I have no idea how is WoW now, but back then in BC i died more times in the first 30 levels than here post 4.0 in 1000 playthroughs. I only want to point out that there is a HUGE difference even between something being easy (WoW BC (?), ToR pre 4.0) and god mode.

I do FP-s. I don't do OPS because I don't have a guild that does them and pugging them is like having an an*l inspection. I'm having fun, else I wouldn't be subbed, I just don't understand this stu**d design choice that BW made with 4.0 with difficulty.

...... Because the 0.00001% content in the game that's challenging and I am not interested in totally substitutes for the 99.99999% of the game that is immortal mode. As I said in my previous post, I am a Kotor fan. I love Star Wars. I love Kotor. I'm interested in the fun story part of the game, not the gear grinding part. I don't want only challenge, I want an engaging, immersive, fun ride through the story.

What game is a game where you can't lose? I'm asking all of you repeating the same bs "ohhh i only want storiez life is hard enough", was it bad pre 4.0? You know, it wasn't hard, but you had to click on a few skills to get through some boss fights. Now you are immortal and it's so immersive, that your astromech droid can kill without losing any health. And you're telling me (us) to look for a different game, who has been a Kotor fan since 2003.

I remember when I had to upgrade my and my companion's gear to advance in the story. I remember when I actually died on story bosses. I remember when SM flashpoints had a learning/difficulty curve. I remember when SM flashpoints were fun and not frustrating. I remember when i had to be careful not to over pull trash in solo areas. I remember when I had to learn to play my class in order to complete my class story. I remember when heroics were actually group content. I remember when I didn't ding max level at the middle of chapter 2. On the other hand: I remember when I had to do all the boring filler side quests to level up. I remember when queueing for flashpoints as dps took hours. And... That's it I guess.

I really liked the first package (chapter 1.-9.), it was fast paced, interesting, sometimes funny and engaging. It was as close to Kotor quality as it can get. Since then, i don't like new chapters that much, because these have turned into recruitment missions and it doesn't really drive the story forward. But overall, in my opinion Kotfe is the best solo content we got so far. It's just a pity that the chapters aren't replayable.

I have 2 suggestions. Either roll a healer or decline groups until you get one in your group.. With the current state of tacticals, this is the only way to save yourself some frustration.

As much as I like some design choices and changes you made with 4.0 and I appreciate your hard work, I'm dissapointed with a few things. Have you been monitoring tacticals and listening to feedback, since november? Are flashpoints 100% working as intended? Me and as I read a lot of other players liked the old SM flashpoints better, and don't get me wrong, the idea of changing them to tacticals was a great idea, but that requires actual tuning, other than just putting down healing stations and bolstering low lvl players to lvl65. So for instance, as I read, and as I experience low lvl dps groups have a very hard time even on trash pulls due to the lack of abilities and lack of healing. Some bosses are nightmare and just watch the feedback on Blood Hunt. Tacticals, if I don't play with a healer, or don't play with a level65 toon is just not fun anymore.

I'm looking forward to it too. Loved his Mass Effect novel trilogy, and the Revan novel. Great writer!

Oh I see, I was mistaken then, sorry.

I would love it, but at least I'd be happy to be able to replay kotfe, because the time content is coming in the new month, I already forget what I'm currently doing, so be able to replay at least kotfe story mission would be awesome to refresh my memory before starting the new chapter. Of course be able to replay class missions would be awesome too.

Well that is interesting, because you can switch your comp to healing mode, aggro the mob, get up from the computer, go out for a vacation, fight through the world war 3, go on a mars expedition, come back and you would still be alive.

The 0.1% solo challenge (that is star fortress) does not make up for the 99.9% easy impossible to die immortal faceroll solo content. It does not have to be hard of course, I'm not a hc player myself, but what was wrong with pre 4.0? A few deaths here and there, but totally completable by every able minded person in the world. Maybe we get something fun with Eternal championship. This is the most common argument, which totally misses the point, that ppl always say:"Do flashpoints! Do OPs!" This is as if in Mass Effect 3 there would be no difficulty switch and I would complain about the game being too braindead easy, and someone would say: "Go try MP platinum matches!". If I would be interested in that kind of content, I would do that. But what if I'm interested in the story, and want to have engaging, challenging boss fights through it, so I can feel a little achievement when defeating a huge *** sith lord? Instead of: "oh, go T3 get him while I go out for a cigarette". Nah, this isn't the case as I found my own fun with having comp on passive all the time, but still, restraining myself isn't so good as if the game would provide the challenge.

I don't think any change, fix or update is coming anytime soon regarding FP-s. They are like this since november(?), and despite of having countless threads on the matter, nothing changed. As I remember once BW said that they know there are problems with some bosses and fix is coming with 4.2(?) (idk for sure), but since then, nothing (at least that i know of). I think tacticals or fp-s in general are at the bottom of BW priority list as not that many ppl do them. But look at CM. You even have a tiny little bug there a hotfix is coming the other day. Edit: This is the only and last update from devs regarding FPs. "Hey follks, The team is aware of issues relating to some Operation and Flashpoint bosses. We are currently looking to address these issues with Game Update 4.3 and will pass on any additional information as we have it. Thanks! -eric"

In my opinion the current tactical policy is OK if executed correctly. In my experience, the success rate of the tacticals highly depend on group composition. If you have 2, or 2+ lvl50+ players (or at least 1 healer) in the group, you will most likely succeed, but if you have a 4 dps group where all of them are ~lvl15-40ish, then it can become a nightmare. Bosses are easy if the group follows boss mechanics, but there are some difficult trash pulls where no matter how everyone use their CC or dcd abilities, 1-2 players will certainly die. Before 4.0, the tacticals were a cakewalk, post 4.0, they seem to be much more challenging (due to the fact that any lvl15+ can join). I personally enjoyed better the SM trinity FP-s, but I'm ok with tacticals too, but only if they tune them right, so even a group with four low lvl dps could complete them without much frustration (more bolster for low lvls? idk).

In my opinion healing is kind of a mixed bag. I rolled a healer not long ago, as of yet I am only doing tacticals. There are some nice runs (EVERY run is 3 dps and you), where dps are using their cc abilities and ignoring aoe, so if you are a dps like this: THANK YOU. MUCH RESPECT. These runs are enjoyable and there are still some trash pulls which are challenging, but it is as it should be. Now for the other part.. I haven't had yet a tactical, which we couldn't complete without much problem, but I'm certain that in some pugs, if there wasn't me or any other healer, the group would have repeatedly wipe til they fall apart. In those group, neither dps (or max 1) were using any CC or positioning, I nearly quit, where 2 of 3 were standing in huge damage lighting aoe in athiss or were ignoring every single boss mechanic. So you have to constantly babysit these players, heal through their stupidity, which gets somewhat frustrating after a time. I'm sure healing (and tanking) is much fun in a guild, or with friends, but with pugs it's a nightmare sometimes.

I usually don't skip the cutscenes when leveling a new toon, because I want full experience in all of my playthroughs, NOBODY should force me to skip content. If someone asks if please we could skip the cutscenes because he/she is in a hurry, I gladly spacebar my way through, then requeue and do it normally. BUT if someone spams "SKIP, SPACEBAARR" in the chat then I will take my leisure time watching everything. Not because I'm selfish, but because he/she is. It's the same thing when someone asks me politely for cigarettes on the street, or someone just comes to me and says "Gimme a cigarette!'. If we are speaking of hard modes, then of course the default behavior is skipping everything in my opinion. ... And if a group kicks me for not skipping cutscenes, they have the right and method to do so. I'll requeue, who gives.. And if we're talking about my current toon, good luck finding another healer or have the frustration doing the fp with 4 dps.

Yes it's f**ked up to say the least, I suggest you put your comp on passive all the times, that should bring back some joy for you. At least, that's how I play. And now I'm not gonna be popular: The change is because of the spoiled little babies who don't want any challenge but want to faceroll everything (including group content in solo) as fast as they can. And that's the majority of the player base. BW realized their mistake, that they over tuned companions far too much, they fixed it with a patch, and then many players started to rage at BW, because they weren't so op anymore. So BW rolled back their companion nerf, so that's how it is now, we gotta live with it. The XP rate, much as I'd like it to be cut to half, isn't so bad because of the level sync. And just for the record: Guess what happens, when solo content is reduced to this easy god invincible mode? You see players in flashpoints spamming basic attack. How fun.

Agreed. I took a 2 month break from SW:ToR and just tried ESO recently. SW:ToR is superior in my opinion in almost every way, but I think the solo fights are much better there, because the boss fights there are actually challenging and requires to use your abilities, dodge, block, etc.. (yea you can't do that in sw:tor, but an equal would be using dcd-s, interrupts). As Angry Joe once said, challenge is what makes a game fun and I don't mean that they should be overly difficult, if you look at other BioWare game normal modes (ME, DA, Kotor), that would be a spot on difficulty for solo content here. As it is now, I do the leveling content with my companion being on passive all the time to create my own fun. Yea, we can restrict ourselves, but it's not that good as if the game would provide the challenge. And let me say I'm a casual, which means I only have 1-2 hours playtime on some weekdays, and a little more weekends. So if me, as a casual, complain about being the game too easy, what do hardcore players think?

How many times did anyone get a response from any BioWare crew by addressing them directly?

Thanks for your replies, as I see there is a mixed opinion story-companion wise, some are perfectly okay with them, some even like them better, than SP BW games and think this game is a worthy successor of Kotor, and some are a little dissapointed, like me. From the stories, and companions, basically I miss the 'WOW' factor, the awesome moments that make me go emotional, make me care about my companions. For example, let's bring up the most hated Mass Effect 3. Leaving earth, Eve's speech, Grunt's sacrifice, Hackett's speech, hanging out with garrus on the citadel, Liara visiting you in your quarters, Liara's last gift, tuchanka ending, rannoch ending, fall of thessia, hackett's speech with fleets arriving, Shepard's last speech, visiting Kaiden/Ashley at the citadel, etc.. And these are the ones that came to my mind in one minute. I cannot say the same for SW:ToR, there isn't really a single moment I'd say about "Wow!! This was awesome!". I'm not saying ToR stories isn't good, but I miss the typical BW style storytelling, twists, and companions you can get attached to. Even Kira romance.. I romanced her because well.. Gotta romance someone. But haven't felt anything about her, those few sentence long dull interactions doesn't make me care enough. Well, just my opinion. On the gameplay, I think everyone agreed, that it's good for a SW MMO, which I agree. Someone mentioned that it's better than KotOR, well I don't agree on this one, but maybe it's just the typical nostalgia factor for me. Everyone seems to agree that the game is very easy as well as I see, though there is a mixed opinion whether it's good or not. I personally hate it. I need challenging combat, I need to feel that I'm fighting a powerful sith lord in order to get immersed in the story. An astromech droid beating the sh** out of the sith emperor just breaks it for me. And I wouldn't say it's tailored for casuals, I'm a casual, but that doesn't mean I'm brain dead. Learning the basic mechanics of the game should be a must in my opinion. But yeah, it's a difficult question, because in SP games you have a difficulty setting, so you can adjust the game experience to your needs, but here it's set for you to very easy and everyone gotta deal with it.

I'm not really interested in HM fps, I've done story mode (now tactical) ones, as they are related to the story, but I only play because I am a KotOR fan, and as a KotOR fan, I'm interested in an engaging, fun, immersive story, not MMO gear grinding. So what I'm trying to say is that a certain part of the game being challenging has nothing to do with the main part of the game being invincible mode. For example let's say that I'd find Mass Effect 3 to be brain dead easy as well that I would not have any fun playing through the story. So when addressing that, people would come and tell me "Well go play multiplayer platinum matches solo!!!". Well, ok, so I may skip the 99% part of the game (which why I play for) and go for the 1% I don't care about to get any challenge. I hope you see my point.

Well there is a balance between overly difficult and brain dead easy, no? I'm a casual, I didn't even play story mode ops, yet I find the solo part of the game frustratingly easy. In my opinion pre 4.0 difficulty was OK, you had to keep yourself and your companion geared, know the basic mechanics of the game, and at some fights you even had to position yourself. I'm personally wouldn't ask for a nightmare difficulty level where only hardcore gamers could beat anything, but an astromech droid beating the sith emperor by itself is not quite right either in my opinion. I've never thought that there would be ever a game easier than Assassin's Creed but here we go.

Totally agree.

Yea, well, just found a video on an epic BOSS FIGHT. So fun, am i right?