I doubt it's Ea, LucasFilm (as was, now Disney) or Bioware as much as it is trying to fit the game into as much of a market as possible. As it stands the early story line for Bounty Hunter and Sith Warrior were pretty dark from recollection. Certainly the better story telling seemed to take part in the starting world and first chapter. Things started to level off and become rather generic after that. I was expecting the Imperial stories to have a far harder time gaining light side points. In my opinion there should have been more of the conversations where it was the degree of dark side you gained rather than still having the light/ neutral/ dark/ refuse response template.

It's a huge improvement for solo content over the random Daily selection from the old Galactic Command panel.

Are you factoring in time? I found I could have a sizable delay trying to get the final couple of daily areas I wanted to run because of the random nature of the old Galactic Command panel.

Thanks for the detailed response Eric. Currently loving the Activity panel for solo content over the Galactic Command panel iteration. Being able to select the Daily area I want to run rather than hope the Galactic Command Daily button would randomly give me my favoured location is a huge advance. I'm currently averaging 10 crates an hour which I feel is an acceptable return and makes me feel as if I'm progressing as opposed to the initial rate which disillusioned me so much to the Galactic Command system that I stopped playing. The proposed changes to the cxp rates for the individual missions will be a welcome increase once it is combined with the token buff (also an improvement with giving out the supreme buffs in the crates, in many cases it's self sustaining), additional class buff to 100%, with all the credits sloshing about from running the missions I may even splash out on individual cxp boosts (even though it is only 10%). All in all this version of Galactic Command progression for a solo player is within my expectations.

I very much doubt it as the file in question only seems to hold GUI options. I had to do a full reinstall of SWTOR recently due to a bad patching experience. I forgot to make backups of my character settings. In the end I just set up one character, then hopped back into files copy and pasted that characters settings and renamed them to the specific character name. With 39 characters at last count this is far easier than jumping into every character in game to set them up.

There's an option in preferences to set light/dark side options visible on conversation, or visible on mouse over if you don't want an obvious spoiler. There's nearly always an option that doesn't affect light or dark. Very, very rarely you may find a conversation where you can only take dark side options. The only reason to go all in Light or Dark is because of in game item use restrictions. This has eased a bit, originally sabre crystals were restricted, but with the recent light/dark vendors on fleet there are some legacy sets that have a reasonably high requirement.

Learn to use targeting keybinds. For some reason known only to the devs the 'Target nearest enemy' option is unbound by default, it can really help to add that. Also look into some of the other options, I find it helpful to have the 'Target target's target' as a quick bind, this way in a group I can get onto any group members target with ease. There are also options in the preferences on how you rotate through the mobs in the area, that can help.

I'd say as it was the threads creator that necroed and it's a short thread there's no real issue. Not as if it's off topic.

What game are you playing? Gearing is the same as it's always been. I could say even easier as I never got around to getting set bonuses before but now it seems impossible to avoid them. Gear for levelling, not really needed. Gear for Lvl 70 solo content, again not really needed but can pick up a tier 1 set at the class vendor on fleet for command tokens. Gear for lvl 70 end game gearing, the same grind as it's always been. Biggest shortcut pick up one of the easily acquired legacy sets of armour and weapons/offhands and have them stored in your bank (this can get confusing if you are trying to keep set bonuses). The outfit designer means there is zero impact on the look of your character, other than the weapon.

The Sith Warrior story line is in my opinion the best of the eight. The Jedi Knight just felt somewhat predictable and generic. That said all of the class storylines have highpoints, even the consular. When I'm running a new character through the game for story I tended to make the character then leave it in a stronghold/ rest area to accrue as much rested xp as possible. Then I'd wait for a double xp event and hit the heroics. Pretty much level 1-70 just running the heroics with the bonus of their quick transport. Then at level 70 I'd go back to the story and just run the story missions. I already went through the planetary and sidequests numerous times from launch.

Signed Legacy bank works fine for what it needs to do. At the very least it saves having to log into a bank character. Then again I can remember the days before your own characters appeared on your in game mail list and it was possible to send a complete stranger your hard earned credits if you mistyped a name.

Going from what you've said in other posts I suspect this is not the game you're looking for. The vanilla game story remains the biggest draw and some of the best Star Wars story telling I've found in computer games. Over the six years the game has been out the levelling time has been significantly reduced and you can now bypass non-essential missions focusing just on the story. If you're just in the game for solo content, levelling a character through the story then I'm not sure why you're even bothering with a rotation. As soon as you get level synced to a planet any difficulty disappears. Pop your companion to healing stance and you can happily click your basic attack to dispatch 90% of mobs, the few silvers and golds you'll run in to might need you to go to one of the higher damage abilities. If i'm feeling really lazy doing heroics I'll set my companion to tank and then just use AOE. It's not the most efficient but it's a one click rotation.

The marketing psychology is the same, irrespective of the virtual or physical nature of the item being purchased.

Younger generation!? Seriously, I see this kind of theme in so many of these types of threads that 'Gambling Crates' are a recent phenomenon. They aren't. They have a long heritage of nearly two hundred years of evolution from an advertising gimmick to their current state. I'm not surprised that they are now seen as a fairly standard format. I'm far from the 'younger generation' and yet remember the Panini sticker albums and their foil packs of stickers, not all stickers being equally available and having to pay a small fortune to fill out a book of pictures. The generations before me it was bubble gum packs or cigarette cards. The generation after Pokémon and Magic: the Gathering. And the appeal is still there, go into any supermarket and you will likely find a stand of collectable card packs.

There's been zero push for solo players to group, just jump into three warzones and it's done. You don't even have to win just participate till the end. It's by far the fastest way to 'earn' Darth Hexid.

I think the biggest failing of SWTOR is that it railroaded the player too much. While I enjoy Bioware storytelling, and there are some elements of the vanilla game that contained some of my favourite Star Wars moments (prior to Rogue One), it still had a high handed approach to player input. Just remember when the game first launched the end tier sets had fixed stats so all ACs were running around in the same gear. Remnants of that mindset still linger with the refusal to allow characters to equip (or unequip and still be able to use abilities) weapons. A wider race selection, nope sorry 'You'd get bored of hearing a Wookie in conversations and romances options would be wierd' um, Devs seriously let me be the judge of that. I can level a character from 1 to 70 and barely touch a cutscene now we have level sync on worlds. Not to mention the instant level 60/65 tokens. Maybe it's not a big draw for everyone, but the diversity and ability to actually play as a Rodian, Wookiee, Trandoshan, Nautolan core Star Wars races... but you do get to play as a blind or green humans. Wow, pushing the boat out there. If you want player retention you need to get the players to buy into your product long term and nothing helps that more than giving them a greater feeling of ownership over their characters.

It's a shame that when they release information early they get crucified for not giving the specifics. I suspect this is a huge part of the previous Dev induced silence on all matters until the content hit the servers. If you want more open frequent communication you have to be willing to take some gaps in detail.

If previous history is anything to go by the Devs flag such threads as no go areas for future comments. Intention of change was stated clearly. Change has been made. No further comments. I think the Devs need to look at the metrics of the burst of solo activity centred on running the Daily zones to gain cxp and wonder why a currency, that is essentially only useful for end game content runners, is largely exploited by solo play!? Let's also consider the fact that to get to the Tier 4 crates that may drop a piece of not quite best in slot gear at worse rng odds that the three previous tiers you have to get yourself through those 300 levels. That's not instant by any means. And, pretty much everything in the tier 1-3 crates is junk, they couldn't even be bothered to make the orange shells legacy bound. I think there's a problem in how you balance solo player activity so that it can't be exploited by those that have far more game time than others. As a solo content consumer (irregular play hours and I can't be doing with the inter personal dramas that seem to breed in guilds) I only get to play a couple of hours every other day or so. The high cxp rewards from the old Daily zones was a nice way of getting my main character to command rank 300. Even then I feel a little burnt out getting there as I knew it was a time limited thing. I can't see me going back to the command treadmill for any other characters. What really struck me though when I was on that quest to reach 300 was how much junk the crates dropped. Most of it was one shot orange shells, green jawa junk, and fixed stat recipes that had a generic naming convention and unlikely to ever be crafted by any one. And by the time you reach Tier 4 crates when you finally earn one the chances of it dropping anything of use is minimal. Why make it so hard to get these crates when the reward is a gamble pack with painfully low rng for Tier 4 set bonus pieces.

Community and replayable content are the two biggest claws an MMO can sink into a player. SWTOR could make vast improvements in community, from better communication (allowing players the most basic of chat options that have been in instant messengers for decades), to guild management (allowing guild shout outs to hit any character you are on even if it's not in the guild) and group identity (think guild holo banner). Invest in guild integrity and players feel part of a community and don't want to leave. However you also have to give them things to do, and that's part two. SWTOR has always had the story design flaw that it is Bioware's story and you get to participate in much the same way as reading a book or watching a film. There is very little impact you can have as a player and that's very much part of the practicality of running an MMO and trying to fit story into it for continuing content. Much of the repeatable content feels alien to the structure of the story. You only play the story content once, but then the end game content where you'll spend the majority of your time is the same few fights over and over. Until you decide to run an alt, or see another shiny game to play (and there are plenty of alternatives out there). The real issue for this old style MMO design is that people rush through the good stuff and then get stuck on the gear treadmill of endgame tending to burn out due to repetition of content. At least BW have tried to keep all raids relevant which means newer players will have more content available than just the current highest raid. The few players I still talk to have mentioned they just get tired of the gearing treadmill when it becomes redundant at the next level increase. I wonder when MMOs will abandon levelling and gearing instead focusing on social repeatable content with fixed difficulty tiers. Maybe some already have.

Forgot to include this link in my first post, guess I'm always kind of surprised that people don't automatically go to the class guides on Dulfy http://dulfy.net/2017/01/17/swtor-5-0-deception-assassin-pve-guide-by-jaek/ The speed it takes to level now is scary compared to vanilla game and most of the real speed bumps such as gearing a companion at the same time have been removed. Considering mission rewards are also scaled to level I find it more time efficient to scream up the levels solo through heroics and then run through the story at level 70. You should have enough GC points to buy the tier one set before you need to worry about grouping. My recent experience with levelling has made me appreciate any design that doesn't rely on it as a gating mechanism

I won't knock anyone for running with a healing companion, I do it often enough myself for ease of play. However, Deception build Assassin is the only character I regularly run with a Tanking companion (melee). Really helps with learning to position yourself for the more damaging abilities (it's been a while since I was last on my deception assassin, there may be a high level passive ability that allows you to ignore facings )

At this point I don't think the viability of the game is tied to the engine but rather what there is for the player to do. Add in the changing demographic of MMO players and over saturation of the MMO market, and it makes for a pretty low key same as usual until some one switches the lights off future for the game.

Link doesn't work for me. although I guess this one is the same story? https://www.engadget.com/2013/11/20/ea-holds-onto-star-wars-games-license-for-10-years-says-swtor-i/

Do you have a source for that?

Thanks for the insight. Not sure how it invalidates the fact that worrying about gear when doing solo PvE with a healing companion is a waste of effort.