Ebon Hawk actually. I didn't have much choice when the servers were consolidated because I wasn't playing at the time. RP isn't really my thing. And the gear check thing is a good point. I didn't think about that problem, at least they have the ratings in place so far, I mean it can't be that much harder to implement a check. I'm guessing it's not on their priority list.

Oh crap, so it is. Thank you for pointing that out.

I don't see why that should stop people from learning the mechanics when they at least attempt them. People can't learn if they don't get given the opportunity or experience it. It's easy to say why they're not up there because all PUG's would always wipe. But then a group of new level 50's attempting any of the FP for first time on hard could have the same thing happen until they learn what to do and not to do. Google, guides and the likes are there to help us learn and apply them. We get plenty of idiots that come into the current stuff we should consider easy after several runs, all it takes is one person to make the team wipe experienced or not mistakes happen. I guess I've felt a lot of patience is needed to progress in a game like this especially with other players, I never bail on groups, I never tell people off for doing something stupid, I never abandon teams just because we're not going "fast enough". (Sorry I tend to ramble a lot on forums, I don't post much, just a lot.)

I appreciate the input guys, and I will look for a guild through more closed channels. My only worry has ever been in joining a guild under decent first impressions and then finding out it's not what it was made out to be, I guess that was pretty hypocritical when I said I was "LF Guild," in the general chat huh. But really my point of the post was I cannot fathom why most of the end game content is not up for option in the group finder. Surely there are many players out there who feel the same or have noticed it too. It doesn't really make any sense to only have part of the end game FP's and Ops on a mode designed for compiling players together to perform them. When I did get into one Lost Island FP, they all asked has everyone done this one. I said. "Nope first time," And immediately 2/4 players quit. And the other player like me went " :/ " He said it would have been better if I had joined a Story mode version first. Granted, I should. I just wish the option was there, y'know in the finder? Maybe I'll sign back on and spend an hour seeing if anyone wants to "practice" the FP and see if I get much of a response while looking for a guild. I just feel I am missing some idea of why Bioware didn't include it in the first place.

The group finder list for the flashpoints and operations seem very very small. Only the main flashpoints for both normal and hard mode are listed. Lost Island (Hard) and only 2 of the operations for story mode are available to line up for. Doesn't that leave 2 other operations out, including all of the hard versions of them? Is there a reason for this? Edit: (My bad Story mode Lost Island IS in the list.) I have two characters sitting on Colomi gear except for the main hand, as for some reason NO one wants to do Lost Island, ever. And I never really seem to get into the two Ops but from what I've read at my gear level it's not worth doing. And it doesn't help a lot of players seem to lose patience at the slightest waste of time or mistake they just drop out and waste their own and everyone else's time. I guess I'm having a lot of bad luck lately. I've had difficulty joining a guild too. (I dunno do I look bad or something?) The times I've asked for any recruiting I get a resounding silence buried under lots of WTT / WTB / LF BT Social. Or even smack talk depending on the planet I happen to be on. So again, I seem to be missing something, I would like to do the higher end content so I could y'know ACTUALLY learn how to do these operations and Lost Island. Why is it there is no options to do ALL of the end game story and hard mode content under the group finder? While I'm on the topic is there an easy to read list of of all of the flashpoints and operation modes, including where they start as I could spend hours running around trying to figure out where some of the start points to these places are. I know there are some on Ilum and some on the Fleet? Bioware, it would be nice if there were some more obvious means to seeing which of the lovely quest givers give which quest too. Because of the I dunno 20-30 on the fleet that are for flashpoints, I'd like to know before sitting through 30 mins of dialog and a full quest book before I can figure it out. <Flashpoint courier> is a little too vague.

Goods to know thanks.

Ahhhh so the Purple gear is NOT grade 7. Good to know I'll go check that out now. Edit: SO THERE IS... that's rather upsetting that in order to progress in our Ships gear we need to pay-to-win now. How unfortunate. :/

I was pretty excited when I read over the patch notes about the new space missions coming out, something fresh to add to the roster of already interesting side missions we had to the main game. But after having played the missions through each several times I find them to be... mixed upon reception and bitter upon completion. For the record my character is a CT and I have the capability to craft all of the best Space equipment available thus far, the I assume Grade 7 Purples. Plus I have each of the 4 special items you can get from the vendor on fleet. tl;dr version: But despite having these, I found my self particularly overwhelmed by how difficult these are. Less difficult when I changed and adopted new tactics. The thing about rail shooters you have to balance knowing when to survive and when to attack, and you have to figure out the pattern required to complete it I mean lets face it it's the same every time. You don't have a lot of choice when you are required to take hits if you need to nail down an objective quickly or lose out the goal for the rest of the mission. I'm not interested in hearing players from the PTS or have "completed" these by word of mouth and claim 'You're bad try harder" That's just rude (Unless you're talking to someone who isn't very constructive then go you ) Before people throw tactics at me trust me I've tried a lot of different things, so I don't want to hear "Do more barrel rolls" or "Keep rotating around the edges of the screen" Because these two tactics are given but they are not 100% gaurenteed to keep you safe. This is what I've learnt from each of the missions: Cha Rabba Assault. Okay this one... there's too much blaster fire, the mines are overwhelming and continue to be overwhelming though some of the mission. I can't say ALL of it because I can't seem to get very far without being taken out. It was almost too difficult for me to even strafe target the objectives I needed because I would either lack a consistent damage or I was unable to target them in the first place due to objects in the way. Even when popping the electronic warfare pod if you do it too late enemies can still hit you for a few seconds, and the cool down between uses doesn't help. This mission is very difficult and I have yet to find a suitable pattern. Duma Strike This one is just ugh. Being made to destroy every component on every ship is a rather large stretch. Missiles when upgraded only increase the number you have not the damage it deals. So popping off a lot of missiles isn't a viable option you need to use your blasters in order to destroy the components in time and that isn't even while worrying about getting destroyed in the process. Strafing tactics are a bit difficult here too mostly because you're getting nailed at from several sides constantly. Again the EWP pod just cannot be popped enough to be viable here. Kanz Minefield This one is doable, you have to be careful but it's not un-winnable. Balancing the need for shields and weapons are a must in understanding if you're not switching between the two that's where you will fail, badly. The biggest threat comes from the actual shield hardpoint it's self on it's approach there is always a large group of enemies who is waiting to tear you a new one. My only gripe is the hardpoint itself has LOT of hull so unless you can take down it's shield on the first pass or so, you won't complete this one. The EMP generator can be handy as you pass over to get some damage in but don't expect miracles. Lorta Escort This one is defiantly no problem if you manage your shields/weapons properly and ONLY attack what you need to. The escort is not very long but if you hesitate and slack that bomber will blow up like a big confetti popper. The only threat is from the Jedi fighters they take a lot of beating and are usually escorted by lots of fighters. Making sure you use the EWP when you pass the cruiser is optional but will give you better odds of taking less damage. My biggest problem with this is again missiles, they're too easily distracted by other targets and do far too little damage for this grade of mission. Far Cradle Strike This one is actually the easiest of the lot. Again you only attack what you need to and balance your shields/weapons. Now the comms tower and the Bridge take 2 torpedoes EACH and you only carry 4 and you have to make each shot on EVERY pass, failure means you may as well start again. The satalites are easy to deal with just hammer on with powered weapons and about 6 missiles but you have to focus on them otherwise you may run out of time if you ignore them. No real problems with this mission it just took some figuring out. Kabal Station Defense This one I think the problem is with the amount of time you have it's pretty short. The bombers take a considerable amount of damage and the Jedi escorts do not help. Once again the missiles fall short here of just doing almost nothing in terms of damage. It's difficult to keep your shields up on this as you need to have power to weapons in order to effectively take down the bombers and frigates. I have yet to do this one mostly because I don't feel I can take out the bombers quick enough without losing 2/3rds of my hulls in the first 2 groups thanks to the Jedi ships. Summery: Oh yeah these missions are difficult, very difficult. But they are difficult in terms of the only reward viable for doing these are going to be bragging rights. The length of time you could spend constantly doing these missions is almost equal to doing a few of the FP's and Ops to earn the Blackhole commendations. Fleet commendations are another matter you can't earn them another way anyway. I feel we're being made to balance too much on trying to survive than enjoy the mission, 90% of the time I found I was circling the outer edges waiting for my target to arrive, or figuring out the precise time to attack without becoming a floating tea bag in space. I love challenges, but I'm not a masochist. I feel achieved I completed a few of these missions but bitter I only received so much for each run after numerous attempts. To be honest I don't know if I even want to come back to these missions as a method of grinding credits or commendations when I may find I'll only complete them 1 out of 6 times because I didn't do perfectly. By the way does anyone know if there is a title for completing all these missions, that would be a nice achievement to strive for at least? I'd like to see some more ship parts providing new ship abilities and an upgrade to the missiles for the ships. Either an increase in damage or perhaps a new part that would increase damage but lower the number of missiles you can have. I mean seriously 150 missiles doesn't do us any good if we can't use them all. I am aware that the missions say "Grade 7 or better needed." But I am unaware if there is any better ship equipment yet that I've seen, can anyone else confirm this?

I feel I need to jump on the side of AGAINST a group finder tool. People in this game are more than capable of forming groups and socialising with other players to attain what they want. Placing in a tool to form random groups removes that aspect of the MMO and forces players to socialise only in their guild or small respective friend groups. The idea of this MMO is to make friends and bring people together. Not everyone wants to join a guild granted and the LFG tool may benefit them more than the non guided players. The only major benefit it would have would be that the LFG can stretch over planets but there is an easy way around this and that is to create a LFG channel that would span over the entire game server for Republic and Empire. It cannot be that difficult to implement surely? It's a double edged knife that can go one of two ways, and usually both ways are in the wrong way. What we do not want to happen is to reduce the community of players to anti-social FP/Ops runners who are just in it for the experience and gear, that is only half the fun of the game. Ask the groups of people who have actually spent time forming Ops to kill World bosses, the communication and the banter was more than a laugh and made it worth while. There's something to be said about spending the time to form groups to do things. And I will know many of those players here will turn round and quote "I don't have the time to wait." That's fair point maybe you don't, but you spend money to play this game under Biowares rules you're not obligated to stay and they're not obligated to fulfil your whims on a moments notice. The simple fact is, if you don't have the time to invest into this game to get what you want, don't play at all. I do not want to see what little communication that goes around in general chats and guilds be scrubbed out by tools that streamline and remove the socialising aspect that makes an MMO. I will however give credit to some of the benefits. If we're going to have a LFG tool, it should be just for flashpoints normal at that, not hard, not ops, not heroric quests. There is a reason it takes so long to earn WZ commendations or Ops gear, because it makes the time and effort worthwhile. Lets not shorten that to the point where everyone hits their top gear quotas with in a few weeks of playing.