As a primarily solo player, I've *LOVED* the new content. Finally felt like a game that I could genuinely enjoy again. I've completed the new chapters, but still have a lot more stuff to go through. I'm quite happy so far. The KotOR-style dialog system is a mixed blessing. The difference between that and the regular dialog system is a bit distracting, and I end up missing the PC's voiceover for the dialog options. I was skeptical about most of the system changes, but so far I'm OK with them. Not being able to acquire all necessary supplies for my crafting skills with my supplemental skills is a bit irritating, though. Since I've never had slicing on any toon, I'd have to buy sliced tech parts in order to craft high-level purple armor mods. Weak. Haven't tried any Heroics yet. Glad that I'll still have the option to do them solo. One amusing side-effect of the new Influence system, is that all of the conversation options opened up for the companions of my other high-level characters, and I was able to finish them all off. Hooray for presence bonuses! But again, overall I've just been enjoying the more immersive, story-driven content. So much of SWTOR has felt transparently "scripted", if you know what I mean. The consequences of your choices were always either painfully obvious or utterly irrelevant. Nice to feel relevant to the story again. So far, a VERY nice SWTOR/KotOR hybrid, IMO.

Oof. This shafts me HARD. My first character was a Sage Artificer (yeah, that was a slog). Artifice was useless as soon as I got my first +41 lvl 10 crystal. I sure do miss the primary color crystals since none of them are useful beyond level 9, and it'd be nice to change that at least. Removing enhancements as well? *** use is it then? I did one character with Biochem and didn't see much point since I almost never needed medpacks or stims, and they were cheap to just buy. Seems like it got nerfed even more, so again, why bother? But every other character has been Cybertech because it was so damn useful after accumulating so much custom gear. Now... Oof. Nearly useless. ***. I've warmed somewhat to level sync, and most other changes seem fine, but this one hurts BADLY.

OK, these changes make the Level Sync far more palatable. Heroic 2+ areas were always doable as solo, if slightly challenging, at the top end of compatible level. I'm cool with this. I also like the exploration quest idea. My biggest gripe about the game has always been Murder Fatigue. One of the things that I miss most about KotOR compared to TOR is being able to solve problems without piling up corpses. My first character was a light side Sage, and his body count would make Hitler blush (yes, I just Godwined this thread). More questing, more exploring, less endless slaughter. Good stuff.

Too much in this thread to churn through, but has anyone suggested hybrid situations regarding the Level Sync? It's nice for those of us who play at weird times and generally have to solo to be able to decide if we want the mobs to be a challenge or not. It's nice to be able to go back to Heroics or Flashpoints that were missed and just be able to blaze through them to get the story bits or some custom gear (even if way low level). But under certain circumstances, particularly class quests and any time you're in a group, Level Sync should *NOT* be optional. If you have a group, then you should have the proper challenge and not-too-uneven XP distribution. You should always have the proper challenge from class quests. For anything else? Meh. Usually when I do flashpoints with a group, we have to rush through them, skipping conversations, bypassing whole sections, etc. I like to be able to go back to these and just enjoy the story bits at my own pace. Level Sync would have made it impossible for me to ever get to truly enjoy the story arc of The Foundry, for example (not that it's that great, but it's fun to see some old faces and actually savor the dialog). If I'm way over-level and gain no XP as a result, I'm fine with that, as long as it's my choice. Sometimes I'll want the mobs to be a challenge, sometimes I just want to plow through. Give us the option during solo play, and everyone's happy. I'll reserve judgement on the companion changes until it comes out, though I'm not over the moon about those either.

Yep. This is my feeling on the matter. Also, sometimes I'm interested in the story but am sick to death of the Murder Grind, and would rather just be able to get through the mobs as quickly as possible. If level sync switched on automatically just for specific locked quest areas, but not for the more open areas (allowing easier bypass of road mobs), that'd be great. Not having to fiddle as much with companion gear would be nice, but losing benefits of the +41 stat Cartel Market crystals would sort of suck. I'm mixed on this one. As for other features, I guess we'll see how it goes.