Step 1 After reading what was proposed, seeing what the plans were for the direction of the game, planned changes to the entire way the game was played, and the planned story line, I would have sacked everyone involved. Step 2 I would go to the forums and fan fiction sites, and find people who played the game, understood Star Wars, and knew how to write a story that was engaging, fun to experience, and wasn't something that a high school English teacher would have thrown out for being sub-par. I would then take the best ideas, and have those people work with someone who had written several highly received and successful Star Wars novels (name withheld, but we all know who) to flesh out the story and offer suggestion - such as making the player the main character rather than a supporting actor in a story about a family no one really cares about and an errand boy to NPCs they are supposed to be leading. Step 3 I would go to the EA/Bioware VP in charge of the game and explain in very simple terms that Star Wars should be able to print money as an MMO. I would then explain in very simple terms again that a solid investment in the game would give a much higher return than betting on the Cartel Market to cover the loss of subscriptions due to a shoddy product and a two year story that had next to nothing to do with Star Wars. Step 4 Repeat Step 3 with higher ups if the VP did not understand. Rinse and repeat until I find someone who understands how to run a game and is willing to finance something the players want rather than what was planned. Step 5 If any major changes where needed, oh say in gearing or in game weekly events, give a full write up of the changes to the players and have the changes placed onto a test server and ask the players to take a look and offer suggestions. I mean, if I am going to change how the game works, having those who play it test it and give feed back means I am having free play testers with the health of the game in their minds giving me actual numbers. Step 6 When working on the programming for the new expansion, take a look at what is changed and see how affects current programming. And play test it. Not just the item being worked on, but what it could affect. This is a little vague, but it could stop such things as a certain type of companion gift being useless for two years but kept as a mission reward, raids that offer rewards not really earned, or resets to the game that cause problems. And keep notes of all changes, so that the players do not have to play 'Stealth change or Bug' after every update. Step 7 If something comes up that is out of line after it is released, make tweaks to bring it into line rather than hammer it back into the stone age and make it useless/no fun. (Slot machine, first week of gold/silver CXP earned, Conquest). Step 8 Keep the players involved. Ask for suggestions, and give honest reasons why they can/can't be done. Implement those that are reasonable and possible, and put those with real promise but need some programming or polish on the Wall of Future Updates. If changes to major parts of the game are needed, explain why ahead of time rather than drop it from the sky and then go into hiding for week. Step 9. Profit.

The conquest update seems like it was written by Rian Johnson. Promises it will be the next great thing and revitalize everything. Instead we get: Epic disappointment, lack of understanding of what was wanted, and complete denial it is a bad as it is. Eric and Keith, don't make us do a Harrison Ford and exit early because we can see the disaster of the sequel (5.9) on the horizon.

My first thoughts when I saw Eric's initial reply about changes seemed like they were listening, at least a little. But the more I read about the changes, the less it seems they are actually listening. My fear with monitoring crafting is that they are not going to look at the real numbers, but what comes out of their 'points achieved box.' By this I mean looking at what is turned in, such as turning in 10 Invasion Force for an objective. They have to take into account the number of invasion forces kept in the bank, and being dumped/burned thru the first couple of weeks. This is not a true counter of the number of invasion forces crafted since the update, it is the number in storage. The crafting of war supplies and invasion forces has priced most of us out of doing that due to the number of mats required. Materials are not cheap, and crafting is now only an end game objective for Conquest. The number and type of materials now required means low level toons (let alone new players) cannot accomplish anything for Conquest without a higher level toon feeding them materials or burning up cash buying white mats. My other gripe is the change in Dark Projects. The change in what is required to craft them was another change that was conveniently glossed over. This left crafters with a lot of useless/low need materials, and has placed the requirement of either playing Iokath to get materials or buying them from the broker. Again, play as you want is pushed to the wayside as it once again becomes Play What We Tell You. I do not want to feed into the Doom and Gloom, but most of the decisions since 5.0 have not been anything that was requested by the players or been thought of as improvements. From GC gear to this 'improvement' of CQ, it does not appear anyone who plays the game or wants it to continue is in the loop for making decisions. Only the Star Wars name is keeping this game open right now, but the choices being made for the game are burning thru any good will the franchise still has. Tomorrow brings an update that while not fixing CQ, is supposed to improve the numbers so that it is doable. Here is hoping this is the first of many fixes, and that they do not keep kicking the can down the road and state 'We are still evaluating the numbers.'

I hope they do more than just look at the crafting changes and see if anything needs to be done. While it needed to be scaled back, it was instead gutted. The previous post showing the number of materials required should have been something the devs looked at before making the change. That is way too much material to do a handful of objectives for minimal points. I am primarily a solo player, and crafting was a way to make the occasional conquest week. This update has removed that option. Now before everyone chimes in and does the "This is a MMO. Join a guild. Play with others.' I am paying the same amount as you to play my way. I deal with waaaaaay to much drama and clueless people during the day to want to be social at night. I play to work off stress, not to get more by playing a game. I am hoping that they give the crafting a closer look sooner rather than later, as this was a way I could enjoy getting a little more out of the game. Their tag line of 'Play your way and get rewards.' is getting hammered more and more after each update as they tell you what you should play. This response was much better than I expected, but they need to move the goal posts more towards the players, not where they think it should be.

I agree with a lot of what has been said after Eric's second post. All of this was intended. They knew it was not going to go over well at all and someone just didn't care. If someone had cared about putting out an update that was a step forward they would have stopped this from happening. They held up the 5.8 update a week, and this is the best they could do. Tomorrow's post will be full of platitudes and repeating the lines 'We understand...', 'We will review the numbers...', and 'We will make adjustments in a future update if warranted.' Nothing concrete will be said, no time frames will be implemented, and this has unfortunately has become the norm on issues. (Still waiting for romance gifts to be fixed after 2 years. A reward for quests and drops from crafting missions that is almost 100% useless.) No fix will be forthcoming anytime soon. They will leave this mess in place and hope we will just forget about any improvements. I hope I am wrong. The player base deserves better. This game should be printing money, but instead they seem intent on driving as many away as they can. We want the game to succeed. My venting yesterday still holds, and I know that many, many other paying people are torqued over stealth changes and complete lack of honesty on what was coming.

My opinions below. When I say we, it is implied like thinking players, not lumping all players into one group. I do not speak for all players, only those who in some way agree with my thoughts. (But as this 25+ page thread shows, it appears a lot of people do this this way. Any chance this is your poor idea of an early April Fool's joke on your players? If not, then it would have just been easier to remove Conquest than make this the new version. No explanation of what the different colored repeatable symbols mean. Why would we want to know what the icons on the interface mean? Crafting, while originally an odd way to succeed, has now been removed as a valid way of making points. This update changed the crafting in a way that to call it poorly thought out gives it to much credit. Zero thought had to go into these changes. The amount of material that goes into a single craft, and then the multiple crafts needed for the poor amount of points would be laughable if it wasn't so sad. Removing the participation factor in PvP to make it wins will not make people play it more, it will make people leave the game. Has no one there learned that taking away parts of the game from the players does not make us enjoy the game more? Now we know why these changes were not posted so the players could see what was coming. What was coming was the freight train of 'We don't care about making the game better.' that hit us in the face. Poor update. Everything since the Valkorian soap opera has been a spiral of bad decisions. Any chance someone there will stop making decisions that are 8 or 9 steps back and try taking a couple forward? Even one step that makes us (IMHO) think someone there cares about the game and thinks about the players would give us hope. More and more your phrase of 'Play your way' becomes a dark joke. More and more it is 'Play the way we tell you. We know what you enjoy, and you will enjoy what we tell you.' First time in over 5 years considering dropping my sub, and I thought I would ride this out to the final days. I am not seeing anyone there really trying to improve the game. The above may come off as harsh, but I want the game to get better after each update. Still waiting for that to happen.

Here is what I am expecting as the 6.0 update and roadmap for the year. DvL version 2.0: * Get a Empire Character from each class to max level, go thru KoTFE, KoTET, and Iokath (no skipping Knights to get to Iokath, that is cheating) on all 4. * Play each Heroic as a requirement. * Play each flashpoint as a requirement. * Play each Raid as a requirement. * Rinse and repeat on Veteran. * Rinse and repeat on Nightmare. * Get to GC 300 on at least 1 (2 if they are feeling frisky). * While your are at it, max Valor also sounds like a something people will like. * Repeat on Republic side. * Reward will a really neat unique follower, whose favorite gift is Romance items, but they won't work as they will remain as broken as they have been since 4.0. All of the old content gets reused, as we must like it since we keep playing it, right? Feeling a little cynical lately. Take this with the grain of salt as intended.

Not trying to doom and gloom, but what is happening here feels like what happened in Marvel Heroes. Content was promised, and small amounts came out later than promised. Communication between devs/moderators fell off slowly at first. Then all content updates stopped along with all communication from the game devs and mods, except to delete doom and gloom entries on the forums. After an extended silence, a message that all is well and everything will resume shortly. Then the game closing was announced on a variety of websites before they acknowledged it. Then they closed up two months before the actual announced date. Not saying SWToR is heading down that path, just that they seem to be following the same set of footprints. Hope they find a different path to take, as a game with this name should be printing money and pulling in subs, not limping along and hiding from the players. We may have our outspoken and demonstrative voices on the forums, but at least we are trying to communicate with them.

Is KoTET and KoTFE canon? No. Do the KoTET and KotFE story lines need to fired out of a cannon? Yes (And still hoping they make The Last Jedi non-canon. My opinion, but one of the worst movies ever made, let alone part of the SW story line.)

A failure of a movie that should not have been approved by Disney. The director took 40 years of Star Wars lore and threw it all away to try and rewrite to fit what he thinks it should be. Can only hope they retcon it out as never happening like they did with Highlander 2. It felt like I watched a cheap Guardians of the Galaxy knock-off with all of the jokes. No, not jokes because jokes are funny. These were Spaceball-esqe attempts at humor and sight-gags that failed at every step. The fact they are considering letting this guy make more Star Wars movies should have any fan worried. He doesn't care about the franchise or the fans, he wants to preach his ideas and rewrite everything to his idea of what the lore should be. I would rather watch a Jar-Jar documentary than this film again.

A horrible, horrible movie. A disgrace and insult to anyone who grew up on the Star Wars of the New Hope through Return of the Jedi. This movie made the prequels shine. One of the worst movies I have every seen, and I am one of those who enjoy the Sharknado movies when they are on. The fact that Disney gave a green light to this movie tells me they are not taking it seriously at all. This director has no idea what the Star Wars universe/mythos is and tries to rewrite 40 years of lore to fit his image of what he thinks it should be. From the opening scene it was obvious that the low bar I set wasn't low enough. Movie got worse as it went on, and the campy jokes made me wonder if I was watching a Star Wars movie or a Guardians of the Galaxy knock-off. Save your money, and watch it on cable. The 56% from actual viewers on Rotten Tomatoes is to high.

Ok, time for the standard game after an update. What will the reply be: 1) This was supposed to be in the notes but it was missed. I will get it added. 2) This was being discussed but we did not know they were adding it to this update. I will get it added tot he notes. 3) Let us look into it. Followed shortly by 'Unintended, it will be fixed in a future update.' 4) Or the always classic: Ignore the thread/complaints/bug reports and pass it off as a feature, and hope the players get tired of trying to get a straight answer, or any answer. I am wondering if not starting the double event got them caught. They figured we would all be bouncing from alt to alt doing double CXP stuff and not notice this change until after the event ended, buying them time to figure out how to spin it.

Below are my opinions, not speaking for anyone else. Some minor spoilers below, so if you haven't played KotFE/ET, please read at your own risk. What went wrong with KotFE/ET? Everything. * Lack of Star Wars feel. Dark Side vs Light Side. Empire vs Republic. That is Star Wars. This was Keeping up with the Valkorian's. * Lack of our character being the main character. We follow other people's 'suggestions', and make no real decisions. We are running the entire resistance, but go on almost every mission rather than assigning it? We go missing for a day before a major mission, and rather than look for you they go off and fail doing it? * Lack of wanting to rerun it like Vanilla. The agony of doing the story once was bad. Wanting us to do on every toon was cruel and unusual punishment, not fun. * Lack of meaningful companions. They took away companions we acquired and had a decent (in most cases) story behind them. Instead we get a bunch of companions with little tie in to our characters, most of which are throw away forgettable, and that we can see are going to betray us two chapters away, but we can't do a thing about. Then we get the 30+ cast of extras that have nothing to do with the story, and we really don't need or want. * Lack of good story. I found this poorly written, with plot holes that you could drive a Death Star thru, and a story shoe horned to cover all classes, so fit only one class (Knight) within reason. The entire Sharknado series had more characters I cared about and a more coherent story. What needs to be done in the future? They need to realize everything since 4.0 has been twisting the knife and costing them paid subscribers. They are forcing people through Vanilla to quick to enjoy what was a good experience to go into the KotFE/ET story which is a poor experience. I stopped torturing myself after KotFE and have done nothing after the entire 'I crafted an epic weapon to stop the big bad guy, but didn't need it because I found a better weapon laying on the ground' fight. Been starting new toons and running Vanilla, where I have fun. {And before you say 'But KotET was better, you just need to play it", no I don't. I watched most of the cut scenes on YouTube, and with the exception of killing of the star-ship jacker, not much to write home about. And even that was over to quick.} What I am hoping is that at some point the developers and writers will realize how bad the last two years have been and come out with a real expansion. And it needs to start with our character coming out of the refresher as our LI wakes up, and say 'I just had the weirdest dream.' I know that this will only be understood and laughed at by those who are as old as I am, and they will understand that when an entire season causes more pain than entertainment, sometimes you just have to write it off as a dream.

Star Forge "Don't judge us by the PvP crowd in GC.' I was on Shadowlands before the merge, and the PvP claimed both the PvP channel and GC for themselves. In GC you would see PvP taunts/insults/harassment all the time. While not as bad as Harb, they definitely did not put a good face on the PvP group, and lived up to every sterotype of a PvP player.

Know I am going to catch flak from this, but oh well, I will try an keep it respectful. Was on Shadowlands, so now on Star Forge. I welcome the RP players as they tend to be more respectful, and will not interfere with others playing the game. I will give them the space they want, and will be as polite as they are to the other players. On Shadowlands I found the PvP group to be....annoying. Not only did they claim the PvP channel for themselves, they felt that General Chat was their domain. At times was hard to read the GC due to the taunting and general abuse they threw around not just at other PvP players but anyone in GC they felt was on 'their property.' My ignore list contains many of their names. I am one of 'those players' that plays mainly solo, is guildless, and sees MMO to mean an game where a lot of people can play at the same time in their own way. I pay the same as the RP group, raiders, and PvP group, so I am entitled to play my way. I don't expect the same perks as the PvP or raid group, as I am not participating in those functions, but I also have the same right to have fun in the game. So I hope this merge settle out and people migrate to where they are happy to play. To each their own, and don't tread on others fun. We are playing this game to get away from the real world, no need to carry the frustration here into our escape world.

Lost 1 out of 23 on Star Forge. Was a mule/bank low level, so no biggie.

The boots happened back in 3.0. Left a bad taste, so I just stopped doing flashpoints in 4.0 and later, unless a solo version was available. Figured was better to just play and have fun than feed the trolls and keep queuing. I used to do dungeons, raid, and was an officer in a guild on EQ2, but just never found that same feel here. It is really strange - I meet better people with a good sense of humor on the forums than in group finder queues.

I have to say that the people rallying to help out in this thread has put a smile on my face today. No arguing over merge vs stay as is, no fighting over PvP vs PvE, just players trying to help another player. I am one of those solo players. Started playing with a group of friends and they all stopped playing, but I hung on. I tried a guild, and got a bad one that put me off of trying another one. I tried flashpoints but gave up after being booted (multiple times) after being told that doing the lowest level of flashpoints required the highest level of raid gear, otherwise I was slowing them down on a group finder speed run. [i always had the highest crafted + best I could buy with tokens (pre-GC), but hey, that is another thread.] I agree that I see this MMO as a game set up for multiple people to play their style of game in the same world, so long as that style does not interfere with others enjoyment of the game. I play for the Star Wars universe, and set in game goals. A few months back I met my goal of 100,000,000 credits earned on one character, and currently working on finishing a stronghold by using decorations that make sense, not just thrown together to hit 100%. I didn't get Ranos last time due to the requirement of all the flashpoints being run , but who know, if Star Forge is showing this type of help, I may try the group finder to see if a flashpoint or three is in my future.

That is because the devs have no idea what 'balance' or 'tweak' means. There are only 4 ways they use to handle a change in the game. 1) Nerf something so hard no one uses it any more. (Class balance, slot machine) 2) Hit it with a hammer and knock it so far out of kilter it is a joke. (18 hour DvL). 3) Ignore it and hope the players will eventually stop complaining (Romance gifts, bugs since 5.0 let alone launch) 4) State it is working as intended and is a feature. (25% 'per character' CXP boost) I know I sound like a cynic, but I like the Star Wars universe. The game up to 4.0 wasn't perfect, but it was better than everything since. The devs since 4.0 either can't or won't work a gradual change into anything, they will just throw out a solution that anyone that plays the game could tell them is screwier than an Cathar on catnip.

Now at 32 pages. One post from Eric, and nothing from Keith. The silence is deafening. Guess they think one gold post saying 'Oops we did it again' covers the mistake/lie/rug pulled out from under the players and everything will be OK. Really fearing the upcoming merges. If what is being communicated is not what really happens, its all over but the screaming.

Guess my tinfoil hat wasn't so off kilter in the other thread when I mentioned 'don't fear the update notes, fear what is left out.' Every update the devs make that hat the accessory of choice for SWTOR players. So if what Keith posted is so general, what else in the road map for the United Forces server merge is a load of bantha doo-doo? How much are we going to lose, only to have it written off as 'sorry, that should have been in the notes' or 'we could have explained it better'? Now go enjoy your perk that isn't what was originally posted doing the double CXP runs on the dailies dropped to 75 CXP a daily, but only if your faction has won in the last 18 hours.

Back with the old tin foil hat. Remember, do not fear what is the notes, fear what is 'accidently' left out when they are posted. Those are some of the ones that have hammered us the hardest, and tend to be ignored until the pitchforks are being sharpened. Tin foil hat off. Enjoy the last of the great CXP.

I posted this in the other thread concerning my idea for the big reveal, but also seems to fit here. ______ I have it. Valkorion's long lost twin brother and his family return to Zakuul with the Infinite + 1 fleet. They find this upstart Outlander, capture you, and imprison you in carbonite. After 10 years you are freed by one of your former followers (you can't remember their name, after all you had 30+ of them running around) and you start the new chapter in freeing the universe from the Return of the Valkorion. You now lose all 30+ companions, and get to start all over gathering your new 60+ copy & paste companions. But the carbonite has affected your memory, and you have to redo Vanilla thru KotET to relearn who you are. They are calling this new chapter KotIROoI - Knights of the I Ran Out of Ideas

I have it. Valkorion's long lost twin brother and his family return to Zakuul with the Infinite + 1 fleet. They find this upstart Outlander, capture you, and imprison you in carbonite. After 10 years you are freed by one of your former followers (you can't remember their name, after all you had 30+ of them running around) and you start the new chapter in freeing the universe from the Return of the Valkorion. You now lose all 30+ companions, and get to start all over gathering your new 60+ copy & paste companions. But the carbonite has affected your memory, and you have to redo Vanilla thru KotET to relearn who you are. They are calling this new chapter KotIROoI - Knights of the I Ran Out of Ideas.

Tin foil hat time. Please place yours on your head before reading. Theory 1 Nerf the players into oblivion, then introduce a brand new level of GC to bring them up to where they were last year. Theory 2 Nerf the players into oblivion, then you can say 'No one is doing Raids/hard mode, no need to design this content anymore.' Theory 3 Nerf the players into oblivion, then introduce the next event: Get 16 new characters per account to level 70, one to max GC. No need for new content, they are playing the old content and seem to be enjoying it. Theory 4 Nerf the players into oblivion, and wait for the next Star Wars movie. That will bring in new players and they will not know that they are playing nerfed toons. You may now remove the tin foil hat and return to the thread.