GuildWars2 has a new expansion coming out in just 6 days if FFXIV isn't your thing (or you can't play it because it's so popular they aren't letting new players in).

I liked them too. I'd rather get no credits at all and have the decos back.

Hi, I'm currently subbed but lately I've been a "parasite". I don't care what you think about me and I will keep doing my thing regardless, but I hope I'm allowed to reply even though I'm more amused than offended. Anyway, I started playing SWTOR during the Beta weekends, and was subbed for years. I've taken many long breaks, but I've always resubbed for new expansions and most often kept playing for a few months - except for the last "expansions", which quite frankly have not felt worth paying more than one month's sub for. A few months ago (in September, maybe?) I resubbed together with my husband, and we've played together a couple of times a week. I unsubbed again in December when the new expansion got delayed, and resubbed again a week ago, again for the new expansion. Aaand unsubbed again when I saw the mess they released. But in between December and now, I kept playing those couple of times a week with my husband, and I intend on doing that even after my sub runs out. We only play the original class stories, content we've both done many times already, to relive the better old days. Content we've both paid for many times over, too, both in subs and cartel coins. To us, it just is not worth it to sub to a game we only play a couple of times a week. We're happy to sub to a game we play more, we have (as I said) done so in the past and we will do so in the future, when we have more time to play and play something we think is worth the money. So I don't know if that is informed and/or rational, and I don't really care. It's just an explanation, since this parasite happens to be subbed and is able to reply.

I wanted to stream SWTOR, but the maintenance being extended nixed that idea. I streamed Minecraft instead and had a blast, and probably had a lot more fun than SWTOR would have been. I'm also sticking to my stream schedule, which does include SWTOR (still, for now) , which is because I have never been less hyped for an expansion so I didn't see the point in trying to fit in an extra stream for this one. All of this is just an explanation, I guess, because I agree so much with your thoughts about Twitch being a decent measure of interest in a game/expansion.

I just got back to the game. I'd completely forgotten there's a new expansion coming out, but then I read up on some news, and man... I stopped looking forward to SWTOR expansions after the first chapter of KOTFEET, but I never minded updates. This one? I don't even remember the name of the next expansion, and I'm actually hoping it'll get delayed so they can go back on the gearing changes. Oh well. I'll play around a bit, do some original class stories, and then come back again in another year or two.

I'm laughing at this statement. My husband and I have attempted to play the RPG story of this game together. TOGETHER, as in NOT SOLO. As in GROUP CONTENT. We were doing fine from the Beta weekends until the disaster that was KotFEET. Then we logged on, grouped up, eagerly started Chapter 1 and didn't get to play together. Maybe I need to repeat that... We did not get to play the story together. We had to play it SOLO to advance the story - or, well, I suppose we could have played every chapter twice if both of us wanted to advance the story. (And before someone asks, yes, we checked that we both had enabled the allow-same-class option even though we weren't playing the same class. Yes, both back in early KotFE and now, in Onslaught.) And then you wonder why so many left during KotFEET. Maybe, maybe, because 1. So many people thought the story was either horrible or just misplaced - it should have been a separate game, since it didn't work at all in SWTOR; and 2. Because people like me and my husband weren't actually able to advance it TOGETHER. The same goes for the Onslaught story. My husband and I grouped up, eager to experience the new story together. But noooo, denied, no such fun for us who wanted to play NOT-SOLO. We quickly figured out that every time (which is most of the time) we got to an instance entrance, we had to leave the group, do the content SOLO and then group up again to move to the next instance. Much fun, very group. So yeah, don't come whining about people playing solo in an MMO when there's no way to advance the story together after SoR. Maybe you need to go find another game.

I wonder if the UI designer works with a monster computer and giganto-monitor, so it looks good to him/her, but all us plebs who still use a cheap 22 inch and have the game's graphics set to medium or worse are just completely out of luck.

Not dreading it at all. But then I also haven't been paying attention to the PTS feedback since what little I did read seemed to focus so much on gearing up. I'm a solo(ish? My husband is coming back to the game too, so I won't be solo all the time anymore) player who doesn't care about getting Best in Slot gear within a couple of weeks. As long as I'm not dying all the time I'll be happy. The only thing I *am* a bit worried about is the story and having enough new stuff to do for a while, something that hopefully is at least a little different depending on the previous choices of my characters.

EA. Who knows if they'll even be around in a year.

I restarted my PC and now it works. Run as administrator, too, in case that had any effect on it.

Mine says: ...there's no patch? I was happily tossing snowballs at my comps all day yesterday.

...and Dammit, Corso!

That's a fair point.

I think it's the pre-Christmas jitters that makes people so tense and snappy. Anyway, I haven't had a problem yet with the snowballs, and I pretty much don't even kill a mob without pelting it. I let other players be, because it's really annoying, but any NPC is fair game. Might a new cannon and what's-it's-name help? (sorry, just woke up, not even had coffee yet)

Well said. I'm also tired of companions getting killed and bricked left and right, and those who aren't completely bricked just get weird. Arcann, for example - now, I can objectively understand the choice to romance him, but personally, to me, it's just awkward and strange. Here he and I have been trying to kill each other for years, no matter if I'm LS or DS or somewhere in the middle, and then suddenly he thinks we'd make a great couple. Like, dude, do you need more time in the mental institution? Because I think you're crazier than a Dr Lokin who's spent too much time partying with Kaliyo and SCORPIO. ...and then of course just as the players who do like him get to romance him, well, that's it. You got your two minutes. It's just such a shame. I don't trust the devs to not kill/brick any companions anymore, and that does detract from my enjoyment of the game. There's no point getting invested in any new comps when they might get nixxed in the next update.

I've never seen anyone complain about that, but it's of course very possible I've just missed it. In the vanilla stories it's very clear we're not the leader. The difference is we weren't told we were, either. For example Imp Agent story, which is many people's favorite. From the very start we know we're grunts. Important grunts, but grunts nonetheless. There's always someone giving us orders, and it's fine, because no one ever tells us we are supposed to be the boss of anything else than our own team. The Smuggler and Bounty Hunter stories are perhaps the ones where the player character has most power and command, and in that aspect those stories are probably the best written ones because we need the help of the people giving us orders/suggestions to reach our goals. But again, no one is there to tell us we're the boss only to then make all decisions for us like in KotFEET. Obviously this is a game and we do need NPCs to drive the story - this isn't a sandbox or survival game, but an RPG. Furthermore, since it's not single-player (or, well, it wasn't, not even for the class stories which you could play together up until SoR), choices and reasons for the player characters need to work for all of them, which makes it even more tricky to even proverbially put them in charge. The easy, obvious fix would have been for Lana and Theron to tell the player character that they are, in fact, in charge and the PC is just the figurehead who can earn the respect and loyalty of people from all backgrounds by his/her actions. Anyway, those are my opinions based on my quite possibly twisted memories. As for the original topic of this thread, I don't personally have much against Lana other than that she takes the place of the LIs far too often. I haven't had time to play through the whole Ossus-content yet, though, so maybe I'll feel different soon.

How were we ever a leader throughout all of KotFEET? We were always Lana's and/or Theron's most powerful grunt, with them, and especially Lana, firmly in command. Every time we got to actually make a choice (Kaliyo/Aric, sneaking off in KotFE chapter 12) we were scolded like children who came home 5 minutes late, either directly or passively. We were never given the power to, for example, take one look at off-the-rockers crazy terrorist Kaliyo and just refuse to have anything to do with her. Because we were ordered to recruit her by the true leaders of the Alliance. No, they can tell me I'm the commander, the leader of the alliance, all they want, but what they showed me was completely different. At least by going back to either Republic or Empire, everything's more honest. Since they can't let us players actually be a leader who makes decisions, it's much better to be a grunt and honest about it.

It's the AM that's confusing. We don't use that in EU, but we're used to you in the US using it (and yes, I had to use those exact words because all the u- and u-s sounds sounded funny), so we generally don't have a problem with it. But is 12AM midnight or noon? AM means morning, PM means afternoon, we're with you that far. But to us, the morning hours go from midnight (0:00 GMT) to just before noon (11:59 GMT). Noon is 12:00 GMT, not 12AM, because it's not the morning hours anymore. Anyway, it's this afternoon for us EU people, 2 hours before the patch maintenance. Eric got the time format correct for that one (TIME: 6:00AM - 8:00AM PST (1400 - 1600 GMT) ) - in this format, the 12AM would be 1200 GMT which is perfectly clear. (Midnight would be 2400 GMT).

I've started playing new content on a "test char" first, one that I leveled up during that whole get all 8 classes to max level-thing a few years ago. It's a bit sad that I just don't trust Bioware's stories with my mains first anymore.

I think OP's calendar is broken.

Good point. I'm working to get my 8th class to 300. and it's a... challenge. Or, well, I was working on it, got to 150ish, but my sub's out now, so I won't be playing until I get horrible withdrawals or there's something new to do. ...or a longer double-CXP period. I've played SWTOR on/off since the Beta weekends and done pretty much everything I've wanted to do, old-content wise. Well, except getting that last class to Command rank 300, but I'm not going to burn myself out by farming years old content for any longer than I have to.

I agree. Double CXP until next expansion, at least. That might make me stay subbed. As it is, I've let my sub lapse (again!!!) which means I won't be playing SWTOR at all until next double-CXP event and/or next update, depending on exactly what is in that next update. Even with all normal bonuses and buffs and boosts, getting to Command rank 300 is way too slow, and at 300 it takes way too long to get the next RNG box which most likely doesn't have anything useful. The double-CXP events make it a little better, but what I really wish the devs would do is to lower the amount of CXP needed for the next rank/level/box. Either that or raise the chance of getting the good gear from the boxes. Oh well. I'll be back in a month or two or five, I guess. Have fun playing!

Uh.... this game has Free to Play/Preferred modes too, you know? They're not at all within their rights to charge you the sub fee when they also allow you to play for free. And even if it was pay-to-play, sub-only to log in, they wouldn't be. And now I'm (again) worried about my own status.

And attitudes like this is one reason I don't PvP more. Unlike the nice persons who were encouraging and helpful, you seem to draw weird conclusions about how I play. How in the world did you assume that I don't go for objectives just because I die a lot? Being bad at PvP doesn't have to mean someone is totally clueless. Unless, of course, I actually AM totally clueless and there's some legit, non-hacky way to become immune to damage while going for objectives...

I PvP so little that I don't even understand most of these changes, but the one quoted feels kinda bad to me. I tend to die A LOT in any and all WZs, and already feel a bit guilty over my noobness. But so far, I at least feel as if being cannon fodder and dying means the better players have a few seconds longer to live, and maybe they can do some good in those seconds. If my death reduces my team's score, I'll PvP even less. I already feel like a burden to any team I end up on. This change would make that feeling worse.