That sums up a lot indeed. To me the recent content more seems like the game aiming towards becoming 'Mass Effect Online -Knights Of The Fallen Empire'.

The irony is, that Imo they are focusing on the wrong stuff, apart from straying farther and farther from the Star Wars theme and going deeper and deeper into grey waters. There's a reason why most well done Mmo's wait for great lengths of time before making each expansion release. It's because they attempt to put the effort in to make the release worth the usage and make it last. And the only way to really make content last in an Mmo, is to focus on the end game content, not just the story driven single player content that eventually will come to a halt in a player characters endeavors. I think that the continual failure to put together some really good Pve group based content that caters to casual average gamers is a big contributing factor to what is causing people to quit the game. The many aspects that make up this kind of content is seen in games like Wow. But it isn't quite that simple, because this is not Wow. Still, some of the desirable core concepts are the same for probably almost all Mmos. But, even if they aimed their sites properly at the Pve based end game content, as long as the factional story based content continues to drift farther and farther from Star Wars and seemingly aim more towards some version of Mass Effect, I personally don't think it matters how much work they put where, they are just defeating their own purpose.

This is really a big issue with this game. There continues to remain to be really poor overall quality group oriented content for those that want only moderate to light difficulty while having both an entertaining experience and having an experience that lasts for at least a half an hour if not longer. What we have now: Heroics : With the new 'Teleport' option, it has become a double edged sword to run a group through an entire planets volume of Heroics - on the one hand it is doable, fairly quick and rewarding in credits/loot, on the other hand doing an entire planets Heroics while using the teleport option really presents normally a grindy and non-immersive experience - run a quick Heroic killing 20- 30 enemies, teleport, rinse and repeat 5 + times, and the Heroics are normally excessively easy which does not add to the experience. In the end the main gain I see from running a planets Heroics in a group is just the group experience, with the bonus of getting some decent credits/loot out of it. Flashpoints : The overall construction of the Flashpoints is really incorrectly done, but I will get into this later, right now I will only describe what they offer. Of course in solo mode, they are often excessively easy with the 'Super Bot'. In a group, the challenge is there, but in both modes the result is normally the same, which is an overall scenario that involves constant combat to the point where the content feels more like work than it does entertainment, with little letup of any significance along the way. Further more, for the extra time spent in the flashpoints, the environments are often drab and unappealing, which does little to help improve the experience. This is really an ugly combination of negative things that work together to make flashpoints undesirable for many people to even want to join up to do them in a group - so people end up preferring to do a group running a planets Heroics, when really if the Flashpoints are done *correctly* then they should be the preferred choice here, but as it stands, they are not. Operations : Honestly I have never done one, but from what I have heard, Operations are primarily "set aside" from the rest of the group content as being content that is aimed at being heavily challenging for those seeking difficult content. Provided this is mostly true, then I see no issue here - as this content aims to please the volume of players that like the difficulty stuff, and it's good that the game provides a portion of this type of content. So, to sum things up. In the end, it seems that Flashpoints were originally created to be a main source for players to join together for having a semi-lengthy positive moderately difficult group experience, and because of the many aforementioned problems with the way Flashpoints are being constructed, they are actually undesirable experiences that make many players prefer to group up for doing a volume of back to back Heroics, where such an experience is not in itself ever going to really provide a truly proper quality group experience, when the Flashpoints are supposed to be doing the job. Here is what Flashpoints should be : First off, and most importantly before all, the Flashpoint factional story based content: Keep the Flashpoint content *Non-Conflicting* to the side of the players that are running it! The forces of the Republic joined with the forces of the Imperials fighting together in a Flashpoint is NOT going to help things, it will decrease quality and believability in the entire scenario right off the start. If this sort of content is to be found regularly in Flashpoints, everything else will be negatively effected no matter how much effort is put in. There should also Not be 'Grey' content that conflicts with a players side. Example - like the content on Rishi that sends the Republic sided players off to show their 'superiority' in a battle against pirate gangs, that is the equivalent of sending the 'good' sided players off to shoot themselves in the foot. This is not Wow, if the content is going to become all grey like in Wow, then I suggest removing the Star Wars part of the title and just call the game Mass Effect Online - Knights Of The Fallen Empire - , and furthermore be prepared to watch the game get shut down eventually. Cut the volume of total Flashpoints being created in half. Put more time and effort into half the volume, and you get far greater content that people would desire to re-run over and over. Increase the overall size of the Flashpoint areas and break up the areas of combat with *travelling*. This is actually really important. Although it may seem like everyone wants to just rush through and finish quickly, the truth is, when a the areas of combat are broken up with traveling between them, the overall experience becomes less of a grindy, repetitive, work like atmosphere. Improve the visual quality of the Flashpoints environments. This is a really important thing that also goes very much hand in hand with creating larger scenarios that involve a fair amount of travelling. Outdoor type areas should have generally a reasonably colorful and 'lighter' approach and feel to them. Indoor areas should be somewhat detailed and feel often like a dungeon type experience. An outdoor wooded area should be visually appealing as just that, an enemy base area should be well done and look like something a player would want to infiltrate/take over, an underground bunker complex should have some detail to it and should look at least somewhat functional as well. Again, Visual Appeal! Players are going to be re-doing, and re-doing these areas. This is especially important for the outdoor areas - if Flashpoint after flashpoint has nearly depressing layouts, darkened skies, night time instead of day, etc,etc, these areas will not be as inviting to return to and re-play. And of course you don't want All of the outdoor Flashpoints to be paradise islands either.. there should be a balanced mix. Adventurous and dangerous looking outdoor environments *can* be accomplished in a manner where there is visual appeal Without there being elements that darken/taint those areas, it comes down to pre-planning and work. These areas should Not have a sterile and generic look and feel to them either. Scale to group size: This is something that would certainly add extra time and work, but would be very worth it. Let at least *some* of the Flashpoints be able to scale their difficulty to a player group size. This would mean that 2 players could do them, or 10 players could do them. The scaling should be done by hand removing/adding enemies on the map for each group size count along with tweaking the enemies levels/stats so the end result is a balanced scenario for the group size. Overall difficulty: Be sure that there is a selectable level of difficulty that caters to those that want only a moderate/light challenge. One of the main purposes of this content is to provide an entertaining group experience for players that do NOT want it to feel like work - the hard stuff is what the Operations are for. Unique aspects and some Humor: Of course there should be some unique aspects here and there along the way during a Flashpoint, to help prevent things from coming across as repetitive. Also another thing that regularly seems to lack in this game overall is a sense of humor included in the content, and would be nice to see some pieces of this here and there even in the Flashpoint content. When I say 'Humor', I mean humor that is not of the offensive form. Put all of the above together, and the result should be: Flashpoints that are entertaining enough and lengthy enough to be enjoyed over and over again by a vast volume of players. Players that once used to often do the Heroics grind switch to doing Flashpoints instead, which is a good thing. Positive group content that caters to casual players means more people have more reasons to keep playing the game. Some guilds would probably even setup times for such Flashpoints to be ran for larger group events. In the end, as long as this game continues to do not so well at providing true quality group oriented content that caters to casual players which does not feel like work nor like a grind, then this will continue to be a major contributor to why people quit the game once they finish leveling their character(s) and reach the end game content. In fact, the seemingly recent pattern of the company trying to continually 'pump out' cheaply put together story and leveling based content to keep people playing is putting the focus on the wrong area, when in *any* Mmo, the end game content is always going to be the most important aspect - and the group oriented content within the end game content must be done well, or the game will eventually drive people away. On a final note here: I hope that the developers start listening to threads alike this one here, and turn things around before the game gets so bad that either it eventually either gets shut down or at very least strays so far from the Star Wars theme -i.e. Good Vs Evil- that it is barely even identifiable in content as a Star Wars based game. Fixing the way the company resources are being implemented into the game gameplay content is part of the battle, but at the same time if the factional story based content continues to drive into a grey area where good guys fight with bad guys, bad guys are good guys, and good guys are bad guys, then all of the hard work put in past that point is really pointless, and in such a case the company may as well not even bother actually trying to put in quality content because it will merely be misdirected and tainted anyhow.

To me, not only is the whole alliance hard to believe, but even if it *is* believable by some measure, it is not for me something that is increasing gameplay quality, rather it is diminishing it. I mean, every other time my character was engaging in a conversation with the Empire forces in game, I was grumbling at them under my breath, intentionally picking response options that indicated distaste for the interaction and cooperative actions, and I never really enjoyed any of the conversations. Once the missions started involving actually directly assisting Imperial forces during combat scenarios.. really all I got out of the gameplay was just combat, combat, grind, grind - the theme of the content just did nothing for me. There even was one mission where I went to a planet to help the Imperials fight against other Imperials that were possessed lol... It was a real shame too, a nice looking Imperial base there that would have been nice content for infiltrating and taking over for the Republic, but instead I was helping the Imperials and I never even finished the mission series there.

Here's the thing. The battle between the Republic and the Empire is not in itself something that dictates repetitive content at all. The reason I say this, is because really all that it is, is essentially story. Regardless of whether or not a particular side is fighting some new enemy force or fighting the same old enemy force, or making different alliances, this in all essence, is really just *story* content. If the story content is done well, then the story content is generally *not* going to dictate the actual gameplay quality, because the gameplay quality is accomplished by putting in quality content that is more specifically aimed towards each particular scenario within the "story", regardless of who the enemy is, who allies are, etc. Of course to get into further detail here is generally already known stuff - quality maps, unique and well done scenarios, good missions, interesting and well done characters, etc,etc,etc. So, put simply, if the story is done well, the overall story behind a game does not dictate the quality of the game play quality, regardless of how seemingly repetitive the base story content may be - the hand worked, detailed, scenario by scenario based game play content dictates game play quality, and also dictates re-usability as well. On the flip side, if a story is Not done well, then it actually can impact the game play quality, because the scenarios within the story can be swayed in wrong directions. The story quality certainly seems like one of those things where if it is done wrong, it can make a mess, and if it is done right, all it really means is that the hard work put into hand working the gameplay content can be done properly without being negatively affected by poor story content. Lastly, a simple example is the series of Star Wars movies. The core theme remains generally the same in each movie, but the content is quite different and well done in many of the movies (I say many because I am not a huge fan of a few of them.. what can you do right).

I agree. And if money and time constraints were an issue in trying to make the extra content for both the Republic and the Imperials, then they could have at least just created the "new" enemy where both sides could lead their own separate fight against it while re-using a good volume of the same content for both sides, and then mix in at least a small amount of 'combat' encounters with each others opposing side for added content along the way which would help to keep at least a little bit of the Republic Vs Imperials story content going along with things. This is certainly not Wow, and I suppose by the nature of the SW title things will probably never properly cater to being able to purely create re-usable content for both sides against a separate 'enemy' force because of different values behind both sides, so Imo there is going to be the requirement for the extra work put in at *some* level to cater to both sides in a lot of content overall. I remember when I hit Rishi with my Jedi, I was like wow.. what a beautiful planet, and looked forward to doing the missions there. It didn't take that long to start questioning what was going on with the direction of things - From fighting for gangs and doing some missions that did not seem to really be-fit a good sided character to conversing and joining up with Imperials along the way. Really by the time I was done with Rishi, it felt like I was cheated from having a really good experience on what I think is one of the most visually appealing planets I've yet seen. I still feel like it's a shame, and I would have re-visited the planet to do the repeatable mission content for end game stuff, but the direction and purpose behind that mission content really does little for me. Yavin was generally more of a let down in a variety of areas for me, apart from disliking the Pub/Imp alliance content, I was expecting something at least as well done visually as Rishi (not the same in environment, same in overall quality), having previously liked Yavin from SWG, and felt that a lot more could have been done overall. Maybe they'll end the alliance at some point soon and restore the original base content of which the game used to revolve around. And while they are at it, stop producing generic content that can conflict with either sides default purpose in the game.

I would like to hope that this is not the only thread in complaint over the story driven content that has transformed over the years since 'The Shadow Of Revan' showed up. I myself play republic based characters. Most of the way through the original content all the way to finishing the main story, things are balanced and make sense. Deviations in the main story line happen, assisting other factions, etc, but the battle lines are clearly drawn. Once I started doing the new Revan content, I found that more and more the new 'Allies' were becoming the enemy we fought so hard to defeat previously. The mission content continued to have practically more conversations with Imperial 'allies' than with my own Republic side - as this increased, the enjoyment of the story line continued to decrease. After x amount of hours of putting up with this seemingly constant content, I finished yavin and decided to do no more of this type of content, leaving the Eternal Empire untouched. To quickly go into a little reasoning here: I get the whole 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' approach, and it does not work here. The Imperial and Sith values have not changed, they are still the arch enemies of the Republic. The values of the Republic have not changed, they are still standing for the light side and doing what is right for others. To mix these two together to fight a common enemy when you are mixing good and evil that have been at war for ages is absolutely ridiculous, unbelievable, and certainly annoying in game to experience. All I wanted through half of such content is an option to end my characters interaction with the Sith, or even so far as to be able to fight them. And lastly on this particular note, what exactly would the end result be in such an impossible and ridiculous alliance once the war was over? The end result would be the Empire executing a well laid out plan that was developed during the "Alliance" which would result in a potentially devastating ambush against the Republic forces. Honestly, this new story driven content Bio-Ware has created deviates so far from the Star Wars theme that really it almost seems like it is not even Star Wars anymore.. why not call it something else at this point, like Mass Effect 5000? Even the constant picture based advertisements for the recent content by Bio-Ware don't even seem to attempt to properly display the Republic sided characters, they sometimes seem to be made to look just like the Imperials in their overall theme? I will say, that it seems the 'new' content can lend itself only to a degree to the Imperial based players, as of course the Imperial sided values certainly would be more compatible to making use of the situation in order to benefit overall from it, and even be able to 'put up with' the undesirable allies in order to devise a plan though it all that could lead to both the end of the shared threat *and* the end of the Republic. Honestly what bothers me about this, is that this can mean that the game may actually be turning off Republic sided players and therefore be more catering to Imperial sided players. Again, what is UP with THAT - Why not just rename the game, because that is Not the original theme of the game nor the Star Wars theme. Bio-Ware *did* do a good job Imo on the original story driven content in general Imo in this game - And what things are turning into now is just a Shame. I just re-rolled a new Jedi, and the original content is nice, but I know now to stop it once the main story is finished, because to me, that is really where the good content ends.

Yes, this guild controls planet message needs either an option to disable it, or at least put the message on a 10 second timer or something.. I'm now experiencing this, just landed on Quesh and for over a minute now the guild controlled planet message is planted slightly above the center of the screen.. I recall it previously being at the top of the screen, now it's like, in the way of everything that is going on.. Guess it's time to get used to using Ctrl+u twice /Edit Wow, roughly 5 minutes now and it's still stuck on the screen. Imo, this would fall under the category of 'gameplay issues', as it is something that can significantly hinder the quality of the game play.

I understand the argument, but in all truth, there really are practically no limitations to a story line that can be produced for any new planets added, regardless of past history - in part because the history is the past, and recent events can allow for tons of content added, along with any bonus history based content added that may be more specific to conflicts happening with native populations of a planet that players may be able to assist with. I think it's mostly doable, it just would take work to piece things together correctly.

I would actually personally agree that a balance between urban and non-urban areas is fine. I feel the issue is in *how* the "wilderness" areas are presented. Alderaan's wilderness areas are mostly bare, a few trees scattered about, mostly rocks, low grass, and distant mountains, which is really similar to quite a few planets. Hoth of course is totally one giant wasteland by default (although I feel it could have been done better than it is now in certain ways), Balmorra is another wasteland'ish environment, and really the list goes on. What I'm implying we could use is planets that have some visually appealing wilderness areas, places that are desirable to come back to time and time again, places that are memorable. Far more trees, bushes, and up close terrain differences, rather than everything just being distant and scattered. The ending result might mean some smaller wilderness areas, but areas that actually look cool, woods that look like woods, and as much as possible a bit more color added to some of the flora. I've certainly played a variety of Mmo's over the years, the ones that provide visually appealing wilderness/outdoor environments for end game content were the ones that kept me coming back to those areas because of the added immersion. In-game performance (fps) is always a factor in heavily populating wilderness/natural environments with trees/bushes/etc, but is clearly very manageable by keeping individual areas to a reasonable size, and this type of quality work is demonstrated by some very popular Mmo's. Also, of course, natural outdoor areas should also have a good balance of small camps, small villages, etc mixed within them, which is indeed seen even in Swtor to a certain degree. Even nicely done outdoor natural environments are not worth much if there is not a consistent presence of activity and life within them.

I think Kashyyyk would be a nice planet to have. That is as long as they keep the sky blue with *some* clouds (not yellow, orange or drab grey cloudy sky), have a nice proper volume of vegetation for such an environment (no endless bleak wastelands), and have some cool background ambient music/jungle sounds (avoiding what was done with Tython - creepy horror film background music with annoying monster roars in the background). Also some blue, healthy looking water where there are rivers and lakes/ponds would be nice (rather than brown/yellow/green). Kashyyyk's environment could certainly be a very visually appealing and desirable place, plenty of room for a lot of different unique areas along with being a colorful planet just by default. As far as Yavin goes, I really hope they just make it a fun place to play on. I think the game needs to break away more from environments that have seemingly have one significant issue or another that impose a level of visual negativity, either its a dark dreary sky, or drab landscape, lack of color, darkened lighting, lack of enough up close natural vegetation/trees, background music and ambient sounds that are not what they should be Imo. Making real quality and desirable environments for gameplay takes time, effort, forethought, and also breaking away from just what the 'company' wants, and looking at overall what players will enjoy. Neat thing is, when end game play areas are really done right, it helps to keep us players coming back to those areas. Lastly, I also hope that just because they are about to release new end game planets, that they don't end up making too much of the content difficult. And by that, I mean I hope they put in a balance, some hard stuff for those that like a challenge, and some easy stuff for those (like me), that prefer it easy (solo'able content that does not demand high end gear to complete). I have always felt that Mmo's that do well cater to both types of players, hardcore and casual gamers - lean too far one way or the other, and it seems likely this will cause a volume of players to leave the game. Oh.. lastly lastly, another little note I wanted to add. It would probably not hurt the game to start adding a volume of mobs with a bit more color to their gear. It just seems to me at times that mob, after mob is wearing either black or grey, and I think a little color could be added in to improve things here (without going overboard). This is at least in regards to the enemy mobs while playing for the Republic.

Currently on Belsavis, so I have seen most of those planets.

Gotcha. I changed the text about Corellia on the main post, 'natural' outdoor environments is what I meant haha.

I haven't actually gotten to Corellia yet, but did some searching on you-tube, I never saw practically anything but city environment on the various videos, which was certainly a bit un-inspiring. If there is actually outdoor natural areas there, that definitely is a good thing, it is a planet that I for one was hoping for to be really naturally colorful. I almost would have said that Alderaan is a nice outdoor natural environment style planet, but there is in my opinion such a lack of vegetation, that it really just came across as more of a wasteland often while there. Certainly don't want to be directly negative in regards to the current planets overall, as one must make the best out of what we have and some of the planets have been good. But I do think there could be some really, really nice natural environments made for an extra planet or two aimed at end game stuff.

Here are the planets that come to mind of choice. Of course even one or two would be 'something', I wouldn't expect them all to be added. Dantooine Kashyyk Endor Naboo Add natural outdoor environments to Corellia (non urban) Rori ______________________________________________________________________ Seriously - In my opinion there are far too many planets as it stands now that simply have undesirable environments that are not very visually appealing. So many of the existing planets seem 'empty' when in outdoor natural environments (lacking vegetation and color/vast wastelands), others are dreary and drab or consist of endless city environments of steel and concrete. I think this game really needs to get some great looking, colorful, outdoor, natural environments for planets aimed towards end game content. I am aware that Yavin is coming, and the pictures have been inspiring. Anyone that has played SWG, like me, probably knows what I'm talking about. Corellia, Dantooine, Naboo, man they had beautiful outdoor environments. I have to be honest, I was disappointed to see that Corellia has been transformed into one giant city - in Swg that was a very colorful, visually appealing natural planet, rolling hills, rivers winding through with small patches of woods... For myself, so far, the one planet I found truly visually appealing in TOR was Taris. A last example - KOTOR - the way some of the planets were done there, Dantooine comes to mind, a very well done overall environment.