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#5 Planned Warzone Changes Part 2

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Category: Developer Forum Posts
Published: Thursday, June 7th, 2018
Written by EricMusco
Originally Posted by EricMusco ( Original Post ) | 07.06.2018 08:09AM
Hey folks,

Based on all of the feedback we have been reading in this thread, we are going to be walking back some of our proposed Huttball changes along with adding a few new ones. Lets start with what we are not doing:
  • We will no longer apply Hinder to the ball carrier.
  • Ball carriers will once again move at 67% move speed (down from 80%)

Although we are fine with tanks being the best ball carriers while under the effects of Hinder, we hear your concerns that these changes could cause Huttball to become a stalemate too often. We are also sensitive over your feeling that certain Classes would be too limited and unable to defend themselves while carrying the Huttball, since many defensive capabilities are tied to movement abilities for several Classes.

On the other hand, we plan to keep the proposed attacker point changes. We feel that players who properly position themselves to receive a Huttball pass should be rewarded. We also plan to keep the change that prevents stunned targets from catching the Huttball, as it allows characters that lack a knockback ability to have a viable and reliable way to intercept passes. It also has an additional benefit of giving players another reason to use their stun abilities on characters other than the ball carrier. Ultimately, it should mean that you get stunned a little less often while carrying the Huttball.

The hinder change was aimed at addressing specific issues with Huttball, and since we are reverting it, well be tackling those issues with some new proposed changes.

New Huttball (and Queshball) Changes
  • The Hutt will become bored of a single ball carrier and kill them after 45 seconds (down from 2 minutes)
  • To win before time expires, the winning team will need to score 10 times (up from 6 times)
  • The match will now last for a maximum of 10 minutes (down from 13 minutes)

The first change is intended to encourage passing the Huttball and increase tension when attempting to turtle for a win in a close match. The latter two changes will adjust how we approach this Warzone. If you see Huttball as a sport within SWTOR, we want to have the Warzone play out more as who can score the most points within a 10 minute match as opposed to race to 6 points to win. This will also ensure that all Huttball matches are 12 minutes or less (if you count pre-match). We hope that these changes along with our updates in matchmaking will lead to a lot closer and more compelling Huttball matches.

Let us know your thoughts on these changes!

-eric
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#2 GSF Changes in 5.9.2

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Category: Developer Forum Posts
Published: Wednesday, June 6th, 2018
Written by BretHoffman
Originally Posted by BretHoffman ( Original Post ) | 06.06.2018 03:05PM
Hey folks! Thanks for the questions/thoughts. To clarify a couple things with the matchmaking changes for GSF:

The goals:
  • Get matches to pop more frequently.
  • Get those matches to be more fairly balanced.
Cross faction teams helps achieve both of these goals. It makes hitting a critical mass of players to start a match more stable and easier to achieve. It also gives the matchmaker the ability to sort through ALL of the players to arrange the best possible match.
Quote: Originally Posted by Mournblood View Post
Bret,

I posed this question to Eric, but haven't gotten a response yet. Eric had stated that a premade group will not get split up by the new matchmaking system in regular WZs or GSF. My principal concern here is how will not splitting up a premade in GSF help to achieve any kind of match balance there when that is the #1 reason why GSF matches are so ridiculously lopsided? While there are certainly other contributing factors to GSF match inequity, such as mastered ships versus un-mastered ships, it's the premades of veteran players versus players who are literally brand new to GSF (which has a higher learning curve than ground PvP) that crushes the life out of that aspect of the game.

A few points about premade groups:
  • Premade groups no longer count as the average rating of all the ships. They now count everyone in the group as the same as the highest rated player in the group.
  • The matchmaker will attempt to make the most even teams possible.
  • Given this, a premade group with at least 1 highly experienced player would be more apt to be matched up with less experienced/less upgraded players.
Matches should be much more fairly matched across the board after these changes are put into place. This, admittedly, does not cure every ill caused by premade groups of highly skilled player. But it should help to mitigate the issues and improve the quality of matches across the board.
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Maintenance: June 7th, 2018

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Category: Developer Forum Posts
Published: Wednesday, June 6th, 2018
Written by EricMusco
Originally Posted by EricMusco ( Original Post ) | 06.06.2018 02:25PM
Hey everyone!

We will be taking the servers offline on Thursday, June 7th for maintenance. This is for back-end updates only, there will not be a patch to download.

Details:
DATE: 7 June 2018
TIME: 5:00AM - 8:00AM PDT (1200 - 1500 GMT)
VERSION: N/A

Thank you for your patience as we maintain Star Wars: The Old Republic!

-eric
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#4 Planned Warzone Changes Part 2

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Category: Developer Forum Posts
Published: Wednesday, June 6th, 2018
Written by EricMusco
Originally Posted by EricMusco ( Original Post ) | 06.06.2018 02:02PM
Hey folks,

Quick update. We have really been enjoying the discussion around these changes, especially hinder. The team is looking at an option where we don't introduce hinder at all and make a different set of changes to achieve our goals.

Once they have those finalized I will swing back in the thread with their plans to get your thoughts. I should have them tomorrow or Friday. Thanks everyone!

-eric
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#3 Planned Warzone Changes Part 2

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Category: Developer Forum Posts
Published: Tuesday, June 5th, 2018
Written by EricMusco
Originally Posted by EricMusco ( Original Post ) | 05.06.2018 04:36PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by yellow_ View Post
ok I see what you're saying now

my initial reading of what musco posted was that there's a flat 1% dps on you and a stacking healing debuff, but you've read it as both stacking. unfortunately the wording is ambiguous....but you're right that it would be about 14-15 seconds to die under your reading of it

edit: being able to medpac would actually buy you 2 more seconds, but this is still dangerously close to the old TTK if your interpretation is correct.

@musco can you clarify?
I sure can! Apologies for being ambiguous in the messaging.

Your initial reading is correct. There are two effects that happen:
  1. Players begin taking 1% of their maximum health every second. This effect does NOT stack, it is always 1%.
  2. You receive a 2% penalty to healing every second. This DOES stack, it increases by 2% per stack.
What this means is that as players fight during the arena end phase, healing will continue to become less effective over time until it does nothing. That penalty plus the constant 1% damage will apply more and more kill pressure to the remaining players.

Hope that clears up any confusion!

-eric
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#2 Planned Warzone Changes Part 2

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Category: Developer Forum Posts
Published: Tuesday, June 5th, 2018
Written by EricMusco
Originally Posted by EricMusco ( Original Post ) | 05.06.2018 03:10PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pallais View Post
Does Hinder apply to Sage/Sorc Pulls, too? If it doesn't then a Sage/Sorc + Tank becomes the de facto ball running team (given that Hinder basically says only have a tank run the Huttball). Also, would the Huttball matchmaking ensure a tank on both teams? The side without a tank would be at a disadvantage.

Snave's suggested healing debuff would be a better answer to getting more passing of the Huttball. You would only want to hold on to it for so long, dps would still do well as Huttball carriers, and the matchmaking wouldn't need to be as fussy about tanks/healers.
Hinder is intended to apply to to Sage/Sorc pulls, yes. Translocate / Transpose as well.

-eric
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#5 Upcoming Matchmaking Changes

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Category: Developer Forum Posts
Published: Tuesday, June 5th, 2018
Written by EricMusco
Originally Posted by EricMusco ( Original Post ) | 05.06.2018 02:07PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mournblood View Post
I inferred the same thing from Eric's post. You will have very little chance to get on the same team if you synch queue a double premade under the new matchmaking system. Say for example, each of your two premades has trinity (healer, tank and DPS), but there are no other tanks or healers among the PUG players who are queued. Your premades will get split up, and you'll end up fighting each other. Additionally, now that all WZs will be cross faction, the advantage the Pubs had (due to fewer faction members in queue) for getting their double premades on the same team will be gone. At least on my server, Pub premades dominating WZs past midnight will be a thing of the past. So basically, it will be very unlikely for any guild to get two premades on the same team together after the matchmaking system is implemented.

The question that's still in my mind that Eric needs to clarify is what happens to a single premade if they have two healers and there are no other healers queued? Will the matchmaking system split up the healers in that premade? And what about the "rating" level for regular WZs? What if everyone in that premade is higher "rating" than anyone else they are queued with? Will the matchmaking system split them up?

And if all of that is true, what's the point of being able to group queue if you're likely to get split up anyway? Why not just take it to its logical conclusion and make regular WZs solo queue only?
Some good questions in here so let me clarify. We will never split up a group. If you queue as 4 players in a group, you will all be on the same team. However, keep in mind what you describe above is not possible, you could no longer queue if you had two healers in your group. You can only queue with a max of 1 tank and 1 healer in a 4 man group.

To your other point, if you are trying to "queue-sync" two 4-man groups together to be on the same team it is always possible they end up against each other as opposed to on the same team. Especially with the new factors in 5.9.2 such as improved matchmaking and cross-faction.

Hope that clears up any confusion!

-eric
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Planned Warzone Changes Part 2

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Category: Developer Forum Posts
Published: Tuesday, June 5th, 2018
Written by EricMusco
Originally Posted by EricMusco ( Original Post ) | 05.06.2018 01:11PM
Hey folks,

Welcome to part 2 of our planned Warzone changes for GU 5.9.2. If you havent already done so, we recommend you go take a look at part 1 and our upcoming matchmaking changes. The following changes focus on Huttball and Arenas, so lets dive in:

Huttball (and Queshball) We have some concerns about the dominance of Classes with movement abilities in Huttball. The proposed changes will help encourage more teamplay in the Warzone. We also want to create more situations for counterplay and competition in Huttball while ensuring all players are rewarded for their efforts.
  • Carrying the Huttball now applies Hinder to the character. Hinder prevents the use of high mobility actions such as Force Charge, Force Speed, Scamper, and more.
  • Due to the Hinder changes players holding the Huttball will now move at 80% movement speed (up from 67%)
  • Players can no longer catch the Huttball while stunned. This creates more opportunities for counter-play, such as intercepting passes intended for a target you stun.
  • Adding attacker points for catching a pass from a friendly target:
    • Currently the thrower of the Huttball receives 500 points, but not the receiver. We will increase the receiver to gain 250 points.
    • We would also like a touchdown pass to award both players equally (currently the thrower gets 500 more points). Here is what the new breakdown would look like:
      • Thrower: 2750 Attacker Points total
        • 500 Attacker Points from completing pass successfully
        • 2250 Attacker Points for throwing a scoring pass
      • Receiver: 2750 Attacker Points total
        • 250 Attacker Points from receiving a friendly pass
        • 2500 Attacker Points for possessing the ball for a score

We know these changes will be pretty substantial in affecting how you play Huttball. Before we make these adjustments, we want to know your thoughts. We are getting your feedback early to see what changes we should, or should not make.

Arenas There are quite a few places where players can exploit to prevent themselves from dying. We plan to address them and implement ways to penalize those players. Additionally, we wanted to take another look at how the acid mechanics work at the end of Arena matches to see if we can improve that experience for stalemates. Here our thoughts:
  • Characters who hack their way into places they shouldnt be, such as outside the arena or in the ground, will die.
  • Currently, acid causes characters to take 10% of their max health in damage every second, prevents stealth and all healing.
  • Acid will now work as follows:
    • Characters will take 1% of their max health in damage every second and reduce all healing done/received by 2% per stack.
    • Characters affected by acid will begin with one stack and gain one stack per second.
    • Acid will still inhibit stealth.

This will mean the very end of an Arena match will now get progressively more dangerous. This gives more time for players to fight each other and counterplay, before their inevitable acid death. This should also address cases where stealth characters in particular can just CC and run away to win a match.

Let us know your thoughts!

-eric
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#3 Upcoming Matchmaking Changes

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Category: Developer Forum Posts
Published: Monday, June 4th, 2018
Written by EricMusco
Originally Posted by EricMusco ( Original Post ) | 04.06.2018 04:33PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimalexblack View Post
How would this system cope with teams that queue with, perhaps, 2 tanks and 2 healers?

Would it stack more of the same on the opposition team? Creating one hell of a long game. Or would it prevent the team from queuing with such a composition (a bit like flashpoints force certain comps.)
Great question! A pre-made (in Unranked) can only have a max of 1 tank and 1 healer in their group.

-eric
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GSF Changes in 5.9.2

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Category: Developer Forum Posts
Published: Monday, June 4th, 2018
Written by BretHoffman
Originally Posted by BretHoffman ( Original Post ) | 04.06.2018 04:13PM
Hey folks!

In case you missed these GSF related changes that were posted in the PVP forum:

In 5.9.2 the following changes will effect Galactic Starfighter:
  1. All Warzone and Starfighter queues are now cross-faction
  2. Galactic Starfighter matchmaking has been improved to better account for player experience along with their currently selected ship loadout.
Thanks!

Bret
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