Reinvigorating the Player Base

[Hereticzen]

I tend to agree, the Risks must match rewards. But in my mind, jedi were not supposed to be an easy opponent. There was a reason just about nothing has saber resists. They are supposed to be an elite class, relatively weak early on, but stronger later. This is lost in balancing it with other professions. If it was going to be "balanced" then it should be a starting profession. As far as TKM, They have almost always gotten the shaft. For one thing, the majority of things in game ignore kinetic damage at later stages, making it a horrible active class unless your trying to stack defenses. Most of that however can be attributed to the lack of TKM weapon / dmg types available. I think it would make sense to have a modular system that allows us to add dmg types to each weapon that is permanent on crafting. This would make the dmg types of all weapons increase exponentially. Also, most high end mobs should have a better chance at dropping elite, legendary, or exceptional type items. Even if they functional loot is around 5%, atleast there would be a reason for people to go out and find them.

The biggest issue with population is the feeling of stagnation. Coupled with the lack of info beyond the server needs more money. All things considered, I have followed closely what is going on, and why. I think it would go along way for server population stability to have more events, more communication and more healthy rivalries. I would also suggest, if pub 9 is going to be pushed back.. suspend building maintenance as an olive branch to those who walked away waiting for it to come out. Also, i honestly believe many quit the grind for now on jedi because they didnt think they would finish their jedi before the village unlocked.

And finally, though this can be frustrating, we are all here for the same reason. I have come to the conclusion after speaking to many of the developers coming in that they really are trying to keep the servers best interest at heart. If you want to offer complaints, that is fine. but make sure your complaints are offered with well thought out, detailed solutions with short rational. It goes a long way to fix precieved problems.

Truely,

Heretic

[Templar]

Many of the items mentioned so far are open to discussion.

Some of the items (obtuse unlock mechanic, vanilla xp, lower drop rates, strict no wipe policy) are part of what gives Awakening it's "hard mode" identity and probably won't be adjusted much, if at all. We aren't really looking to change what Awakening is, but will consider some adjustments. Abnel did mention keeping profession specific changes to the profession forums, which would make organizing the discussions easier, but this is the community's thread so the discussion is open.

At the moment our focus is getting a roadmap posted for public consumption. This includes a target date in the next few weeks for Publish 9 to hit the test center. We also continue implementation of Publish 9 as we execute a transition in development personnel simultaneously. We are juggling some grenades here, so bear with us.

Feel free to continue to brainstorm and discuss.

[BigBadWallyB]

The reason I don't play on here much is because it simply isn't fun anymore and that is mostly down to two things.
One is definitely the loot drops (hardcore fair enough) but the main issue for me are the people who are allowed to intimidate other players to the point they eventually leave.
For them the server is theirs and if you do anything they don't like (even kill them in pvp lol) your life is made hell.
One guy even drove 6 or 7 players away in one sitting with his asshat behaviour because he got killed in pvp. He was reported but nothing came of it no warnings nothing.
There are the elite (so they believe) and take playing an old game to extremes and therefore take any element of fun out of it for themselves and thus others.
It's hardcore I get it but come on games are meant to be fun aren't they.
Just my 2 cents which ultimately isn't worth much but I know at least 20-25 people who left for this reason in the last 2-3 months.

[Murq]

I'd really like to see regular GCW (Rebel vs Imperial) PvP events setup by the staff. Even if they have to hire/involve a dedicated event organizer.
Different objectives, different rewards, more PvP than just hunting whiney Jebi.

Fights near POI's, Base raids, Good'ol Theed free for alls, etc.

It really bugs me to see GCW take a back seat to BHvJedi

[skyhunter11]

Remove jedi from GCW and it will bloom. Give light and dark jedi their own faction. Many times have I seen pvp ventures ended quickly when someone brings their jedi to have an extreme advantage over other non Jedi players. They want to fight each other anyways, let em fight each other and we can have GCW PvP back. Considering the time period, all jedi should be attacked on sight by imperials.

Narrk

[AmerineJL]

A few initial thoughts.

The EMU community has two extremes: one server that makes everything easy and has so many items it looks nothing like Star Wars---and Awakening where everything is hard and the itemization is very Spartan. Personally, I like the difficulty and am only concerned with how Spartan everything seems to be.

The original game was bland with regard to itemization and they fixed that over time in live. Itemization needs love. Rage and Trials each added fun items you quested for that amounted to little more than decorations or cosmetics. The clone armor quest was simple and silly, for example. Hunting gave you trophies. Adjusting the loot tables in Awakening so more interesting things drop from mobs on each planet would take you around the galaxy and make you explore places you rarely ever explored. Even something as simple as rare-drop tokens on each planet that you exchanged for items could enhance game play. This isn't about making things easy. You should still have really difficult things in the loot tables.

Monthly events keep games alive. Something as simply as daily login rewards cause people to login and look around. A better course of action is to have monthly goals that lead to rotating monthly rewards. Kill x mobs of various types of the opposing faction, for example. This then creates impromptu PVP fights at POIs where people have to farm PVE mobs and receive the TEFs that subject them to attack by other players. Or PVP battlefields can be established where people need to farm event mobs on various planets.

Everyone drives swoops because of the speed. Pub 9 will add the AV-21. Standardizing all the basic vehicles so they have the same speed as Swoops would allow people to diversify (and yes; keep AV-21 and the jetpack faster...just saying basic vehicles). Then all the seldom driven vehicles can be used (I always thought it was silly that speeder bikes were slower than swoops given the era they represented). There were tons of new vehicles added in the playing cards that would also be great to have in game. You can poll the community before adding anything too crazy to the loot tables or as rewards. Ideally, make them craftable so you don't harm the crafters or let the craters make money on repair kits like they did before.

People who farm high end mobs generally don't use Jedi and maybe this is a good thing so the game isn't just about Jedi. Stackers are better than Jedi as tanks. Jedi vs BH balance isn't worth commenting on here but a real issue is that Jedi templates must be so specific to survive BHs that you can't play around with more interesting templates for PVE. A BH TEF when attacking a Jedi in a group may resolve much of this. I don't need to beat a BH in every fight but I do think my Jedi should be as good as a stacker in PVE. The Force Ranking System is going to be a nightmare that does not resolve this and could really harm the community as it did in live.

[tnick]

I know it was said earlier that the starter cities are basically devoid of people and I will add an observation I made as to why. Entertainment districts are the reason. On Basilisk, entertainment districts do nothing in regards of entertainer buffs except heal battle fatigue and wounds faster. Here they add more time on the buffs. So on that other server there is no reason to have entertainment districts and most people get their buffs from Theed, Mos Eisley, etc.

Personally, I like the system here but I can understand the frustration of new players to the server when they get into town and see nobody around in the immediate area.

[L4TCH]

Many of the items mentioned so far are open to discussion.

Some of the items (obtuse unlock mechanic, vanilla xp, lower drop rates, strict no wipe policy) are part of what gives Awakening it's "hard mode" identity and probably won't be adjusted much, if at all. We aren't really looking to change what Awakening is, but will consider some adjustments. Abnel did mention keeping profession specific changes to the profession forums, which would make organizing the discussions easier, but this is the community's thread so the discussion is open.

At the moment our focus is getting a roadmap posted for public consumption. This includes a target date in the next few weeks for Publish 9 to hit the test center. We also continue implementation of Publish 9 as we execute a transition in development personnel simultaneously. We are juggling some grenades here, so bear with us.

Feel free to continue to brainstorm and discuss.

Sorry to sound negative but truth hurts...

There are MANY that have been bearing with you guys for sometime now. This game style/mode was GREAT when it first came out but we are in 2018. Over time people change and if I've learned anything about surviving, if you aren't adapting, expect to stay behind or fall off.

If you aren't giving SOME of what the people want and just pulling the chain, asking for more donations, or stating empty due dates, good luck bringing former members back, maintaining the few you have, or attracting newer one with that kind of reputation.

I love certain aspects of the hardmode but as Narrk stated, you literally have to have NO LIFE outside of SWG to obtain a piece of epic loot. WORK, EAT, SWG, SLEEP, REPEAT.

Keep the mobs in hardmode and increase the loot drop already. Give Jedi's less xp upon DB and let'em take the money from the mission. Pretty sure once the DEVs are more engaged with the community by creating events, PvP should pick up. Not asking you to give us everything someone cries but would be nice to come back knowing SOME positive changes have been made and our words have been heard.

[Hereticzen]

Many of the items mentioned so far are open to discussion.

Some of the items (obtuse unlock mechanic, vanilla xp, lower drop rates, strict no wipe policy) are part of what gives Awakening it's "hard mode" identity and probably won't be adjusted much, if at all. We aren't really looking to change what Awakening is, but will consider some adjustments. Abnel did mention keeping profession specific changes to the profession forums, which would make organizing the discussions easier, but this is the community's thread so the discussion is open.

At the moment our focus is getting a roadmap posted for public consumption. This includes a target date in the next few weeks for Publish 9 to hit the test center. We also continue implementation of Publish 9 as we execute a transition in development personnel simultaneously. We are juggling some grenades here, so bear with us.

Feel free to continue to brainstorm and discuss.

Sorry to sound negative but truth hurts...

There are MANY that have been bearing with you guys for sometime now. This game style/mode was GREAT when it first came out but we are in 2018. Over time people change and if I've learned anything about surviving, if you aren't adapting, expect to stay behind or fall off.

If you aren't giving SOME of what the people want and just pulling the chain, asking for more donations, or stating empty due dates, good luck bringing former members back, maintaining the few you have, or attracting newer one with that kind of reputation.

I love certain aspects of the hardmode but as Narrk stated, you literally have to have NO LIFE outside of SWG to obtain a piece of epic loot. WORK, EAT, SWG, SLEEP, REPEAT.

Keep the mobs in hardmode and increase the loot drop already. Give Jedi's less xp upon DB and let'em take the money from the mission. Pretty sure once the DEVs are more engaged with the community by creating events, PvP should pick up. Not asking you to give us everything someone cries but would be nice to come back knowing SOME positive changes have been made and our words have been heard.

You sound like every whiny kid I have ever ran into in any MMO. Poor you, you have time to play the game but have crap luck so the GAME needs to change. Seriously, If you didnt have the time to invest you wouldnt be here. If you are not happy with the difficulty, go to one of the EMU"s that give you everything in the first few hours. Then maybe you can feel accomplished with your time. You knew what this server was. To say its 2018 only makes you sound like a moron. At the end of the day this game is pretty much free to play, It's a game from 2003, and if im not mistaken not only do you still have a newbie tag, You have done nothing to help the community but complain.

Not to mention the rapid changing of devs in recent months. In case you didnt know, people with your 'i want mine" attitude are exactly what cause the death of swg in the first place. There is nothing you have said that makes it better. Just simpler. We dont want SIMPLE. We want depth. I think you may be better served on one of the post CU/NGE servers. Sounds more up your alley.

[Dirge]

Let's keep this discussion civil and on topic please. We understand that patience is growing thin for some of our players due to lack of recent updates, and some have run out of it altogether. Most of us on staff have also spent a considerable time in game and we share some of your frustrations. We know that we can't stay the course and hope for players to come back. Changes will be coming and we will be looking to threads such as these to give us an idea of what our community is looking for.

Are we going to multiply XP rates by 10 because some players want to level faster? No.
Will there be Jetson-like cities with nothing but bespin houses? Again, no.
Will we consider the input of our players when planning for our future? Absolutely.

There are no lines drawn in the sand, and we do need to evolve to survive. That evolution is not likely to come in wild swings to appease every demand posted to our forums though. Well thought out plans that are presented to staff have a good chance at being discussed and possibly moving forward. With that in mind, let's turn some of the disagreements into constructive dialogue.

[Retragar]

I agree with others dire changes aren’t needed, fixing things is. What makes this place different for me is it is a challenge. Everywhere else is easier. If I wanted easy I would play on another emu. I’m happy that we are going to get Publish 9 soon. Thanks for the updates.

-implement Publish 9
-fix bugs and things not working
-make minor changes to gameplay
-add new features and content
-advertise, promote, and recruit

[Hereticzen]

Let's keep this discussion civil and on topic please. We understand that patience is growing thin for some of our players due to lack of recent updates, and some have run out of it altogether. Most of us on staff have also spent a considerable time in game and we share some of your frustrations. We know that we can't stay the course and hope for players to come back. Changes will be coming and we will be looking to threads such as these to give us an idea of what our community is looking for.

Are we going to multiply XP rates by 10 because some players want to level faster? No.
Will there be Jetson-like cities with nothing but bespin houses? Again, no.
Will we consider the input of our players when planning for our future? Absolutely.

There are no lines drawn in the sand, and we do need to evolve to survive. That evolution is not likely to come in wild swings to appease every demand posted to our forums though. Well thought out plans that are presented to staff have a good chance at being discussed and possibly moving forward. With that in mind, let's turn some of the disagreements into constructive dialogue.

I apologize if I came across too harshly. I have a habit of being blunt. However, I still believe my point is relevant. We, most of us at least, as adults have the capacity to choose what we are going to do. In a sandbox sitting... if we want to do X.... then we can do so. Its up to each and everyone of us to weigh if the time is worth the reward, or potential reward. Bottom line is, if you want it, pay the price and earn it. If you cant afford it, then go find something you can afford to spend your time on.

I will continue to do what ever I can to help. But I refuse to sit back and watch the server implode to the same tripe that ruind it originally. It may be a game, but it still is work. If its not fun, dont do it. But if you dont, you wont get the rewards. EOS.

Heretic

[trvandrew]

Experience loss for a jedi isn't bad. Grinding it back can be if you let it get too deep in the hole.

Jedi are weak here. I soloed a jedi last night, at one point I was out of traps. With just food and PSGs I still incapped him. I got close to dying a few times. Well, I didn't db fast enough and he got me incapped, to be fair. He was nice and let me get up for a few seconds. But I was outa food and i was getting Knocked down alot. But still got em without food. I did manage to get as many traps out of crate as I could before he attacked. I had to use what few traps I had sparely. But I still won when I think I probably shouldn't. He was a worthy opponent, we fought for what seemed to be an hour.

PSGs are too strong, I don't need to slice them when before I did.

I will agree that the PSGs are a bit strong while fast blast + LLC is a bit strong too.

I will admit that a Master Healer is not the best solo/dueling specialization, but I don't believe they should be 3 hit and killed. a BH with all their abilities and food and such can afford to slip up without it being deadly (at least against a Healer) whereas if I slip up even slightly it is life and death. The skill cap against even a slightly decent BH is way too high.

Rewards for the risk is terrible here. I love hard mode, but the rewards need to reflect the risk. Most folks who play SWG are older and have lives. Can't spend a year every night to get some loot that has 1 in 10000 chance of dropping. The other servers are more attractive because the risk is less and the rewards are more forthcoming. Which is isn't fun for me because I prefer challenging content. Risk verses reward needs to be balanced for loot.

Yes, so much yes. I used to be a big time Krayt farmer, I must have killed thousands of dragons and gotten maybe 3-5 pearls that worth a damn and maybe a dozen tissues that were better than average.

<Kk> ran the DWB numerous times and came out empty handed other than getting the guaranteed jetpack stabilizer part and the alum mineral that was the quest item and a few DE-10 barrels. We saw a handful of decent CA's and AA's off elders and axkva out of hundreds of kills. The acklay: terrible.

Loot percentages were so bad, we had a guy create a spreadsheet tracker to report the terrible drop rates. risk vs reward just seemed so bad we stopped doing them.

Yes yes yes yes this is why i quit

[bobaphat]

This server became the BH vs JEDI server. Wherein Jedi stand no chance if the BH has half a brain. Not including myself (i'm not playing period) 7 people I know personally left this server because of this.
The only people arguing against the above seem to be BH, weird.

[skyhunter11]

Templar and Dirge,

I can't emphasis the loot issues enough. I am not asking you folks to go easy mode and give away the store. If you did that, I'd stop playing. If loot went back to the way it was before publish 8, I think it would be better than it is now. It was rare, but possible, given some time and luck. Something happened to the loot when publish 8 was incorporated into your server. Loot was an issue before pub 8 but it just got worse. Just an observation. I don't know if publish 9 code will fix it or not. I suspect not.

Its pretty disheartening when players get together and go take down hard stuff then to only get credits, junk, crappy premium/flawless xtals, and useless tapes (not working modifiers). Folks get discouraged and rather spend their time doing something else. People play to have a good time and to escape real life.

Lastly on exotic loot, would it be so bad if we had more opportunity for CU/NGE items. Certainly would add some much needed flavor and fun. Uncommon, but possible. Currently its a statistical impossibility given the average age group of the players and the time they can commit to playing. You are completely depending upon an insane level of luck. You have a better chance with your few hours of game time to stand outside and get hit by a meteor or a bolt of lightning.

In closing, I am glad awakening is here. I am anxious like other players to see how publish 9 pans out. I still prefer it over other swg servers that I have read about. I hope it stays here for a long time to come. In the end, it's your server, do what you like. Others may not.

Narrk

[L4TCH]

Let's keep this discussion civil and on topic please. We understand that patience is growing thin for some of our players due to lack of recent updates, and some have run out of it altogether. Most of us on staff have also spent a considerable time in game and we share some of your frustrations. We know that we can't stay the course and hope for players to come back. Changes will be coming and we will be looking to threads such as these to give us an idea of what our community is looking for.

Are we going to multiply XP rates by 10 because some players want to level faster? No.
Will there be Jetson-like cities with nothing but bespin houses? Again, no.
Will we consider the input of our players when planning for our future? Absolutely.

There are no lines drawn in the sand, and we do need to evolve to survive. That evolution is not likely to come in wild swings to appease every demand posted to our forums though. Well thought out plans that are presented to staff have a good chance at being discussed and possibly moving forward. With that in mind, let's turn some of the disagreements into constructive dialogue.

I apologize if I came across too harshly. I have a habit of being blunt. However, I still believe my point is relevant. We, most of us at least, as adults have the capacity to choose what we are going to do. In a sandbox sitting... if we want to do X.... then we can do so. Its up to each and everyone of us to weigh if the time is worth the reward, or potential reward. Bottom line is, if you want it, pay the price and earn it. If you cant afford it, then go find something you can afford to spend your time on.

I will continue to do what ever I can to help. But I refuse to sit back and watch the server implode to the same tripe that ruind it originally. It may be a game, but it still is work. If its not fun, dont do it. But if you dont, you wont get the rewards. EOS.

Heretic

Never asked for easy mode, heck I've put my time in on items just like everyone else but of course, there will always be one flamer on the forums trying to be an internet tough guy who's mad because I killed him and put him/her in negative xp, LMAO. Say all you want but I state facts pal and based on your response, you sound like the kind of individual who breaks down IRL when someone confronts you with the truth.

There's nothing more than I want to come back to the server and help donate but not if the Devs aren't going to work with the community. I understand the Devs volunteer their time but shouldn't they have an understanding that it falls on them to keep the community happy? All they do is keep asking for donations and pushing everything back.

Like they said, evolution is needed to survive. What does it matter if the game is from 2003 if a Dev has access to game codes which can be altered dumbass. BTW, I am not the only one "whining" about loot you illiterate cuck.

Keep the mobs hardcore, increase loot drops a bit more, and ban Herectic.

[davej30]

This server became the BH vs JEDI server. Wherein Jedi stand no chance if the BH has half a brain. Not including myself (i'm not playing period) 7 people I know personally left this server because of this.
The only people arguing against the above seem to be BH, weird.

Its mostly you that promotes this DannyRand,on various platforms you're always bad mouthing this server but singing the praises of reckoning.What i don't understand is why you still frequent these forums,you don't play here anymore it's abundantly clear you have issues with the server.
Generally i ignore you as you don't bring anything to the table,people would value your input a bit more if your attitude wasn't so anti this server.
Things will change by a combination of discussion and compromise between the community and the Dev team not from your Awakening is a terrible server rhetoric.

[Deezee32]

With over 1000 days vet on this server , talking to 1000s of players during that time , the issues that seem to crop up now are as follows .but before I start with my opinions , il say what awakening has over other servers is stability and the "no wipe" policy .

1) The looters - lack of high end loot, takes a lot longer to kill krayts since pub 8, for little or no reward , ancients a lot of the time drop same crappy tissues as juveniles , ns elders etc drop a hyperdrive part.
I have lost track of the amount of times someone has asked my weaponsmith to make them something special or out of the ordinary , and I answer "sorry there just isn’t any high end looted components about ". Even then its make or break on the slice .

2) Resource Barron’s - by having 10 toons per account , therefor having 100 lots , has always allowed people to mass farm resources , Flooding the server with certain resources .

3) 10 character slots , this made a lot of people self suffieicent , not having to interact with others so much , therefore people would often become board.

4) xp rate - with becoming a Jedi a high selling point of swg , I think adding the village , doing the phases and grinding out 6 fs trees at these xp rates will burn out any new potential Jedi wannabes before they even make it to padawan.unless they have unlimited disposable time on there hands .

5) lack of pvp - the problem I seen with this over the years is that the sides become to unbalanced , there be phases of having to many imps or to many rebels , then on top of that you will have neutral bounty hunters picking off the Jedi they don’t like 1 By 1 , once you get killed And rebuffed its pretty much all over .

6) Jedi and bh already discussed , some tweaks to aid both sides would be nice .
Traps to root insted of freeze , Jedi toughness over all boxes insted of in robes , fast blast back to pistols only , lower xp loss at lower level jedi , if Jedi wins give them the bounty money ,improve tunes of pearls etc .

7) open up more items from nge , cu , there are tons of people who just like to decorate and collect , we need
Some more fun items added .

8 ) new armour and weapon variations.

9) we need someone who can run regular events and more festive events during holiday times

10) new vehicles , something a bit faster to get about on .

11) small tweaks to professions

12) increase vender listing times to 60 days

13) New planets or quests lines for unique items

[JVanno]

Loot tables.

Everytime I log, I am confronted with the decision to find a friend and go after NS/Krayts/something hard or grind out Janta/Mokk. And nearly everytime I either suck it up and do Janta/Mokk for credits or find something else to do. It has been a long, long time since I went after anything for loot. Those high-end hard-things-to-kill are only worth my time if I am looking to do something different because, from a loot perspective, it is not worth it.

I agree with Narrk, I am not looking for easy mode and balance needs to exist between risk and reward. Currently, the rewards are slim to non-existant while the risk or the time taken to obtain them are enormous. There is value in the hard to obtain and pride for taking the risk or time but those things NEED to be obtainable. At this point, I don't feel as though they are. Someone in one of the posts said someone else tracked the drop rates, I wish I could see that data, I would find that interesting as I only have my own experiences to go by.

I'd like to see either a slight bump in the rare loots or an elimination of useless tapes. I have no idea how useful other rare loot is, as I have not seen it drop, otherwise the above sentence would read, "...or an elimination of useless rare items."

[skyhunter11]

One more thing I wanted add on rare loot issues. I am glad those exceptional, legendary looted weopons are super rare, especially the crazy DoT weopons . So if you do look at the loot chances, I'd suggest keeping those the rarest of the rare. It would be a major imbalance and certainly discourage new players if all the veterans are running around one shotting or DoT deathing everything.

That's one of many aspects why awakening stands out as a better server than the other competition.

Narrk