Darth Hater

The idea of a loot bag is a great idea. I've seen too many situations where things go bad in a guild because of loot. Greedy guild/raid leaders, dkp issues, new members feeling left out, etc.. For example, the legendary weapons in WoW were always a tricky situation. From my experience, they never went to the best player, but rather the guild leader, or his girlfriend, or a raid leader, etc.. Granted sometimes those players were a great asset to the raid, but sometimes not.

As for what I will play if I get into the beta weekend...I will likely play the class I want to play at release. I'm still very much on the fence about this game, so the beta weekend has to sell me on the game.

On Loot Bags:

I guess it will all depend on implementation, but what I would like to see is a loot bag with "blue" or low grade epic loot tables, with the main boss dropping the high grade epic items. For instance, lets say that the boss's loot table consists of epics for all of the classes, these are the items that everyone will want for their class/role. But if your item doesn't drop off the boss, or if you don't win the roll the loot bag can provide a "thanks for playing" prize. I would like to see items that aren't as good as what you can get from the boss, but are still good enough that you can use them to improve your character between runs for those boss items.

have to say i don't like this. i am of the opinion that the amount of gear per boss fight should be the same with the loot bags and the quality should be the same. i just think ALL rolls should be handled under the hood. Keep the human factor out of the equation completely. If the statistical average per run to gear up a character is X without the loot bag system then it should take X runs statistically for a character to gear up with the individual loots bags. Some of the top loot for the boss would be dropped for the character some purchased through badges. Key is that it still takes on AVERAGE the exact same number of runs only now the human factor is completely remove from the equation.

I think the system of a bag, everytime you kill a boss is really bad, becouse the experiance of giving away loot as a raid leader to you guildies is a really great experiance in an mmo.

That idea of distributing loot is very old, open to corrupt guild/raid leaders. Its not fun and can be unrewarding to those who participated in the raid. This idea allows you get something even a little bit for your effort instead of nothing for weeks, days, months. I would gladly trade away the experience of maintaining DKP for a guild of people with something they can all work for themselves, their alts, and their companions. One more thing to make the game less grindy.

I also think Bioware is taking the stance that the number of people who do not want a bag system is far far less than the people that want to do operations and flashpoints to actually get something for their efforts.

I found as a guild and raid leader or officer in charge of loot distribution that the experience was anything but great. It usually led to much arguing and pissing matches over who was more deserving and who had put the most time and effort into the runs, etc etc etc. Even if say a loot bag that I get only contains a marker that's good towards an eventual purchase of gear that I might have received in it anyways, I still think that's alot better then the alternative of stress between guildies or just the stress of maintaining DKP or EP/GP charts.

As for the size of raids I voted for 16, but would also like to see a smaller 8 man raid, possibly making the 16 the "heroic" version of the same raid kinda along the lines of what WoW has done. It's not a flawless system but I would like to see smaller guilds still be able to get in on the action without having to field a large group

Loot Bags:

It sounds like a great idea in concept, possibly getting rid of some frustrations, and yet at the same time adding others. In essence you are exchanging RNG from a boss drop, that can ultimately be controlled by the guild (DKP, council etc.) for RNG from an individual bag that can't be controlled by anyone. Should your guild end up being lucky with drops, you will most likely love the system. If not...well at least you get commendations.

Truly the only ones I can see not liking the system, are those who plan on being in the competitive raiding scene. Not being able to gear up as they want could potentially slow a guild down. Although for any guild that competitive, they will surely find a way around these barriers. For the majority of players however, I imagine this new loot system will come as a breath of fresh air, and eliminate a lot of the challenges of loot distribution. Be mad at the game, not at the guild!

How many times have YOU been in a raid and got buttkuss beside coin?? Happens more frequently in larger raid groups as well. The Idea of lootbags and raid drops is spectacular. everyone gets something, even if it is class specific. Stops all the QQing and and lets people finish a raid on a positive note. Wow should have done this years ago.

Am I care about spoilers..yes I am, but I would still play my intended class. Getting to know how the class handles and maybe a little insight into their stories before launch could help me succeed once the game goes live.

Oh-ho, what's this? (sees he's not lurking in a hole at the moment and is just barely not startled by his own shadow; must of rolled a 20 or something)
Hmm, these questions are both topical and I've a clear stance on where I stand with the issues; this sounds like a little-to-no hassle answering experience.

I've fallowed the game since the Deceived trailer was released at E3 a few years ago, and by the first year I had learned enough that I was willing to pre-order the most high-end edition of the game to get absolutely everything I could out of the SWTOR experience. It actually never occurred to me that I might have gotten early access with it at the time; I was thinking more about things like concept art and the game soundtrack (of which I wish the one that comes with the collectors edition was more comprehensive since I suspect we won't be getting the complete version when there will only be 17 tracks on there).

I'm on a very tight schedule these days, so I imagine I'm gonna be PUGing it a lot, and not having to deal with all this drama I've been hearing so much about that tends to crop up in raiding situations will be much appreciated. From the arguments I've read in the comments here it seems the main concern for having loot bags will be the lack of control a guild leader/loot council (wow that sounds cool and mysterious) will have in rewarding/punishing behavior in there guild. I don't have a concrete nugget of information that could alleviate that concern, but I do imagine there'd be some systems in place for guild officers that would allow them to at least bestow ranks on its members as well as demote them, but I guess we'll have to wait and see if anythings made it off the Wall Of Crazy for guilds by launch.

I think Voraxus said it pretty well here about the ideal size of a raid group being 16. I'll probably enjoy both sizes being provided at the moment, I just wonder if there will be any PvP or PvE situations that would allow for greater masses of groups. I remember seeing some panoramic art at some convention (maybe it was E3 2010) and on it you've got Malgus on one side in the foreground and the Trooper from the Hope Trailer on the other and there's just so much going on behind them as the forces of the Republic and the Empire are about to converge on each other. I'd really like to see that happen some where in game where you can participate in a massive land battle with lot's of people and maybe lot's of NPCs; it really wouldn't matter to me whether it was instanced PvP or PvE. Hmm, perhaps less people and more NPCs on both sides and you've got yourself a nice little (alright not so little) Warzone. Pipe dreams. Thoughts Darth Hater Crew?

As for specific voice actors and their influence over my decisions: they're awesome, but I'll play the classes in the in the order I play them in and will likely alternate between a few at the start, which will be more influenced by the corresponding play-styles they offer as well as whom I'm playing with at the time.

My, I somehow made this into a big to-do anyway. I'll just pluck out and reiterate that question for the Darth Hater Crew on the next Podcast right below here:

Would a Warzone featuring a massive land battle with many NPCs on both sides be of interest to you? There isn't much room for clever game mechanics, one side wins when the other has lost x number of forces of NPCs. The proposed fun is participating in a large ground battle filled with lot's of targets ranging from a good portion of fodder units to less abundant tougher units, military vehicles, and droids. It would hopefully resemble this image as seen at some conventions BioWare has attended.
http://darthhater.com/uploads/blog_images/6508/23107_SW_Panorama_R1_fltn_100dpiMASSIVE.jpg

Re: Loot Bags
These can only be a good thing. 1. Having loot distribution handled by Bioware will offload unnecessary bookkeeping. 2. Unfair loot distribution is the greatest source of intra-guild strife. 2. Too many guilds have their officer structure organized around the distribution of loot rather than in a functional and strategic manner 3. Too many officers use loot distribution as the stick and carrot to artificially maintain group cohesion. 4. Now you can organize your guild the way it should be: A group of players who have learned to cooperate in order to ensure progression (and any other guild objectives) and who, most importantly, actually enjoy playing together.

As a raid leader and loot master in the past, loot has always been a thorn in the side of any raid group. No matter how cool everyone is with everyone else someone is always disappointed at the end of the night. The loot containers/bags do not remove this disappointment but changes its potential focus from the raid group or loot master to just not having good luck. Because of this, it potentially makes for better social attitude in a raid.

Early access, did give some incentive to preorder but TBH the most incentive I had to preorder was the fact it Sold Out on Origin by the time I noticed it was out. Kudos to the marketing team for that one ;). But I would have Pre-Ordered anyways, I just probably wouldnt have ran up to my local gamestop in my jammies...lol.

As for loot bags, I like the fact this may hurt Ninja and help PuG looters. But I do see peoples concerns with how this may affect DKP in organized guilds and the Gear Grind in general.
Ideally Id like to see a mix of both. Where loot bags dropped T1 gear but you still had to DKP and Grind for the One T2 gear that drops at End Boss.

I think the loot bags are a great idea. You don't have to earn the right to roll on gear when you go with another guilds group or just someone else' group. No dkp system or unfair looting rules. And you don't have to worry about the same class in your group rolling on your loot. It'd be nice if they mentioned whether or not the items received in the bag were exchangeable just in case you got a duplicate piece of gear and there is someone else of your class in the group.

Loot bags: I voted that they are a good idea. Especially for getting commendations. They are masking the grind and giving you something no matter what. Its not fun to Raid and get nothing. It felt like a grind so they made it better.

I would like to know more about them (commendations), but if they are tradeable its a fantastic idea and a horrible idea. You could get gear for yourself eventually in a reasonable amount of time, your companions can get gear, and you could also gear up an alt. Selling at the AH could also be a way of getting other items or schematics that are not obtained from raiding. The negative would be gold farmers. All speculation of course but it should be something they think about.