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SWG Players - Comment on the Combat Upgrade
Since last week my inbox and submissions bin has been overflowing with complaints and rants about the Combat Upgrade put into Star Wars Galaxies last week. Players are speaking out all over the internet, and the media is responding. If you've had first hand interactions with the combat upgrade (either positive or negative) please leave a comment below describing your experiences with the changes, and pass on word of this thread to all the players you can. Think of this as a call for interview questions, because I'm going to formulate queries as best I can and see what sort of information I can get from the folks that I know at Sony Online. Here's your chance to be heard, folks. Use it well.
Their are issues that have issues for the CU. Every profession is broken is some way or form. Some items that were once coveted are now useless. Creatures became generic with different healths and skins. It was just a severe dumbing down of a system.
Esentially the players are unhappy that they now cannot use items they were once able to and all Customer service can do is shrug. Promises made to professions like Doctor were broken. Specifically since crafting was removed from DOC and moved to BE, the pre-reques for BE would be lowered so current Master DOCs could easily gain the medicine crafting of BE. They never changed that.
Master scout requires 35K of xp. The cap at 4444 scout is 25k, in other words no one can master. These are just a few examples of glareing problems with it. Each professional forum has lists and lists of game/profession breaking bugs.
They really screwed up this time. Not only was it rushed but also implemented 1 week before promised. No one wants to go back to the days of release when hot patches were placed every day.
The Lunatick, Carpe Corpus!
First of all, let's get this out of the way: I think it sucks, and I cancelled my account today.
Okay.
After playing with the CU for a couple of days, I decided to hop onto another server and start a new character to see what the n00b experience would be like. I was surprised: for a new player, the CU is actually better than the old system was, or at least is its rough equivalent. With the addition of some Medic skills, the basic melee classes played just fine: as long as I could drop healing on myself, the combat itself went smoothly. I earned good amounts of experience and was able to progress.
On my veteran characters, the experience is entirely different. Like someone else here, I had a Master Rifleman. I was completely unable to kill anything at my own level--and since killing things at or near your own level is the only way to earn more than about 1 xp that was a problem. I also had a Teras Kasi Master, and while I was able to successfully defeat single mobs of the appropriate level, if I drew aggro from more than one creature, I was dead. In addition, the specials in Teras Kasi--an Elite-level profession--do LESS damage than the specials from the Brawler class--a Basic-level profession. This is unacceptable.
The game has slowed down, a lot. It now takes a HUGE amount of time to kill anything, on the order of several minutes. It would seem that to get anywhere, grouping is required, and some of us don't want to HAVE to find seven other players to gain experience. Medic skills--preferrably as much Doctor as you can manage--are essential to staying alive.
Jedi characters are screwed beyond belief. If you're progressing through the Jedi skills as a Master in any non-Jedi combat role, you're hosed: you will not be able to kill anything with your lightsaber. The aforementioned TKM is also a Jedi, and I can get in about a dozen hits before I run out of Force because I have exactly two skill boxes in Jedi, but I draw missions that are "appropriate" for my TKM level.
On the SWG forums, there's a lot of counter-bitching that people like me are leaving because we're no longer "uber." I'd just like to say that I never was uber (gah, I hate that word). I never had the best armor, or the best weapons, or the most money. What I did have was fun.
The idea of an upgrade to combat was something everyone wanted. Some tweaks to armor, chnges to buffing, some class changes to balance things out were all we were looking for. What's being forced on us is in no way, shape or form an "Upgrade".
The day testing began on the Test Servers(there was no closed alpha test. "Alpha" consisted of a handful of people being emailed some excel sheets), SOE placed a Poll on the forums asking for people to rate the CU. It was reset everyday, and sometimes after a patch was applied to the Test servers. Every single poll resulted in 65%-85% of the voters choosing the lowest possible rating. Everyday. Without Fail.
SOE's public stance was that the majority of players loved the CU and couldn't wait for it. Recently, at C3, the Community Relations Director for SWG stated that only 50 vocal people were against the CU.
We already knew these public statements by SOE were lies, which became painfully apparant the day the CU went live and the community responded.
While the CU was still on the Test servers(TCs), those players who were actually testing posted detailed, comprehensive discussions to both the Test Center Forum and the In Testing - Dev forum. A large percentage of the bug reports were ignored. Many which detailed the reasons why SOE's attempt at importing a Level-based combat system into SWG's Skill-based character system was flawed were deleted without comment. Since going live, this Level-based system, has shown it's inherent flaw in SWG, and all further posts by players experiencing it for the first time get deleted from the SWG forums as well.
A day before the CU went live(a week earlier than it was supposed to, with all bugs intact), every single "official" bug thread on the In Testing - Dev forum was deleted. None of the bugs had been fixed, and the players/testers were basically told to do it all over again. However, posting any bugs which were originally posted in the deleted threads(and never fixed) resulted in more deletions, and some bans.
To be honest, it appears that SOE has no desire to hear about bugs, expecially those which show the basic design flaws in the CU, and no desire to fix said bugs.
Besides the Bugs, and broken Combat system, there are a number of other reason why players are so upset and cancelling.
The UI has been changed dramatically. It now resembles a Fantasy MMO more than anything else. Colorful hotbar Icons have replaced the funtional, datapad-like buttons. They don't resemble the actions they're supposed to represent, many of themlook like they were exported straight out of a fantasy game(horses for 'mounting' vehicles, archery arrows to represent range attacks, etc..). When asked if the players would have the option of using the old icons instead of the new ones at a recent Dev chat, we were told "no" without any reason why.
The other graphical changes further create the Fantasy-based atmosphere which has no place in a Sci-Fi game, particularily a Star Wars game. "Magical" particle effects now go off for every possible action in the game. Every basic punch shows a dazzling effect. Mounting and dismounting from a speederbike displays an effect. Medics(clerics?) wave a hand and a cloud of sparkly magical dust surrounds everyone for a PBAoE Heal. None of this was ever asked for by the players. Especially when the accompanying special effects result in FPS loss on a grand scale.
All Crafting professions and Entertainer professions have been decimated by the CU. There's no reason for anyone to master an Entertainer class as the lowest Novice can now give the same single buff as anyone of higher rank. RPing these entertainment classes is no longer as "fun" as it was prior to the CU since a change was put in to make the largest available group consist of 8 players(from 20). This means it's no longer possible to create a full band of musicians with accompanying dancers. What Nerfing the Entertainers had to do with "Upgrading" Combat, I'll never know.
There are a TUN of bugs and problems right now. It definately was not tested enough, and I spent weeks myself testing the crap out of it. I know the ins and outs of the new system. Most the poeple I find who 'hate' the system, do so because they either: 1: Don't really know how the new system works yet and are confused. 2: So used to the old system that, they are pissed they cant solo a nest of rancors without ever taking damage, or the fight even being engaging. 3: Uber d00ds who's 5mil 400 mind poison sword is now barely better then normal ones. Once you understand how the system works, and get used to it, it's a lot better. There are things I dislike, like the mob level multiplier (where mobs are artificially boosted beyond normal depending on their level compared to yours, last I knew they were 80% tougher per level. So a level 10 mob fighting a level 8 player did 160% more dmg then vs a level 10 player. It gives mobs a very artificial feel). Anyway, once you get used to it it's FAR better then the old system. For those that haven't played the old system.. heres an example: You go get buffed by doc & entertainer. You put on your 80-90% comp armor (that EVERYONE in the game wears, and since you couldn't change it out to clothing easily, everyone in the game looked identical). That means 90% of the mobs dmg is deflected. With buffs that boost your stats 2000+ points any damage you got almost instantly regenerated. Then you go to Dathomir or Endor or what ever. Get a mission for like Ancient Bull Rancors that were level 98 (yes there have always been levels, just before it was in the background. Any master scout could tell you that.) Players maxed at the 40's levels or so. So to someone unbuffed, un-armored they killed you in a couple hits. Now.. your buffed, your armored. You head to that mission and you spam your best circle attack with your sword that does 5k dps. You spam it about 100 times. Then you go take a shower (and yes I have LITTERALLY DONE THIS), come back 5 minutes later. Rancors are dead, the nest is destroyed and you are completely unharmed. Then you find your next nest.. repeat. Tell me how thats fun.. and engaging.. and exciting. Poeple are peaved because you cant do this anymore! Can you believe it? Now you know why SO MANY people left the game.. because the combat system was so patheticly boring. Now it's exciting, grouping is actually worth while and FUN. Each profession offers soemthing to the game dynamic. Everyone looks different because everyone wears a variety of armor and you can equip it fast and when ever you want so people go around in CLOTHING. You can see their faces! No more UBER buffs or Uber armor. No more soloing anything super-high lvl (although it is COMPLETELY possible for a max lvl combatant to take out a single Ancient Rancor, with practice, time and effort. YES - grinding is a lot harder because xp is much lower because you cant kill stuff so easily and fast. YES - weapons are balanced and now widly different. YES - you cant be NEARLY as uber as you could. YES - the CU is awesome. Once the bugs are fixed and people get into the new system and figure things out and start grouping again.. and having the load of fun we used to have. The CU is more like how the games combat was back when it first came out.. it was awesome back then. Over the last 2 years players became so powerful they needed to completely overhaul the system. Now that they have and nobody is uber anymore.. poeple are screaming. Also remember that the Vocal Minority is what you hear on the forums complaining, and spreading rumors and crap. The SILENT MAJORITY is in game, having a blast.
Here is a post I came across just mere hours before it's deletion and the poster silenced,b oard.id=Bloodfin&message.id=462297)
... and it continues....
(Deleted link http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?
I realize that by posting this I am going to get banned, and that this post will be deleted, just as it happened to Fury and his post earlier today. So, all I ask is that people take the initiative on this information... and screen shot and and pass it on to the next person that is willing to take a ban for the good of the community and game. Please keep this post alive, so that as many people can see it, and more evidence can be documented on the degree the devs/moderators are willing to go to silence the out cry coming because of their actions or lack there of. Most important of all is to do as Fury said and make your mailings contructive and mature.
Pass the info along in game, and on forums. I will post this on every board possible in time increments until I am removed from the community.
Thank you!
Furybaka wrote:
I have spent a while today speaking with people from Lucas Arts and they have advised me to document all information possible regarding our opinions and how the player base as a majority is being ignored by the devs.
I have been asked to get to any and all players who feel that the dev team is not being truthful and are completely out of touch for what the game needs to contact Lucas Arts with constructive emails and US Mail. They seem to be very interested in the fact that whenever a player has spoken out against the CU that the posts are edited and usually deleted by CSRs. Apparently, the Armor Correspondent was demoted for speaking the truth about the CU and not the propaganda the devs force them to spew???
When I explained how the dev chat completely twisted the truth about the forum polls (where they stated they are getting more positive every day when they are getting more negative everyday in all actuality), they were very interested and wanted to know what the daily forums polls were indicating.
I am sending both an email and a postal letter to Lucas Arts in hopes that they will take an active role in monitoring what Sony is doing to their product and hopefully stop the fiasco that is taking place
Furybaka of Bloodfin
Emails to Lucas Arts should go to: Techsupp@LucasArts.com please make them CONSTRUCTIVE and professional)
Real Mail needs to be sent to: (They specifically requested that we send them to the generic address and not to a specific dept)
Lucas Arts
PO Box 10307
San Rafael, CA 94912
I have been a Star Wars fan since the early 90's
The point is Customer service is a big issue as well as the CU
Oh come on. EVERYONE was gung ho when the devs first released the CU documents. It listed a complete change on how the games combat system would work, from HAM to specials to how armor worked.. everything. Now that it's here everyones like 'the old system was better!' Are you people blind? Did you actually even play the old system? Oh and on the rocketlauncher thing, in case you are unaware (and by the sounds of it you've hardly tried the game post CU and don't know this) you can use specials cross-profession. My main profession on this test character was Commando and they have no specials as their weapons have secondary state effects. So I picked up some rifleman and was using rifle specials with commando weapons and it was awesome. Like I said. Sure sniping is a rifle thing but since everything is cross profession now you can mix and match and come up with all kinds of awesome combo's :)