State of the Game post

[ajax34i]

Seems easier to tune up a set of gear than to debug this "bolster" system.

[Nevermore]

Buggy though it may be right now, it's still way, WAY better than that recruit set.

[Jherad]

Buggy though it may be right now, it's still way, WAY better than that recruit set.

Better than recruit, sure. But worse than a properly tuned recruit set would have been.

One problem with bolster is that (until you get geared up in PvP gear to the point where bolster stops kicking in) your stats are essentially meaningless, and the improvements for replacing an individual items seems arbitrary and not necessarily reflect by the stats on it.

[Zetor]

Naked people being bolstered to the best pvp stats is probably the high-point of SWTOR max-level pvp, actually. Once gear is back, it's going to be the same old treadmill of shittiness.

DIKUs could do what GW1/2 did and have everyone pick their pvp suit as they see fit (enhancements and all), and use that whenever in a arena/warzone... heck, WOW of all games did it with its Arena Tournament servers. Except that this would cause all the 'elite pvpers' to throw a hissy fit and the bottom would fall out. See also: Rift's brief experiment of complete gear equalization in battlegrounds.

[Sjofn]

One problem with bolster is that (until you get geared up in PvP gear to the point where bolster stops kicking in) your stats are essentially meaningless, and the improvements for replacing an individual items seems arbitrary and not necessarily reflect by the stats on it.

I see this as a feature, personally. I am totally okay with my stats being meaningless until I have gear good enough to where I raise above the baseline. Bolster is easier to tune, I suspect, and has the added bonus of not needing to design/balance a suit for every single AC every time you decide you need to reset the PvP gear.

[Morfiend]

Is there any sort of active guild of F13ers? This game is about a million times more fun with friends, but all mine left.

[Fordel]

Define Active. 

[Ingmar]

There are like 4-7 active-ish players in our guild. Not all f13ers, though, and at any given time half of them tend to be playing the other side from each other.

[Surlyboi]

I started playing again intermittently since I'm waiting for more TSW content.

[Jherad]

Better than recruit, sure. But worse than a properly tuned recruit set would have been.

One problem with bolster is that (until you get geared up in PvP gear to the point where bolster stops kicking in) your stats are essentially meaningless, and the improvements for replacing an individual items seems arbitrary and not necessarily reflect by the stats on it.

So the latest round in the PvP bolster saga is that now apparently non-moddable crafted purple gear (RE'd up from greens) is FAR better than conqueror.

PTS thread here, but the problem is evident on live also:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=645674

Essentially the game sees crafted purples as greens as far as bolster is concerned, and gives huge bonuses to it (along with 2k+ expertise).

Some ranked teams are already taking advantage of this apparently.

[Ingmar]

Probably related to that old display bug where they'd show as green when inspected on other players...

[Jherad]

Yes, I had exactly the same thought. That bug has been around since... forever... however. I hope the fact it was never fixed was only down to it being merely a cosmetic issue prior to bolster.

[Sky]

I had the urge to play this, set it to update while I was painting. Went to log in and the big f2p screen popped up and made it sound like I'd lose any credit for stuff I had built up as a subscriber. Rather than look into the details, I alt-f4'd out and deleted the game.

[Lantyssa]

So I woke up this morning to find a SWTOR e-mail... from Aeria Games.  Ouch.

Don't get me wrong, I'm fond of some of their offerings, but they're basically a publisher for the cheapest and most disposable games brought over to the Western market.  Playing their stuff is my guilty pleasure when I need a change of pace.

Regardless, I take it as a pretty bad sign as to how things have gone for a Western game to end up under their purview.

[Merusk]

I don't seem to have that e-mail. So they're switching publishers?

[Zetor]

Aeria, aren't those the ones responsible for Scarlet Blade?

Anyway, I didn't get an email either, but I haven't logged in since forever (in fact, I don't think I ever received any SWTOR mail other than the 'please come back' one).

[Lantyssa]

I got it from Aeria, who sends me e-mails for their games.  They tend to do so whenever they get a new one, or just to promote something in their stable if they don't have much new to send out.

However, it is showing on their list.

[Evildrider]

I don't think it really means much other than another way to advertise the game.  People are still feeding this game tons of money in cartel coins.

[Ingmar]

SWTOR is not changing publishers. Aeria is just a marketing partner with EA (and they have been for ages - they "publish" Battlefield Heroes alongside EA, for example.)