Quite simply; my expectations are (while tempered by "this is the way it is now") to be every bit as powerful on these worlds as I was pre-patch. I believe sync should be optional, and only mandatory if we choose to go back to a planet and engage at the quest level for XP...be it storyline, planetary, or side quests...because if we choose to do that then it makes some sense to me for BW to say "if you expect XP for whatever you're doing, you and the content are going to be matched to each other to some extent". I get that my expectations (and I am by no means alone) do not match yours or other people's. That's ok, they don't have to. I've read the arguments on both sides and this is where I am with it. I also get that state of the game is the state of the game, and I'm not stamping my foot and saying I'm going to pout-quit if this isn't changed. I have a far bigger problem with people who say that somehow my right to my own opinion is wrong-headed and based on arbitrary definitions of immersion than I do with people who simply disagree with my position.

Brilliant. +1

Because they are "the" special snowflake around here and we're obviously not.

You're right, OP didn't stipulate that they had a companion out at all. So, using precisely what the OP said the answer in unequivocally "no". You (being a singular form last time I checked) can in no way insta-clear post 60 content by using one skill. You and a companion might, but I challenge anyone to survive the fights where you are without a companion by using pressing "1" since that means no heals, no cc, and no stims (would be pressing another key). Feel free to accept that challenge and prove me wrong though.

It is absolutely more immersive. The skills I have developed, the equipment I now possess and can utilize to its absolute fullest potential, my (according to the game) nearly unrivaled mastery and strength in the Force provide me with the ability to deflect, absorb, misdirect, and survive attacks that would obliterate a lesser mortal and would easily have killed me before I was fully trained. What I was when I began my training is the palest shadow of what I am now. Rules of the universe? Rules of the Universe, please allow me to introduce you to Heroic Fantasy. Heroic Fantasy, meet Rules of the Universe...who you can now safely ignore as you have since you came into existence as a genre. I have always enjoyed that aspect of working to level and gear up in MMOs since Asheron's Call; going back to a place where I got my butt kicked and returning the favor in spades. But that's me...and it's not you. I'm not wrong, and neither are you because this is all, all of it, subjective. We're going to have to agree to disagree, because I don't get to define what's immersive for you and you don't get to define what's immersive for me.

This. Sadly, some people want to leap into this and proclaim hatred of white people feeling their privilege or some other pop psychological crap. I think Koth's a one-dimensional jerk whose blind worship and faith in the mass murdering emperor and his rigid condemnation of anything that moves in opposition to it make him airlock-worthy all by themselves. Beyond that, he's a jerk. Beyond even that; it's a set of pixels and I don't like them. Not even a little.

Well, First; yes, we did in fact gain super powers we didn't have on the starter planet by the time we are 40, 50 , 60+ Didn't you? Haven't you solo'd entire groups of interplanetary bad guys and giant man-eating critters out of legend? I know I have. No, the blaster fire from those droids on Tython would bother me far less in the finest armor in the galaxy and deploying personal shields or shielding talents far beyond what I dreamed of when I walked that planet during my training. I'm sorry you seem to have eschewed taking advantage of the wildly advanced skills and equipment that have been offered to you since you started training. I haven't. We are, in fact, the heroes of the story. We are, by design and definition, far superior in survival and offensive capabilities to all but the best of the best. We are the members of the Dark Council, the Grand Champions of the Great Hunt, the Barsen'thors, the leaders of the Republic's version of Seal Teams...galactic-class civilization altering heroes. By the time we have done all of that, that's who we should be when we return to our old haunts...unless we make the choice to downlevel for the purposes of actually running the content there. That's why my choice was always level-sync by choice or if choosing to actually run quest chains on a planet. Second, to apply your downtown Atlanta analogy properly it would be comparing the danger you faced in downtown Atlanta as a 17-year old kid with a pocket knife and blue jeans versus the danger you would face in downtown Atlanta as a Navy Seal in his prime wearing full body armor and carrying his favorite mix of weapons while being accompanied by his best buddy from his Seal Team similarly equipped. So, how about having apples compare themselves to apples?

I've checked my privilege and my privilege and I agree; put your pop psychology away and realize that you just took a thread about disliking a companion in a video game and turned into a soapbox where you proclaim your hatred of white people...people, not fictional pixels...who disagree with your assessment that most...not a few, or some, most...people don't like him because he's black. This is what you said: "I suspect most don't because of this:" Now do me and my privilege a favor and drag your bigoted, hateful, judgmental behind back under whatever Tumblrock you crawled out from under.

I think this pretty much covers it. We can all move on now.

This works for me. +1

Are you serious? All this dislike because he's not white? Crawl back to Tumblr.

I am absolutely in the... "Hey Koth, do me a favor while we'll floating out here and go take a look at the primary thruster nozzle...I think it's a little gunked up" "No, the droids are all busy, you better take a look" "Yes, I think checking from the outside of the ship is a good idea. Why, don't you?" "Koth, come in Koth...you out there now? I think you'll see what I'm talking about if you get right up in there...yeah, in there...see?" "SCORPIO, full burn on primary thrusters on my mark..." "Koth, you have a good view inside that thruster area? Ok, good..." "SCORPIO, mark" FWWOOOOOOOOOOSH! "Ok, SCORPIO, shut 'em down" "Hey, anyone seen Koth?" ...camp

Well, let's take those individually. The rancor probably doesn't care at all, but he's going to be a lot easier to beat down at 65 then he was when you first faced him, so when you go back to that spot you first beat one in your up and coming youth it's going to get curb stomped. The womp rat? Same deal (since they're demonstrably stupid) except at 65 you should be able to kill a pack of them with a good sneeze and the briefest of AoEs. And that's why MMOs shrink the agg range. A massive level difference makes them nothing more than tedious speed bumps that only serve to annoy people. Smart developers manage that and design accordingly. If you are into being annoyed and somehow calling it immersive gameplay, be my guest. It makes no sense that you, as the epitome of your class...a galactic wrecking machine who has changed the course of civilization...should struggle as much against an RoUS as you did when you still trying to make sure you didn't shoot yourself in the foot when you were practicing your quick draw. Sand People? They're sentient and live in societies, and nowhere is it written or supposed that they are suicidal as a group. So the question would rightly be "why wouldn't they care"? Psychopaths? Same answer. Unless they are intent on committing suicide they may be murderous but who says they're stupid or suicidal? It's just good game design not to make max-level characters trip over a pissed off titmouse.

Yes, those are two external packages, as you say, and not .ini files packaged and deployed with the install in a fully user-editable format. I can see where Eric might say that, and that modifying actual assets is a no-no.

Get over yourself. Either provide a quote/link where BW has specifically referenced .ini files and said "No, you can't modify those on pain of 'something' " or understand that if these setting files were designed not to be player-modified they would not be .ini files and would instead by held inside the executable and it's uneditable file bundle. They are .ini files specifically because they are available for user edits, called by the executable to set parameters. I'm going to just end your argument: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=82780 Here we see Naugar specifically telling someone how to edit an .ini file.

Here's the thing: If it's too easy for you, you will always have options for making it tougher on yourself. Those choices are there for you. If nerfs happen, those people who now find the new harder mode to be tougher than they want the game to be really don't have any options. It used to be that they could, if worst came to worst, self-adjust the level curve a bit so they were always a couple of levels above the content they were facing. Now that level syncing has taken that option off the table for them, better the game be too easy with ways to make it tougher on yourself than too hard for some who no longer have the option to make it easier by outleveling content.

Remember that not everyone plays young characters.

If you're saying that the model of enemies never fleeing or having no sense of self preservation is flawed then I agree completely. Little fish flee big fish. A fox may kill and eat a lone and hungry wolf pup. Will it run from a fully grown alpha wolf? A Fire Team of Marines may engage, pursue, and take out a small group of enemy combatants. Will they retreat if they top a rise and find themselves confronted by a reinforced battalion of heavy infantry? A twelve year old Golden Gloves Lightweight contestant wades into fight after fight in his own age and weight class. Will he decide discretion is the better part of valor if Mike Tyson calls him out? Of course enemies have a sense of self-preservation, living things without any sense of self preservation are almost impossible to find; the vast majority are extinct. Many MMOs recognize this by constantly shrinking the aggro range of mobs as the level difference between them and a player increases. To the point where if the difference is big enough you would have to hit a mob (and likely one-shot it anyway) to provoke it into attacking you. And that makes sense.

Well, you're wrong but that's ok. He's right when he makes the argument that, taking Tython as a perfect example, we started our training here. Against beings that posed a challenge to young Jedi being trained to take on far tougher challenges. And we survived there as young trainees. Survived and thrived, proving ourselves capable...in our training robes and wielding training sabers...of meeting any threat head on save that posed by a world boss. Cut to today; the pre-eminent master of Force combat in the entire Jedi Order...who has gone toe to toe with the Dark Lords of the Sith and prevailed, single-handedly decimated the Children of the Emperor, carved Rancors into sushi for a warm-up...returns to Tython to check on the progress of the latest class of Padawans. He wears the most advanced armor in the galaxy. He wields the finest weapons in known existence. He has been honed to razor sharpness and is the master of every nuance of Force combat. And now, for reasons known only to the Midichlorians and EA, he is challenged by creatures that days ago were beneath his contempt and dispatched with barely a wave of his hand. Right, makes perfect sense. Except that no, no it doesn't. Not even a little. Level syncing should be, at best, an optional toggle. Perhaps a mandatory one in the instance where someone intends to actually run planetary or storyline quests, but only then. If my L65 Jedi is coming back to Tython for the sole purpose of sightseeing and picking up some holocron I didn't bother with previously I should carve my way through anything there like the proverbial hot lightsaber through butter.

Well shoot, I can't imagine why that might have happened....

This. There is only a crisis in the minds of some people.

You should read that to a mirror.

Play without your companions then, and quit whining about it.

Here's a thought, Sparkie... You play the game you want to and let others do the same, because I have a newsflash for you: If someone's enjoying themselves when they are playing the game, they are doing it right.

Entirely subjective. I liked it, I like Rishi. Opinions vary.