group and MMO content such as daily areas and Operations. We will be discussing these very topics in our Livestream next Thursday, January 26, 2017, so come join us!

 

We want to thank all of your for your continued feedback about Galactic Command. Please keep it coming!

 

-eric

Hey folks,

 

As explained in our Galactic Command Thread, Unassembled Gear Pieces are a way for players to work towards getting a specific gear slot and tier. Below you will find a list of each Operation boss that has a guaranteed drop of the pieces, and which one they drop. Note that only the last boss of each Operation is guaranteed, but every other boss has a chance to drop any slot. Each of these bosses will drop two pieces in 8-man and four pieces in 16-man.

 

Here are the drops for Tier 1 and Tier 2 gear which come from Story and Veteran difficulty respectively:

• Implant/Earpiece: Eternity Vault – Soa (The Infernal One)
  
• Relic: Karagga’s Palace – Karagga the Unyielding
  
• Chest: Explosive Conflict – Warlord Kephess
  
• Legs: Terror From Beyond – The Terror From Beyond
  
• Hands: Scum and Villainy – Dread Master Styrak
  
• Boots: The Dread Fortress – Dread Master Brontes
  
• Head: The Dread Palace – The Dread Masters
  
• Off-hand: The Ravagers – Ruugar
  
• Mainhand: Temple of Sacrifice – Revan
  
• Bracer: Makeb – The Golden Fury (and Eyeless from the Rakghoul event)
  
• Belt: Ziost – Worldbreaker Monolith (and Xenoanalyst from the Gree event)

 

Here are the drops for Tier 3 which come from Master difficulty unless otherwise noted:

• Relic and Implant: Explosive Conflict – Warlord Kephess
  
• Legs and Earpiece: Terror From Beyond – The Terror From Beyond
  
• Hands and Chest: Scum and Villainy – Dread Master Styrak
  
• Boots and off-hand: The Dread Fortress – Dread Master Brontes
  
• Head and mainhand: The Dread Palace – The Dread Masters
  
• Implant (chance to drop in Veteran mode): The Ravagers – Ruugar
  
• Relic (chance to drop in Veteran mode): Temple of Sacrifice – Revan
  
• Bracer (chance to drop in Veteran mode):: Makeb – The Golden Fury and Eyeless from the Rakghoul event
  
• Belt (chance to drop in Veteran mode):: Ziost – Worldbreaker Monolith and Xenoanalyst from the Gree event

 

Let me know if you have any questions or anything is unclear. Thanks everyone!

 

-eric

 

Hey folks,

 

As we talked about in the Galactic Command Thread, Unassembled Components are a way for PvP players to work towards a specific piece of gear. First we will talk about how many Components you get from playing PvP and then I will show you the costs of each item from the vendor.

 

This list is how many Unassembled Components you get based on the content you play:

• 5 - Warzone Win
  
• 2 - Warzone Loss
  
• 3 - Arena Win
  
• 1 - Arena Loss
  
• 5 - Solo Ranked Win
  
• 2 - Solo Ranked Loss
  
• 8 - Group Ranked Win
  
• 3 - Group Ranked Loss
  
• 8 - GSF Win
  
• 3 - GSF Loss
  

 

Now let’s talk about item costs from the vendor. The following costs are to purchase Tier 1 Unassembled Gear Pieces:

• Chest - 100
  
• Legs - 100
  
• Head - 100
  
• Hands - 100
  
• Feet - 100
  
• Waist - 75
  
• Wrist - 75
  
• Implant - 80
  
• Earpiece - 80
  
• Relic - 80
  
• Mainhand - 120
  
• Off-hand - 120

 

Keep in mind that Tier 1 is the only Tier that you can directly purchase. In order to get a Tier 2 or 3 Unassembled piece, you will need to turn in the previous Tier armor piece along with X amount of Unassembled Components (listed below). As an example if you wanted to get the Tier 2 Unassembled Chest Piece, you would need to go to the vendor with a Tier 1 chest piece and 150 Unassembled Components. This will then give you a Tier 2 Unassembled Chest Piece which you can turn in. Here are the Tier 2 and 3 costs:

• Chest – 150/225
  
• Legs – 150/225
  
• Head – 150/225
  
• Hands – 150/225
  
• Feet – 150/225
  
• Waist – 115/175
  
• Wrist – 115/175
  
• Implant – 120/180
  
• Earpiece – 120/180
  
• Relic – 120/180
  
• Mainhand – 180/270
  
• Off-hand – 180/270

 

Let me know if you have any questions or anything is unclear. Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

Hey folks,

 

As we talked about in the Galactic Command Thread, Game Update 5.1 will introduce methods for you to work towards getting specific pieces of Tier gear. A big part of that will be from Unassembled Gear Pieces. Those Pieces can drop from Operations bosses or purchased from the new PvP vendor for Unassembled Components. Once you have the piece, you will need to bring it to a new vendor on the fleet where you can purchase that specific piece of gear. As an example, if you have a Tier 1 Unassembled Head Piece you will be able to come to the vendor and purchase any Tier 1 head piece of your choice. Each Unassembled Piece also has a Command Token cost to purchase them, let’s break those down. The costs will be listed by slot and then the Command Token cost by Tier (Tier 1/Tier 2/ Tier 3). Here they are:

 

• Chest – 10/15/24
  
• Legs -10/15/24
  
• Head -10/15/24
  
• Hands -10/15/24
  
• Feet -10/15/24
  
• Waist – 7/10/15
  
• Wrist - 7/10/15
  
• Implant - 8/12/18
  
• Earpiece – 8/12/18
  
• Relic – 8/12/18
  
• Mainhand – 12/18/28
  
• Off-hand – 12/18/28

 

As a reminder, you earn Command Tokens in each Command Crate that you open. You earn them at the following rate per crate:

• Tier 1 – 5
  
• Tier 2 – 8
  
• Tier 3 – 12

 

Lastly, there are new Command XP Boosts that you can buy for Command Tokens. These boosts only work while a character is in a specified Tier. They provide a 15% boost which stacks with the new legacy perk but not the MTX boost. Here are their costs:

• Tier 1 – 20
  
• Tier 2 – 28
  
• Tier 3 – 44

 

Let me know if you have any questions or anything is unclear. Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

Eric,

 

Information is good and appreciated.

 

No pun intended, the new system is a mess.

We should be able to summarize it in like 3-5 bullet points so any newcomer and more casual player would get it immediately.

 

Something like:

• Any looted gear is bound to legacy and becomes permanently bound to a character when used
  
• CXP is now legacy wide.
  
• Gear comes in 3 tiers: Mk15= 230, Mk17= 236, Mk19 = 242
  

Edited January 20, 2017 by Deewe

The entire thing is designed to keep you grinding GC so you'll stay subbed and play more. This new system does nothing to change that.

It is getting quite convoluted. I don't understand why they're so afraid of letting Ops just drop actual gear instead of all this token mess. I don't think it would undermine the GC system at all, just supplement it - the hardest content dropping little cherries on top. Why does it have to be so complicated?

The entire thing is designed to keep you grinding GC so you'll stay subbed and play more. This new system does nothing to change that.

 

Ofc it does. Since you don't need command rank 200+ to get the latest set. So I already got 100 Command Ranks across my chars, and i got already a 230 full set almost on one char. I also got Valor 60. So what do I miss? Just the unassembled gear pieces to upgrade my gear. So ofc it does.

 

P.S. You can also use Command Tokens in order to get the Unassembled Piece you want. So RNG is gone completely. So it definitely does.

Edited January 21, 2017 by NeverLoseFaith

The entire thing is designed to keep you grinding GC so you'll stay subbed and play more. This new system does nothing to change that.

 

Yes. That's all there is to it. This is meant to make you forget that we won't see any new content for at least a year.

It goes a little way into sorting out the biggest of gripes with CXP but doesn't deal with the rate at which we gain the points.

 

I am rank 81 and if they are generous enough to give 5 per level I should get 405 tokens which should be ample enough to buy the T2 stuff as and when. But mainly we are doing Progress Ops atm through SM in my Guild (fairly new guild) so we will have the "final boss" perk to try and get more people interested to show up

Because they were tired of complicated currencies and systems and wanted to Simplify™ gearing!

Ops = Gear Tokens

 

PvP = Components

 

CXP = Command Tokens

 

Components = Gear Token + Command Points = Gear

 

Gear + Components = Gear Token + Command Points = Better Gear

Ops = Gear Tokens

 

PvP = Components

 

CXP = Command Tokens

 

Components = Gear Token + Command Points = Gear

 

Gear + Components = Gear Token + Command Points = Better Gear

 

Absolutely horrid.

 

The devs could have saved themselves so much time and energy, and just stuck with the crystals. And then just converted everything that way.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Darkside

While the token and vendor system was much better, this isn't actually that complicated.

 

If you're having trouble understanding, ask a friend. Or read... more.

Hey guys

 

remeber how this gearing system was supposed to be" less complicated" than the last one?

 

What's the point, to try and get BiS gear?

Ops/raids been there and done that for a while now?

 

PvP? Talk to me when you addressed the over tuned classes and all the bugs that you never q&a’d or never listened to reports of such as the double stance bug and bugged rolls to full hp

Still looks like an insane grind unless you do operations.

 

For PvP you're looking at 280 wins for a full set. That's just tier 1. What a joke.

Still looks like an insane grind unless you do operations.

 

For PvP you're looking at 280 wins for a full set. That's just tier 1. What a joke.

 

Even ops are still an insane grind. The entire system is FUBAR and BW isn't bright enough to admit what we all know. Just stop paying them and EA will clean house.

Even ops are still an insane grind. The entire system is FUBAR and BW isn't bright enough to admit what we all know. Just stop paying them and EA will clean house.

 

No they aren't. Ops give your team three pieces on average. Do some weeklies worth of PvP and GSF and you can upgrade a HM/Tier 2 (236) piece into 242. If you ONLY do Ops then it's slightly worse for getting BiS but WAY better for getting 240 because Ops also drop Schematics.

No they aren't. Ops give your team three pieces on average. Do some weeklies worth of PvP and GSF and you can upgrade a HM/Tier 2 (236) piece into 242. If you ONLY do Ops then it's slightly worse for getting BiS but WAY better for getting 240 because Ops also drop Schematics.

 

We don't like PVP or GSF, so not gonna happen. And any way you do the math, it's still an insane grind. If you don't see it, you're the target audience for their "fix".

Ops = Gear Tokens

 

PvP = Components

 

CXP = Command Tokens

 

Components = Gear Token + Command Points = Gear

 

Gear + Components = Gear Token + Command Points = Better Gear

 

but BW got rid of the complex comm/crystal system because it was confusing....

 

Operations Unasembled Gear = PvE Gear with Set Bonus

Comms/Crystals = PvE Gear

PvP comms = PvP Gear with Set Bonus

 

Because that was hard....and they replaced it with the new 5.1 Convoluted Token Gear system

 

basically they are feeding us tokens until we are full and open a crate and wipe our asses and flush its contents down the toilet hoping for more tokens for a chance at a set bonus or relic we have not received via RNG crates

 

Hope everyone has been saving their Tier 1 and Tier 2 shells, We will need them to upgrade to the next Tier gear....

Edited January 21, 2017 by Liquor

Absolutely horrid.

 

The devs could have saved themselves so much time and energy, and just stuck with the crystals. And then just converted everything that way.

 

Really? Only good in 220 crystal gear was armorings/hilts/barrels if you didn't do hard mode operations. If you did story mode operations mods and enhancements in 220 crystal gear were totally useless to you. So what was the point?

Edited January 21, 2017 by Halinalle

I do hope that Ben qualifies his early comment that they got rid of crystals and coms because new players were too stupid to understand it, but this they will pick up easily and make perfect sense to them.

 

Driven away from end game because it was too complicated and confusing, but 1000 hours of grinding + 3 pages of explanation how to work towards missing pieces along with complicated system of bonus CXP, that is so self explanatory I'm sure anyone new to the game will pick it up instantly.

I do hope that Ben qualifies his early comment that they got rid of crystals and coms because new players were too stupid to understand it, but this they will pick up easily and make perfect sense to them.

 

Problem was that 216/220 gear from vendors was useless.

Eric,

 

Information is good and appreciated.

 

No pun intended, the new system is a mess.

We should be able to summarize it in like 3-5 bullet points so any newcomer and more casual player would get it immediately.

 

This is the most Valid point I've seen so far . . .

Trying to read that whole post makes my eyes glaze over. So will there still be random pieces of gear in the crates sometimes or will it all come from vendors or..?

 

I never cared overly much about gear but even I'm missing those crystals. And pardon me if I'm reading it wrong, but I'm to earn command tokens just to spend command tokens just to earn more command tokens?

Edited January 21, 2017 by grania

After careful consideration and analysis of the new simplified gearing system, I have to conclude that the entire staff at EA/BW-Austin is completely and totally insane. Not even the white knights that swarm to EA/BW-Austin's defense seem too interested in defending this mess.

 

Good luck to all who elect to remain and grind away while praying to RNGesus. As for me, I'm through giving this company my money and my time.

Because they were tired of complicated currencies and systems and wanted to Simplify™ gearing!

Precisely, it puzzled me that previous currencies were taken down only to be replaced with new ones. In that case, I'd rather wish crystals were converted to the new currencies instead of getting in my pile of credz

 

Honestly, I returned for the new content KOTET (?), and this somewhat pushes one away from progressing

but BW got rid of the complex comm/crystal system because it was confusing....

 

Operations Unasembled Gear = PvE Gear with Set Bonus

Comms/Crystals = PvE Gear

PvP comms = PvP Gear with Set Bonus

 

Because that was hard....and they replaced it with the new 5.1 Convoluted Token Gear system

 

Like I said in the other thread, the old system was much more confusing to newbies. Four types of currencies, dozens of NPC vendors, just to get your starter 60/65 gear. This system has them getting usable loot right out the box, literally.

 

Once they start getting frustrated with command crates (which takes longer for newbies than it does for vets), they have components and tokens to upgrade their gear or add a missing piece. If they don't figure it out or learn about it, no big deal as they can stock them up for later use. In fact, the longer you hold onto the new currencies in 5.1 the better chances you have of not wasting them.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Eli_Porter

And they thought the old system was too complicated????????????

 

LMFAO!