Well, I'll chime in with my disappointment. Considering the last chapter held no real interest (sorry, not a Kaliyo fan and it did nothing for the overall story) and that I spent more time on levelling crafting on my toons than actually doing the chapters, I was looking forward to EC as it seemed to be the only real meat of content that will be released anytime soon (yeah, new warzone, but I am not sure why to be excited by this considering the overall broken nature of pvp in this game). I'll echo other posters: why not put it on PTS sooner? Haven't they been working on EC since at least January if not sooner? Only I'll add this question: why not release say the first three fights as maybe a "teaser" and then fine tune the rest of EC on the next Chapter or two or five. It would at least be -something- new to do....

The game has been and continues to be in maintenance mode. This doesn't mean the servers are going to be shut down anytime soon - mmos can run a really long time in such a mode. It just means one should not get one's hope up for, say a Wrath of the Lich King type expansion anytime soon... Best hope for a real expansion/new content? That EA/Bioware sells the game and it's engine to another development team. But since the game appears to make them money, even that is a slim hope at all...

So right in the beginning of your post: A semi-good group of raiders can clear an op in sm in 45 minutes, a really good group can clear a HM op in an hour. So how is this different? I have also played FF and you get the same kind of issues facing a primal as you do in an op. Only in FF it is actually worse because FF is not afraid to one shot you if you miss a mechanic and the cross server queue makes it more likely for someone to rage quit or leave or get frustrated at someone new who may not know the mechanics. So based on your quote I am not entirely sure why this would be better than actually having a new op other than maybe dev cost. However, I am not against the idea itself. I would certainly take this or maybe even an option - perhaps after you clear it in SM - to have zero adds in the ops so you can just go from boss fight to boss fight. After any number of runs adds are annoying, time consuming, serve no real purpose/challenge and are probably the part that players like the least. The real reason why people would favor fighting Primals is simply getting to boss fight after boss fight with no annoying adds in-between. At this point, though, any op-like group content would be welcome. As always, just my two cents...

Please provide proof of this. - oh wait, no player or forum warrior has server numbers or metrics to prove this kind of thing, so nvm. If you are talking about the raiding decline in SWTOR,, did you ever think that the raiders have been declining in this game due to the fact that Bioware has not released a new op in more than a year? If BW were to stun everyone and suddenly release 2 new ops with Chapter X, how many people do you think would return to this game? Or do you really think this would cause a decline in the game's population? And, once again, as I never get tired of mentioning this - please explain why BW/EA does not have the resources to simultaneously work on both story and ops (and other stuff as well). It does not have to be an either or option... Finally, a healthy mmo game should cater to all sorts of playstyles/players. Just because you may not raid or feel it is not important does not mean it should be in the game. I am personally not a big fan of strongholds/housing but I would never advocate BW remove it or stop working on them. More players = healthy, longer-lasting, and sometimes even a better overall game. There is no reason to remove or stop working on any part of this game.

It would help to know the exact intention of the Eternal Championship: is it meant to gear up a character without having to run ops at all or to gear up a character enough to run operations? And can the Eternal Championship be scaled? i.e. can you make it so you get better rewards for doing it solo without a companion versus with a companion or with a group? can the player choose to make it tougher to get increased rewards? (i.e. a sm and hm version?) But without knowing any real info and guessing that it is not scalable and is meant more as a transition than a full blown operation alternative, I would start somewhere along these lines: Encounters 1 - 5: character bolstered to 208 level, finishing encounter 5 rewards (2) 208 level gear and 1 or 2 purple mats to craft a 208 gear. The gear that drops would be equivalent to 208 operation gear (i.e. not endurance heavy) but not include set bonus. Gear should be Bind on Legacy. Encounter 6 - 9:: should be hard enough to require full 208 gear and finishing encounter 9 would reward (2) 216 level gear, excluding mainhand, and 1 or 2 purple mats to craft a 216 gear. Gear would be equivalent 216 operation gear without set bonus. Gear would be Bind on Pickup. Encounter 10: should be hard enough to require full 216 gear and reward a token. This token could be used to redeem (1) 216 set bonus gear (bind on pickup) or (1) 216 mainhand (bind on pickup) or (1) unique gear, such as legacy offhand shell (as I hate the Gree event, my #1 wishlist item), legacy mainhand shell, mounts, decorations, dyes, pets, maybe even a silver CM pack or whatnot. etc. (and it doesn't have to be 1 token = 1 object, there could be long term goals i.e. 4 tokens = legacy offhand). I would only award 220 gear if this is meant to be a total alternative to running operations or if it can be scalable to HM. I would never reward 224 gear and save that gear for running HM ops. As always, just my two cents...

We don't need more classes but think of how under utilized the disciplines are in this game. BW could make a pvp only discipline for every class as a means to separate PVP and PVE and balance things out. BW could make a "new" discipline to allow an AC to use more weapons; the easiest example: Mercs (imp) could use Gunnery discipline (pub) which would allow them to use Assault cannons. Thus a merc could choose either dual blaster (arsenal) or assault cannon (gunnery) but essentially have the same skills. And vice versa of course. Or a discipline could be added to a merc class that allows the use of a blaster rifle... this may be a way around being to choose the weapon you want to use instead of being forced into just one type. Although if they did want to make a class, it should be really easy now. Make a class that starts at level 60 and either push it into KOTFE or just create a simple chapter or 2 to explain what that class is doing (a Zakuul Knight class with a pole saber would prob be the most obvious one to start with since a lot of the animations are prob already in the game as part of the NPCs). Of course, none of this is "needed" but would all more variety and customization and maybe even a reason to do more alts... maybe just a little bit of fresh air into the game? Just a thought...

Of course! Bioware promised "better than cross server!" .... But seriously, no. What in the history of the game would make anyone expect otherwise? At best, all we can hope for are class balances - anyone remember that little tidbit from Bioware that disciplines were supposed to make this much easier? How is that working out? Or, as is becoming more common as the MMO market is in decline, the merger of servers into a Mega Server, which would at least dramatically increase the pvp population, or so one would hope. Once again, another (probably fruitless) attempt at me asking for a 2016 Road Map from Bioware, which could clarify such things...

I like this game (hence why I sub, go figure) and I have tried many other mmos and keep circling back to this one. If you look at it objectively-ish, this really is one of the better mmos on the market as a whole (classes, UI, customization, combat, lore, etc). Having stated that, though, there seems to be one burning question: Why exactly can't EA/Bioware work on story, class balancing, pvp and ops at the same time? Are we to believe they are too poor to allocate the resources/money to do so? We know that all pre-KOTFE content has not only been paid for but that EA/Bioware made a profit doing so. We all know that the new Star Wars movie should provide a bump of interest in this game. Wouldn't it make more sense to work on multiple aspects of the game at the same time so that the game can appeal to a wide variety of players, thus maybe encouraging growth and more income? Isn't this a win-win situation? Anyway, I am probably getting to far off topic. This is a great game and a very well done mmo and I, despite the ops drought (I like to raid), will continue to support it with my sub.

So my two questions would be: 1 - if this remains to be true, exactly how many people are subs going to beat out for "early" access? Seems like it would be a really tiny number, and thus can you even consider it a real 'reward'? 2 - why only two days? why not a week/weekend? Having said that, this, to me, seems to indicate that Bioware is going to move forward with offering KOTFE chapters on the CM for f2p/preferred players to buy and play. Which would then mean subs would get a real advantage for an early access as the number of available players able to play upon chapter release would then be significantly higher - although once again just two days seems odd. Just a thought...

No, not at all. What is going to happen to the keybindings when we become HK-55? I imagine it will be a very simplified one bar of abilities and while the chapter may contain good humor the actual combat/mechanics of playing HK-55 will be boring and kinda stupid. I would much rather have the option to have a HK Droid as a playable race. Or introduce a start at level 60 new HK Droid class and have 1-3 chapters bringing the class into the KOTFE fold. (a side note: kinda surprised they do not add a start at level 60 Zukul Knight class that uses a pole saber and do the same thing). Those would be worth investing a sub for... Playing one of my companions - any of them - for an hour is not. Nor do I think it will detract any from the mindset of "I can unsub now and resub in Aug and do all chapters within one month" but that is probably off topic for this discussion. As always, just my two cents...

So might as well toss in my two cents and offer up some ideas as there are any number of ways of adding rewards to subs without making it P2W. - Cap Influence. F2P would be capped at 10, Preferred at 20, Sub no cap. - Companion customization: F2P would not be able to customize their companion, Preferred would only get the standard customization slot, Subs would get full armor unlocks to fully customize the companion look. - Legendary Gear: Subs would get one token per month to spend at a Legendary Gear vendor. This vendor would sell 216 rated legacy implants, ear pieces, relics, weapons, armor, and offhands. - Subs get one token a month which can be used to buy one Silver pack of any kind (weapons, crystals, dyes, mounts, etc). I personally would prefer it be for a Gold pack, but that would probably be asking too much... - Subs only can buy a token - similar to the current warzone tokens - that allow them to transfer PVE comms between their own toons. Subs can also downgrade comms: i.e. a sub can spend 10 glowing data crystals to buy 1 common data crystal, and spend 10 radiant to buy 1 glowing. - There are more ways to incite subs but honestly they would require changing the current business model to more of a fully f2p game than it currently is at. So I will stop here unless this option is actually brought up by Bioware... Thanks for listening...

So I am not proclaiming this the death of swtor, nor am I saying a $15 a month is a huge cost or not a bad value (especially if you love Star Wars and want to support a Star Wars MMO). However, There seems to be a prevailing theme/thought and it goes something like this: "I should unsub now and just come back in June/July, resub and then do all the chapters up to that point within that month". So far, there has be no effective reasonable counter argument against this. Some weak ones from players: "It's just $15 a month, that is cheap!" "Look how many hours you can put into this game for the sub price" "I just want to support the game anyway" "Bioware will do more than just produce chapters" etc and so forth. And no counter argument from Bioware. Nothing. Seems like this time every year the fan base has to plead, argue, cajole and threaten BW to release a road map for the following year when it should be standard procedure to do so anyway. But Bioware has not stated any reason why people should stay continuously subbed throughout next year. So sub numbers may or may not be decling now, but unless something can be done to counter the argument of unsubbing and resubbing later, I would expect a huge dropoff in sub numbers by beginning of next year depending on the effect from Force Awakens. Of course, Bioware could reverse course and make it so that when you sub you do not automatically get all chapters retroactively and that would effectively close down this argument...

1) Story: story is linear, standard fair and most disappointing: choices don't matter in the least. I wish Bioware would have had the guts to have choices really matter and permanently remove companions based on choices. This would have been truly unique in modern MMOs. A wasted oppurtunity. Once I did one pub, one imp, one LS, one DS, it was nothing but spacebar (which is way less than one hour per chapter this way). 2) Alliance stronghold: I like some aspects of this. Gives you something to grind while waiting on FPs, WZs, or raids. While I do not mind having companion recruitment per toon (and could have been even more important if BW had done differently in point 1), that alliance specialist should be legacy wide. I got them to 20 on one toon and -may- do it on a second.. but all 10 of them? Hell. No. 3) OPs/Flashpoints: The bolster is either broken or stupid or both. If you are 65 and have run with 3 other members, none higher than 30, you know what I mean. I do not run FPs (tactical, sm, or hm) anymore. 4) Starfortresses: A surprise and welcome addition to the expac. Yeah, it will fall flat after you've run it 20 times or more, but what in this game won't? Would have been nice to see a normal four man HM version of it. 5) Companions: Way OP. Your companion should not be more geared than someone in fully augmented BiS nightmare gear just becuase you dump the credits in to get to influence 50. I do like the option to choose heal/tank/dps as it does let me choose which companion I want to heal me, but let's face it: once you recruit the one you want to tag along the others are only useful if you want to raise the influence for crafting. So mixed on this. Maybe if Bioware were brave enough to say why we want higher alliance rankings might help. 6) Crafting: To someone new: it's ok, as crafting is very easy now. Nice to so easily make my own augments, stims, medpacks, and the occasional barrel or hilt. To those that spent time and credits to max out crafting on multiple toons: a slap in the face. But there is no going back so it's just a kinda take it as it is thing. 7) Level syncing: I like it? Since comps are op, since even level sync-ed you are are usually op for your current level, since everything is so easy - not sure what there is to complain about? It is clearly needed for the alliance stuff, which is not bad to do at least once but gets stale quickly. So meh. 8) Class changes: More stupid bloated abilities that were not asked for or needed. 9) PvP: I pvp when bored but pvp has been broken so long despite numerous threads about it and suggestions how to fix it. Bioware either doesn't care or is too stupid to fix it or maybe a bit of both. No reason to beat this dead horse. 10) New player experience: Can't say anything as all my toons are maxed level and there is zero incentive to go raise another one. 11) Datacrons: Love the legacy wide datacron. Long asked for and glad it is finally done. I asked this in another post which got buried and forgotten already, but the overriding question still seems to be: going forward, why does Bioware think releasing a single chapter a month is worth a $15 sub. It would seem that a recent survey may be indicating that Bioware is at least considering this question... so hope maybe? Anywya, my two cents.

I think the more would PVP would be more enjoyable if: 1. Get rid of Stun Wars. Any number of ways to do this (and these would only apply to warzones) : Make all stuns equal in a pvp zone (all stuns stun for 4 seconds, for example) with the same type of cooldown. Get ride of CC abilities including stealth mezzes. Fix resolve so that regardless of the stun it activates 100% on the stun and lasts for prob 30 seconds. Or get rid of all stuns entirely and just transform them inside warzones into roots and slows. Or any variation of the above. Stun lock killing has been the number one reason people don't pvp since launch. 2. Make more rewards for pvping: make it so that pvp comms can be used to buy decorations, gear, crafting mats, pets, mounts, or PVE crystals (like radiant crystals). 3. Improve matchmaking 4. Improve brackets (31-64??) Both 3 + 4 would be helped with a cross server queue. There are proably any number of ways to improve expertise/bolster, but I will defer that to the serious pvp'ers out there...

This quote sort of summarizes quite a few responses. So, just a reminder: 1. All content pre KOTFE has already been paid for (original box price set, sub for more than a year, Makeb expansion, etc and so forth). 2. Bioware has already stated that starting January they will release one chapter per month. So the cost will be $15 for one chapter. So come January, why does Bioware think $15 is worth one chapter? Edit: also, the bigger point is that if they lifted the f2p restrictions the f2p/casual players would swarm the game. Isn't that what Bioware wants?

Yeah, I can't help but throw my two cents in. My suggestion is that comps should be scaled like this: Influence 5 (very easy to obtain) : equivalent to 208 augmented BiS gear Influence 20: equivalent to 216 augmented BiS gear Influence 35: equivalent to 220 augmented BiS gear Influence 50: equivalent to 224 augmented BiS gear And scale accordingly in between. This would reward those that invest the time/money to raise the influence of their companion while at the same time making the story stuff easy to do as influence 5 is very easy to obtain for the people that don't want to invest the time/credits. However, at no point should a companion be stronger than someone that has taken the time and effort to successfully gear themselves in nightmare gear; this seems grossly insulting to these players and the workj/time they put in to achieve nightmare success. Thanks for listening (you DO listen, right?)

As the title says. 1. It appears that Bioware has committed to catering to the casual/f2p type player. Yet, at the same time, SWTOR is infamous for its terrible restrictions on free to play, which keeps a lot of casual players from even trying the game. These two concepts seem to be working against each other. Would Bioware care to comment on this? 2. Please explain why you think $15 is the correct price for a single chapter. My humble suggestion: Go fully free to play - no restrictions. Charge a set amount per chapter in Cartel Market coins. This cost would be reduced for preferred players and free for subs. Increase the monthly cartel coin allotment for both preferred and subs. This allotment + the reduced chapter cost would be the enticement to go preferred or to sub. Anyway, I think now is the time to comment on the $15 per chapter price point. Thanks