Yes the solo play arena will be a headache, and very enjoyable for those of us who understand our classes well enough to look forward to an actual challenge. How challenging it will be though, is yet to be seen.

It is a story item, and people arent just "grinding" to get their companion back, but rather players are being given the opportunity to get a companion that was originally restricted to a specific class. Many people want wookies as a companion, and now they get one regardless if they wield blasters, rifles, cannons or sabers.

Keep in mind Bioware did not anytime or anywhere state how long the bonus event would be. Plenty of people putting 30 minutes out there, keep in mind is also subtle disinformation. As far as HK, dont forget they also had that little side movie of HK shooting critters which was pretty hilarious. Who knows what it will be like, when the time comes we will, until then its all conjecture, so dont let the nay sayers poison your perceptions.

haha this was a good laugh

^ this pleaseee

Now we can finally have our smuggler/wookie combo! Lets just hope that in similar minds, the dev team decides to change his melee weapon loadout to ranged rifles

This is a completely different situation. Three years ago we had little clue as to having a HK droid join us, and the unique character on that companion to boot. Now, we had a story, and as a mass response to the companion dying, bioware optionally decided to reward the player base with a companion that we had lost. It could had been anything, and has less of an effect on gameplay cause it is just a skin now, and not a unique game changing companion unlike hk51 who decimated for quite a while. If people will pay, especially a majority, then they are doing something right, not wrong.

Nevermind, but yes keep up the good work. Lotsa good feedback out there!

Sweet!

The suggestion is that we introduce a "Story Reputation" bar. This bar will represent what the galaxy system thinks of our actions as we progress. Who we recruit into our alliance, who we allow to live or die. What story choices we make, and where our alliances lay. This can then be further separated into per character, and then our overall legacy averaged bar as well! This can have massive immersion effects, and even provide means by which to achieve certain companions. Surely a highly virtuous Jedi Master would not want to align with someone who has a very low galaxy reputation and has recruited some of the worst sith and criminals in the galaxy. However, that persons legacy is largely aligned to a maximum value, and thus the other characters on the legacy vouch for that shadowy character and provide enough reputation for that Master to tag along. Could be extremely fun, and would give us new bars other than experience for levelling and legacy

They are only available to those that were subscribed for the specified periods of time. They did extend the Nico time slot, and maybe that will happen for HK55, but theres no guarantee other than being subbed on the day that they are made available. Thus being subbd on January 11th will guarantee you get HK55, who I might add, was quite a fun companion to have and given the massive responses, a loved companion by many regardless of what a couple naysayers say

I concur in that this is an excellent option! Though the price wall is indeed a little high (9 months subscription is like giving birth to a baby lol) its still cool, and immersive, adding a fun level to this game which desperately needs it. This game and mmo's in general are not supposed to be endless grinds or hamster wheels (think pvp), but rather an enjoyable, immersive experience. The content data difference between hk47, hk51 and hk 55 is fun at the very least, and makes for an interesting playthrough. The fact that bioware adjusted to the mass feedback about the loss of hk55 is another step in the right direction as well, playing as hk for a while is in fact a new concept for mmos, taking us out of our main character HUD and avatar to play as something else will be an interesting twist and they may very well be onto something. Imagine down the road, being able to take on side journeys that have story impact through various unlocked companions? That has extreme potential that is barely being tapped.

A couple of things to be said about the pve/pvp conundrum. This is a MMO - RPGs. Therefor, they are Role Playing Games with a Massive Multiplayer environment. This is NOT, i repeat NOT, a MMO PVP game. Having pvp content and endgame content is all fine and dandy, but the general mass of the player base of this and many other MMOs are here for the RPG continuity of the Star Wars Universe and immersion. What occurred at the start of this game, was a mass amount of players came from a recently sunk amazing star wars mmo, star wars galaxies, and many others from warcraft. SWG had been a sandbox and after a while people got bored, and it turned into massive sandbox world pvp, and those players then migrated here expecting the same thing. I wont even get into the warcraft of things, as that is crap piled on top of crap to begin with. With that being said, pvp is nice, and tons of people due to the gaming culture love to go through the mouse wheel of what we have as pvp. This has little to no effect on the game whatsoever and is more of a vanity matter than any sort of rpg or immersion factor. This game is, has and will always be about the story content, especially given its historical predecessors of KOTOR 1 and 2. People pay to play their game, not the other way around. Bioware/Lucas Arts et al are not here to "create" your game for you, but rather to create an immersive historical star wars rpg experience. Now if they were to implement real world, functional pvp objectives that have an impact on planetary and galaxy objectives, it would be a different story and much more immersive. Imagine Empire controlled planets with embargoes and blockades preventing transport, or increasing fees and requiring smugglers to fly you in on their ships. This is what star wars is really about, and we are missing it. The space simulations are nothing compared to SWG Jump to Lightspeed space, where you could literally fly in open space from planet to planet and fight other players in random encounters etc etc. The pve is ok, and the pvp situation is hirroble, we get that. What needs to be done is a massive overhaul of the game, which costs $$$$, and requires alot of beaucratic diplomacy to bring it up to its full potential, that unless the player base were to unite and make serious discussions, demands and the like to EA not just Bioware, we will not see any solid changes in the overall scheme of things, but rather mini advances like weve seen recently. If you want to see amazing pvp, aim for real world pvp not just hamster wheel pvp that everyones ego has gotten stuck in. Look for zone, city, planet, and galaxy wide pvp objectives that affect the opposing faction. Look for these changes 3 years ago, because as of now, the empire and republic are uniting against a neutral sided threat, making the viability of faction vs faction less immersive now. Bottom line is, this isnt pvp-wars, its star wars. its about player, class and companion story. If youre here just for the pvp, youre in the wrong place. This game was never designed, nor were any star wars mmo's designed for pvp content. Its about inspiring people, its about showing the intricacies of the dark and the light and how to overcome obstacles and play the hero or the villain or the person in the shadows. If you want SWTOR's real pvp, catch those people exploiting the economy, work hard to fight against imperial guilds mastering the GTN through price control. The real pvp is in star wars mmo economics, not the silly warzone hamster wheels.

This ^^ all the way

They are actually in touch, theyre just not following the small minority of whiners on the forums, theres a big difference.

The buffs on star fortress scale with their levels. Also theres cheeves for reaching 20 with each, along with cartel coins

This game is neither pay to play nor pay to win. Get your facts straight. This is a FTP - free to play game with the option of subscription services for expanded content. All essential, and much non-essential activity is available for free to play players. Ive been star wars mmoing for a long time (2003) and never appreciated anything more than how swtor is run. I basically sub twice a year, and play preferred the rest of the year. Some of my friends and family are strictly ftp, not even preferred and have a blast. The new HK55 event is nothing near a pay to win scenario, so stop trolling. Its not providing any beneficial stuff that will be competitive and is strictly for those who love blowing up meatbags by playing a mini side story as hk. Raid content is now optional with the gear updates in 4.0 kotfe, and even raids can be accessed via passes bought/traded ingame. Same with pvp. My guild actually keeps a solid stack of passes for people who unsub so they can continue onwards while preferred or are ftp. There is nothing of worth in this game behind a pay wall, and hopefully never will be. Anything behind walls is vanity only, and you can literally play this game and be beyond content and have never paid for it.

What we are seeing now is different than at launch. Since the beginning of SWTORs life, weve had a large population of bitter trolls sore from the closing of star wars galaxies, who refuse to see the value of swtor and would rather sully the community than build. Now, after 4 years, SWTOR has attracted new players, and has begun to build a community. Given that nonsubs cannot post on these forums, a large population on positive swtor players exist solely in the game. The negativity being cultivated on these forums no longer represents the bulk opinion of the player mass, but rather a small percent of overspoken nonsense that had hoped to destroy this community and failed. The truth is that people are generally glad about playing swtor. It is built in such a way that all play styles including casuals who have lives such as families, work etc can play and be satisfied. Having been a community lead back for star wars galaxies, I can see and relate to the issues Eric and the rest of the team encounter. Luckily theyve gone a step further and included soicial media and outside forums like reddit into their decision making, a luxury that didnt exist for us. Enjoy the game, and like anything else, theres always pros and cons. Weak people will always find ways to point out flaws and weaknesses. Strong people offer praise and constructive criticism instead of wannabe elitist narcissistic point of views. MTFBWY

those numbers are too small of a subjective pool to give any indication of any patterns. Regardless, its common sense that subs will decline till mid january/early february. The content is easily clearable in a month, thus no reason to resub for a while.

Generalizations my friend, also i have about 98% of all the mounts ever released, plus the walkers with extra protection. Like i said, yes is easy to burn them down, rather its stupid that a max level character since launch has to batt an eye at these mobs.

HK was not originally planned to be brought back, he was designed to be temporary, similar to Marr. Due to the public outcry about HK, they went ahead and created this opportunity to get hk back. Hey everyone has bills and the game needs sustenance to stay alive. Dont like it, dont sub. Its that easy.

well given there was somewhat around 7000 peopl on twitch and everyone was basically minus a small handful shouting "HK" "HK" and were excited, they pretty much nailed it. Just because a handful of negative voices are loud and obnoxious does not mean that your opinions represent the mind of the entire player base.

lol too funny

Seriously, means serious. Seriously

In the case that someone from the dev team, maybe even Eric would see this post, here are a few suggestions: Actual subscriber rewards - establish a ground zero start date, and for each month consecutive and overall, players get to pick a cartel item ranging from your choice and expanding as the time slots increase that is awarded as BoP only. Over time, development could create some unique rewards, this is something that would actually be nice to have. KOTFE Fixes: Make Level Sync have an on/off switch. It makes no sense whatsoever that a player who has been max level for four years is now kicked off his mount on a lv22 planet for example and ganked by npcs. Over and over, sure we can kill them, but this takes precious moments of time that can be spent doing other things. If you have to wall stuff like the weekly heroic 2 to be only awarded if under level sync, thats fine too. But forcing level sync is/was a bad and annoying move. Has the team given any thought to having it toggable? Realistically speaking, it would make more sense as well. Make Faction Bases legacy wide amongst the same faction. Example would be all my republic characters that have access to the base from chapter 9 would have Dr. Oggrubb at lv20, instead of having to grind up for each character. it wouldnt make toooo much sense for legacy wide regardless of faction, but technically u could do that too. The random mount/pet option was pretty cool, but needs some tweaking. First take rocket boosts out of the mount options, and put in a toggle on the ability page for each. That way we can remove mounts/pets we would rather not end up seeing/driving. This would be excellent. Player Housing: Besides the obvious Lets have a Manaan Bond-esque base, can we get an auto decorate function. It would have two separate functions, hosue wide or room wide, if the engine is capable of it. This would reduce the pain many of us have with the current decorating process. I was and still am an avid star wars galaxies decorator, so in no way do I not enjoy it, but our model for decorating is a bit tedious without the sandbox. Idea for additional alliance contacts: Allow us to recruit the NPCs in our Piloting Hangar! Im sure there will be others that would like to see the same. This has alot of potential. Reconsider Influence. With the massive amount of companions accessible, getting each and everyone of them across multiple characters to 50 is just insane. That should be a reasonably achievable goal, yet it is likely only a few % of players may ever reach it on one character let alone many. Consider giving each companion unique abilities similar to how HK and Treek operated pre-kotfe. HK had assasinate, which after receiving a buff for killing 5 enemies, would allow him to single kill a silver or regular mob regardless of health. Treek was quite versatile and now limited to one function at a time. Also consider the ability to toggle role in combat. We already had this ability in the past. We were able to switch stances in pre-kotfe, there is no reason we shouldnt be able to now. Give us more reasons to go back to the planets upon which KOTFE takes place. There is very little 65 world pve content released outside the story. Companions consider being made influence wise, universal per server. So for example, if I get Lana to influence 35 on my Knight, she would also be 35 on my smuggler or inquisitor for example. (as long as theyve progressed to a certain point as well. Increase the green data crystal acquisition rate. As of right now, they are quite low and would make a variety of grinds less time consuming. Thank you for fixing the clip through of the capes in vehicles, ive literally been waiting since beta for this to be fixed.