I'm a filthy casual player. I was also the one of the last two players standing in our guild group that cleared this, most of the players in the group being fairly seasoned raiders. I take zero issue with this being an account wide item or unlock via collections, neither do I take issue with the mounts being an account wide item or unlock via collections. If a player has earned it, however that may be including being "carried" or paying to be "carried", the point is they participated in that harder content and cleared it. There isn't really a "oh well they didn't really try" or a "oh they carried the whole group" achievement for these, it's cleared or not. I really do think that it wouldn't detract from any achievement gained by allowing these items to be used on alternate characters, however it was earned.

Who really cares, conquest is pretty boring in and of itself, with pretty poor objectives that remain uninteresting and flawed scoring. If people find that they can complete it faster with cheesing it, good luck to them.

I always think of this song when people start these threads...

True, however on the plus side there are lots of bug fixes in the 6.1 patch notes, hopefully that will continue moving forward (including the loot discipline / class spec one... which makes the loot toggle fairly defunct)

I didn't say it was entirely useless. Also forgot about the tacticals, because they're also something not really worth investing time or effort into, in my opinion. (not when you can get decent enough ones from running content). On the subject of augments, I've normally crafted my own, but with the combination of materials required and the horrible reverse engineering chances (as well as the cost) I decided it was easier to simply give my materials to another crafter in exchange for the Solid Resource Matrix and Legendary Embers and let him profit from the crits when he crafts those items. I take no issue with giving another crafter a boost.

So are most of us, equally we would also like to know the developers design intent. Essentially Grade 11 crafting = Augment kits / Augments / Biochem stuff / War Supplies and Dark Projects (assuming conquest interests you... or credits). There isn't really anything interesting added with 6.0 in terms of crafting schematics, what there is requires an insane amount of materials (even though it's been adjusted). In terms of most things, they require conquest (Solid Resource Matrix) or group content materials. Oh and everybody enjoys crafting the limited selection of dyes, so if you want to turn a profit, just sell the materials (it's quicker). Your assumptions are basically correct, BioWare pretty much made crafting useless in 6.0.

I can't tell if you're kidding or not...

But when bolstered in PvP you don't hit the power cap, seems off having so much crit when you don't have the power to make use of it?

I simply don't bother ripping mods anymore, if it isn't a loose mod etc then it's disintegrated now. I honestly can not be bothered to check every single piece, it's a time waste and credit sink pulling things out you'll likely get with the next batch of 30+ items, or the batch after that. Save your credits, it's a stupid credit sink alongside all of the others designed to drain credits from the system, certainly not designed with the average player in mind.

Probably because I'm still a little salty about mercs being nerfed for the wrong thing. Sorcs have also had that happen, I do wonder if BioWare really just hate ranged classes that aren't Sniper / Slingers. Even the dot specs aren't as good as they used to be.

Good luck, I gave up with that during KotFE / KotET. Mainly due to repetitive levels with lots of Skytroopers....

In case it was missed; /sarcasm. I'd like to see the class buffed, also I'd like to see more variety in the set bonus options that are actually useful (not just for Sorcs mind you....).

Needs a DPS nerf, it's higher than Arsenal Merc. Also the survivability of the class is higher with that insta teleport crap in PvP. Nerf it more, then you can justifiably cry just like us Arsenal Mercs that the devs hate the class.

Thanks for the update Keith, are the games numerous bugs (both old and new) going to be looked at over the course of this year as part of the quality of life focus? It would be a nice pace change purely to have most of these quashed if at all possible, to help improve the game for both old and new players alike.

No-one is making them. No-one is suggesting that individuals on the developer team are morally corrupt. BioWare is a company within the EA umbrella and for all intents and purposes are the exact same entity. If I had to separate them out, I'd suspect the pressure for BioWare as a development studio comes directly from the parent company which is EA. Not vice versa. Let's make this apparently clear and succinct, I like the BioWare developers and don't blame them directly.

I think you're justified in this instance for your original stance. Morals unfortunately don't come into this for BioWare. This was likely a deliberate and calculated move to introduce more RNG mechanics and likely even more in the future. This is purely about using "popular"* game mechanics and how they can translate into monetising those mechanics for their benefit and to boost the bottom line. *Popular with game development studios and publishers, but seemingly not with a lot of players or parents. I highly doubt BioWare or EA will pull back from these methods until either player feedback is strong enough or legislation deters them financially. Luckily some other developers and publishers are more responsible and tactful in their approach and also have alternative methods of obtaining items in-game to side step the gambling aspect. That's all that is really required, the "out" that isn't detrimental to the game, the players or the developers. It's possible, however the silence from BioWare on these issues that have been raised is really quite telling on their intentions. The end users well being is not on their list of priorities.

So at which point does the behavioural habits gained from the latter part of your post lead to the former part of your post? It is literally conditioning. Absolutely parents should play an active role in any activities online, equally education is also a good way of making the younger generations (and some of the older generations) aware of what leads to addiction. However that doesn't absolve the companies who create the systems that lead to that behaviour of any responsibilities or to at least have disclosure and to provide links to services that can help people who gain those behaviours through accessing those systems. BioWare do none of those, EA also do none of those (there are literally no warnings about the systems in their products that lead to these behaviours that I've been made aware of.). I actually do agree with any government that wishes to legislate against these types of systems being placed in games. It's one thing for developers to provide systems that lead to addictive game play, it's a completely different thing introducing systems that can condition players to gamble. That doesn't just include "loot boxes" or "surprise mechanics" (or whatever BS they want to spin it as).

Used to when I was younger, try to avoid it as much as possible now I'm older (lesson learned the very hard way). Definitely have to say it's concerning me at how much RNG (aka gambling) has crept into this game over the years. Took a lot of effort to dissuade myself to stop buying Cartel Packs, however the same intrinsic mechanics have crept into the game itself, from my perspective I see it as conditioning players for the money orientated parts like the Cartel Market. At some stage I'll likely pull back from touching this game completely if it continues in the manner it has, or isn't drastically altered to have comparable methods of obtaining different parts of gearing by simply purchasing things like the amplifier you want for credits. BioWare management need to take a long hard look in the mirror at how their actions contribute to problems further down the line, they need to take their responsibilities seriously.

Make sure to pass the guild lead to one of your more frequently played alts if you intend to keep the guild. You could just become a "custodian" for the guild until others return, or just /gquit as you were going to and find pastures new and let it become someone else's guild and quandary. Go with your conscience.

That page is buggy as hell, sometimes it updates and other times it doesn't update. Especially noteworthy if someone has done conquest the previous week but hasn't yet logged into that character, the roster page simply doesn't update.

Conditioned. BioWare's job is done.

I mean that as I play the game to have fun and as much as I dislike saying it, some of the community of players are complete idiots and I don't want to run the harder content with them. Time factor and more interested in doing things that don't provide a gazillion tech fragments. There's plenty of things to do in the game that actually provide zero tech fragments for your time. Certainly more fun than some of the other stuff that does

I do love your posts. Succinct as always.

That's brilliant. Now please make a decent specific set for Madness so that doesn't get nerfed into oblivion while taking out the viability of Lightning. Also which part of Sins / Shadows dominating PvP haven't BioWare noticed?

While I agree the reward structure needs a lot of work to improve it (looks at the godawful PvP rewards for both ranked and unranked), I've singled out this one part I disagree on. I'm quite capable of running MM HS or Dxun, however I suspect it'll be the same as running Veteran HS in terms of other players ability being somewhat annoying, I don't want to work hard for rewards, I just want to slowly grind my conquest points and collect tech fragments to get gear. I'm in no rush and it's easier than dealing with some of the idiots who can't play the game (I see enough of them in Veteran flashpoints and unranked PvP as it is!). I don't disagree that harder content should have better rewards though, it's not an incentive for me but may be for others.