I'm having the same problem. Also, when Lord Shaythin asks you to destroy the cannons that are pounding the Imperial troops no bonus quest pops up for you to do so meaning you always fail that objective.

The 9 chapters were good but way too short, especially so if we consider we're dropping $15/month on this game. I'm glad you mentioned the "new" alliance system. It's true, it's new in the sense it didn't exist before but, for the most part, it recycles old content in the form of planetary heroics and, as you say, throws a ton of companions at you that will remain on Odessen 99% of the time. We haven't had new raids for a year and even longer than that for PvP.

If it had been 20+ hours of content, I'd concede your point. Unfortunately, those 9 chapters came and went in a blur. Plus, we haven't had new raid content in a while now.

They could've released new Ops in the meantime. Hope springs eternal.

New content would be nice.

So, no more story till next year. Well, that's a bummer.

Did anyone really expect something different?

I'm not very confident in their interpretation of the word "big."

I'm still waiting to hear how exactly you've done (or plan to do) that. After all, rewards pre-KotFE are pretty bad, worse than before 4.0 to my mind. At least I could get an adaptive armour on Taris for doing Heroics; now I can only get adaptive armours as rewards in crates only obtainable after playing KotFE. XP? I can get the same amount of XP doing solo content and there's plenty of it lying around. Credits? Same thing. So I ask again, how exactly have you made Heroics "sexier"? What reason have you given me to do these quests before reaching Alliance content? And even after it just gets repetitive. Why not introduce new content instead of recycling old one?

Good point.

Interesting reading, thanks. Having said that, I'm not letting you off the hook that easily. You claim that companions should be powerful but not so much so that they're better than your own character who is, for all intents and purposes, the hero of your story. I would tend to agree since the game tells you time and again that your hero is special. However, this explanation breaks down when applied to the concept of level sync. After all, my hero is, for instance, level 60. Why should he be paired down to the level of Korriban mobs? What is the (ingame) reasoning behind that? Simply put, none. In other words, you wield one argument for nerfing companions, and a different one for nerfing the PC. Isn't that a double standard? If I'm powerful, I'm the same powerful for my allies as well as for my enemies. So, let's dispense with the thought that this is done because companions are overshadowing you (which is mentioned) and stick with the thought that it's done because they overshadow gameplay (also mentioned); in other words, they make playing the game too easy. Please define "easy" and "hard" for me. I'll give you a minute. On second thought, take an hour. That's right, it varies from player to player. Ultimately, however, I can confidently state we don't play games because of how easy or hard they are; we play them to have fun. Now, for some, the fun is in having some kind of challenge, facing it, and successfully overcoming it, and I readily admit it feels pretty good. The question then becomes, what do you consider a challenge? I'll tell you what it's not for me, personally. A challenge is not making an enemy tougher or making yourself (and your companions) weaker to the point that it simply takes more time to beat them. After all, what can be challenging about spending time? Nothing. A challenge, for me, will involve a powerful enemy, yes, with abilities that a team of players need to counter in the right way. It involves players learning to work together; learning what (and what not) to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Sound familiar? It should. It's what happens in good FP & Op runs which: a) don't involve companions but other players; and b) even have difficulty levels. It's been a while since you've introduced any more of these challenges, though, hasn't it? Normal PvE content (quests, heroics) is not particularly challenging (again, by my definition of challenge). There's no team here, just you, so "challenges" are more often that not enemies with large HP and/or damage output. Sure, you have a companion who you can micromanage (to a point) but mostly all overcoming the "challenge" comes down to is being in the same level range (aka, not feeling suicidal), having appropriate gear (simplified after KotFE), and knowing your rotation (you can probably win without the last one even). Depending on the combination of these factors, enemies will take or more less time to defeat and, like I've said, there's nothing challenging about spending time. To sum up this rather long rant, nerfing companions won't make the game any harder, it'll just force me to spend more time to do the same thing I previously did in less. Where's the fun in that? Where's the challenge in that? I'm all for a challenge. Introduce more FPs and Ops; we've been waiting a while for those. PS: And I didn't even mention PvP content!

Was there a patch released today or something? Because the launcher is definitely downloading something and I already downloaded the patch yesterday.

Odd we don't have an Outlander title for our characters.

I disconnected my router/modem setup and reconnected it, what finally did the trick. Perhaps it'll work for you too.

Patch 4.0.1 is downloading at a snail's pace. Is this a launcher issue?

You can kill creatures worthy of Jagannath on Hoth: http://dulfy.net/2015/10/21/swtor-alliance-specialists-and-companion-recruitment-guide/#Stalking_the_Score_Qyzen It will take some time though since you need to kill 20 of them. Provided there's no one else there to ninja the beasts you're looking at an hour probably.

Interesting. Why not make it optional?

Might we see it release some time soon? There's some good music there.

I was just curious given KotOR turned 12 on the 15th. Are there any plans?

Is it October 21st or 22nd? Twitter says 21st and here it says 22nd. Make up your mind, please.

A speeder would've been more useful.

Basically, you want a toggle?

Not to mention they also made Imperial NPCs romanceable (is that even a word?) by Republic characters and viceversa.

That's at odds with what the trailer says but, to be fair, trailers usually tend to overhype.

I don't think it would "invalidate all their hard work" so long as the rewards for completing such an operation solo (I don't see how they could implement this but still) are nowhere close to the rewards for Ops groups (maybe planetary comms at best?). After all, "hardcore" raiders don't really play Ops for the story but for the loot and the comms.