I had that thought, I'm careful to suggest that without any evidence, though. Besides, what's the point of buying an account if you're not interested in the characters and unlocks?

I made my first million selling droid parts at 15-25% over suggested buy-out price. I had a spreadsheet for price calculation, stock keeping and material/production costs. Good times, good times... Crafting is another part that makes me sad. I had hoped that the kind of rudimentary crafting system would be fixed, refined and get more width and depth, but the opposite happened.

I guess the difference is that I enjoy playing characters, not just watching a story.

What is your issue with the old legacy? Why are you trying to leave it behind?

Unfortunately it is when the game does not have enough paying players to support and cater to every aspect equally. All aspects are in competition for dev attention and funding, while no aspect can claim to attract the majority in a sense that focusing on that majority would ensure survival of the game.

I think the different waves of sub drain had different motivations. In the beginning, people left due to lack of endgame content, another wave left due to too many simplification, then CXP drove another batch away. Early on, a game was launched as 1.0 that was really only 0.7 with regard to content and features. A lot of QoL improvements introduced up to 1.6 should have been in the game from the start. No, 1.0 is not what I would want to go back to. Update 1.2 is the true start of the game for me (I did play since early access) and baseline for a rollback server. Shared GTN and cross-faction mailing between characters on the same account are basic features/necessities that should have been in the game from the start. I did not consider traveling to be such a huge issue. Distances on early planets were short enough. Taris is really the only one that dragged on for a bit, but mid-way through Taris I usually hit the 25 and got a speeder. I also always had a guildmate with me and we had fun together making up story parts in between and fleshing out our characters. The problem is not that later on things were made a little bit easier. It was nice to get sprint and a speeder a bit earlier, to get an XP boost and be able to choose which planet story to do based on the character and their background. The problem for me is that the 1-50 experience was streamlined beyond recognition. There was a world in which my characters had their part, a story of their own and one into which their own was embedded, there were additional insights into what's going on through flashpoints and heroics at respective levels, and eventually operations. Unique rewards from flashpoints and heroics have been removed. Class-specific stats have been removed, and eventually class identity has been removed, to the point where the Force is forced on non-force characters to make them "fit" into a single, streamlined story. 1-50 is extended character creation now for those too thrifty to pay for a token level 60 or 65. In the old 1-50 experience, I didn't mind leveling several characters through the same framework, there was plenty of room for variation and detours and re-arrangement. Since SoR I loathe having to put another character through exactly the same routine and dialog with no deviation/variation beyond that one "meaningful" dialog option that determines who stays and who leaves/dies.

I was really surprised they seemed to listen to the holiday argument against maintenance on Nov 1st...

Same for me. Once I feel the character is "whole" it stays that way. Out of my 30+ characters I only changed the look of two, once. My Jedi Knight was born Mirialan but it seemed off, I couldn't get into playing her until I changed her to Cathar. My bounty hunter grew her hair out. Kind of happens when you're busy on a galactic bounty hunt and don't trust your droid housewife to cut your hair properly. The outfits I change fairly regularly. I always enjoy prepping for a new planet/adventure. New toys, new clothes, new weapons... It was part of my routine during the vanilla leveling experience. I was not in a hurry and it was good to take a break, go to fleet, pick up some gossip, run a flashpoint, restock supplies, upgrade crew equipment etc.

Rephrasing: You never had access to them at once on one server to use for decoration of a single stronghold or several on the same server. This part of the experience will remain the same. I know and understand people are unhappy about it, but I also don't see it as that big a deal in practicality. I have paid coins and credits for strongholds and decos on different servers, too, I got good use out of them over the years. That fun/convenience was worth the costs and if the servers are gone I won't have need for it anymore. They will be consolidated in the merge and I still have at least the same level of features on the new server - no decrease in features for any character, and for some characters even an increase (some poor sods never had access to jukeboxes, for example, and now will have access to all of them, and no, I'm not mad that I won't have two of each jukebox). It's the price we pay for the merger, yes, but this is a game and we pay credits and coins for fluffing up the in-game experience. Once this game shuts down (it will eventually, some day, just like everything else dies eventually) everything will be gone, too. There are no tangible, material values obtained through credits or coins, just items to affect the game experience, and the experience will remain the same on the new server with regard to how many decorations are available to use in one stronghold.

Yes, I know, I understand the reasoning. But as I said before, from your character's perspective and your game experience, you don't lose anything, because if you had 50 metals chairs on each of 16 servers you never had 800 chairs at your disposal at once. If there was an easy solution, I think we'd get it. The only way to retain status quo is to retain status quo, i.e. not merge at all. Adding up all decorations regardless of how they were obtained would be mercilessly exploited (just like some already exploit the character slot issue, but they can't consolidate characters like they can decos). It may also be a bit of an issue to extend the max amount from 999 to 9999 Separate measures depending on how deco unlocks were obtained might be theoretically feasible but most likely a practical nightmare. Since you never had more than 50 chairs available on any one server, your experience is not diminished. You still have what you paid for on every one of your characters. You also got what you paid for while you had characters on different servers. In that regard it's a bit like the expansions that were made free-for-subs later on. You paid not just for a thing, but for its availability/usability/functionality at a certain time and over a period of time. The server merge doesn't change that you were able to use it for that period of time.

I keep hoping for a 'legacy' server with a previous version somewhere between 1.2 and 2.9 to pop up at some point in the future...

But from your character's perspective you're not losing anything, any functionality. Each character on each server only had access to one kiosk, could only place it in one stronghold. That's how it will also be for all characters on the new server. I do understand where you're coming from (and imagine those people who didn't spend credits but cartel coins), but I guess that's one more death we have to die. I guess people can try to get compensated, but I doubt that will happen because it's too much time and effort to separate for each player account, which unlocks were just copied and which were actually purchased and how. Since none of your characters loses functionality, and in fact, all characters gain the most/best/highest achieved in your legacy, it's not too bad IMO.

That's what I mean, you didn't pay anything extra for the deco unlocks that were copied to another server (= the unlocks were not paid for).

I'm not too worried about it, because what use do I have for 5 strongholds on Nar Shaddaa with one kiosk each? I get the same experience for all my characters if I keep one of the strongholds with one of the kiosks. I can also keep all of the strongholds and retain the server-specific experience for each character. Many people also copied their legacies to other servers and the deco unlocks were copied along with it, too, so not paid for, then added to it. It would be logistics from hell to figure out who deserves to keep what.

Pub main: 167 days, 7 hours Pub second: 36 days, 17 hours Imp main: 41 days, 15 hours Imp second: 25 days, 8 hours Pub main and second were created during early access in 2011, but I didn't play the second until I redesigned the character for a better voice/look match. Imps have been created in late 2012. All of them would have more if it weren't for the DvL event and a 10 months break after 5.0

(I think name change has a cooldown.) Are you trying to use special characters? CS confirmed to me that things that work at character/guild creation do not necessarily work with a rename.

Wow, congrats. That takes some commitment & dedication. There should have been a hidden reward for this. Like a special czerka crate-o-matic or something else to flaunt.

Idk, I read it as sort-of related, since APAC are complaining about latency and devs say Carnage got slaughtered b/c some couldn't get to peak dps due to latency... If I'd be mean and pessimistic, I'd say it kind of looks like that's going to be their "solution", not improving times for APAC but streamlining the specs to a place where their performance is 100% latency- and skill-independent.

Not every single exception maybe, but one that may leave players believing their servers/characters are gone should be worth taking into consideration (especially when you're already low on player numbers). They could have enabled the use of keyboard arrow keys if they didn't want to tinker with the GUI again. (But hell, it's not my business, quite literally.)

For the same reason that that so many other things are put up temporarily: for convenience, so that people who don't have a scroll mouse or cannot use the wheel for whatever reason, can get to their servers, too. As it is, not even the arrow keys work.

I like Tora.

Accountant on Coruscant or in the ministry of logistics on DK, dreaming of adventures as privateer, scouring the galaxy with my own ship and loyal crew.

That was my favorite era in this game. The move away from class story was the biggest complaint, I think, but overall it was a very diverse addition of content, and felt like an actual expansion, not just a story continuation or game world expansion, but actual addition/expansion of game mechanics, mini games etc. (Strongholds, Guild Ships, Conquests, Starfighter, Macrobinoculars, Seeker Droid, The Shroud side story, ...)

Ah, I see, that makes sense. Still not used to that smart launcher thing.

Funny though, how the speeder code is prominently featured on the launcher, but this one isn't... It's almost like they don't really want too many people to know about it.