Will there be a damage meter?

[Verth Aeyta]

Damage meters will inevitably show themselves in this game, it's just a matter of time. They're a useful tool but at launch I think the worst thing for Bioware would be to promote how much DPS you're doing, I think they would rather you focus on your characters development and the choices you make while leveling up. Once end game becomes a bit more of a norm and guilds are formulated and people are capable of working together to get raids worked on then I could see them opening it up to some addons that analyze battle data as it would almost certainly have to happen.

[Herrenos]

Combat log recording is in this game, if that breaks the NDA then sorry. There is no built-in damage meter yet, but I'm sure that addons will be put in post-launch.

I assume this guy is not telling us a lie so combat logs exist in SWTOR. That being said I have a question for the anti-damage meter folks:

If there is combat logs, there will be parsers like ACT written. Heck I'm capable of writing my own if I had the time. These programs act almost exactly like either an offline WOL or an out-of-game version of recount - really a combo of both. Damage stats can be taken live, they can be broken down by encounter, and they can be cut-and-pasted into the game chat window.

What is the reason for not liking an addon version of this? If the stats can be gathered and compared, why would you be against an in-game addon vs just running it on my second monitor?

I can understand, though completely disagree with, the reasons for not wanting to be able to track this data at all - but why be against an addon that can do it when the capabilities to get this data already exist?

[FnKraze]

In an 8-16 man raid/operation, it won't be too difficult to see who is doing their job and who isn't.

[vizzle]

In an 8-16 man raid/operation, it won't be too difficult to see who is doing their job and who isn't.

No. There's a big difference between someone spamming random shit so that his character is always doing something and someone who is optimizing their rotation and not clipping their dots.

You can stare at people if you want to and wonder why you guys are struggling on normal mode Ragnaros for the last 3 months, or you can learn to be efficient and do some actual content.

[endersblade]

If they ever add in a recount, I'm not playing TOR anymore. Or gearscore. You fucking E-peen flexers are the reason MMOs suck now a days. Sure, these types of addons have legitimate reasons for being around; unfortunately, 99% of the player base abuses them instead.

Don't insult, generalize, and call names if you have a differing opinion. Infracted.

[vizzle]

If they ever add in a recount, I'm not playing TOR anymore. Or gearscore. You fucking E-peen flexers are the reason MMOs suck now a days. Sure, these types of addons have legitimate reasons for being around; unfortunately, 99% of the player base abuses them instead.

Stop being a part of the 99% then.

As a WoW player of 3 years, I never had problems with Recount. In 5man dungeons I always performed well enough, even on my newly dinged 80s/85s that people didn't care about how bad my gear was. In raids, I'd understand when people didn't want my undergeared alts in their raids, because well, I'm dragging them down, I wouldn't want me either. That's where you have to improve yourself and make yourself better, and if you put in the effort, people wouldn't complain. In guild raids, I left guilds that had immature idiots that would spam Recount, and I joined professional/hardcore guilds where people were more mature and the skill level was better.

You guys are so afraid of a game actually having different skill caps because you don't want anyone to be better than you, when you could instead just better yourself. It's not about the epeen, it's about knowing the numbers so you can see who's slacking and who isn't, and doing something about the people who are slacking.

[Shamburger]

If they ever add in a recount, I'm not playing TOR anymore. Or gearscore. You fucking E-peen flexers are the reason MMOs suck now a days. Sure, these types of addons have legitimate reasons for being around; unfortunately, 99% of the player base abuses them instead.

...and nothing of value was lost.

-snip-

You guys are so afraid of a game actually having different skill caps because you don't want anyone to be better than you, when you could instead just better yourself. It's not about the epeen, it's about knowing the numbers so you can see who's slacking and who isn't, and doing something about the people who are slacking.

Couldn't have put it better myself. It's as if some people LIKE having their time wasted. I personally don't like sitting at a boss for 2 hours smashing my keyboard with my face because so-and-so player does 4k (ouuu an example let's take the whole discussion out of context!!!) dps less than than everyone else, where a 2 second look at a damage meter would address the problem.

[DaGhostDS]

If they ever add in a recount, I'm not playing TOR anymore. Or gearscore. You fucking E-peen flexers are the reason MMOs suck now a days. Sure, these types of addons have legitimate reasons for being around; unfortunately, 99% of the player base abuses them instead.

Dont start playing then, once the addon API is in, its the first addon coming out.

[Deleted]

There's nothing wrong with damage meters, there's just a lot of stupid people using them for the wrong reasons.

The exact same case could be made for Gearscore. It had a bunch of features that 99% of people ignored, opting instead to go for "High gs = skillz".

[Spartonian]

Metrics of performance in a raid, especially a progression raid, without a doubt help. If you're stuck on an encounter that isn't mechanically or tactically difficult, there's a good chance someone (or multiple someones...) performance needs to improve. Being able to quantify your performance will assist in overcoming new content if you can find where there's a shortfall.

I never even downloaded Recount, but I did pay attention to it and WoL. If I wasn't keeping pace with other DPS, I wanted to know. I don't like wasting other people's time. I wasn't obsessive about it though. If I was within a few percent of the #1 guy, and there wasn't a big gear discrepancy, I was satisfied usually. If I wasn't performing as well as I thought I should, I'd head to a theorycrafting site to find the problem and fix it.

In an instance/flashpoint though, they shouldn't be necessary. Use of addons should be reserved for guilds. You'll have clowns who feel it necessary to link their epeen, but they tend to quickly find themselves on an ignore list.

[Slugfest]

It seems like people who don't want meters don't seem like true team players to me. Don't you want to know if you are helping or hindering the group? Meters help with that. If I am under performing, I want to know about it so I can pick up my game.

[Lord Kristivas]

I certainly hope there's a damage meter. I don't want to call out baddies and make them feel like shit, but I don't want to invite them again, either. I would also rather that BioWare included an in-game damage meter. The less add-ons I have to DL, the better.

[Trollsbane]

Closing this now. Calling people names and insulting others, for whatever reason you don't agree with, is not allowed.

We're all going to take a timeout from discussing addons for a while.