by Stacy Jones on Sep 05, 2012
Earlier this week BioWare revealed plans to make a number of class and balance changes to Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) with the upcoming 1.4 update. Some of those changes included adjustments to crowd control (CC) skills and the PvP Resolve feature, which have stirred up some concerns in the community for both the impact it could have on PvP and the implications for PvE. In an effort to address community concerns, Senior Designer Austin Peckenpaugh and Senior PvP Designer Rob Hinkle chimed in to offer more details about the changes, and why they feel that theyre necessary.
The short version - In PvP, when a player uses a stun or CC on a player, and then that player is hit immediately with another right after before the first expires, the Resolve bar (when full makes the player immune to certain CC abilities) tends to fill up rather quickly. The new system will add resolve only for each second that the player is CCed rather than a bulk amount for each skill the player is hit with.
What this change actually does is make "wasted" control not build extraneous Resolve. Once this change goes live, two well-coordinated players will not be able to control a target for any longer than they ever were able to before. In the live game and after this change, the optimal control strategy is and will continue to be "player B uses his control after player A's control has worn off." The only change is that two uncoordinated players aren't unduly and additionally punished for wasting their control.
An example of the old and new system for both is provided along with more details in the post that you can read here.
Additionally, the duo served up more information about the other potential impacts that the changes could have on both PvP and PvE gameplay. While the two remain confident that the changes are the right thing, they also offer some insight into the testing process, and vow to always examine any changes to the game as a whole.
While it's true that some changes may be motivated by design requirements in one gameplay mode, we never make a change without confidence that it's fun and appropriate in all gameplay modes. We think it's natural for players to think of the game as two different sub-games and to dislike changes made for a sub-game they don't participate in, but that mindset couldn't be further from the case for us. We only ever look at the game as a complete package, and it's always our goal to deliver one cohesive and coherent gameplay experience. If, during our playtesting, we find that one experience suffers at the cost of another, we revisit our design goals and our options and reassess our approach.
Source: SWTOR Post #1, SWTOR Post #2