I don't have any characters at max level, and I wouldn't play endgame even if I did - so no, gearing isn't what makes me not want to log in. (Though, for the sake of the game remaining alive, I'm still concerned about the gearing situation, since it seems to have driven an alarming number of sub cancellations.) Even so, there are things I think are worse than the snowballs - namely, the DvL popups. I haven't been playing since those started. We should really be able to turn those off...I really don't know if I'll re-sub unless we get that option. Of course, I'd still like to opt out of snowballs also.

Yeah, I avoid playing during the Life Day event for that reason. It would be nice to be able to opt out of it.

It's very hard to see myself playing (let alone subscribing) again until they add a way to block the 'Dark vs Light' pop-ups. They're much too intrusive for someone who wants to focus on the story, exploration, etc. And I'm definitely not re-subbing until they roll back the retroactive valor requirements from the old PvP vendor weapons. They did mention that in the stream yesterday, at least. But I'll wait until it actually happens.

I thought the best comment on reddit was: But hey, it could be worse (as we well know...)

Actually, I think I remembered that wrong...it was the server forum here that worked for me when I was looking for a trade. Of course, couldn't hurt to try both.

My resource for that kind of question is always tor-fashion, which, as per the page you linked, says...maybe they still drop. In case anyone is holding on to some pieces out there, you might try the swtor trade subreddit. It's worked for me 100% of the time when I posted there wanting to trade for something. (Of course, that was only 1 time...) https://www.reddit.com/r/swtor_trade/

I think it makes it much less meaningful. When you start with it, it's not something you achieve; also, there's no upgrade to how your character plays or feeling of rising in power, again because you have it right off. I still remember how awesome it felt for my trooper finally got an assault cannon...that experience is no longer there if you just have it right away. Then again, that was back at launch when getting to level 10 took longer than five minutes, so these days it might not make much difference...

If the rationale for changing it so you choose your advanced class at level 1 was to enable players to more quicky get a feel for the AC, and whether they like it - and thus to minimize the effort if they end up wanting to re-roll and choose a different advanced class... ...then I think a better solution would have been to allow ONE advanced class change, only available up to a certain level (15 or 20). This would require NO re-rolling and re-making you character, NO re-leveling, NO re-playing any parts of the game. Also it would not require removing the AC NPCs and dialogue. At this point, I'm not cool with the removal of ANY kind of class-specific content...

I'd like to see more ways to turn off the 'Dark vs. Light' pop-ups. Actually, just one way would be fine...but that would be more than we have now.

You know, come to think of it...that really could work. Vignettes instead of a main story. Given the apparent scope of their budget, I think that would be their best shot at making story content that might be of interest to me. For all the reasons I (and others) have said before, the Eternal Empire saga was dumb. The current team has shown they can't handle a galaxy-spanning, history-moving storyline. But vignettes...it really might work. They wouldn't even have to be based around the companions necessarily, they could just be about anything, like the HK chapter. (Well, I guess he was a companion, but it's a bit different if you play as him.) Huh. I wish they'd thought of that before they started the Eternal Empire stuff at all.

I think that's a really good point. There seems to be a lot of concern with companions coming back, to the point it's been addressed on the last couple livestreams, but...come back for what? To just go back to being mute? I guess it's easy for me, because I can just consider that the companions never even left. The reason is that as far as I'm concerned, the Eternal Empire chapters don't exist and never happened. I'm here 100% for the story, but KotFE and KotET are of zero interest to me, for all the familiar reasons - they're not really recognizable as Star Wars, your character is on the sidelines, the absurdity of ANOTHER huge hidden empire, on-rails play instead of any exploration, non-force-users not fitting in well, etc., etc. I slogged through Fallen Empire up to Odessen, strictly for the purpose of being able to turn in Alliance crates. It was painful to witness, but I've gotten a lot of cool stuff from the crates. I don't intend to ever touch Eternal Throne. What we got (and still have) in terms of true story content - the vanilla stuff, and up to a point maybe Makeb and Oricon - was amazing. But there won't be more. Having said all that: I'm all in favor of whatever keeps the game alive the longest. If that's new group content that I'll never touch, I'm OK with that. If it's low-budget story stuff that's a pathetic shadow of the vanilla stories, that I'll also never touch, I'm OK with that also. So I'm not opposed to whatever anyone wants them to do with the companions in the future, as long as it keeps the servers on.

Yeah, but if I recall, at the time they specifically talked about that and said, "We're doing things differently, we're keeping the team together." Obviously, another thing that didn't work out. I wish it had; it would have been good for them, and, I think, good for us... I don't altogether agree with that - to me, there's a lot I love in the class stories besides the companions - but I will say this: ever since DA2, Bioware games have no longer been automatic buys for me, they've had to convince me to buy them. And sometimes it's something weird that tips the scales. With Inquisition, it was the Keep (it seemed to indicate a long-term view for the franchise, and delivered in a cool way). With SWTOR, it was when I heard that each class had five unique companions. That just blew my mind. I never would have expected or even hoped for that, it just seemed unbelievable. Or just Bioware overall. They had a pretty good run where the stars seemed to up for them time after time, and I think they made the most of it. The multiple origin stories in DA, which were really the...origin of the class stories here. A trilogy where your character and choices were carried forward and your companions and relationships developed in ways they really couldn't in a single game. The things they tried were crazy, but awesome. Sadly, I think that era is over. (Incidentally, I'm not sold on Andromeda, and at this point doubt I will be.)

I definitely agree that Bioware isn't to blame for the demise of class stories. I have no doubt they would have loved to continue them through chapter 12 (as I believe the original plan was). But the question is, what caused the staffing cuts and budgetary restrictions? Well, think of it this way - if they had stayed at a level of ~2 millions subs from launch, or grown from there, would there have been the same budgetary restrictions? I don't think that would have been the plan. But things didn't go the way they hoped. So why didn't they stay at around 2 million subs? Well, from that analysis Ohlen gave, because people rushed through the content. And that, ultimately, is the cause. Now, of course, if people want to speed through things, that's their choice. I'm not saying they should have gone slowly, if they hate going slowly. But still, the reason that the class stories didn't continue is because the players - the customers - didn't want them to. Somewhere, there's an alternate timeline where the class stories did go to chapter 12. I, for example, have been playing since day 1 of early access in 2011, and none of my characters have finished chapter 1 yet. There's work, there's life, sometimes there are other games to play for a while. If enough other people savored the game rather than pushing through it obsessively to the point they really regard it as a job...well, we would have had more class story. Given the timeline we're actually in, maybe the class stories were a totally unfeasible idea that, from a financial standpoint, should never have seen the light of day. And given how things turned out, you can bet no other studio will be trying anything like that any time soon. But to me, that's all the more reason to be glad that they got made regardless.

Nope, you can get pieces from any set playing as any class. But when you're picking up the heroics, you should look at the mission rewards and pick ones that give you the 'Ancient Artifact' crates. Those crates drop pieces from the Knight and Consular sets.

I should also add - if you're chasing a specific set, go for the heroics that give the crates that drop pieces for that class: Ancient Artifacts - Knight/Consular Military Gear - Trooper/Warrior Smuggled Goods - Smuggler/Bounty Hunter Alien Research - Inquisitor/Agent

Yep, you can do them solo (probably best with a companion, of course). All the heroics give the same rewards, so the ones from the early planets are quickest and easiest. You need a character who has reached the Alliance base on Odessen (chapter 9 of KotFE, I think) to actually turn in the crates. But, the crates themselves are bound to legacy, so you can transfer them to a different character who has access there, or just hold onto them until you're 66, then do the chapters up to 9 and turn them in. There are a lot of cool sets there, to my taste...even a lot of the belts and gloves are pretty neat. What you get is random, so that can be frustrating, but especially with the double crates I've managed to get a lot of the pieces I wanted. If you get dupes you can vendor them for decent credits.

If you're interested in the armor shells that come from Alliance Crates (you can see them here), you get DOUBLE crates as a reward for running Heroics when you're level 60-65. The armors are legacy bound, so you can send them to other characters. So, I used my token to start at 60 and just go straight to doing heroics. I'll probably never really use this character after that, since like other people have said, if you use the boost you're stuck with pre-determined choices and so on. (In fact, the character I made is just a clone of one of my real characters.)

That seems to be a...fitting analogy. (Where's the :tran_barf: smiley when you need it?) Why not both? But yes, even if they hadn't made things worse with RNG, the lack of new content would still be a problem. Here's my take as someone who (1) is here for the story, not the endgame, and (2) wants the game to stay around for a long time, because I have years to go as far as playing all the class stories with different ACs and genders and moralities, doing different romances, etc. With the resources Bioware apparently has now, they can't continue the story in any way that does justice to the vanilla content, or is remotely interesting to me. They tried going all-in for story, and utterly failed. With the resources Bioware apparently has now, I think it is possible that they could make new operations and flashpoints - if they focused on that. If there haven't been new flashpoints or operations in two years, why not? Because they've been focusing on 'story' - or what passes for story these days. As many people have pointed out, the Eternal Empire stuff really isn't about your character; you're on the outside looking in on some family drama. It might have made a good book or movie, but putting the player's character on the sidelines doesn't work well for a game. As many people have pointed out, the whole thing doesn't really feel like Star Wars. As many people have pointed out, it's a lame and nonsensical for this huge hidden empire to suddenly come out of nowhere. As many people have pointed out, the gameplay is just fighting endless waves of sky troopers. As many people have pointed out, open world planets and exploration is gone, and it's all just on rails. As someone who's here for the story, I consider every minute that they spent on the Eternal Empire expansions to be completely wasted. They are of zero interest. Now they're talking about putting more work into 'bringing companions back.' But bringing them back...for what? Even if, two years from now, they've 'brought them back,' it's clear that the they won't be able to give them any significant role in any ongoing story. I seem to remember in the Shadow of Revan days, people thought it was weird how their companions just never had anything to say about anything. Well, that's all it's going to be in the future. All the real story content we're ever going to get, we had at launch. Well, maybe Oricon too. It was, and it is, amazing. It would be awesome if we could get more. But we cant. And that's that. So, as someone who's here for the story, I say: stop putting out new story stuff. If new group content will help the game stay around longer, then focus on group content 100%. And if you really insist on having RNG in addition to the traditional ways of obtaining gear, fine. But in additon to. Not instead of.

I think the next stage is "boring." (Personally I skip right to that after "frustrating.")

No lie, I hope this is true. Not that I want to see the game shut down any time soon, but eventually it will and I'd like to still be able to load it up and play it whenever I want to. Yeah, I really do hope something like that happens. It would be a shame for the class stories from this game to just be lost forever. I wouldn't pay a cent for anything after vanilla, myself. Well, maybe Oricon. Definitely not the Eternal Empire stuff. I probably would pay for the cosmetic cash shop stuff...again...but not in gambling pack form.

Yeah. I've opened a few packs over the years, but the results are always instantly disappointing and boring...it simply feels like your money has gone for nothing. What I was thinking was, Command Crates are like Alliance Crates (both random). Unlike cartel packs, I've actually opened quite a lot of the alliance crates. Over the last few months I devoted a good portion of my play time to getting them. So, I wonder if the Alliance crates were considered popular (or if I was in a minority of people who liked them); and if so, whether that influenced their decision to go with the Command crates. The enormous difference, of course, is that the Alliance crates just had entirely optional cosmetic stuff. It was something EXTRA you could get. Just for fun, as it were. Even then, the RNG can be frustrating and boring, especially when you've collected a significant percentage of the items so that most of what you get starts to be duplicates. I burned out on it for that reason, even though there were still pieces that I really wanted. Using my free 60 from 5.0 to get double packs through level 65 breathed some life into it again, but that won't last long. But, if instead of having merely optional items I was looking to the crates for stuff that I needed in order to do the content I wanted, I think any semblance of fun would have been gone.

Yeah, that line was...regrettable.

Now that bosses don't drop gear, is there even any reason to have lockouts anymore?

And that's OK. But the fact that Bioware doesn't even see the problem - with a huge, distracting visual/audio pop-up (which pushes into your face completely non-vital information that doesn't tie in at all to your individual activities), in a game that is supposed to foster immersion in stories and environments, with no option to turn it off... ...that's not OK.

Same for me.