Three months of Galactic Command from the perspective of an endgame raider

It's been over three months since the highly controversial Galactic Command system was introduced to Star Wars: the Old Republic. When it was first announced, I thought I could live with a bit more grind in the game (SWTOR was very light on grind compared to any MMO I've played) and I could see how it would benefit a larger part of the populace (namely it would give people who don't raid the chance to get gear). It was also hard to imagine how much grind there would actually be. So even though it was clear to me that Galactic Command would be a step back for me personally (as an endgame raider), I gave the system the benefit of the doubt. I was wrong.

An emotional rollercoaster

I never wrote much in detail about Galactic Command after it was implemented. The reasons are twofold. First off, I don't like writing overly emotional and negative blog posts. They tend to attract haters and there's a chance I'll regret having written them later. I prefer to write constructive posts that fuel a healthy discussion, but at the time of the expansion I didn't have the mental energy for that. Just thinking about Galactic Command would suck all the fun out of playing SWTOR and feeling that way about a game is simply not worth the energy. Secondly, the developers promised to listen to the playerbase and adapt the system as was felt needed. The dev team spent a lot of energy in live streams to connect with the community, which I loved. I decided to wait and see if things would be improved.

In December I wrote about my Spoiler-free Eternal Throne impressions. As the Galactic Command system was part of the Eternal Throne expansion, I felt obliged to touch upon it. This is how I felt:

"I'm astonished at the amount of grind involved. (...) I honestly had no idea that a loot system could impact the way I feel about an MMO so much, but to me, as a progression raider, the system is so un fun."

On paper it had looked acceptable to me. But we don't play games because we rationally decide we like them; we play games because we feel like playing them and because they make us have fun. In other words, it's pure emotion. It's hard to identify for me what factors exactly made Galactic Command feel unfun. One thing that I did find out about myself is that I strongly feel that skill should be rewarded more than time in MMOs. It wasn't at that moment: in 5.0, raids were a very time inefficient way to gain command ranks, and people were non stop killing gold mobs in heroic areas because that was the fastest way to get gear. After a few weeks that was fixed, but the grind train just moved on to the next best thing to farm. This soon turned out to be a pattern.

My current highest command rank (main character)

All I know is that I started logging in with lead boots. The first weeks I ignored everything that had to do with gaining command ranks. I simply lived in a solo bubble, playing through the Eternal Throne story on veteran mode, enjoying the story and gameplay challenge. I absolutely loved that part of the expansion. But when I had completed the story I looked around me, and nobody in my progression raid guild was logging in. The expansion story was amazing and even (optionally) challenging, but the Galactic Command system overshadowed it all. None of my guildies ragequit or wrote angry posts on the forum; they simply stopped logging in.

Indeed from an endgame raid team's perspective it's not that hard to understand why. The bosses that we had downed on veteran and master mode the weeks before were now too hard to beat without new gear, so would have to start over on those on storymode (there was no new raid). But since the bosses didn't drop gear anymore, it would take us ages simply to get to the same spot as we used to be in. I'm not trying to complain here; I'm just trying to give some insight into why the system felt demotivating to progression raiders back when it was just implemented.

A new expansion is supposed to be a party. Everyone logs in, people that have been gone for a while return to check out the new content together and have fun. In my circles the Eternal Throne expansion felt more like a funeral.

The SWTOR developer team worked hard to improve Galactic Command, tweaking the system on almost a weekly base and keeping people updated with livestreams and forum posts. It didn't prevent SWTOR from winning the title of Worst MMORPG Business Model of 2016 on Massively OP. The damage was already done. (Note that I don't personally feel SWTOR has the worst business model out there - there's way worse in the wondrous world of MMOs. But the voting for the award - by readers - was right at the time the Galactic Command system was freshly implemented and passionately criticized, so SWTOR's win wasn't that much of a surprise.)

One positive thing about Galactic Command is that flashpoints feel rewarding again

The turning point for my guild was somewhere near the end of January. By then, the system was changed so that bosses dropped gear again - sort of. The last boss of an operation bestowed a guaranteed drop; earlier bosses had a chance to drop gear, getting higher the further you got into the raid. We had enough people online again to carefully dip our toes into storymode and veteran mode operations. Conrad and I worked our arses off to equip everyone with crafted gear so we had at least a chance at veteran mode bosses. If we couldn't get into challenging content without excessively grinding storymode operations, our guildies would burn out on SWTOR - that much we knew.

The current situation

We've arrived at a point in time where I feel "CXP fatigue". The Galactic Command system is definitely in a much better place than it was when initially implemented, but I'm just sort of depressed hearing about it all the time. All these months most SWTOR news was about a loot system, rather than new, exciting content. It's always easy to say these things in hindsight, but it feels like such a waste of developer energy.

My inventory management skillz are also starting to feel "CXP fatigue"

Let me be clear: I'm happy with the recently announced changes that all operation bosses will drop gear again, just like they did before the Galactic Command system was introduced. We've ended up with the best of both worlds: gear from raids for endgame raiders and the option to get gear through Galactic Command for those that do not raid. Of course this means raiders will get gear quicker, as they will also gain command ranks while raiding, but that's not a bad thing in my book. Ultimately it means skill will reward better than time again, as it should in any MMO that encourages players to play skillfully. Players that don't raid will still be able to get the best gear; it will just take them longer.

Just forgive me if I'm not overly cheerful at the moment. My mixed feelings are probably best voiced by Shintar in 300: "I guess I can say I'm happy that Bioware managed to turn Command rank into a system that is now safe to ignore if you raid or PvP, but that's hardly a ringing endorsement of their work...". Of note is also Ian Argent's comment on the same post: "My impression is that BW:A thought there were a lot less "active" raiders/PvPers than there turned out to be. GC is unambiguously a better system for the unwashed (unguilded) PuG masses; but doesn't do a thing for anyone who raids weekly in an organized guild except slow their gearing down and add a previously not-present RNG element. They're backing out a lot of that in 5.2 (...)."

So yes, I'm happy SWTOR didn't end up being a mindless grindfest MMO, as I feared in those first few weeks. I'm thankful the developers decided that they wanted to keep the endgame raider populace interested in the game badly enough to, in a sense, "roll back" some of the changes. It's downright scary how close I came to quitting the MMO I have called my main since 2012, despite still liking its quality group content. Relieved and fatigued are probably more accurate words than happy to describe my emotions.

I'm cautiously optimistic about 5.2. With a new raid boss (finally!) and guaranteed loot dropping once more, doing what I do best (raiding) should feel fun again. I'm slightly worried about more and more command ranks being added in the future, creating more grind and raising the bar for new SWTOR players to get into future new raids. But that's material for another post.

For the coming months: let's enjoy the upcoming raid boss(es). I sincerely hope the dev team will keep listening to their endgame playerbase (pro tip: cheerful tweets about new command ranks are discouraged), so some measure of trust can be regained. They say there's nothing time can't heal - and some fat loot drops, of course!

Note that I've tried to describe my personal reception of the galactic command system in all its evolutionary forms in this article. I'm not claiming to speak for anyone but myself. Some people will have enjoyed this loot system more than I; others will have enjoyed it even less. This is logical, because everyone plays for different reasons. If I managed to provide a look into the head of an endgame raider being confronted with galactic command, my goal is achieved.