Yesterday, BioWare posted a community blog article detailing some of the behind-the-scenes plans and goals for Team Ranked Warzones, which will hopefully reach live servers when Game Update 1.3 hits. You can check out the article here.
Here’s one of the most important bits of the article:
Before Season One begins with official rankings, we intend to rank and post the players and guilds with top Pre-Season ratings. Season One will begin with completely new ratings. Additionally, we do intend to have a Solo Queue Ranked Warzone option in the future.
We will not be pushing Team Ranked Warzones to the live game until we have significant PTS testing of the feature. Fortunately, those of you on the Public Test Server can now queue up for Team Ranked Warzones and test this feature out now. Be sure to submit any feedback to our PTS forum here.
Check out the community response to this community blog here, and keep reading to find out some responses straight from the community!
First off, it’s great to see that BioWare does indeed plan on implementing a solo-queue version of Ranked Warzones. Secondly, it seems that BioWare needs players to test Ranked Warzones on the PTS. Last week, a testing event was hosted, but the timing was definitely off– the test was scheduled on Father’s Day, which, well, obviously wasn’t the best time for a PTS event. The event also wasn’t well-advertised, so many players didn’t know about it. This article will hopefully reach the attention of more PTS players.
And then there’s the fact that players can’t currently copy characters to the PTS. SWTOR could really use a better PTS copy system. Players have also complained that the current Ranked Warzone system is extremely buggy, and needs major fixes before it can be effectively tested. I assume BioWare is working on those adjustments as we speak, and will fix many of those issues before the next testing event.
In the community response thread, one player asked for some clarification on the “dual queuing” method BioWare is implementing into Ranked Warzones. Here is another player’s response, which contains a quite detailed explanation:
“At 10:00 you all enter the queue together, and are in line
At 10:10 you get into a solo warzone
At 10:15 someone else in your group gets in a solo warzone
At 10:16 a spot is reserved for you in a rank warzone match, the 6 people who are not in warzones are no longer in the solo warzone queue, they are “on deck” for a ranked warzone
At 10:20 you leave you warzone and join your friends “on deck” and are not readded to the solo que
at 10:25 your friend leaves the warzone and joins you “on deck”
At 10:25 the system checks to see if all 16 of the people picked for the warzone that was started by the system at 10:16 are still online and out of solo warzones, and the answer is yes. You get the pop up and can join the ranked warzoneThe system is shockingly good to be honest, it’s only flaw is that what happens at 10:16 for the 6 people on fleet (being removed from the normal que and put “on deck” for a ranked) is not communicated in any way, meaning the might log out or go afk not knowing they are going to get in a warzone very soon.”
This is an interesting method, but it sounds like it needs to contain a little more in-game communication.
If you have a character on the PTS and are interested in Ranked Warzones, be sure and keep an eye on the PTS forums for future testing events!
LET'S GET SOCIAL