And for them to put something in game that would burn up tens of billions of credits quickly would destroy your wealth and the games economy and you would be posting bloody fury about getting ripped off by the devs after all your years accumulating credits. Also offering up cosmetic items to players for exorbitant amounts of credits would be unfair to the newer players you all seem to care so deeply about. It seems like their goal here is to create a healthy system first. They can't fix current issues if the economy itself doesn't function correctly. There are not enough sinks in this game and it causes inflation. They are now fixing that. I think many more steps will have to be taken, and I get the impression that they implied that with their post, but it seems to me this is a good initial step towards balancing the games economy and it will be followed by others.

This current season (3) has been good so far. The content variety is good, it always feels like I can choose what I want to do to progress. The companion have been fine. I've only gotten season 2 and 3 so I can't comment on season 1. I like their character designs and customization options. I don't really pay too much attention to their personalities though. There is only so much "other language" text you can be made to read at a while. On the other hand, I don't mind them being effectively low key, I don't think I would want to use one that talks constantly. Yes, the rewards are great. The gear was nice, the tokens give you options, offering past season rewards is awesome. Some of the mounts are hit an miss. The Rodir are great, the Triumbra and its like were really nice, the Teitek I didn't like at all. I like the variety. I can usually find 5 or 6 each week that I enjoy doing and the 1 or 2 more that I can get through. The two I would like to see less of are Starfighter and Individual story chapters. I was not able to complete 2 without using coins for the last few levels. I will be finishing 3 in the next two weeks I think. It's meant to be a long term project, which is fine, but I wouldn't mind seeing progression sped up 15 to 20 percent. It feels too slow to me right now. It pretty much takes over. I have time to complete the 7 weekly objectives and not much else. It takes a couple days to complete a week's objectives which is about how often I log in each week. I really like the system, it definitely feels like it adds something valuable to my play time. I would like to see a larger variety in themes going forward. The Cartel/Gambling/Hut aesthetic seems to be what all seasons use. Would want each season to have an entirely different feel. It's fine to circle back to themes over time of course, but consecutive seasons should be completely different.

This is probably true. But it will affect them more than established players. It will affect them less, they are using the service less. They have cooldowns and they travel shorter distances. Also the questing gives them all the credits they need for travel, so they can use the service freely. I just did a zero to 80 run on a new Guardian for Starforge. I have not started the expansions yet, I'm 80 now and I've not taken anything from other characters, and I had around 7 or 8 million in my wallet this week before I splurged on the market a bit and I still have 5 mil. Plenty for a new character. It is, but not in any way that will meaningfully affect established players' funds or the overall economy. The most expensive thing proposed that has a number attached to it is the 5k charge for max distance fast travel. I can pretty much promise I won't notice 5m gone over the course of 1000 max distance fast travels. The issue is that you are thinking about this as a way to make you poor, it's not. It's a way to slow you down. You don't want to stop an economy when there is inflation, you want to slow it down. You won't notice the 5 million gone but you will as a result gain 60 mil instead of 65 mil over that time. That multiplied over tens of thousands of players will for sure begin to affect the in game economy.

I like the changes. Sinks need to be in the game, no one likes them, but they need to be there. Not sure I agree with a lot of the feedback so far. 1) This will not effect newer players as much as claimed by some. When I'm leveling up as a new player in an MMO, I'm not zooming all over the place with quick travel and speed running it. I'm focusing on the content around me and by the time the cool-down for quick travel runs it's course I've made up the credits with loot. As a player leveling alts, or doing dailies/weeklies on the other hand I'm warping all over the place to get to end game or to tackle tasks quickly. I also have little or no cool-down on my travel abilities so I'm using them constantly. In this way it's not a new player sink, it's an old player sink. 2) Opening up one time purchases as a sink does absolutely nothing. Once the purchase is completed once, the credits are then almost immediately restored by regualar content and you are back to square one. The idea is to get things that work constantly to remove currency from circulation since the game constantly prints more. 3) Billionaires will start to feel the pinch a bit over time. Saying it won't be noticed is thinking about it in terms of one time payments. You won't notice one transaction but you will notice how 1000 transactions slows down the growth of your coffers thereby slowing down the rise of prices. Its not meant to make you poor its meant as a luxury tax on the rich, you will still be wealthy but your wealth accumulation will happen at a slower pace allowing others to catch up to you faster.

Well off the top of my head, I have 1000 hours in skyrim, that was $60. About 1000 in Ark, and maybe 350 to 400 in No Mans Sky. Thats apx 2400 hours for $180, and more to come with mods. That's about $0.075 per hour and three times the variety of gameplay. If you catch them on sale the value doubles. At 100 hours per 15$ in SWTOR that's 0.15 per hour. Edit correction on my math: Skyrim-905, Ark-1,555 (Jesus), No Mans Sky-355 so that's 2815 hrs, $0.063 per hour (at full retail). MMOs are about grouping up, experiencing things with others, that is where their value is infinite.

Honestly, you can make the argument that they have done that and gotten away from the MMO formula. You can solo everything, you don't need a tank or a healer for Story Mode content. The audience SWTOR has right now is the audience who likes that style of game. The Raids and group content expand their audience a bit by diversifying the content, but if you turn it into a strictly single player game things will shrink even more. With so many good RPGs out there, past and present, paying $15 a month for a single player game is just silly. That $180 per year (plus what ever is spent on the Cartel Market) could be used on a dozen other single player games providing a huge variety of experiences. Why would anyone do that?

This for sure. If you added back the open world pvp as well I'd be in heaven.

That's a more than valid point. Its is something that all of the most successful MMOs do though. Whether or not those games hold an appeal is definitely down to individual taste. However, the regular influx of revenue consistent endgame content drops generate finance everything else you want to do with the game. It also keeps the game on the radar for a larger audience. Even if they do leave, they are far more ready to come back each time. I just think a regular content cadence could really stabilize things.

Come on now, don't be shy

Well then tell them to come on in. They need to start voicing what they want (not just what they don't), either here or on some other format. At some point people have to participate in their own rescue or go down with the ship.

Next question I would have is what are the folks on these forums for? Mostly you see no's but no alternatives. Folks are against everything but for nothing. So what do you think should be done with the game between now and the end of the year? Or if you prefer what should be done between now and shutdown? Be specific, and no "fix bugs". I mean come on that's obvious.

What if they further developed the existing planets? Like adding new end game areas to Tat or Makeb. They might be able to put out updates far more often since they have a stockpile of preexisting assets. Giving players things to do and new areas to explore while they slowly, over time, add story content?

Wondering what people think here. When you dig into a lot of the complaints that folks have here and in game it seems to boil down to lack of things to do end game. Do you think that the SWTOR team should step back from cinematic and story for a short time and put some time into more robust endgame areas? If not that, then what do you want to see changed about lvl 80 activities?

It sounds like the underlying issue is Dailies. In other words max level characters don't have anything to do. So max level daily content needs to be added to the game (honestly that was the original issue so many years ago). "But I can't solo everything if you do that" is killing your game more than anything else. You need to incentivize people to group up, socialize and play together. Heroics are the best open world tool you have for that right now. Its optional, out of the way, content and it could provide something on the map that can't be face rolled while watching something else on Netflix. On the social and grouping up side, some will start conversations and get involved but most won't, they want and need to be led there. A large percentage of those who don't form relationships in game will get bored when the content is trivial (which it is) and will quit for something more engaging. Or they will complain that there is nothing to do. That is what you have been slowly seeing over the last 5 years. The companion nerf was a great start, but it's still a percentage off specifically the healing. It needs to change, I'm sorry.

"These are the conversations that we had many times over long before you posted this thread" - Indeed this has been a common topic over the years, it's been a problem for a long time. "I don't think you bring more people in by making leveling harder and more grindy. At least not to offset all the casuals that would stop playing this game if they did that." - FFXIV is a good example a solo centered game that does incentivize content that makes people group up along with the easier solo open world maps and the formula works extremely well. The need for grouping brings players together, form relationships and keeps them coming back. It not about grind it's about having players work together. Old school MMOs like Everquest were about grind no one is asking for that. "I think you vastly overestimate EA's desire to appeal to a wider audience" - Do I? EA doesn't like money? And are you admitting that slightly altering difficulty would bring in more players thereby justifying bigger updates? "They are fine with having a small but dedicated community that keeps the game afloat until the Cartel Market is not able to make a profit anymore or a new Star Wars MMO comes out." - Is that how companies think? Again what ideas do you guys have for growth? The reason I'm stirring the pot here is I read nothing but vague reactions and personal insults to devs with no ideas or feedback at all. What do you think needs to change? What would you do to change it? How would those changes help? What is a reasonable time table to fix things? I'm actually planning to post a lot of these as I level up various classes. Some constructive feedback is needed here I think.

I'm on veteran mode lol, and yes I'm aware that I can dismiss my companions, unequip half of my weapons and most of my clothing, and restrict myself to only one button press every 10 to 15 seconds but does that make the game fun? Does that make me, or anyone for that matter, feel like they did or accomplished anything? Does that make you feel engaged or does it feel like an empty grind? It's entirely OK to have parts of the game that you need to ask for help with. This is one of those times where you protect players against themselves. These are the conversations you guys need to be having, your population continues to shrink. The gameplay as it stand is attractive to the small but dedicated population that still exists, but they will eventually filter away looking for new experiences. What do you do to bring more in? How do you make this appeal to a wider MMO audience? What are you all willing to accept or change to make the game last?

RIght now Kira is lvl 10, and the gear I am using is the stuff I looted on planet with no mods/nothing changed. This is what a new player would see. I'm familiar with how that stuff works, that's why I got rid of all the extras.

So I swapped to Sage and ran the same test in the same location. Swapped to trash gear as well since you cannot wear heavy. 5 Silvers were able to overwhelm after about 10 seconds or so. Hit the same group and killed one giving me 4: Eventually they did kill me, took a while but it happened. Hit the same group and killed one more giving me 3: If the companion got in a DPS loop I would eventually die, if she focused on healing then I was invincible. So just depended on what the companion did. Keep in mind the last test was done with horrible gearing, if I had bothered to gear up at all then it would skew back towards invincible.

So changed spec to Focus Jedi, 4 Silver enemies in Fall of the Locust could not kill me. The bar does goes to half health due to less mitigation I would imagine, but Kira holds it there permanently. Switched to a group of 5 Silver and they did eventually overcome the healing. It took several minutes for that to happen though. It's possible its just Jedi or just Jedi with Kira. The combo as you say, so I'll run it with a different class real quick and see what it looks like.

Is that a good thing though? "Not worrying about dying" "but in some places 4 silvers can overwhelm DPS specs unless they do single target to split some damage to their companion" That's fantastic, if you do nothing then you will die, however there is something you can do to prevent that. The content if far more engaging that way. Also as a dps the game becomes burning down enemies before they overwhelm your defenses. Really quick I'll roll dps and run the same dungeon and see how it goes.

Howdy all, having fun in SWTOR with all the new changes. Running up a Guardian and I'm noticing that the Companion healing is a bit high. There are a few examples but the one I'm seeing right now is on Taris. Doing Fall of the Locust with Kira healing, and essentially I'm invincible. With her set to DPS, things get close or I can get overwhelmed on large pulls and that's fantastic. I have to actually engage in the fight to get through it. Questing in the open world I will eventually get worn down and have to stop for a moment to Introspect, also a great thing. With her set to Healer, things are never close and it's nearly impossible to get overwhelmed by a single group of mobs in a Heroic dungeon. Using Fall of the Locust as an example pulling 5 to 7 silver mobs I"m able start the fight go AFK and come back later to finish it. Pulling a second group at the same time putting the number at 10 to 12 does seem to finally overwhelm Kira's healing. This is all lower level content and I am running a tank but it does seem over-tuned. I would suggest lowering the potency of companion healing abilities. It's great to have a healer on hand when needed but right now it trivializes a lot of the content which has to be hurting player retention.

I just started a new run, with side quests and heroics I'm at lvl 36 right now on Taris. I'll probably be at least 70 to 75 before I finish the original story especially if I use the exp boosters you get for free.

That's actually pretty normal. FFXIV just went through the same thing. You get a huge bump when the expansion is released then it goes down again. Right now the numbers are back to what they were in late 2021. Given how short you guys are saying the expansion was these number kinda make sense. People leave again once they finish the new content. This expansion didn't gain them anything but it looks like it didn't lose them anything either.

Honestly guys I think this is fantastic. Hearing this just made me resub. I'll have to see what the game feels like now, but a difficulty bump is an amazing change. Thank you SWTOR

Yeah these are the responses I anticipated, oh well. The game can stay Star Wars dress-up for a while if it needs to. Luckily the current crop of MMOs are more cash grab than anything else, but that won't be the case forever.