09/03/2016

Chapter XI: Disappointed

Just like when chapter ten came out, I don't want to get into a detailed discussion of the new chapter's story as I'll eventually get around to that via my "KotFE Chapter by Chapter" series anyway. But there are a couple of things about last night's patch that I feel the need to mention.

First off, is it me or are those subscriber rewards getting more and more bizarre? I've seen some ugly pieces of armour in this game over the years, but why in the world would you want to wear another character's head as a hat? That's just morbidly bizarre.

I was rather looking forward to chapter eleven, because the preview picture had Aric Jorgan on it. While I thought that chapter ten has its good points, recruiting a terrorist into my Alliance just felt all kinds of wrong for a trooper, so I was looking forward to the next chapter featuring someone my character would actually care about and whom it would make sense to seek out.

I almost shouted at my screen when, right within the very first conversation, my character questioned why she should get involved with recruiting Havoc Squad. Maybe because you're its former commander?! That line really should have been taken out for troopers.

Then I got into the phase to meet up with Jorgan & Co. - just to discover that the old cathar was running around topless. The really funny thing in hindsight is that it actually took me a moment to realise that this was a bug - Havoc Squad is supposed to be on some sort of guerilla mission in the swamp, so I actually wondered for a second whether partial nudity was part of the plan. It was only when I noticed that Jorgan wasn't wearing any trousers either and that the rest of the squad was fully suited up that it truly hit me that I had another case of 4.0's "no trousers" bug on my hands.


Oh well, that's kind of funny, right? I started to move on towards the next phase but allowed myself to get distracted by the numerous gathering nodes in the swamp - it's funny because it's not even like I needed more herbs; I just enjoy tidying up my mini-map. Next mission step: "Talk to Aric Jorgan". However, there was no Aric in the marked area. Could I summon him? Nope. Neither could I summon any other companion. Hmm.

On the forums I found out that at least I wasn't the only one having this problem, and a recommended workaround was to reset the entire mission and start over (which also gets rid of the nudity). After that, I was finally able to have the next conversation with Aric.

Then it was onwards to the next objective, to click on six doors. I found a total of seven, however when I clicked on two of them, they just spawned a bunch of skytroopers and didn't count towards my objective, leaving me stuck on 5/6. After having wasted some more time looking for any doors I might have missed, I eventually had to leg it out of the phase to reset again.

The sad thing is, in the end I think "Disavowed" was a pretty decent chapter and hit all the notes I was hoping for as a trooper - or it would have, if I hadn't constantly been interrupted by stupid bugs. I know that this kind of stuff happens, but the frequency and regularity with which Bioware releases content with game-breaking bugs is frankly getting ridiculous. They already postponed the Eternal Championship and the next Alliance alert because they weren't ready, so they had just one job in this patch: to get out the new chapter and to make sure that it's playable.

I always feel like the Bioware guys are very passionate and have their heart in their right place, but their quality control is simply atrocious. I hate to think how many subs they lose purely over stuff like this.

13 comments :

  1. I had the same issue with doors. Got to 5/6, then I found another two but they both spawned Skytroopers. However, after a minute or two, I found another one - so a grand total of 8. Went 6/6 without a reset or relog. You should have tried harded :-P

    The naked bug is badness but oh well. I had been more worried that it might actually have bugged out for good.

    I like Jorgan's firearm though!

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    1. That's good to know about the doors and I'm happy to be corrected! I had seen others report it as a bug too... and to be fair, when you encounter two bugs in the first five minutes of the chapter, you can't blame anyone for assuming that it's yet another bug as soon as they encounter another obstacle like that.

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  2. Spot on. I refuse to play chapter XI until the bugs are being taken care of, so I can actually enjoy the story (instead of being frustrated) and take pretty screenies of Jorgan!

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    1. Honestly, that's probably the most sensible approach. Though you're missing out on the opportunity to take screenies of Aric's abs!

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  3. I know they don't want to spoil the story before it gets released, but I really think they need to put this content on the PTS so players can test it and provide feedback before it goes live.

    Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find out which cantina Nico is hiding out in.

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    1. I don't think it would even necessarily have to be on the PTS, they'd just have to allow for wider testing than they do right now. Other developers manage it; I don't know why Bioware simply can't.

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    2. They can. I was under an NDA when I had a chance to test GSF. I believe Dulfy was under NDA for Shadow of Revan because I can't see her creating all the the articles she posted in a few hours when SoR launched.

      NDA reliable folks and let them test the content. It certainly wouldn't be as embarrassing as it is now.

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  4. Hey, I wonder if they need QA/QC people. Oh look, I used to do that for several years back in the 90s.....

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    1. Let me guess: There was probably a reason you changed careers...

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  5. As far as the initial conversation goes, I wonder if it is in the game, but bugged out. They fixed the conversation with 'Firebrand' if you had done a certain quest on a particular class (avoiding spoilers). Fixed too late for me on my main, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if patch 4.3 or 4.4 had a note about fixing the initial conversation for troopers.

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    1. Would that "fix" have anything to do with a certain Jedi knight companion? Because I have to admit that I'd completely forgotten about that until I saw someone else complain about how Kaliyo didn't acknowledge that...

      I can kind of get how someone might forget about a detail like that, but the connection between the trooper and Havoc Squad is pretty huge - it's honestly a bit shocking to me that they wrote and recorded the whole conversation as is without anyone going: "Wait, that makes no sense!"

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    2. Yes, I had completed the appropriate companion quest chain and had met Kaliyo. As I said on the podcast I would be (and was) disappointed if/when Kaliyo didn't acknowledge meeting the Jedi Knight. I realize this is a small thing, but referencing a character's past history is something they've done all along.

      Certainly not having a Trooper get excited about seeing Havoc squad again is a big screw up, story-wise. I just find it sad that when they spend so much time emphasizing story that they get the story beats wrong. :sigh:

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  6. 2 second mention of Dorne...

    Absolutely horrible. And yea, the bugs and crap customer service are wearing mighty thin.

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