Capital Games TeamGoing to re-post this since it looks like I may have accidentally deleted my comment:
Dearest of friends at CG (❤️Meathead),
Many of us appreciate this specific communication that we are getting now in it's depth, but are deeply frustrated with the way this testing and the announcements about this were rolled out. We have overwhelmingly been telling you that we don't want this, or that at a minimum you have the scaling set waaaaay too high (outside of the whales that will benefit the most from the changes anyways). We feel that you repeatedly ignore our feedback and power on with a system that we don't really want. I acknowledge that the testing and community feedback efforts happening now are a massive improvement in this process to what we are used to, and I feel safe in saying that many of us see and respect that change in a positive direction. Effectively what many of us are hearing from CG here is:
"hey we(CG) know you all don't really like or want this, but here is why we decided on this change without your input previously and now we are going to force this system to work(break a lot of stuff) somehow with some minor input from the community being taken into consideration but ultimately mostly being ignored"
As an 8+year player that has paid many times more money in to this game than any other game I have ever touched, I can't help but feel betrayed and frustrated with CG and EA over the way all of this has been handled. I feels very much like you are trying to screw all of us that aren't actively whaling on the game. As a long time guild officer, I can tell you that the callous way the information has been shared with the community has frustrated core, long time players and guild members to the point where I know a mass exodus is coming. You will reap what you sow with this, and I predict there will be members of your team that lose their jobs over the financial fallout from this. To be clear, I don't wish ill on any of you. I just think your approach here is rooted in a mistaken thought process by a team that is getting ahead of itself. It's a shame too, because you and your precursors have been the stewards of a game that has consumed me and many others for a very long time, and around which we have built probably the greatest gaming community I have ever personally experienced.
If you want to try implementing these changes, what many(most maybe?) of us we want to see first, before any new game-breaking large scale new systems are implemented is:
1)Fixing of longtime, numerous bugs as a PRIORITY
2)Make our existing investments feel more rewarding (for example run era battles for longer, etc so we actually feel like the time spent was worth it for those of us that didn't whale thousands of dollars to have all the characters immediately. Implement better testing so that when we do whale, the characters don't feel bad to use like I hear from most people I have spoken to that have PKHO). Bringing back the old assault battle cadence so my investments are rewarded. If you are going to gate us with new gear/relics, then just let us have the things we already built for.
3)This one may be the most important here (and I again do recognize that you are actively doing testing with community members for these proposed changes and that is appreciated), but please figure out a better process to stop dumping half-baked systems on us that break multiple other systems in place just about every time new stuff comes out. I have personally invested so much time and money into this game that it honestly infuriates me that you really don't seem to do very thorough testing before things get pushed live. I understand that the community is great at finding bugs because we have a lot more manpower to devote to finding those nuances. But there are many times where new characters/kits are released that break the game, and every time we get hit with major bugs that go unresolved for months (like GLAT/Spectres freezing randomly in ROTE, which is still ongoing), it just makes me regret ever giving you and your game the dedication in time and money that I have. I know I am not alone in this.
4)Figure out some of the nuances (THROUGH TESTING) like how I will still be getting screwed by this change on things like Conquest feats. I don't have Aphra, so things like inflicting doubt will become very difficult with these changes because my Malgus will be too strong relative to the conquest enemies once the relic delta system in place and I won't be able to inflict debuffs on dead enemies. Or my JML team that is going to be need to much more heavily invested in to regain the same functionality it has had when I already invested in it to make it one of my best teams (and I have gone back and made it better, but you are crippling it with the proposed changes). Make sure this doesn't make things worse for us. It won't feel good for anyone, I promise you.
5)Fix Matchmaking (more of an issue in lower brackets than K2 where I am in GAC presently, but it IS a problem for TW.
Bonus: Make TW fun again too. It's super boring and outdated, and the rewards suck. People spend for PVP, and you give us very little incentive to be interested in TW outside of our own entertainment and/or bragging rights. There is so little difference between winning and losing that it feels like a waste of time, especially when we get honestly stupidly stacked matches every time we manage a win streak.
I know some of my criticisms may seem harsh, but I hope it makes you realize how much we, the community that pay into this game with our money AND our time care. Both need to be respected. I know we ask a lot of the team at CG at times. You need to do better though. I personally would rather see you take it easy on new content for a year and focus on making the game more stable/bug free/scalable from a technical debt standpoint than having a bunch of new systems dumped on top of the existing game.
And if you are going to give us new content, please (please please) for just give us Pilot Luke and Red 5 already. We really don't care about Qimir at all (boring character from a poorly written show), and the Acolyte show was pretty bad (my opinion). If you are releasing an era with multiple rebel fleet ships, you should stay on theme and give us the one we have been asking for for almost a decade, not random ships. Not a character from a failed, un-liked series right after we got pirates (that people generally seem disinterested in other than for raid and era battles rewards). Or maybe, you know, a pirate fleet to go with the pirates!!! If you do give us anything else from The Acolyte, I think all we really actually want is the jedi wookie.
With love from the community, deep concerns about the direction, the hopes that you do better, and the desire to keep playing(keep it playable please) this game for years to come,
Fluke Skytalker
553-519-949
