*squeal* Really? That's awesome!!

I know you are probably sick of hearing me make comparisons to ESO, but given that it is the game pulling me away from this one after 5+ years of swtor being my first and only MMO, it is the competition for my business and I only give the feedback because I want swtor to remain viable. I've mentioned before their far superior system for acquiring decorations (direct purchase), and I think you are hearing loud and clear in this thread that the more stronghold you introduce, the more the thin availability of good decorations in this game becomes an issue. Secondly, while it does not fix the population issues, the ability to be in multiple guilds would at least help with the issue of people trying to find groups.

I'm going to give them credit for not being that stupid (now that someone new is in charge). I could be wrong... but I'm going to stay optimistic since they already almost upped the cap and then reversed gear because the new management actually listened and understood we didn't want it.

Yeah I agree. I was fine with Alderaan most of the time, but I always got bored on Hoth.

I vote for the following suggestions made in this thread: How to improve the cartel market so we have incentive to support the game financially Story direction for the game. Player interest in paying for content expansions Companions. We miss them. I surprised myself with CXP not being on this list. I think with the latest changes to CXP/ boss drops I am reasonably ok with the system finally, although it is super confusing due to fix upon fix, and it seems questionable how it survives future level increases, since adding more ranks is not the answer. But I'm more interested in the items above.

As a subscriber who is going to remain a subscriber as long as there is any kind of subscriber tier, EA please take this statement to heart. I expect people to play with, and not seeing it is what is driving me away from the game.

This sums up my feelings as well. Someone on the first page said we need a practice area,and we do. I generally don't like PVP anyway because of the behavior of some people who play it, but at least on the rare times I try regular PVP, some basic PVE learning about how to control my character and how their abilities function applies. It doesn't in GSF.

Yes!!

Keith, I admire your post in this thread a lot. For five years SWTOR was the only MMO I played. I tried one or two others before, but they didn't hold my interest. I never let my sub lapse (still haven't). I've finished every class story. I learned how to raid here. I learned... pretty much everything about MMO's here. I love this game. I. love. this. game. That said, I have seen the huge decline in players during the last year. My guild and friends disappeared, and I've lost a lot of my passion for the game For the first time ever I've started regularly playing another MMO instead of this one, and frankly my dislike of 5.0's changes only had a little to do with it- I could always find something to do in years past. My lack of enthusiasm is mostly because I just lost hope. I lost hope that SWTOR would last, and every moment I play is overshadowed with the sense that all my beloved characters and the effort I put into their strongholds will soon be erased with the flick of a server switch because the players have been driven off and they're not coming back. Frankly I still feel this way. But ever since you became producer, I have felt a flicker of hope that this game can be pulled out of its decline. Sincere posts like your last one where you are not afraid to admit your mistakes despite the fact that you must know you can never please everyone on the internet all of the time, well they feed that hope. Please keep it up. I want to want to come back to SWTOR.

Keith and team, I'd like to ask you to consider trying for one pack's release, simply selling all the items in that pack for direct purchase instead of in RNG packs, and seeing what the revenue result is. Now that you have eliminated the "junk" in the packs, it seems like the next logical step. (I think the player base has communicated our feelings on RNG.) The title of this thread is because I was sitting next to my husband, me on swtor and him on TES Online, discussing his purchase of a lot of crowns to buy various vanity items in TESO. TESO, as you may be aware, pretty much sells their catalog of vanity items a la carte. And I realized I wished I had a reason to want to spend discretionary money on cartel coins. But I dislike RNG, so I almost never buy cartel packs. On the rare occasions there is something sold direct I want to buy (new stronghold, deco's, armor, etc) generally the subscription coins I have saved up cover it because the game hasn't given me enough other things to spend the coins on. So I can only say speaking for myself, but I would spend more money on this game if you went to direct sale instead of random packs. I would like for this game to motivate me to support them financially the way other games we play do. Trying only direct sale for one "pack" release seems like a good way to find out whether I am in the minority or not.

This is exactly how I feel too.

In the spirit of offering constructive feedback to the dev team: I agree with the main points of this thread. Unlike some other posters in the forum, I really like the story chapter intro to Iokath. However, it did suffer from the same complaint I have about everything from SOR and beyond: it can't be done in a group. I hate not being able to play through with my husband or friends. SWTOR seems to have recognized that its differentiator from other MMO's is its storytelling. So if you're going to compete on that, well one of the few advantages that being an MMO vs a more traditional RPG (like Dragon Age or such) gives you is the ability to enjoy that story with your friends. The way phases have worked since SOR is like taking all of the downsides of being an MMO without leveraging the benefit. Anyway, but as far as gripes with Iokath as a daily area: I agree that the fundamental lack of motivation for me is no dyes or decorations making it worth grinding rep. Forget arguing about whether they are worth the effort or not, there just plain aren't any. I've maxed rep with all the other daily areas and the Gree. But there aren't any rewards I desire on Iokath. I also agree that the map is a little confusing, but that could be overcome if one had incentive to learn it. We just don't right now.

This. If you are guildmaster now, that is proof your guild is dead and inactive. If you're not guildmaster then the GM is still at least somewhat active, you just aren't on when they are.

thank you so much for the locations of the datapads!

On Alderaan I've found the plant near Lerentha Dam and the calf near King's Pass, but need the data pad to start the quest before they do me any good!