Actually, the story isn't bad. But, it's one story per faction (there are 3) and one for everyone. The original 8 class stories here are probably the best in any MMO. The combat is a LOT different, so that can take some getting used to (took me 6 months to get out of SWTOR habits in it.) There is a huge amount of content and they keep adding more. (If you like large group PVP, stay out of faction locked Cyrodil, that tends to be a slide show.) It's built on the Hero Engine (although that is seldom admitted after SWTOR destroyed the reputation of the engine.) Ilum had all sorts of lag issues, too, so I expect it really is an engine issue, but they're trying to improve it and the no CP and Standard Cyrodil instances are a lot better. Population there is Huge. They've had over 18 million accounts created and the last report I saw said they had 3 million active accounts. That is split about evenly between PC, XBox and Play Station. Sad thing is SWTOR could have been that popular if management at EA had actually worried about quality control and maintained the original quality and class stories through the expansions. Of course, it would have helped if they'd launched with an end game in place so the majority of players didn't leave after 2 months. It never recovered and has slid downhill a bit more with each expansion. ;(

I came back to play some of the base story (starter planet to Corellia, by far the best story content in the game) and clicked a referral link (which are going away tomorrow.) If I know someone really likes SW, I will recommend subbing for 30-60 days and playing the 8 original class stories and all the planets arcs. Beyond that, it isn't really worth playing. And even the original story is now so easy it isn't even funny. As preferred I was level 22 leaving Tython. But, the original stories are pretty good and can be played for nothing in whatever gear you pick up. I can not in good conscience recommend the newer content at all (KOTFE and newer.) KotFE, like Last Jedi, destroyed characters and story and there's just no going back from that. So, now I play ESO, which uses Hero Engine and shows what you can do with the engine with a few clue cards (they don't tend to admit it's Hero anymore, but it is.) If you want to see what the engine is capable of, that's worth looking at (lots of gameplay videos on Youtube that show teh environment and gameplay.) So, I'll play through one or two characters up to Corellia and then leave again. The rest of you have fun and do what you prefer, but SWTOR isn't worth spending actual money on from where I'm standing.

Play the story (the original is still by far the best.) But the rest of it isn't worth it to me.

The system is stupids in the extreme. But, it won't be my problem. I am not going to do the same flash point over and over to get gear, it's not worth it. I am finishing my second character through the story and then I'm done. I'll play games that out out more content and pay more attention to their players. This expansion barely makes a DLC other places. So, I';m out in about 2 weeks.

MM = Master Mode. The hard version.

I'd suggest finding the instructions to disable bitraider, let the game redownload and try again. I expect you have a corrupted file from the update install. Getting rid of bitraider will reinstall some stuff (and makes the game more stable doing updates anyway.) If that doesn't solve it, copy your game folder to another location, delete the game and reinstall from scratch (overnight and hope you have a good internet connection.)

Well, you can always do what I'm doing. Play the story a couple times, get to 270-272 or so, remove your payment info and go do something else for however long it takes them to come out with something else that might be worth paying for again. They might actually get the hint (although I'm not betting on it.)

For the parts I've played, I have to agree. I haven't bothered with the dailies. I came back to see what they'd done and how the story went. I'm gong to try it on one more character to see if the companion return is decent. Gearing is absolute insanity. The total content is well below what I'd expect from a game expansion. For comparison it's similar to or a bit less than the last ESO DLC other than the operation (which I won't get a chance to try since my raid team is long gone.) All in all, it doesn't look worth continuing a sub to play. Quality is ok, but there are some odd bugs. Amount of content is low for an expansion (OK for a quarterly DLC.) Basic gameplay is ok but gearing is stupid and crafting doesn't look to be even worth the effort to do any of.

Give me a server just pre-Ziost and I'm good to go. Everything since has been anywhere from terrible to horrible. I'm here to try thew new story and have already removed my payment info again.

Well, that's a pretty long list for something that was supposedly tested. Glad IO read it since the character I subbed to play through is a Telekinetics Sage and their loot is f'd up. *sigh* Well, I gave them money for 30 days and removed the payment info. Not an auspicious start, but we'll see. If gearing isn't a mess and the story is ok, I might come back for a while (although my raid team is long gone). If gearing is a totally random disaster, I'll play the story and call it done.

I've unsubbed as well. However, my reasons are a bit different. The game has sucked since KotFE, both content and story. Due to that my guild went from 14 raid groups to 2 then 1. That 1 is now down to 2 of us who were logging in on raid nights. That was all the kept me here since KotFE. I may come back to play through the expansion, but might not. We'll see how it looks when it actually shows up.

Please tell me you're fixing the lag spikes. Tonight I am having spikes over 2 minutes as well as DCs. Makes the game totally unplayable.

That is, of course, assuming they make it worth playing alts again. They killed that with KotFE. And they'll have to have a path to level all the toons that I will NEVER do KoFUBAR with in order to be able to play them in the new content. And, I don't see myself sticking around if I have to grind to get back to doing content I can do now. It's not worth it. In the last 3 months my raid team went from 8 to 6 to 4 and now 3 tonight. Not much point in sticking around anyway.

It's still happening. Took me two tries to log on tonight and a guildie hasn't been able to log on since last week. But, since he can't log on, he can't report it.

Will you be streaming the cantina this time?

Honestly, leveling is so easy, there's no need for any XP boost to level. Enjoy the game through Corellia, it's the best part of the game by far.

I took the approach of not even planning to get full 2523 or better before 6. I do one set of dailies a week when my group doesn't actually get enough people to raid (about 2 weeks in 3). When the group finally fully dies, I'm done subbing. I'm also out if with 6 we have to grind for ages just to get back to doing the same content we're doing now. So, play what you like, leave when you've had it and don't worry about whatever stupidity BW comes up with. It's just not worth it. I hear an interesting idea the other night. Start all 8 classes, play them planet by planet so you can see the interlocking story arcs through Corellia.

I compare it to the $15 for other games. It doesn't compare well.

Yes and no. If you want to lay the original class stories, the game is worth it. If you have a group of friends that are raiding, sure. If you want an MMO that releases a good deal of content and decent story in new expansions and a good deal of end game content, nope. But the original class stories really are quite good.

I'd love to read this, but no matter where I go on the site outside the forum I get the German site and therefore page not found errors for your links. (My language is set to English.)

I can't really make better suggestions for the rest of your list. However, for this part it seems pretty obvious to me. Stop making teams and then trying to match teams. Instead, match players to other players with close ratings. Then make teams from 4 players who have closely matched opponents. Further, match healers with healers, tanks with tanks, DPS with DPS. NEVER put out teams with 3 healers and a DPS v 2 tanks and 2 DPS, or whatever. Keep team composition similar between teams. This will go a long way towards keeping teams even instead of some of the horrible mismatches that happen now. (Then extend that matchmaking to regs.)

No, but they've done it for a long time now. Like doing updates with just story content then saying their data shows story content is what everyone wants so it's all they're doing. (4.0 anyone?) This type of thing has been the M.O. around here for quite some time and doesn't look to be changing.

STOP BLOWING OFF YOUR PLAYERS. We've given you feedback over and over it it gets totally ignored. BW thinks they know better than the players what the players want. Remember Ben "It's exciting" Irving? We told BW over and over that 4.0's changes wouldn't go over well. We told you what we wanted, you did something else because you knew better. Well, look at your player base numbers and then tell me you really knew better. We told you we don't like what you've done to mods with 5.10, but you say it isn't changing. See a pattern here? you might give that some serious thought. Then everyone on the decision making team should resign or be fired. I don't expect ti will save this dumpster fire at this point, but it would be some justice.

So, is BW going to have devs there to flat out lie to players faces like in Anaheim? (No, Michael, I haven't forgotten.)

Because it makes you grind more. It's that simple. There is no other reason for it and they can't tell you it's just to make you grind, so they don't respond. (snip) They don't want feedback, they don't care what players think about how the game is running. Go look at ESO if you want to see devs who listen to feedback. They put changes on the PTS, then they listen to feedback and adjust things based on that feedback before something foes live. BW puts stuff on PTS after it's locked in and doesn't even fix major bugs before it goes live. Once Anthem flops, I don't expect it will matter anyway. I expect BW will go the way of Viceral at that point. (People I work with are already saying while Anthem is great for a weekend play through, they don't see anything to keep them playing beyond a few weeks, tops. I've watched some streams and don't even see a reason top play to begin with.)