What principle is that?

I'd prefer to see Broadsword develop playable content, both solo and multiplayer, than another small area to fill with decoration sales. We just saw a new stronghold last Galactic Season on Mek-Sha. The game needs new areas, story updates, FPs, a new WZ mode, fixes for all the bugs in R-4 and a revamp of SM to make it reasonable for PUG groups, some love for GSF, among many other more pressing concerns.

After catching up on the new Ahsoka series, I thought Morgan Elsbeth wears a costume that would work well for multiple Force-using classes in SWTOR. Even though she technically doesn't use the Force, as a Nightsister, her costume, with different colors in-game, would work well for player characters. It would also add another superior-textured robe set to the game, one which could be dyed with Jedi or Sith-inspired colors. After searching google images, I couldn't find a good photo from the series of her entire costume, but this action figure actually does a good job of summarizing why it would work in SWTOR well: https://hasbropulse.com/products/star-wars-the-black-series-morgan-elsbeth Here is one from the series, though it's only the upper body that's seen: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Morgan_Elsbeth?file=MorganElsbeth-AG.png Except for the metal pin attached to the waist, this would look quite fantastic on a Sorcerer, Consular, Knight, or Warrior, depending on the dye used.

I'd buy another helmet sold separately that has the same model and no visor. They've done this before with the Rass Ordo helmet, which was basically the same thing as the Charismatic Mandalorian helmet, except it accepted dyes somewhat differently. Also, the visor on the Tactical Ranger helmet sometimes bugs out, i.e. is still on the player character's head after you switch to a different appearance tab. Edit: it would be preferrable if BS just added a helmet with no visor to the set, but I don't believe they've ever done this, added another piece to an armor set after releasing it.

If you play ESO, you know how much worse their maintenance times are. Also, while the graphics are comparatively nicer for a game developed roughly at the same time as SWTOR, ESO's combat system is atrocious (yes, even an old, tab-target MMO like SWTOR is far superior, clunky engine and all). ESO's in-game store also makes SWTOR's look like a charity. For a while there was a rumor the next Star Wars MMO was being developed by the same company. I'm glad that seems to be false, due to how their publisher runs ESO's in-game store.

It would also stop certain players from charging 50 billion credits for said sets.

I'm personally against any titles from in-game play being added to the CM. Only exception I think they should make is for folks who use boost tokens. In a game where people make so many alts, it seems silly to force people to play a class story for the umpteenth time just so they can get Master or Darth or whatever title at the end of Ch 3.

How does this happen? Am going to take my Commando through KotFE for that title, and would like to avoid what you described...

4 Operations that include Explosive Conflict and Ravagers, both of which have bosses that are 'PUG killers' (3rd boss of EC, 4th boss of Ravagers) should be worth 24 points, frankly. Operations don't fit with the time requirements of other objectives, nor the difficulty, even in SM, unless limited to 1 OP for 12 points. 2 would be more than any other objective too, save for 25 medals in GSF (though part of the reason the GSF one takes so long is not all medals seem to count, unlike regular PVP).

Like many who post here, I've played through all the eras of SWTOR since launch. The mailbox, in that time, has never been a problem. It worked well for what its purpose was, in conjunction with the GTN and other players. 7.3 upgraded the claim button, and slightly altered the appearance and layout of the mailbox. Since then, it regularly causes the game to crash to desktop. This is especially frustrating to anyone who engages in trading on the GTN. When claiming credits for sold items, or recovering unsold items from the mailbox, especially when multiple items have been sold or posted, the game will occasionally crash. What is being done about these types of bugs? These are the most basic systems in SWTOR, and the UI updates are interfering with their functioning properly. This can take the form of a significant game-crashing issue as described above, or it can be in the form of poorly-designed UI changes, which worsen functionality and the player experience. The latest is a quick travel update that makes it take longer to quick travel without improving the experience in any discernable way, and introducing a bug in the process, one which erroneously informs the player it cannot currently quick travel. It's ridiculous, when considering quick travel has worked perfectly fine since launch, nearly 12 years. We sympathize with what's occurred to the SWTOR team, as a player community, having been transferred to a new studio and cut down in size - anyone who's worked in corporate settings across a wide variety of industries can relate. What's difficult to understand is why these UI updates keep getting approved. At the very least, players expect fixes for what's broken in the process. The transfer to Broadsword was seen as a vote of no confidence by EA for much of the player base, and this is part of why. 7.0 was shockingly bad in its implementation and design choices, even in the context of SWTOR's past. And while updates since have sometimes had a higher level of quality, there are still fundamental problems in how the game is being run and updated. If the team is all about supporting each other, as expressed on social media and other public forums, it should be able to tell itself hard truths as well. It's not all BW management's fault - hold your work to a higher standard. EDIT: I discovered a workaround, which is to select all mail with attachments, whether credits or items (the source doesn't seem to matter), and transferring them to one's inventory at once. Don't use the updated 'Claim' button if it can be avoided.

I get the impression R-4 isn't played much, and the bugs are unfortunately low priority compared to areas of the game more players engage. SM should be made easier - more people would actually run it. Still, compared to past Operations, those are ridiculous bugs to have been just left in the game for a year or so.

But as a core part of their rotation? Perhaps Sniper or either dps Sorcerer - I'm not remembering others at the moment. What I was referring to was a Force-using class that has both ranged and melee dps abilities in their core gameplay/rotation. Imagine a kind of single-saber Sentinel that could also use ranged Force attacks. There isn't anything like that in the game currently, but I don't think it could be balanced with the other combat styles. It would be ridiculous in PVP, for example. Edit: I still miss Commando stock strike. Hitting an enemy with a giant cannon was so satisfying - it had a great sound effect too.

If there are going to be voice-acted story updates after 7.4, wouldn't someone from the team have said so by now? It's in their interests to retain players, not have negative sentiment spread about the game's future due to uncertainty, right? I'm assuming the team is working on a maintenance patch, and content between now and then is going to be worse than before the transfer to BS. As a longtime SWTOR player, you should know keeping expectations low is the best way to not be disappointed by this game. There have been individual pieces of content that have been well-made since, but the game hasn't as a whole been a quality product since 4.x. If you preferred the original, non-Zakuul story and multiplayer aspects of the game, then 3.x is the last era it was. The SWTOR team has lost roughly half its members and been transferred to a studio that has no history of developing games. We'll see what happens, but being realistic is probably for the best.

Not sure how this would be balanced with the other classes or game mechanics, but I'd enjoy a Count Dooku-like class, one that uses one-handed saber attacks and ranged Force ones. I don't think this could work in SWTOR, though, having both melee and ranged dps abilities in a single combat style, given what both pve and pvp multiplayer gameplay involves. Since a new combat style is a fantasy, though, that would be my choice. EDIT: Equally appealing would be an HK droid class, similar to the KotFE bonus chapter but with more abilities, defensives, and the like. Perhaps it would need to be something other than an 'HK' unit to fit with Star Wars lore appropriately.

It was reported here on the forums, the mail bug, starting right after 7.3 - I think it was even acknowledged, which is encouraging and doesn't always happen. Considering what little of the overall player base posts here, I'd say there's a good chance it's affecting way more than just a few players. It's worth noting you're kind of ignoring the overall point, which is the UI modernization efforts have mostly been bad for the game, in design and implementation, not to mention a questionable use of very limited development time and money.

The problem with PVP queue times is the change to having PVP seasons, at least on Star Forge. Before this was implemented, there was a steady queue time for regs at any reasonable time of day or night. Now, even at hours on Star Forge where matches were almost an insta-pop, there's a wait - and it's during a season 3. I find GSF pops faster than ground PVP sometimes, which is... not good. I'm not sure what BS plans to do, but it certainly seems like fewer and fewer people are queuing for PVP since PVP seasons were introduced. Perhaps better rewards, including subscriber-only ones, in the seasonal track might help somewhat. I can't be the only one who's seen the Season 3 PVP armor set and wondered how it relates to Star Wars? Also, 8-person premade groups need to go - 4 should be the max.

Since they added 6.0 material nodes to Ruhnuk, I don't think there will be '7.x' crafted items like med packs, adrenals, augments, etc. It's possible the nodes get replaced in the future, but it seems strange to me to add those in at all if plans included any new crafting tiers. The 6.x med pack and adrenals in 7.x PVE content can be pretty annoying. But SWTOR has lost a lot of its remaining Ops community at this point, folks that ran the harder versions of existing Ops or R-4.

I have every single companion available on my main, including the Geonosian one from the HM Queen boss, save for ones that are still faction-specific and a bunch of CM droid or animal companions I didn't want to claim on it (but have on other characters). Even still, I'd prefer each Galactic Season have a new companion, until a better reward is implemented. Why? Because it's at least something new, and the past season companions were designed well. It's relatively cheap to raise influences on them to 50 these days, and having a new one to use on occasion is, in my view, better than not. Maybe including a few more new rewards like the upcoming Loth-cat pet in each future season track can make up for a lack of a companion (items of a quality you'd expect would typically end up for sale on the CM).

In my opinion, save for changing the CM advertising/login reward element into one that is customizable and part of the rest of the regular UI, the entire UI 'modernization' effort has been misguided. It's not only taken up development time and resources, but has made the overall game experience worse for players. The character window is the worst offender, but there are other updates that are worse in a less intrusive way. Since the map update, for example, an indicator sound is made whenever you reach a new section of whatever zone you're in. If on a large planet, this doesn't matter much. But many parts of SWTOR take place in small areas, ones the character walks back and forth in. And now there's a repeating sound when moving around them, with no option to switch it off. Some of these problems stem from the folks making decisions on the modernization not playing the game much. The character sheet, for example, would immediately be recognized as way too large to use well with other windows which are routinely open with it, including the GTN, Collections, and perhaps the inventory or character preview window. If the game is going into maintenance, basically, in the not too distant future, I seriously wish it had done so with the systems in place at the end of 6.x. Because it's not just the UI modernization that's made the game substantially worse to play since 7.0, bugs aside.

There's a new crash to desktop bug since 7.3, if you use your mailbox. I can't seem to predict with precision when it will happen, only that it started with the new UI 'improvement' for the mailbox, which is barely any different. If you have multiple sales from the GTN in your mailbox to claim, this seems to increase the likelihood of a crash. It's not yet been fixed. So... now the mailbox has a 'claim' button and is very slightly different looking, but, unlike the past 11.5 years, causes the entire game to crash when using it.

You do realize the team that works on SWTOR just lost roughly half its members, right? Companions don't just make themselves, and I'm sure there's an approval process from Lucasfilm for each new one too. It may be this season is an anomaly, since it was put together alongside the transition to a new studio, or Broadsword is trying out seasons without companions, if they are received as well (and as profitable). It seems like a season would be less work if it didn't involve a new companion (which I also preferred, especially in the case of an Imperial astromech droid). I doubt the inclusion of a trash can on fire decoration in the season is an indication everything is going great with the game.

The bugs in SWTOR got noticeably worse after 3.x ended. Then they got noticeably worse in 5.x, way worse, especially after 5.2, the Iokath daily area patch. It's been sort of the same since, with a lot of new bugs in every major patch, and only the most glaring getting a fix later. 7.0, which was the worst patch in the game's entire history, then somehow set a new standard and became the buggiest the game had ever been. Some of what 7.0 did was addressed by 7.1, or a smaller patch in between - the rest followed the typical pattern, remaining in the game. While the game may have started out 'above average' and remained so in 2012, 2013, and 2014, it's been increasingly worse each year when it comes to bugs. Sadly, I think the OP is correct and this will never change.

I think, with so many hours of dialogue recorded for player characters, it's an interesting possibility, legal and ethical issues aside. Particularly given the circumstances SWTOR finds itself in, compared to other older MMOs which have managed to keep going after leaving their original development studios (ex: LOTRO), the cost of voice-acted questing is likely a significant financial hurdle. If it's possible to massage past voice recordings into realistic-sounding new dialogue, complete with the nuances necessary to avoid a steep drop-off in the player experience, it might be worth looking into. Given SWTOR's age and scope leading into 7.0, I doubt the game is still a very significant part of the voice actors' incomes. It might be possible to negotiate rights to use their voice in content going forward, especially if voiced player characters wouldn't otherwise be used at all. I'll admit to being ignorant of the legal issues involved in this type of situation - maybe this isn't at all possible. And, unlike many other folks who play SWTOR, I don't actually mind the old KOTOR-style, silent player approach. It's simply jarring switching from voiced player characters to non-voiced ones, in my opinion, within updates (what came after the end of KotFE's original 9 chapters, for example, or even 7.3). Looking back on it, I wish the game hadn't used voice-acted player characters at all and stuck with the KOTOR model, considering the game is an MMO and was expected to be developed for many years. A rich, intricate story can be told with voiced NPCs and silent player characters. Paying 48 people to voice our characters in SWTOR, while done extremely well, was a bit of a crazy decision.

Interestingly, this article reporting on the same layoffs briefly mentions SWTOR, including that it's gone into 'maintenance mode' at Broadsword: "The layoff also comes about three months after EA moved production of its massively multiplayer online game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, to a third-party publisher, Broadsword, in Reston, Virginia. The game debuted way back in 2011 and has entered maintenance mode. Broadsword has also taken over games like Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot so players can keep playing them. McKay said BioWare’s focus will be on making “exceptional story-driven single-player experiences filled with vast worlds and rich characters.” https://venturebeat.com/games/eas-bioware-will-lay-off-50-and-cut-ties-with-unionized-keywords-playtesting-group/ Obviously, we won't really know until well into next year what the end result for SWTOR will be after the move. I'm hoping enough work has already been done to at least finish the Darth Nul/Malgus story properly, and anything else is kind of extra. Seasonal content doesn't really do much for me, personally. I'd honestly prefer it if the remaining team fixed design problems with what was obviously a prematurely released 7.0. If the game is going into 'maintenance,' the skill/leveling trees and, to a lesser extent, gearing system in place during 6.x would have been far more preferrable. Hopefully, adjustments to current systems are still possible to do, barring complete overhauls. If new systems are possible to develop, one that allows for varying levels of difficulty in the original class story leveling process would be welcome by many SWTOR players, ones who find it way too easy to fully enjoy, as was possible from 1.0-3.x.

In general, a 'reforged' set of 1.0 lightsabers and dualsabers would be welcome, including Ven Zallow's.