SWTOR Patching PvP with Duct Tape

Patch Notes for patch 1.1.2 were released yesterday and the patch has made its way onto the beta server for testing. There seams to be lots of confusion about the changes BioWare is making to PvP and specifically, PvP bags. Daily and weekly PvP missions award a PvP bag which has a random loot item in it and specific tokens. The random PvP item provided level 56 epic PvP gear and the tokens allowed you to save up and purchase level 51 gear. The randomness of this system caused all sorts of upset in the community as some players, due to luck, were able to gear up much faster than others. I found myself not PvPing at all on my level 50, as I've already got all my level 56 gear and the last three rewards I received were all duplicates of what I already have. So what they've done, in an attempt to fix this, are:

This is from patch notes 1.1.2:
The number of commendations in Champion and Battlemaster Bags has been greatly increased, and the direct item trade tokens appear less frequently in Champion Bags. This change allows players to obtain PvP gear at a steady and significantly more predictable rate with an occasional bonus.
Then Gabe clarified after an uproar int he forums with this post:
It's obvious from comments here that the patch note is not specific enough, so we'll get it updated before the patch goes to the live servers. Here are some specifics:

Champion Bags now always contain 15 Centurion Commendations AND 7 Champion Commendations. Battlemaster Bags now always contain 15 Champion Commendations. So Centurion gearing up progression for new level 50s is increased significantly and Champion gearing up progression will be steady.

We do still intend on adding more intro level 50 PvP items as well as change how Battlemaster Commendations operate toward the same 'steady' goal. It's just the scope of that change was more than could be done in a weekly patch as it included vendor changes, conversions to existing commendations on players already, etc.

That being said, the current interim 'gearing up' system will change significantly when we introduce Ranked Warzones (aiming for Game Update 1.2). Stay tuned for more details on that.

- Gabe

Georg further relieved some tension, explaining in even more detail:
Let me just point this out, since there's confusion about it.

The 1.1.2. bag changes have reduced the RNG element on drops DRAMATICALLY. Exactly what you guys asked for.

Instead of hoping to get specific item tokens, you now get (more) commendations that you can turn into an item of your choice. That is a lot more deterministic and reliable than opening bags and hoping for a token.

-- Georg

Now I must admit that I can see that these changes might make it worthwhile for me to go back and PvP again, as I can save up for the higher level tier gear even though I'll still be wasting a lot of Centurion Commendations. The new system gives me at least some reward. This doesn't alleviate the problems that still exist in open world PvP. At the moment the Tatooine PvP battlefield is a ghost town with no objectives and Illum is a gank or be ganked zone depending on what faction you are. The dominating faction controls the center and doesn't do anything else in the zone. There is no incentive to capture all the other bases when the oppossing faction is hardly making an appearance. 

I still believe that Illum needs to be re-thought and Bioware need to take a close look at other open world PvP zones in other popular MMOs for some ideas on balance and making the zone fun.