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

Alex

Member
It's impossible to completely accurately test massive open world games to the point of no bugs or faults anywhere *near* the launch window, SWTOR has been actually pretty good despite a few fuck ups like the 1.1 valor shit.

Really, no one should be surprised of any of that anymore. I honestly don't mind the quirk in 'em anymore, sometimes it has it's own charm as well (well, occasional bugs and bits of iffy design, not shitty tech issues).

As for factions, they shouldn't exist. Period. There is no benefit to the hard faction model WoW or SWTOR uses in any meaningful way. I do feel really strongly about this bit of design since all it does is create gameplay issues, halves (ideally, it halves, realistically it's never anywhere near 50/50) communities making it harder to group, etc, and there's just better ways to design around other bits that require splitting like PvP and the ilk.

As for how they can fix it without rewriting the game, well there's a few ways to try. Offer free faction transfers to Empire players for a spell, cap populations of overpopulated factions on truly offensive servers unless invited by a friend, add quirks to the legacy system that give benefits to rolling under populated faction characters, stuff like that would probably be a good leg up, at least.
 

CzarTim

Member
I'll say it again, but Ilum needs rewards outside of PVP boosts. Add a 4% decrease to crew skill mission times per base controlled (20% for all 5) for ALL members of the faction, and suddenly Ilum has a purpose beyond doing your daily as quickly as possible and leaving.

It exists in a vacuum, and once people get BM gear it will be a ghost town.
 

Tess3ract

Banned
Games in this size cannot exist without the first month being a beta. You can also accept something without liking it.

If these problems are still in the game 5-6 months out then that's a huge problem and I'll probably stop playing. Bugs and getting their legs after 29 days is to be expected in this day and age. Games are much more complex beasts than they have been.

That's also a non-solution to the faction imbalance problem. The players will do it themselves. I don't have like a source or anything but I always looked at the WoW faction pop, it eventually evened out after the Horde dominated for a long time. Imperials won't have fun roflstomping Republics and playing nothing but Huttball all day. If they release a program to switch factions it'll help too.
The game has been in semi-open beta for almost a year.
 

CzarTim

Member
GAF took on the Belvais world boss earlier. Took us a few tries to get him. Unfortunately, the body went away before I could take a screen.

dBAPB.jpg


0jb94.jpg
 

Tess3ract

Banned
We were farming that guy on our server, only got the endurance and crit schematics from him though :(

After the buff he's still not that big of a deal with a decent raid tho

The game had like 1000 people in beta at peak until a couple months ago.
Right, it was semi open but I'm highly convinced most people did not do hard modes or even get to 50, and none of the weekenders got there either (which was most of the beta testers at one time)
 
As for factions, they shouldn't exist. Period. There is no benefit to the hard faction model WoW or SWTOR uses in any meaningful way. I do feel really strongly about this bit of design since all it does is create gameplay issues, halves (ideally, it halves, realistically it's never anywhere near 50/50) communities making it harder to group, etc, and there's just better ways to design around other bits that require splitting like PvP and the ilk.

It's kind of hard to make a game about opposing factions if you take out the part about the opposing factions.

If you're saying that everybody should be empire, then you'd just post that it's so stupid bioware didn't allow you to be a Jedi Knight. If you're saying thateveryone should be republic, then you'd be talkinga bout how awesome it was if you could play as a Sith.

You can't please everyone. You make a decision, you go with it, then you fix the issues that arise and continuously re-balance.
 

SpudBud

Member
Patch notes to 1.1.1 posted.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=1957455#edit1957455

Star Wars: The Old Republic - 1.1.1 Patch Notes


Note: The Public Test Server patch notes will be provided in English. The final release notes will be provided in English, French, and German when the content is moved to live servers.


Classes and Combat

General
Fixed a bug that could cause the Global Cooldown to appear as if it has been cancelled when it is actually still in effect, resulting in a feeling of unresponsiveness to input.
Corrected an issue that could cause an ability icon to appear usable but be unresponsive to clicks or keypresses for several seconds.
Players revived by other players, including by in-combat revival abilities, now revive with 25% of maximum health.


Jedi Knight

Guardian
Freezing Force: Now correctly lasts 9 seconds (up from 6 seconds).

Jedi Consular

Sage
Mental Alacrity: Now correctly costs no Force to activate.
Salvation: No longer heals targets twice on application. It now correctly heals all affected targets once when applied.

Smuggler

Scoundrel
Flechette Round: Now provides 30% armor penetration while active.
K.O.: This ability now knocks the target down for 1.5 seconds.
Shoot First: The damage output of this ability has been decreased by approximately 20% to control burst damage and because it was enabling significantly faster than intended kills in PvP.

Imperial Agent

Operative
Acid Blade: Now provides 30% armor penetration while active.
Jarring Strike: This ability now knocks the target down for 1.5 seconds.
Hidden Strike: The damage output of this ability has been decreased by approximately 20% to control burst damage and because it was enabling significantly faster than intended kills in PvP.

Bounty Hunter

Mercenary
Sweeping Blasters can now be made free with Thermal Sensor Override.

Powertech
Oil Slick now correctly costs no heat to activate.


Flashpoints and Operations


Flashpoints

Directive 7
Bulwark’s Area of Effect cone abilities now properly fire in the direction Bulwark is facing.
Some of Bulwark’s abilities were incorrectly susceptible to interruption. Bulwark is now immune to interrupts.

The False Emperor
Fixed a conversation that could cause the cinematic with Arkis Wode to function incorrectly.

The Foundry
Fixed an issue that could prevent the final fight in this Flashpoint from beginning after the cinematic.
The final boss can no longer become stuck in an invulnerable state; there was still a small window where this could occur.

The Red Reaper
Lord Kherus now grants less experience.
Some of Lord Kherus’s abilities have had their damage values adjusted to be more in line with the level of the Flashpoint.
Players now enter into melee range with Lord Kherus in order to stop him from throwing crates.

Operations

Eternity Vault
Players no longer randomly die in this Operation after being in Gharj’s lava.

Karagga’s Palace
Foreman Crusher’s enrage now includes a movement speed increase, allowing him to catch players who attempt to run.
Fixed an issue that prevented the Materials Disposal Unit’s main control station from becoming useable again after the Operation Group is defeated by the G4
B3 Heavy Fabricator on 16
man Hard Mode.
Fixed an issue that prevented the G4
B3 Heavy Fabricator from deploying the correct number of Proximity Pulse Mines and Security Stun Drones during combat.
Karagga no longer snaps up above portions of the walls during combat.

Bug Fixes

General
Fixed an issue that prevented some players in Operations Groups from receiving credit for the missions “[WEEKLY] Deadly Operations,” “[WEEKLY] Galactic Operations,” and “Journey to the Belsavis Depths.” The entire Operations Group now receives credit when the objective is completed.


Items

Bug Fixes
Comparative tooltips for researched items no longer have their stats reversed.


Missions and NPCs

Missions

Imperial
Number One with a Bullet: Corrected an issue that prevented Bounty Hunters from leaving The Founder.
The Eagle’s Nest: The Assassin’s Fortress mission is now correctly a prerequisite for this mission.
The Mandalorian Killer: Thendys Noori no longer continues to heal Kellian Jarro after she has surrendered.

Republic
Death Spiral: Fixed an issue that prevented Jedi Knights who completed the Commander Rayfel encounter from using the shuttle back to Belsavis Orbital Station.


PvP

Warzones
Fixed an issue that could prevent players from receiving mission rewards for completing Warzones.


Space Combat

General
Added two daily mission commendations to the high
level space dailies Operation Ascendant Pride (Imperial) and Operation New Eclipse (Republic).


UI

General
Attempting to loot an item in a group when the Master Looter is off
planet now generates an error message.

Bug Fixes
The leader of an Operations Group will no longer receive an incorrect message informing them that their companion has been dismissed.


Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
Special items related to different editions of the game have been re
sent if they were deleted by the mail system prior to being claimed.
 

nataku

Member
Shoot First: The damage output of this ability has been decreased by approximately 20% to control burst damage and because it was enabling significantly faster than intended kills in PvP.

Love it when PvP inbalance affects my PvE game.

Why can't more games have separate PvE and PvP skills? There is absolutely no reason not to do it.
 

CzarTim

Member
Warzones
Fixed an issue that could prevent players from receiving mission rewards for completing Warzones.

Yay!!!

Bug Fixes
The leader of an Operations Group will no longer receive an incorrect message informing them that their companion has been dismissed.

Good, that was fucking annoying.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
im glad i retired my Operative. They are going to be completely useless now. 1.5 second stun that sets Resolve bar to 1000? 20% damage nerf? 10% armor debuff nerf? Totally unneeded but i knew it was coming. Too many whiners posting complete bullshit always ruins things.
 

Ken

Member
Some of Bulwark’s abilities were incorrectly susceptible to interruption. Bulwark is now immune to interrupts.

Then how would you survive his Bulwark Smash? I've only tanked it on normal mode but I always thought Bulwark Smash being interruptable was by design since he CCs the tank right before doing it.
 
Operative is pretty much done for, they have no gap closers and their range damage sucks, so it will be them bringing the target to 60 percent to get bumped/stunned/slowed and killed, nice...

So glad I quit mine for my powertech.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Operative is pretty much done for, they have no gap closers and their range damage sucks, so it will be them bringing the target to 60 percent to get bumped/stunned/slowed and killed, nice...

So glad I quit mine for my powertech.
Its funny that people that have actually played Operative to high level have left for other classes because Operative DPS is horrible at PvP (and healing too.. they need a bubble.. their healing sucks compared to Inquisitor).
 
I'm enjoying my 34 Ops immensely. Granted, I never pvp so maybe that has something to do with that. Anyone know how Ops do in pve raiding? Either as dps or heals.

So far, Taris is my favorite planet by a longshot. The IA story continues to be awesome, and the ambience of Taris itself is the best I've encountered since Terokkar Forest in burning crusade. Seriously, if you're on taris, put on some good headphones and listen to some of the alien marsh wildlife. Someone did an awesome job on it. The music is pretty rockin too, keeps vaguely reminding me of x-files.
 

Lain

Member
I respecced my Agent from DPS to Healer for the second time.
This time I've enjoyed the healing capabilities more, but it still feels less powerful and fun than the DPS counterpart to me, plus using stealth to go past elites is more difficult.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
I'm enjoying my 34 Ops immensely. Granted, I never pvp so maybe that has something to do with that. Anyone know how Ops do in pve raiding? Either as dps or heals.
PvE i think they are mostly heals only. Melee DPS is shunned from PvE content because they have to deal with a lot of stuff Ranged DPS doesnt (cleaves, AoE attacks, etc).

So far, Taris is my favorite planet by a longshot. The IA story continues to be awesome, and the ambience of Taris itself is the best I've encountered since Terokkar Forest in burning crusade. Seriously, if you're on taris, put on some good headphones and listen to some of the alien marsh wildlife. Someone did an awesome job on it. The music is pretty rockin too, keeps vaguely reminding me of x-files.
i liked Taris. Maybe the Republic side sucks but the Imperial side i really enjoyed. i liked exploring the bombed out hellhole. Was fun :)
 
Love it when PvP inbalance affects my PvE game.

Why can't more games have separate PvE and PvP skills? There is absolutely no reason not to do it.

Luckily these are the PTR patch notes. You should play on the PTR and then offer constructive feedback if you don't feel it should make it into the live game.
 

Mairu

Member
Luckily these are the PTR patch notes. You should play on the PTR and then offer constructive feedback if you don't feel it should make it into the live game.

Yeah! All you have to do is start a new character on the PTR, level it up to 50, get it somewhat geared, and then you can start giving them constructive feedback on the balance of their changes.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Luckily these are the PTR patch notes. You should play on the PTR and then offer constructive feedback if you don't feel it should make it into the live game.
Lol please. Nothing is going to change this. Too many whiners and people posing as Operatives (like that one person here that said they took on 2-3 even enemies in PvP and won regularly.. total bullshit). There is so much misinformation going around about "stunlock" and garbage like that. i called this a couple weeks ago. People do not like getting jumped from stealth and have always cried for nerfs to stealth classes.
 

gatti-man

Member
Do you guys have GTN alts? People used to recommend slicing on them while you do GTN shit, but I guess you'd lose money with it now?

Ever since 1.1 slicing is back to consistently profitable for me. I have not lost money one time out of 12 missions run. Its still not a money maker like diplo or bio but it does make a profit now.
 
Yeah! All you have to do is start a new character on the PTR, level it up to 50, get it somewhat geared, and then you can start giving them constructive feedback on the balance of their changes.

Well, you could also just offer feedback without playing on the PTR :)

water_wendi said:
Lol please. Nothing is going to change this. Too many whiners and people posing as Operatives (like that one person here that said they took on 2-3 even enemies in PvP and won regularly.. total bullshit). There is so much misinformation going around about "stunlock" and garbage like that. i called this a couple weeks ago. People do not like getting jumped from stealth and have always cried for nerfs to stealth classes.

I'm not going to argue with that, but the amount of burst damage _was_ a little bit ridiculous. Feedback doesn't always mean "revert this fucking change you motherfuckers!" it could be something along the lines of "maybe you could consider buffing X to offset this change", or "maybe you could make this change only apply to PvP".

Think outside the box.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Ever since 1.1 slicing is back to consistently profitable for me. I have not lost money one time out of 12 missions run. Its still not a money maker like diplo or bio but it does make a profit now.

i havent sent anyone on a mission since i lost like 10k credits testing it out. id rather just do dailies and get 200k credits than gamble for a possible 600 credit profit after 30 minutes of waiting. Killing mobs was much faster.

It just dawned on me that 1.5 second stun.. thats not even enough time to get off another hit is it? GCD is 1.5 seconds right? Great job Bioware lol
 

gatti-man

Member
Lol please. Nothing is going to change this. Too many whiners and people posing as Operatives (like that one person here that said they took on 2-3 even enemies in PvP and won regularly.. total bullshit). There is so much misinformation going around about "stunlock" and garbage like that. i called this a couple weeks ago. People do not like getting jumped from stealth and have always cried for nerfs to stealth classes.

Thats true i hate it. But thats no reason for a nerf and you are right imo about their dps issues. All things being even i havent lost to a sub 50 op in pvp yet.
 

Ken

Member
Duoing with a Mercenary, will a Sorcerer be more helpful than the Assassin? That is, which would reduce the need for finding parties for heroics? Almost to 10 on my Inquisitor but I'm still not sure what to advance into.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Duoing with a Mercenary, will a Sorcerer be more helpful than the Assassin? That is, which would reduce the need for finding parties for heroics? Almost to 10 on my Inquisitor but I'm still not sure what to advance into.
Sorcerer, no question. Their DPS, healing, CC, and survivability is godly. Easily the most OP class in the game.
 

Realyn

Member
Yeah, agree. I´m playing a lvl 44 Sage and I really dont want to brag, but since the lvl 50 guys are gone im rocking through the bgs.
250-300k dmg/100-150k healing each bg is a given on Voidstar and Huttball. I allready had to buy the PvP mounts becase I had too many marks ... :x
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Yeah, agree. I´m playing a lvl 44 Sage and I really dont want to brag, but since the lvl 50 guys are gone im rocking through the bgs.
250-300k dmg/100-150k healing each bg is a given on Voidstar and Huttball. I allready had to buy the PvP mounts becase I had too many marks ... :x
im thinking about rolling a Sorc/Sage and contining my Jedi Knight later. Would be nice to play a class thats is A+ in everything but tanking.
 

usea

Member
I just realized you cap out at 1000 WZ commendations. I've been at 1000 for a while... :(

What should I buy with them? I've never spent any. My valor rank is 19 I think. I don't have any mercenary commendations (I assume you get those on Illum?)
 

Tess3ract

Banned
Yeah, agree. I´m playing a lvl 44 Sage and I really dont want to brag, but since the lvl 50 guys are gone im rocking through the bgs.
250-300k dmg/100-150k healing each bg is a given on Voidstar and Huttball. I allready had to buy the PvP mounts becase I had too many marks ... :x
Okay I'll see yours and raise you mine:

Is there a way to auto shrink images via the forums or does it not have that feature?
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
I'm enjoying my Sage way more than healing Scoundrel. Leveling up as a healer kind of sucks, even in TOR.
Healing Scoundrel/Operative is fine in PvE. Its not the most exciting thing in the world but you can solo a lot of stuff with your companions. In PvP though Energy healing sucks. Its almost impossible to spam heal someone that getting beat on. Either you run out of Energy and cant get it back fast enough to keep them up or your heals are too slow to get off before they die. From what ive seen, Sage/Sorc doesnt have this problem because they have that fucking godly bubble (<3 that bubble when its on me.. hate it when i open from stealth and cant even pop it before i die lol) and Force management seems much more spammable so they can keep someone up. Operative/Scoundrels can get some big scoreboard numbers but its just top off heals really and not critical saves.
 

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
I'm enjoying my Sage way more than healing Scoundrel. Leveling up as a healer kind of sucks, even in TOR.

eh, haven't ran into that at all, plenty of quests, stealthing past mobs, and being able to DPS for a bit, jump to healing, and finish off with DPS. Most non-heroic mob groups haven't been an issue.
 

usea

Member
I just realized you cap out at 1000 WZ commendations. I've been at 1000 for a while... :(

What should I buy with them? I've never spent any. My valor rank is 19 I think. I don't have any mercenary commendations (I assume you get those on Illum?)
So it seems you can trade 30 WZ commendations for 10 Mercenary. Should I buy Champion Gear Bags or what?
 

Tess3ract

Banned
So it seems you can trade 30 WZ commendations for 10 Mercenary. Should I buy Champion Gear Bags or what?
If you're not 50, just buy a bag then save your comms for when you are, then spend all of them (1000merc/1000war) at once at 50 for 5 more bags
 
So it seems you can trade 30 WZ commendations for 10 Mercenary. Should I buy Champion Gear Bags or what?

yes get as many merc commendations (1000 max) as you can. It'll make your life easier when you transition from the low lvl bracket to the lvl 50 bracket. You can't open the bags though until lvl 50 (no idea why this is...) but its best to save your commendations early on and buy pvp gear when you max out
 
Its funny because they were already the least played class of the game. You can always gauge a classes power by how many people play it and very few played Scoundrel/IA.

While I nderstand why they were nerfed, I agree that they've gone too far without buffing their other dps skills. Are Ops/Scoundrels used in PVE much outside of heals?
 
Let's see

-janky energy resource that sucks for anything other than burst damage (no seriously, doing a long term fight is a PITA)

-Not much defense (lol rogues)

-a knockdown that's the same length as the GCD

-Damage has been reduced


Yeah...this class will probably be wiped lol
 
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