No comment on the patch notes today about fixing this,

I have done three of them solo now. Never clicked on anything. Died a handful of times each time if that is relevant. Didn't even click the shield thingie during the last phase. Nothing. No achievement. Sigh.

Yeah, I was lucky enough to get one of those prints too. I thought the event was very well managed. They kept it engaging and provided some good information especially while they wandered through the crowds. I think that a lot of folks were unsatisfied with the answer about future operations (I know that I was) but the note to just hold on and wait until all the announcements for the expansions was well put. In my excitement, I forgot to ask them all the minute detail crafting questions that I had accumulated! Oh well, I guess that I will have to go to another event sometime. Thanks for the great time SWTOR!!!

I plan on asking that question on behalf of my 15 Ops team guild which is very concerned about that issue. Certain promises were made regarding the length of time between NEW Operations. No one in their right mind would consider a puff and fluff EV bolstered to 60, etc as a new operation. In conjunction with that question is a query about the promise made at the NYC Cantina quoted as follows to Mr. Musco: Question: Why so long between Operations? Musco: Looking ahead at the project plan they knew this was going to be a problem. However they only had two options that they could realistically go with. The first was to release an operation before the expansion, but have it quickly become obsolete come 3.0, and only have one operation available with 3.0. Or they could wait and have two for 3.0 but have a really long time without anything. It was really crappy and high end PVErs got "f*****". It is something that they don't want to ever do again (have that much time between operations).

I think so but I have not been in contact with him as of late. I am doing my thing of collecting and displaying and trying to upset the local economy!!! I am on Shadowlands server.

You hack! Get to work so that you can try to match mine! Haha. Actually old friend i am sitting at 167k and cannot figure out how people have more so you win!

Does this mean I can has my Billions back?!?

Thanks for explaining that. The guide that I read just indicated that there was a color change indicating safety and I have no independent way of verifying that.

I was looking for something like this. Thanks for posting this information.

For an extra bout of fun I discovered that there are issues with HM Underlurker where behind the rocks shifts from red to green and will one shot you if you cannot see the difference. Guess what...I cannot see the difference

So, when Terror From Beyond came out this discussion got some traction. A necessary mechanic is totally unable to be accomplished by color blind players. There were so many other ways that it could have been done and the devs promised to avoid this in the future. There was another flashpoint with color mechanics (I cannot remember which one as I stopped running it) and again promises were made. Now, we have the Ziost operations boss. I went in there for the first time today and I cannot see any color differences. I am not full color blind either. On the spectrum I am considered moderate. Be that as it may, I flat out cannot do the mechanic with the circles. Now, in their defense, they can claim that 4 other people can do it in an 8 man raid group and that is a decent concession. What it does do, however, is prevent me from participating fully. It makes me less desirable for PUGs. It highlights my disability. More importantly, it ignores the promises made in the past about not making color dependent situations prevalent in the game. SO, once again, can we please address this issue and prevent these situations from being coded into our content?

Because Star Wars Galaxies shut down

One might say that they are taking the Smedley/Torres Star Wars Galaxies approach to the forums which was simply: implement changes, ignore the forums, ignore "good ideas" resulting from actual play and testing, stick to their misguided changes despite the obvious mistakes and game furor that were raised. It is usually an ego thing. "We know better than you." Lack of communication, testing, and implementation was the doom of SWG. Smedley even admitted this as he was promoting other game projects that he worked on subsequent to his failure. I am hopeful that the lessons in history will be learned but the whole of the situation surrounding the slot machines prioritized over the lack of bug fixes to the end game content in OPS is a resounding signal in the negative.

With all the complaints about slot machines it makes me think that there would not be such uproar if crew skills were actually fixed in several meaningful ways. There doesn’t need to be a ton of changes but satisfying these ideas will go a long, long way towards mollifying the community. I will list some of the suggestions that I have been pushing for ages but this should only be a starting point. 1. This could be the hardest but most rewarding fix…give us an out of game App where we can send our crew members on missions. a. Said App should certainly allow easy switching among toons b. It should also allow mission selection since we can’t get on/off a ship/stronghold in the app c. It should be pretty…because who doesn’t like pretty? d. This list should have stopped at b. 2. Decide what rewards SHOULD be and then make then consistent up and down the line of the missions. a. I.E. Why a ceiling of abundant missions for Corusca gems (and all level 6 missions)? It made sense then, but not now. Update it. b. I.E. Underworld Trading Missions for Krayt Scales are limited to Bountiful. For some reason no Rich missions. As above, all of them need a sweep for consistency. 3. Purples are too rare. They really are. If you don’t increase the success of the critical, perhaps SLIGHTLY increase the return rates (I am talking slight changes, not something akin to say a slot machine change). That is why people went bonkers over slot machines. 4. Allow us to select the missions that we want. Getting on and off ships or traveling to a stronghold in the feeble hopes of getting the mission line ups that we need is a total and unnecessary waste of time. While leveling, I get it. Once you are a master of the skill, let us choose. At the time of this printing my top count for exiting and entering my starship for a mission (Underworld Trading, Grade 4 Rich mission) was 21 times. Doesn’t that seem like a silly mechanic? 5. Do a sweep on costs. It seems like they have spiraled upwards and out of control. Normalize prices and allow for changes when new content is presented. You are pricing out new players and straining older ones. 6. More options for giving some crew member needed criticals. The starship droid vendor has the right idea but isn’t complete. There should be options on there for everything so that you can tailor your droid companion to your needs. It will serve to balance the crew skill process and produce much happiness and general cheering. The bottom line is that there has not been a comprehensive pass through crew skill missions since, well, I would imagine since the beginning. It's well past time to make that happen. Cheers, A friendly neighborhood crafter/merchant

So we took an experience group into the Underlurker lair last night (01/21/15) and were presented with a variety of bugs. The patch notes claimed a fix for this boss (there was something minor about slot machines too but I am sure that people aren't as concerned about that). This group has finished the op several times so this boss has been passed. Bug 1: Half the group saw a green cross, half the group saw a red cross. (fail) Bug 2: The group saw both a red AND green cross overlayed (fail) Bug 3: This MIGHT not be a bug but I am noting it anyway. Our groups DPS is quite nice and have had no issues with the adds until tonight. Now, we are unable to clear the three adds after the first group. We don't know if they have more HP, less time due to unwarranted fails, or what but we do know that before we easily cleared adds and now we cannot. I haven't noticed much clamoring for a fix of these issues on the boards but since this op has been out for quite a while now, the issues are known, fixes attempted have failed, I was thinking maybe, just maybe, we could address a real game issue?!? ** Edit ** This was in 8M SM

Please don't ever mention Smedl....Smed;s....S's name ever again. It invokes a hatred that I have long suppressed.

In before the Ban! It appears that a sense of humor is not acceptable. I tried to make a humorous thread but it went bye bye before I could count to three. One, Two.... Of course, I may not have been very funny in which case, THANKS!

I am little surprised that this thread didn't get more traction. It seemed to take a considered view of the situation.

Star Wars Galaxies had a warden program where it gave ban privileges to a group of players who patrolled the game and chat banned gold spammers (and only gold spammers). If you felt that the ban was made in error you could appeal. If a warden was out of control, they were removed and replaced. It worked wonders for gold spamming...it just came into the game too late (like 7 years in).

Hey everyone! I am your friendly neighborhood merchant. I like to greet you with smiles and talk about my awesome merchandise all the while meticulously planning on how I am going to fleece you for every loving cent that you have. With this latest expansion I have cleared over 100 million. The numbers are so big, that I cannot fully keep track (especially since I spent most of it...). I worked incredibly hard to obtain EVERY needed schematic and jump into the game both feet first. So, how do I react to the so called bugged, overpowered, game breaking, doom and gloom bringing Contraband Slot Machines?!? Meh...who cares. Easy come, easy go. While watching people on the forums, in our chat channels, and our threads go apoplectic about this change, I quietly went back through my models, did some math, made some plans, and basically found this to be a big fat bag of nothing. Now, will I immediately lose out on a ton of profit? You bet your sweet ___ I will. All my current revenue streams will be cut down as I craft everything that is being affected. Boo hoo me? Don't worry. Where there is a will, there is a way, and where there is a plan there is a profit. But, but, but, they are GIVING AWAY PURPLES!?!?!?!? OMG. So...freaking....what. They are not giving them away. I have run the machines, I have seen the results, I know exactly what is being provided in the way of certs, junk, rep, blah blah blah. The purples are NOT free as many are clamoring. It takes time and boredom to generate the items. It is just cheap. Will the market fall? Sure. Is it ruined? No. Absolutely not. I jumped into my current model based on demand. Previously I was selling low end gear for cheap for 12xs. I made a killing on that too. Did I cry when that stream dried up when they took 12x away? No. I changed. I adapted. I will again. There will always be a market. There will always be a profit. You just need to adjust to the current circumstances in order to make it happen. It takes work. It takes dedication. It fundamentally takes patience. There was a problem with this expansion. The inflation of mats was greater than in previous expansions. The normal deflation was not progressing as quickly to allow more casual players access. People like me were maintaining high prices. Sellers of mats were not budging enough preventing the market from decreasing as normal. This solves that problem to the detriment of price gougers. Now, people have access to the gear needed to begin ops. Everything that I am crafting will be replaced by normal progression through story mode ops. Now, you can gear up your toons, alts, companions, whatever to tackle BASIC content. You still have to OP etc to get the gear needed to advance. This doesn't change that. I can craft my pretty little heart out and gear up all my alts but they still are just in remedial gear for ops. What this DOES do is give more access to more people. More people means more pugs, and ops running. More pugs and ops running means more chances for me to jump in and get some REAL gear!!! So, from a gaming perspective it is a big WIN! BUT, crafters are getting SCREWED!!!! Again, not really true. SOME crafters will take a massive hit, no doubt. Some crafters named ME will take more than a massive hit. So...what. It has not ruined crafting. It has ruined stupidly insane profits is all. Crafting is still there and needed. People will still craft items. People will still profit. I will still craft and profit for sure. My margins will just change and I may shift back to some previous models that were sustaining me and may now be more profitable again. Gold Farmers will take over the planet!!! Unlikely. They need to profit as much as anyone else. If there is no profit, they will not do it. Prices will stabilize at a lower level and that will be that. No more profit. Everything you see happening, everything that you see people worrying about will be normalized in less than 2 weeks (just a prediction) if not sooner. Folks, making money in this game is truly simple. Some grind, some craft, some people are like those beggars on the streets sifting the GTN for bargains, buying, and then upselling. I cannot go into all the ways to make a profit in this game. But rest assured, they are numerous. When you play an MMO, you come in with the understanding that any day a mechanic or item can be introduced to make past revenue streams completely obsolete. If you only have one stream, and it gets canceled, then yah, it can be a tough pill to swallow. But if you are a true merchant mercenary, you will diversify, expand, adjust, and always...always profit. Sincerely, The Fat Cat

FYI: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=7958124#edit7958124

Is that the one at the end of TOS?

Nothing wrong with a little quantity selling!

Hey everyone! I am your friendly neighborhood merchant. I like to greet you with smiles and talk about my awesome merchandise all the while meticulously planning on how I am going to fleece you for every loving cent that you have. With this latest expansion I have cleared over 100 million. The numbers are so big, that I cannot fully keep track (especially since I spent most of it...). I worked incredibly hard to obtain EVERY needed schematic and jump into the game both feet first. So, how do I react to the so called bugged, overpowered, game breaking, doom and gloom bringing Contraband Slot Machines?!? Meh...who cares. Easy come, easy go. While watching people on the forums, in our chat channels, and our threads go apoplectic about this change, I quietly went back through my models, did some math, made some plans, and basically found this to be a big fat bag of nothing. Now, will I immediately lose out on a ton of profit? You bet your sweet ___ I will. All my current revenue streams will be cut down as I craft everything that is being affected. Boo hoo me? Don't worry. Where there is a will, there is a way, and where there is a plan there is a profit. But, but, but, they are GIVING AWAY PURPLES!?!?!?!? OMG. So...freaking....what. They are not giving them away. I have run the machines, I have seen the results, I know exactly what is being provided in the way of certs, junk, rep, blah blah blah. The purples are NOT free as many are clamoring. It takes time and boredom to generate the items. It is just cheap. Will the market fall? Sure. Is it ruined? No. Absolutely not. I jumped into my current model based on demand. Previously I was selling low end gear for cheap for 12xs. I made a killing on that too. Did I cry when that stream dried up when they took 12x away? No. I changed. I adapted. I will again. There will always be a market. There will always be a profit. You just need to adjust to the current circumstances in order to make it happen. It takes work. It takes dedication. It fundamentally takes patience. There was a problem with this expansion. The inflation of mats was greater than in previous expansions. The normal deflation was not progressing as quickly to allow more casual players access. People like me were maintaining high prices. Sellers of mats were not budging enough preventing the market from decreasing as normal. This solves that problem to the detriment of price gougers. Now, people have access to the gear needed to begin ops. Everything that I am crafting will be replaced by normal progression through story mode ops. Now, you can gear up your toons, alts, companions, whatever to tackle BASIC content. You still have to OP etc to get the gear needed to advance. This doesn't change that. I can craft my pretty little heart out and gear up all my alts but they still are just in remedial gear for ops. What this DOES do is give more access to more people. More people means more pugs, and ops running. More pugs and ops running means more chances for me to jump in and get some REAL gear!!! So, from a gaming perspective it is a big WIN! BUT, crafters are getting SCREWED!!!! Again, not really true. SOME crafters will take a massive hit, no doubt. Some crafters named ME will take more than a massive hit. So...what. It has not ruined crafting. It has ruined stupidly insane profits is all. Crafting is still there and needed. People will still craft items. People will still profit. I will still craft and profit for sure. My margins will just change and I may shift back to some previous models that were sustaining me and may now be more profitable again. Gold Farmers will take over the planet!!! Unlikely. They need to profit as much as anyone else. If there is no profit, they will not do it. Prices will stabilize at a lower level and that will be that. No more profit. Everything you see happening, everything that you see people worrying about will be normalized in less than 2 weeks (just a prediction) if not sooner. Folks, making money in this game is truly simple. Some grind, some craft, some people are like those beggars on the streets sifting the GTN for bargains, buying, and then upselling. I cannot go into all the ways to make a profit in this game. But rest assured, they are numerous. When you play an MMO, you come in with the understanding that any day a mechanic or item can be introduced to make past revenue streams completely obsolete. If you only have one stream, and it gets canceled, then yah, it can be a tough pill to swallow. But if you are a true merchant mercenary, you will diversify, expand, adjust, and always...always profit. Sincerely, TheFat Cat

The last update was interesting in terms of what has been prioritized. Nerfing comms and content seems to me to be way down on the list of fixes when compared to a bug that prevents you from completing an operation. So, to the bug, the final boss fight in the Ravager operation pits you initially against a pair of bad guys named Pearl and Coratanni. This dynamic duo was a bit challenging for some OPs groups initially, but once the mechanics were figured out, even low geared groups were able to edge out a victory. Except of course, when you were caught in a seemingly endless bug loop that prevents the completion of the fight. I wont go into the detailed mechanics of the fight but suffice to say that after successfully completing the initial part of the encounter we click on the escape pod to transition to the second stage with Ruugar and lo and behold the fight resets and the recently deceased (or escaped in the case of Coratanni) duo has miraculously reappeared and at full health awaiting the pleasure our group again. Now, upon search, there are many so called fixes/workarounds for this. Exit and reset. Exit and don't reset. Exit and wait for a door. Kill in this order. Keep the dps the same until X. Push Coratanni early. Push her late. Etc. Etc. We tried all that fun stuff to no avail last night and basically gave up, went to TOS, and were eventually murdered by our friend the Underlurker (we really need the DPS to parse at least 3k each to even stand a chance and we are not quite there, haha). The bottom line here though is why the hell are we still trying workarounds and even then failing on a final boss when there have been game updates? Why is this not a top priority? How are new weeklies, rewards, nerfing, other bogus content more important than an operation breaking bug?