SW: The Old Republic - Episode VIII (May RNG Be With You)

[Gorth]

Never underestimate the anger resulting from snowballs!

 

Edit: Which gives 20 cxp btw when you score a snow covered parcel

[Gorth]

Dulfys short version of coming gearing changes

 

*Facepalm!*

 

Ok, who didn't see that one coming. I guess plummeting subscriber numbers must have sent them scrambling. Introducing unassembled gear token drops from ops bosses end of January.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

So we're back to PVP comms but called something else.

[Humanoid]

I logged in and both my existing characters who were level 50-55 last I remember are suddenly level 65. (One had only just started Shadow of Revan and the other had done nothing since finishing the class storyline)

 

Since I'm not a subscriber this is my level cap, so in effect I won't level at all if I decide to play though SoR and the half of KotFE that I'm eligible for. Very confused. A quick scan of the 5.0 patch notes says nothing about being forcibly levelled up to the cap.

[Gorth]

Eric Musco on their ideas for changes to gearing More RNG

 

 

Hey folks,

There is some good conversation going on in this thread but I thought I would pop in and explain how it is currently planned to work in 5.1. The last boss of each Operation is guaranteed to drop unassembled pieces of a specific slot (we are still working out how many pieces drop). Each other boss in an Operation has an increasing chance (by boss) to drop any unassembled piece, not a specific slot. For the sake of the example I am about to make, I will use Karagga's Palace.

Everything listed below is an example and not necessarily what will be in-game, these are just representative of the way the system will work.

1st boss (Bonethrasher) - 20% chance to drop any unassembled piece.
2nd boss (Jarg and Sorno) - 25% chance to drop any unassembled piece.
3rd boss (Foreman Crusher) - 30% chance to drop any unassembled piece.
4th boss (Fabricator) - 35% chance to drop any unassembled piece.
Final boss (Jarg and Sorno) - 100% chance to drop unassembled head piece.

Hopefully that clears up any confusion!

-eric

 

...and this, is why I look forward to save *lots* of real world money 2017.

[Gorth]

...and this, is why I look forward to save *lots* of real world money 2017.

5 days left as a sub, then the game gets uninstalled for good. 4+ years and thousands of dollars later, I guess I need to find a new hobby. The process of disillusionment that started with the removal of the Unload skill was completed when they removed my beloved flamethrower. While only taking all the fun out of my main character, the command point bull**** was the proverbial iceberg that sank the game for me.

 

Might actually help me reducing my backlog of unplayed single player games.

[Gorth]

Yeah, I'm such an idiot. Good thing I'm not a politician, I would probably never be able to keep a promise. Did unsub, enjoyed not having the game around for a while and then got "suckered" into re-subbing again by my friends.

 

Downed my first ever NiM Boss last week (or "Master" as they call it now because... yeah, makes perfect sense, right?). Writhing Horror bit the dust in Terror From Beyond and started on the Dread Warriors (Ciphas, Kel'Sara and Heirad). Heirad bit the dust and Ciphas was close, but no cigar. Several problems. My complete lack of skill, practise and gear for one. 220 gear might have been good for HM in 4.0, but for NiM in 5.0 it's just not good enough.

 

Need to find some time to work on the gear once they change the gearing system. Not fair to the healers that I take so much damage as tank and the dps have to work overtime to compensate for my lack of decent dps. Told the Boss he needs to put me on the 'b' team for a while until geared up. Oh yeah, having fun too with our "guest" dps. 3 guys who agreed to help us out. The top parsing sniper on Harbinger at the moment on the parsley leaderboard and friends.

 

Holding aggro against those guys is a challenge all on it's own

 

Seriously Bioware, the command point system adds as much entertainment to the game as having a root canal done.

[Fenixp]

Seriously Bioware, the command point system adds as much entertainment to the game as having a root canal done.

To be fair, I can't say I was ever bored when I was having a root canal done.

[Gorth]

5.1 details have been released...

 

To summarise: Old gearing system, split in PVP and PVE. In PVP you would earn commendations and could buy gear. Turn in old gear and more commendations to upgrade to the higher tier. In PVE you could earn commendations (which was renamed data crystals because commendations were too confusing) and buy non optimised gear from vendors. Doing operations could give you tokens to buy optimised gear for.

 

Bioware thought this was waaaay too confusing for people so they simplified it. Now you can do certain activities which earns you a currency which will enable you to buy a token for. This token, together with another currency earned in another way can be traded in for gear (with set bonuses where applicable). To upgrade this gear, you can trade in the gear together with more of the latter currency. The latter currency is entirely based on grind. In addition, you can also run operations and with luck, get a token from the first bosses, last boss is a guaranteed drop. This token, like the previous mentioned one, can then be traded in together with the other currency for optimised gear (with set bonuses where appropriate). Upgrade process is similar if wanting to upgrade lower tier token gear. Much, much simpler way to gear up, yes?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

That's not quite it.

 

While you could get 204PVP in an hour and 208PVP with proper enhancements in like a week, less if you transfer comms between toons, the new system looks to take quite a lot longer for just 1 piece of gear. I suppose if you get drops from ccrates it's not an issue, but seeing how they're implementing this becauae it was a big issue it's not going to help much. I'd say it needs to be 10x more componets for PvP to get anywhere near the speed you used to be able to gear for that. At any rate more grind is ****.

[Gorth]

While they would probably never come out and say it, my personal suspicion is they have been stalling for time for a long time. Ever since around the introduction of the DvL event. Failed attempt at crowd control of the customer base?

[Gorth]

Who would have thought it... an uprising actually posing a challenge?

 

We sure had our (the little pub side guild I'm in on Harbinger) with the bonus boss in Destroyer of Worlds (a boss named 'The Caller in the Dark'). This was in HM though, I wonder if he's just a tough opponent in story mode. We actually had to swap a few character alts to get the right team composition to beat him (2 gunslingers for the 35m range, commando healer and shadow tank). Gunslingers are safe from his AOE damage when more than 30m away and only have adds as a problem. Poor healer had to run back and forth healing tank and us gunslingers when adds had been chewing away at our health and yes, they do a lot of chewing So we took turns using shields, diversion and knockbacks to keep them off us.

[ShadySands]

I only have a couple days left until my sub runs out so I decided to log on and check out the 250% CXP bonus. I got like 5 ranks in about an hour but I couldn't bring myself to play any longer than that. I'll check back in April when the next content patch hits.

[Gorth]

Friends and the social stuff is the only thing that keep me (barely) interested in the game at the moment. Going to grind a few max level alts over the next month, but it's infinitely more fun when doing it with aforementioned friends. Class balance is at an all time low with so many problems that you despair just by thinking at where to start listing the problems, nothing new to do with friends/guildies in the game besides uprisings and a warzone for the last two years... it's like dealing with a patient in a state of coma. Will it ever wake up and try to interact with the players again?

[Gorth]

Much to my surprise we actually managed to find 16 people yesterday. 16m is tonnes of fun and poor Styrak bit the dust (16M HM SNV)

[ShadySands]

I never made any friends in this game and the ones I started with left the game long ago. My wife doesn't even care for it anymore and every guild I join seems to die. Trying not to take it personally.

 

Anyway, I gave it another shot and tried GSF for the first time since it came out and it was a pretty bad experience. I didn't really know what I was doing and I was just getting farmed by people who seemed to be able to do things I couldn't. I wish they had a tutorial or a bot match to learn the ropes before throwing you to the wolves

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

They do, it's just not very good. At the very least they could have tiers and let players go against people who have around their level of ships or whatever.

 

Guild I'm in is doing ok, but its mainly a pvp guild and class balance is so bad in 5.0 it's not very fun. Not sure if I'll just take a break or ride off into the sunset.

[Gorth]

I never made any friends in this game and the ones I started with left the game long ago.

Should you ever play on Harbinger drop me a message. 'Macroth' on imp side or 'Blind Justice' on pub side. At least pub side I would be able to hook you up with some nice people.

Unfortunately I don't play much on TRE anymore, although I do pop in sometimes in the early mornings my time (that would be early to late evening Fridays and Saturdays European time). Sort of fits nicely with server depopulating and my real life day about to start.

[213374U]

Much to my surprise we actually managed to find 16 people yesterday. 16m is tonnes of fun and poor Styrak bit the dust (16M HM SNV)

 

Hey, congrats. I don't think my 16M group ever made it past Titan 6. The headless chicken dance is amusing for a while, but the repair costs get old fast.

 

So like I heard they are making a new raid... hahaha

[ShadySands]

Thanks for that but my sub is expired now and I was on The Ebon Hawk.

 

I'll probably come back for the next major update if the reviews are decent

[Gorth]

So like I heard they are making a new raid... hahaha

I doubt Bioware can say anything that would excite me particular much as this point. The NGE (New Grind Experience) killed any fun that may have been left in the game mechanics department. Only thing that makes me keep an eye on what comes out of the PTS eventually is that the first boss fight allegedly is designed by the guy behind the Revan fight (Temple of Sacrifice Revan, not the Yavin 4 mini story Revan "fight").

[majestic]

They do, it's just not very good. At the very least they could have tiers and let players go against people who have around their level of ships or whatever.

 

They actually do. It just doesn't work most of the time because not enough players are in the queue and the matchmaker eventually gives up and starts the game. It worked (at least on my server, which was Vanjervalis Chain) back when GSF first launched and for a week after the introduction of the galactic conquest event with the special GSF objectives.

 

It still is an 3D arcade third person shooter in a game where the average player is a headless chicken unable to navigate a 2D space so they don't stand in the fire. To be honest I'm surprised GSF works as well as it does. It also probably is the most balanced part of the game, mostly because there hasn't been any fiddling with it in three years or so.

[Gorth]

*pokes dead horse with a stick*

Much to my surprise, I still play this game. The little republic guild I joined end of last year is still hanging in there, fighting tooth and claw to stay alive. It's mostly a "weekend warrior" guild though. Said weekends are fun though, doing a rotation of the usual 4 HM Ops (SnV, TfB, DF and DP), having done one of those each of Saturdays and Sundays and now getting started on HM Gods from the Machine this weekend. Branched out a bit from playing mostly (shadow/assassin) tanks to also play (shadow/assassin) dps.

Currently pulling around 10500 on the 1.5m dummy and 9800 on the 2.5 dummy. Trying to get to 10000 too on the 2.5m dummy (Deception/Infiltration discipline, so burst spec, not sustained). Very convenient in HM SnV where I switch from tank to dps for the Styrak fight

[SonicMage117]

Is this the mmo? I played a few hours of it, I just couldn't get into it. My brother in law plays it still though.

[Raithe]

I let my sub fall to the wayside. I'd done all the class stories, a bunch of them twice. My guild had faded out, and I never actually got around to running any Operations.  The post 50 story side of stuff had its ups and downs, without really keeping a firm interest. Lasted through that whole Eternal Empire aspect, but eh, once that first year of story had been dealt with I needed to tighten my budget up and I wasn't spending enough time playing to actually justify it.