I don't think we can make any reasonable assumptions from this news. Except that EA has almost zero faith in Bioware (and who can blame them) Broadsword's current work is not on the same scale as this game, and will never have the same potential this game does thanks to the IP. This is probably the biggest game Broadsword has ever handled and if they are not owned by EA that most likely means that broardsword is making some sort of investment to try to be able to handle this game. You don't take on something of this scale unless you want to attempt to recover that. with offering jobs/benefits You are talking about a potential multi-million dollar company take over. This sounds like more of a studio shutting down more than a game going into maintenance mode. Not saying this is going to turn into a WOW killer, but I would be surprised if there isn't at least some attempt of some decent updates or maybe an "Expansion" with the investment being made here. I don't think an expansion will ever happen and we haven't really gotten an expansion since 5.0 anyway. The voiceover is a lame excuse, there are more and more MMOs that voice act. I am going off the assumption that Broadsword is NOT owned by EA. If that is not true then perhaps you are correct since its all just shuffling resources around, but then again. Why offer people jobs if the idea is to just milk the game anyway.

I think it was a terrible mistake to get the PTS up on a Friday if no one was going to be around to answer questions/concerns over the weekend. Especially since it’s as barebones as it is. Maybe we are making a mountain out on an ant hill with this PTS, but next time I think it would be worth it to bring up the PTS and have someone available to answer questions and address concerns for an hour or two. Just a suggestion for next time.

Please don’t take away abilities or make us choose which abilities to pick. Instead, all choices should be passives. In the skill windows the right side that has the passives has always been confusing to me. If you want to streamline choices revamp the passives for the classes and leave the abilities alone. This should give the classes more depth and allow us to change how we play depending on the content we enjoy Anyone else think that to be a better solution than what they are going for?

As a player and subscriber for almost all of the last 10 years, I will never support this game again if they dumb down these classes. This game don’t come out with enough content to shallow down the gameplay. I would rather not have an expansion then for them to butcher the classes and claim they are giving us choice by taking it away.

I am fine with there being an easy mode since i know that there are alot of players who just want to veg out and not have to think too hard. At the same time If there is an easy mode, the achievements need to be turned off and also the gear cap from this content should not be as good as any "normal mode" content. perhaps they can just give out crafting rewards or credits so they can work on their warddrobe or something.

as someone that rarely does ops I am upset. The single player content does not last long and the main thing that keeps MMO's going is guilded group content. I keep hearing from people when ask why do you still play WoW and they say that they don't want to leave their friends.

Since you can see the carrot. Can you please get them to change it to a cake? or is that a lie too?

Hoping to come up with a solution to make most people happy on the companion issue. Here is what i would like to see in place. 1. Back load the stats gained for the companion influence levels and increase the overall stats gained for a fully max companion. This ensures that people that put the time in as far as 3-4 hours a week can eventually have the 4.0 companions back(maybe stronger). Also as you play more and more you will start getting to the point that all characters will be able to solo everything except group flash points and ops. I think this will show a real sense of progression. At first you seem weak but after keeping at it you slowly notice that you get super strong. 2. Add companion influence bonus to perk for joining a guild. This is to help people that play maybe 1 hour a week close the gap on someone playing for 40. Plus being in a guild can help players in the early stages of the end game process and of course help gear them out for the ops and FP. 3. Negate influence stats bonuses to actual story missions. Doing this I feel will help give you a better way to plan a baseline on how powerful companions SHOULD BE. Do you have to balance content to influence level 11 or 20 or 0? Now it don't matter. You can take these numbers and ease them into the leveling processes also. 4. Have a way to DECREASE companion influence to give people a choice to players who want to set their own difficulty outside the story content. Plus i hate kosh so anything to make him angry is a bonus. Thoughts??

the mission text for the Star Fortress Heroic clearly states that it is solo-able IF you have a built up alliance. If that is not the case than something is wrong.

Even the quest text states that soloing 2s should be doable IF you gear up you alliance. Cant wait to test these new changes!

Thats fine and all but when we go through cut scenes in the story the always enable back. Turning it back to the same thing. This is usally right before a boss fight and gets really annoying

Well said. You cant have Ups if you don't have downs.

I have been home sick all week and been trying to test as much as i can. I know i have been somewhat whiney about this subject but i really want the game to do well and count me in the camp that thinks that most new players will just want to do the story and then leave and if we hand them a feeling that this game is more of a digital novel then whats stopping them from not playing and just watching it on someones YouTube channel.

Just me personally I think the skills need to be re worked which probably takes more than a weekly patch to do I would think. Also i adjust them weaker to single target damage to accommodate people that want more of a challenge. let trash mobs be trash mobs so people feel good about their progress. The strong elites make people have to input buttons to have to beat them. but again they should be in a class where you shouldn't lose unless you pull too much Then a boss fight can be a boss fight again. just MHO.

Companion Definitely need to be turned on. especially in the KOTFE story line. Even if you nerf them yourselves by disabling their abilities right after a cut scene they go right back again. you can actually get them to a decent level when you nerf them yourselves. However for 90 percent of the single target enemies they can just tank them all themselves and there is no threat of losing anything. Probably why people are complaining. I know Bioware will look at the metrics but when people really start to get to work leveling up their companions they are going to be even stronger. Got Lena to level 11 just giving her some crummy gifts and her charge ability alone went up 20 percent of damage. Which in turns heels her for that damage and then she turns into ms invincible with a cooldown that is only7.5 seconds. needs a fixin.

Thanks for this post. It really brings a lot of perspective to this I think. I think its safe to say that us players that want companions to be balanced don't want this to be a super grindy game like some Japanese MMOs We dont want players to die at every turn. I think what all players want though is to not only to play through a great story but to make us feel that we were a part of it. We love to play with our companions. If we did not i couldn't care less if they were Over powered or not. I have been playing with Kehm Val for 4 years and I have enjoyed my experiences with him. I enjoy his side story also. We don't want for them to Kneel for a wamp rat either. In their own way they should be epic too. I mean these are not just bums we are taking off the street these are elite forces that we recruit. if they are stronger than us though how does that make sense in the story? Why even have us in it? Lana went through alot of trouble rescuing me. Think about the Good Watson and Holmes stories. Why have Sherlock if Watson can solve everything? Where is the good story telling in that? It makes me happy people are having fun with the companions and the different roles they can do and the utility they can bring now. Its just for our story telling experiences we feel that they should need our help to accomplish their goals and they in turn guide us in what would usually be insurmountable odds and help us accomplish our goals. We want them to be our Watson. We want to feel like we are a team but I am the glue that keeps it together and the powerful force in the galaxy that keeps it all moving. I think that the video showed above all else that is not happening. I can't speak for everyone else but that is why i am unhappy about it. I use We cause that is what i am getting as i read more and more of these posts. Those who say we want this game to be super hard and challenging to the point where its no fun is just not true.

LOL. Can't argue with that logic. Thanks for that

You just described an interactive book....

Do you think its ok for them to solo this fight or are you talking about them taking any role we want. I dont want that changed I just want their effectiveness looked at. Can you explain why its better? are they doing something for you they weren't before other than just making it really easy for you?

Yea its always been like that. Not just this game though but every game. they don't understand that we have a right to play with our companion too. They tell us to where no gear but How would that of fixed that fight. They say that to take them off tank mode but what does that do to my healer toons? I leveled as a healer at launch and believe me that was very do-able so that argument was invalid. This is not going away until we at least get official word that its not going to be changed and the reason why. Once that comes then its on us to make a decision weather or not we should cancel our Subs. I don't think that is too much to ask. But looking at the desperation at some of these posts like this straw pool one. its showing to me at least that people know this isn't how it should be and they are trying desperately to keep it.

don't worry about it. People love their easy button and get mad when other people that want game balance want to take it away from them. Even i probably shouldn't of responded to him. Every this is OB crusade goes through the same thing.

Nope, prepare to waste your time responding to another one of these posts. They will keep coming with more evidence to prove we are right. Maybe you should quit?

enjoy the cheese mode while its here.

I am debating this weekend I am actually going to be buying a new account and record my experiences I want to see if its as different as people suggest that it is. I am willing to bet its not.

A part of me likes to think that this problem is more complicated than we think it is. Maybe they are trying to figure out a happy medium between people like us and a brand new player. Even though I don't think you can prove to me there is much difference. I would love to see a brand new account attempt this and see what happens. I remember at launch Crit and surge was completely broken and it took them a whole 6 weeks to implement diminishing returns on those stats. I would love just to see a Dev post to at least either acknowledge it or let us know whats going on. There has been post after post on this for days now.