What is currently taking place on the planet of Illum is an absolute slaughter and travesty. Republic forces, vastly out numbered by Imperials, are being decimated with little to no hope of making any type of stand. With no hope of survival, Republic players are staying clear of Illum, turning it over to Imperials who now sit and wait for those unfortunate Republic players, unaware of the situation, to enter.
That’s the current state of the game for Star Wars: The Old Republic on the PvP world of Illum after the release of Patch 1.1. While the patch brought with it a new flashpoint and operation, more importantly it brought much needed changes to PvP.
Up until now Illum has been a merry-go-round where players, for the most part, would stay clear of each other in order to trade off objectives and farm rewards as quickly as possible. Patch 1.1 however introduced some incentives for players to actually kill each other, except BioWare forgot that Imperial players vaaaastly outnumber Republic players on nearly every server. So instead of a merry-go-round, we have a one sided slaughter where Imperial players are camping Republic respawn areas and hunting down new players when their location is revealed through the new Illum notification system.
But it doesn’t stop there. Imperial players are also farming NPC turrets, which respawn almost instantly, allowing them to rack up HUGE amounts of valor. WTF BioWare!? PvP rewards for killing NPCs? (UPDATE: Seems this was reported falsely by players, turrets and NPCs do not provide valor)
I’m all for giving players incentives to kill each other and I’m still waiting for some in open PvP zones, but this seems like such a rookie mistake. Hasn’t anyone at BioWare played a PvP MMORPG before? How about some safe zones or added incentive for the factions that’s outnumber to help bolster their numbers. Or maybe just a faction player cap and definitely no Valor for killing NPCs, that’s just plain idiotic.
If you’re interested in checking out the slaughter, below you can find a video that was recently uploaded by a Republic player.
UPDATE: BioWare has responded by adding a population cap to Illum and are working on correcting the issue where enemy players are able to enter the opposing faction’s safe zone without being killed.
Occupy Republic.
Part of the issue is just, when you think about it, someone who loves killing other players is more likely to embrace which side? On my server Imperials already outnumber the opposition, then throw in that the average Imperial makes PvP a goal earlier and more often than the average Republic and it goes down hill.
At the same time, how exactly could you impose faction limits? Many people say that “faction imbalance should be fixed” on the forums but no one seems to see that it is damn near impossible to do so.
Fixing Faction Imbalance
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Good news players, the prophecy is coming true early, with the birth of the Mule. Destined to bring balance to the force, this individual is tearing through the ranks of the empire, converting the loyalty of individuals to the galactic republic.
What does this mean in practice?
Well, when entering PVP areas where a serious imbalance exists, players of the more numerous faction will be converted to the lesser faction. Bounty Hunters will become Troopers, Inquisitors will become Consulars, Agents will take up smuggling careers.
We hope you will enjoy the new balanced pvp environment, and we are certain that there will be no complaints on the forum concerning this patch.
/* sarcasm for those that didn’t realise */
I’ve not reached Illum yet, but that is bad. Not enough to make me re-roll and become part of the problem though.
Typical… roll Empire and get nothing but same faction Huttball matches yet Illum works in your favour… or roll Republic and get all the Warzones plus faster q’s, but you get stomped in world PvP.
I’ll keep rocking the trooper… more empire players in PvP just means it’s a more target rich environment for me to work in :)
I main Republic, but I have to admit, it was kinda hilarious.
People pay $15/month for this garbage?