Does anyone else out there have any additional information to offer about this apparent stealth raising of the SH cap? Why the hell wasn't this even mentioned in any of the patch notes?! Who is the person in charge of communication that failed to relay this important information to us?!

So, whatever became of this "investigation" that Musco promised to bring to the Dev's attention? Ever since my strongholds were grandfathered together from the last big server merge I have been unable to unlock and enjoy ANY of the newer strongholds like Rishi and Alderaan without sacrificing a staggering and unreasonable number of my current SH copies in order to be under this abysmally lame 10-cap limit. I have invested hundreds of millions of in-game credits and a small fortune of real money purchasing CM deco packs over the years. I have poured countless hours of time and energy grinding the game to build up my deco collection. What makes me incredibly disappointed and demoralized is how the Devs have totally IGNORED this issue for YEARS. We are long overdue for an explanation as to why the Devs have refused to acknowledge this issue and take steps to resolve it in a fair and timely manner. It has been well over a year since SWTOR reported a major upgrade and optimization of its game engine. It was touted for vastly improving the game's performance. If this is indeed true then Why do the Devs continue to ignore EVERYTHING that has to do with improving Stronghold Quality of Life? Dev team, you must understand there is a major problem that many players like me have been mired in for an unreasonably long time now. The server merge gifted us with extra copies of strongholds. Many of us want to hold on to these because it gives us more versatility and freedom to decorate. However, the current stronghold cap makes it impossible for us to keep these extra copies or unlock any new strongholds all because of this crippling and arbitrarily low stronghold cap. Does calling it arbitrary sound unfair? Is there a technical explanation you can offer as to why this cap can not be raised substantially higher? Is there a technical reason that is keeping you from allowing players to purchase additional copies of their favorite strongholds so they can decorate them to their satisfaction? If so, then simply TELL US! Please give us an explanation why these requests from the SH community have been repeatedly ignored for years now. Not months. Years. From a player's point of view it makes zero sense because the server merge proved that players can indeed own multiple copies of strongholds and not break the game. Being on the receiving end of this continued neglect has been an incredibly frustrating and demoralizing experience. Please make this issue a priority and bring this to a satisfactory resolution. It is long overdue. If you can not, then please have the decency and consideration to offer us an honest explanation. 1) Raise the stronghold cap to the highest level the game engine can possibly allow. 2) Allow players the QoL improvement of purchasing additional copies of however many strongholds they desire. 3) Allow guilds to unlock more than one stronghold. 4) Stop ignoring these issues and PLEASE communicate with us!

I agree, Stradlin. It may interest some of you to know that way back in 2016, one of SWTOR's lead game designers and lead designer for GSF, Michael Backus, was a featured guest on Musco's livestream. He only spoke briefly about GSF but did mention where GSF drew its inspiration.

I must respectfully disagree with this. You are implying this sentiment was shared by the majority of the GSF community and that is simply not true. The topic of using joysticks in GSF was debated to death on the forums years ago. The minority of players who insisted on joystick compatibility failed to understand not only how impractical that would be but also how much it would impede their ability to play this game mode. GSF is a mini game designed to function using the same components required for the rest of the game: keyboard + mouse. Not only would it be impractical to include a joystick option for such a small segment of the game but it would also put those people at a serious disadvantage. Keyboard/mouse players would fly circles around joystick players because GSF was designed as a 3rd person arena shooter and not a full-fledged 1st person space combat simulator. GSF's brilliance may have fallen flat with the general population, but it has a passionate community of players who absolutely love it. That said, GSF is one of SWTOR's greatest and most underrated treasures and it is my favorite activity to do in the game. It requires a high degree of skill and has just the right amount of depth and complexity to make it fun and engaging for those who understand how it all works. It was never meant to be a full-fledged flight simulator, but It still managed to integrate some elements from those old X-Wing PC games such as power management and use of deflector shields on some ships. I think it would have been a tremendous help if GSF had been supported by a featured story mode in the form of a 10 or 12 mission campaign. The story would center around the character enlisting as a squadron commander for their respective faction. The campaign would serve as a longer, more comprehensive tutorial to familiarize players with all aspects of GSF: basic controls, power management, weapons, engines, sensors, shields, crew skills and abilities, map layout, ship classes, advanced maneuvering like strafing and navigating through tight spaces, etc. As the campaign progressed so would its level of difficulty. The purpose would be to simultaneously instruct new players while providing an entertaining story centered around starfighters. By the time a player completed the story campaign they would have developed a more comprehensive understanding of how to play and be much less mystified when entering a live match for the first time. It is a big shame GSF never got the support it deserved, but I do hope the devs can still offer us a new play mode supported by 2 or 3 new maps. Star Wars: Squadrons looks really promising and I'm looking forward to playing it. It bewilders me to no end whenever I read other people's posts wondering why such a game would even be released. Is the notion of an exhilarating, intense, immersive space combat simulator set in Star Wars really that hard to comprehend?

Hello Devs! Thank you for giving us the opportunity to post feedback on the new swoop event. I just finished doing the full circuit for all three teams on all 3 planets and I would like to share with you my suggestions and overall impressions. 1) New, signature racer designs for each team. I think it would be a great idea to design new, exclusive mounts specific to each team and then make these mounts purchasable as a reputation reward. It would add extra incentive and satisfaction for players to earn these exclusive, team-specific swoop bike mounts. It would also be nice to see them with appropriate paint jobs including flashy racing trim, vibrant colors and sponsor decals. I haven't recognized the Blatant Bek design before, so that may be new, but I know the mounts for the other teams are old designs so I think it would be a good opportunity to add some unique new designs that are specific to this event. One suggestion would be to design new speeder mounts influenced by the original KoTOR swoop bike mount. Again, these could have many paint job variations from something sleek and polished to a battered old jalopy. 2) Larger, more visible Course Timer. The Course Timer should be made larger and more visible rather than remain tucked away in the mission tracker bar. Since this event is all about constant movement, it's difficult to read the objectives while in progress, especially if there are other missions already cluttering up the mission tracker. Maybe a new Swoop Race panel needs to be added to the Interface Editor or something. I just want a way to make my course timer and mission objectives easier to see while in progress. 3) Visible Track Borders Adding more distinct, consistent track borders to the courses would achieve a couple of important things. Primarily, it would help players stay on course by adding some better definition to the track and assist in reading the terrain. Secondly, I think this would also increase the overall visual appeal to the courses and give it a more distinct race track aesthetic. These track borders could emulate something we might see in contemporary racing tracks, such as a black and white stripe pattern. The border could also be illuminated rails or ground lighting with a chasing light sequence that move in the direction the player is supposed to go, which might look cool. 4) Voice-Over Announcers Similar to what we hear in PVP Huttball or Eternal Championship, I think it would add more fun and energy to hear an announcer's banter over a P.A. system whenever a player achieves a big jump or other noteworthy stunt along the course. 5) Better Visual Distinction for Objectives Spectator stands, fireworks platforms, and explosive piles could benefit from more distinctive coloring to more easily recognize them on the course. Spectator stands can be easy to miss, while the fireworks and explosives look visually similar. Perhaps identifying these objectives may be part of the challenge, but to me it just bogs down the flow. 6) Improved Speeder Sound Design I'm a big fan of Ben Burtt and the legendary sound design he achieved on Star Wars. Sound design is often the unsung hero of film, television and gaming, but its role is crucial in helping create a sense of authenticity and excitement. I feel the sound design for this event is a bit lackluster and could be improved by choosing more exciting and dynamic sounds. The default speeder engine does little to evoke any sense of speed, power or exhilaration. It sounds more like a family sedan that is just cruising to the supermarket. Changing the default speeder sound to something with more sonic intensity would help bolster the sensation of a high-speed swoop race. Additionally, the Speed Boost ability, and the Speed Boost pads on the track should also be assigned more exciting, high-speed sound effects. As a reminder of what many fans love to experience, here is a YouTube link to one of Star Wars' greatest speeder bike sequences: https://youtu.be/U74IATQJw_Y Just listen to the SOUNDS that make that sequence so exciting and thrilling to watch. It's a masterpiece of sound design. Use this as inspiration to infuse that sonic excitement into this event. 7) Overall Impression My overall impression is that this is a perfectly fun and welcome addition to the event line-up. That said, I must express my disappointment this idea could not be expanded into a full-fledged swoop bike racing experience that many SWTOR fans have been wanting and requesting for years. Considering the technical achievement of GSF as a distinct, unique mini-game addition, I know many of us would have been thrilled to have a speeder mount racing equivalent, especially if it allowed players to select their favorite mounts from their Collections to use as a racer. I really do hope something like this could be achieved some day. It would be a blast. Thanks for reading and I hope you consider my suggestions.

I'll say this up front: reading and posting on the forums always leaves me feeling mentally exhausted and very frustrated. Whether it's reporting a bug or offering constructive feedback, the exhaustion comes from having to put in the time, consideration and brain power to to identify and report a bug issue or craft feedback. The frustration comes when all that time and effort so often goes unacknowledged. It's like speaking into the wind, and considering the massive backlog of issues I have been reading here as well as experiencing in the game, it often feels like an exercise in futility and leaves me feeling very demoralized. It is a process that I do not enjoy whatsoever so I only post here once in a while to preserve my sanity. The reason why I mention this is because I think there are many others who have been playing this game for years that feel the same way. I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to Jedi Boadicea for being so exceptionally diligent in providing feedback that I have found to be incredibly helpful and important to the quality of this game. I also wanted to commend the incredible amount of work put in to creating and maintaining their Strongholds Decorations spreadsheet . If there are ANY Strongholds Devs who actually read this post, I cannot express to you enough how invaluable this spreadsheet is to help ensure that you STOP releasing new decos that are given the same name as existing decos, and consequently overwriting them and THEN neglecting the issue! Assigning a unique name to a new deco shouldn't require that much brain power, should it? Call me crazy, but it sounds pretty remedial to me. Considering the number of mistakes that have been made on this front that have resulted in decorations being senselessly overwritten and left to neglect, I'm left with one very simple, remedial question: WHY HAVEN'T YOU FIXED THIS??? I understand that mistakes and oversights happen. I also acknowledge the complicated world of coding can sometimes do strange, unintended things. I can forgive mistakes, so long as those mistakes are acknowledged and then corrected in a timely manner!. I get it. There are a lot of moving parts to this game and it is incredibly complicated to maintain, but something as remedial and trivial as assigning a name to a deco should NOT require months or years of neglect before it gets fixed. If it takes that long to fix something so tiny it communicates a very poor perception to me regarding the competency of your crew. I know Keith, Charles, Musco and the Dev team work hard to keep this ship afloat, but whoever is asleep behind the wheel of the Strongholds department needs to wake up and start taking their job more seriously. Whoever you are, you are painting a very poor impression of yourself. Step up to the plate, put in the work to fix what needs to be fixed and please just get it done. If you don't think that QoL is important, then please step aside and allow someone else who gives a damn to tackle the job. Seriously. Use JediBoadicea's spreadsheet. It is an invaluable reference table. He/she has already put in the work for you.

Two decos from the Nar Shaddaa Nightlife event were carelessly assigned the same names as 2 decos from the UNDERWORLD PATRONS decoration bundle. Because of this, a bug has occurred that makes it impossible to access the original decos from that bundle. FIX THIS ALREADY!!! This bug has existed ever since those reward decos were added to the Night Life event. This oversight could have been easily avoided if the dev tasked with naming these decos simply did a reference check. Now something so trivial that should have been easily corrected MONTHS ago has mutated into yet another source of needless frustration and aggravation, especially for those of us who paid MONEY for the original decorations! Please, please, PLEASE take the time to fix this!!!

Has there been any more communication from the Devs on this issue? I am in the same boat with the OP and it has been incredibly frustrating not being able to unlock Rishi or Alderaan because the server merge put me over the cap. I am incredibly frustrated we have not heard more from the Devs about this. The utter lack of any substantial communication regarding stronghold caps and other stronghold-related issues has became a major point of contention for me. I just want to know: what makes doing something like raising the SH cap so difficult? Would doing so present some kind of coding nightmare that would break the game? How about doubling the X and Y axes from 20 to 40 or even higher so we have more freedom to position decos where we want them? I remember when Strongholds first went live that the original X/Y axis maxed out at 10, which was awful and frustrating. Some point later the Devs quietly increased that limit from 10 to 20 in a later patch. It was never even mentioned in the patch notes. They just did it and it didn't seem to cause any problems, so why haven't they gone further to improve Stronghold QoL and allow players to purchase whatever Strongholds they want extra copies of or substantial increase the slider values of the X/Y axes?

Eric, This issue has been an enormous source of frustration for me ever since Rishi was released and I discovered I could not unlock that stronghold without deleting several strongholds in order to meet the current cap limitations. I presently have 18 strongholds that were grandfathered in from the big server merge. Because the current stronghold cap is at a measly 10, that would mean I would have to delete 10 of those stronghold in order to make room for both Rishi and now Alderaan. Some people out there don't understand why players would "need" multiple copies of strongholds and it is apparent to me that the Dev team seems to have a really hard time understanding why many players want this. If this is true, is it really that much of a mystery? Having an extra copy of a stronghold is like having an extra canvas for an artist to create a new painting. The server merge has PROVEN that it is possible for players to possess multiple copies of strongholds so why hasn't this been made a feature of the game? Many of us regard stronghold decorating as a fun and creative activity and would like multiple copies so we can decorate them in several ways. It's a simple concept to understand yet this issue has been ignored over and over again and it makes me incredibly angry and frustrated that we have not had ANY communication or dialogue of any kind about stronghold QoL despite PAGES AND PAGES of vital, constructive feedback from the community. I would really love to unlock Rishi and Alderaan, but why should I be forced to sacrifice my current stronghold collection in order to do so? If the server merge created some disparity in fairness and equality for all players because too many weren't savvy enough to capitalize on the benefits of the server merge then why don't you simply allow multiple SH copies to be made available for purchase on the Cartel Market so ALL players can have the choice of how many additional copies they need. Something needs to be done. Everything I have stated in this post has been stated by several others and met with absolute silence from the Devs and it absolutely sucks.

Can anyone else recollect the original size of the Zakuulan Canister decoration? I just placed one in my stronghold and noticed it seems to be about 30% larger than I remember. Am I just going crazy?

I decided to purchase the latest decoration bundles and was very frustrated and disappointed (yet again) to discover the Onderon Love Seat scaled down to such a disproportionately small size. It is a really nicely designed piece of furniture, and for some reason the Devs in charge of releasing this type of content don't stop to actually consider scaling it proportionally to the size of our characters! The result is furniture that appears about 25-30% smaller than it should be. This happened with other pieces like the Zakuulan Socialite Couch and the Dark Eternal Throne. Details matter, and what I have observed over the years I have invested in playing this game is that there is a consistent lack of consideration and zero communication when it comes to Strongholds and Decorations. It is incredibly frustrating that something as simple as scaling a piece of furniture to its proportional size continues to occur despite hundreds of posts from avid, dedicated decorators who provide thoughtful and constructive feedback. Why, why WHY does this kind of thoughtless crap keep happening?

I just opened the new Mek-sha signs bundle and put all of them on display in my spare stronghold. The nonstop buzzing is meant to emulate what we hear from old electric signs in the real world and while I can appreciate that level of detail to a certain degree, what I found far more aggravating is how these Devs in charge of Strongholds and decorations seem to put zero consideration in how details like these may impact the players overall experience! I like sound effects. I think they help to enhance player immersion and that is a great thing, but listening to dozens of signs emitting a variety of constant buzzing is pretty excruciating and will fray the nerves and tolerance of any player who enjoys playing the game with the volume on. Yes, there is always the option to turn down Ambient sound effects in Preferences, but that doesn't solve this problem because the obnoxious buzzing they emit is disproportionate to other sound effects in the game. I don't necessarily wish to see these sounds removed entirely, but I do think their volume output and range needs to be dramatically reduced to much more tolerable levels. Signs like these feel like they were designed with the intention of being displayed in Rishi or Tatooine--both being large, expansive strongholds with plenty of distant exterior walls to stick them on. I keep a Nar Shaddaa stronghold reserved just to display any new decos so I can keep better track of them and decide where I might put them to use. That stronghold now sounds like an electric power plant from all the buzzing going on in there. Devs, seriously. Tone it down!

I am happy to see this thread getting some much-needed traction. While I have plenty to add I don't want to deviate from the OP's original laundry list in the above quote by throwing my own wish list into the works. There are hundreds of posts already out there that offer some great ideas. I do want to express my own extreme frustration, disappointment and dissatisfaction that the Dev team has continuously ignored the needs of the Stronghold community for so long. I am an avid decorator who capitalized on the last server merge and ended up with multiple copies. However, when Rishi came out and I tried to purchase it I received a message prompt from the Rishi SH terminal alerting me that I was over my limit and that I could not purchase the new stronghold until I was back under the current cap of 10. I did not do this because I hated the idea of losing all my extra copies due to some arbitrary limit cap. I do not consider being forced to delete multiple copies of a SH in order to make room for 1 to be a fair exchange, so I had no choice but to abstain from purchasing Rishi, remain patient and hope that this new issue that had arisen would be addressed by the Devs. In this post I'd like to focus specifically on Points 4 and 5: Current stronghold caps and allowing players to purchase multiple copies. A year has passed and there has been not been a single word from the Devs about these issues and the many other QoL issues that have been a tremendous source of frustration for the Stronghold community. I imagine most of the people who didn't capitalize on the server merge could care less about this situation, and might think that those of us who managed to acquire multiple SH copies to be cheating or exploiting the system in some way. To those of you who think I am just being greedy or spoiled and believe I should delete all my extra copies if I truly want to unlock Rishi my question is: why should I have to? Why should I be forced to delete these precious copies I was fortunate enough to get from the merger in order to unlock a new stronghold? A better question I have is: why can't players simply be allowed to purchase as many extra copies of a SH that they want? Why is there such a small cap to begin with? If anything, the server merge--whether it was by sheer mistake or some kind of coding fluke--proved that it was indeed possible for players to possess multiple copies of strongholds, so why continue to impose these limitations of only 1 type of SH per player and a maximum of 10 total? Some of you scratch your heads as to why anybody would need or want multiple copies of a stronghold. To them I simply ask: is it really that hard for you to guess? If so, then here is my very simple answer: An empty stronghold is a fresh new canvas. As a SH decorator I would much rather have multiple canvases to design a variety of layouts rather than be limited to just one. It's as simple as that. While Strongholds were originally intended to be a kind of supplemental game mechanic for the Conquest system, time has proven that they ultimately serve far better as an outlet for creative expression. While I certainly appreciate the addition of Rishi, we still have a relatively limited selection of strongholds to choose from. Some locales happen to be much more versatile than others, and I would like to have the option of acquiring multiple copies of a stronghold so I have the freedom and satisfaction of decorating any locale I wish in a variety of themes and layouts suited to my tastes. The last server merge has already proven that it is absolutely possible for players to own multiple copies without breaking the game... so why continue to impose these limitations on us?

This post perfectly articulates so many of the fundamental issues I have been experiencing with Strongholds over the past several years. I want to commend the OP for putting in the time and thought in writing something I have found myself too frustrated to even attempt. I seriously hope this reaches the attention of the Devs. I agree with absolutely everything that was said. It's too late for me to offer my own input, so I'm going to save that for the next chance I have to share my thoughts on all the excellent points made by the OP.

This is a very old bug that started when KotFE launched and I really would like you guys to do some quality control and fix this once and for all. Normally, companions say a line of dialogue accompanied by an EMOTE when you select them. You can see their facial expression and lips sync along to the dialogue. This small little detail helps to breathe LIFE into these characters and helps improve the gaming experience. Ever since KotFE launched, all of the classic companions suddenly suffered a paralyzing stroke that disabled their ability to emote when you click on them. Yet I noticed that KotFE companions like Lana and Koth emote perfectly fine and did not suffer this minor-but-incredibly-annoying glitch. I just recently finished the Ossus content and noticed that Tau does not emote either. I may be wrong but I believe this glitch begins after a player has finished their class story and then launches in to KotFE. Why has this bug been allowed to persist for so many years and why aren't you making efforts to correct this? It may not seem important but it is a detail that helps imbue a tiny bit of energy and humanity back into the game. I miss seeing my companions little facial expressions and would like them restored. Allowing this bug to persist for this long is taking an unnecessary step backward. Please fix this!

I discovered this same issue with one of my scoundrel alts. I don't have the time or energy to log in and check which slider value it is but the character is a male human and his facial features are Asian.

I noticed this after installing 5.10. The Republic Scout and Republic Bomber starfighter decorations are completely invisible. The only thing visible is the pedestal they hover above. I am sure there are plenty of other broken decos as well but frankly it's not my job to put in the work to find them all. That's your job, Devs, so please fix these graphics issues ASAP. This is especially frustrating for me as I have put in weeks of time and energy designing the layout of my Republic starfighter base for a special RP event I have been working on for months. PLEASE FIX!!!

Has anyone had a chance to try out this new PVP Challenge feature? I would like to know if this new feature makes it possible to challenge players from the opposite faction.

Still haven't had a chance to purchase the new Rishi Stronghold. While I very much want to unlock it I am very dead set against doing so until they address this stronghold cap issue. The Devs have been emphasizing QoL improvements and even mentioned it in their recent posts but they still haven't addressed this important issue. A huge QoL improvement for me would be raising this unnecessarily crippling stronghold cap and allowing players to have multiple copies of strongholds. Some people have mentioned they can't understand why players would want more than one copy. I suppose they don't have much of an imagination. Considering the hundreds of decorations out there and the limited number of strongholds available, is it really that hard to understand that some of us would like to transform our Coruscant Stronghold into a personal apartment, or military base, or scientific research facility, or restaurant and night club? For me, the biggest QoL improvement they could make to strongholds would be allowing us the ability to save and load multiple layouts. If the Devs are going continue to ignore this frustrating issue and not raise the current cap and give players the opportunity to purchase additional stronghold slots then they should look into providing us a means to simply save and load our custom layouts, similar to what they did with Outfit Designer.

It's both funny and ironic how something called "Prestige" would end up becoming so meaningless. Over the course of this game many of us have observed the implementation of new features only to see them lose relevance over time. The Reputation system being consolidated is the most recent example but there have been numerous others. It's evident that the server merge broke the Prestige system and considering how much time has passed it is unlikely the Devs have prioritized this issue. Prestige may never be restored back to its original functionality and unless the Devs plan to retroactively prune our consolidated Prestige scores I'm guessing Prestige will either be redesigned, retired or simply left as-is, with those of us who were savvy enough to capitalize on the server merge ruling the roost in Prestige scores over those who weren't. I have to admit, I did like the old Prestige Score for 2 reasons. Vanity was one reason since the highest scores obviously get your stronghold to the top of the public listings if you’re the type who likes to show off their work. The other reason was as a tool for gauging the amount of effort a player has dedicated into amassing their horde of decorations. With the Prestige system broken and the Conquest system redesigned to be less focused and reliant on Strongholds I feel that over the course of time Strongholds will eventually become its own independent entity within the game, which would hopefully be a liberating thing for the Decorator Community, who would no longer need to contend with outdated systems that really never should have been integrated in the first place. I think that Strongholds and Conquest were forced into an unhappy marriage and I speculate it is because the Devs wanted to ensure that owning strongholds would be relevant and beneficial to every player. The inherent problem was that it ended up pitting the Decorating community, who tend to be more focused on creativity, and meta-gamers, who tend to be more focused on maximizing their numbers. As a passionate decorator, I used to shake my head with disdain whenever I would tour public strongholds only to find rooms full of nothing but Basic Chairs and trophy art. You know, I get why a meta-gamer with no creative bone in their body would do that to simply max their numbers. What I don’t get is why they would even bother to *LIST* their garbage in the public directory. These repeated occurrences ultimately killed any curiosity I once had for touring other people’s creations. 98% of them just absolutely suck. I am happy that Strongholds have persevered and hope they continue to evolve. I would like to see them annexed from Conquest altogether so meta-gamers no longer have reasons to rant on the forums whenever the decoration cap is increased and thus ruining their numbers, while decorators can simply enjoy what strongholds were best made for: decorating.

I have read this thread from beginning to end. Since you seem to pride yourself on a "direct and merciless" style of communicating I will oblige you by saying there is nothing to "misunderstand" about your poor choice of words and condescending attitude to others you have demonstrated repeatedly in your posts. I believe the term you are looking for is called "tact". It is evident to me based on your writing that you are deficient in this quality. I suggest you review the following definition so you can educate yourself on its meaning and start putting it into practice. tact noun 1. a keen sense of what to say or do to avoid giving offense; skill in dealing with difficult or delicate situations. 2. a keen sense of what is appropriate, tasteful, or aesthetically pleasing; taste; discrimination. 3. a sense of what is fitting and considerate in dealing with others, so as to avoid giving offense or to win good will; discretion 4. skill or judgment in handling difficult or delicate situations; diplomacy The OP has made a very clear, very rational, very logical and compelling argument over the course of their discussion with you. Never once in your entire discourse have you provided any citations to support what you claim as irrefutable fact. Unless you are an employee of EA/Bioware or are in close contact with someone who is, I take everything you say as nothing more than your own, incredibly short-sighted, one-dimensional opinion. No offense intended. I am just being rational. I fully acknowledge that you may perceive my own opinion as equally short-sighted and one dimensional. You are welcome to engage me if you wish but I guarantee you I will not have the same degree of patience, civility and tact generously given to you by the OP. What I am primarily interested in is the actual topic of this discussion. I have no desire to delete my strongholds if I do not have to, and there is plenty of evidence to support the OP's assessment that the current stronghold cap of 10 seems to be arbitrarily low. The idea of allowing additional stronghold slots to be purchased through the CM is a wonderful solution to this current dilemma. I want this topic to be addressed by the Devs. I want to hear directly from them where things stand regarding this issue.

I like the general idea of a donations box. I think it would also pair nicely with a Guest Book to allow players the option of leaving their feedback. Of course, the Stronghold owner would have the ability to delete any unwanted comments.

/signed Absolutely in agreement 1000% with all of this. I've been incredibly frustrated and disappointed ever since the "Ultimate Pack" replaced the regular cartel packs that used to feature all the new stuff. The Ultimate Pack is ultimate garbage. I purchased 1 Ultimate hypercrate when it was first released for the sole purpose of acquiring NEW items: armor sets, weapons, color crystals, decorations, etc. I ended up with only 2 or 3 new items and a pile of mediocre stuff I already owned. I have been a regular subscriber and supporter of this game ever since launch. I'm also a working adult who used to regularly buy hypercrates of the old cartel packs before they were replaced by the Ultimate Crap Pack. For me, the old model was a much, MUCH better investment. When I used to buy hypercrates, I did it because I wanted the new items and also felt it was fair way to support the game. I got far more new items from the old packs compared to this Ultimate garbage heap. I also knew that whatever I didn't get I could still rely on acquiring it off the GTN knowing that there would be a surge of new items flooding the GTN. This used to be our tried and true routine, and it worked very well. I was able to acquire what I wanted while also selling whatever duplicates or rare items I didn't need for a decent profit. This was a good, reliable balance for me and I imagine it was the same for many others as well. This was such a stupid, stupid decision, Devs. One of the most upsetting things for me about the Ultimate packs was realizing that all the new items were now sharing the RNG for everything ever produced by the CM. The results have been a disaster. Decorations, even simple decorations like the Cantina Speaker or Mercenaries Table, have super-inflated to astronomical prices on the GTN. That intolerable RNG has turned every single new item into super rare items. It is totally absurd and absolutely unnecessary. Had I not read OP's post, I wouldn't have realized there was a new dye module or even new beach decos available! Why the hell did these latest Beach decos not even come in a bundle as suggested? Does that make too much sense or something?! Does anyone know the name of the new dye module? Why is this information not being properly communicated to us?! My enthusiasm for acquiring new items on the GTN has now turned into a far more cautionary exercise. The scarcity and inflation makes it feel like everything is might as well be designated as a Platinum item. It's ridiculous and highly upsetting. I agree that making things available for direct purchase was a good idea. I even like the new feature they have where a random CM item is sold for 50% off every 24 hours, but what they NEED to do is bring back the old cartel pack model as well. Ever since the Ultimate Garbage Pack came out I have stopped buying any more hypercrates. I don't enjoy wasting my hard-earned money knowing that the chance of me getting a new item is probably less than 1 percent. That infuriates me. Mixing in the new stuff with the old stuff was a stupid idea. The Ultimate pack works fine as a general grab bag for newer players but KEEP THE NEW STUFF SEPARATE FROM THE OLD STUFF and give the new stuff its own pack designation like how you use to do it.

I wanted to appeal to our Stronghold Decorator Community, especially those whose strongholds were consolidated from the server merge and who exceeded the current stronghold limit of 10. Many of us who love to decorate strongholds desire more than just one copy of each. Some of us were fortunate enough to take advantage of the server merge and end up with multiple copies which we've since used to decorate to our heart's content but with the release of the new Rishi stronghold it is now impossible for anyone with more than 10 active strongholds to purchase without deactivating whatever amount is necessary to go back under the limit cap. That means all that time and energy and all those resources spent into decorating will have to get deleted if you want to purchase the new Rishi stronghold and any other stronghold they may release in the future. There is a thread in General discussion that is getting some traction on this issue and I encourage all of you to voice your opinions there as well as start your own discussion threads about raising the current stronghold cap. The more exposure this issue gets the better our chances it will be addressed by the dev team.

I tried to purchase the new Rishi stronghold today on Fleet and received this message: This confirmed something many of us in the Stronghold community were very concerned about. I currently have 22 active strongholds on Satele Shan and about 20 on Star Forge that got consolidated after the servers merged. Since these were grandfathered they obviously exceed the current maximum cap of 10. Please increase this cap or give players the option to purchase more stronghold slots through the CM. It has been months since the merge which proves the game can handle players with multiple copies of strongholds. This is not a small issue for me nor is it an isolated one. Some of us really love to decorate and design. Many of us use strongholds for RP and desire multiple strongholds to create a VARIETY of scenes to help facilitate the stories we wish to tell. Over the last several years I have invested hundreds of millions of credits and countless hours of meticulous work arranging decos and creating detailed layouts. I have put in an incredible amount of time, effort and resources into this. The new Rishi stronghold received a huge amount of important feedback from passionate stronghold enthusiasts like me, many of whom are now experiencing the same dilemma I am, and now have no way of acquiring the new stronghold without deleting all the extra strongholds we gained from the server merge. This simply is not fair to those of us who have invested so much in this. The server merge has proven that the game can support a stronghold cap substantially higher than its current limit 10. This has been known to those of us who have been reaping the benefits of having our strongholds grandfathered in from that merge. Asking for additional stronghold slots that allow players to go above the current cap is absolutely reasonable and absolutely doable. Some of you seem to have difficulty understanding why others would want multiple copies of the same stronghold. Personally, what I ultimately want is the ability to create, save and load MULTIPLE design layouts for each stronghold. I wouldn't need to have 4 or 5 copies of Coruscant if I could create a variety of layouts that could be stored and loaded from just one. Since the game does not give us that feature the only other alternative is to have duplicate strongholds, and the only way to get those was to take advantage of the grandfather clause before the servers merged. Strongholds are one of the few creative outlets in the game aside from Outfit Designer. When you think about the hundreds of decos now available is it really that difficult to understand why some of us want to have as many "blank canvases" as possible?! On Satele Shan I have a great Jedi-themed academy that I put a lot of work into but what if I would also like to create a Repulic office, or a stylish apartment, or a hospital, or research facility, or gambling den? Do you get it now?