Why no PTR action or even incremental increases/decreases to see how it goes before just "NERF!" or "UNNERF!" It's mind-boggling.
While Bioware has a chequered past with updates with unintended consequences, the way this one was handled/mishandled makes me think that the decision came from above the development level, leaving the development team scrambling to meet some "or else!" deadline imposed by people with no clue of how the game works.
I don't really follow their forums, but my impression was they got a lot of grief for the initial OP'd companions... Now they have little choice but to give in to a reverse on the nerf, if things are as bad as indicated in recent articles anyway.
So I'd have to say not having a testing realm for these things is the problem, not listening to players and giving in. As honestly the easier the game is, as well as faster people complete content, the faster they unsub, which is not in anyway to the best interests of Bioware.
They didn't get a lot of grief. They got vocal grief. Some of that was from the gaming media. Now they're getting a lot of grief and swinging back the other way.
I'm sure they did the internal and closed testing and it was well received and rightly so because it was fun. The flip flop does make them look silly because it does give the impression they don't know their game and fans like they should. The flip-flop makes it look like they don't have vision or that their vision is easily swayed by media and the forum rabble.
There are a ton of achievements and things to do. The increased combat rate didn't really change that. Anyone can still power through the story and content if they want. That's not really the problem.
Thanks for the clarification, like I said I wasn't really following what was going on, spent "too much" time in FO4 and ESO since the Xpac came out.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
All players hate nerfs. The 3.0 companions were fine when you bothered to give them decent gear and if you bothered to augment them they were even pretty strong. Given their trackrecord of balancing they should probably have left companions as they were (their powerlevel, not the new multipurpose nogearing) and just alocate them stats pr. slot of the same itemlevel the player have. Before 4.0 there was hardly any complaints about weak companions. Most complaits were about stupid companion AI.
Imo the zero new FP's and OP's and to a lesser extent pvp maps have hurt player retention more than this whole companion debacle.
All players hate nerfs. The 3.0 companions were fine when you bothered to give them decent gear and if you bothered to augment them they were even pretty strong. Given their trackrecord of balancing they should probably have left companions as they were (their powerlevel, not the new multipurpose nogearing) and just alocate them stats pr. slot of the same itemlevel the player have. Before 4.0 there was hardly any complaints about weak companions. Most complaits were about stupid companion AI.
Imo the zero new FP's and OP's and to a lesser extent pvp maps have hurt player retention more than this whole companion debacle.
Agreed. They have totally made some unique companions plain generic, HK-51 for example. It is pretty sad. I don't mind giving all companions all roles but at least they should have kept the unique abilities they previously had .
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
The buff might not be so tiny after all, but well have to wait tuesday.
In current pts build they have buffed only healing, and the new value is 75% buff of current value. So the new value is about 40% nerf of 4.0 value. If they go live with this then it is the perfect middle ground and perfect nerf of 4.0. Let's hope they go live with this and also look at dps soon.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
Everybody hates nerfs. It was seriously stupid to launch 4.0 with so powerfull companions that they would need this much of a nerf. It was very rare to see a post complaining about weak companions before 4.0, so why did they need a boost ? Only boost they might have needed would be a boost to their AI. At least so they would move out of stupid.
Everybody hates nerfs. It was seriously stupid to launch 4.0 with so powerfull companions that they would need this much of a nerf. It was very rare to see a post complaining about weak companions before 4.0, so why did they need a boost ? Only boost they might have needed would be a boost to their AI. At least so they would move out of stupid.
They did not "NEED" to "nerf" that much, it was their usual moronic response to something op which they did not think would make so many people to unsub over night. I mean how many time before that people said they would unsub and in the end did no such thing? Thus the quick response and buffed up companions in pts.
And if they give companions better AI, people might stop taking new players to do flashpoints altogether since even nerfed they will have more intelligence than a lot of players.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
It may have been Bioware's knee-jerk overreaction to OP companions. Even if they did test it, players are notorious to expand even further outside the box when comparing to testers. It has always been the nature of things. However the vocal players are just as guilty, or worse imho, of the knee-jerk overreaction. There will always be balancing issues. The final code on release may have been a tweek on what what tested. but a "." instead of a "," made the tweek into a x10 rather than a x5. Coding is funny that way. Ohh yeah, right, I forgot that everyone is a professional coder and never gets anything wrong.
For the record, I've personally never liked "pets" no matter what you call them. NO pet AI has ever been good. In various games I've seen a pet far to often wipe a group because of it falling through the floor, or how it decides to path when characters jump from a ledge to bypass content.
Oh yeah, second record. I do not hate nerfs. I find it a new challenge. Mostly because I'm the person who plays what and how I want to play. This Nerf did not effect me in the slightest as I was not one of the people who "raced through content". My heroics did not change much at all. There are some heroics I can actually solo now. SO all in all this is not an overall Nerf, but a buff for me.
Play what you Like. I like SWOTR, Have a referral to get you going! --> http://www.swtor.com/r/nBndbs <-- Several Unlocks and a few days game time to make the F2P considerably easier
Comments
I mean that as a good thing.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Imo the zero new FP's and OP's and to a lesser extent pvp maps have hurt player retention more than this whole companion debacle.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
And if they give companions better AI, people might stop taking new players to do flashpoints altogether since even nerfed they will have more intelligence than a lot of players.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
However the vocal players are just as guilty, or worse imho, of the knee-jerk overreaction.
There will always be balancing issues. The final code on release may have been a tweek on what what tested. but a "." instead of a "," made the tweek into a x10 rather than a x5. Coding is funny that way. Ohh yeah, right, I forgot that everyone is a professional coder and never gets anything wrong.
For the record, I've personally never liked "pets" no matter what you call them. NO pet AI has ever been good. In various games I've seen a pet far to often wipe a group because of it falling through the floor, or how it decides to path when characters jump from a ledge to bypass content.
Oh yeah, second record. I do not hate nerfs. I find it a new challenge. Mostly because I'm the person who plays what and how I want to play. This Nerf did not effect me in the slightest as I was not one of the people who "raced through content". My heroics did not change much at all. There are some heroics I can actually solo now. SO all in all this is not an overall Nerf, but a buff for me.
--> http://www.swtor.com/r/nBndbs <--
Several Unlocks and a few days game time to make the F2P considerably easier