Solving the problems with today's update
July 15, 2016 5:47AM
edited July 2016
I am writing to add my guild, Sinister Alliance, to the growing list of those standing with Team Instinct in opposition to Wednesday’s update. We aren’t as well known or influential as TI, but we are a very active guild filled with big spenders, both in terms of their time and money.
Like TI, we have tried to be patient with bugs and supportive of the hard-working development team because we love Star Wars and GOH. But Wednesday’s update very clearly crossed a line, and we can no longer support this game unless the recent changes are promptly unwound, even though the vast majority of our guild has actually benefited because we had the resources to acquire and level many more mods than most of our competition.
Mods are not the problem. They were probably released with too little planning and made too powerful, but they didn’t break the game (raids aside). Many players were unhappy, but as with the testers mentioned in CG_NotReallyAJedi’s post, we would have adjusted to the new paradigm and life would have moved on.
The problem was Wednesday’s response to the loud uproar that mods created. Despite anticipating that players would need to “get past the ‘sticker shock,’” the update created a problem far worse than the mods it claimed to be fixing with a trifecta of ill-conceived and inequitable changes:
Successful businesses know that they need to keep their word to their customers, even when it hurts. Whatever the reasons – a genuine attempt to mitigate player complaints or something less benevolent – there is no justification for releasing mods and then promptly and dramatically altering the rules of this new system. There were really only two viable solutions before the least update, and they continue to be the only viable solutions now:
After taking either of the approaches above, any further changes to the mod system should be incremental and done in a way that is fair to everyone. That means not nerfing something that people have already invested in or undercutting player’s expectation interests in rules and systems that were already announced and released.
GW also needs to be adjusted to account for mods. As it stands, mods have relatively little impact on squad power, which is seemingly the key to GW matchmaking. Something needs to be done so that it’s properly accounted for to ensure that players don’t face a team that is vastly stronger than its power rating implies. The easy solution is to take mods out of the equation for now, but there are obviously other viable solutions. This is particularly important since GW is a vital source of credits for F2P players.
In the past, we’ve tried to take a charitable view of the development team’s decisions. While many players complained of cash grabs and unethical abuse of the player base’s LOVE of Star Wars, we chose to keep our heads down and continue grinding. When bugs, like our inability to collect raid currency for the better part of a week, posed insurmountable problems we communicated directly with the developers and customer service to privately rectify things.
But as TI said, today’s changes crossed a line that needs to be addressed promptly. We appreciate EA_Jesse’s post and request that everyone be patient, and we echo his desire to keep things civil and productive. But to be honest, these problems are so great that we request that EA/CG step up and immediately announce that things will be corrected. We don’t need all of the details, but we need to know that the core problems created through today’s update, plus the GW/mod interaction, will be promptly unwound and rectified. These decisions can be made now even if the implementation takes time.
We are ardent Star Wars fans and love the ideal of this game. We truly appreciate all of the devs’ efforts and the hard work of folks, like EA_Jesse, and we have genuinely loved (most) of our time in this game. We aren’t here to flame anyone, but our desire to see this game survive compels us to speak. Like TI, we are committed to not spending further on this game until Wednesday’s update is unwound.
Sincerely,
Sinister Alliance
Like TI, we have tried to be patient with bugs and supportive of the hard-working development team because we love Star Wars and GOH. But Wednesday’s update very clearly crossed a line, and we can no longer support this game unless the recent changes are promptly unwound, even though the vast majority of our guild has actually benefited because we had the resources to acquire and level many more mods than most of our competition.
Mods are not the problem. They were probably released with too little planning and made too powerful, but they didn’t break the game (raids aside). Many players were unhappy, but as with the testers mentioned in CG_NotReallyAJedi’s post, we would have adjusted to the new paradigm and life would have moved on.
The problem was Wednesday’s response to the loud uproar that mods created. Despite anticipating that players would need to “get past the ‘sticker shock,’” the update created a problem far worse than the mods it claimed to be fixing with a trifecta of ill-conceived and inequitable changes:
- greatly reducing mod drop rates,
- greatly increasing the cost to increase the level of mods, and
- greatly reducing the efficacy of gear that players spent months acquiring at great expense and effort.
Successful businesses know that they need to keep their word to their customers, even when it hurts. Whatever the reasons – a genuine attempt to mitigate player complaints or something less benevolent – there is no justification for releasing mods and then promptly and dramatically altering the rules of this new system. There were really only two viable solutions before the least update, and they continue to be the only viable solutions now:
- Unwind mods, go back to the drawing board, and wait to release them until they are well-conceived and the new system is clearly explained to players. This would mean reverting the game and every player’s inventory, credits, crystals, the like to where it was on Tuesday morning. A few wasted days would be unfortunate, but this would be fair and equitable for all, both the haves and have nots.
- Stay the course with the original mod drop rates and leveling costs and convince the player base that with time the game will stabilize, as was apparently the experience in testing. If this course of action is taken, players should be reimbursed for the currency wasted on excessive mod leveling costs and compensated for low mod drop rates today. Potency-creating gear should also be reverted to its original state – there are other ways to address excessive potency, like buffing the next raid, that wouldn’t rob players of the benefits they worked so hard to obtain. This option would also be equitable for both the haves and have nots. After a few days those with tons of mods would stop improving and everyone else would catch up.
After taking either of the approaches above, any further changes to the mod system should be incremental and done in a way that is fair to everyone. That means not nerfing something that people have already invested in or undercutting player’s expectation interests in rules and systems that were already announced and released.
GW also needs to be adjusted to account for mods. As it stands, mods have relatively little impact on squad power, which is seemingly the key to GW matchmaking. Something needs to be done so that it’s properly accounted for to ensure that players don’t face a team that is vastly stronger than its power rating implies. The easy solution is to take mods out of the equation for now, but there are obviously other viable solutions. This is particularly important since GW is a vital source of credits for F2P players.
In the past, we’ve tried to take a charitable view of the development team’s decisions. While many players complained of cash grabs and unethical abuse of the player base’s LOVE of Star Wars, we chose to keep our heads down and continue grinding. When bugs, like our inability to collect raid currency for the better part of a week, posed insurmountable problems we communicated directly with the developers and customer service to privately rectify things.
But as TI said, today’s changes crossed a line that needs to be addressed promptly. We appreciate EA_Jesse’s post and request that everyone be patient, and we echo his desire to keep things civil and productive. But to be honest, these problems are so great that we request that EA/CG step up and immediately announce that things will be corrected. We don’t need all of the details, but we need to know that the core problems created through today’s update, plus the GW/mod interaction, will be promptly unwound and rectified. These decisions can be made now even if the implementation takes time.
We are ardent Star Wars fans and love the ideal of this game. We truly appreciate all of the devs’ efforts and the hard work of folks, like EA_Jesse, and we have genuinely loved (most) of our time in this game. We aren’t here to flame anyone, but our desire to see this game survive compels us to speak. Like TI, we are committed to not spending further on this game until Wednesday’s update is unwound.
Sincerely,
Sinister Alliance
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Replies
Way to represent our guild!
@Ascansio we are with you!