So I gather from that that reward improvement shan't be forthcoming.
You mention effort to complete the raid but not reward for said effort.
"No more free stuff, GRIND AWAY you evil little monkeys!!" is what I take from it. Not everybody can do heroic you know, and it's not helped by junk gear I/we already have. Oh hang on there is a way, take a mortgage out on my house and give the proceeds to you fine chaps/chapesses.
I know it's been a while since we had an update for you on this issue but I wanted to follow up here to let folks know we are still working on this and it hasn't fallen to the way side. This week we had another discussion around the Sith Raid and I know this topic has come up even more frequently due to the Bonds of Weakness change, but this gave me an opportunity to reiterate the feedback that I collected from this thread. We have discussed this topic at length but there are two issues specifically that I brought to the the table again:
The effort required for rewards at lower tiers
The randomness of the raid mechanics that also can increase the amount of time needed to complete an attempt.
This has taken far more time than we expected as the team has been particularly busy recently. That said, we feel that we are close to determining the best combination of changes that address the majority of issues from the community. Unfortunately I don't have any announcements to make regarding exact changes at the moment but we should have a more detailed update sometime in the next week or 2 to share with everyone.
Finally some response. This was something you should have been regularly doing @CG_SBCrumb. I appreciate that you finally came and followed up with us. This is a great opportunity for you guys to fix the raid once and for all on all levels. I’ll remain skeptical for now myself but even if a final solution isn’t on the table in a week or two from now, update us. Let us know what’s going on. That’s all we ask. A lot of the ill will in this thread could have been avoided if we were simply updated over the last couple months
So I gather from that that reward improvement shan't be forthcoming.
You mention effort to complete the raid but not reward for said effort.
"No more free stuff, GRIND AWAY you evil little monkeys!!" is what I take from it. Not everybody can do heroic you know, and it's not helped by junk gear I/we already have. Oh hang on there is a way, take a mortgage out on my house and give the proceeds to you fine chaps/chapesses.
Fair enough.
Just to be clear - the rewards for Heroic outside of the top 10 are terrible as well. So 80% of your guild will still be frustrated even when you are doing heroic. So, yeah, you have that inspiration waiting for you.
In game name: Lucas Gregory FORMER PLAYER - - - -"Whale blah grump poooop." - Ouchie
In game guild: TNR Uprising I beat the REAL T7 Yoda (not the nerfed one) and did so before mods were there to help
*This space left intentionally blank*
So I gather from that that reward improvement shan't be forthcoming.
You mention effort to complete the raid but not reward for said effort.
"No more free stuff, GRIND AWAY you evil little monkeys!!" is what I take from it. Not everybody can do heroic you know, and it's not helped by junk gear I/we already have. Oh hang on there is a way, take a mortgage out on my house and give the proceeds to you fine chaps/chapesses.
Fair enough.
Just to be clear - the rewards for Heroic outside of the top 10 are terrible as well. So 80% of your guild will still be frustrated even when you are doing heroic. So, yeah, you have that inspiration waiting for you.
@Nikoms565 the rewards in top 10 can also be terrible as well due to the challenge gear.
I for the life of me can’t garner how these are ok to still have in there. Not to mention the mk3 gels and mk4 holos...
So I gather from that that reward improvement shan't be forthcoming.
You mention effort to complete the raid but not reward for said effort.
"No more free stuff, GRIND AWAY you evil little monkeys!!" is what I take from it. Not everybody can do heroic you know, and it's not helped by junk gear I/we already have. Oh hang on there is a way, take a mortgage out on my house and give the proceeds to you fine chaps/chapesses.
Fair enough.
Just to be clear - the rewards for Heroic outside of the top 10 are terrible as well. So 80% of your guild will still be frustrated even when you are doing heroic. So, yeah, you have that inspiration waiting for you.
Liked for the very appropriate hilarious face at the end. Lol.
Well crumb see you in October when we get the next response.
Very much appreciate an update, however why do you (CG) always wait until things are at rock bottom before you start communicating?
You have not given us a lot of information in your update, and no real time frame but a simple acknowledgment like this, that probably took you 30 mins (by the time you had the statement approved by whoever has you cornered and wont normally approve updates) earlier in in the conversation would have alleviated a great deal of unrest in the community.
Communication is not really a process, its more of a 2 way conversation, please realize that the "odd" guarded statement like this really stops the community from degenerating into a hate fest, and at the moment that hate fest is really quite deserved.
Thanks for your update, however i should say that there is a lot more hate for this terrible raid that the two line items that you have stated, I hope that you are able to do something about it once you stop firefighting all of the other areas of the game that you have added a negative impact too.
Thanks
A second generations JTR owner that still despises P2,3&4 of your flagship raid, Note that more JTR's in the wild do not improve the rest of the raid, only P1 for most guilds.
Thank you for the response. It is long awaited to here some acknowledgement here and t is appreciated. I don't care that the official response with fixes/proposals/whatever is still a couple weeks away, the fact that we have some acknowledgement is great and I hope removes some of the darkness. People assume the worst when there is no communication.
I'd like to make sure though that your two points are refined a bit though:
- I don't think anyone wants free stuff for no effort in a raid. (Well maybe some ) We just want rewards commiserate with the effort put forth and skill set/team required to complete that stage. This is most obvious at tiers 1-6. Just making them easier will not necessarily solve the issue. Also no one, in my opinion, should be getting G12 gear or Traya for anything other than Heroic and this comes from someone not doing heroic. That being said rewards should be structured to help gear a team up to get to the next tier with the end goal being Heroic completion, but working up to it. A progression. Challenge and garbage gear will not make a team stronger to advance beyond tier 3, 5, 6, whatever they are working on. That's what makes this so bad.
- I appreciate that you recognize some of the random mechanics in the raid make it even more tedious. Thank you for not letting this get missed.
I'll end with a comment to the rest of the community. I'm the first to jump all over something when it goes wrong or harp about poor or no communication. Here we have a response and what I see is people still griping, complaining about it not having enough info, wasn't soon enough, etc. Do you think that will encourage someone to reach out more often and let us know at the very least our voices are heard or do you think that attitude pushes people back in a shell? Let's work together here and bridge this gap. Personally I'm happy someone spoke up because before this it just seemed like they didn't care or really didn't think it was an issue. Now we know. So I'm willing to put complaints aside and hope for a good solution, one I know will take time and I'm willing to be patient for. If 2 weeks go by and no solution I won't panic so long as someone from CG at least jumps in and let's us know they are still working on it.
Thank you for the response. It is long awaited to here some acknowledgement here and t is appreciated. I don't care that the official response with fixes/proposals/whatever is still a couple weeks away, the fact that we have some acknowledgement is great and I hope removes some of the darkness. People assume the worst when there is no communication.
I'd like to make sure though that your two points are refined a bit though:
- I don't think anyone wants free stuff for no effort in a raid. (Well maybe some ) We just want rewards commiserate with the effort put forth and skill set/team required to complete that stage. This is most obvious at tiers 1-6. Just making them easier will not necessarily solve the issue. Also no one, in my opinion, should be getting G12 gear or Traya for anything other than Heroic and this comes from someone not doing heroic. That being said rewards should be structured to help gear a team up to get to the next tier with the end goal being Heroic completion, but working up to it. A progression. Challenge and garbage gear will not make a team stronger to advance beyond tier 3, 5, 6, whatever they are working on. That's what makes this so bad.
- I appreciate that you recognize some of the random mechanics in the raid make it even more tedious. Thank you for not letting this get missed.
I'll end with a comment to the rest of the community. I'm the first to jump all over something when it goes wrong or harp about poor or no communication. Here we have a response and what I see is people still griping, complaining about it not having enough info, wasn't soon enough, etc. Do you think that will encourage someone to reach out more often and let us know at the very least our voices are heard or do you think that attitude pushes people back in a shell? Let's work together here and bridge this gap. Personally I'm happy someone spoke up because before this it just seemed like they didn't care or really didn't think it was an issue. Now we know. So I'm willing to put complaints aside and hope for a good solution, one I know will take time and I'm willing to be patient for. If 2 weeks go by and no solution I won't panic so long as someone from CG at least jumps in and let's us know they are still working on it.
Cheers
While I am glad @CG_SBCrumb did FINALLY get the opportunity to respond, personally, I'm reserving judgement until I see something actually done to IMPROVE the situation at this point. Talk is cheap. Made even cheaper by actions taken between @CG_SBCrumb 's response and when he first created this thread by CG on a number of other matters in the game. Hopefully CG can avoid shooting itself in the foot again.
It’s funny how people in one sentence say the raid takes to long and in the next sentence say nobody participates. If that’s the case I would be telling my guild we are not going to attempt anything but heroic. Fight lower tiers and take a week for horrible rewards of take a loss at heroic and at the least you know how you improve each attempt. Just my 2 cents.
I sincerely hope this 2 weeks is an accurate time frame.
As it stands right now, the only guild I've ever been in is crumbling from the demoralizing damage this raid has done. We're doing T4+T5 to gage our progression but with the insane health of Nihilus in p1, some have deemed it beneath them and await p2 for fun times and damage dealing, destroying the team ethic we pride ourselves on.
Aye. My Guild worked our tails off building rosters to reach what 120 million GP and we hit a wall in trying to clear Heroic that made some feel it was insurmountable. Several guild members who were in this guild for a year bolted for Heroic STR Guilds, and some left the game not wanting to go back and have to work on two new teams to 'maybe' make progress. Personally, I don't care about Traya anymore. If I do unlock her in the future, I will let her sit unactivated at of petty spite at the damage that character has done to our Guild.
It is unfun and decimated my guild fracturing strong bonds of friendship. Yes that was a pun.
So ... after hearing us and all the long feedback and the roll back of the Paper zombie thingy last week ... what are the update and balance patches ??
@CG_SBCrumb I would just like to know what can we do to get this moving along? I have chosen to believe that you are sincere in your words and are actually giving voice to our biggest concerns, but there is actually something we can do as a community, right? My example is the massive outrage to the NS Nerf recently got the team to react immediately and come forward with an apology. While I don't want apologies, I do want results, and right now, the most effective method seems to be vitreol. If this is what works, this is what you will get. If the stopping of cash flow gets your attention, then that is what will happen. I am proposing that if you want a player base that is loyal, ready to spend, and happy on the forums, then let us know what the right path is to getting desired changes addressed. So far, this thread has shown you how nasty it can be, but then turn completely around based on only the equivalent of "we'll get back to you". Of course, it can turn right back around if nothing gets done, but I hope you see how positive we can be if we are given a little hope.
A suggestion for the paper zombie issue. To encourage higher level zombie, but to leave the nightsisters mechanisms intact, and not to over nerf. A formula for the amount to be stacked based on gear level could be introduced. Eg: stacking amount /144 x gear level squared. I'm running a g11 zombie, and can still get a decent score, between 10% & 20% of Nihilus depending on rng, in p4 HSTR. And have invested in zetas accross the squad because of it. A complete nerf to negate my investment in zetas isnt going to be properly compensated by refunding only 1 zeta. Especially if the nerf significantly reduces my higher gear HSTR results.
I'm sorry man... last time you said a week and it was 2+ months. Now it's going to be 1-2 weeks so that's what, 2-4+ months??????
Please.
STR continues to be the worst content produced on this game - and now it's coming with MORE character nerfs instead of STR fixes.
I'm getting so sick of this.
@CG_TopHat is like Mr. Krabs from Sponebob. Never comes out of his office until someone mentions the word refund. Then he puts on a little show and dance to distract the customer, but doesn't actually fix anything the customer is complaining about.
Just say you're not going to change anything about how terrible your raid is, but you're going to keep changing the characters in order to ensure no one enjoys the raid, and just close the thread.
@CG_TopHat is like Mr. Krabs from Sponebob. Never comes out of his office until someone mentions the word refund. Then he puts on a little show and dance to distract the customer, but doesn't actually fix anything the customer is complaining about.
Just say you're not going to change anything about how terrible your raid is, but you're going to keep changing the characters in order to ensure no one enjoys the raid, and just close the thread.
I do find it funny that @CG_Carrie claimed they were seeing positive reaction from the STR. This truly shows how out of touch the devs are with their player base. To remain relevant and to keep players spending, the game has to be fun. Unfortunately, the STR has literally **** all of the fun from this game. From destroying guilds to sucking up insane amount of resources and time, nothing positive has come from the raid. Even big time whales hate the raid. I wish the devs would actually listen and do what's best for their player base. Without us, their game disappears. Time to make amends. @CG_SBCrumb@CG_TopHat
When she claimed on the record she saw positive reactions from STR might be when STR is not rolled out yet - people were really excited about new sith raid in concept.
It's the execution of the concept that went downhill.
So technically she might not be lying. She might even refer to positive reactions from the Devs or CG employees.
Why is this thread falling? Have you all given up on changing this? I had, until in Phase 4 of T4 STR I got 600k damage against Traya with G12 CHARACTERS! Why do I have to invest so much for so little? Why does Traya's turn meter mean nothing? What is the point of an enrage countdown when Traya can steal TM, cool down specials, hit two characters and crit 100% every time? What is this monstrosity you have built? It's absurd. You guys at CG flipped at the idea of a loop, but why is Traya allowed to loop? There is no solution to it, not to mention that having foresight on your character just gives it to her without having to spend any turns. You guys are crazy for this. It's a stupid raid with stupid mechanics. Don't believe me? Look at all of the videos that show restarts on p3. @CG_SBCrumb fis this. I'm tired of putting g12 toons in and getting challenge gear back.
@CG_SBCrumb Since you are presumeably back in this thread, I would like to offer some updated feedback, I would be thrilled if you'd just acknowledge that you are there and take some leadership of this thread and tell us where you want it to go - you started it after all, Anyway:
My context is having experinced both pre- and post HSTR. I have just under 2m GP (guild 129), I finished first place in the raid once - The squads I use are pretty stock except Sabine which I don't own at 7stars.
My main point is that for the longest time I really disliked the raid, although at the Heroic tier, this has changed, so that I actually feel that for me there are more enjoyment than displeasure at the point where I am at now.
Thus, A central aspect I want to point out to you, and maybe the other posters here in this thread is that the difference between how heroic feels and how the rest of the raid tiers feels is vastly different, which creates different opportunities and problems.
Issues in the heroic Tier:
- The reward structure where 10 people are in the good is too narrow. For the foreseeable future I will not have problems placing top10, but in terms of contribution I feel #20 or possibly even #30 should have more even rewards, even if that means lowering droprates or amount for the first 10.
- Some teams require the right RNG, which means a lot of restarting.
Issues in Tiers 1-6 (I only played 3-6)
- The benchmarks and differences between the tiers is too narrow. This means guilds are stuck doing a raid that takes more than 2 days, in some cases much longer - This hurts the experience tremendously I believe.
- The rewards does not stimulate the sense of accomplishment the raid was set up for.
- The character refreshes means there is nothing really at stake, everyone knows the raid will finish succesful eventually
Basically what I would suggest you do is a tuning pass, and a QoL update.
Tuning:
Tiers 1-3 should be so easy/short (just adjust the hp down), that they in practice function as the entry levels their descriptions describe (Tier 1: lvl 40 gear lvl 5 is maybe on the low end but the idea is not bad).
Tiers 4-6 I think the best you could do for these tiers is to remove the character refresh and put a 2 day limit, and adjust the hp down by the same percentage between T6 and T7. This would give some of the same feel of urgency and accomplishment as heroic, and thereby take advantage of some of what makes heroic fun, on a lower level.
Tier 7 In terms of difficulty the heroic tier is not difficult if you have the right squads (This applies to some extend to the lower tiers as well I suppose) - This more a design issue/decision than tuning however.
Rewards: I actually feel the rewards are pretty okay all across. I did not get to take advantage of the +3 G12 pieces in HC, but that seems excessive in my eyes anyway. The main thing I believe, is that the effort to complete the raid on tiers 1-6 is too great/long. My point is that the rewards tie into the tuning and if you fix tuning the rewards would not seem so bad (except challenge gear is just not a fun reward to get at all)
QoL: With the heavy RNG based gameplay people will want to restart. Currently this happens with the retreat option and/or flight mode and forcequitting the app when things go really bad (which they sometimes do, especially with low geared chex mix in HC) - IF the design is predicated upon this RNG for whatever reason, and restarts is a part of the desired gameplay, you should integrate an option to "continue" or "retry" after "attempt over/victory" happens.
It's bad design to have the player exit the app to change phone settings in the middle, but it's reality at the moment.
Otherwise, you could consider removing the retreat option, but that's also a design change suggestion moreso than tuning - Save/load might make you play longer, but ironman has an edge of finality is more stimulating (bad beats/big wins are both greater)
Hope you actually pay attention since I invested some time here
Wow you started of nicely then when full blown crazy on lower tier changes. So you think making tier 4-6 a 2 day limit is going to help? Whaaaat? I hope that opinion gets missed.
It's not a terrible idea as long as the health pool is reduced sufficiently. Wouldn't work at all if we still needed G12 JTR teams just to complete T4!
In the last 24 hours, my guild of over 2 years has now lost three of it's oldest and most valuable members because of this awful, AWFUL raid. Two have left because we don't have whales spending money, the other has quit in protest at how CG have handled this situation.
Destroying guilds, awarding people with a character which has (simply put) destroyed the fun but not only that... said character has now brought about yet another set of characters which are pushing even more people away.
This raid is boring. It's not fun. It's destroying guilds. You had a chance to at least try and balance the issues as hand with this mod rework but all you have done is boost other ratings which will do absolutely NOTHING to balance the common denomonator here which is speed.
Star Wars online games always go the same way and this is to be expected... but this feels more personal because of the people I have now lost contact with.
One raid has caused so many issues and it's now looking like the straw that broke the camels back. The players cannot say we never told you.
Wow you started of nicely then when full blown crazy on lower tier changes. So you think making tier 4-6 a 2 day limit is going to help? Whaaaat? I hope that opinion gets missed.
I sincerely believe raids that go on for extended periods will cause burnout, indifference and severely diminish the sense of accomplishment - I don’t have data to support exactly when this sets in, but personally I think 2 days are about it.
What I would want is that beyond the entry level(s) that guilds do not try to tackle tiers which are too high, leading to those detrimental effects...
Basically the most important point and prerequisite is that the different tiers needs to be matched better with the playerbase - so that you go up against a difficulty which you can tackle within a reasonable timeframe.
For this to work it would require a tuning pass, where the various tiers are better matched than is the current situation. So I am definately NOT suggesting they keep tiers 4-6 as is and put a 2 day restriction on - just to make that clear
I believe this to be a greater problem than the rng mechanics and the loot tables (with the exception of challenge gear)
Replies
You mention effort to complete the raid but not reward for said effort.
"No more free stuff, GRIND AWAY you evil little monkeys!!" is what I take from it. Not everybody can do heroic you know, and it's not helped by junk gear I/we already have. Oh hang on there is a way, take a mortgage out on my house and give the proceeds to you fine chaps/chapesses.
Fair enough.
Finally some response. This was something you should have been regularly doing @CG_SBCrumb. I appreciate that you finally came and followed up with us. This is a great opportunity for you guys to fix the raid once and for all on all levels. I’ll remain skeptical for now myself but even if a final solution isn’t on the table in a week or two from now, update us. Let us know what’s going on. That’s all we ask. A lot of the ill will in this thread could have been avoided if we were simply updated over the last couple months
Just to be clear - the rewards for Heroic outside of the top 10 are terrible as well. So 80% of your guild will still be frustrated even when you are doing heroic. So, yeah, you have that inspiration waiting for you.
In game guild: TNR Uprising
I beat the REAL T7 Yoda (not the nerfed one) and did so before mods were there to help
*This space left intentionally blank*
@Nikoms565 the rewards in top 10 can also be terrible as well due to the challenge gear.
I for the life of me can’t garner how these are ok to still have in there. Not to mention the mk3 gels and mk4 holos...
Liked for the very appropriate hilarious face at the end. Lol.
Well crumb see you in October when we get the next response.
You have not given us a lot of information in your update, and no real time frame but a simple acknowledgment like this, that probably took you 30 mins (by the time you had the statement approved by whoever has you cornered and wont normally approve updates) earlier in in the conversation would have alleviated a great deal of unrest in the community.
Communication is not really a process, its more of a 2 way conversation, please realize that the "odd" guarded statement like this really stops the community from degenerating into a hate fest, and at the moment that hate fest is really quite deserved.
Thanks for your update, however i should say that there is a lot more hate for this terrible raid that the two line items that you have stated, I hope that you are able to do something about it once you stop firefighting all of the other areas of the game that you have added a negative impact too.
Thanks
A second generations JTR owner that still despises P2,3&4 of your flagship raid, Note that more JTR's in the wild do not improve the rest of the raid, only P1 for most guilds.
Thank you for the response. It is long awaited to here some acknowledgement here and t is appreciated. I don't care that the official response with fixes/proposals/whatever is still a couple weeks away, the fact that we have some acknowledgement is great and I hope removes some of the darkness. People assume the worst when there is no communication.
I'd like to make sure though that your two points are refined a bit though:
- I don't think anyone wants free stuff for no effort in a raid. (Well maybe some
- I appreciate that you recognize some of the random mechanics in the raid make it even more tedious. Thank you for not letting this get missed.
I'll end with a comment to the rest of the community. I'm the first to jump all over something when it goes wrong or harp about poor or no communication. Here we have a response and what I see is people still griping, complaining about it not having enough info, wasn't soon enough, etc. Do you think that will encourage someone to reach out more often and let us know at the very least our voices are heard or do you think that attitude pushes people back in a shell? Let's work together here and bridge this gap. Personally I'm happy someone spoke up because before this it just seemed like they didn't care or really didn't think it was an issue. Now we know. So I'm willing to put complaints aside and hope for a good solution, one I know will take time and I'm willing to be patient for. If 2 weeks go by and no solution I won't panic so long as someone from CG at least jumps in and let's us know they are still working on it.
Cheers
While I am glad @CG_SBCrumb did FINALLY get the opportunity to respond, personally, I'm reserving judgement until I see something actually done to IMPROVE the situation at this point. Talk is cheap. Made even cheaper by actions taken between @CG_SBCrumb 's response and when he first created this thread by CG on a number of other matters in the game. Hopefully CG can avoid shooting itself in the foot again.
Mind you the Eye of Sauron has finally passed over the topic once again, so I suppose I can wait and see until the next revolution.
Aye. My Guild worked our tails off building rosters to reach what 120 million GP and we hit a wall in trying to clear Heroic that made some feel it was insurmountable. Several guild members who were in this guild for a year bolted for Heroic STR Guilds, and some left the game not wanting to go back and have to work on two new teams to 'maybe' make progress. Personally, I don't care about Traya anymore. If I do unlock her in the future, I will let her sit unactivated at of petty spite at the damage that character has done to our Guild.
It is unfun and decimated my guild fracturing strong bonds of friendship. Yes that was a pun.
Please.
STR continues to be the worst content produced on this game - and now it's coming with MORE character nerfs instead of STR fixes.
I'm getting so sick of this.
Just say you're not going to change anything about how terrible your raid is, but you're going to keep changing the characters in order to ensure no one enjoys the raid, and just close the thread.
I do find it funny that @CG_Carrie claimed they were seeing positive reaction from the STR. This truly shows how out of touch the devs are with their player base. To remain relevant and to keep players spending, the game has to be fun. Unfortunately, the STR has literally **** all of the fun from this game. From destroying guilds to sucking up insane amount of resources and time, nothing positive has come from the raid. Even big time whales hate the raid. I wish the devs would actually listen and do what's best for their player base. Without us, their game disappears. Time to make amends. @CG_SBCrumb @CG_TopHat
It's the execution of the concept that went downhill.
So technically she might not be lying. She might even refer to positive reactions from the Devs or CG employees.
My context is having experinced both pre- and post HSTR. I have just under 2m GP (guild 129), I finished first place in the raid once - The squads I use are pretty stock except Sabine which I don't own at 7stars.
My main point is that for the longest time I really disliked the raid, although at the Heroic tier, this has changed, so that I actually feel that for me there are more enjoyment than displeasure at the point where I am at now.
Thus, A central aspect I want to point out to you, and maybe the other posters here in this thread is that the difference between how heroic feels and how the rest of the raid tiers feels is vastly different, which creates different opportunities and problems.
Issues in the heroic Tier:
- The reward structure where 10 people are in the good is too narrow. For the foreseeable future I will not have problems placing top10, but in terms of contribution I feel #20 or possibly even #30 should have more even rewards, even if that means lowering droprates or amount for the first 10.
- Some teams require the right RNG, which means a lot of restarting.
Issues in Tiers 1-6 (I only played 3-6)
- The benchmarks and differences between the tiers is too narrow. This means guilds are stuck doing a raid that takes more than 2 days, in some cases much longer - This hurts the experience tremendously I believe.
- The rewards does not stimulate the sense of accomplishment the raid was set up for.
- The character refreshes means there is nothing really at stake, everyone knows the raid will finish succesful eventually
Basically what I would suggest you do is a tuning pass, and a QoL update.
Tuning:
Tiers 1-3 should be so easy/short (just adjust the hp down), that they in practice function as the entry levels their descriptions describe (Tier 1: lvl 40 gear lvl 5 is maybe on the low end but the idea is not bad).
Tiers 4-6 I think the best you could do for these tiers is to remove the character refresh and put a 2 day limit, and adjust the hp down by the same percentage between T6 and T7. This would give some of the same feel of urgency and accomplishment as heroic, and thereby take advantage of some of what makes heroic fun, on a lower level.
Tier 7 In terms of difficulty the heroic tier is not difficult if you have the right squads (This applies to some extend to the lower tiers as well I suppose) - This more a design issue/decision than tuning however.
Rewards: I actually feel the rewards are pretty okay all across. I did not get to take advantage of the +3 G12 pieces in HC, but that seems excessive in my eyes anyway. The main thing I believe, is that the effort to complete the raid on tiers 1-6 is too great/long. My point is that the rewards tie into the tuning and if you fix tuning the rewards would not seem so bad (except challenge gear is just not a fun reward to get at all)
QoL: With the heavy RNG based gameplay people will want to restart. Currently this happens with the retreat option and/or flight mode and forcequitting the app when things go really bad (which they sometimes do, especially with low geared chex mix in HC) - IF the design is predicated upon this RNG for whatever reason, and restarts is a part of the desired gameplay, you should integrate an option to "continue" or "retry" after "attempt over/victory" happens.
It's bad design to have the player exit the app to change phone settings in the middle, but it's reality at the moment.
Otherwise, you could consider removing the retreat option, but that's also a design change suggestion moreso than tuning - Save/load might make you play longer, but ironman has an edge of finality is more stimulating (bad beats/big wins are both greater)
Hope you actually pay attention since I invested some time here
Edit: I added a bit of clarification
In the last 24 hours, my guild of over 2 years has now lost three of it's oldest and most valuable members because of this awful, AWFUL raid. Two have left because we don't have whales spending money, the other has quit in protest at how CG have handled this situation.
Destroying guilds, awarding people with a character which has (simply put) destroyed the fun but not only that... said character has now brought about yet another set of characters which are pushing even more people away.
This raid is boring. It's not fun. It's destroying guilds. You had a chance to at least try and balance the issues as hand with this mod rework but all you have done is boost other ratings which will do absolutely NOTHING to balance the common denomonator here which is speed.
Star Wars online games always go the same way and this is to be expected... but this feels more personal because of the people I have now lost contact with.
One raid has caused so many issues and it's now looking like the straw that broke the camels back. The players cannot say we never told you.
/Rant over.
I sincerely believe raids that go on for extended periods will cause burnout, indifference and severely diminish the sense of accomplishment - I don’t have data to support exactly when this sets in, but personally I think 2 days are about it.
What I would want is that beyond the entry level(s) that guilds do not try to tackle tiers which are too high, leading to those detrimental effects...
Basically the most important point and prerequisite is that the different tiers needs to be matched better with the playerbase - so that you go up against a difficulty which you can tackle within a reasonable timeframe.
For this to work it would require a tuning pass, where the various tiers are better matched than is the current situation. So I am definately NOT suggesting they keep tiers 4-6 as is and put a 2 day restriction on - just to make that clear
I believe this to be a greater problem than the rng mechanics and the loot tables (with the exception of challenge gear)