They don't put them up for direct purchase because putting them in a pack with very rare drop rate makes them far more money - as long as a small minority of people are willing to spend incredible amounts of real money effectively gambling on a small chance of getting a rare item, that's what they'll keep doing.

Diplomacy is one of the crew skills - its a mission skill. The mission skills let you send your companions on missions to gain mats for crafting more powerful items - they are Underworld Trading, Treasure Hunting and Diplomacy. Diplomacy has synergies with the Biochem crafting skill. You can learn it on the Fleet at the same place as the other crew skills. Some of the missions that return medical supplies also give light or dark side points - just run missions that give dark side points. Taking the diplomacy crew skill and run missions is the easiest way to level dark or light side points, though it will take a while - the points per mission are quite low until you get to run level 5/6 missions and above.

^^ This. Swtor was my first MMO which I played after it went F2P because of KOTOR. Levelling my first toon was a challenge for me and I died (a lot). I actually gave up when I got to Alderaan, deleted it and made a new toon because I was dying to trash mobs (I was under-levelled and both myself and my companion were under-geared). The story taught you how to play the game, for example using interrupts, because on some fights, if you didn't use your interrupt, you'd die. I got to max level on my first toon and I did quite a few HM Flashpoints (I'd done story flashpoints whilst levelling). I then joined a guild and started doing some SM raids with them; I then progressed to HM and then NiM. Levelling now is just a joke in terms of difficulty - my companion could probably do all the combat in the game for me, or if I set them to heal, its pretty much impossible to die. Even the end of chapter bosses are so easy that they die in a handful of GCDs.

^^ I think you'll find that's known as trolling/sarcasm

Maybe he should have said there's no "meaningful" group content, or something similar. With regard to EC, although you can do it in a group, as he said, its not scaled properly. The first time I did EC, it was in a group of guildies and having just looked at my achievements, we did it in 17 minutes, with none of us having done it before and not reading any guides. In other words, it wasn't challenging at all in a group. I also got the "deathless champion" achievement on my first solo run of EC, so I wouldn't personally class that as being challenging, same with the Star Fortresses. I'm not a casual player but neither would I consider myself that hardcore - I've done some raiding in swtor previously and I've played a bit of pvp - I've seen plenty of players in-game though who are a lot better than I am. People only run the H2s because of the credit reward, with maybe one or two exceptions, the combat on all of them could be done by your companion whilst you are afk. I'd define group content as being something where you need to work together as a team to achieve something that wouldn't be possible on your own.

Relax . . . take a deep breath . . . . unsub . . . . go play something else. You'll feel much happier for it.

So there's no story and you appear to fight waves of trash mobs . . . . how predictably uninspiring. Star Fortress MK II

^^ This. When something can be solo'd then you can't really say that it needs a nerf .And yes, someone has solo'd most of the HM FPs and yes, it was after the companion nerf (and includes Battle of Rishi), albeit its taken them a long time to do each - most of the kill videos are 45 mins-1 hour long and that is sped up significantly!

lolwut The HM FPs are not that difficult and they don't need a nerf. Yes, there is a big difference between HM FPs and tacticals, but with the exception of the SoR ones, they are really not hard. People have solo'd most of them (with a companion) - albeit they are in BiS gear and it takes them a long time! You just need to know a bit about your class (e.g. which abilities are best to use), how to use interrupts and how to not "stand in stupid" (red circles). There's not really anything more complicated (on most of them) compared to the Eternal Championship, which he's already done to the 7th tier. For the OP, I would suggest maybe trying a few of the easier HM flashpoints (Hammer Station, Athiss, Mandalorian Raiders, Taral V/Boarding Party) and/or the Karagga's Palace operation, see how you get on and then make a decision about whether to go for it or not. The game in general is much easier than it used to be - I remember on my first character (a smuggler) giving up and deleting it because I couldn't get past the class quest on Tatooine. Levelling used to force you to learn your class in order to progress, but now that your companion can pretty much kill things for you and even end of Chapter bosses can be defeated in a couple of abilities, some people seem to expect everything in the game to be a cakewalk.

Yeah, my bad, I missed that you'd combined those two and just thought you had the world boss one left. For the Operations, it should be relatively quick/easy to find a group, when the relevant operation is on the daily group finder. I would still recommend looking for a group on the Fleet rather than queuing in Group Finder though - it should be quicker. Just be up-front in the group about not having done it before. Of the ones you need to do, Operator on Terror from Beyond is the hardest - its not that difficult once you're used to it, but you will need to do something (stand in a circle or press a button) at a stage in the fight and if you don't, then it causes a wipe (i.e. everyone dies) and probably a bit of rage in your direction! I'd also recommend for both the FPs and the Operations playing a DPS rather than a tank as there is generally less to worry about in terms of mechanics, so it will be a lot easier for doing it the first time. For some of the FPs and Operations, if you struggle then maybe try and find a helpful guild - there are lots out there that generally have more patience than some people you will meet in Group Finder. The Flashpoints and Operations tend to have mechanics that are similar to the ones in the Eternal Championship, so given you've progressed reasonably far in that, its not too much of a leap further. P.S. You don't "need" augments for either the flashpoints or the operations - they will just give you a few more stats to give you a bit of a boost to your damage/health which makes things a bit easier. They aren't essential for HM FPs or Operations though - both are do-able with your gear and no augments (maybe with the exception of the SoR Flashpoints).

No, but there are quite a lot of posts from you complaining about people complaining about down time

No, if you want to run ranked pvp for example, people will want to do so in a fully geared group, so as to gain every possible advantage. That's not just "elitists" that applies to - if I was a pvp'er and interested in doing ranked, I would want to make sure my character was fully geared first so as not to negatively impact my ranking (providing it wasn't in pre-season), or get farmed by players who were fully geared and therefore had a advantage (possibly a significant one) over me. Set bonus vs non set bonus is a noticeable difference. Similar applies to raiding as well - right now, if its a guild run with good players, then people wouldn't care so much now about attempting some of the HM operations in 208 gear for example. However if its a pug, people will tend to be "elitist" about gear", because they don't know the other players, so its one of the few things they have to measure the competence of the said players. If its a progression raiding team, then they will absolutely want people to be as geared as possible, especially given that the operations themselves will no longer drop any gear.

As I understand it (may be wrong) the clothes that the KOTFE companions (Theron, Lana, Koth, etc) are a part of the model. For the existing SWTOR companions pre-KOTFE, the outfits that they wear are not part of the model.

Would love to see the forums if they announced a maintenace window during peak US hours . . . .

lol, okay. I never said they shouldn't fix the issue or that it wasn't significant. Or even that it was about BW's money, but don't let that stop you from inferring that I did. I just don't think it justifies taking down the servers at what is a peak time for the EU players, rather than, say waiting until tomorrow and fixing it at a slightly earlier time when less EU players would be online or its right that this particular bug should be fixed in such a timely manner when there are many other bugs (which impact on a significant number of players) which aren't fixed even in matter of months rather than days. There are numerous examples of those - I just gave a couple that I could remember off the top of my head.

[1] HM Flashpoints - Of the achievements that you have left to complete, this is definitely the hardest and the most time-consuming. I'd suggest: Getting 216/220 gear as others have said. The FPs from the Shadow of Revan expansion are a step up from the others (Assault on Tython, Korriban Incusion, Depths of Manaan, Blood Hunt, Battle of Rishi and Legacy of the Rakata), so leave those until last. Dulfy.net is a good source of information if you want guides/videos for any of the Flashpoints. If you're part of a relatively large guild then you're more likely to find others willing to help you. Although I've said its the hardest and most time consuming, if you've done operations before (assume you have as you've not mentioned those achievements as being outstanding), there's nothing in most of the HM FPs that's harder than anything in a SM operation. [2] Infect players with plague - you need the Rakghoul event to be on for this one. When it is, you just need to travel to the Fleet and then stand there pretty much - there are 3 stages to the infection and think the first two take around 10 minutes each, then on the third you explode and infect anyone nearby who isn't already infected or innoculated. I believe the next event starts on 15 November. [3] Giant Killer/Dragonslayer - apart from the one on Ziost, they are all very easy and even the Ziost one I would class as "easy". Shouldn't be too difficult to find a group if you hang around on the Fleet - personally I found a group for one of them and then did the rest with the same group in one go. [4] Eternal Championship - You may need some practice and to watch some videos - there's a good guide on Dulfy.net. Better gear, which you can get via Operations would also help, and/or increasing your companion's Influence to 50 (or close to). [5] HK - the quest is given by a droid in Section X, which you can quick-travel to from outside your ship's hangar on the Fleet. The quest is not that difficult, but it is time-consuming, as you need to search for different parts of HK on different planets, using a sensor that has a 20m range (I think). Again, there is a guide on Dulfy, it you google "Dulfy HK 51 quest", or similar. For finding the parts, would recommend having a group to save time - again, ask on the Fleet to say you're looking for a group for the HK quest. Good luck!

If you read the OP, I think you'll find it was complaining about the timing and lack of notice around the maintenance window, rather than the issue being fixed. And also, I take issue with the fact that when something impacts the cartel market, such as this, it is fixed relatively quickly, but when there are significant bugs and/or exploits in the game, as there have been many, many times in the past, it takes them months to even acknowledge there is an issue, let alone to fix it. If today's maintenance had been around fixing some of the bugs like the 16m operation instance and the vibrosword, then I would say "gg wp" without sarcasm.

Agree, with people from Bioware leaving and it not being the same company any more. Compare the story/writiing from Mass Effect, DA:O and the class stories from SWTOR with the latest installment of KOTFE. The amount of investment required for the huge changes required to bring back players would represent a big risk and I can't see a big company like EA taking such a risk, even if the game does have the "Star Wars" name.

The new comps have got different models and the gear wouldn't work on them if you mean the ability to equip different outfits/gear on them. In terms of the appearance customisations, they already exist for all the companions that I care about.

Agree with the OP regarding their proposal as it would make the GC gearing less bad than the current system would be. My assumptions regarding KOTET based on what has been said so far are: Sub numbers have dropped significantly since 4.0 Bioware want to increase sub numbers They've decided their strategy is to (1) restrict access to F2P and Preferred to end-game to encourage them to sub and (2) increase the gear grind because it was too quick in 4.0 which meant people got geared and then quit (hence the RNG). Because DvL has been quite popular, they've decided to incorporate elements of that into the Galactic Command gearing system. I think it will have the opposite effect of what they intend, i.e. subscriber numbers will decrease further. Because of the lack of new content to grind for GC xp, my suspicion is that people will get bored of repeating the same content (again) and then quit rather than grinding for all that gear, especially when it comes to gearing alts. However only time will tell on that.

Yeah, like all the other exploits that got fixed in a couple of days, like the loot exploit on the Ravagers not long after SoR came out, the temple chair exploit, etc, etc. All those were fixed in a couple of days too, right?

Maybe it will be like the ending of that similarly well-written Briish Soap "Crossroads", where in the last episode it turned out it was all just a dream?

If you mean google the time difference between US and EU then LOL For UK in BST, its 5 hours from East Coast and 7 hours from West - why would anyone need to Google that?

Exactly. Who bothers to check the DevTracker on a daily basis? That's just sad.

Then, around 50 minutes before the servers went down: Last time I checked 50 minutes is less than an hour . . . .