156971-wildstar-state-of-the-universe-2018-edition-now-live

== Content ==
			
For the many of you interested in checking out what we have planned for 2018, check out the State of the Universe right here. Please leave all feedback within this thread for easy reference.
 
Thanks!
 
Team WildStar	
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			I said this on Twitter already, but I'll say it here too for the record. This article doesn't say anything about anything new for this year. Is there really no content planned, or is it just that Carbine can't comment yet?	
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I think we're still waiting for "real" announcement about new content that Carbine is working on: 
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Sadly, I cannot but there will be more information coming early next year. :)
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			This comes across as a doubling down on the January DevConnect release.
			
				
	Edited January 17 by Cordellia	
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I think we're still waiting for "real" announcement about new content that Carbine is working on:
 
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Thank you for getting this out there. That said, I'm a bit taken aback by literally zero new information. There was zero new information gleamed from this. Nothing about even much as hint to whenever the next update might be, or a hint at what new content we can expect; no acknowledgment of issues with the Primal Matrix gating and the division of the player base both it and further Prime content are causing; nothing saying you're aware of and looking into important issues within the game - it's a little disappointing. One would expect when speaking of the State of the Universe - that is, the state of the game - y'all would also talk about ways you're planning to improve issues we've brought up many, many times, to improve upon what's already here, as well as anything new. As players, especially with the frustration with feeling like PTR feedback didn't have any effect on GA P1 tuning (or if it's even necessary in a game where so few were completing the existing raid content), this can easily be taken as lip service with zero valuable information to us, your community.
 
For the record, when we talk about the future of the game, it's not necessarily being afraid of it being shut down or y'all having to close the doors because NCSoft or you guys can't even anymore. And yes, that is a very real concern with so little communication and NCSoft's track record, so thank you for at least addressing that. But, the future of the game is also the content, fixing existing problems and what we have to look forward to as we continue to play the game. Look, I don't know what is going on behind closed doors - I don't know how your hands are tied, if they are, or for what reason it feels like we don't get communication on serious issues effecting those of us that really want to play WildStar but feel like it's hard to do so. Maybe you're quiet because you're figuring out what to do, have a plan but nothing to talk about yet, or feel like anything you say is going to be turned against you. All of those are understandable reasons. But, we need something.
 
What's Drusera been up to? How's that fight with The Entity going? Are we really just getting harder and harder Prime content in the future? What about the gating that Violet Essence is causing, dividing the community and making it hard to do the content that you've put out in the last year? Is there any way we can fix the economy? Group Finder queues have been broken for a long time and it's embarrassing to tell players an entire important system in the game is broken and not to use it - any progress on finding out what's wrong with it? What about PvP? Any plans to make PvP a viable form of character progression, where we don't have to depend on a player who is running 20 different accounts on virtual systems to force queues so we can even PvP most of the time? Real talk here, but in any other game that would be grounds for suspension or action - in WildStar it's literally the only getting people into Battlegrounds without waiting for hours in queue. That's the status quo, now. How could you let it come to that? And, about crafting and professions? Any ideas for making it not feel entirely worthless to do? I'm not exaggerating, by the way - professions almost entirely have no purpose to the majority of players in the game, outside of Architect and Technologist. I'd talk about Cooking but with the Economy the way it is and how hard it is to grind materials for some of the recipes, it's a big NOPE. What very few raid guilds are left basically hope that one person in their guild is willing to grind it out for the team. Meanwhile, I'm still better off vendoring anything I farm or make than putting it on the Commodity Exchange or Auction House. That is, again, really embarrassing. How do I get people to play our game when all the above is the state of things? There is zero amount of hyperbole here. None. Anyone who logs into the game sees all of this.
 
None of us want this game to fail - you made a great game. But at least me personally, I can't be quiet anymore about the state of things as they are now. I love this game, and the state of things is making really hard to want to log in. It's hard to get friends to come play with us and get them to stay because of the gating. If it's not Violet Essence gating, it's broken systems. Or, it's systems functioning but like the Rune System that is way too hard to understand how to optimize by just looking at the system in the game. A dear friend of mine tried to come back and has had an awful time trying to understand it - it's honestly really convoluted. We don't know what your resources are really like, or if you understand or agree or even disagree our concerns and are figuring it out. But we need to know what is coming, and at least acknowledgment of these issues. One of the things that made WildStar so comforting and feel like home was that at one point we had constant feedback and could even find ourselves doing Expeditions with y'all in game. Times change, that's a fact, but so has the nature of the communication between the Devs and the players here. One can assume that means you have something so bad ass, so cool that you guys are working on that you don't have time. Or that you don't have anything, and people lean towards expecting the worst.
			
				
	Edited January 18 by Kelzam Duskthorn	
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I do agree with Kelzam Duskthorn on many issues he mentions (and everyone who cares about the game should agree with him), violet gating is definitely annoying and I can't be bothered to understand too complex rune sets so I must be somehow undergeared, but I'd like to add some positive things:
 
Thank you for reassuring us about the future of the game, even if we don't get new content it is good news because a lot of us have still many things to achieve in the existing content (and a long signature running to enjoy, as myself) and we are worried about repetitive rumors of the game closing.
 
For me WildStar is one of the best MMORPG out there, I have always used a subscription and never regretted it. Combat is one of the best in my modest MMO experience, you really feel like you can avoid damage and react to anything happening, that you really control your character, all classes are fun, animations are fluid (I love double jump), music is surprisingly moody, mounts are crazily fun and well animated, pets are cute. You can solo a lot of things or group as you wish, and there are enough variety at end level (for my humble goals anyway) to achieve what you want without doing annoying things (= raids and dungeons for me, but I love aventures and expeditions). I particularly love the ability to jump on every object and explore every corners of the world without limitations nor invisible walls.
 
So I wish every W* developers a happy new year, and rest assured that a lot of us appreciate this great MMO and we are ready for more :-)	
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I missed a lot of forum stuff late last year, could you link me to where that's from?
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Maintenance mode. There's no other way to put it, the game is in maintenance mode. It was pretty clear when the concept of prime content was introduced, and especially clear in the context of the game's lack of funding and the near-total lack of new cash shop updates. If Carbine can't provide stuff that makes them money (with almost no risk, unlike the bugginess and potential blowback of content updates), there's clearly not going to be much of anything else.
 
I haven't logged in the last couple months. I spend more time talking to roleplayers in discords. I would have been able to keep playing the game and supporting the game for awhile to come, but the Community issues are too much. It's incredibly tedious trying to develop a build with the near-total lack of QOL updates or fixes. And the lack of any new decor makes the entire experience uninspiring for old hands. As much as I hate loot crates and F2P cash shops in general, getting new Fay stock and the odd batch of store updates were what kept me invested for most of 2016/2017. Now it's mainly just regurgitation.
 
I'd feel bad writing this usually but the forums are so inactive it's not like it matters. Most of the folks reading this are gonna be experienced players who have seen worse. At the end of the day it's still a great game for new players who can jive with it, and I have no ill-will toward Carbine folks. I have no regrets and I'm thankful I was able to finally see if I've got any visual art talent at all, haha. It's just a shame that we're basically in AFK PR mode and that all the lovely assets we know exist seem destined to never appear in the hands of eager builders. Poop. :(
 
Critical perspective aside, I can't wait for the next game that iterates on what Carbine's done with housing here. Great experience and some of the best MMO gaming I've had has been on Nexus. So cheers for that and whatever happens, I'm still open to new Carbine work, and I do expect plenty of folks will have a lot of fun with WS for a year or two more, at least. And if magic happens and Communities get a few extremely needed updates (like speed boost in edit mode or account-based unlocks for all skies/grounds/etc.), and some new decor more than once every 2-3 months, I'd very likely return with wallet and arms open. ;)
 
 
 
 	
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			I would have to say its a bit underwhelming yes since most of the information Pappy penned down was news for last year, did you really check if you wrote State of the Universe for 2018? @Pappy @Sunshine	
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Pretty much what I feared when we heard they were developing a new game.  Quietly move devs from Wildstar to work on the new project.  The fact that that's right around the time Pappy - the game director - stopped communicating and hasn't posted on the forums since last May should've been telling enough on its own.
 
Not that this wasn't anticipated, but it seemed like the Primal Matrix was originally designed with this in mind so we could continue to have challenging content to work towards with less behind-the-scenes work required, but now it sounds like that's getting abandoned too.  No expanding the matrix?  No Prime DS (though that shouldn't be a huge priority anyways)?  Not even addressing some of the balance concerns (eg Spellslinger dmg)?  Nothing about the current issue with P1GA and the frustrating hp requirements keeping people with low heroism out and making it difficult for guilds to fill their rosters?
 
The sad thing that NCSoft never seems to be able to learn is you can't make your players feel ignored and expect them to jump to whatever you put out next.  Investing in your players today ensures they'll still trust you enough to be around tomorrow.  How much is the Carbine name going to be worth for their next title if even their most loyal players end up feeling neglected and like the devs don't really care about them?
			
				
	Edited January 17 by Cantatus	
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			I still hope that "real" announcement about what they are currently working on will come soon, but is just not ready yet. As they've mentioned quite a few times last year that they are working on something, but can't share more details about it. It can't be just just P1 DS/RMT and/or higher prime expeditions/dungeons as those coming were already announced a long time ago and requires literally no development time, so it needs to be something new, unless it was recently cancelled.
			
				
	Edited January 17 by keyvis	
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			Nice, im so happy im just a raid logger. Dont wanna waste any more time on this thing.	
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I still hope that "real" announcement about what they are currently working on will come soon, but is just not ready yet. As they've mentioned quite a few times last year that they are working on something, but can't share more details about it. It can't be just just P1 DS/RMT and/or higher prime expeditions/dungeons as those coming were already announced a long time ago and requires literally no development time, so it needs to be something new, unless it was recently cancelled.
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@Kelzam Duskthorn Not at all: Carbine is not doing "internal" QA testing of prime raids (they don't have enough people working on WildStar to do it). All testing is done by us on PTR and they are just adjusting numbers based on our feedback if needed. We've seen it in P1 Y-83 that was properly adjusted because it was fully tested by players on PTR and we've seen it is P1 GA with bosses that were not tested by players not properly adjusted. It literally needs no development time: few hours for initial adjustment and few more hours for readjustments based on feedback and data collected if needed.
 
Edit: Also, you seams to have no experience is software development at all: it's not "magic" where "even the smallest features in these games takes some serious resources to scale all of that and make sure they don't break the game somewhere else". Adjusting values can't break "something else" besides adjusted encounter itself, unless your game engine is complete garbage. Scaling up content is as easy as it looks when you have content scaling system already working in game.
			
				
	Edited January 18 by keyvis	
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As long as the next big thing isn't Prime DS we're all good. If Prime DS happens, now, with things as they are, vanilla DS dies, and that is bad for everyone.
 
Actually if the next few updates included rounds of phased rollouts for fixes, I'd be happy.
I do want new things, but not if the cost is ignoring the current state of :(
 
[Edit]
 
A. STEAM
 
1. Strikethrough overcap and associated repercussions
2. The mutagenic exchange material applying for runes Re: GAp0 OR a return to 5 slot tokens
I'm cool with either one at this point, so long as something is done, but 3 slot gear + strikethrough overcap bug = chaos, so depending on the status of 1. please choose solution to 2. with that in mind.
3. PVP rune scaling and associated repercussions
4. The content finder at level 50. It stopped working as intended, so we stopped using it. I think it still works below 50 but not enough of the population uses it due to it not working so we stopped using it and the cycle is vicious. Also, less population below 50. Big one that I really want is being able to recruit players while inside instance if we are in /party < 5
 
I'm sure there are others, but for me, those are top-of-mind.
 
If 1. and 2. are properly addressed, and Pink weapons remain untouched in DSP0 and there is a plan for them in DSP1, maybe DSP1 won't be so bad. But as long as 1. and 2. remain as is, DSP1 should not go live.
 
Ooh one came back to me.
 
5. What's up with warplots? Custom ones were not being used and popping the queue took jabbit sacrifices while hopping on one foot.
 
I need something to discourage raid logging and essence logging.
I want more people to love this game, to know it exists.
 
I'm okay with not having new world story quests until 2020 if it means all the broken things get fixed and I can shout about this game from the mountaintop. I don't like using 'but', 'caveat' and 'proviso' while promoting WildStar. It's gotta be all in.
 
Please.
			
				
	Edited January 18 by KatMR	
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Please leave all feedback within this thread for easy reference.
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YOU AND YOUR TEAM IGNORED OUR PAST FEEDBACK MULTIPLE TIMES. STOP MISLEADING US BY PRETENDING TO CARE BY SOLICITING FEEDBACK, AND ADDRESS PAST FEEDBACK PROVIDED.
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			Oof. Yes. Thanks for the reminder. The artificial delay in progressing through Prime levels for Expeditions and Dungeons segregates the playerbase too keenly.	
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Well,
 
This is going to be a long post, so bear with me.
 
I don't think it needs mentioning to the old-school players who I am.I've been here since day one, you've seen the antics I pulled on the forums.I've pretty much outlived every developer/moderator and player on this game and forum, and probably still hold the highest upvote count...
 
I've been reading the state of the game, what is written, or more specifically what isn't written in the news post.
And like Kelzam, I feel I need to say a few things that should go off my chest:
 
 
First of all the reason myself and Meshi stopped playing this game is because of the lack of content.Now before you start shooting me and grabbing the pitchforks, hear me out.
With lack of content, I am talking about the content that I like to play. This is dungeons, shiphands (sue me!), instances and raiding.
As I said before, I've been here since day one. I am not kidding, I've been in all closed play sessions and beta's and I've seen every dungeon being turned from a one-shot player killer to the status they have now.
I can run these dungeons blindfolded.
I've formed, reformed, recruited and shaped various raiding teams through Genetic Archives and the DataScape.
I can run these raids blindfolded and get away by sound only to figure out what I am fighting and what the mechanics are  (maybe slightly exaggerated)
And the only "new" content that has been released is a prime variant of these instances.
 
I can understand that this is amazing for people. There's probably a lot of people that welcome this increased difficulty.
I am not one of them.
If you have seen every instance on a weekly basis for over 4 years......
Let's just say that a recycled instance is not on the top of your list to experience as content.
I really am not hooked by increased health and damage numbers from bosses as new challenge....
 
 
The second point is the focus.I've been opposed to the F2P shift this game made in the past.
It was supposed to be our salvation, it was supposed to turn things around and make the game more open and accessible for people.
Then there was the steam launch.
It was going to be the second coming. Usernumbers were going to soar cause there was soo much untapped potential on the steam platform.
Sadly none of these things did any good. People came, and people left.
Always for the same reasons. The same reasons that have been reported, questions and talked about since day of this game:  The lack of advertisement, the lack of fixing crucial problems and the clunky UI.
I've written enough Addons, arguid enough with the developers to get Addon information and reported the flaws, yet it never got better.
Turn it however you want, the initial experience for new players is far from ideal.
 
 
The Cash Shop......
You know I am against free 2 play implementations.Worked in the industry long enough to know the poison they are. Argue with me all you want.
The cash shop is.....
Well I don't know how to put it in words.
Wildstar's cash shop is fair, I openly admit that this game runs the most gently f2p implementation I know. No content is locked behind a pay gate whatsoever.
That's rare for a game, extremely rare.
However the content itself is....questionable.
As honest feedback, even if resources are limited for the team, add more variation.
Too often the items on sale are nothing more than a recoloring of existing items.
Not to mention some of the promises that were made in the past and broken.
 
Even now, I hopped online to actually be able to write this.
Prime time Europe : 20:00 - 21:00
Nexus chat had some people in it, there was some group forming.
But Illium? Dead
My friendlist? Dead
Guilds? Gone
Circles? Gone
 
It's sad to see the shell of the game.
The potential was there. The hype was there
The implementation was lacking in my opinion.
 
I will miss the friends and contacts I have made here on these boards. I will miss the CHUA guild, oldest guild in the game, and still existing to this day.
I will leave with my fond memories, and say good bye and thank you to Carbine for having given this game.
I would like to leave with happy memories, and wish you all the best.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Olivar the forum chua, signing out.	
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I believe we are at a point the game is making enough money to say on, but not enough to spend resources on.  That is a real shame.
 
What is a great and very fun game has some of the worse leadership and advertising around.  Allowing the spin off shards to wither and die before merging them during the F2P launch cost a LOT of players.  That was poor leadership.  
 
Zero push for the game since launch. Any of the launches for this game.  A youtube video and that is about it.  Why not license a comic from darkhorse or something?  Why no novels?  Commercials?  Plushies, tshirts, media push?  I came pre original launch because of the original dev videos with Frost, but I stumbled on those.  
 
Why is there not more shiphands?  Why not work on making adventures both more playable and more rewarding?  Fix crafting to be viable through endgame.  (Remember when we could craft PVP gear? and crafted gear was awesome leveling up?)
 
They revised the starting area tutorials for what exactly?  The hoverboard tutorial could have easily been added to the mount vendor as an optional quest.  Who thought "I Know!  Lets redo the starting tutorial!  THAT is what we need to fix!" ?? 
 
Why not work on a new area like Arcterra but in the tropical island place (that we see in the existing hoverboard tutorial).  More class / race combos, etc.
 
it sucks really.  The game is really fun.  Combat is awesome, lore is fun, setting is fun, art style/graphics are in a sweet spot, etc.  (although i still say Aurin are the most polished animations in the game).  
 
Well, hopefully we will see some new stuff come, but this state of the universe seems to say = we done, just log in and play and we will keep the lights on!.	
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@Olivar Sadly with current WildStar dev team size they can't really make a new original content for day-one veterans like you. But for relatively new players there is still a lot of fun content available in the game, they just need to stop artificially locking those players out from this content, so new players can join veteran players in high prime dungeons.
 
You can't make UI in MMORPG that everyone will like: I personally like default UI, with many small improvements using addons. I think WildStar model is very good: you can replace the whole UI using addons, so devs can focus of actual content instead of trying to make UI "perfect" for everyone (that will never be possible, because different people like different things), while players can replace UI parts that they don't like by themselves. Yes, UI API could use some improvements, as to do many things that should be easy and obvious you need to use "dirty" workarounds.
 
Also, with Primal Matrix progression WildStar has solid content for players that like to grind a lot for slow character progression... sadly it's gone after capping Primal Matrix, that's why we need it extended so grinders can have some fun again.
 
TL;DR: WildStar team is most likely to small to push new "original" content, but they can improve the game experience by a lot for existing content (for both new and veteran players).
			
				
	Edited January 18 by keyvis	
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Well, I suppose this "State of the Game" certainly did a good job summarizing what happened through 2017 and reinforcing that WildStar is not shutting down. But... that's all it did.
 
I'm not going anywhere. Heck, I'm not even going to threaten to cancel my subscription, because I still love this game despite its many flaws (hurrah for uninterrupted sub since launch). The only thing that could get me to leave this game is NCSoft pulling the plug, and even then they would probably have me kicking and screaming the entire way. However...
 
Not hearing about anything to come for 2018 besides "the same line-up of fun in-game events and holiday celebrations that you’ve enjoyed in years past" is the exact opposite of encouraging. I do hope that this State of the Game post was simply meant to wrap up 2017 and that we will be hearing about future plans soon (and I do mean soon). We need something. Anything. New content would be amazing (a story update? new shiphands or dungeons? more race/class combos?), but I would settle happily for fixing some glaring issues.
 
Namely,
1. The artificial nerf to dps if you enter a prime below the recommended heroism. I literally cannot do the content I'm supposed to be getting upgrades from (stuff that would reliably drop ilvl 135+) outside of Datascape simply because I don't have the heroism. This has been a huge blow to my ability to enjoy this game - not to mention my self-esteem.
2. The destruction of p0 GA. The rune issue needs to be addressed. Revert to 5 slots or convert pure-level rune sets to 3 slot. Either one, I don't care.
3. Less glaring, but no less significant, issues such as the nonfunctioning group finder (at least let us recruit new people when someone drops, please) and the woeful state of crafting also deserve attention.
 
Please, Carbine, show that the faith (emotional and financial) I've placed in you isn't mistaken!
			
				
	Edited January 18 by Naunet	
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This post told me what happened in 2017, which was a pretty decent year for the game I think, not as good as 2016, but still strong.
This post told me that Wildstar is not shutting down in 2018~ Something I was already sure about.
 
This post DID NOT tell me anything that is worth my time in 2018, The Residential Renovation sucks tbf. It is a fine event for those that like housing but I don't understand why you had to remove chase events for it. At least they incentivized content. You should have had both chase and residential events. Because at least that would help pad the year of no content out.
 
In detail, here is what we are being led to believe is coming in 2018: 
Residential Renovation: Every Month
Starfall: June 2018
Shades Eve: Oct-Nov 2018
Winterfest: Dec-Jan 2018-2019
Double XP Event: Sprinkled through the year
 
 
Woow. Yeah can't wait..
Sorry, if there was at least 1 substantial content update coming this year I would be excited. Be clever and reuse assets and recourses to give us a new dungeon, expedition, boss in a box raid, something!	
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3. Less glaring, but no less significant, issues such as the nonfunctioning group finder (at least let us recruit new people when someone drops, please) and the woeful state of crafting also deserve attention.
 
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All of u r wasting ur breath. Nothing will happen, the one dev left is actually a VI with a copy paste function. 
 
The game is breaking even, for whatever reason. Y risk input/development at this point when u get $$$ for doing nothing? Just milk the cow while is still has something left to give. 	
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This holding pattern is supposed to be temporary.
I still believe a key step to moving forward is to fix what needs to be made right with what we already have.
 
If we can have more people discover the many things to love here, and they choose to back that up with Protobucks, that is the key to production/moving the world story forward.
 
Within the last 3 months, I've seen many people ask, "is WildStar worth getting into?"
By and large the answer is yes, but certain things will turn new people off. Those things need to disappear.
 
The future can't just be the seasonal cycle of events and cash shop items. (psst Double Prestige is a thing, Goren :D)
Fix the bugs that drove people away. Light the beacon. Bring our people home!	
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This holding pattern is supposed to be temporary.
I still believe a key step to moving forward is to fix what needs to be made right with what we already have.
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All of u r wasting ur breath. Nothing will happen, the one dev left is actually a VI with a copy paste function. 
 
The game is breaking even, for whatever reason. Y risk input/development at this point when u get $$$ for doing nothing? Just milk the cow while is still has something left to give. 
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The game is breaking even, for whatever reason. Y risk input/development at this point when u get $$$ for doing nothing? Just milk the cow while is still has something left to give. 
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Primal Matrix: Sorry, this just has to go.  In addition to trivializing old content it's become a massive barrier to entry to the only populated content this game has.  I'm having a hard time understanding how they totally forgot the backlash against the Elder Gem grind.
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Primal Matrix is great so veterans have something to do besides raids. It just need to be extended, because dedicated players have it capped and started raid logging again. Heroism Gating just needs to go away.
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I'm sorry it's not.
I'm a veteran, and do you know how many nodes I have unlocked on Primal Matrix : One.
One node in total of the entire board.
 
This is not content.
This is not something to keep busy in my opinion.
It's a needless time-sink that unlocks more recycled content on a high difficulty.
As written above, this does not qualify as new content, this is simply recycling and rehashing the stuff you have.
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My suggestions would convert directly to higher profits from the game and require almost no development.
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It's may be not a good content for you, but it's great content for players that like grinding :) Primal Matrix progression was a new system: with new abilities, new attributes, more APs/AMPs allowing for some interesting builds that were not possible before. Also, you label yourself as "veteran", but it same like you're more like "retired veteran" that played before Primal Matrix release, but is not playing the game anymore, because it's literally impossible to have one node unlocked if you would be still playing the game.
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I recommend staging a coup and put urself in the leadership position. They dont care two pence what u r saying, even if it makes sense. 
 
As for primal matrix, only the purple stuff is interesting, rest is just fluff. But that fluff is giving u HP. A lot of it. For the love of all that is holy, do not extend the primal matrix. It is going to make things worse. Also, i do not want to play the game outside of raids any more, unless there is a meaningful change. More matrix is not one of them. 
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I agree that the Primal Matrix is a great system in general. The main issues with it come from how it's contributed to massive power creep (especially health pools), as well as the artificial heroism nerf in shiphands/dungeons.
 
If they managed to fix those things (hell if they managed to fix just the second one), I would have pretty much zero issue with the Primal Matrix as it is.
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Extending Primal Matrix is only tenable if they remove all hp bonuses from any node, and add hard caps to all stats in game (in place of current soft caps). They also need to remove time gating on purples, yes they were afraid some people would just grind out every single purple with 1-2 signatures instead of like 6 if its time gated, but this actually (probably) caused them to have less signatures since lots of people just quit.
 
This will have the effect of making HP and Crit-Mit runes more desirable for late game players, who have maxed out this new hypothetical primal matrix, hence solving some of the itemization problems.
 
This will also "fix" pvp in some sense (removes one nail from the concrete encased coffin).
 
On the flip side if they extend without removing hp, we will be seeing 300k hp tanks running around that out-DPS entry level players.
			
				
	Edited January 21 by xnovax	
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			300k? pls, u can hit like a million HP with what is currently available. 	
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300k? pls, u can hit like a million HP with what is currently available. 
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Primal Matrix is great so veterans have something to do besides raids. It just need to be extended, because dedicated players have it capped and started raid logging again. Heroism Gating just needs to go away.
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No, you can't. You should play the game more. not just raid log, to know what is possible and what is not... and then comment about it.
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Sorry, no, it's a disaster.  Think I saw maybe 20 folks in Thayd when I logged in over the weekend.  As "something to do" it appeals to a very limited set of people.
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"U know nothing Jon Snow." Hit 400k+ on a warrior and that is w/o the exile buff BP used to cheese malfunctioning gear. A stalker can get even higher. I think there is another HP buff im not aware of, as well. 
 
Would u like to revise ur above statement? 
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I'm not sure if 400k is actually possible w/o open world buffs, but AFAIK warriors actually can go for highest possible HP from all classes. But even if 400k+ is possible, let's make it 500k even, it's still far away from 1M, that is for sure not possible. So, my statement stays strong.
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This only proves my point: after Primal Matrix release people stopped AKFing in Thayd and actually started playing the game :)
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Not to ignore the other significant problems that the Primal Matrix has wrought, as they are a part of the bottom line, the bottom line that I perceive is that the Matrix did not achieve what it set out to do.
 
In my head, it was supposed to return WildStar to top-of mind for new and returning players to increase population. A larger pool of players. A larger pool of happy players who would be, over time, eventually willing to buy and spend Protobucks because of all the reasons we had to love the game, which would help marshal resources for further development. Not a quick, easy or fast fix, but certainly a potential boost.
 
It was also supposed to buy time Re: Elder Game players, of which the population has a majority of (supposition). Time to develop and release the next big thing that the Matrix was supposed to prepare us for, all resources permitting. We got more stats, new and old. More ability and AMP points. What was it all for?
 
Could it be for the next step of the Redmoon saga? The world story? The Entity, The Return of the Eldan, another threat out of left field? What's in the Halon Ring?
 
Just like GAP1, the Matrix itself was arguably released far too soon, which is why there is so much about it we can complain about and debate over. I'd rather wait for quality than receive something flawed. We could still have had the Matrix, but without the [insert complaint here].
 
A large chunk of the population has maxed out on collecting and spending essence, and still more don't invest in it because they want to raid 'the old way' progressing through GA, DS, and RMT without stat bloat as intended by their designers. (again, supposition)
 
As to that last point, that's really it. Many people have torn through The Matrix too fast, so for development, time ran out, and the big bad for which we got this Primal Pattern power up just doesn't exist yet.
 
It's not over. There are bugs to fix, and mistakes to not repeat.Do not be fooled into thinking this is a doom and gloom post. It is not.
 
I'm being very inspiring and positive right now, but the Chua stole my teleprompter. FOR SCIENCE!	
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No, it does not. That HP buff I did not get is a solid 30% boost. That would be on top of the 400k. Already way more than 500k. An extra 18% on a stalker too. Already over 600k. One of my guildies mentioned an HP buff im not aware of, which according to them bumps u up to just shy of 1 mill. 
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			The 300k number I threw is with a hypothetical capped glance and 20%+ deflect, i.e a "real" tank that didn't just put HP runes for the lulz. The actual effective health (or "toughness" if you played diablo 3), would be in the millions...	
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Going way off topic here, but ill humour u still. 
 
No, it does not. That HP buff I did not get is a solid 30% boost. That would be on top of the 400k. Already way more than 500k. An extra 18% on a stalker too. Already over 600k. One of my guildies mentioned an HP buff im not aware of, which according to them bumps u up to just shy of 1 mill. 
 
Also, u should play the game more, highest possible HP is attained on a stalker, not a warrior. 
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People went to Thayd because all of the services were there.  The PvP vendors, guild storage, crafting areas, auction house, quick transports, contract board and token vendors were all in one convenient spot.  Yes some of that you could replicate in housing but not the AH/CB or the Contracts board.
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{| class="blockquote"
The 300k number I threw is with a hypothetical capped glance and 20%+ deflect, i.e a "real" tank that didn't just put HP runes for the lulz. The actual effective health (or "toughness" if you played diablo 3), would be in the millions...
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How the heck are you getting your HP so high? xD
 
Regardless, I'm not sure why folk are arguing, as I think everyone agrees that the HP bonuses from the Primal Matrix are ridiculous and need to go away.
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Ok.. state of the game...
 
blah blah blah blah.... not shutting down... blah blah blah.
 
Basically expect nothing of us except the fact we won't shut down. :#	
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{| class="blockquote"
Ok.. state of the game...
 
blah blah blah blah.... not shutting down... blah blah blah.
 
Basically expect nothing of us except the fact we won't shut down. :#
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All 1 power risen HP runes. Stalker Amp spike. Food. 5% fire. double HP from farside. 30% from capital. 30% from that obscure exile settler event buff (i suspect there is a dominion equivalent as well, no clue where it is though). Cant get into RMT cause double HP falls off once u leave farside. 
 
Numbers tend to get high when u pool all the things. I got 400k almost on a warrior with just the first 4 entries in base prime GA gear on last PTR. I cannot be arsed to waste time and resources to rune out a full HP set on live. 
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Interesting. o.0 I guess I never really thought about people stacking all that stuff. I guess it's safe to say that such a situation is a pretty extreme outlier, though.
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			Agreed. Crazy temporary buffs that are unusable in instances don't really affect the balance of instanced content.	
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Agreed. Crazy temporary buffs that are unusable in instances don't really affect the balance of instanced content.
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Only amp spike is temporary :) the argument was hitting x HP, not x HP in a raid/instance. 
 
And btw, matrix is a huge part of it because that is an extra 22k HP that gets multiplied through by all the bonuses. W/o it max HP would be like 2/3 to 3/4 of 1 mill. 
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All this talk about hypothetical HP is very important feedback. I'm sure Carbine is paying close attention.
 
 
/sarcasm	
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			It did get a little off-topic, didn't it? xD Though it stemmed from worries about how the Primal Matrix is affecting content balancing, which is a totally legitimate concern that Carbine should be paying close attention to.	
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Things I love in wildstar
 
- expeditions and dungeons, especiall expeditions are so much fun. raids are also nice. 
- the classes (ok i did only try spellslinger yet) but i love how spellslinger plays - the animations, the rotation, damage dealing or healing, kiting, interupting, its much fun. there is no other game that has an so much satisfying combat system like wildstar. i love the telegraphs. it feels you really ARE IN the combat. 
- animations and art design. it is beautifuly animated, especially the mounts and playable races and classes animations are very good. the chua are hilarious, the aurin movement animation fits perfectly. every race has some special. well done at this one.
- loots - normaly i don't like looting - i hated it in borderlands, but in wildstar, because of the combat system, the different playstyles, the tactic and challenging instances and even world encounters are outstanding - looting in wildstar - i can't believe it - is actually FUN!
- housing -  even i didn't had the mood and creativity to gussy up my plot - the housing is great. never saw a better housing system
- the lore (especially hippie aurin i enjoy much). there are impressive creations out there. just awesome what some people create with their creativity.
 
the negatives and or wishes/suggestions
- you need much addons that should be standard right from the game, but on the other hand, mod support is a good thing at least
- the balance seems not perfect. i admit i did only play spellslinger, but i have the feeling some classes need some adjustment
spellslingers: the true shot rotation has a subpar synergy but if you want to compete (kinda) with other classes you need to play it. personally i prefer arcane missiles ignite or arcane missiles charged shot rotation, but it needs finetuning - at least that is my feeling. because i am not a veteran and only did ply spellslingers i can't really comfirm spellslingers are lacking a bit DPS in comparison to other classes OR if it is just me that is not good enough yet - but many veterans (spellslingers and non-spellslingers are stating this, so it it seems we can't say that this totally is made up out of thin air.
arcane missiles: maybe give it +5m more range and/or buff the damage about 10% (unspellsurged) and 5% (spellsurged)
spellsurge recovering takes a bit long, dunno if other classes have similar problem, but i think its a bit slow, maybe make it so that after death you have 15-20% faster recovering rate
quick draw: it's subpar in comparison to rapid fire. it needs a tiny buff, it should not be equal to rapid fire (because it has no cooldown, but it should be easier to use in rotation (easier to see how much cycles you already did and a tiny damage buff (about 5% maybe)
magnum: it's a annoying ability. catching a shell  leads to interupting your rotation which can lead into screwing your DPS output badly. also it is buggy. and on top of this its too similar to assassinate. i would suggest to replace it with a complete other ability. - because right now you have maybe three viable and reliable DD spellslinger rotations TS/CS/ASS/RF/(FB), RF/AM/CS/ASS/(FB) and RF/AM/Ignite/ASS/(FB) - flameburst whenever it is up of course. barrage is pretty useless instead you are extremely undergeared and zero heroism and doing solo prime 13 expedition, then barrage could be kind of "useful". quickdraw is subpar to rapid fire and magnum is no real choice. so with at least better matrix ability, spellslingers could create other interesting rotations
regenerative pulse: if you play with mouse look, you do not see the telegraph, so make it a bit easier to hit. its the "oh cupcake, mate is going to die" ability and can rescue lives. i like this ability,
but its pretty hard to bring on. make the telegraph bigger maybe, because of its nature being a instant cast ability you do not see the telegraph unlike vitality burst what is easy to heal mates with.
chill: you should either move chill to utilities section or alter the unspellsurged chill to have same cast time as surged one to be reliable in DPS/Kite hybrid rotations. Also you could consider buffing the damage of chill about 10-15%
Gate at Tier level 8: if you, for example play SSM dungeon and switch to gate T8, your ability resets to full cooldown, so you end up with no gate. you should change that it recovers faster. in some situations it is handy to switch abilities during dungeon. the jumping passages, two gates can make spellslingers competitive with stalkers at this situation. right now the stalkers can go through very fast there. also for my personal taste void slip has a too long cooldown at T8. i would prefer T8 lowers cooldown instead of raising duration of void slip, so you could use it more often during dungeons, because you do not need to be long in the void, but need it to go through dangerous terrain. also helpful at SSM jumping passage. but cooldown is too long
- aurins and mounts (not hoverboards, i am talking about the animal mounts). the "chopped off" tail is a little downer. you should fix the aurin tails on mounts to be visible.
- trading during dungeons is not working for normal dungeons. it would be nice if you could
- professions are fun, but they are useless, i can understand you can't do them very powerful because people would rather craft their armors instead of going for the loot. but they need at least a bit of purpose
- make adventures great again. maybe transform them into 8-10 man "mini raids"
- there need to be more kiting content, because kiting is much fun. give them spellslingers more kiting situations. i love infestation but with primal matrix max (i am at 5k hero) but i think at max i will not need kiting at p13+ anymore, what is sad.
- aurin ears: the ear skin color should match the body skin color. if my aurin has green skin color the ears should not be brown-purple-ish, they should have same color as body color. also it would be nice to have more ear options. male ears for female aurins and vice versa.
- inventory: it would be nice if you give us an option to LOCK items to be save from accidently selling.
 
also i like the german translation of the game. yes, there are some missing translations. but the translation itself is pretty good now. i dunno how it was before i started (4-5 months ago i think) but right now the translation is very good. good job
 
and did i already mention the animation and artdesign team doing a really great job?
			
				
	Edited January 27 by Scassa Tulinfram	
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Primal Matrix is great so veterans have something to do besides raids. It just need to be extended, because dedicated players have it capped and started raid logging again. Heroism Gating just needs to go away.
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			It would be nice to make exile/dominion mounts available for all faction. I don´t like Exile but I like theys  mounts (especialy the Grinder). Why not make a event on that? It would be very nice!	
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Certain mounts can be 'cross faction' such as the whoolie. Traditionally an exile mount, Dominion can access whoolie variants (at least one drops from expeditions, also the Matria and Consort or Dream variants on the ingame store).
 
Equivar variants are also available (Augmented from Housing event), the purple trio (purple, floral, midnight) on the in game store
 
There have been uniblades and renders on the store, so grinder would be nice to have as well!	
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I was a bit disappointed at the state of the game announcement. It did really say much of anything. In my opinion the way mmos stay around is by bringing in new thing to do. 
 
New zone
New raid
New expedition 
New class
New pvp
New housing decor in game and store
Character creation updates like faces tails hair 
 
I can’t for the life of me why they want wildstar to fail. The game has a beautiful world and characters. But players new and old need fresh things to do. That’s how any mmo will stay 
 
Cmon carbine and NCsoft. Start giving the player base new stuff	
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Maybe kinda late but still.
 
Im recently returned to wildstar player and bring here some friends. And first new thing we have met is Prime Matrix. Yeah.... It's kinda the worst thing for new/returned players that could ever exist. It's simply a wall between old and new players. Ok, any game require time to get into high end content, right? In last wow expention - legion it took me around month and 2-3 weeks to get into mystic raids. I wanna say that this time includes leveling from 1 to 110 (yeah, i don't like insta 100) also leveling 3 (3!!) another characters from 1 to 110 and fully level their crafts (my method of making money). Also I have made all legion quests and most achievements besides pet/pvp/high mystic content and even reached max reputation with all factions for flying in legion zones. Get like 85-90% all legendaries during that time on my main character and enjoyed (or not so much) high mystic dungeons. So... Alright, wildstar isn't wow and can't give huge content patches every few monthes so I understand why u make matrix leveling for like... 6 monthes? 1 year? You just wanted to give players something to do until new update comes - ok, got it. But matrix is kinda OP and, as I already have said, makes a wall between old and new players that actually discourages any desire to play. Like with 1100 heroism in p6 stl u get oneshot from last boss unavoidable aoe that clearly tell: "U will grind violets for 3-6-9 monthes or u will not be able to do p13 with top players. No way man, just get it =\". So.. I kinda like idea of matrix but I totally dislike: 1. heroism penatly in dungeons/raids/expeditions. 2. abilities and ability points in matrix. The good example how u could let people do something during patch-to-patch-wait-time is WvW level in guild wars 2 which is maybe not best example but for sure better than current matrix system. It doesn't give u much and hard to level but people still farm it because they want become stronger/have more utilities/help your server. That's enough to hold people and it doesn't have that aweful "random" which is now everywhere in wildstar. I hated pinky rng already when played before and now there are even more random loot drop from expeditions and dungeons so u just need to praise the sun to get something good after thousand of spent hours which is also "discourages any desire to play". Another good example of rng avoidance is wow legendaries: more activities u do = more chances to get legendary u get.
 
Just my thoughts as returned player and I hope that new update maybe will change things and make nexus a bit more lighter, haha ^^
			
				
	Edited February 22 by Demonell	
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			Please fix the content finder at level 50... It really makes me not to return to the game every single time I come back. Over a year now that it's been busted. At least lay out the reasons the team has ignored the game-breaking bugs? And don't say lack of funding. You release new content plenty. If you can do that, you can pay someone to fix the bugs.	
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