Funny enough, just tried that...the quest reward is still broken. DOH!

It's great that 3.0.0a fixed a bunch (but not all) of the launch bugs. I'm happy with the change to training costs, and do NOT feel I should get a refund. That's a policy change you are making, and I don't think policy changes necessitate refunds. But some of the bugs meant that players didn't get rewards they were supposed to get. How do we now get those rewards? For example, my Broonmark has a nerfed legacy weapon as a reward on a quest that is now fixed. I'd like the good version, but obviously, I cannot go back and do that quest over. So how do I get the good version? Also, my imperial agent saw the crummy intro video that assumed I had not completed my story (which when I played, I didn't realize was a bug, only felt short changed, compared to other intros I saw). So, how do I see that intro video the way I should have? And of course I killed bonus bosses and didn't get loot. I completed HM FP's and got no credit. etc., etc. Should we open up tickets for all of these problems and expect customer service to hook us up? Right now I have a ticket on the first of these issues that's been open for 5 days. I imagine customer service is overwhelmed with similar tickets...which is why it's still listed as open. But is this really what players are expected to do for resolution? And what sort of eta should we expect?

A group of 4 of us had reasonable success completing Enemy Within without dieing. I joined 3 people from another guild, so I'm not 100% certain about the composition, but I think the composition was 4 dps, one dps was a shadow, so he could at least taunt. Another dps could off heal. The only thing we really had to do, was interrupt Mass Affliction. If you interrupt every single Mass Affliction, the fight will probably not bug out. Note, there is a Mass Affliction cast almost immediately after a knockback stun. Save your CC break for that, or you'll miss it, and you'll probably bug. Note, he casts Mass Affliction pretty often. It will take a 3 person rotation, and you all have to do your job, thanks to the longer CD on interrupt with 3.0. We were also able to heal through it, even bugged, but then that takes a dedicated healer and tank. At least that was our experience.

+1 Just noticed this today as well. On my Sith Warrior, the Vibroblade choices you have for the Devoted Allies are broken. They have only 33 main stat, and the assault version has Absorb/Alacrity, when it should have something offensive (power/crit/surge/acc?).

+1 Just finished Rakata HM...no credit.

People that are saying the OP was someone abnormal for "blasting through the content" in a day need to wake up. There was less than 8 hrs of content to "blast through" and I watched every single cut scene beginning to end, including both flashpoints. The current lag is stretching out the content more than anything. To the OP's point, I totally concur. If you already completed Forged Alliances, then there is not near enough content to get you to 60 without relying on other existing daily areas, re-running (again and again) the new FP's, etc.. Or come back for the next few days and do Rishi and Yavin dailies again and again stretching out the time in days, but not really adding much play time, since the dailies are mostly quick and easy. I finished up Yavin (aside from the final quest, which I completed today, even though it's still broken) at 58.7, not even 59. And honestly I was disappointed as well. I know Makeb was this way at launch too, and I felt cheated then as well. 0-50 was absolutely not this way at launch. I hit 50 well before getting off Corellia and finishing my class quest. So I would have thought BW learned from this shortcoming with 2.0 and made an adjustment in 3.0. I guess not.

+1 This is a perfect example of unfun.

Any time a new instance pops, I swap to it asap...but anything over 60 players on your instance is painful. At 30 its manageable, if not "normal".

The lag on Harbinger, in the Rishi planet instances is beyond bad. Can more hamsters be added? Or at least, reduce the player count before new instances are created?

This was NOT a pleasant surprise.

Thanks Eric. Looking forward to it.

At the Phoenix Cantina event early this year, I asked, "What is the most popular thing that players do in game?" What I expected to hear them say, "questing" or "flashpoints", but the answer I got stunned me: His answer was so abrupt, that I could swear half of the room almost yelled out, "Burn!" I know a few people walked up to me after and said essentially just that. Now, of course, since this happened to me, the memory of it is clear in my mind. Not that I hold a grudge, but I couldn't help remembering (which is why I asked the question) all of the awesome data that was presented by BioWare during the guild summit. Which is why I want to point out this, great question that was posed and answered during the presser last week: Here, data is used, which BioWare has tons of, to explain why the community's perception of a fix, sadly wouldn't be very effective. It's an EXCELLENT answer. I honestly expect that BioWare has many, many answers of this nature that actually describe why they make many of the decisions they do. They have the data, and they can use that data to make very informed decisions. All we players can do is speculate, because we don't have the data. So BioWare...please, please, please, consider backing off your "we don't give metrics" stance now and again. I'm not saying you open up a database of every single bit of data you have, but I hope you can see how this particular kind of answer is absolutely amazing.

30 quest max in the quest log. Speeders that go faster. Ability to convert bind to character to bind to legacy via Cartel Coins, particularly for Cartel Market items. Minimum gear requirements to queue for ranked PVP.

The only thing that has been truly confirmed is that the highest level is 198. Beyond that everything else has been speculation with no concrete confirmation one way or the other. That includes the post by Musco, in which he doesn't say ANYTHING about what comm will buy what level of gear. This said, I can see 186 being basic comms gear, but what you get is the random extras with poor itemization that NiM DF/DP drop. There's mostly B mods and lots of crit on this stuff. Along with the craptastic tanking stats like Acc/Def or Ala/Abs. 192 might drop from SM Ops. And 198 should drop from HM Ops. It's very possible there will be no way to get 186 set piece gear, unless you already have it from NiM DF/DP (with the nerf, it doesn't look like you will be able to continue to farm NiM DF/DP until you are in 198 min/max...which means that NiM DF/DP will only be run for achievements/mounts).

Eric- With 3.0, will we be able to abandon our class story for both Makeb and Ilum? With just 25 items in our mission logs, many toons have these unnecessary quests in our logs at this point.

First, I will say that I doubt BioWare HATES tanks. I do personally fear they underestimate the impact of this change, however. Adding 10% accuracy while in tank stance is nice. Tanks will gain about 10% dps, in general, as a result. It should be easier for us to hold aggro on group packs, and hopefully have fewer initial boss pulls where we lose aggro to bad RNG, even when pulled "perfectly". For those reasons, the change will be a good quality of life improvement. However, there are existing boss fights in the game, in which bosses and even adds have significant defensive buffs. The first that comes to mind is Bestia in Dread Palace, whenever 2 monsters are near each other, or whenever Bestia is near a monster, these mobs have HUGE defensive buffs. Even in Story Mode, this mechanic for Bestia exists, and in NiM, there are almost always 3 monsters out at a time, meaning 2 monsters are almost always buffed (cannot be avoided), and if a taunt were to miss at that time, it's a for sure wipe. Nightmare is hard enough, when done perfectly...having a taunt miss and wiping to bad RNG over taunt misses is beyond brutal. Without giving away specifics, I've heard that the new operations being developed for 3.0 have all been developed with the new character toolsets in mind. Far less cleansing. Far fewer interrupts needed. And almost certainly, there aren't going to be bosses/adds with defensive buffs that will result in taunts missing. So tanks will probably be fine for the new content...it's only the old content, if not re-worked, that will be annoying. Hopefully BioWare re-works the old stuff so that taunts won't miss there as well...especially Dread Palace/Dread Fortress, which BioWare intends to keep relevant. If BioWare does that, the sky will not indeed be falling.

As the owner of a coffee shop, it's worth noting for the 99% of people that are ignorant, coffee is ideally brewed at approximately 205 degrees. That's just 7 degrees below boiling, and far, far too hot to drink immediately. Also, coffee goes stale in just 15 minutes. When stored properly, it should retain most of the heat it had at brewing, meaning that when served it should indeed be FAR TOO HOT to immediately drink. McD's lost the law suit, because it ridiculed a customer that was burned by their product. The staff at that location made the customer feel small. Although the burners for McD's were pretty hot, that's not why McD's lost that suit...it was 100% because of the way the staff made the customer feel.

It was stated quite clearly by Rob Hinkle that there are encounters where you will now be able to miss taunts in the game today, even by a tank in tank stance. BW is looking at all of these situations, but right now they do exist. Of the ones I can think of, I'm particularly certain that missing a taunt on a buffed monster in NiM DP Bestia seems a perfect example of where a mob has particularly high defense as a result of game mechanics. Missing a taunt at this critical time is almost assuredly a wipe. If I can add 1% or maybe 2% accuracy and not miss that taunt, I can possibly swallow the ridiculousness of this change. If 1% or 2% still isn't enough, then I'll continue writing about how poorly conceived this change is. And even that is pushing it...as tanks in PVE will be asked to reduce their mitigation stats, and thus survivability, because taunting by DPS classes in PVP was Over Powered, which is a seriously stupid explanation. But back to the original point of the post, I'm almost wholeheartedly in favor of every aspect of the Discipline system.

I've got a measly 18 level 55 toons, and another toon at 30. With the 12x xp thing, I'll probably finish off the last one, for a nice round 19 level 55's. After that, honestly, with every single advanced class, race, gender, alignment, etc. maxed out, I have no need to level another toon. But I am quite curious to level a toon with the new discipline system. Looking at how early you get some killer skills the lower levels might actually feel fun, instead of a chore. Tanks that can actually tank hammer station? Healers that can actually heal? Anyway, just thought I'd say that this aspect of the discipline system, along with most of the class changes in 3.0 (outside tanks ability to *potentially* miss a taunt...until I successfully tank DP NiM, I'm not sold this is good), gets my highest recommendation.

FYI, I've been using the SteelSeries Cataclysm myself for 8 years or so. I absolutely love it. I'm on my second one, and getting the latest one was a bit of a hassle. I still see them on ebay, however. If I were to ever stop using this mouse, I'd probably opt for the MadCatz MMO7 these days. I'm not a fan of the Naga's solution of putting 12 buttons on my thumb. The MadCatz puts too many buttons on your thumb as well, but at least it's bigger, like the SteelSeries. The added size would probably help with the transition to a new layout, given how big my hands are.

I'll repeat my point: the chance to miss a tuant needs to be zero. It needs to be possible for a tank, in tank gear to NEVER miss a taunt. In every fight, in every operation, in every scenario. It needs to be impossible to miss a taunt. If 111 or 112% accuracy will ensure a tank can NEVER miss, then that's fine. But the live steam seemed to indicate they weren't sure if having more accuracy for Ops encounters was going to be enough. Hopefully over the next month they figure it out. I'll still re-iterate...I believe this is a change for the worse, not the better. I love the Discipline system. I love the DPS "nerf". I love most of what we are hearing about 3.0. This...I'm not behind.

I realize that all of the combat changes in 3.0 are not solidified, but having watched the live stream from last week, and given it some thought, of all of the changes being propose, the potential that taunts *could* miss after 3.0 has me the most concerned. I completely get that this is primarily targeted at lowering the damage reduction that taunt is having in PVP by non tank classes. That's great. Taunt is definitely a powerful CD in PVP by the DPS versions of tanks classes. Giving taunt a chance to miss in PVP and lengthening the CD, by a non-tank sounds like a great idea. Please...implement it. But in PVE, if a taunt misses during an operation encounter, the taunt is going to go on a longer cooldown than today, and whatever mechanic was needed to be mitigated by that taunt is now untanked for this now longer time period. I can't think of any scenario where a missed taunt for 12 seconds is unlikely to result in a wipe or at least 1 person dead. That's a pretty serious miss, particularly when the tank actually did their job and taunted when they were supposed to. It would be one thing if they didn't taunt and we wiped...but when the do taunt and we wipe...that's going to get annoying in a new york minute. To prevent this, tanks are going to be forced to gear up at least some level of accuracy. Hopefully, it's actually possible to get enough accuracy to prevent missing, but it seems to me that there are encounters that exist today, where it may not even be possible to stack enough accuracy. For example, taunting off a monster from NiM Dread Master Bestia, when 1 tank has 2 monsters and they are seriously buffing each other. The buffed monsters have a huge amount of defense when they are close to each other....missing taunts may be unpreventable in that scenario. And the DPS check is insane with perfect taunts...you don't have 12 seconds longer with them stacked. For most things, I'm willing to give BW the benefit of the doubt, until I see it. However, we've been down this road before with SWTOR. Taunts were able to miss (or be resisted) prior to 2.0. QoL was not good. PUG tanks, the rarest of all players in the game, need tank mechanics that are clear and predictable. They need help from the game to make their job easier, not harder. Lowering tank DPS (which equates to even more difficulty holding aggro), and having taunts potentially miss is just not the correct direction.

It occurred to me yesterday that if I was BW, wondering who to invite to do Beta testing, they could do worse, then to "randomly" select the people on this list. JS.

Eric- In this post on October 6, I asked for an update: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=767495. At that time, you had to know you didn't have a venue secured or that the date was in jeopardy, and you could have replied with even just some vague information about, "we are still working on details". It's disappointing that you, or someone from your team, didn't bother to do exactly that. A week later, I mentioned Vegas in one of your live streams (suggesting Tait should be allowed to go, which Tait asked you about live). Once again, with the perfect opportunity to mention this, you didn't bring it up. Inside 30 days is very, very bad form. You guys know that, as you've admitted above. But I still don't understand how this is possible. Whoever it is that is handcuffing you needs to be put in a corner and told to stop getting in your way. And if it is somehow you personally...well that's even more disappointing. FYI, I completely agree with BioWare's right that dates are subject to change. I also completely agree that stuff happens. What I don't agree with, is being fully aware of the potential and then likelihood for change, and not communicating that to the players. That's what being transparent is. The correct approach moving forward is far closer to what you were doing. You announce a target date range for the year, and no matter what at 60 days out, you let the players know if/when to expect the date to be firmed up and a venue selected. Closing the door to transparency should NOT be your response. Of late, that's what I hear you informing the players will be your modus operandus moving forward, whenever there's a hiccup: Less transparency. You are moving in the wrong direction, so once again, please inform the person handcuffing and right the ship.

As Snave suggested we do at the end of the interview, I want to thank Eric for agreeing to the interview, and say how pleased I was that he took an hour from his schedule to do it. Eric had said his goal is to be transparent, and this is a positive example of him trying to be transparent. Keep up the good work, Eric. Also, I can't count the number of times that what Snave said/asked was 100% in agreement with how I think, but a few examples: I completely agree with Snave that saying, "we heard you, but we have no date/plans/whatever" is far, far better than saying nothing. [/List] Agree: saying, "there will be 2 new planets in 3.0" by the self-imposed deadline, would have been better than missing the deadline and saying nothing. Agree: a popularity contest for picking class reps wasn't ideal. Agree: solo ranked should not be a metric which BioWare uses to gauge the health of the PVP community. Agree: cross-server queues, which would (potentially) allow the best teams in the world to play against each other should be BioWare's #1 end state goal for end game PVP, and that anything short of that will indeed be a disappointment (and I don't play ranked at all). Also I completely agree with Musco that the class rep system did result in a great deal of class balance changes that we as players are seeing right now, and will see more of with 3.0. Finally, I think Eric could have a highly successful career in politics. If BioWare doesn't recognize how well he did, in an obviously "hostile" setting, I feel sorry for Eric. He never once threw the studio under the bus, while at the same time providing non-answers to questions in which the only answer was to trash the studio. I think Snave recognized that this was best for everyone, but was still a little surprised Snave never pressed Eric on those few occasions where Eric side-stepped. So kudos to both for being gentlemen.