Investing in the small things that people do daily: Improving PvP. Adding at least minor stuff to GSF (even if they don't add new ships, they could build in new skins or even models for existing ships. There are plenty of 'fighter' sized models in the client that could be repurposed). Streamlining flashpoints (currently, I ONLY run Athiss, Cadmimu and Hammer Station because the other FPs literally take 2-3x as long for no additional payoff). I don't necessarily need big, showy expansions if the game is given love where the rubber actually meets the road.

... even if it's just cheaply thrown in, without dialogue, that guy needs to die. I'm playing through the JK storyline again and, my God, 'misogynist' doesn't even begin to cover how much of a creep this dude is. In fact, the term that came to mind for both me and my spouse at the same time was "sexual predator." And that's precisely what Doc is: the kind of guy who would slip a mickey to some random girl in a bar, take her home, assault her, and leave. He is THAT profoundly sinister and unscrupulous. People talk about Broonmark and Skadge and Kaliyo as bad or evil; as undesirable companions, but none of them even hold a candle to the dark force of nature that is Doc. And yeah, I get that not every character has to be likable; that there are plenty of 'great' characters out there - across all media - who are just plain remorseless and unethical. But our otherwise-sane PC doesn't have to take them along on their journey. Doc is an antagonist. We should be able to eliminate him as such.

According to fleet chat, the credit prices have exploded like 10-50 fold in the past few weeks. I don't honestly know if that's good or bad for the sellers, but I've heard some people say they can no longer afford these "supplements." Seems like this might actually devastate the illegal trade. The flip side is, I haven't seen actual in-game AH prices come down at all. Items are just as expensive as they ever were. So... there's now less cash floating around, items remain as overpriced as ever... Sounds like we're trending the wrong way.

Totally agree with the OP.

The thing is, small market games CAN be very successful. EVE Online has been a thing for twenty years now. It's never been a big product. But CCP has (largely) run a tight ship, and kept their core playerbase via regular small updates and graphical improvements that have kept the game viable. People at that company have made entire careers out of keeping that product spritely and engaging. And then, in contrast, you have a title like SWTOR, with an amazing license, and potentially - STILL - enormous draw, graphics that remain at least decent, and a playerbase that, while it sees an enormous amount of overturn, is probably comparable to EVE... and yet this game sees the most barebones and pathetic development cycle amongst similarly-sized offerings. And the reason? Because it didn't eat WoW's lunch at the height of Warcraft's popularity, so it HAS TO BE condemned to mediocrity. No - sorry. No 'thank you's offered. We live in an era when FFXIV - a game that LITERALLY HAD TO BE RELAUNCHED; that is hamstrung by the industry's WORST combat engine - commands chief marketshare because the competition is on its hands and knees, and MMORPG development is a wasteland. SWTOR has every opportunity - even today - to crawl back into the conversation, and yet has made a conscious choice not to. Why should I thank these people for that?

The quick travel fees are gratuitous and stupid. Do they really expect a few thousand credits a day to damage whales who are capped at 100 billion? Meanwhile, newbies on planets like Coruscant are legitimately hurt by the policy, thereby risking their potential retention/subscription dollars. Honestly, this is amateurish inflation control at best - it isn't going to fix anything, and it's screwing the people who had nothing to do with the problem in the first place. In the least, I want to see the policy rolled back... although a more definitive response would be to fire the person who decided to implement it. And don't tell me "they know what they're doing." No, they clearly don't. Because the game's economy never would have reached this state if anyone running it had a clue how to manage it. This isn't the national debt - it isn't even the equivalent of a small town budget. It's fake currency in a made-up world. And these clowns can't even tackle that? Axe them.

It speaks "we got the janitor to do the voice acting."

Another companion that nobody needs. Exceedingly unimpressive looking weaponry - particularly the firearms. Probably the worst set of costumes in a season yet (yes, including the 'toaster for a helmet' Shadow Initiate's set that I have, to this day, never seen another person wearing). Mounts that... just aren't even in the same discussion as something like the Shadowlight. And that's being very charitable. I mean, I get that a) this is just my own personal opinion, and b) it's kind of a crapshoot as to how the stars are going to align with what the art team decides to do. But... jeez... I compare the blaster rifles to something like Evenfall and I'm just left shaking my head. How did we go from badass space assault rifles to pipeworks weapons that look more low-rez than ordinance the game launched with?

The new season looks like complete garbage. Ugly weapons, uglier costumes, HIDEOUS mounts, and, of course, another companion I will never speak to, rank up, or even use. At least with past seasons, the aesthetics were relatively good. This one looks like a 100 percent automatic pass.

All I know is that without a galactic season in progress, there's a much lower factor motivating me to log in. IMO, seasons should be constant - the end of one should mark the beginning of the next. Having this gap at the conclusion of an event that lasts months anyway (and which most devoted players have cleared many, *many* weeks in advance of the timer being up), is ridiculous - especially when the seasons themselves are extremely light on content, and really just an extra motivator to grind daily content. I don't feel like this is asking for the moon - you're talking about Bioware developing two costumes, a companion (which they seem to feel strongly about being a required part of these grinds), a handful of weapons, and one string of text-based fetch quests every, like, 3 months. That isn't some titanic burden - even for a game which seems to maintain a fairly healthy playerbase (not what they were originally hoping for, but at least consitent enough to keep the servers running), despite being eternally short of content.

A lot of the romance options are just deeply, deeply unsatisying. That's one of the reasons I tend to romance Lana on almost every character (even if she tends to be kind of an insufferable Onee-sama type trope. At least she's a grown up, and fairly even-keeled.

I think I'd want it with a stock. But I also think that's just a little too clone-ish for me (as in, it just looks like an AK that someone has decided to call a blaster). Ideally, I'd prefer something that you can see the AK in, but not so overtly that it just looks like a real-world rifle. *Edit* Something like this would be ideal: https://i.imgur.com/pEgyLsd.png This would probably be even better: https://i.imgur.com/oo3RNzz.png

And before someone says "NO REAL WORLD GUNS!" Well, that cat's kind of out of the bag. And I'm not just talking about ubiquitous pistols based on Lugers and Mausers. Have you ever looked at the Retired Gladiator Blaster Rifle? It is literally - LITERALLY - a Lewis Gun with the pan magazine removed. In fact, the SWTOR version is a such a faithful, on-the-nose reproduction that it even features the side-to-side swinging loading mechanism for the missing mag - it's a carbon copy of the real gun. I wouldn't want something quite like that for a Kalashnikov-based weapon (it's too well known)... but it would be cool to see some kind of a nod to this famed ordinance. Perhaps they could do something based on an associated but less-famous weapon, like the Bizon?

Kotfe/Kotet were essentially written exclusively for force users - the plot is, quite simply, berserk otherwise, as there is no conceivable reason as to why Valkorion would want to possess a non-Jedi/Sith. I don't care that your smuggler/BH/trooper/agent might be uniquely strong or cunning or quick-witted - Valkorion only sees you as a vessel; a husk. He's also an elitist who prizes force supremacy above all else - and his plan is to subsume all those intangibles that make your, say, smuggler awesome. This is one of the many reasons why those expansions are so reviled - they only make sense for half the game's character roster.

You ever made an amazing "barn find" in this game? There are a fair number of old items that - due to a number of reasons - while once common, are either now unavailable, or the prerequisites for them to drop are so unusual that they are basically unheard of. I was just poking through the banks of a few alts when I stumbled onto four - FOUR - unbound D-200 pistols. These blue blasters are so rare that they are essentially priceless. They were originally (and, supposedly, still can be) a world drop on Dromund Kaas and Coruscant, but only for a very narrow level window. Ubiquitous in the early days of the game, they're basically unattainable in 2023 - the equivalent of the Chromatic Sword in World of Warcraft (except that item has become a drop again; the D-200, statistically, is not. The only way to get one now is to have someone find one in storage). I'm not even sure what to do with the things - the market for them is likely a small subset of connoisseurs. But I do know that they are super, super valuable. Anyone else ever had something like this fall into their lap via an old alt?

I don't disagree with you that it would be an increase, though probably not 2x, since the saboteur plot already requires substantial addition of VA dialogue which would - for obvious reasons - be completely eliminated.

I don't disagree with you that it would be an increase, though probably not 2x, since the saboteur plot already requires substantial addition of VA dialogue which would - for obvious reasons - be completely eliminated.

I'm just astounded that you and the other poster's Kaliyos are still alive. Almost worth playing through 9 chapters to watch the surprised look in her eyes.

I think, say, a warrior would functionally become a knight. As for the VA - just keep the ones we have. The only dialog that would need re-voicing would be the player-half of the pre/post flashpoint dialogue, although if they REALLY wanted to cheap out, they could have former republic characters still just run the pub FPs. This would be unsatisfying, but wouldnt really require any additional voice acting at all.

The only thing I'd say regarding budget is that we're not coming back from where things are no matter what - the game is already being told as a single narrative with only the rarest of nod to who our character is or what they've done. However, this one, isolated emotional payoff could at least be done (before barely acknowleding it again as we progress down that same, single story path) without majorly upsetting any budgetary constraints. Basically, what I'm saying is: this is no longer the complex, multi-faceted, 6,000-different-lines-of-dialogue-required endeavor that it would have been in, say, 2013. The game is so barebones now that allowing us to switch sides really isn't the major ask it once would have been - especially if it was a one-time switch that could only be done at a certain juncture in a future expansion or update. No, it wouldn't be as fulfilling a transition as it once might have been... but it would also be more satisfying, I think, than continuing to play these ridiculous shadow games where I can "support the empire" but go back to fighting for the Republic every 12 months. SWTOR has been dancing around this "might he/she ACTUALLY do it this time?" betrayal plot for a good 5 years now (hell, most of my Jedi are married to a Sith Lord. You can't tell me I'm still cool being welcomed back as a knight). It's time to actually let us go through with it (if we want to).

I particularly loathe the NPCs that open with some massive, uninterruptable knockback/knockdown (sometimes both as one ability). And example can be found in the last area of Tython, with the strong Flesh Raider Captains - the first thing they do upon aggro is smash the player character with some kind of upward sweep. This throws you into the air, knocks back, and knocks down. It is 100 percent undodgable - you just have to eat it, and hope it doesn't knock you into another group (which it can). In pulls with multiples of these mobs, you get swatted 3 or even 4x in a row.

Yes, I can play a "dark" Jedi or a "light" Sith. Yes, I can - in the most clumsy manner imaginable (seriously, how many Sith Lords would really content themselves with being a saboteur?) - undermine my faction from within. But in Star Wars, the ultimate expression of a fall or redemption is a faction swap - this is as true in the films as it is in the SWTOR. Vader? Doesn't just become a Sith - immediately signs onto Sidious' Imperial plans and goes child-killing. Tyrannus/Dooku? Same - he is recruited and changes teams. Luke? It is heavily implied in the Bespin Duel that, had he 'joined his father,' he would have instantly converted to an Imperial 'to rule the galaxy as father and son.' And the same is true in SWTOR. Truly - TRULY - lightsided Sith (we're not talking about practical Sith Lords [which is what, say, the LS Warrior actually plays like]) change sides. Truly dark Jedi join the Sith. And the reason for this is simple: outside of absolutely berserk reasoning (which SWTOR tends to use to cover our behavior - especially when playing as a dark Jedi) and plot armor, the Jedi don't tolerate dark side users in their midst. Similarly, we are informed by the Jaesa subplot that... When we encounter a true-blue, light leaning Sith Lord like... ... the only sane answer is to bring him to the light side; to join the Jedi Order. Now that the various classes (though not characters) can play on either side; now that the story is essentially all one narrative recycled 8 times, with very little practical deviation, I think it's time to breach the final wall and just allow Jedi who go dark to fully embrace what they are (if they want to; I'm not talking about obligatory faction swaps); Sith who go light to be able to walk the path of redemption; Smugglers who want to support the Empire to switch to Imperial space, etc., etc. You can't tell me it's not technically possible, because the "technical" hangups should all be associated with combat styles. A permanent move from one faction to the other should really be as simple as the game creating a 'clone' of our chosen character on the opposing faction, deleting the original, and then associating all story/dialogue moving forward with a character that switched sides. And THAT shouldn't, in of itself, be that much of an ask, because the game is already remembering all of these various choices we made (what companions are alive or dead; whether we chose to be saboteurs, etc.). Irrevocable decisions are nothing new for the game to deal with... and this is an irrevocable decision that has now because the only logical move for more than half of the characters I play. I want to commit fully to a betrayal or redemption - give me that opportunity.

I'd like to see just "a trooper" added to the mercenary companion roster (the same classification that Treek belongs to). Although, unlike Treek, I don't think this character would even necessarily need dialogue - they could literally be "that anonymous soldier" assigned to you, the same as any Storm Trooper or Republic Trooper that shows up in the OT/PT. I just feel like all classes in the game should have the option - from level 1/10ish - to tote around "a guard" that wasn't a robot or ewok. Having mercenary or Republic/Imperial 'muscle' makes sense for pretty much everyone (or, at least as much sense as having Darth Hexid next to me from level 1 as, say, a Smuggler. If that's not breaking anyone else's immersion, this definitely shouldn't be).

I do play both classes, and they are a mess. I'm sorry that you lack experience with other games within the genre - but 'recent pruning' or not, the current setup for Merc/Marauder and their mirrors is a complete joke. I could list offhand like five or six abilities from each class that could and should be merged tomorrow. If you're playing a title with a prominent global cooldown, there is an inherent, reasonable limitation that must be placed on the number of abilities with <10 second cooldowns - otherwise you just wind up with this pointless clutter. And no, nobody should feel obliged to remove redundant abilities from their own bar - that is the responsibility of the developer to recognize and rectify. The implication that anyone should start pulling attacks off their toolbar is, by default, an admission that more work needs to be done.

I automatically leave any of these FPs. It's a complete no-brainer. Same thing goes for the Revan ones - they're just too long. I'd rather wait out my activity cooldown than spend more than about 15 minutes in an individual flashpoint.