StarParse http://ixparse.com Regarding the windowed mode, you can't avoid that. An application in fullscreen takes full control of the rendering environment so nothing else can interfere. More info on that here.

Honestly I'd just replace the entire HoloNet with a wiki where subscribers could add content with the community team acting as moderators.

I think that was a rhetorical question...

The CZ-198 conquest achievement was granted via CS but the timestamp on the achievement is from when CS granted it, NOT from when the achievement should have ben granted. If they do this on Rishi it is meaningless, I don't mind farming Grophets or doing all that again, I just want the original timestamp on the achievements. Futhermore, the CZ-198 achievement was never granted by the game. This is a completely different problem, it's "wipe" of an already granted achievement (both Rishi and Nar Shaddaa Nightlife Event). So, somewhere in the server logs there must be something along the lines of: [TIMESTAMP] Granted player X the achievement Y. So unless the info is completely unrecoverable (a.k.a. never recoded anywhere) there must be a way to parse the logs and update the database accordingly. Otherwise why do you even keep logs?

I'm sorry Eric, I usually always side with BioWare, but I can not agree to this "usual policy". One of the purposes of having timestamps on achievements is to be able to tell who did it first, you are failing the purpose of your own design. The Rishi Datacron Hunt was one of the most intricate puzzles in game and the little credit is now being stripped away from those who actually discovered it. My achievements there are most likely among the World firsts, if not the World first themselves. Now they are meaningless. So my suggestion is: Either open an exception in his case for people who can prove if and when they did it, OR remove the achievements from game and just leave the Legacy titles. Timestamp Proofs from combat logs (which I assume you have server-side aswell): <Smell of the Sea> @ 02/12/2014 - 14:54:33 GMT [14:54:33.215] [@K'ami] [@K'ami] [Examining Sea Pheromones {3517191668367360}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Incredible Smell {3517191668367641}] () <Where's Wudd> @ 02/12/2014 - 20:54:19 GMT [20:54:19.522] [@K'ami] [Wudd the Grophet {3515808688898048}:149015857705] [] [Event {836045448945472}: Death {836045448945493}] () <The Last Straugh> @ 02/12/2014 - 20:58:02 GMT [20:58:02.911] [@K'ami] [straugh the Grophet {3515804393930752}:393007866873] [] [Event {836045448945472}: Death {836045448945493}] () <A Break House> & <Three Not So Little Grophets> @ 02/12/2014 - 21:17:02 GMT [21:17:02.032] [@K'ami] [@K'ami] [] [Event {836045448945472}: ExitCombat {836045448945490}] () [21:17:02.071] [@K'ami] [breck the Grophet {3515812983865344}:496004842362] [Focused Slash {3478012976693248}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Beat Down (Physical) {3478012976693516}] () <X Marks the Spot> @ 02/12/2014 - 21:40:55 GMT [21:40:55.071] [@K'ami] [@K'ami] [investigating {3517689884573696}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Neural Location {3517689884573997}] ()

Honestly, I'm sorry to say, but... it's just you. The new HMs are no harder than the 5 HMs when they came out. Bonus bosses aside, they are pretty easy,

My Rishi achievements 230/230 on exploration were World firsts (afaik)... believe me, I'm pissed. Just in case this helps with any sort of investigation: <Smell of the Sea> @ 02/12/2014 - 14:54:33 GMT [14:54:33.215] [@K'ami] [@K'ami] [Examining Sea Pheromones {3517191668367360}] [ApplyEffect {836045448945477}: Incredible Smell {3517191668367641}] () <Where's Wudd> @ 02/12/2014 - 20:54:19 GMT [20:54:19.522] [@K'ami] [Wudd the Grophet {3515808688898048}:149015857705] [] [Event {836045448945472}: Death {836045448945493}] () <The Last Straugh> @ 02/12/2014 - 20:58:02 GMT [20:58:02.911] [@K'ami] [straugh the Grophet {3515804393930752}:393007866873] [] [Event {836045448945472}: Death {836045448945493}] () <A Break House> & <Three Not So Little Grophets> @ 02/12/2014 - 21:17:02 GMT [21:17:02.032] [@K'ami] [@K'ami] [] [Event {836045448945472}: ExitCombat {836045448945490}] () [21:17:02.071] [@K'ami] [breck the Grophet {3515812983865344}:496004842362] [Focused Slash {3478012976693248}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Beat Down (Physical) {3478012976693516}] () <X Marks the Spot> @ 02/12/2014 - 21:40:55 GMT [21:40:55.071] [@K'ami] [@K'ami] [investigating {3517689884573696}] [RemoveEffect {836045448945478}: Neural Location {3517689884573997}] ()

Release your companion first (assuming you are using a healing companion), then Darth Marr since he is a tank, then Lana Beniko (another healer), then the rest....

Do NOT: Use AoE taunt. Use AoE damage. Use knockback heals. Do: Hug the walls and move from side to side avoiding the oncoming droids. Send a DPS to blow up one droid when you get a row of three using cooldowns. Send a different DPS to blow the droid on the next row of three. To BioWare: Please, please, please do NOT nerf this. I beg you... it's the only fun flashpoint fight since LI came out.

The [WEEKLY] Galactic Conflicts mission is NOT progressing and stays at: "Complete Level 60 [HARD] Flashpoints: 0/3" There is no way to advance or complete the mission. Ticket #14578203

The Ravagers SM 16-man is dropping only ONE Resurrected gear token per boss (same as 8-man) instead of double the loot. EDIT: Last boss - Coratanni - did NOT drop any loot. Ticket #1477607

Bugged Achievements Resetting on Logout/Login Depths of Manaan All Hard Mode achievements Rishi The Last Straugh Where's Wudd A Break House Three Not So Little Grophets Smell of the Sea X Marks the Spot Ticket #14577200 If you know of any more, please post below...

Bonus boss on Depths of Manaan HM (M2-AUX) does NOT drop anything - Ticket #14570225.

You entire premise is sorta flawed because... Assuming a NiM flashpoint would take 30-45min to complete, and the only high-tier loot comes from the last boss: You spend 30-45min to get a single piece of good loot and some random crap. Now, let's compare this to HM operations. You spend 2-3hrs (as stated) clearing a 5 boss instance, getting one piece of good loot per boos. You spend 24-36min to get a single piece of good loot and some random crap. Now the good thing about ops is that they save your progress (during the week). So you don't need to sit there for 3hrs clearing it. You can clear a boss a day with less time invested than you would on a NiM flashpoint.

Because everything that is implemented in game costs time and money. Although ultimately it's BioWare decision, it is the responsibility of the community to help steer the decisions to maximize the game success.

Maybe but... Gear check is completely useless. No amount of gear will save you from people screwing up mechanics, also some undergeared people outperform properly geared ones. An achievement check would be best, and even that won't prevent you from picking up someone who was carried and still doesn't know what he/she is doing. In all honesty no automated system can accurately pick a successful HM group. Having experience putting together PuGs for all kinds of content can say even handpicking people often leads to failure.

Sure, that way we can have 2 tanks, 4 healers, and 10 damage dealers all queued and no one gets a pop! Queue for 8man - NO POP 1 tank 2 healers 5 damage dealers Queue for 16man - NO POP 1 tank 2 healers 5 damage dealers We can even go further... what if the tanks all like 8man and the healers all prefer 16man? You can have 1000 people queued and still no pop!

I seriously hope 90% of the people in this thread are just trolling. The group finder is NOT for guild runs. If you are queuing with a full group, then you are not "group finding", you are exploiting a free teleport and commendations. As for the group finder being 16-man and not 8-man: The servers have a lack of tanks, so having a 16-man group finder allows 8 more people to enjoy the content without requiring additional tanks. The 16-man SM instances are generally more forgiving on mechanics allowing a group to carry more "bads" without falling apart. The loss of players (with the exception of tanks) in the middle of an operation is much less likely to cause the group to fall apart. The 16-man instances have better rewards (commendations and crafting materials). Making a 8/16 toggle would cause a even greater spread of the population in the queues and make "pops" even more infrequent. Regardless of what you all or I say, BioWare has something none of us have - metrics. If they made a move towards 16-man it was because their metrics showed them more people would be able to enjoy the content and with less in-queue time.

The purpose of those 30 comms is to encourage people to use group finder so guildless people/casuals/etc have a chance to do operations. In my opinion the group finder should never grant comms to a full group queuing, since it's basically rewarding them for something they haven't done. What you are asking for can be translated to: "I want to run whatever operation I feel like doing, with only my guildmates and no strangers, I want to have a quicktravel to the instance, and on top of any rewards for killing bosses I want 30 Ultimate Commendations for my effort!" Honestly, I don't want to come out as a jerk, but don't you see something wrong in what you are asking for? Lastly the group finder has a rotating schedule of operations for the following reasons: To ensure faster queues since everyone is queued for the same operation. To ensure someone logging in late in the week is still able to find a group.

Instance was set to 16 man HM. A few people (6 - 8ish) had a lockout after first boss. Trash was cleared all the way up to the cave. Second boss was not killed. Entering the cave produced no "chilling presence" flytext as it used to. Four different people tried using their amulets inside the cave (roughly at its center) while: Having no target selected. Selecting themselves as target. Selecting another friendly player as target. Any of the above would result in the animation triggering, and the "chilling presence" flytext popping up (the one you should get just by entering the cave), but no Dreadful Entity spawn. It could have been just a glitch since we ran out of time and didn't try resetting the instance. Nevertheless it bugged, that's 100% sure.

How exactly does downtime prevent a datacenter network failure on a router controlled by Vodafone (CW)?

Dread Fortress Nightmare Nefra, Who Bars the Way - Easy on both 8-man and 16-man, although healing/cleanses are usually easier on 16-man. Gate Commander Draxus - Easier on 16-man due to having more interrupts available. Grob'thok, Who Feeds the Forge - Easier on 8-man due to less chaos. Corruptor Zero - Easier on 8-man due to less chaos on limited space/grenade. Dread Master Brontes - Everything until burn stage is easier on 8-man. Burn stage is harder on 8-man due to DPS requirement and more "Fire and Forget" on the same target. Dread Palace Nightmare Dread Master Bestia - Depends on tactic used, but generally easier on 16-man. Dread Master Tyrans - Depends solely on the number of melee characters. Dread Master Calphayus - A joke on both 8-man and 16-man. Dread Master Raptus - DPS challenge is easier on 16-man; Healing challenge is easier on 8-man. Dread Council - Doable on 8-man; Next to impossible on 16-man due to random damage spikes and way more chaos on Brontes' Reaches. If you indeed have done the content (not nerfed) on both 8-man and 16-man you must agree the difficulty of a fight vs. people depends on the mechanics of the fight, the available space, the spike vs. sustained damage ratio, the DPS requirement, and classes you bring in. That being said the sentences I quoted reveal at best a desire to derail/roll this thread for no apparent reason, or at worst ignorance on the matter.

The 16-man balancing problem lies in the strategy they usually use - "twice the healers, twice the damage". This is fine for constant predictable damage, however burst damage has little relation to the number healers. The burst damage a raid is able to take is determined by the health and mitigation of the players. So duplicating burst damage only makes sense if in 16-manplayers had twice the health, which they don't... Taking for example Tyrans' Thundering Blast, a better strategy would have been to keep its damage the same as 8-man but cutting the cooldown in half. This way it would still do twice as much damage overall, putting appropriate strain on the healers, but not kill people when the RNG Gods decide someone should get hit by Thundering Blast, Shock, and Smash all in the same GCD. Anyway, back to farming dailies for repair costs!

Gratz!

Can't tell if serious...