I don't touch Alacrity on comps because everything they do is gated by a hard CD, not resources. I'm not even sure what Alacrity does for companions. The Accuracy stuff is very interesting, though. Is your character Accuracy capped? Is it possible that Comps inherit your chance to hit, instead of using their own? A few other considerations: Level difference between Comp & enemies Enemy status (Operations Dummy? Standards? etc) That's actually a fairly small sample size too (indicative, but small). Something like having Kira or Scourge attack a 55 Operations Dummy for say, 10-15 minutes+ while you read Twitter or something and then checking the logs would provide a more concrete example.

I don't know what's going on, but since we're talking about Kryptonite, I have an excuse to remind everyone about the best Kryptonite.

The best solution to cutscenes is group content is probably to just allow 1 spacebar to skip the entire thing for people and then allow that person to tab out or something instead of being forced to sit around clicking 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 when they stopped caring a long time ago and have no Affection to grind and so are just going through the motions. I agree that's not adding anything to the veteran's gameplay or game experience, but taking away the experience for new players isn't a viable solution IMO.

I Field Respec every time I level up and put points wherever they seem most useful at the moment.

I think we should have Thranta mounts. That we can actually fly with. But uhm yeah, sure, cute little minipet, no arguments here. Especially if we get an all-black one called "Thranta Vesh".

Absolutely not, that's outright robbing the story element from someone that wants to watch it and in most FPs adds maybe 60 seconds total to the FP time. There are some major exceptions — such as BP / Foundry and Directive 7 — but those are also some of the most valuable for new people to see the whole spectacle of. I've put up with Revan's speeches enough times to bore a hole through my skull and I don't bully anyone to skip because invariably there's someone who wants to watch it and I'm not going to deny them that (especially since many new players don't see the FP more than once, especially if they're DPS). And yes, the onus is definitely on you as an experienced player to put together special groups for "not seeing" content, not the new players that content is intended for and who aren't as familiar or connected to form "seeing content" groups while leveling. Sometimes you have to save gamers from themselves. FPs that could not kill you and rewarded a constant stream of XP just for running from beginning to end would also be "popular". So would deleting leveling FPs and replacing them with a "Go to 55" button. I kind of have to ask what kind of schedule you're keeping inside this game if you're this bothered by not being able to skip story scenes when someone else wants to watch it. Like worst-case scenario just switch to Twitter on your phone or something until you hear lightsaber noises again.

Awesome.

As DPS or Tank?

But that's wrong. They like grouping, because they like doing "stuff" with other people. They just don't want complex burdensome tedious stuff. They want a dance club, not an academic conference or a chess match. They're happier that other people are there and working with them. Don't dismiss that. They just also don't want to wipe repeatedly or otherwise be punished by orphic and abusive tactical requirements that are second-nature to us by virtue of experience. This is a totally separate topic, then, but IDD — "solo instances" run with a team of your companions would be a great addition to the game for everyone! It just isn't a replacement for matchmade coop PvE. It's a totally additional thing.

Yeah, that is not a bad alternative approach. We're basically trying to do the same thing from different directions. In all cases you end up with Aggro being significantly simpler and less threatening (ha). Supercharging Tank threat or otherwise making it easier for the Tanking player to generate has the advantage of preserving the need for Tanks to actually press buttons and hit things, they just get a much wider error margin when doing that (which can be constricted as you move through HM & NM to put more pressure on Tanks learning to organize Threat better). ie, if Tanks just do more Threat, easier, you can still tune it to be obvious they're 'not as good' by that one Ranged mob still being loose, or the DPS tunneling an off-target taking aggro. But you can reduce the number of explosive wipes caused by pulls simply going wild due to Tanks not understanding the ping-pong nature of Threat lockdown. For example consider this: It's an example. But just the sort of thing to think about — How can you bring Tanking down to a DPS / Healer level at the low end (where pressing buttons is usually good enough), without 'ruining' it at the higher end (where pressing the correct buttons at the correct time is crucial for every role)?

No, I do see what you're saying. In a way, coming full-circle and just ending the Queue Monster seems like a very simple and appealing solution that ends the "threat" of less-dedicated players to the Trinity system and classic MMO design (which has honestly been steadily eroding for almost 20 solid years, or what 50+ if you count tabletop RPGs). I think you're underestimating what a giant gap that is, though. I see posters in this thread repeatedly under-valuing the experience of doing "stuff" with other people that's low-pressure / easy to succeed at. Humans by nature enjoy social activity, especially easy social activity. This is sort of like suggesting that dance clubs should be removed because you can dance just as well alone inside your house, or in a pay-for room where you interact with holographic dancers. But people wouldn't like that. They'd do it, but it would still be far less popular than the concrete box packed full of sweaty sardines 1 block down the street. Why? Because "normal" people like doing things with other people. There's really nothing deeper than that. It's just biochemical programming and it isn't changing. Where you're going off-course is this line of thinking: Coordinated and 'serious' MMO organizational content is unpleasant, difficult, or confusing for many people Therefore people don't like grouping in hard content or challenging content with serious risk of failure and repeated wipes Therefore people don't like grouping That 3rd point is way too much of a jump. The queue exists, and is popular, for a reason — people like doing "stuff" together in MMOs. I don't see an issue with leaving the queue as the "dance club" side of MMOs — show up, be of legal age to enter (level 55), and then screw around for an hour or three. WoW definitely agrees, and BioWare seems to agree too (hence Tacticals & SM Bolster). This is a slope that probably isn't reversible.

I think most forum discussions involve some extreme hyperbole, partially because of neurosis and partially because it's just easier to make a broad point where you're painting in slightly bold colors. I agree that most of my groups are quite fine. I can pick out less-skilled or less-dedicated players but it's rarely enough to spell total doom, just maybe minor nuisance. We just remember the "Group Finder Thread" people much more vividly because of human nature (emphasis on negative events). That's another reason why I'm much less focused on "fixing" "people" which is an -level task, versus just trying to balance populations in queue so devs don't keep getting brilliant ideas for ways to obsolete Trinity roles. I guess to me the compromise of still being the person that goes first and holds enemy attention, even in Queued content, even if the difficulty of doing so is watered-down, is a better alternative than no one needing me to show up at all outside HM Ops.

This is an issue which ironically sort-of corroborates @Daekarus' early sentiment that he wishes MMOs never became popular or successful. (spoiler'd to reduce length-spam)

Yeah we're approaching a unified argument now. (spoiler'd for length-spam) So the goal isn't quite this: Instead, it's to make the Tank's job no longer nearly as reliant on Group cooperation in low-end content where group cooperation is difficult to achieve (wrangling cats, etc). Similar to how DPS and Healing requirements are much, much more stringent in PUG+ content — you can design Tanks to be fairly loose / easy in low-end (Matchmade) and then tighten it up progressively more as you move through HM and NM (Threat "nerfs" along damage increases, new mechanics, etc).

Which is exactly not what I said, and is just surgically-removing a somewhat out-of-context observation to create drama. (spoiler'd to reduce thread length-clutter) I'm not saying "Don't queue", I'm saying "If queuing makes you so unhappy, why do you do it?" If it doesn't actually make you unhappy, then why stress about it?

That's what I'm saying though, I'm not saying it's "good" from the perspective of dedicated coop gamers but it is realistic, you can have: Slow queues with lots of wipes and votekicks and slowdown because you're mashing too many different skill levels together Extraordinarily slow queues because you're filtering by skill level (and basically excluding most players from getting a pop) Faster queues because you just let everyone in and you tune around a lower skill average, rather than expecting higher skill averages to teach & carry With the first two it's like... we've been trying this for years in MMOs and it's a repair-filled nightmare. Why not just concede defeat vs. human nature / reality and design engaging difficult content that is meant to be hand-PUG'd or run with friends / guildies... and then leave the queue for sightseeing?

My two favorite activities in SWTOR: Playing Space Barbie Tanking PvE (while looking fabulous) so um

They shouldn't even have an Alignment / be using Holocrons / etc. since they aren't Force-sensitive (unless I missed something) nor Force-adept. I am still not clear why say a naughty Trooper who accepts lots of bribes suddenly looks like John Wayne Gacy.

I know what you're talking about (everyone knows what you're talking about). This particular issue is unsolvable, though. Or, well, it "is" solvable but would require — barring time machines to make significant alterations to the evolution of MMO content design — an unbelievable number of changes and attempts at engineering the playerbase's perceptions and behaviors and skill and dedication and... I'm sympathetic to the optimistic crowd that would prefer a utopian solution where everyone is uplifted to "our" (note the dangerous word) level. I'm of a more realistic perspective where it's more efficient to everyone involved to accept that the Queue is, and always will be, an untamed wilderness where you can get anything and everything (including a sword in box) and you have very little control over this (Ignore Lists have upper limits, etc). If we just relax and think of Queued content as something low-pressure and snacky where people can show up and press buttons, DPS hit things, Healers fix bars, and Tanks magnetically-attract everything in a 60 kilometer radius and laugh it off because they have the power of Greyskull... everyone would probably be happier. ie, I think part of the frustration here is that we're trying to make Queued content into something idealized which is really asking too much of it given the double request that it also be egalitarian and open to anyone who can click the icon.

I don't think you read what I actually wrote. I said Tanks were falling asleep in Wow until they gave Tanks a new focus and emphasis which then remedied the problem and now keeps Tanks more awake than they ever were in the past. #2 — about Tank swaps. You don't seem to be understanding what I'm saying. If your concern is "BAD PEOPLE IN MY QUEUES WILL PERFORM WORSE THAN MY FRIENDS IN GUILD GROUPS :mad:"...

He was strictly saying it would fix things in this hypothetical situation: You are in the queue at say level 34 The queue can't find anyone else level 30-38 So the queue says "Eh, f* it" and starts searching for people level 26-38 It finds 4 level 26 people in Mandalorian Raiders and shoves you into Mando Raiders even though the entire instance is ash gray If that is correct (unsubstantiated), then the idea is that cross-server would help because it's not about population distribution role-wise, but simply population distribution by level, and the larger your population pool the higher the chance you get people in your level range.

Oh I believe you, too many people keep talking about it for it to be anyone's misperception. I just know it wasn't that way last time I leveled using Group Finder. Unless I outright hallucinated the XP numbers popping up when I massacred eg, Foundry in the early 40s. etc. I know during the "KDY DOESN'T GRANT 2XP" fiasco there was a comment from Musco stating something like "We found a bug that was displaying gray enemies as green, maybe that was confusing people!" But... what if that's PR spin and they actually fixed a bug that was leaving enemies green for too long — ie, actually granting XP when they weren't intended to? In that case the level ranges might stay the same as ever, even if the XP has changed. I feel adamant about this because I'm mega OCD and pay way too much attention to little details and I know I was getting XP from mob kills and Bonus Missions even in ludicrous situations like Level 44 in Foundry. But that was some time ago — so something must have changed for the worse.

This is a new-ish change though, isn't it? A year ago I know from leveling exclusively in Group Finder on multiple characters that I was always kept firmly in the level range of the FP, and that level range cut off when the mobs and missions turned gray. Something must have changed at some point.

What you're describing is a situation where players aren't following instructions: "Don't cause Threat when the other Tank needs to grab the mob". This is a tactical issue. It's about obeying simple instructions and learning the fight. You can find similar examples in every single possible mechanic and not just exclusive to the Tanking role. ie, it's irrelevant to this discussion because it's not discouraging Tanks from being born and it's not affecting queue times. It's kind of like saying that Ranged DPS should be removed because of the following group experience: "Please stand UNDER Savrak. No, UNDER him. NO, UNDER HIM, AS IN BELOW HIM." If there were no RDPS then no one wouldn't be under him and therefore no one would deal with the headache of not being under him. Right? Here is the current solution to a Tank Swap: Taunt off the other Tank (who has the same Threat bonus you do) If necessary, instruct other Tank to sit on their thumb for a count of 10 before resuming their attacks. Here is the solution to a Tank Swap if there was a Matchmade Threat Bolster: Taunt off the other Tank (who has the same Threat bonus you do) If necessary, instruct other Tank to sit on their thumb for a count of 10 before resuming their attacks. If you do design a tactic that matchmade random strangers can't wrap their head around, you are designing a tactic that's too complicated for random matchmade content and should tone it down or otherwise telegraph what to do better.