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Star Wars: The Old Republic |OT| EA: "Let's blow this thing and go home!"

Yeah? The fix should have been patched in today. It should have been patched as soon as they discovered the problem, which should have been pretty soon as I'm sure people started complaining right away about what was going on. They shouldn't be waiting tomorrow, that's the point.

You don't work in the software industry do you?
 

Moaradin

Member
Cleared out normal Karagga's in about 3 hours today with my guild, really loved the new bosses. The mechanics were fun to learn and are much better than boring ass EV. Going in for hard mode this Sunday, very pleased with the new additions. No bugs, either.

New bosses have interesting mechanics? How are they compared to Soa, which is easily the best fight in Eternity Vault.
 
Cleared out normal Karagga's in about 3 hours today with my guild, really loved the new bosses. The mechanics were fun to learn and are much better than boring ass EV. Going in for hard mode this Sunday, very pleased with the new additions. No bugs, either.

I've heard nothing but good things about it, can't wait to give it a try. Was the story more pronounced? I know they said they were adding cut scenes for it, I'm curious if it plays out like a story driven flashpoint only obviously with 8-16 people.
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
You don't work in the software industry do you?

The problem is simple. Bioware messed up two days before people had to make the decision to subscribe or not. A patch with problems makes it MUCH easier for people to bolt. Now, Bioware will have an uphill climb ahead of them. They have to do something to keep people and prove to people that the game is worth paying for from this point forward.

Yes, software is tricky, things move slowly, etc. However, is it worth the negative publicity and the lost subscriptions that may never come back?
 

Paches

Member
New bosses have interesting mechanics? How are they compared to Soa, which is easily the best fight in Eternity Vault.

They are definitely on par with Soa, in particular the second to last boss. I hope you are brushed up on your Tower of Hanoi puzzle solving skills! There is really only 1 of the 4 that was really obvious and seemed to be more of a gear-check type fight for your tank.

I've heard nothing but good things about it, can't wait to give it a try. Was the story more pronounced? I know they said they were adding cut scenes for it, I'm curious if it plays out like a story driven flashpoint only obviously with 8-16 people.

There is definitely some added story lines to it. Make sure to pick up the "Best Foot Forward" quest, or something similar to that name, from one of the droids near the Supply Quarter to start the over-arching story off. Very pleased with the speed they got this excellent content out.
 

Moaradin

Member
So it seems like this would have been a great first content patch if the whole illum fuck up didn't happen. Sucks that it kinda gave people the bad first impressions.

Hopefully it all gets sorted out in the next couple days.
 
They are definitely on par with Soa, in particular the second to last boss. I hope you are brushed up on your Tower of Hanoi puzzle solving skills! There is really only 1 of the 4 that was really obvious and seemed to be more of a gear-check type fight for your tank.



There is definitely some added story lines to it. Make sure to pick up the "Best Foot Forward" quest, or something similar to that name, from one of the droids near the Supply Quarter to start the over-arching story off. Very pleased with the speed they got this excellent content out.

Awesome news, its nice to get some information on the PVE side of the patch and not the negative spiral of death that is PVP and Ilum. Thanks for the impressions!

So it seems like this would have been a great first content patch if the whole illum fuck up didn't happen. Sucks that it kinda gave people the bad first impressions.

Hopefully it all gets sorted out in the next couple days.

Yeah the PVE part of the patch got lost in the shuffle due to the various bugs and the Ilum fiasco. It's obviously going to be a hot topic, just wish it wasn't so much "THE WORLD IS IMPLODING!" If anything, my server seemed to have MORE people on the fleet tonight. First time I've seen two instances going for the imperial fleet, both with well over 250 people. And hey, I heard the Republic side had like 50 people or something? RECORD HIGHS ALL AROUND. ;)
 

Dina

Member
So it seems like this would have been a great first content patch if the whole illum fuck up didn't happen. Sucks that it kinda gave people the bad first impressions.

Hopefully it all gets sorted out in the next couple days.

It's weird because I did my Ilum stuff _the moment_ the patch came online and it was fine right then and there. Sure we were outmatched in numbers, but not by much. I spend the rest of the evening having dinner, but when I came back we did the new hard mode and had a pretty okay time (not counting the optional robot boss, which seems really overtuned when he spawns those adds).

It wasn't until I came back to GAF and the official forums that I noticed what had happened.
 
On an unrelated topic, I had the hardest time searching for a mount currently in game that would satisfy my tastes. I ended up buying this bad boy the other night, really enjoy the way it looks.

 

antonz

Member
Ugh Biowares customer service is horrible.

Bought a gamecard to put on the account so I go to the site enter the code and it takes awhile only to say error please try again later. I say ok no issue. Try again later only to get a new message. "Sorry this code has been used"

Look around and there is no mention of it on my account. Call in and deal with one guy who is rather clueless and he forwards me to the next department who will "fix it for me"

So after 30 minutes on hold I get the next department who says the code applied to my account but for some reason gametime was not credited. I figure ok thats not a problem a few button pushes and boom time credited.

Oh No thats not how Bioware operates. She has to escalate the issue to another department who will within 24 hours unlock the gamecard code so I can reapply it and email me saying I can reapply it. Meanwhile account is locked out due to subscription expiration.
 

Cystm

Member
Jumping the gun a little quickly. It's very possible and likely that they can roll back peoples valor and gains from today, and not needing to do any of that.

The same could be said about your arguments against people's opinions that Bioware royally fucked their game over for people that pvp. I assure you that is no "small percentage" as you said here:

=|

24~ hours not quick enough, 1 patch every 2 days on average not good enough.


Shut the fuck up, seriously.

Turn off the servers for something affecting the small percentage of players already level 50 only on Ilum. Smart business decision.

Seriously, step the fuck back and think before you post. You sound like an angry SWTOR forum poster.
Your blithering entitlement belongs on the swtor.com forums.

PicardFacepalm.jpg

They have to actually fix the problem and test it before they can just shove it out there. Turning the whole game off for a day would be much, much worse.

Waiting until after peak hours is standard operating procedure for any MMO. Taking down the servers during the day is when you have something that renders the ENTIRE game unplayable, not something that effects a tiny amount of the overall population.

Any other MMO would be amazing the amount of bug fixes and lack of downtime for the first month of gameplay. Let alone a full content patch less than a month after release.

The problem with that is, they haven't even utilized premade 50 characters, so you would have to have a large number of people leveling characters to 50 and then trying to raid each other's bases, solely for testing purposes. Not going to happen.

It's unfortunate that patch failed miserably, but it did. Criticising them on their mistakes is absolutely valid here, they imblanced the shit out of PvP in so many ways. Take servers that are imperial heavy in terms of population. Guess what? Now all those imps out gear them. For little to no effort. Flipping your shit because people are expressing their appropriate frustration makes you look like a fanboy prick.

I know you are not, but man, come on now.
 

Izayoi

Banned
The gear gap in the 50 bracket on my server is so astronomical now that Pubs will never win another game, ever.

I hit Battlemaster (rank 58 before 1.1) but that doesn't even matter anymore. Pubs are getting completely rolled in Ilum and in Warzones. PvP might as well not even exist for us anymore.

:||||||||||
 

Ken

Member
The gear gap in the 50 bracket on my server is so astronomical now that Pubs will never win another game, ever.

I hit Battlemaster (rank 58 before 1.1) but that doesn't even matter anymore. Pubs are getting completely rolled in Ilum and in Warzones. PvP might as well not even exist for us anymore.

:||||||||||
So did the turrets actually give valor or not?
 

Izayoi

Banned
So did the turrets actually give valor or not?
Nope.

The people who hit rank 100 were just spawn camping. With all points capped you get 200+ valor per kill, and they were (are still) getting dozens of kills every minute.

At one point, me, as a pub with no points capped, got almost 4000 valor in under 30 seconds when we broke just a single zerg. Imagine standing there spamming lightning storm on the spawn point with dozens of helpless pubs mashing retreat.

Yep.
 

Ken

Member
Nope.

The people who hit rank 100 were just spawn camping. With all points capped you get 200+ valor per kill, and they were (are still) getting dozens of kills every minute.

At one point, me, as a pub with no points capped, got almost 4000 valor in under 30 seconds when we broke just a single zerg. Imagine standing there spamming lightning storm on the spawn point with dozens of helpless pubs mashing retreat.

Yep.
Wow. Not looking forward to PvP 50s bracket as a Republic.
 
The gear gap in the 50 bracket on my server is so astronomical now that Pubs will never win another game, ever.

I hit Battlemaster (rank 58 before 1.1) but that doesn't even matter anymore. Pubs are getting completely rolled in Ilum and in Warzones. PvP might as well not even exist for us anymore.

:||||||||||

Curious how the gear difference is astronomical now for your server. Did the pubs not have much Centurion or Champion gear to begin with? You realize the jump from Champion to Battlemaster gear is not very large at all right? An example, take my class(Agent), I would gain roughly 47 Expertise if I swapped ALL of my pieces from champion to Battlemaster. That's like what, .6 or .7 more to boost and reduction? Obviously theres other stats on each piece as well, but the point is its minor ups across the board. While an advantage, it's certainly not an impossible task to take down BM geared opponents.

Beyond that, I'd be curious how all the exploiters on your server are now rolling the higher gear set, seeing as after reaching 60 they'd then need to begin farming bags...which are still awesome RNG filled goodies, what with having to fish out BM commendations.

Not doubting you but just seems off is all. Obviously this was a major fuck up and potential free loot for alot of players, but I just remain skeptical that some are saying pubs will never win again on there server. Maybe I'm just spoiled by my server, I dunno.

What's that from?

Longspur Blaze, 200 daily commendations forked over to Ilum. Near the end I wanted to throw my keyboard, but the mount makes me happy so I guess it was worth the effort.
 

Izayoi

Banned
Not doubting you but just seems off is all. Obviously this was a major fuck up and potential free loot for alot of players, but I just remain skeptical that some are saying pubs will never win again on there server. Maybe I'm just spoiled by my server, I dunno.
We were outnumbered to begin with. The ratio on our server is about 4-5:1 Imp:pub. Before today Pubs had four Battlemasters, and the Imps had just over a dozen. Two of the Pub Masters were brand new, with no gear. Most of the Imp ones had near full sets. The rest of the Imps were mostly low Champs, and had most of their Champ sets already. I've seen very few strongly-geared Pub champs. Most Pubs were still stuck as Cents.

Now Pubs have just under 20 Battlemasters and the Imps have literally hundreds. 6/8 Imps in every Warzone are Battlemasters now.

The reason it's a problem is that it's so fast to get Battlemaster gear that most of the Imps had stockpilied their weeklies from yesterday, and now have at least one (the smart ones two relics and a piece) piece of Battlemaster gear. That issue will only compound itself every day as Imps continue to get a piece a day while most of the Pubs are stuck scraping by with maybe a single daily finished. It will be incredibly slow for Pubs to rank up now, and it will only get harder as more and more get frustrated and quit as the Imps freely walk all over them out in Ilum and in Warzones.

It's pointless to fight it at this point.

swtor2012-01-1902-04-8extk.png


Oh well, time to level an alt I guess. Maybe they'll fix it.
 

Dina

Member
I don't know why updating your post with yourself was necessary, but whatever.

That said, I'm disappointed there's no talk about a Valor rollback. Imps are more numerous and have better gear, this will only snowball the effect.
 

Izayoi

Banned
I don't know why updating your post with yourself was necessary, but whatever.
Because I finally hit Battlemaster after days of /played and I am happy about it?

What the fuck?

Maybe I need some sleep, or maybe this whole thing has everyone on edge, but seriously.
 

Lain

Member
You don't work in the software industry do you?

No I don't.
That post of mine was a bit stupid, I fully admit it. In my defense, I just meant do a quick fix (like locking the planet or making it unavailable in this case) while working on a real patch, and not let the problem go on for longer than needed.
I understand patches need to be tested, I understand fixing something might break something else, but I don't think Bioware has gotten up to the speed needed for an MMO when it comes to emergencies.
I'm not here hoping they fail or something, because I believe their game has potential and I have my fun playing, despite me not liking starwars.
 

Kattbuss

Member
I was playing for a while yesterday, blissfully unaware of the Ilium issue.
Really like the new ability cooldown animation, makes it way easier for me to see which ability is soon to be available. It also flows smoother with AA turned on, strangely enough.

Also, my artifice skill has been lagging behind, is it worth it to grind out the lower levels till I get useful stuff again or should I drop it for a gathering skill instead to make credits?
So far it seems to be a big money-sink with potential benefits later on.

Any other players here on the Arkanian Legacy by the way?

Edit: Jedi Sentinel here I might add
 
The problem is simple. Bioware messed up two days before people had to make the decision to subscribe or not. A patch with problems makes it MUCH easier for people to bolt. Now, Bioware will have an uphill climb ahead of them. They have to do something to keep people and prove to people that the game is worth paying for from this point forward.

Yes, software is tricky, things move slowly, etc. However, is it worth the negative publicity and the lost subscriptions that may never come back?

You're right that they have an uphill battle, but you're missing something when you ask is it worth the negative publicity and lost subscriptions. In hindsight, obviously it wasn't worth it. But now, they are already in the hole. Any fix they implement will not happen immediately, it's simply impossible from a software development standpoint. Not just hard, but actually impossible. These kinds of fixes literally do take a good amount of time to do.

Personally, I think they should have taken down Ilum immediately, but they didn't. Maybe they can rollback valor, but it's highly unlikely they don't have to at least have a few engineers actively working on implementing the code necessary to make that happen, and it's just going to take a few days. I very much doubt it's already built into the system.

But who knows, maybe it's like a month's worth of work due to some technical limitations in their system. Games are complicated, especially MMO servers. There's thousands of things that you just couldn't possibly even think of unless you have been specifically involved in such a project before.

So "is it worth the negative publicity?" isn't even really the right question, beause at this point they just have no choice. Every solution is bad, and that's the unfortunate reality.

Because of that, it's almost pointless to continue saying "they should have done this, they should have done that, they should do this immediately, they shouldn't do this" because it really doesn't matter. No matter what they do, it's still going to be bad and there is just no way around it.

All you can do at this point is hope they make it up to players somehow in the future.
 
....You're riding a robotic sea-horse.

WIN!

Anyway... I know everybody is giving Bioware shit because of the "PvP fuckup" (and yeah server/gear imbalance can fuck up PvP in MMOs) but while everybody on my server was exploiting the valor thing me and my guild decided to do the new Flashpoint and it was great fun!!!! Looked very good (nice flashlight mood) and played like a L4D MMO ;) A great patch when it comes to new content!! Keep it up Bioware.

This picture says it all.

Screenshot_2012-01-18_21_34_26_645568.jpg
 

mxgt

Banned
1-49 warzones are definitely a lot more fun now without the 50's. Shame you can't turn off XP so eventually you'll have to get rolled by all the people that got top gear with no effort

Edit: LOL I just noticed the servers are going to be offline 2pm - 6pm GMT today. What the fuck are you doing Bioware, this is bullshit. Way to treat EU customers like second class.
 
1-49 warzones are definitely a lot more fun now without the 50's. Shame you can't turn off XP so eventually you'll have to get rolled by all the people that got top gear with no effort

Edit: LOL I just noticed the servers are going to be offline 2pm - 6pm GMT today. What the fuck are you doing Bioware, this is bullshit. Way to treat EU customers like second class.

Yup. Been like that since the beta started though people don't like it when you mention it.
 
Nope.

The people who hit rank 100 were just spawn camping. With all points capped you get 200+ valor per kill, and they were (are still) getting dozens of kills every minute.

At one point, me, as a pub with no points capped, got almost 4000 valor in under 30 seconds when we broke just a single zerg. Imagine standing there spamming lightning storm on the spawn point with dozens of helpless pubs mashing retreat.

Yep.

Not sure how they could do that spawn camping due to diminishing returns. I'm a sorc who was aoeing left and right (our server isn't too imbalanced so we never "spawn camped") but only went from rank 33 to 37 with over an hour in pvp. Granted I hit 36 in about 15 minutes but after that diminshing returns kicked in and I barely got ANY valor.

I really think people are making stuff up related to Ilum to cover their frustrations over server imbalance, which is the true problem. They need to make the zone work that de-emphasizes zerging (say if there is more then 10 of your side within 200 meters, you get only 10% valor....)
 

mxgt

Banned
Yup. Been like that since the beta started though people don't like it when you mention it.

I don't see why

It's in no way unreasonable to expect maintenance and fixes to be done at off peak hours like certain other MMO's have been doing for years.
 
1-49 warzones are definitely a lot more fun now without the 50's. Shame you can't turn off XP so eventually you'll have to get rolled by all the people that got top gear with no effort

Edit: LOL I just noticed the servers are going to be offline 2pm - 6pm GMT today. What the fuck are you doing Bioware, this is bullshit. Way to treat EU customers like second class.

Welcome to U.S. developers who do their work at U.S. hours. Remember this is a sub 24 hour patch so this isn't something they can release at say 2 AM EST/7AM GMT like other patches.

Yeah it is annoying. Maybe they'll give Euro's a few game days in compensation.
 

kingslunk

Member
We were outnumbered to begin with. The ratio on our server is about 4-5:1 Imp:pub. Before today Pubs had four Battlemasters, and the Imps had just over a dozen. Two of the Pub Masters were brand new, with no gear. Most of the Imp ones had near full sets. The rest of the Imps were mostly low Champs, and had most of their Champ sets already. I've seen very few strongly-geared Pub champs. Most Pubs were still stuck as Cents.

Now Pubs have just under 20 Battlemasters and the Imps have literally hundreds. 6/8 Imps in every Warzone are Battlemasters now.

The reason it's a problem is that it's so fast to get Battlemaster gear that most of the Imps had stockpilied their weeklies from yesterday, and now have at least one (the smart ones two relics and a piece) piece of Battlemaster gear. That issue will only compound itself every day as Imps continue to get a piece a day while most of the Pubs are stuck scraping by with maybe a single daily finished. It will be incredibly slow for Pubs to rank up now, and it will only get harder as more and more get frustrated and quit as the Imps freely walk all over them out in Ilum and in Warzones.

It's pointless to fight it at this point.

swtor2012-01-1902-04-8extk.png


Oh well, time to level an alt I guess. Maybe they'll fix it.
If they gave me my level 50 on pub I'd switch over to pub.
 

SleazyC

Member
Expanded Karagga's is fun with more varied bosses than Eternity Vault. Like someone said before, the third boss is a real treat and we did it with about three people undergeared on normal. Didn't get a chance to see the last boss but the operation is a lot better than Eternity Vault. Only thing that was a bit odd was that loot was bugging out and we were having drops going to classes that couldn't use them.
 

Mims

Member
2004 =/= 2012.

It might seem like a troll response, but it's not. Technology, and especially gaming, has evolved a lot in 8 years. But what does server stability have to do with anything? SWTORs servers have been stable.

Can we compare 2010 to 2012? This is just like the WoW (Cata Launch) Tor Brand jumping on the bridge giving thousands of honor. Except in this case its Valor. Honestly we all overreacted and now its being fixed besides illum the rest of the patch is fine.
 

eznark

Banned
I played for a couple hours last night and had no problems except for a hilarious glitch where Mako kept laying down while we were
fleeing a ship
at the end of Act I (I think).

Has there ever been an MMO where people who hit the level cap and got to end game content in the first few weeks were happy?
 
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