And I don't care about any of them. Long-winded, boring reads. If I wanted to read quests and be the silent dummy target to be talked at, I'd play other games that do the story a lot better than SWTOR these days. FFXIV, ESO and heck, even WoW. One thing SWTOR has that no other game in the genre can compare with are the immersive cutscenes. That is what always attracted me, what had me coming back every time a new patch is out, what kept me subbed to the game for the better part of 10 years. If this KOTOR style were present in 1.0, I would have never played past the first week. I would have forgotten the game even exists by now... like so many other MMOs that came out around that time...

It should have been a stand alone, spin off game.

No. No. No! I obviously don't speak for everyone, but personally, I would have never played this game. Immersive voice acting is what appealed to me about this game from the beginning. This was in stark contrast to WoW and other similar MMOs at the time. I imagine a great many other players feel the same way. Where they shot themselves in the foot is the sheer ambition of having 8 major fully voiced storylines at launch. (I'm glad they did, but really costs them dearly now)

Black bars are 10x worse in 7.3. Now is part of the main storyline. Jeez. Part of the purple quest. ARGH. If I wanted to read and be silent type in a game, I would go play FFXIV

Honestly, I have never been more bored or disinterested in SWTOR story than in these latest updates. Boring, meandering, going nowhere very slowly. I have zero interest in Mandalorians, I feel like my own character is now a sidekick with no agency whatsoever. Heck, even the few conversation options the game gives are not choices at all! And worst of all, the black bars long-winded conversations where I am being talked at. Jeez.

Honestly, I have never been more bored or disinterested in SWTOR story than in these latest updates. Boring, meandering, going nowhere very slowly. I have zero interest in Mandalorians, I feel like my own character is now a sidekick with no agency whatsoever. Heck, even the few conversation options the game gives are not choices at all! And worst of all, the black bars long-winded conversations where I am being talked at. Jeez. How far SWTOR has fallen...

I would have unsubbed in 2012 and forgotten the game existed by now.

I am paying for the sub; I'd happily pay for proper expansions. There are many ways in which lore or missions could be given to the player which would not involve these awkward one-sided monologues. This really takes me out of the normal game flow. These black bars and one-sided conversations are the worst and not in line with how the rest of the game works. It feels lazy, cheap and incomplete. To each their own. No one right or wrong way to enjoy the game. For me, SWTOR is about voice-acted story content.

This is how it used to be. Once you were 5 levels over, NPCs turned grey and provided a minuscule amount of XP.

Your point being? This is not KOTOR. (and I have never played it - not that it should matter.)

The most amazing part of Swtor is the fully-voiced quest lines. This is what drew me in; this is what has me returning to the game. Whenever I see these black bars when talking with Lane feels like a slap to everything that SWTOR was good at. It is immersion breaking in a way that I want to rage quit this game. I don't even care what she has to say as I spam random numbers and a spacebar to get through those one-sided monologues that are antithetical to everything good about Swtor. If you don't have the resources to voice them fully, how about changing how these conversations/info/lore dumps are presented? It feels cheap and unfinished.

I like the Spoils of War. it has many excellent ideas. Tacticals I think one of the best additions to the game in recent years. Having more than one buildout option is also pretty nice - though it still seems to distill to one meta these days. There are some things I don't like - heavy reliance on RNG, too many variances for mods/enhancements, and of course the massive credit sink that is amplifiers. Again idea of small bonuses is excellent, execution beyond horrible. Finally the gearing process itself - I don't like it. I much rather prefer 2.10 days, very little RNG, you knew where to get what, PvE and PvP had their own gear progression path. And gear level depended on the type of content one played. So personally I'd like to see Spoils of War evolved - it is in general a great system, but process of acquiring return to old style. Relevant gear from relevant content.

Our experience should not suffer because you have created 170 characters. That is entirely your problem and not mine. Maybe the reason you have so many is that game doesn't challenge or feel engaging enough ...

Oh boy, so many wishes, so unlikely ever come true. But here goes nothing: More responsive combat. It often gets so laggy and out of sync, I wish something was done to properly address this 64bit client? Recently LOTRO introduced 64bit and players report a noticeable improvements in game performance. I wish for new optional master mode levelling instances that would rebalance the 1 to 50 journey and class stories to be closer what we had in pre 3.0. Proper expansion, maybe SoR size and style - heck I'd be happy to pay for it. I wish reduced Cartel Market relevance and have in game content provide more of exciting new rewards. But sadly it seems all the coolest stuff is on Cartel Market. This seems strange one, but I wish this too convenient travel options were removed. In game galaxy has shrunk, no longer has sense of scale or size. It is not an expansive game anymore, just lot of random locations a button click away. I want personal starship to be useful again, to have a sense of journey. Personal starship be usable as proper mini stronghold that I could decorate. Characters could actually sit and use furniture. I know we have an emote, but so often you end up awkwardly floating in the air ... Guild ship Orbital Support to be actually usable. Vast majority of cases level sync renders it useless, except on newest planets, but those have nothing to actually do there so ... A way to quickly swap builds. Say I have healer spec, I'd like a way to swap to dps with just one click. Something like in WoW. Define the gear, abilities, layout, keybinds, etc. I think feature like that woudl encourage more people to experiment and try other roles. Remove credit sink aspect of Amplifiers. Idea itself is awesome, adding small bonuses is nice, but having it lottery slot machine credit sink is horrible. Clicking "Recalibrate" and watching your credits disappearing is no fun for me. Drastically reduce the amount of RNG in the gearing process. Remove Renown Stash completely. It no longer serves any purpose. Reduce the amount of different mods available. I'll stop for now.

I would not be so certain of that. Why people play Master Mode chapters? Why waste time on Master mode operations? Why does game like Doom have "Nightmare" difficulty? There are players (not all) who will enjoy this either for the difficulty, achievement or the story immersion it can offer.

Better levelling curve through the game does not mean the need to group up. Entire class story is and will always remain above all a single player experience. And if you've paid attention to my suggestions - I only argue for OPTIONAL master mode difficulty for players who want that. I am opposed to rolling out hard levelling across the board to all players. Even I enjoy jetting my way through planets from time to time. Most of the opposition I see here does not offer any coherent argument against beyond FUD and entitled "I don't want the change, therefore everyone should play the way I want to play it!" Here's my previous post:

I have a feeling these decisions are forced on players by committee of people who never actually play the game themselves, who are out of touch with player base, whose only motivation are goal percentages laid out in excel spreadsheet. This one probably under category of "Engage X% of players in spending their credits"

If that is the case it is very saddening.

I really don't need to stare at it every single time I open character window ... Is there a toggle or a setting or something I am missing?

This line of thinking demonstrate complete misunderstanding of the whole topic. Levels are NOT meaningless because game makes them central to the entire pre-end game experience. Central to unlock powers, central to unlock content, part of various achievements and general in your face presence. The only reason levels seem trivialised in the first place is because levelling itself (the essence of this entire thread) has been trivialised. They act as both enablers of new content, but also deprecators of previous content. And then we have level sync which from levelling POV exasperate the whole issue further by progressing your character even more beyond current local cap. Please note that I am not arguing for removal of level-sync. It has many issues, but in general good for SWTOR. Now speaking from the side of game psychology - people always like the path of least resistance. Why people flock to cheats/exploits or find oft ludicrous paths through FPs to skip couple couple mobs? Quick levelling, easy path to end game and achievements is also part of the same mentality. I personally am not immune to that. Just as guilty as everyone else. If levelling is fast, it allows lot of content to be skipped, this in turn makes game feel hollow, we do not have the same amount of attachment to our characters or get invested in stories and the game world. And yes we can go and "just play" through the story, but in the end it is not the same. Because there is no other struggle or hurdle to overcome than your own will or perhaps some artificial crippling (no guilds, no companions, no gear, whatnot...) So levelling speed, content relevance, emotional investment or challenging difficulty? I admit it is multi-faceted issue, but all rooted in one cause. In SWTOR (contrary to some comments) these are intertwined. Slower the levelling, less powerful gear, less combat abilities you have. This in turn makes the game harder and more challenging to play. Difficulty in turn makes game more interesting because missions themselves become more challenging. When game is interesting we are more emotionally involved in our character's journey, the choices and the story. It is a self enforcing game loop. Which is why I strongly believe that introducing an optional hard mode difficulty instance for levelling would be good. Note here I am in no way advocating for removal of current fast paced levelling - I like that for levelling alts or just exploring different story options, light vs dark choices, romances, crafting, whatnot. And I sincerely hope if BW does introduce harder difficulty that it will be an optional choice, not forced on all players.

Agreed with OP - there is a bit too many ilvls and too many variances for each mod / enhancement. I am NOT enjoying the lottery slot machine system of gearing. However, I want to say that in general I really like the new gear (tacticals, amplifiers, many set bonus sets, legacy bound). It just needs some balancing, dialling back amount of RNG and credit sinks, reducing clutter and it would be perfect.

Thanks Tofu_Shark, great post and excellent suggestions. I'd also add few - subscription increases XP, so unsubbing does help a little, but annoyingly also puts you into F2P, so not a perfect way to go about it. - Not joining a guild removes guild XP bonus. I have Jedi Knight character that I've managed to keep just about at level with content: I strictly do only class story missions, avoid completing ANY bonus whenever possible, do not use XP boosts, do not join guild, I do use White Acute Module, avoid exploration XP. It has become a challenge in itself - will I manage to be <= 50 when I finish the class story or not. I don't think I will manage, despite considerable effort spent on trying. My Ultimate Wish Would be an OPTIONAL difficulty toggle when you create your character. Selecting Master Mode, will put you into a new special type server instance. Just like PvP instances that have slightly different game rules, so would Master Mode Instance. Drastically reduce XP gain to roughly 1.5 rate of the vanilla game. Not quite as tedious as it was, but nowhere near current level. Immune to Conquest XP, Guild XP, Legacy XP, XP Boosts and no affect from Double XP events. Only XP gained while in the Hard Mode instance would be from mobs and missions within. Increase damage dealt by all mobs and enemies in the instance. Datacrons not collected on the character would not apply. Stop gaining XP once hit planetary cap. Again this would be an optional mode for those who wish for an extra challenge. It would offer no other benefit or achievement beyond personal enjoyment. So playing Story Mode would not make you loose out on anything.

Stop splitting hairs and try see what the main point of the complaint is. No one is disputing that SWTOR is an MMO game or that there are other people playing it. And yes you taking it to absurd point that bears no relevance to current conversation. Entire thread is explicitly about levelling experience during the class and low level planetary stories, operations are of no importance for that particular content. Is it truly so hard to grasp that there are some players - who (gasp!) actually like a challenge during levelling up, preferred the way game used to be and wish BW introduced an optional difficulty setting?

Woah there, the condescension! How dare some players have a different opinion about our beloved game and express a wish for optional harder mode difficulty? Haw dare we! How about you go play League of Angels: Heaven's Fury? I hear it has auto play, no need to interact at all. Sounds right up your alley there And yes, levelling, base story is pretty much RPG with online elements (mostly chat and help with occasional heroic). Base game there is little to no reason to ever group up. So let's leave whether or not it is "mmo" there out of it.

No. If I wanted a pure story I would read a book, watch a movie. This is a game and while story is essential and game play revolves around that - SWTOR is foremost an RPG game. So experience playing it matters, our character's journey matters. If it is too easy, lacks sense of achievement, feeling of accomplishment, provides no challenge? Then it fails as story telling device. Story, due to lacklustre experience becomes irrelevant. And currently, in my humble opinion, SWTOR game play experience during levelling is somewhat lacklustre indeed. At times it feels more like a interactive movie than a game. It is an excellent story, but let down by over simplifying the game and removing many niche RPG elements that made me emotionally invested to my character, the story and companions in the past. Now I'm NOT saying game was perfect at release. Not at all, but I do feel BW swung too hard in other direction in terms of difficulty. I do believe game would be better off with an OPTIONAL master mode instance / server for people who enjoy that.