OP, you really naively underestimate how a game developer of this size works. Believe me, there are metrics. PLENTY of metrics. About player behavior, subscriptions, and much more. Also, community managers don't just read threads - there are analysis tools for identifying sentiments in a community.

Radically rolling back the entire patch would be the exact same thing that got them into this mess. Incremental fixes make a lot more sense.

I find the absence of the words "blind", "deaf", and "comatose" in this thread disappointing.

This is an awesome idea. Words cannot describe how much I'd enjoy having other legacy characters as comps.

My experience does indeed say otherwise, though I see why if you've been exposed to a certain culture exclusively, you could come to that conclusion. But I think this is the wrong platform to unleash my inner Eurosnob and get into a sociocultural debate about North American society, so let's agree to disagree then.

"Others are worse" is not, and has never been, a high-quality argument.

I don't, and I pity those who do. People who need that kind of confirmation from a game seem to lack that in real life. I've seen the "work" fallacy pop up around here a few times, sometimes in the shape of "things aren't free". I still think that this is an error of perspective, of overvaluing certain aspects of the game. In a well-designed game, you're supposed to enjoy the journey without the carrot - the achievements, all the other bling, that stuff is there to motivate you through the low points and get you back into the part of the game you enjoy. I'm not saying the game shouldn't reward dedication and skill, but if a game turns to work, and if you're actually suffering to get the carrot - then you're doing something wrong. And that's what I'm reading out of this line of argument - fear of having, for lack of a better word voluntarily "suffered" when you could have just waited and gotten the carrot without the suffering. In that case, though, isn't the problem more with being willing to suffer for it in the first place?

Yes. These "rewards" are just worthless items in a game. If I really want titles, items, credits, I can buy that stuff. I just want to see the story unfold without too much hassle within what little time I have to enjoy it each week. That clear enough for you? However, that's the kind of sociopathic argument people only make under the cover of online-anonymity. We're not in a competition with each other. We're playing in parallel, but separate games for all intents and purposes. What does it matter to you?

My feedback in short, playing a Guardian (Tank) with a healer companion inf 40 or so: combat is a bit too slow, downtimes between encounters kill the game. I'm somewhat alright with the power level of companions in combat, but adding the kind of downtime that gives me DaoC flashbacks back in is not a great choice in a 2015 game. If companions are supposed to stay where they are now, out of combat regeneration should be upped massively.

If companions had been set to the power level they are at now, many people - myself included - would not have returned in the first place. Yes, companions were OP, but now they're UP. There's a point somewhere in the middle, and it's up to Bioware to find that point, simple as that.

I'd be perfectly alright with that. I don't play for rewards, only for story. And the Star Fortresses, alas, are part of the story (as in: destroying them is a presumed outcome within the narrative, and not doing so is missing out on that).

That's just plain false. There are plenty of threads around here from both sides explaining many different takes on the issue and discussing them in depth. Yes, some aren't exactly constructive, but plenty of them are.

Just to fully understand: you like the grind?

I might be willing to put CC into that, so yeah, the idea has merit imho. PvP is easily solved: as soon as a player is PvP-tagged/engages in PvP, companions revert to baseline performance temporarily. The companion boost might just simply not be sold for PvP servers, as well.

I stand corrected then. Farewell, oh imaginary land of milk, honey and Orcs.

I can only repeat what I hear from WoW players I know. They may of course be overselling Blizzard a bit

Pretty much. The way WoW handles things like these is making small incremental changes over time, from what I have heard. That seems... like a sensible way to approach something like this, to be honest.

Oh, absolutely. I wouldn't mind it so much if they had scaled it down step by step to find a sweet spot - that's actually what we all (in the guild) were expecting. The nerf itself isn't really the issue either and wouldn't have been a problem if the instances in question were random Flashpoints, but if you have only so much time to spend on doing missions like these, and if these missions are presented as crucial to the story (because the SF are worked into the Fallen Empire storyline), once a certain threshold of time-requirement is passed, you miss out on something that feels like it's essential.

Agreed. Also, the storymode server idea is actually pretty good. I'd love for them to implement that. Would make everyone happy (except maybe the devs).

Very much depends on the companion's class and yours now, though. If you have to rely on a healing companion, you're pretty much screwed - DPS and Tank, not so much.

Star Fortress heroics are meant to be challenging - fine. But I've had three people drop from my guild because they simple do not have the time to ever finish one now. Maybe during the weekends, but with a game that's mainly a weekday evening distraction for them, that's very unlikely to happen. If these were short, challenging dungeons, everything would be fine, but why won't people understand that this is about time required to beat them not about challenge?

That's actually an interesting angle. Yeah, maybe that is actually the case. I found SF somewhat repetitive already, and it might be that the nerf just exacerbated that problem. Non-instanced weekly heroics are similar, because in some cases, these are already annoying due to being over-farmed. Now they take slightly longer - not substantially, but also enough relative to the time I have available. So yeah, we might be talking about an issue that can be fixed using other variables. The positive aspect of it certainly is influence mattering more - I'd like to see more of that. But the most straightforward fix still remains to make companion with decent influence more effective.

I fully agree with the OP. Were 4.0 levels excessive? Sure. But this clearly isn't a 1 or 0 decision. There's a sweet spot there that will be acceptable for all kinds of players. Here's hoping that 4.0.2 was a test to establish upper and lower boundaries for balancing and that they'll go on trying to locate that sweet spot.

It's still not about whether or not these are manageable to beat. It's about how long they take. All the nerf did was pad them out with needless downtime.

I'm willing to give them the benefit of a doubt. The core game itself is good enough to make me come back, as it did before. For the moment, though, I have cancelled my subscription and won't spend any money on the CM until they show a willingness to approach a sensible middle ground solution. As soon as that happens, I'll be among the first to return and spend happily on the CM.