As for QoL improvements, for me, along with Rocket Boots, instant Legacy Fleet travel is a huge boon. I use it constantly. And group finder, for all it's challenges, is still better than no group finder, as we had at launch.

If you are like me, you have at least 1 toon that is 100% min/maxed in 78's. And probably several others that are somewhat close. So, given your main toon has nothing it can benefit from doing gear-wise until April, what are you doing with your play time for the next month? I've noticed within my guild a lot of interest in other MMOs. So far, we haven't lost a significant player from our top 3 raid groups to another game, but other games are more and more a topic of conversation. Often several people are playing Rift, or Guild Wars, or participating in the ESO beta, during their non-raid time. My main is a gunslinger. Thanks to the flyby nerf, I'm rolling dirty fighting in most fights, currently. I've got a HM Raid viable Sage, Operative, Juggernaut, Guardian, Sniper, Assassin, Powertec, Scoundrel, (2nd) Gunslinger, and Commando. Accordingly, I'm finishing off a Sentinel, Vanguard, and Shadow at the moment...for completeness. So most of my non-raid time is spent finishing off the leveling of those 3 alts. The lowest of which is lvl 30, the highest is 48, so they'll all be done by April. Although it may sound like I must play 100 hours a week, I really don't. I'm just efficient with my time. As I told the Devs at the cantina event in Phoenix...when you can clear DF/DP HM in 90 minutes, you get a lot of amazing gear, very quickly each week. After I finish off these last 3 alts....I'm not sure what will occupy the majority of my free time. I gave GSF a healthy shot when it came out, but I just couldn't find a way to like it. After getting enough requisition to unlock one more ship, I put that mini game on the shelf. I may go back and start working on my operative/scoundrel PVP gear set again....it's been 6 months or so since I focused on him, and with all the forum rage, why not play the FotM? My trouble is that while I like PVP a lot, I'm not amazing at it....better than average, for sure, but if I lose a couple of matches, I'll look to do something else that is more fun, since losing isn't fun. So for me, PVP doesn't hold my attention for an entire evening. Anyway, what are you doing? PVP? Alts? Seeker droid/Macrobinoculars? Voss rep grind? GTN merchanting? Taking a break?

I ran it today, after the patch, hoping we'd see some improvement. The "instance" had 11 players in it, and the lag was still pretty ridiculous. Honestly, 11 players shouldn't lag out an instance. The lag issue needs attention.

Other than patch notes, we don't often get much better than vague. Does this surprise you? At least it wasn't an outright NO, as it was with class story and companion story.

At the Phoenix Cantina event, one of my guild mates asked about crit, and it's value in the future, given it has no value now. They said they are "looking at it."

I didn't choose any one of them, I chose them all. I have literally every class, light/dark, male/female. And then I have two male gunslingers, because that's my "main", and I needed even more lockouts!

My impression of the roadmap is that BW is placing a lot of its eggs in the GSF basket in the near term. They invested a lot of development effort into it, and they want it to be something the players like. Indeed, there are people that are playing it, but I just don't know any of them. As a (bad) pvper, I far prefer warzones/arenas to GSF. And in general, prefer all of the rest of the game BW delivered to GSF. I wanted to like it, but it's just not something I'm interested in. At my core, I'm one of those progression raiders. My main is 100% min/maxed in 78 gear. At this point, there is literally no reason to log that toon in until 2.7 is released. So, I like that the roadmap tells me there is NiM content on the horizon, but wonder what I'll do for the next 2 months, while I wait for just HALF of the content is that is already due. At the Phoenix cantina event, I made a point to tell Eric and Ben that due to the fact Oricon story rewards Basic gear, flashpoint content rewards are all but useless, and are no longer required in a newbie 55's progression. Outside Czerka (implants/earpieces that you can find on the gtn for pennies), you can't get any useful gear from doing them. Although they won't say what the average player finds most popular, it was obvious to me that flashpoints are currently very popular, which is why they are delivering more of them. That's when they admitted that they might not have gearing rewards set correctly across all of the LVL 55 content right now. A discussion about how to get end game relics ensued...but I digress.

At the cantina event last night Eric Musco announced that they currently plan to publish a 2014 roadmap next week. Possibly even Monday or Tuesday. He wouldn't give us any insight into what that roadmap would contain, other than to say he thinks players will be happy with what is shared. I asked Eric and Ben each why the studio has such a huge concern over transparency,. My interpretation of their answer was basically, "because our boss is scared". It seems the company fundamentally believes that if they ever break a delivery promise, people will leave the game en-masse, and never come back. Ben said that they think players are more likely to stay indefinitely and be happy in ignorance, than if the same players get disappointed by a missed promise. I made it very clear that as a player, there's absolutely no truth to that sentiment for me. If they delayed a feature, pulled a feature, swapped feature A for B, etc...I wouldn't leave the game over it. I'd rather know the direction the game is headed in, with an understanding they will adjust course from time to time, than the current system of relative darkness. Eric and Ben both think the studio is communicating better now than before, but here I honestly had to disagree...at least right now. Hopefully next week I'll be able to agree with them again.

I think you are over-simplifying the choice I am making, when I say I am choosing to wear exclusively legacy gear. You are saying that my choice "is a quality of life whine". That's sort of true, but what's important to consider, is my actual point: by making this quality of life choice, I am telling BW with my wallet, that my quality of life is more important to me, than every thing they are trying to sell me in their gambling backs. Yes, that means, I'm placing a higher value on my quality of life, than my fashion, but the important implication is that BW cannot get any extra money out of me and any like-minded player. And that's why the issue is more than a whine. I'm comfortable paying BW more money on occasion. But not at the expense of my quality of life. If that point doesn't make sense to you, then fine...continue to call me a whiner. But at least understand the true point of the discussion.

I made this exact point to Eric Musco at the cantina event in Phoenix today., though from a different angle. With 17 toons on my server, which encompasses every single advanced class, I'm just not going to wear anything but Legacy gear on any of my LVL 55's (currently 11 and counting). For me, it's not the cost to change my outfit....I would gladly pay that now and again. I've seen cool stuff in CM packs that I would certainly wear for a while, get bored of, and then change to something else. I would be willing to accept the cost of re-augmenting and ripping mods out, gladly, on a periodic basis. That's a reasonable credit sink, in my opinion. But I won't pay that cost on a daily basis...which is what legacy gear allows me to do...avoid that cost daily. I can share gear between (for example) a Sniper and a Gunslinger and avoid the costs of ripping out mods to share my BiS gear across 2 or more toons. In this case, I'm not using the legacy system to spend comms on my main to gear an alt, I'm using the legacy system to gear a Juggernaut and a Guardian or a Sage and a Sorc, etc. That's a huge savings, that can be realized as often as daily, which makes Legacy gear compelling, once the number of LVL 55 alts you have gets up there. Eric heard my feedback. In my solution (different from the OP), I said the CM needs to sell legacy gear. I know my solution undermines the fee they get for collections unlocks, so it probably won't go my way either. But they need to do something, or the CM gear of today is simply of no use to me...which was my point to Eric, and why he paid attention to my comment. I made it clear, I'm not paying for gambling packs, because the gear I would get from it isn't Legacy,. If you want more $$$ out of me, something in this space has to change.

GSF would be the absolute BEST sub-game for a bot to be created for. There is no level requirement, and there are only 2 maps. You can queue for a GSF match immediately upon character creation, unlike warzones (where bots where pretty rampant at one point). As a result, you can farm GSF matches for credits infinitely. I don't know why it's taken the credit farmers this long to start botting GSF matches, to be honest. I'm not a big fan of GSF. I've got one toon that's played enough matches to buy one additional ship. That's about it. The game simply got too boring, too quickly or my tastes. But to think think it wouldn't be an ideal target of botters is truly naive.

Courtney, Please clarify the start time. On facebook it simply says 8pm. On the website here it says 8pm CDT. AZ is, of course, always in MST. I'm assuming the event starts at 8pm MST, but I know I don't want to be 2 hours late. Also, thanks for putting Phoenix on the map. And you've chosen an excellent time of year to visit. Should be a high of around 75, sunny and clear. Fun times for everyone!

Warzone comms can be traded for daily comms, which you can use to upgrade your gear. That's the fastest and easiest way to keep your gear current while grinding up the lvls, if you don't have cash/crafting alts. As for credits along the way, slicing will make the most credits for you while leveling. Slicing and/or Artifice are excellent end game crew skills for making the cash.

Intel i5-3570k + Radeon 6870 on 13.4 drivers (yeah....really "old"). No issues at all.

Personally, I would prefer you not twisting what I'm saying around, and just read what I'm saying. I'm saying it pretty simply. I think the current incarnation of the CM has a finite life. It simply cannot go on forever. We could debate how long it will last or how successful it is today, but in my opinion, what exists today is simply not long term sustainable. So, before it actually dies, I suggest BW get ahead of the problem. As well, judging by some FTP games, player housing can be used to pump life into a cash shop, and still not have a pay to win game. Other FTP games use buying augment type things to ensure cash shop success....that's pay to win. I'm suggesting a non-pay to win addition, and one that I believe will generate far more revenue than GSF. Do I want player housing? Sure. I liked it in SWG, and if done well, I'd probably like it here. Would I personally pay real money for something around player housing? Probably not. But I believe a great deal of other people will. And that's the point.

In my opinion, the current Cartel market offerings have a relatively short life left in them. There are only so many armor skins, color combinations, and mount variations they can come up with, to keep the whales buying. Sure, some people are always going to keep buying (aka gold farmers with stolen credit cards), but in my opinion, the current model has a definite diminishing returns life, when considering the revenue that BW derives from it. Player housing (and/or guild housing) would give BW a new and potentially large and untapped revenue stream. I've seen this used in another FTP MMO. The player got a small house via in game mechanics, but if they want a mansion, it cost real money. If they want to increase the capacity for more "stuff": real money. If they want the best looking furniture: real money. You could grind out a guild "castle", which took a really, really long time, or you could get one quickly with real money. You get my point. As much as some people adore all of the outfits they get from the CM now, they will lavish over decorating their "home". Now, I don't think _everyone_ will spend money on player housing. Just like MOST people do not spend money on cartel packs today. But enough people will, in my opinion, to justify it's prioritizing of the feature in the game. This opportunity for additional revenue for BW is quite high, and, I believe, will far outweigh the revenue opportunity they are going to realize from Galactic Starfighter., for example And what I would predict the CM will make them (as it stands today), a year from now. And if not player housing, then what next for the CM? Without something new, I'm concerned it places the game in jeopardy, unless BW finds a way to add additional "cool" stuff to the CM for people to spend real money on, but also not be "pay to win".

I've done exactly one HM FP in the last 6 months, and it was a guild run. They simply aren't needed by a long time end gamer for any reason. I legacy gear to any new end game alt, and well established end game toons simply cannot derive any benefit from doing a HM FP. And if that's my opinion of their usefulness, it's probably the opinion of most other established end game players. And thus, the people doing HM FPs are going to be relatively new. And that means the quality of their gear and skill is going to be lower. That other BIG MMO implemented an incentive for tanks and healers to give them a bonus reward if they queued up at one point (not sure if they still do). I would queue my tank, just for that reason, as you could get vanity pets, and such from a FP. So it is possible for an MMO company to implement mechanics that encourage people to queue. The additional trouble from this MMO,is the 4 person FP versus 5. The statistics for the number of casual dps versus casual tanks simply will never favor short queue times for dps.

All of my end game toons are in Legacy Armor at this point. I just don't see the point in them wearing anything else, because using Legacy Armor saves a ton of time and hassle when gearing, for those that have (for example) a sniper and a gunslinger. So every one of my level 55 toons (all 11 at this point) are in Legacy gear. Which means they aren't wearing anything you can find in a Cartel pack, nor will they ever switch. Because you cannot get Legacy gear out of a Cartel pack. Now....I'm more of an alt-a-holic than 90% of the player base, but as the game continues to mature, there will be more and more players like me, that prioritize legacy armor over all else. Which is going to cause the perceived value of cartel packs to further diminish.

Amber, since launch of this Operation, there has been a bug with corruption mines the entire time. This was the third attempted "fix". That's now 5 weeks (?), this mechanic has been broken in one way or another. Right now it's actually the worst bug it's been. Can BW please, please, please be much more careful with getting this fixed so that it is indeed fixed. I honestly fail to see how anyone could be testing this, and not know that this boss and this mechanic are broken. I mean....seriously....it's not like you have to do anything strange to see these bugs. Every Tuesday we go into this Op wondering what Corrupter Zero is going be like this time, and every week it's different. Last night was so frustrating, we just gave up attempting it and went over to DP.

I reported this as a bug in the bug forums, and in the general discussion forums after we ran into the bugged icon repeatedly on Thursday night. Also, on Thursday night, we were not seeing the pulsating orb thing around the player that has the mine as well....what we did see was massive damage. Quite OP mechanic when you don't know who has it.

Any other HM ops groups run into this issue last night?

If you are the team with 4, that is....as my 3 person team just beat your 4. But seriously, BW...you guys gotta fix these unbalanced arenas. It's unlikely that ANYONE thinks they are fun. I've suggested this before, but I'll repeat the suggestion, the start timer should NOT START, until both teams are at full strength. Then make the timer much shorter than it is today. 15 seconds or 30 seconds. As well, the deserter debuff needs to activate once both teams are at full strength. At that debuff needs to be like 30 minutes, at least.

Just thought I'd mention this again....It's only been a year. Please...add this as an option in our preferences. Thanks.

I'm sure many of the more serious crafters follow some form of this to get the crew skill missions they actually want: 1) Log on. 2) Look for the mission you want to run, on your best companion character (+crit) 3) It's not there (doh!) 4) On another companion character that you don't want to run the mission, start doing something that is there. 5) Log off. 6) Go back to step 1). Personally, when Unsliceable isn't there for me to run on my slicer, I start up other missions, log off, then back on. My missions reset, and then Unsliceable will always be there the second time I log in. Logging in/out is faster than going to my ship, because I want to stay near the GTN. My play style causes unnecessary load on the server, as my toon and environment has to load up and down multiple times to get the mission I want. This load contributes to server lag, and honestly, and more importantly...this isn't FUN. The mechanic that we have today is easily worked around, but doing so isn't helping anyone. The player, the economy, the server load....there is NO BENEFIT to how it works now. So my suggestion, is add a refresh button to the screw skill missions window, and be done with the need to zone out, log out, get on your ship, and all the other ways players choose to reset their missions, which are NOT FUN, waste time, and increase server load and lag, unnecessarily.

I was referring to the ability to fix the game without downtime or delay. Maybe a better term is 'Live Fixing", instead of "Hot Fixing". The term hot fix, comes from the electrician community, etc., where you fix a live or hot wire, without disruption to the power. That's what I'm asking for BW to implement....no downtime. No delay. Just do it right now. At times, Blizzard will be forced to literally change boss fights multiple times during world first attempts...it is possible. I can see this being implemented in 2 stages: First, enable server-side only changes, like with boss fights, where the boss script is wonky, or vendors that aren't stocked properly, but the client has the graphics, because the "error" was on the server side. A mob mechanic, is probably script and code. The script says "spread disease", and the code executes "spread disease". The code of the mechanic would be a more difficult hot fix....but that doesn't mean I don't want that implemented LIVE...just that I understand it's more difficult. And then second stage, is to allow LIVE micro-client downloads, with the missing graphics, etc., for changes where the client needs this extra "content". Also, I'm only suggesting this for the "game breaking" bugs. Save up the regular bugs for patch day, for sure, because these hot fixes are going to be VERY risky changes. A sliver bullet if you will.