I appreciate the change to daily areas where it will unlock for all of my toons even if they have not completed the story. Since I have been playing since shortly after launch I have a lot of alts across servers and this is actually a change I have wanted for some time. It's a shame it wasn't done sooner. Beyond that - I don't feel heard or understood, I feel ignored as normal. It's just sad. I have stuck around as a paying customer in this game for over 10 years, as have quite a few of my friends, even as we watched others leave due to so many negatively perceived changes that impacted their fun. Those of us remaining, we have tried hard to create our own fun, despite the changes we perceive as negative. Many of the changes feel punitive, and often things are taken from the players rather than given to the players. For example, as many others have stated reputation tokens don't appear out of thin air - you have to do something to get them. But it just seems the devs / company simply were not happy with the way the players / paying customers were using the rep tokens so a 'let's stop that' change occurred. No matter what you want me to do as a player, I don't play the game to do what the devs / company wants me to do - I play for fun not a second job. If I don't like a game then I will find a different one - maybe one where the players / paying customers are more valued. As some other posters have eloquently stated or hinted at on various threads the culmination of negative changes that seem punitive against the players is just too much. Why should I support a company that doesn't like me? That doesn't care? Those of my friends still playing are talking about finding a new game even though they like SWTOR, they understand the company and devs could care less about them being a paying customer and what they enjoy doing. I don't post often, and I don't post in forums for fun, I post because I hope for change so that I can continue playing with my friends; however, it seems this is drawing to a close. And as a note, none of my friends typically post in the forums because they feel like it is a waste of time. The ones who left - they did so quietly shutting the door behind them.

First as a note the stronghold is beautiful. The artists who worked on it did a fabulous job. As far as the posts here so far, I agree with much of what has already been said. I have been a sub since 2012, except for a few months due to a family emergency, and I am honestly sad the direction this game has taken. It appears that EA / Broadsword considers things the players / paying customers like as ‘over-represented’ which doesn’t even make sense, because you would expect a company to promote and give paying customers what they are interested in – to keep them as customers. The nerfs and odd fixes / changes that the customers / players never asked for appears to be more of a priority than fixing bugs and other issues in the game. The devs / company seem to be completely out of touch with the players. I realize everyone has a different play style, what they consider fun, and different amounts of time to play, something that it feels the developers and management team forget, and sometimes even other players forget. What one player likes or finds fun another may not. I have friends who can play long hours each week, but I don’t have that luxury. With my limited time I still want to have fun and be able to help my small guilds out reaching conquest, and that reputation objective was one of the ways I was able to do so. For me hitting conquest on a main toon, much less my alts, is difficult and requires me to focus on that for what I do when I log into game. Due to being in the game since 2012 I have many alts and play on different servers, and there are several conquest objectives my primary toons can never get, since some objectives are self limiting and finite, such as strongholds, reputation, level requirement, etc. The reputation and conquest change certainly will not get me to play more, in fact the opposite. The rewards for conquest are not that great, but I do it to help out the small guilds I am in. I do play on different servers so some of my toons do get reputation for the various areas or events; however, that is limited to only toons that are level 50 and above. As for my old primary toons the main way I was getting reputation for conquest was via the Galactic Seasons. I don’t understand how the amount of points for this conquest objective was an issue – it simply doesn’t make sense. There had already been the change where reputation tokens from areas and events cannot be saved to use towards conquest later, which also felt punitive – you aren’t playing the way we want so we will fix that. On my primary server I have long since maxed out most of the reputation so except for the new areas and recent conquest events my toons don’t get reputation very often, and since I am now unable to save reputation tokens for later those new areas are not much help with conquest. I like the game or I would not still be playing; however, the main reason for playing now has primarily been focused around my friends. While the content is old and it can feel like it is a grind in regards to conquest, we enjoy spending time with each other and doing things together in the game – the main reason we are all still subscribed. Typically we are trying to figure out unique ways to do things, doing crazy things (pulling everything in an area, etc.), chatting, sharing videos, and other things while running the same content for conquest. So, the main reason I play a game is to relax and with all of the changes that have occurred over time, many changes feel like they are made to punish the players making it become more of a job and grind than fun. We have lost so many guild members, who love the game, but due to the various changes that feel negative towards the players they started to find it to be more like a job than a game. This rep change among other things was just one more thing that feels like punishment – taking something else away. So many promises made to players and so much customer / player feedback rarely listened to. I am seriously reconsidering my subscription due to how expensive everything has gotten and the game is becoming much more like a job, when I already work full-time. I don’t even want to calculate what I have spent on this game over the years, only to feel as a paying customer that I am not valued and that management could care less what I think. My primary reason I have stayed subscribed has been to continue with the guilds and running with the few friends who have stayed, along with some misplaced hope the game will improve, but I am starting to realize that isn’t going to happen.

Thank you for the information. I appreciate the work that goes into a game like this and I understand that there are multiple issues and perspectives that must be balanced; however, after playing this game and being a subscriber almost continuously since 2012 there seems to be a disconnect between the company and the customers / players. I realize some individuals might be quite happy with this sale, since each customer / player is different; however, this 'plan' for the holiday sales is beyond 'meh' and is actually just more annoyance and disappointment on top of other recent things. Being that I have been playing since 2012 many of those Life Day items under 'unique daily sales' I already have, along with many of the other listed items. I know I had been looking forward to the Collection Unlock sale (and so were several friends), so that I could unlock some additional items to use for alts, and now this . . . 😞 While character transfer sales does not impact me, it seems like a slap in the face to those who had been asking for a new server, only to have no easy way to transfer their main characters who they may have played for years and no sale on transfers. What a way to reward loyal customers / players. The game feels as if it has increasingly become punitive towards the customers / players - play exactly the way we want you too or else. This sale just feels like more of the same. I had actually hoped things would improve with the move to Broadsword, but it appears it is not getting better. There were a lot of changes that I have not liked and some activities I have given up such as flashpoint weeklies, recently the GTN and a few other things; however, I have continued to play and sub so that I can spend time with my remaining friends in the game. My continued subscription relies on my friends continuing to play. While many friends have already left for other games I still have several who have stuck around, but with all these recent changes they are actively discussing what other games we could move to, and this sale is just another 'nail'. While I know all things eventually come to an end this is just a shame when it is for these types of reasons - still like the game but hate various changes and decisions.

Sadly I have wondered this. I have been in the game, subscribed, since July 2012, minus a few months when I had to take care of a sick relative. I had renewed my game time right before 7.0, but unless there are some drastic changes, I will not renew my sub, after almost 10 years of being a sub. This "expansion" feels like a mess. Also, I respect that everyone has different things they like to do in game and different play styles, but so many of these changes impacted my enjoyment of the game, including the loss of friends playing. The game feels so restrictive and limited now (restricted missions, flash points, etc.), along with some seemingly gratuitous or convoluted changes. I posted a more detailed post elsewhere, but currently, I just can't see a reason to continue my sub, but I am hoping that will change.

I am pretty sad right now and very disappointed in the management team at EA / BioWare. I waited to post because my mood was pretty low at launch and I wanted to give it a full week. I have been in the game, subscribed, since July 2012, minus a few months when I had to take care of a sick relative, and currently with this "expansion" it feels like there just isn't much left for me. Suddenly, I can't play the content that has prior been freely available when I want to. I feel as if I have been put on railroad tracks and not allowed to get off. I had recently renewed my sub in game, but when this time runs out, unless things change, I will not renew my sub after almost 10 years of being a sub. This is sad in many respects because I am also the GM of a couple of smaller guilds, which were once was a close community of long-term players, but has dwindled down to a handful of players left. I respect that everyone might not agree, and everyone enjoys different things. I also realize that there are those with the time to play who have already completely geared out, but for those of us who are more casual or don’t have as much time to play it’s not the same. The only reason I am posting is because I would like to stick around and have fun with my friends – in other words, I care what happens to the game, but this is just not looking good for sticking around, and some other friends are now leaving. The TL;DR of the post below is: Unless changes occur my almost 10 year subscription will not be renewed Thank You: • Boss Tagging • Changes on only 4 matches for GSF & PVP • Currencies (KDY, etc.) for log-in rewards Sounds good: • 2nd combat styles, but have not tried them - too buggy since friends had bad things happen when they tried the 2nd combat styles (changing them) Unhappy About: • Almost Everything else (there may be things I have not found out yet) • Particularly: o The Restrictive choices (Activity Weeklies, Group Finder) o Nerfed Companions & Down-leveled Presence o Convoluted currency and gearing system o Gratuitous Changes o Does not feel like an "expansion" but a "restriction" Long Version So the change with boss tagging is great, thank you! I also appreciate the change on the GSF & PVP weekly to only 4 matches and the currencies such as KDY for log-in rewards, thank you. But unfortunately that is about all I can say good at the moment. The 2nd combat styles sounds "cool" but I haven't touched them, since some of my friends had horrible issues trying to do stuff with them. But sadly, this feels like a "compression" not an expansion. Around two hours of new content for an expansion? But then so much taken away and restricted. I am sure there are many great suggestions on the forums. I put a few I thought of below, since I am not “just trying to complain.” Restricted Weekly Missions under Activities and GF I think the biggest issue is that I have been left with little to do during the week due to the changes in missions and conquest, and restricted content. Some of us are casual players that don't have a lot of time to grind out missions. While I realize that for other players the change in missions and conquest is a non-issue, but for me it is a deal breaker. I would log in a few times a week and have fun with guild mates hitting conquest and doing weeklies and dailies from the activity window, but now with the higher conquest cap and restricted content makes it feel like a grind. I can't even run the missions I want to run if I want to complete a weekly. So I just found myself with not wanting to do anything. I just don't understand why the "railroad" limiting our choices. . . such as having the Planetary Missions under activities limited in choice but able to be done multiple times. Why do I want to do the SAME weekly 3 times on the same toon in the same week?! This is also Alt Unfriendly - Yes, I know this probably sounds crazy, but over the years toons add up and I have over 80 on one server. I would regularly play at least 20 of them, but this week I played 4. Suggestion: Incentivize rather than restrict If you want to give an option to run certain missions 3 times a week why not make ALL weekly missions available, like they were before 7.0 and only make some of them repeatable 3 times a week? Then those who want to do the same mission 3 times a week can, and those who don't can do other things. Or create a new mission with the parameters you want to give. But don’t suddenly limit the weekly missions and flash points that can be completed through the activities window and GF. Galactic Seasons I was really looking forward to the Season Two Objectives and rewards, but there is a lack of diversity for the missions related to Galactic Seasons. Not everyone likes the same things, and since this is a game I will only do missions that I want to play, which left me only with 5 of 7 of the weekly missions completed for Galactic Seasons. So it looks like I will not be doing a lot with galactic seasons, not because I would not like to, but because I log into game to have fun, not to be railroaded into playing the content the management at EA / BioWare wants me to play. SO this leaves me with hardly any choices and not much I want to log in for. On a different note: A guild mate (friend) mentioned that he found it an issue that Galactic Seasons has all these missions, but once you have done 7 there is nothing left to do. Suggestion: Why not add more choices to the Galactic Seasons missions? Maybe add a 2nd daily to the list like there was before? This would give two missions a day to complete giving players more chances to do something each day. Nerfed Companions & Down-leveled Presence There was a lot of time and effort, along with credits spent for companion gifts and to craft things to level companions. All that effort and time, along with credits . . . Gone. Something else taken away. Suggestion: Don’t down-level presence and fix the nerf Convoluted currency and gearing system Feels like work to get back to where I was all in order to do the same content. With my limited game time I had just finished completely gearing out to do NIM Ops again, and had a little spare time to join a group, when I found out that later 7.0 would change all the gear again. Not to mention gear is absolutely worthless with the down syncing. Why should I even worry about the new gear? Four different paths, which are different, different currency to keep up with . . . Static gear. Set bonuses I enjoyed – gone. Nope, I’m done with gearing and Ops, if they require the new gear, same for PVP. Abilities Why take away abilities? I happened to enjoy my toon and the abilities they had. This isn't "fresh" I realize that many of the abilities I am missing may not have altered the actual play of the toon, but some of the ones gone were fun to use and added to the enjoyment of playing the class. UI Design & Issues The poor UI design is also an issue. The huge character window is really annoying. It takes up the entire screen and you can't change the size. Why? Eye burning windows and squares on inventory. Hard to even see what is empty. Then the grayed out text for some things like the deconstruction claim window. The "ability tree and abilities" UI is not good; I can't even tell what is picked, so I haven’t even messed with it. Others in my guild have had the same issue, because I had thought it might be something to do with my graphics. The once colorful and nice looking character icons on the character select screen changed for some strange stencil drawing? It looks unfinished. Why swap to a drop down menu for abilities? Poor design, and this is super annoying and more time consuming compared to the old way. Overall Final Comments The entire feel of the game for me has been altered. Weirdly enough I also miss having to put my buffs on. And what is the use of the trainers that I bought or were rewarded with? I am sad watching so many of my friends and guild mates from over the years leave the game due to the choices EA / BioWare management has made. People have left not because they don't like SWTOR, but these types of issues. Now more are leaving to other games, and I am considering following. I have to agree with many things said in the forums, and the one thing that just seems to ring true because I can't seem to find another explanation for it is that EA / BioWare doesn't care about its customers. It almost seems like they are trying to run people off. It's an interesting and sad 10th Anniversary, I saw someone in game general chat refer to this update as "The Great Purge" and I think that seems to fit well with how I feel right now.

Operations / Group Finder Something is wrong with the operations and group finder. Due to the changes in GF we hardly ever queue any more, because the hassle is not worth it, but due to some new players in our guild we tried this weekend, but we ended up with issues and trying to explain to a newer player why he could not run an OP. We were all pretty upset and frustrated over this issue and I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem or issues with GF breaking matched groups apart, and if so were you able to find a solution. On Friday, 3 January we tried to run Dread Palace on the Imperial Side and for the first time a level 66 player with us could not enter the operation. He got a message stating he had to be level 70 to enter. Unfortunately, I have no idea when this issue started as we had run some OPs after 6.0 with lower level toons (below 70), but lately everyone has been focused on gearing and we had not taken our lower level toons in OPs for a while. And as mentioned we have not been using GF any more due to the hassle. This bug is really bad timing as we have a brand new player excited to be running an operations with us, but then could not enter the OP, walking in or using GF, even through group finder states level 55 - 75. Our OPs running for the weekend became complicated and long due to this bug. We just tried EV on Imperial side again for GF and same problem, except it became more complicated when we had a major glitch with GF and it broke the group apart kicking some out of group and putting some in their own OPs group.

Operations / Group Finder Level Bug BUG Suddenly players under level 70 cannot use operations GF or go into an OPs. Unfortunately I do not know when this started as we had players under 70 able to go in after 6.0. FIRST NOTICED 3 January 2020 The first OP we tried was on Friday January 3rd, Dread Palace on Imperial Side. Our level 66 guild mate was not allowed to enter Dread Palace. He got a message that only level 70 could enter. Group Finder: It let the level 66 player queue and accept, but group finder would not transport the player. We tried logging in and out, breaking group, and nothing seemed to help. The group finder and all the related text showed the expected character levels, it stated level 55 - 75 for Dread Palace. SECOND TIME: Sunday, January 5th we tried Eternity Vault Group Finder on Imperial Side. The EV story mission was able to be picked up as normal, but then the level 59 player was not allowed to walk into EV getting the same message about being level 70. Tested this on my level 59 character as well as to get the screen shots. My level 59 Sorcerer could also not enter Eternity Vault getting the same message about being level 70. Screen Shots Mission Gained: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.enjin.com/users/7447505/pics/full/4143389.jpg Message trying to walk into Eternity Vault: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.enjin.com/users/7447505/pics/full/4143388.jpg Group Finder Screen Shot: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.enjin.com/users/7447505/pics/full/4143387.jpg The group finder text for EV states "recommended for characters level 50 through 75 EV Text: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.enjin.com/users/7447505/pics/full/4143390.jpg Less comprehensive on the in game ticket, but it is #934995557

It isn't always about knowing the fights. Players have different preferences on the content they find fun. If players would like to get the GF reward and really want to run a particular OP the random queue makes it not always possible to do. We schedule the OPs our players want to run based on the GF rotation, but this has become problematic due to the now random component. Additionally, some fights are more difficult for some players. Our guild has visually impaired players who find the Monolith fight nothing but annoying and frustrating. Many have not been able to complete it. So while we are fine getting TC or Hive Queen, when we get the Monolith, this causes us to have to leave, break group, swap to alts or wait on the timer, to try again. This takes time away from our play time and simply annoys players. It is also a time issue. Some of us are time constrained due to real life so we don't have time to run say the Hive Queen and Explosive Conflict in the same night.

I am a guildmaster of a small guild and several of our members have been subscribers since 2012, as I have except for a short time period for a family emergency (although our numbers are dwindling). We like to use the Group Finder for Operations. Quite a few of our members have a preference on the OPs they like to run. The changes in Group Finder have caused an issue where we have players not wanting to use GF any more due to the fact we can't get the OP on GF that is scheduled for the day, such as EV or S&V due to the others that were added making GF a random queue. We like TC and Hive Queen along with the event bosses, but that is not what we want to queue for randomly. If everyone is wanting to do S&V then no one wants to have to do other OPs just to get to run S&V in order to get the GF reward. There are many different players (customers) who subscribe and play this game. Not everyone likes the same thing or can do the same thing. The Monolith is difficult for several of our members to do because of visual impairments, monitor quality, and lag issues. There is too much reliance on colour and very quick movement required. This is especially problematic for those in our guild who enjoy the game, but are visually impaired. Additionally, while many gamers run high end systems, not every person who enjoys this game and pays for a subscription has an optimized gaming system or high end monitor. The perception by most of our members is that this was supposed to be a "Play your way" expansion and I am hearing a lot of feedback that this expansion appears to be just the opposite. I have to say I feel that way to. These changes are impacting play time and enjoyment with the game. I had a member log out of the game last night to go do something else because they were so annoyed trying to queue for a quick EV run. I have stated this elsewhere, I am sadly hearing the same kinds of rumblings I heard when we last lost several members due to changes in the game. While they still come into our voice chat to visit it is not the same since they cancelled their sub to SWTOR. Our friends who left still like Star Wars, what they didn't like were the changes to the game that impacted their fun and enjoyment of the game. We just had one member drop their sub, and there are at least 2 more discussing it. The complaints I am currently hearing are due to several of the changes in the game and Group Finder is only one of them. Suggestions Have a split Group Finder, put the Operations Group Finder back to the way it was. This way there is a defined OP for the day that groups can run so they know which OP they are going into. Then have a second one for say a random OP of the day which is another Group Finder Reward OR go back to GF like it was and then add in an additional rotation of GF with TC, event bosses, etc. for a daily queue of a random single boss fight Please try to address all of the issues with 6.0 so that the levels of fun and enjoyment with the game can apply to all players (customers) equally, regardless of their play style or their physical abilities.

Agreed!

Thank you for making adjustments. I am really hoping for a lot more changes, because I really like the game and want to see my friends and other people stick around. We currently have several more guild members with "one foot out the door" This is going to be a bit long. We have run some things on the PTS as a guild, mostly a lot of Hammer Stations. We have a small casual guild with several long time players (some since 2012,, like myself) who like to run OPs and have always had hopes of running the harder content, including NIM as a group,but it takes us too long to all gear up, and this new system, in many cases, leaves us hopeless, and pretty much giving up on gear with what this is looking like. None of us like the RNG. Most of us have MANY alts given how long we have been in game (plus Light versus Dark) and we do like to play them, so gearing can take a longer for "non mains" but we still like to play them and run in OPs with them. The gearing is too much of a grind and is too long to accomplish even for mains. Playing to get gear is fine, but there are too many tiers of gear and way too much stuff to sort through that isn't useful. It feels like work and not fun. The majority of the guild members agree that the goal is to play the content and not collect gear. I really don't understand the concern about gearing too fast to do content that has mostly been in the game for years. It is actually annoying to have to re-gear to do the SAME content in any mode that has been out for years. Yes gearing for NEW content and grinding for that is fine, but not so that we can go back to doing the same content. In addition, with the down leveling, myself and other guild members are questioning what the gear is even for except for the new OP since stats will be capped. Not a fan of the single items out of Renown crates that take forever to get. I like the other items such as companions gifts that currently drop. Did not get enough of the currency to try out the vendors, except for the Spoils of War vendor, and not about to take my time to do the "medpac thing" just to have a chance at trying to get gear to try it out. Other guild members I spoke to said the gearing and drops were a lot of RNG junk that was not useful. That is exactly what happened with that random vendor, it was a complete waste of currency and I will never do that again if it goes live. We ran about 10 flash points with a different mix of groups, and there was a lot that dropped, but nothing really useful. I like the look of the gear that dropped, but that is all I would use it for is in the appearance designer. Also on one run a rating 38 focus dropped in Hammer Station. There is a lot of potential, but not liking many of the implementations currently. Gearing Pros Like the looks of many of the new gear pieces Like the Variety with the set bonuses Like the idea of the amplifiers & Tunings Like the fact that loot will drop for discipline LOVE the upcoming toggle for discipline (YAY) Cons TOO MUCH RNG - needs to go Items dropping below current gear as rewards and items toons cannot use, this isn't a "reward" WAY Too many gear tiers Too much static gear Gear being tied to the irating you have on Set bonuses tied to shells Not enough tech fragments to get what you want Too much of a grind Renown crates worthless, takes forever to get one and then you get 1 item that may not even be worth it Too much gear dropping from FP to deal with that is worthless and takes up play time to get rid of. This is going to get old fast. Already became annoying during the Hammer Station FP runs Do NOT like the fact the current set bonuses are being taken away Gear Suggestions A direct way to get gear with the set bonuses. The actual set bonuses you want Why not have something like the tokens that currently drop off bosses, just as they do now and then use those with a currency, then just make it cost more of the currency for different levels of gear? Or just Switch to common currency for all gear. If this is "play your way" then allow people to get currency for every thing you do and let people buy their gear. Something other than what it currently is: Get rid of the RNG Create a spot on the armor for a set bonus "token" instead of being tied to the shell Additional Feedback Love the looks of Oderon - really nice on the looks and graphics. Have not tried all the missions yet I am, and most people in our guild are Very unhappy with the conquest changes and higher amounts to meet. The higher summoning cost is uncalled for and a burden for smaller guilds. We are very lucky, we have had some very generous members donate the credits we have as a guild, plus we have done some fundraising. We buy the guild perks and that is enough of a credit sink. Unfortunately a lot of our guild credits came from long time members quitting the game over 5.0 and the first changes to conquest. Yes there are players in the game with LOTS of credits, but not everyone. The higher costs makes it difficult for regular players to buy stuff and smaller guilds to consistently purchase all the guild perks Crafting is too expensive, requires too many mats, and is cumbersome

All very well said!

Ummmm, SERIOUSLY?! . . . . just wow. This is completely ridiculous. It is quite obvious that there is no consideration for the feedback from paying customers . . . the players. This overall change to conquest is awful. Personally, I am just done with conquest, and so are many of our guild members. I find this very sad considering we have a smaller guild, but yet we were often on the conquest board in the top 10. Guild members were already starting to question the value of conquest before the change, now . . . this just sealed it, it isn't worth it. Objectives have been restricted, crafting is beyond ridiculous with this change (others have laid out the changes very nicely, and just how insane they are), rewards are not worth it, and why all of a sudden the developers have become alt haters, when they have done nothing but encourage alts, is beyond me (Dark vs Light anyone?!) I have many alts and so do many of our guild members, conquest, as we knew it is now impossible, along with the fact there is no choice, just a pre-defined grind and work. A game is supposed to be fun, not work. For some of our members that was all they enjoyed doing . . . hitting conquest through the various objectives on every toon they had, and now some of those players are discussing leaving the game. Yet another negative change that starts to break up communities. We already lost a lot of our guild members and friends due to the 5.0, and some were just returning to SWTOR. I hope they do not leave, but I would not blame them. And on top of all of the negative changes the patch was launched with massive bugs, which made the situation even worse and more annoying. It seems like the code wasn't even tested . . . just wow. I will "monitor the situation" but as of now, myself along with a large majority of those who I have heard from in our guild are done with this mess that is now called conquest. . . . .

Completely AGREE!! The same for my guild which is on the smaller side.

(Apologies, this is a bit long) Thank you for the feedback on the feedback and considering changes, but much more needs to be done, and more quickly. I really do not understand why this could not have been put out there for feedback, before implementing it to avoid all the drama associated with such a drastic and negative change. This conquest change is absolutely a negative change, and this appears to be the consensus of my guild. My guild members who have read this thread so far are not happy. To say I am disappointed and frustrated over the entire change is an understatement. This is not about getting "used to the new system" it is about the system is broken and not fun. Thank you for clarifying the GF should be in every conquest that is good, but I am with some others why not announce that to begin with to stop the posting about it? Why the constant lack of information? I have waited to post until I have tried to hit conquest on a toon. What have I found? GOALS I have found I will not be hitting conquest this week, even with the free 10,000 points (From a BUG). While I appreciate the addition of decos (thank you for those), the rewards are NOT enough for bothering with conquest now. Rewards are not scaled to the amount of time, resources, and effort now required for conquest. I mean the decos are nice, don't get me wrong, but really 5 invasion forces, plus 100,000 credits for a deco? With the mats required for an invasion force?! Seriously?! That's a reward for getting conquest? Additionally it is now more of a grind than ever and NOT fun (remember this is a game). If increasing the rewards and making conquest worth it was a goal, it has not been reached. Please remember and keep in mind you have paying customers with varying schedules and amounts of time to play. For example, there are some people who can only play on the weekends. We have members that this is the case, so they have about two days to play, for fun and relaxation, along with completing conquest. This was possible before this change, it is now no longer possible. OBJECTIVES Instead of being able to generally do things you like in game, a variety of activities that add up or even just one activity (for those major PVP/GSF players), it now requires a lot more planning and doing additional activities JUST to get conquest points, not for fun. I am a guildmaster of a smaller guild that used to stay on the conquest board in the top 10 often, and in the past had won planets. We have a wide range of players who have different amounts of play time and like different activities. The objectives are not varied enough, alt unfriendly, and low level unfriendly. Many of our members and myself have a lot of alts. For me, I work full time and run OPs for the guild. I play the game to have fun and hang out with with my guildies, not to grind. The changes mentioned do nothing for alts and low level toons. The rewards are so low that many of us will not even be able to get one toon to conquest much less how many we normally do. The overall change hurts small guilds and not too mention the amount of mats needed are ridiculous and too time consuming. Prior to this change it was completely possible for us to compete in conquest and stay on the board in the top 10 as well as during a crafting week to actually have a chance at winning a planet, along with completing conquest on multiple toons all at different levels. Many of our members really enjoyed this and for some this has been their full time play activity when they are on. Currently conquest is not even worth doing, and so far, I am not hearing any of our guild members state the mentioned changes go far enough. I am now listening to some members, who this was their main activity, reaching conquest, talk about unsubscribing, and some of them just returned a few months ago, after leaving due to 5.0. This is sad to me on so many levels. Additional Suggestions to Fix conquest, OTHER than just rolling it all back to what it was (fine with that too): Change ALL crafting back to the way it was, including schematics. I just don't understand how it "was just too good prior to 5.8. Additionally, Either allow the other schematics that use the Exotic Isotope Stabilizers (with Iokath Recombinators) or convert all of them to the Refined Isotope Stabilizers. I do not think destroying "donating"?! VERY expensive invasion forces which are also now currency, is "added functionality" or even something "fun" or added value . . . Untie objectives to legacy and make them per toon Increase the point values across all objectives, this is a game, meant to be fun, and should not be WORK Add objectives that include multiple activities that low level toons can complete, enough to get conquest Increase the rewards to make it worth it Please Add the Guild Ship back to conquest. Grant a buff for the planet the ship is over that works out side of the planetary down leveling. Currently the guild ship is a buy in just to do conquest for 50 million Add additional objectives which match the themes for the conquest week Please make sure heroics are included in each conquest week Yield Targets Competition between different sized guilds has now been made impossible due to the crafting changes. Crafting changes are beyond horrible. This is not how to fix the competition between guilds. Small guilds could at least have a chance at winning a planet due to the way crafting was set up. Small guilds now have 0 chance at winning a planet. I am sure there are many workable ideas out there, but here is one. If you want to make it more even between guilds then create conquest brackets. You have access to the number of people in a guild, make brackets where conquest is the same as ever, but guilds are competing with other guilds with reasonably the same number of members. This is JUST an example but say all guilds with 1 to 250 members are in 1 bracket and they can win a planet and get a title, then the next bracket is say 251 to 500 members, then maybe another 501 to 750, etc. I am sure you can pull numbers to figure out break points. I am sure there could be other ideas to create a more fair competition between guilds, that was just one example. UI Personally I prefer the old UI for conquest it was more interesting to look at, but everyone has their preference. Please consider colour use, because some players of the game are colour blind. We have guild members who are.Additionally, for what ever reason, I have zero blue triangles, I do have silver so by process of elimination I will guess those are the "blue" you mention. Alts/Legacy Lowering the points needed for conquest does nothing for alts / legacy. This doesn't even make sense, legacy is legacy, it an objective is 1 time for legacy, lowing the total points needed does not make it where other toons in the same legacy can get the points. Adding many additional objectives that are not tied to legacy and that are repeatable would help, so we will have to wait and see what the changes bring for that. Additionally, as mentioned additional objectives need to be added to allow toons of all levels to reach conquest. I am waiting on the changes and I am hoping they will be drastic and better, as this situation currently is not an improvement on conquest. Conquest should be fun, not a grind. Currently what reason is there to do conquest?

This alone makes me think the ones making the changes do not play the class and do not understand how it is played

No not just you. Sadly, at this rate, I feel like it might take almost a year for me to just get one toon fully geared where I can start running the content I was running before 5.0, and I have about 37 alts that will not get played that much. It's one thing to log in and play end game and maybe have a chance at winning a gear piece or gearing for PVP in the prior system, but an entirely different thing to try to grind out points for random chances of gear or grind the low token reward rate for PVP. I have work and school, so I can't play as much as some individuals can, and when I can play I would like to be doing what I enjoy, not worrying about grinding for gear.

Well . . we lost 2 more officers and a casual player from our guild this week, with more to go as soon as their subscriptions are up. Some players with subscriptions are no longer logging in, including several officers and raid team members. Many were waiting to see how those last "fixes" were implemented, but it wasn't enough to bring them back or keep them from leaving. People (customers) are understandably frustrated and I have heard multiple times that "if I wasn't a huge Star Wars fan I would have been gone long ago," but even some of them have now left the game. Not every player (customer) who is unhappy posts in the forums, some quietly leave while many others discuss it with other people in and out of the game. Some of that negativity is also what has driven off at least one of our members. Almost everyone wants all of this to just get fixed and be able to stop having to wonder whether to continue playing or not. This is game they pay for and they just want to log in and have fun and do the content they want to do without having to wait for RnG to give them gear so they can go back to running the stuff they were running before 5.0 hit and locked them out of the content. I really don't understand how long it is taking to address any of this. This is not good from any standpoint, the uncertainty, constant negativity, along with it being horrible from a business stand point. I mean, I have no idea overall how much business has been lost, but just two of our players who still have subscriptions (paid ahead), but aren't playing any more, and so far aren't coming back, used to spend hundreds of dollars on hypercrates each time a new pack came out along with other occasional cartel market purchases, on top of their subscriptions. Not that I advocate that, but looking at it from a business stand point, running off customers who spend that kind of money just doesn't make sense to me. Pros Progress on returning SOME unassembled tokens on bosses Bringing back the gear vendors so players have a choice in turning in the tokens Progress towards returning the equivalent of "commendations" / "crystals" for gear Announcing a new operation - Great Cons ADDITIONAL Grind added on top of already bad grind During OPs runs the lack of unassembled tokens dropping off bosses is a huge issue for almost everyone. NO true help for legacy toons gaining cxp, HORRIBLE legacy "perk" Additionally it almost doesn't matter what rate you are getting cxp, when due to RnG, nothing is decent in the boxes or it is duplicated so it is just disintegrated Horrible PVP grind for gear Low cap on the command tokens Solution Return the gearing system, completely, to the way it was prior to 5.0 where ALL bosses dropping an unassembled token and players can turn them in for what they want!!!! (it wasn't broken) All of the players I have spoken with in our guild, plus others who run group content, want the entire gearing system back (tokens, crystals, vendors, etc.) including the PVP system, prior to 5.0. I know I have been told by many of our raid team members they would come back if the gear system went back to pre 5.0 Make command crates something people strive to get, rather than something they have to grind out in order to get something they need, the gear, in order to do the content they want. I can think of all kinds of items that could come in the crates that might make people want them, I am sure you guys can too. Maybe a couple of example ideas might be: Adding chances for some of the currency that was removed from the game, but the vendors still sell items players want that require the currency that no longer drops Many have also mentioned they would like to see the level 6 companion gifts go back to being able to be bought with "crystals" or "what ever" and lessen the horrible "grind" with so many companions in the game. That has been mentioned to me as a "reward" that was removed from the game, using your earned crystals to buy the gifts. Personally I know I would like to see that returned, so maybe "command tokens" could be used for that. I mean there are probably endless things that could be thought up that players might want so that getting the command box would feel like a reward and not a disappointment and wasted time. Would it still be grinding? yes, but if it is for something you actually want and feel it is worth the effort then normally it feels different than HAVING to grind something out to get something you need in order to be able to do what you want. Now with this awful grind you only get what you need if you are lucky enough through RnG to get the gear you actually need

I completely agree with this. A lot more needs to be done. There are so many good and workable suggestions out there. One main one I have seen that would help is bringing back the guaranteed unassembled token drops from each boss as it has been in the past, prior 5.0. What is happening to the game, and has happened to our guild / community has been sad to watch as player after player leaves. Many of my friends and guild members have stated they left, or are leaving, due to the changes and the fact that BioWare is ignoring so much of the player base, along with the frustration with constant bugs that do not seem to get fixed. (They like the game, just not what BioWare has done to it) I don't understand the changes from any stand point. It isn't good as a business model or for the community. All the negative focus, the numerous paying subscribers quitting, lost players not buying cartel coins, and lower server count making it difficult to do some group content and on some servers impossible. Many of our guild members (paying subscribers), casual members as well as our raid team members, participated in many aspects of the game. They also bought cartel coins, hypercrates, etc. And now sadly, a huge number of them are gone from the game due to all of the changes, with more stating they are leaving. It just makes no sense why these issues have been ignored.

True points. Sadly, many don't expect it and that is why many have left or are about to leave. It is more of a hope now, as some of our raid members said they would not leave or they would come back if that (operations gearing returned to pre 5.0) happened. Not all who left were only raiders, many played other aspects of the game and liked SWTOR, but that was their primary activity. We did have some newer players joining our raid teams who did need the gear, plus many players (including myself) with a lot of alts to gear, so we could play various roles. We were still working on the hard mode operations and hoped to move on to the NIM. That said, that is one of the main things that is so frustrating about the grind they introduced, that it is all to get back to doing old scaled content. No one is really interested in grinding just to be able to go back to the old content they were already doing. No one minded so much before, even though many hoped for new operations (not really thinking we would get any at this point), because it was fun to get together with friends and raid, along with helping our newer players get the hang of the operations. Many of our guild members who left liked SWTOR and participated in other aspects of the game, but were not interested in grinding just to go back to doing what it was they wanted to do, the old scaled operations.

Thank you! Very well said and I agree completely. Our guild is in a situation now where many players have left, and others are basing their decision to leave or not on the upcoming "fixes," but unfortunately we have already lost many members of our raid teams. Most in our guild would like to see the operations gearing returned to what it was prior to 5.0. If there is such a focus on wanting the command boxes to be a major part of the game, then why not put items in the command boxes that players would WANT, rather than trying to force players to grind for the boxes in order to have chances to get gear they NEED to do what they want to do in game?

Ummm, seriously???? I thought that the stream meant restoring gear tokens to ALL operations bosses, not adding MORE RnG, this is utterly ridiculous and unacceptable. This needs to change. The command boxes would have been a nice ADDITIONAL reward and supplementary gearing system for players, but making gear for operations tied to RnG and grinding is not acceptable. Many of my friends have already left this game in November and during the last couple of weeks, with more to go in January. Some who still have subscriptions have not logged in for weeks. I have been a continuous subscriber for years and I am considering following them due to these game changes. But THEN there was Hope, that just maybe, this system would change and, maybe, my friends would come back to play, but now that has been dashed. The hope that any kind of fairness or reward system will be put back in place for operations seems to be gone. ALL operations bosses should have a 100% drop rate for gear tokens as it was prior to the change. If they are random gear pieces I have no issue with that, as long as they are a set piece of gear like before the change. There are 8 or 16 people taking their game time to run a group operation and they have all taken the time to learn the mechanics and participate in the operation, they should all be able to roll on gear on EVERY boss. Even then not every player in the operation will leave with gear, but at least several will. It still takes time to get fully geared with that system. So many of the paying customers, which are the players of this game, have said this RnG system is terrible, but BioWare insists on ignoring us as so many others have pointed out in the forums. Additionally, for myself, and some of my friends who do not have a lot of time to play, the changes have drained the fun out of the game. This grind is not fun and not something I will continue, since the whole reason I play a game is to have fun. The sad part is many of the players I play with are trying to gear just to get back to the OLD CONTENT we were enjoying and trying to get through as a guild, which we cannot currently run, because of gearing issues along with the fact that so many of our guild's operations members have quit the game over these last changes. The Command Boxes should be a SUPPLEMENTARY method of gearing NOT THE PRIMARY and operations gear drops should go back to the way they were before.

I completely agree, I am sick of these changes already! I have 34 characters on the Shadowlands server and others scattered on other servers. I have been a consistent PAYING customer, supporting this game for years. I have met some wonderful people, but it seems, very sadly, this is at an end. It is extremely obvious that EA/BioWare does not care about players. They leave many bugs, these changes are HORRIBLE, the grinding of the new changes are ridiculous. I am not sure who thinks this amount of grinding is fun, but it is not me or for many other players I know. ALL this grinding, NOT FOR NEW CONTENT, but ONLY to get back to the OLD CONTENT that I and others WANT to DO, such as Hard Mode Operations. This has broken apart our guild, and ran good players off. Some have come back to do the story only and due to these horrible changes are leaving right after this. They have effectively PUNISHED players, pushing them back and not allowing them ACCESS to OLD CONTENT, things we were ALREADY doing, but now CAN”T do because of GEAR CHANGES which KEEP US from doing what we were doing before this stupid “expansion.” I have been a continuous subscriber for years, but for the first time, I am now considering ending my status, unless some extremely drastic changes occur, or they revert the gear system back to crystals and operations drops. There are NO REWARDS left in the game and the rate of gaining command points, especially for players who do not have a lot of time to play, is horrible. Many of my friends have cancelled their subscriptions or will be gone when their time cards run out in January or so, and I may go with them. I pay for this game and I don’t have to! So to sum it up: It is not fun, my friends are leaving, and I can’t do the OLD CONTENT I want to do BECAUSE EA/BioWare decided to PUNISH the players! So yes tired of these changes . . .