My impression is that in July when someone mentioned that we'd be able to reset our current combat style (and also pick a 2nd if we'd finished the class story), that was the plan. But now they've determined that they won't have time to add a UI/functionality for one time switches to characters created before 7.0. And since that's one thing that would be confusing to staple into a later update, it's been cut. It's disappointing but wouldn't cause me to quit or anything. I'm still looking forward to being able to switch my marauders and juggernauts to sentinels and guardians. But the likely horrible class balance and arbitrary crippling of knight/warriors probably will cause me to quit. C'est la vie.

People like to complain, but the last few expansions for swtor (4.0, 5.0, 6.0) have been released in good condition if not bug free. SoR and Makeb were very damaged goods though.

Disagree. If the game wasn't meant to be played "fairly" while solo it shouldn't offer the "solo queue" option. There's no warnings on the label pointing out that queueing solo is for the "lazy weak-minded saps that should expect to lose". At least you are acknowledging that queueing as a group gives you an advantage vs solo pug teams. And again: the vast majority of players, even the most hardcore, don't like to spend time scheduling and forming groups so they can q for fair fights, they'd rather jump quickly into the action. Many if not most of those that go through the extra effort of grouping will even quit (or, lately, sabotage the game so it will end faster) if they accidentally run into a similar or better premade on the other side. Just like in ranked - if you can effectively Q for solo ranked with a group you are cheating. Because doing that gives you an unfair advantage. And, because this always comes up, just because an activity doesn't guarantee victory doesn't mean it is fair.

According to Charles they don't actually track every decision every character has made. KotFE/KOTET doesn't either but there are some things that get "remembered/logged" for the journal entries, etc..

The voice actor (Darin De Paul) actually has a couple roles he plays in swtor other than Valkorion. His main other one that I know of is that of Admiral Daeruun (Darin lol).

This problem has existed since day #1; BW is fine with unfair PVP. Just like they're also fine with having a very diminished subscriber base. It is very telling that even in ranked with the most hardcore players, many of whom have no problem with communication and cooperation to arrange win trading and similar tactics I'm not supposed to spell out on the forums, the queue that is by far the most active is the solo one. When Wow initially released their regular queue just for the grouped players it was dead on arrival. The "if you don't like fighting against premades get your own" argument is an accurate one, given BW's ambivalence, but it has nothing to do with a healthy pvp game in SWTOR. You could make the same argument about game balance, "if you don't like getting 'outplayed' by operatives and mercs just roll your own" - but that's just brushing the problem under the rug. If we couldn't group to pvp in regs my educated guess is queue times would go down and participation would increase. I'm sure for some people it would be a deal breaker. I'm also sure that queues getting shut down by premades for a few hours has also been a dealbreaker for many players. I've heard far more complaints about premades than I have about "bloated ability lists".

Musco: "new engine is not a thing" Keith saying we'll be on XBox next year (/sarc) : "... as you know we launched on Steam last year. We're looking forward to opportunities to expand our reach to new players..."

For Knights and Warriors they had nothing other than force clarity added since 4.0 (in 2015) when they got blade blitz. The last time I checked, my guardian on test had less DCDs than he had in 2012 (maybe since launch - he definitely had more buttons when he first hit 50 vs what he has at 80). The things that most affect game balance were in the new tacticals, utilities and set bonuses, not the abilities. I'm lost as to why guardians and sentinels, force using melee classes, now have less mobility, less defensives, less utility and less control than just about every other class in the game. Some things and some classes should have probably been adjusted, especially off-healing numbers vs dps. From what I saw they weren't. Huttball matches are still going to be desync fests. CC is still going to be spammed. The pvp matches I've seen and heard about from the PTS were not remotely pretty.

https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20211102 << Nearly all gear that is rewarded and upgraded will be static and non-moddable to allow for a more convenient upgrade path for the player. Comparing stats and upgrading gear will greatly improve and become easier to understand. Players will still be able to use moddable gear, but this type of gear is not required for players to be effective in any content in the game. Access to a moddable gear vendor will be granted at item rating 334, which is the highest possible gear rating attainable in the major game update following 7.0. We plan to provide that additional layer of stat customization to those players who prefer to min/max their characters between major updates. >>

Charles will find out just before we do. Lots of games get killed while people are in the middle of working on them and planning for their future. BW had another game in development a few years ago and one of the senior BW reps (who also works on SWTOR) posted on reddit about how it is "absolutely not canceled" less than two weeks before that game (Shadowrealms) was canceled. I'm not saying BW is about to cancel SWTOR, just pointing out that you and I won't hear that anyone's planning to cancel it. And no one will ever admit it's being canceled while they're marketing for an expansion no matter what.

Without Mandalorian kickstarting Star Wars again and without Steam and without the fall of Wow this game would look very grim right now. As it is it's far from "doing well". That said if the game's producers thought this game was about to die they wouldn't be giving the UI a new paint job. Even with a very low population the game still makes 10s of millions from the Cartel Market and costs a fraction of that to maintain. They have no reason to kill it unless they're about to replace it. I'm sure that once the contract dies however, if someone else makes a SW mmo, this one will die very quickly no matter what BW or EA do.

Feel free to read through this thread or the Sentinel one, Reddit or Discord. The only people happy with the changes to knights/warriors are the players of other classes. If I had to pick the worst things for their lagging game for BW to do in their 10-year anniversary expansion, they're checking off all the boxes.

Luke in the Mandalorian carried his saber like a juggernaut.

Supposedly only 334 gear will have mods. But that won't be available until the new raid is released towards the end of January.

An advanced class needs no new origin. The question/answer I'm referring to did not mention "origin story", it mentioned specifically: "too hard to balance". I know that Charles or Chris said something about "Styles will make it easier to add a new one" but there's been a bit of marketing tear by BW lately to try to sell/justify styles as a major game change. Vague assurances from BW about potential new expac features like "better than x-server" or "choices will matter" or "and then, in the future, after this next expansion, maybe we will do this for you" should always be taken with a grain of salt. Again, adding an advanced class, which was specifically asked for - most people have known a new class was off the table given BW's lack of resources since ~2013 - requires the same amount of added features (animations, UI options/menus, combat changes) to the game as adding a new style will. They haven't bothered.

For the last 10 years they've been able to create an advanced class that would take just about exactly as much work as creating a new style. They haven't bothered. When asked "why not" a previous answer was "it would be too hard to balance". I can't count on my hands the number of times I've heard "thanks to these background upgrades you've paid for we'll be able to do <this>, <this> and <this> more easily/often in the future" where that future turns out to be a purely fictional one. If we want to start a campaign for 8.0 features, now is exactly the wrong time.

Which internet forums do you frequent that are full of the people saying nice things and offering mostly positive reinforcement? Maybe you're thinking of Twitter? And "every time"? Really? How long have you been paying attention?

The massive nerfs to knights/warriors took me by total surprise after watching the LOTS announcement presentation video. Since then testing has not really gone the way I expected it too either - we barely got through the "high level" overview on classes, no deep diving or color coded updates for class changes or final balance passes. "What Should We Expect Next"? On the one hand I am expecting the unexpected. On the other hand I am expecting to be very disappointed with the damage done to my favorite characters.

They (Charles) said we're getting two versions. I'm sure there will be variations based on classes and some choices we've made. Separate class stories died in 2011. Occasionally we've gotten nods to the existence of the former feature. SOR had one scene on people's ships and a later class specific quest, Ziost had one scene on people's ships as well, KOTFE had one or two scenes at the very beginning. For the last six years, though, nada. We've been longer without than with.

Six or eight versions of the same cut scene costs $. I'm not saying they won't do it, just pointing out why they haven't been doing it. Be happy we're still getting two versions of the Legacy of the Sith story (one for Imps, one for Reps).

I also got 2x my salary in the stock market. If you wanna talk real life I had a great year.

This year: I got Limitless and the "Everyone Knows My Name" (or whatever it is) titles. I got a solo guild that only I have ever been a member of to over 100 (the guild is ~2 years old). I did my first swtor raid other than the Gree/Rakhgoul/Ossus bosses. I got a second character to 100 valor. I got my first 1 billion credits (I think I've got ~4 billion now). I took my longest break from the game since it launched. I'll probably get back to it in a few weeks.

I sometimes wonder if BW's idea of balance is making all classes equally played.

I doubt they will change any of the cut scenes nor do I think they should. There are already a few where assassins are using regular light sabers in cut scenes. And pistols are things lots of ACs carry and use but just in the cut scenes.