Darth Hater

In keeping with efforts to monitor how your feedback is changing the state of Game Update 2.0 on the PTS, here are a few posts and clarifications from the developers on your provided feedback.  For today's particular post, we'll hear from the developers on subjects including PvP bolstering changes, as well as the commendation changes coming your way.  For the full story, hit the jump.

PvP Bolstering Changes

In an effort to bring some clarity to exactly how bolstering will work in the new PvP bracket setup, Rob Hinkle dropped by to let us know.

RobHinkle

Hey gang, let me see if I can bring some clarity to the situation. We do indeed have a new level of "Recruit" that we are bolstering towards, that is based on the new 55 gear. We believe that this bolster level will allow players to complete with any possible gear combination in the 30 - 54 bracket. Obviously we've had a few bumps in the road on PTS regarding current bolster, but we should be getting that fixed up soon (tm), and everyone can get back to the business of PvP.

RobHinkle

Yeah, the bolster will work for level 55s as well, if they are under geared. Could you post the stats on what you are seeing on PTS for your guy wearing legacy gear (or send the information to CommunitySupport@swtor.com, subject: ATTN Rob Hinkle, if you don't want to dirty up the thread). It certainly is the intention that your 55 wearing level 35 gear should get bolstered back up. To give everyone an idea (and BIG caveat here, this number is still in flux), but currently I would expect the new 55 bolster to be getting people into gear right around (statistically) non-augmented EWH.

 With regards to the widened level bracket in PvP queues, he also had this to say.

RobHinkle

Valid feedback, and something we continue to debate internally. When we talk about separating the playing population by hard lines, there are always 2 main concerns that often compete directly against each other: A)Can the players inside that bracket reasonably compete against each other, and B)Are there enough players in the bracket to keep wait times reasonably small.

We have initially chosen 30 as our new break point because that is the level in which players start having complete combat rotations (often because they've gotten a really important ability from a skill tree) and our data of who actually queues into Warzones has shown that we've got a good pool on each side of that break. We continue to analyze who is playing, however, so certainly if we ever feel like a particular PvP bracket is being starved we should make changes to it. Unfortunately, that's what we believe would happen with a 50 - 54 bracket. It might be populated initially, but would quickly become empty as players hit 55 and for everyone following the initial surge of levelers there would significantly increased wait times to get into PvP.

A number of players are concerned, reasonably I think, about the power differential between a fresh level 30 player and a current 50 player in augmented EWH gear being inside the same bracket. Our new bolster system should make those players reasonably competitive statistically, both with compensation for the lower items as well as some compensation for having fewer skill points/abilities (if you are lower level). Once we get this bolster bug fixed up, everyone should be able to see the kind of stats you are getting from the bolster and should give everyone a better basis for discussion.

 Limited Edition Vanity Items

For many players, their limited edition items are a source of pride and distinction.  Several other players who don't have access to these items were concerned over players that did having a higher Prestige score in achievements than would technically be possible for them to achieve.  Will Wallace dropped by to let us know what the plan is there.

WillWallace

My current plan is to take the limited edition pets, vehicles, outfits, etc. and move them off into separate categories. They will have no point value and will not contribute to your overall totals, but will still be visible to anyone who inspects your achievements so you can show off your rare stuff. I think this is pretty much in line with what most of you are suggesting, but if you see any glaring issues with that I'm open to further discussion on the topic!

(The easiest solution is to simply remove any reference to limited time objects, but I think we lose something cool by doing that.)

 Old Commendation Roll-Over

Finally, on a subject that many of you have been concerned over, myself included, is what exactly will happen to previous commendations.  Ahmad Zabarah had this to say on the matter:

AhmadZabarah

Hi all, just thought I would provide some clarifications for what we are doing with the old commendations.

When 2.0 is released Tionese, Columi, Daily, and Black Hole commendations will be versioned into Classic Commendations with the following ratios:

Tionese Commendations - 6:1
Columi Commendations - 4:1
Daily Commendations - 4:1
Black Hole Commendations - 1:1

Please note we are still undergoing testing, so these ratios could change.

 For those of you that have a mountain of commendations sitting around, don't worry about losing your excess commendations beyond the cap.

AhmadZabarah

There will be a special overflow cap for Classic Commendations once 2.0 is released to accommodate those with large amounts of commendations. At this time, we have this cap at 800 commendations. Any commendations that exceed this amount will unfortunately be lost.

We encourage everyone to spend their commendations to ensure they do not exceed this overflow cap.

 Personally I think that's some pretty enlightening information about what they intend to do with some of the more crucial game systems moving forward to the launch of the expansion.  Also, remember that maintenance is happening tomorrow, Tuesday the 26th, see the post here.  Thanks for reading, and leave your thoughts and comments below.