What they need to do with the servers, first, is to do some heavy maintenance on them. That, and raise their connection speed. After that, when merging servers, they should increase the server size, so they can accommodate the increase of players on the server. This will help some with the game. As to new class, they should have started with three factions from the start. Republic, Imperial, and Grey. (Or neutral, or whatever you want to call it.) The Republic and Imperial have limited contact between factions. They can't raid together, or things like that, as it should be. And limited to PVP, whether on a planet that both sides are on, matches, things like that. Also, both Imps and Pubs, they would have similar classes. And the ability to add more. They would be Jedi/Sith, Trooper, and Agent. The Grey would have the Force users, Smugglers, and Bounty Hunters. These can go cross faction, and join in on either side for both PVE and PVP content. And some may switch factions, even in the middle of things. (Except raids, that would be locked.) There you would be able to use something other than say your standard class to raid with. And allow for more raids, larger, etc. I have a lot more, but all three factions could be added to as time goes along. I would say one new class soon would be a good idea, with the Grey, and cross faction assistance, added. I know it would take a lot, and the story writing would have to be solid, already.

I have played other games that SWTOR. In most games, there are no gold spammers, at all. (Well up until the last time I played the games.) Star Trek Online did have gold spammers at one point, but they were dealt with by a few things. I know one was you had to register your account through their website first, then there were other things. The big thing they did, was to make it uber easy to get dilithium crystals by doing maybe an hour's worth of work. The other game I played, Ark: Survival Evolved, they did have in game moderators, that when you submitted a ticket, the developer would send to a moderator in the game, and they would do their best to fix the problem right then and there, if you were in game. If not in game, they could do it when you next logged in. And there were no gold spammers, at all. I guess Steam kept them out somehow. I also played Payday 2, and no gold spammers there. I will say this, that SWTOR does need in game moderators. They have needed them from the start. I have seen, and heard about, other games, and SWTOR has lacked in this department since the start. They could easily stop the gold spammers by doing a few things. One of the fastest is an in game moderator that would stand by where you phase in to fleet, and take a screen shot for what's going on, and mute that person that has a name that's game generated, and that would be the end of that. Now, they would screen cap what was said, and submit that as a ticket for the actual game moderators to find and ban the IP address of the people responsible for the spam. This is, of course, using player moderators, and actual employees of EA/Bioware to moderate the game. And they in game (player) moderators can also help with some of the minor issues of the game. Such as player stuck, things like that. The minor, niggling, little things.

Here's my way to doing things. With the "new" system coming out for getting gear, why not convert the warzone comms, and the crystals, into an equivalent number of points for command level. Each tier higher grants more points. Also, commensurate the comms and crystals into credits, as well. Comms to an x number, while crystals would also be a y, tiered, amount of credits. This way, everyone wins. And the credits could reenter the game in various ways. And 2 million credits, really, is a crock. It should start at 2 million, and go up, per character,.

Being an avid reader of several authors, and a budding writer, I find the writing for the whole of the KotFE to be lackluster, and frankly very lazy. I think they took a few pages from people like George R.R. Martin, and a few others, who are decent writers, but kill off important characters just because they want more blood in their books. Aside from that, I have played through every story line there is. They range from bad to good. The worst is the Jedi Counselor line. The mediocre to good are the rest of the character classes. The really twisted one is the agent, and it's a great story line. I digress, though. the OP has a valid point. I have read a number of books about Star Wars, and they do tell more story than the movies. When Yoda has the vision of the balance in the Force, he wasn't talking about Anakin. He was referring to someone later on. The true balance of the Force is neither Light or Dark. It is Grey, or Shadow, or whatever you want to call it. There is speculation that Kreia was Grey, to a point. So is Qui-Gonn, and a few others. I believe that the game itself, and even more so with Chapter 12, that to defeat Arcann, you should be neither light or dark, but just live in the Force. Be Grey, if you want to call it something, or Shadow, or others. This game should have had three factions. The Republic, which had the Jedis, the troopers, and SIS agents. Same with Imperial, Sith troopers, and Imperial Agents. The Grey should be the Jedi who were disenfranchised by the Jedi Code, the Sith who wanted something better, the Smugglers who got people in between, and the bounty hunters who hunted people from both factions. This would, of course, had been more to write, but they could have set canon for the game, and more, by doing this already, instead of hinting at it in a story that might be retconned when the next set of chapters come out, or what have you. This DvL is nothing but filler. There is nothing really new in this stuff, and reissue of some of the old stuff from the cartel market.

I am with the OP. KOTFE really is a joke. There is "new" content there, but it lazy, mediocre, and lacks real substance. I played this game in beta. The thing that got me into the game, and kept me going, was the individual story lines. Admittedly I have to play KOTFE as anything other than a Force user, but so far, it's generic. I mean I have read worse than this drivel, and even wrote some (when I was in middle school). That, and the lack of any new ops in a year. They should have added at least one new op already. If not two. That is piss poor planning, and retarded. You are shafting people for what, us to spend time, and money, on a game that hasn't really added anything to it in a year? Also who listens to the whingings of PVP'ers who want to make things easier for themselves, but screw the rest of the players in either story missions, or ops? (If you don't know what I am talking about, check out the nerfing they did to Sage/sorc healers.) Between all of that, and then this "event" that adds nothing to the game, except to give us gear that some of us already have, some that isn't needed, and some that, frankly, looks horrible, which is why no one bought it in the first place, or even kept it, you can't tell me that they could have added two ops, and written something better than some grade school, retarded, drivel that doesn't push the story, but rather stalemates it? As to the other changes in 5.0, allow us to be able to continue to respec as needed, as well as change cells/stances as needed. That, and stop retarding the system, to try to draw more players in. You will lose players, and all you will have are the gold spammers. I don't know about the "new" gearing system. However, I would like to see a change, slight, to the gear drops in boss in ops. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And Keep It Simple Stupid. I don't know if Bioware/EA has gone full retard yet, but it sure seems like they are reaching that point.

I would like to see a revampment/overhaul of the Legacy system. I have a few ideas on this. One is the perks. Rework those perks so that you pay a smaller amount for individual characters to have, then the current amount for the whole legacy. (Or maybe add 5k to it.) I am talking about the perks, not Treek, HK-51, or some of the other stuff. Just what is on the upper left and right side. The left down to the Improved Speeder Perks, the right, down to HK-51. Also, make the mail droid, repair droid. etc. also available to unlock legacy wide. (This would help out.) I would love to see the level cap go up on the Legacy as well. More Legacy unlocks, abilities, etc. I was also thinking that like companions, the legacy system could add a bonus to stats. The bonus would depend on a few factors. Level of Legacy, and a few other things in there. But it would be say an additional few points to main skill for the role you are playing. Call it a Legacy stat bonus. Nothing to Mastery or Endurance, but a few points where you need it, for your role on a character. Can make it optional, depending on situation, as to where points go. Make it part of the character sheet. I have much more to do on this, I need to get in game, take a look at a few things, and work on a few ideas.

First of all, I don't know what MMO's you are playing, but Star Trek Online has none. Nor do some of the other games that the company has. I played Battlestar Galactica a while ago, and there weren't any gold spammers there, either. So, that argument is invalid. EA/Bioware is notorious for having them, and they started after free to play was available. Once EA/Bioware admits that their employees are not gold spammers, then I will guess that half of them are said employees, and are perpetuating selling credits for actual cash. Second, an in game moderator would squelch the spammer faster than waiting on a ticket. I have seen this happen in other games I didn't mention. 3 reports, tops, and that account was banned, on the spot. Even the ip address in some games. I have, though, seen up to 5 reports. Before I digress too much further, we should not have to report and then ignore these people. Report, and they should be gone, and not eligible to come back, period. The ignore list should be for other annoyances, such as people who put Jawa in movie titles, and John Mad Dog, or any of his alternatives. And this can be account/faction wide, not just one character. Or have an option to make it that way.

The outfits aren't all that skimpy, compared to some of the other games I play. If you ask me, the outfits, for females, in some parts, aren't skimpy enough. Before you all say that I am a misogynist, or a dude who wants to see more flesh, I actually think that the female outfits in the game could be better fitted, suited, etc. to females. I could really care less if they "cut" out parts of things to make the outfit skimpy, or not. I would rather look at something a little more skimpy than to look at something ugly all day.

I believe the original intention behind the birthright and inheritance gear was to equip a new character of the same class with it. It had potential for more, but I would like to see it gone. It outlived it's usefulness after about 1.5.

i doubt that cross faction would work. There is no interaction between the factions until later in the game. There isn't even chat available across factions. They would need a huge rewrite to go cross faction. I do, though, agree that they need more operations, and to bring back the nightmare modes on the classic ones.

If there are no new operations in 5.0 then I may leave, as well. I hated that 4.0 didn't come with a new op, but instead focused on "new" content that anyone could do, not just one class or another. There hasn't been any new class story since Rise of the Hutt Cartel. And making heroics having more money than dailies on Section X, Black Hole, and even Oricon? I personally would love to see new class story missions, as well as new operations. Hell, even expanding current ones to 32 man operations would be a good idea. I doubt cross faction operations would work. And stop nerfing abilities because the PVP'ers are having so hard of time with it. Screw the PVP'ers, and let us that actually play the game have our full abilities.

First, an in game moderator should be on, and in game, and just bans the damned gold spammer as soon as 3 people report the spammer. Not just the character, but the whole account, and even ip address. This needs to stop, or EA needs to acknowledge they are doing this on purpose. Second, there should be a general flush of old reports and ignores. Not the whole ignore list, but anything older than say 3 months. Or a month, or something like that. This would keep the ignore list down. And add in a feature that is a person is ignored, but no report of spam, then it goes into an account wide ignore list, so people don't have to deal with somethings, no matter what character they are on. Well, it would be for the faction.But still, all characters in the one faction can share an ignore list.

+3 for something else to do, minus 900 quintillion for unoriginal, warmed over, bantha poodoo. (Okay, enough zeros to put this thread out of commission, but you should my point.) This is the same thing Bioware did with Mass Effect series. Made you think that all your building up of characters, your good versus evil stuff, and everything else, mattered. They say, nope, nothing you have done matters, it's all revoked, and you have to start over, and maybe it will matter. There is nothing new to this content. There is only the same thing we have been doing since beta stages, and that is trying to play the game the best we can. Thanks again Bioware/EA for this monumental screw up. Release a raid, and this might be salvaged, otherwise, you will lose players.

I have a few refinements on what I wrote. I have played other games, and I will say the level of service I have gotten from them has far exceeded the level of service I have seen out of Bioware/EA. we, as players, once a credit spammer has been reported as being a credit spammer, should be handled in the following fashion. This is only for credit spammers. One, that spammer gets immediately put into an ignore list just for spammers, and across legacy. This list will, on occasion be emptied. Two, an in game moderator will appear, after three reports. and essentially delete the character, ban their ip address, etc. Three, the account that was used will also be deleted, banned, and never to be used. I should not have a whole list of tickets just on credit spammers, that are still open. This is nothing but BW's BS. Other games, this would not happen, at all. Another idea, and just a thought, for PVP, if the abilities are too "good," in pvp, instead of nerfing one class, or two, or all, just use anti-bolster type thing in pvp matches. If you are certain level, it doesn't affect you. If you have some gear, but not a full set, at 65, then it does somewhat affect you, but only to a degree. Full gear, ranked, etc. you are very affected by this. All health is the same, in the match. Lowest person's health is what everyone will have. Armor rating, etc. will factor into how much healing or damage you are putting out. As well as other things. Also, the medpacs and adrenals are nerfed, a little, as well. The medpacs will heal you up to full, but over time. The adrenals should be akin to adrenals, and only give a slight boost for 30 seconds. And you can't spam the medpacs. Oh, and give us our companions back, in the Knights of the Fallen Empire crap. I don't want to lose any companions I have built a relationship with over time. I might have to go "recruit" them, but it should be something like this happening: "Hey stranger, long time no see, want to join back up, and have some more fun?" "We did have a lot of fun, let's do it again, and this time with style." And so on. You should not have to do more than that if you have a high affection level with them, 20+. 10+ you have to convince them you are back, and good to go, but that is a conversation. At no affection level, never heard of them, etc., then you have to do their stuff. Again, this would not be a problem with a few good writers on staff, or even a few decent ones. One last note, I still say that it would be fun to go up to someone, in game, and instead of just three answers, you should be able to something like in Fallout 4, or even write your own part, where you can say something like, "So and so, (your companion) has placed on you a thermal detonator. Because I think you are a waste of time and space, I'm going to do the universe a world of good by walking out of the room, and hitting the button." Walk out of the room, and hit the button, and the building begins to collapse. Then you run out, and when you are safe, you pant, look at your companion, "tell me that it was just one, and not the whole room, or building." "It would have been a long, boring, painful, conversation anyway, so the whole building had to come down." "I love it when you think further ahead than I do." +9 billion affection points. Or something like this. See, this would be fun, it would make things easier, as well. You won't have to put up with people you don't like, and so you take them out. Easy-peasy.

These "packs" should be bound to legacy, not BoP. Initially, they should be BoP, like when you buy a pack from the cartel market, but there is a timer on it, and you can either send it to another character, open it yourself, give it to a friend, or sell on the GTN. This is how to make those event packs work better than the current system.

Ben, First of all, nice letter full of doublespeak, and go no where, do nothing. I am surprised you count yourself, as well as others at Bioware as gamers. If you were truly gamers, you would have already fixed the myriad problems in the game already. I have a list of things that needs to be fixed. Starting with the credit spammers. Switch the game back to subscription only may help the problem. Barring that, then F2P should have a limit word count to type in, as well as no ability to send mail, or whisper. Or at least send mail free. Next thing to fix is the writing of the Jedi Counselor story line. It reads like a 2 year old wrote the story. After that, fix all the places where people can get stuck, and smooth it out so they don't. Then fix the other things that really need to be fixed. Oh, and something fun, stop catering to the pvp'ers. They should be ignored. You have done your level best to nerf all but the top pvp'ers in the game, and have catered to them. Fix what you broke, and stop the pvp'ers from whining all the time. Second, calling this thing that starts tomorrow a new event is a joke. It is just a way to make everyone upset, and drive more people away. Instead of the new "event," make a new raid. Do it on Ziost. This way, you will show us that you really care, and want to do something that nice. Third, after KotFE is done, please, for the love of all that is holy, go back to individual class missions, and class story lines. This might bring back some people. Fourth, consider allowing people to write their own responses to conversations, and allow for the NPC to react to what the PC says. This could make for some interesting conversations. However, there should be a limit to what is said, and how, but it would make the game more interesting if you could tell the person to go sit and swivel on a vibro-knife blade.

I would rather have a new operation over this "event." The "event" is nothing but a place marker for the worthless people at Bioware for being lazy, and just not any real new content. I feel that a new raid would be better than this ridiculous event. This goes to show how lazy people are at not doing anything new. We have new planets, and no new raids? What, are you kidding me? I wanted new raids when KotFE came out, and instead, nothing. So, take this event and shove it where the sun doesn't shine, and sit on a vibro-blade.

If they allowed for more customization for both males and females, then the ladies who play males could, potentially, have larger packages, so to speak. Guys who play females could create closer to reality/fantasy females. I think more customization would be a good things.

I left the game, but remained subscribed to it, for about a year. I come back to the game, and find that the level cap has gone up, the ops are higher leveled, There hasn't been a new op since Rishi and Yavin were introduced to the game. The new content is individual based, and episodic. Let's say we don't do this event, and let's add a new op. And stop nerfing the classes, because the pvp players complain too much about things. Either they get better, or quit. Stop losing players, and start making better content, new ops, and fix the damn bugs.

I'm going to say that the OP doesn't have a clue as to much of anything. $15 a month is 2 trips to McDonald's, 3 trips to Taco Bell, etc., so on, and so forth. A lifetime subscription will not save this game. What will really save it is numerous. Let me go through here, and name them, or just a few. 1) Update the damn game engine. They can use the same one, just update it to make it an actual engine, not some beta test version. 2) If you have a security key, you should be upgraded to preferred. And all that is, is either buying one from EAware, (through the website here,) or downloading the app for your cell phone. 3) Have even more restrictions on f2p, on some things, and less restrictions on other things. Here is what I mean. a) F2P should be restricted in chat, period. They can talk in general every 5 minutes. Whispers, etc. every 2 minutes. Things like that. Also, this would include FP's, and operations. Only unrestricted time would be during a PVP match. b) Able to trade, to a cap, between players. Except for xp boosts, ops passes, etc. which should be virtually unlimited. c) Able to use moddable, and legacy, gear, to a point. 4) And this one is huge. Get rid of all gold spammers, or a variety of things, one of which I already posted above. Additional to that, faction wide, legacy based, and higher count ignore lists. And an in game moderator that will ip ban them right then and there. I have more, but I am going to stop, and see if anyone agrees, or not, this list.

I was making a point by trying to be sarcastic. My point is this, fix the dps on Balance Sages, and make it so they are viable again as a DPS class. Since 3.0, I haven't pulled over 3k dps. I am not 100% sure whether it is gear, or speed of rotation. I am going to try one other thing on my end, and see if it helps. If not, then it's the game itself. Most of my gear is a mix of 186/192 comms gear. I don't, yet, have a set bonus, but working on that. However, I do believe it is because they diminished the damage output too much, and they pushed it up, a bit, for other builds. I am going to try two things on my end, to see if it's really me, or if it's the game.

Here's my suggestion, why don't EAware continue to break everything, and continue to fix nothing. Especially for the Balance Sages. Let's leave those broken, and not fix what's needed. Then let's fix the things that doesn't need to be fixed, like the Cartel Market, things like that. So, let's change what doesn't need to be changed, and stop fixing the serious problems. And add content that doesn't need to be in the game.

$200 for just a Rodian? Nope, not worth it. $200 for lifetime subscription? Nope, not now. I should have had that already, since I did buy the Collector's Edition, with the physical Darth Malgus statue in it. Here is what I want before I spend more than 6 months of subscription time. It's a long list, and a doozy. 1) A new game engine that works much better than the piece of crap they have now. 2) Updates that I can download and install, no matter what I am doing. Like in the game, or outside of the game. To make sure I have the update, I wouldn't have to exit the game, rather either go to the character selection screen, or even the server selection screen, and then hop right back in where I left off. 3) I want in game moderators that will ban a person for gold spamming right then and there. I play other games, and I see absolutely no gold spammers there. a) Failing that, a separate ignore list that is unlimited for gold spamming. b) Not just closing tickets, but they actually do something to the gold spammers, and the results to the ticket. 4) Full revamp of the commendations system. I want a set number of comms that I can hold per day, per week, and a tally of how many I've had, and currently have. I want the daily to be a set cap, the weekly a higher set cap, and no cap after that. 5) I want the GTN to be regulated as well. Stop allowing gougers to buy items at one price, and then sell it at a ridiculous price. 6) I want to see a revamping of the crafting system. Starting with the companions skills, and going from there. This would help in a myriad of ways. If you pick a crew skill that your current companions don't have, or like, you have to live with it. Instead, make the companions skills trainable, to a degree. Have one skill that is locked as to what it is, but trainable to a certain point. And this would be affected by affection, kills, etc. And could make the times go down, criticals happen a bit more, etc. Also, craft legacy bound items. And make the advanced anodyne stuff reusable. (all purple biochem stuff should be legacy bound.) 7) a full revamp of the skill trees. I don't want to be a cookie, anymore. I want to be free, to a limit, on what I want. Physic suffusion is worthless, as an ability, for Sages. Give the scoundrels back the freighter flyby. And other things. 8) Instead of nerfing the damage a level 55 can do, why not just increase the damage a 60 can do? Why nerf a good thing? Are they really that stupid? 9) Make more of the Legacy actually legacy, not just a few minor things. Improved Speeder piloting should be legacy wide, not each character. Of course it would unlock when you reach a certain level, but having it available at level 5 would help a lot. Along with that, a few other things, as well. 10) Make the datacrons, and other things, legacy wide, as well. For instance, you are playing Super Mario Brothers, and you get to the +whatever on which ever planet you are on. Well, that is only for that character. You have to do it 4 more times if you started every basic type of character on which ever side you play. Well, the thing is, is that sometimes it's easy to get say this datacron, and not that one. So, a legacy unlock would help immensely. You wouldn't get the full benefit from it, unless you got it on every character, everywhere. However, a choice would come up, asking, when you get to the planet, would you like to unlock the datacrons you have on this planet, or would you like to go get them? And the game would oblige, from that point, in helping to get it, if you choose the second. If you chose the first, because this is your 20th character, and you are tired of playing super mario brothers, as it is, well, you can choose that one. 11) Tier the conquest points, and standings. And make it top three guilds in each tier, rather than just one guild. And everyone who does at lease one thing during the week gets something out of it. Both for themselves, and their guild. And add more planets, and a few other things, that would make this even better. 12) I want some class changes done, and add a couple. a) Smugglers would become SIS agents for the Pub. They can still use Smuggler, but now are agents, basically. b) Bounty hunters would become Imperial commandos. They are the heavy armor, etc for the Imps. They are the mirror opposite of the Troopers. (Of course this would almost eliminate the Bounty Hunters, but I have a solution for that.) These would actually be one of two things, either trained as a bounty hunter, but pressed into service for the Empire, or they would troopers who receive training as a bounty hunter to be less rigid in thinking, etc. And be able to do something more. c) This would be a change in the Jedi, and possibly Sith. Make Sentinels their own class, as they are a cross between Guardians and Councilors, but they are separate from both classes. You can Guardians and Weaponmasters for Knights. You can have Sage and Shadow, still, for Counselors. For Sentinels, you can have Combat and Watchman. The same thing on the Imp side, with different names, but same, basic, roles. 13) Change Makeb, and add an operation that is worth something. Keep TC, though, for a quick fight. 14) Add more races. And sooner. 15) Stop revamping old gear with new colors, rather make new stuff. Along with this, get rid of the birthright and inheritance gear. It's worthless, except for credits, at the end of the day. 16) On the betas, stop just handing the top gear to people, rather have them earn it to get to the end content. This would ramp down some of the fights, and make them a little easier. 17) Expand the legacy to 60, not keep it at 50, and add more to it. There's more, but I am afraid I will continue to repeat myself ad nauseum, and ad inifititum. And all of this before I consider a "lifetime" subscription.

Here's an idea that would help with everyone's installation problems, and make the game better. First separate the launcher from the update process. Make the launcher be it own part of the whole process, but not dependent upon updating the game. Second, with the above taken care of, do two things here. One, super compress the game so that it will unpack quickly, and not need the internet to really do much of anything. Second, make every update separate, and downloadable, and offline. This way, we, the customers, wouldn't have to wait hours or days to get an update. When one is ready, the launcher would launch another program, and that would take us to the update section, and we can go from there. Third with the above, the game would actually be smaller, and be faster to update. And could institute hot fixes in the game. And even update the game while playing. You wouldn't have to exit, fully, the game, just to either character selection, or even the server, and just tab out, update, real quick, tab back in, and start playing again. Fourth, as an option, you could also use torrents to get the install, and updates, and make things faster that way, as well. Fifth, eliminate all EULA's in the launcher. If you have downloaded the game from the website, you have already agreed to everything, and that makes the EULAs in the launcher redundant. And, again, make the game smaller, and faster to download.

Ok, my chief complaints are the following, fix the enemies from disappearing into the ground. Fix the DPS for the Balance Sage, and change the numbers for the loot drop on Ravagers.