Every day there is a thread complaining about the state of PVP in this game. And this game has been out for over a year. It's obvious BW doesn't give the PVP side of the game the same level of attention as the rest of it. So why continue behaving like it is separate and should be treated as such? More to the point, why let yourselves be abused in this way? BW's view of PVP is that of a sideshow, a fun minigame within the real game. Something to do to pass the time when you don't feel like leveling or running FPs or OPs or while crafting. PVP is not a separate mode. Think about it: FTPers have limits on warzones. There are only 5 warzones and this game has been out for 15 months. There is only a very basic PVP queuing system and without X-queues. There is only a handful of PVP armor and cosmetic stuff like titles, pets, and mounts. There is no in-game voip or keybinds/macros for phrases like '3' Incoming' 'East'. And the only tutorial you get for each warzone is the loading screen telling you the objectives. Its time to take a hint. Your dated PVP gear has now been relegated to leveling gear, not good enough for top endgame PVE content. "Dated" PVE gear performs better in L55 PVP than your old PVP gear does. Take the hint: PVP is not high on the totem pole at BW's offices. PVEers can now PVP competitively which means faster queues because of more people. While PVPers cannot PVE as competitively, it is not difficult to get a set of Dreadguard now. I do agree that PVPers have not been given an easy way into endgame PVE, but it is not that hard to gear up for it. You will have to come out of your comfort zone and queue for flashpoints and operations. Although I do wish there was a trading system like they have with unassembled gear for comms that trades for old PVP gear. Lets say BM and below -> BH, WH -> Campaign, and EWH -> Dreadguard. A consolation given to people who spent hours and hours grinding for gear. If all you do in this game is PVP then why play? This game has little to offer you while there are other MMOs with better PVP systems out there.

This happens often with classes that can do 2 roles whether they are healing or tanking. The OPs specific issue with mercs seems like a server problem. However, on my server, I've seen DPS "Healers" and DPS "Tanks" on both factions. And it's not merely a noob issue with not setting your role, people intentionally do this and expect everyone else to "pull their own damage like i am". They simply say, why bother queuing as dps if it takes less time to que as something else? The most I can do is put them on my ignore list and hope I dont get stuck in a group with them.

Just run them, load a new instance, and cancel them for the missions you want.

At 10k affection, that companion has a 20% chance to crit on anything he or she does.

No. The Exotech consumables cannot be REed into reusable ones. The highest ranking reusable consumables are the Rakata ones. Below that are the lvl 48 ones. Both the Rakata and lvl 48 schematics are bought from your skill trainer. The highest ranking consumables in the game are the Exotech ones, and as you know they cannot be reversed engineered for purple ones.

I learned slicing to make my own augments, currently while I'm leveling. But I do see tech parts being sold on the GTN for more than what it costs to farm them. Also, you don't have to run a single slicing mission if you simply harvest nodes on planets. That is a good way to make slicing profitable.

Thats all you get at level 400. Dont expect to randomly see anything above abundant until they raise skill level cap. You'll have to buy missions from the GTN.

you're limited to 4 until level 45 i believe

You forgot the part about loading a new instance once you sent your companions out to check for any UT metal mission, If you get one, cancel a mission your comp is currently running for it. Also, +15 efficiency means that companion will run it faster. You want a companion with +x critical. My simple solution can be done right now. Yours involves changing how the crafting system works. I don't disagree with you, we're just not answering the same question. Mine answers, what can I do about it right now. Yours answers, what can Bioware do to make it better.

It's not that hard to make credits in this game. I only have 1 50 but can make 5 mil in a good week. And all the materials can be gathered, you don't have to buy a thing if you have patience. And player crafted items are just as useful as looted items, crafters are making 27 item mods which is the best anyone can get in this game.

If it was gold selling related, I don't think we would see these postings on for long time because they are suspicious. If they used the GTN, they would add each other as friends and when they see the other pop online, the one who bought gold would then put the posting up while the one who sold gold would buy it immediately. After the new deposit changes, I do imagine this would be a new possible way for gold sellers to conduct business. However, since they've been around for a long time, probably since the beginning of the game, if whatever they've been doing has been working well I don't see why they would change methods.

Simple solution, load a new instance. I speak from experience with UT, TH, and Diplo at 400. Do I ever have a problem? No. This is what I do. I look and run the missions I want and then atleast 2 of what I don't want. Then I immediately load an instance (leave or enter the ship for example) and look at the missions again. If none available, I load a new instance. So far the most I've had to reload in a row was 10. 10 seems like a lot but consider that an Abundant+ mission for mats is around an hour, 10 reloads is nothing. Anyway, when I do get missions I want, I drop the bad missions my companions are doing for those. Dropping missions means you simply get the mission cost back, so you don't actually lose anything. The reason I run bad missions in the first place is to take them off the list of possible missions. You can't have a companion run a mission that another companion is currently running, so taking as many bad missions off the list means a greater chance that a good mission will pop up. Is it annoying that I have to trick the game like this? Yes and no. Yes because I of course want what I want right now when I want it, but no because I understand why the crafting system is set up that way and somewhat agree with it. If you want to do this, it's good to know how many Mod, Abund, Bount, and Rich yield missions there are of a specific reward. For example, in both Bioanalysis and Archaeology, there is only 1 abundant compound and 1 abundant power crystal mission at grade 6. So reloading for more is stupid.

In a way, yes. There are many different styles of MMOs to fill different preferences of players. I don't have much experience with different MMOs but this system is like KOTOR's crafting system. It makes sense BW would use and improve it for this game. I do remember the hype surrounding this game was mainly focused on the full voice acting and the class stories.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=3789274#post3789274 http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=505891

I have toons with all the crafting professions and I do not notice any of my toons getting poor. It's true that leveling gear has been a flaky choice to make money off of, but there are still some niches like belts, bracers, and headgear with the appropriate stat combos that ppl are still willing to buy at levels under 20. BW is not forcing anyone to buy the leveling gear. And the leveling gear costs real money as opposed to our crafted gear. Also, cartel gear is only good for levels 15-20, 31-34, and 43-46 so there is a lot of gear outside those levels that can be crafted and sold. The real dent is in levels 31-34 where there are 5 piece armor sets to buy. In the other levels, a person must buy around 5 of the same piece of gear and pull the mods out of it and into their moddable gear if they have some. Some people will only do this once but not again after seeing how expensive it is. If they're stupid enough to continue doing that, then good for us bc the game will keep going. But no one gets that armor for free so you can still sell your stuff. As far as revamps go, I'm not too sure it's necessary. I almost always prefer crafted gear over loot on my toons while leveling because crafted gear has better control about what stat appears on gear. I like seeing Overkill __ and Vehemence __. Keep in mind, if anyone is not a completely f2p player, then they are a p2w player. But nothing outside of subscriber gets much p2w stuff.

I don't know what you mean +10, +7, +5 but I do know that 10k affection adds 5% to crit a mission result. At most a companion will have 25% to crit. For example, Vette has +5% crit on Treasure Hunting. Add the baseline +15% to crit (assuming Treasure Hunting skill is 400) and the 10k affection bonus +5% and it all equals 25% to crit on any normal Treasure Hunting mission. The formula is the same for crafting missions too. Jaesa Willsaam has +5% crit on Synthweaving. Add baseline +15% (on difficuties above Yellow, add +10%) and 10k affection gives you 25% (or 20%). Your other issues sounds like you just want more stuff cheaper and faster than you're getting it now. Many of us have been dealing with the current system for months and we have bigger issues than the ones you bring up. If you also played the game for months, then you should have learned how to maximize your time and energy when it comes to crew skills simply from trial and error. Of course it would be nice to be richer than I currently am. Purple mats are the only mats that are expensive to get, but they are not hard to get, you just make your comp run the mission and get on with your life. You can guarantee purple mats by buying missions off the GTN. Otherwise, just bring all your companions up to 10k affection and run all the missions available for that specific material. Most importantly, keep running those missions. In an hour, you'll find that you got atleast several of those purple mats. The one thing I do agree with is your problem with the max deployment limit. It doesn't make sense that throughout the game I can deploy all my comps to do stuff until I acquired all the comps for that character. I understand the part about having a bodyguard with you since the game takes place during a cold war, but why be forced to keep one after I completed the class quest?

Agree with Alex and my first toon ever is an artificer. If you can't learn to overcome your struggles, then drop artifice for a gathering skill and sell the mats and make money that way.

There is a new rule after thinking about what people have said: You can earn commendations after each match. You can be awarded up to 30 commendations along with up to 3 medals. You are not awarded extra medals or comms for winning a match. So with this setup ppl cant reasonably farm casual pvp for comms but newbies have an alternate way of getting into pvp.

I do want casual pvp to give same rewards... I don't understand the first part. Gear separates more than skill. If gear influences an outcome less, skill influences an outcome more. Also, this isn't a very technical or complicated mmo. There isn't much skill needed to play this game in the first place. So gear has a great influence. The people who have a determination to play better often have better gear anyway.

I'm going to try to address specific people who had unique ideas and then address the rest with general statements. It's hard to find a balance for awarding comms for casual pvp. If comms are awarded per match, then the same reward rule should exist to eliminate abuses like farming. If people deems it fair to get commendations in each match in casual pvp, then here are the rules concerning them: -The winning and losing team is awarded the same amount of commendations for winning or losing: 0. - Medals are awarded but only a max of 3. When you get 3 medals, you are awarded the most comms possible in casual pvp. - The most commendations you can get in a match is 30. Keep in mind casual pvp is for people that don't want to be stomped over and over while getting nothing to show for it. In casual pvp, it doesn't really matter if a player gets stomped over and over because there are no rewards for winning a match. Your idea about making the game differentiate between differently geared players seems really complicated. The gear gap matters little in casual pvp. There are no bonuses to winning. Everyone gets awarded equally. If commendations are awarded, they will be awarded according to performance; you get 3 medals by the end of the match and you get 30 comms. No medals awarded for winning. Medal requirements don't change so you can sit and defend a node all game long and get atleast 3 medals that way. My idea does not eliminate the gear gap, but it eliminates the anger at losing matches and commendations as a result of the gear gap. And since the geap gap is pve-based, you have more options to gear your toon. Hell you can even use credits to buy better gear, something you cannot do for regular pvp. In my server in half the games I'm in, people focus on acquiring as many medals as they can to get as many commendations as they can. You see sorcs and sages using consumption/noble sacrifice and then healing themselves, you see tanks applying guard and taunting then turning the guard off and running away, you see almost meaningless 1v1s in random places in the wz.. I did not remove medals to dissuade people from trying to win, I removed them mainly to eliminate bragging rights and the false sense that you are an awesome player. Competitive players want to see how well they did in comparison to others, so deny them that and you eliminate a major reason to go in and roflstomp casual players. My idea does make it easier for casual pvp to be a deathmatch rather than objective based, but that's going to be practically inevitable. Bads will want to play casual pvp, and bads will want to play deathmatch. Atleast you reduce the number of baddies in regular pvp. I understand where you're coming from because I suck at this game too and the only way I have a chance to stop sucking is by keeping my nose to the grind and keep working. A casual player moving up to regular pvp will almost always find regular much more difficult. But the current learning curve severely disadvantages newbs to 50 pvp. You have 10-49, and then 50 and 50 ranked. Almost no one does ranked so everyone is in 50, the BiS premades as well as fresh 50s. People have been trying to fix ranked, I'm trying to fix the learning curve. Most of us know that buying ranked comms when you're level 40 is a must, but this info is not immediately available to a newb. They come in and see their 2k hit only remove 10% of their opponent's health while their opponent hits them for 5k and removes 33% of their health. That's disheartening isn't it. But you are awarded commendations in casual which you can use to buy pvp gear to move up to regular pvp. The problem with premades is in itself a solution to the problem. I face premades as often as I play alongside them so I don't see a problem with premades. There are premades on both sides. If your server sucks and has a huge imbalance in faction population, I don't think there is anything anyone can do about that. True. But rule #1 I have reconsidered. Commendations can be awarded per match, a max of 30 comms. Players in both teams can receive 30 comms in the same match, no difference in comms whether you win or lose. They are awarded by performance though. Earn 3 medals and you get the full 30 comms. I would like to see cross server pvp but it would not fix any problems. The gear gap issue, the premade issue, and the noob issue will still exist because every server has these issues.

Good players will always stomp trash. The difference here is that good players cannot use trash to advance in any way. And being stomped will not mean you lost something meaningful. The reward is the same whether you win or lose the match: a small fraction of valor and credits. Let's use your Quake example. You described a level playing field, but you did not describe the amount of frustration and QQ people have experienced. I know there was a lot of both, but if people who cannot even get halfway up the list in the K/D ratio played for hours, I assume they did not perceive a huge and sometimes unfair imbalance of something (gear, or perks) beyond their control. You got a gun and some ammo and was sent off, may the best man win. That is fair. You win and lose based on your skill, because you cannot blame it on gear since you both got the same gun. My idea somewhat simulates this enviroment. There will be a gear gap but that gap has nothing to do with pvp. If you want better gear to pvp in, you have to go pve. And performing well in pve is a lot easier than performing well in pvp. I must reiterate this, because people are getting confused: This is a solution to regular pvp, not ranked pvp. People complain about the gear gap so here is a slower but easier option to get your gear. People complain about having to carry bads, so here is an option they can pvp in without bringing your team down. People complain about facing premades, so here is an option that will 'filter' some solo players giving you a chance to be grouped with a premade team on your side. This is not a miracle cure, but not just a bandaid solution either. I do not have any ideas to fixing ranked pvp right now so I have no comment on how to fix the ranked problem.

Great input Ster-Ling and Prophet_Loxley. You guys are getting close to what I'm talking about here, so let me clear some things up. There will be a gear gap no matter what one does unless there is a league with required uniforms supplied by the game itself, much like how recruit is supplied to fresh 50s. It's our nature to nitpick and only be able to see the differences between my gear and the gear the guy who beat me was wearing and awarding his win to his gear instead of to his skill. So unless there is a league where everyone gets the exact same gear with the exact same stat distribution without being able to customize it outside of a cosmetic feature like color theme, complaints about gear fairness will keep existing. Here is a fundamental difference between the pvp gear gap and the pve gear gap. To get pvp gear you must pvp. To get pve gear you must pve. To play casual pvp you cannot use pvp gear, which means you must get your gear from pve instead. This means the outcome of pvp matches will not affect your gear progression in casual pvp because it does not reflect how well you perform in casual pvp unlike the pvp gear progression in regular pvp. The catch-22 in regular pvp is that you need to do well to get good gear and you need good gear to do well. But in casual, it doesn't matter how you perform in the match because your gear comes from pve. I am not opposed to using more rules for casual pvp but I do like to keep things simple and let it work itself out. A casual league needs to remain simple to be casual. Competitive players will realize that casual pvp is a waste of time because they are not being rewarded for winning. Everyone is rewarded for participating and everyone gets the same rewards. As I said before, you can earn commendations through casual pvp. You are not awarded them in matches, but you are when you complete the daily and weekly. Casual pvp offers a slow grind to pvp gear if one did not know about saving comms for when you get to level 50, or one decided to respec and doesn't want to go back to using recruit gear, or whatever other reason. I mentioned the possibility of eliminating comms if too many people, both competitive pvpers and casual players, don't want them awarded to casual pvpers who completes their daily and weekly. I wouldn't eliminate them because I want to see more people in regular pvp. Putting casual 50s in 10-49 bracket would create another problem, or inflame a currently existing problem. There are no expertise restrictions in that bracket. If there was, you would still have a huge gear gap which is worse than regular pvp because of the difference in levels. Most players do not equip BiS gear every time they gain a level. But at 50 that's all you do. Also, since you earn the same amount of comms in 10-49 pvp as in 50 pvp, why not farm 10-49 for comms? In 1.3, players used to be able to play in 10-49 bracket while being level 50. It changed for the better now. Your suggestion would take us backwards. Cross server would be awesome, but it's kinda separated from this current issue.

I'm not sure what you mean by guessing game. The items I make have a green text below the item description (when in reverse engineering mode) saying I have a 20% chance to learn a new schematic. When there is no new item to be learned, the text is red and says so.

Does the game say you have a chance to learn a new schematic for these?

Is your entire post directed at the person you quoted?