[2019] "I assure you, Lord Vader..."

Originally posted by theberrage

”With over 170 characters and 40 ships, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes has an incredible breadth of character interactions. While that makes for an interesting game, and despite thousands of man-hours of testing per release, it also presents a very difficult challenge in terms of not introducing interactions that create unintended (and potentially game-breaking) consequences - especially as new characters interact with characters that were built over 3 years ago.

It’s not news that after the characters are in the wild and players have had a chance to plug and play with them, that we’ve seen issues in their interactions, increasingly so over the past few releases. That’s not something that we’re proud of - and it’s not a sustainable pattern.

The reality is, as we had the opportunity to discuss with many of you at Celebration, that within the first hour of a character going live the community has eclipsed the total number of hours that we’ve been able to test - and many times over.

None of this is an excuse, it’s our job, and we will continue to work as hard as possible to ensure we minimize these issues as much as possible. There are a number of changes we’re considering making to the testing process - see: Carrie’s recent overtures about our intention to potentially expand our balancing process to something akin to a Public Test Server that you see in complicated games like MMOs. We also need to respond as quickly, and thoughtfully, as we can whenever damaging interactions appear.

Our goal whenever possible is to creatively design around game-breaking bugs, and while we’d prefer to never nerf characters if possible, interactions will occur that are damaging to the long-term health of the game and we are forced to respond. When this happens, we will do whatever we can to rectify the situation as fairly as possible.

Galaxy of Heroes is a game about skillful resource management. And, so while unintended interactions will occur, if that change is counter to information we published which influenced players to make specific investment choices, we will always endeavor to make the situation right - which may look different depending on the situation.

So, that leads us to the current discussion around Sith Assassin. With the release of Darth Revan’s kit, we communicated that Darth Revan synergizes with Sith Assassin. This character remains very competitive in a squad which includes Darth Revan - but does not include Darth Malak. pwnrcomehdr4.gif

Following the release of Darth Malak, some players chose to invest in Sith Assassin expecting Darth Malak’s Gnawing Terror ability to positively work with those characters.

Following the announcement that we were making the adjustment to Malak’s kit, we heard the dissatisfaction from players who made an investment in Sith Assassin, who felt like that change nullified their investment.

We’re looking into returning any gear to your inbox which was applied to Sith Assassin following the announcement of Darth Revan’s synergies on 3/20. Because this sort of wide-scale adjustment of player’s gear isn’t something we’ve had to do before, and because we want to do this right (and not ram out an incomplete solution), we’re not going to commit to a date for this update, but we will continue to communicate updates as we make progress.

Conditions: You must have Darth Revan. You applied any gear pieces to Sith Assassin following the announcement of Darth Revan on 3/20 Note: Please refrain from adding further gear to Sith Assassin until we complete the refund. If you do, those changes may not show up in our data, and you may not be credited. Additionally, we’ve been monitoring the forums and Reddit and noticed the performance of Jedi Knight Anakin relative to some Darth Malak teams. We have only a limited number of cases to evaluate, but we are actively reviewing data as it comes in. Our intention is that Jedi Knight Anakin should not outperform Darth Malak. We’ll evaluate the cases we are seeing for differentials in mods, levels, abilities, etc. to potentially explain any discrepancies. If this would inform any decisions to gear or level him up, we would ask that you refrain from doing so until we give the all clear on his kit. Please stay tuned and we’ll give an update as soon as we are able - both on our near-term plans with the Sith Assassin/Sith Marauder refunds and possibly with Jedi Knight Anakin - as well as any potential long-term changes to our testing regime to ensure the quality of these releases are within an acceptable standard. Thanks for your patience and understanding - and as always, we’ll see you on the Holotables!

-Erik”

Originally posted by _Spock__

Why is it only applied to those with Darth Revan? For example, I started gearing sass as prep for when DR comes back again. I’m sure a lot of other people did the same as well

Originally posted by ChorzoGhost

Is my gear on assassin being reset and I’m getting my gear back ? Or am I keeping my g12 sass and just getting the gear spent back? Other then that good changes very clear communication ty cg.

Originally posted by eviltrain

makes sense to me. with so many toons, we are already at the point of having reached "winning the lottery" level of possible interactions. Some math nerd needs to do a little factorial calculations (i forgot how) to indicate all possible permutations of 5 characters of 170 fighting it out with 5/170 characters and tell us that it's reach the billions of possibilities or something.

CG probably already long reached the point of beta testing that number of interations to be completely cost prohibitive. a beta server is probably inevitable in my opinion.

Originally posted by Devolutionator

Looks like Carrie found a nice comfortable rock to hide under.

Originally posted by Grimsblood

Our intention is that Jedi Knight Anakin should not outperform Darth Malak

I welcome this little bit of communication (speaking at the post as a whole). However, this line right here is incredibly concerning. You (CG/EA) have now set a precedent of nerfing and monitoring ANY older character than the one you currently have released in an attempt to make the released character the most powerful. As a result, there may be 170 characters in game. However, a team of 5 are all that will be needed/required at any given point in the future. All previous investments will be nullified. This game is no longer a resource management game, or a collection game. I (the player) will not be able to compete in any area unless I have the current character. You (CG/EA) have decided that the almighty dollar is your focus vs making a product. Remember back in the days when there were no updates? Back when games were what you paid for them? Galaxy of Heroes does not embody the spirit of being a game. You (as a company and employee of that company) should be ashamed of what has happened.

E/ You may as well just add in a line to new characters like mentioned in this post.

Originally posted by Zeitfallen

Really appreciate the well thought out post from the game makers.

Invest in QA! Its expensive, but it will save you money long term.

Originally posted by doctorowlsound

If you're refunding gear for sass, why not just reset her gear for everyone? Then we can decide to use her or not. I had her G12+2 since traya, and had been using her in my dr squad until malak hit. Now she's pretty useless except for a b or c level sith team.

Originally posted by mimregi

(My credibility: lead designer on Lord of the Rings online, game designer on Everquest, 4.5 years working on EA Sports titles, etc. I KNOW how hard it is to work on a complex game for a voca fan base based on a beloved franchise.)

This game has outlasted similar garbage because, historically, despite the emotional tone the community can take at times, it has been a reasonably balanced affair (ok, and STAR WARS, but I like DC and stopped playing that ho-hum game). The difference between F2P and P2P was generally time, and that was fair, it sorts itself out.

The INCREDIBLY CONCERNING thing about the Malak response to EP and that line about Anakin is that you aren’t prioritizing balance. I say this constructively. And the bulk of your post is exactly the kind of community management this game needs! Honest, holding yourself accountable but not making excuses. The thing you have to remember is that the best way to make the most money over the longest time is to play the long game, and that means balance and variety over new and shiny.

Hang in there, remember the community is how it is because it’s passionate about the game and not because they have to bear the burden of sustainable decision making. You guys can do this, but the last month has been really tough for me to reconcile with a thoughtful, long term plan. You have to listen to the players, but you also have to NOT overreact.

Good luck cg_erik

-m

Originally posted by Mystic_Crewman

Hahaha. I like that you can take time to laugh at yourself a bit, shows resilience in the face of a very reactive community. Thanks for taking the time to communicate with us.

Originally posted by Melzidek

You just need each half of the office to learn one variant of single-handed Dvorak... then you can double your company’s productivity!

Originally posted by Devolutionator

I like you.