2.4 & Beyond: What are your Honest, Non-Sugar Coated Opinions?

Topics for discussion, but not limited to:

-Arenas: Solo & Ranked

-Warzones

-Bolster

-PvE vs PvP

-Space PvP

-Time it takes per new content cycle

-Time is takes for bug fixes / hot fixes

-F2P, Subscription, Cartel Market

-Customization, Appearance, Gear Sets

-Swtor Future

-Subscription Numbers

-Server Mergers / Transfers

-Cross Server

-Story

-Roleplaying

-Guilds, Housing, Ships

-eSports

-Balance

-Developer involvement in community posts

-Community Team

-Anything Positive

>>>Anything else.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this thread is to be constructive by not hiding or holding anything back. Be as real as possible, while straying away from profanity. This post is meant to be blunt & brutally honest with the "hopes" that maybe something will reach the Bioware team and help improve the game, even if the chances of that happening are grim in the eyes of those of you who have been here a while. Feedback is just feedback. BW doesn't have to implement anything here, this is not a "do this, do that, or we are unsubbing" thread.

I will start.

My Opinions:

The endgame population of swtor is very dismal. I honestly believe that even 4v4 arenas require to many players to make a team when compared to the actual number of teams that are constantly in que or the possible number of people who want to make a team. With the current population, I would say that only 1v1 arenas are possible for frequent and balanced ques (with alot of tweaking needed to implement proper 1v1, such as no stealth out of combat, zap, heal to full). Queing on this server since day1 of 4v4 Arenas has shown that there was alot of initial interest from all skill level players to que for 4v4 arenas. My conclusion is that there is still a H U G E gear discrepancy problem going on, even from conqueror to obroan. With a gear gap this big, pve-ers queing in pve gear, returning players queing in battlemaster/war hero gear, new players queing with green weapons and sometimes NO items in certain gear slots, not enough subscribers to properly que for ranked where matchmaking can be used appropriately, non existent "weekly ranked warzone pass" while there is a weekly operation pass. Among other problems, there needs to be another server merger now. This time, the only solution would be to implement one MEGA Server, such as transfer everyone to the PTS and have that as the main server, then create a copy of the pts so we have a pts for testing future patches. Let's not forget class balance issues, big issues, mainly due to unskilled players perception problems, no need to elaborate.

Gear: Stats on gear need to be removed completely. Gear needs to be solely for appearance starting next patch. The amount of active people playing this game long enough to get all the proper gear, armor sets, set bonuses, relics, credits for getting all this done, active queing, min-max mods/enhancements/augments, ect... is so so so small that having a stat based grinding gear system completely de-motivates new and returning players from even entering the competitive scene because they will get completely destroyed and there are not enough players on their level queing up so they just leave the game or don't que. You can still make money in a system where gear has no stats, see League of Legends champion skins (aka different outfits for the same class) model. Most of these outfits are theme based, have a new emote with the theme and slightly new non-combat related actions and animations. This is what ingame emotes should be added to, new skins and not random database of right clickable cartel market junk.

Cartel Market: Alot of the ugly items (subject to opinion), fluff items (useless stuff and ugly stuff), low level mats, other junk, should be removed. There is to much clutter. Make something nice and people will buy it and give your company money. Stop making crapola. I honestly hate the cartel market. The implementation and direction this system is going is terrible. The pricing model is terrible and inconsistent (care to give examples and elaborate? No. Why? You can see for yourself, compare items to their real life value and then compare it to other items, the pricing is inconsistent).

Space PvP: 12v12 - wow this sounds great and nice. A good honest try from Bioware. Bravo. Only problem - this wasn't introduced at launch when the player base believed in this game. Sure people will try and play them, and then the gear / level gap will continue to draw a hole between the noobs, casuals, clickers, decent players, elite players. There is not a large enough playerbase to support any type of competitive environment.

Hot Fixes: Hot fixes are basically a quick fix, the same day or next day, unlike complicated bug fixes. What completely amazes me is that the absorb relics took a week to fix. All the top guilds on Prophecy of the Five are laughing at Bioware because it took a week to "fix" this relic bug. They are laughing because it is common sense that something like this should be immediately disabled or removed from the vendor till you have the time to fix it INSTEAD of leaving it in the game. It's decisions like this that causes the community to mock your development team, decisions that make people say "what the heck are they doing......I don't even know what to say anymore.....this is just sad".

Bolster: Worst system implemented ever. Broken, never works, still broken over a long enough period of time to be considered scrap. Remove stats on gear and you wont need bolster. Give the individual advanced classes the stats you want them to have and designed them to have, then just balance class abilities. For space pvp, this garbage system should be removed. The fact that your development team doesn't see the problems or has not removed or properly implemented this system is a huge problem.

eSports Capability: New help will have to be hired and given enough power to make significant change. This game will never have eSports capability with the current team.

New Content: Usually comes with a great idea(s), expectations, people look forward to it everytime, then horrible implementation occurs to the point where the patch backfires due to poorly thought out decisions. Other times, these patches are to little and way way way to late to keep or bring back the subs.

The Positive: Story content is great for a one time play through. Customer service is very nice and accommodating to the players needs and requests.

-Post written from the perspective of an endgame oriented player.

[Note: This is still all my opinion, and I don't expect any changes or implementations to be made, it's just me being hopeful. This is a first draft and is subject to change.]

I will comment cuz I'm that bored

-Arenas: Solo & Ranked The idea of arenas alone is great. I think the only thing they need to do is up the frequency that you get them in unranked pops.

-Warzones Which leads to the next point...either make many more additional warzones soon or increase the frequency of arena. Been playing the same boring warzones for 2 years now

-Bolster Don't care about bolster. Non-obroan gear should NEVER bolster higher than obroan can give you. It can be similar, but since we have separate gear systems, the actual top pvp set should be the best

-Space PvP Lame and a gimmick. I think this will do better with the pve and rp crowd.

-Time is takes for bug fixes / hot fixes Way too long, at least for pvp. The absorb relic and double power relic stacking should never have happened and once they were discovered, immediately taken away or hotfixed. I understand they probably had no idea what was causing them to do that, but still inexcusable to be allowed to go that long

-Cartel Market Too much focus here milking all the nerds who care about this kind of crap

-Customization, Appearance, Gear Sets Mostly ugly. I would say it's safe to say most people care about having a unique look. Spend more time making awesome gear sets and more people will be willing to spend time/money

-Cross Server Needs to happen. If the EA noose is too tight, then you need to find a way to merge servers again. I would suggest adding last names like FF14 does so multiple people can have the same first names. The populations are way too low, but this is mostly from poor decision making.

-Story Spacebarred through all of it, and I know many other people who did as well. Pretty sure everyone realizes this was a huge waste of money and resources from the start.

-Guilds, Housing, Ships Revive world pvp. Make guild halls and terminals to declare war on other guilds, even same faction. Add guild xp, cosmetic rewards, guild capital ships, etc. There's a lot you could do here to make guilds important and have people actively trying to find each other out in the world. Expand on your instanced space pvp and make open space pvp...imagine how many people would actually care about going in space to pvp if they were defending their guild capital ship...

-eSports They need to cut out as much rng crap as possible before this could ever be a viable esport. Get rid of proc relics to start, everyone good wants static ones anyway. Stop listening to sub 2k+ rated people on pvp. Nobody gives a crap what they think.

-Balance Pretty clear they have no idea how to balance this game. Will wait and see if 2.5 makes it any better. Many classes/specs need certain abilities, and many good players have posted suggestions across the class forums. My personal opinion is that they need to add a lot of survivability abilities that wow has for the "mirror" classes in this game...aka blink for dps sorcs, smoke bomb for dps operatives, disengage for mercs (they have a freaking jetpack!), etc

-Developer involvement in community posts Would be nice if they were more involved, but probably not going to happen.

-Anything Else Above all else, this is a great game that we all want to see succeed. Let's be real though, most of us ONLY stick around because it's STAR WARS. If this was some generic fantasy mmo, it would already be dead or on life support. EA/Bioware is completely dropping the ball. I don't care about PVE in this game so I didn't really comment on it...all I know is how badly the PVP population has suffered over the past two years.

One more thing Gearing alts is a *****. I have 6 55s that I like to pvp with, and once double xp weekend comes back, I will be adding 3 more 55s. There needs to be incentive for making alts and gearing them, at least through pvp. Make it so gear comm cost is reduced by 50%, or maybe 10% per 55 alt. I don't care which system you use, just reward us for investing time in your game.

Ok I lied, two more things DATACRONS...make them shared between legacy!! Make it a level 50 perk for all I care. It makes RP sense that our characters would share knowledge down the legacy. It is super annoying and lame that we have to get datacrons for all our alts. Again...give us incentive and make it FUN to have alts

 

-Bolster Don't care about bolster. Non-obroan gear should NEVER bolster higher than obroan can give you. It can be similar, but since we have separate gear systems, the actual top pvp set should be the best

 

Couldn't agree more. Why is there no common sense department at BW (sad face )

-Arenas: Solo & Ranked - good idea, lacks population ATM (due to lack of balancing+incentive)

-Warzones - fun for regs, would like to see 8v8 ranked back when the meta is less defensive and homosexual

-Bolster - good idea, poorly excecuted at first, now its working well. ONLY ISSUE I HAVE is that some classes, like heal sorcs, need pve gear for the set bonus. this isnt really a bolster question as it is a progression/gear questions but whatevzies

-PvE vs PvP - both fun, but pve gets much more content, ways of making dat sweet money, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY COSMETICS I WANT A ****** ROBOT SPEEDER AND COOL TITLE TOO

-Space PvP - looks d0pe just keep it totally seperate aside from rewards (unless they eventually work in space+land pvp)

-Time it takes per new content cycle - pve fine, pvp literally the worst ever

-Time is takes for bug fixes / hot fixes - awful

-F2P, Subscription, Cartel Market - fine just wish they would release some cool cosmetics that arent on the cartel market, seems like they always are

-Customization, Appearance, Gear Sets - bring back tionese, rakata, columi, champ, cent, etc back for cosmetic rewards. other than that just some new gear plz (obroan looks foul) (i guess this is where the set bonus stuff comes in)

-Swtor Future - engine and dwindling population holds back what could have been the wow killer but now has to fight tooth and nail to survive

-Subscription Numbers - too low, biggest issue right now

-Server Mergers / Transfers - if they can somehow find a way to minimize ping across larger areas, then server merges of continents would be AMAZING for this game, but i dont think thats possible (?)

-Cross Server - need, but ping issues will come into play

-Story - not an rper but i did enjoy the stories, especially agent. agent was so muthafukin cool i was sad when it ended plz giv me mor

-Roleplaying - nah

-Guilds, Housing, Ships - eh, give me a legacy bank

-eSports - not familiar other than obvious, would be nice

-Balance - decent, but concerns me how devs disregard communities' feedback so blatantly (im looking at you, sorc questions). balance right now is some trash in arenas

-Developer involvement in community posts - mostly barf, what r u thinking

-Community Team - ^

-Anything Positive - i said some good stuff above

-Arenas: Solo & Ranked The idea of arenas alone is great. I think the only thing they need to do is up the frequency that you get them in unranked pops. Agreed. I would like to add that the frequency of ranked pops also needs to increase, there is currently a very dismal overall population. The game in general needs a population booster.

 

-Warzones Which leads to the next point...either make many more additional warzones soon or increase the frequency of arena. Been playing the same boring warzones for 2 years now Why do you think they are boring?

 

-Bolster Don't care about bolster. Non-obroan gear should NEVER bolster higher than obroan can give you. It can be similar, but since we have separate gear systems, the actual top pvp set should be the best. Agreed, bioware seems to miss out on this obvious factor and still decides to keep their bolster system even though it is not working properly.

 

-Space PvP Lame and a gimmick. I think this will do better with the pve and rp crowd.

 

-Time is takes for bug fixes / hot fixes Way too long, at least for pvp. The absorb relic and double power relic stacking should never have happened and once they were discovered, immediately taken away or hotfixed. I understand they probably had no idea what was causing them to do that, but still inexcusable to be allowed to go that long. Agreed, BW needs to stay on top of their problems much faster.

 

-Cartel Market Too much focus here milking all the nerds who care about this kind of crap. Agreed. I do remember BW saying something about how they have different teams/departments assigned to different aspects of the game, so cartel market shouldn't interfere with other stuff. I totally think they are lying, everyone had time and involvement put into this.

 

-Customization, Appearance, Gear Sets Mostly ugly. I would say it's safe to say most people care about having a unique look. Spend more time making awesome gear sets and more people will be willing to spend time/money. Yup, not sure why this is still being ignored or slacked on. Probably lazyness / lack of creativity / engine limitations.

 

-Cross Server Needs to happen. If the EA noose is too tight, then you need to find a way to merge servers again. I would suggest adding last names like FF14 does so multiple people can have the same first names. The populations are way too low, but this is mostly from poor decision making.

 

-Story Spacebarred through all of it, and I know many other people who did as well. Pretty sure everyone realizes this was a huge waste of money and resources from the start.

 

-Guilds, Housing, Ships Revive world pvp. Make guild halls and terminals to declare war on other guilds, even same faction. Add guild xp, cosmetic rewards, guild capital ships, etc. There's a lot you could do here to make guilds important and have people actively trying to find each other out in the world. Expand on your instanced space pvp and make open space pvp...imagine how many people would actually care about going in space to pvp if they were defending their guild capital ship...

 

-eSports They need to cut out as much rng crap as possible before this could ever be a viable esport. Get rid of proc relics to start, everyone good wants static ones anyway. Stop listening to sub 2k+ rated people on pvp. Nobody gives a crap what they think. People do give a crap what they think, subscribers are all like shareholders in a company, every voice counts, however they just don't know game mechanics well enough to make smart balance decisions.

 

-Balance Pretty clear they have no idea how to balance this game. Will wait and see if 2.5 makes it any better. Many classes/specs need certain abilities, and many good players have posted suggestions across the class forums. My personal opinion is that they need to add a lot of survivability abilities that wow has for the "mirror" classes in this game...aka blink for dps sorcs, smoke bomb for dps operatives, disengage for mercs (they have a freaking jetpack!), etc. They know how to balance the game, it literally should take 5 minutes to make a change. This is taking way to long for people to stick around. Hurry up BW. Read some class forum posts once in a while will you, and comment on them. Nobody believes your statements of something like "even if we didn't reply to the post, we probably read it", yea, not happening.

 

-Developer involvement in community posts Would be nice if they were more involved, but probably not going to happen. True.

-Anything Else Above all else, this is a great game that we all want to see succeed. Let's be real though, most of us ONLY stick around because it's STAR WARS. If this was some generic fantasy mmo, it would already be dead or on life support. EA/Bioware is completely dropping the ball. I don't care about PVE in this game so I didn't really comment on it...all I know is how badly the PVP population has suffered over the past two years.

 

One more thing Gearing alts is a *****. I have 6 55s that I like to pvp with, and once double xp weekend comes back, I will be adding 3 more 55s. There needs to be incentive for making alts and gearing them, at least through pvp. Make it so gear comm cost is reduced by 50%, or maybe 10% per 55 alt. I don't care which system you use, just reward us for investing time in your game.

 

Ok I lied, two more things DATACRONS...make them shared between legacy!! Make it a level 50 perk for all I care. It makes RP sense that our characters would share knowledge down the legacy. It is super annoying and lame that we have to get datacrons for all our alts. Again...give us incentive and make it FUN to have alts

I commented in green on my opinions.