Long Post I'm not hear to insult the devs or anyone, this is just my opinion. I just here to talk about the direction the game has taken this past year. I love this game, I have been playing it for years and will keep playing. I'm not saying my opinion is the correct, anyone is free to disagree. This is how I see things. I believe the changes this past year is aim at dedicated players that play daily, love challenging group content, and hard operations. A player base that I think is small in swtor, one bW doesn't have. Some changes these past year convince me of the direction there taking. 1. Uprisings, when they came out, the massive problem with them was that they were over tune and gave very low rewards, and required a sub, making them die out. When 6.0 launch uprisings would not scale you down to level 70, meaning a level 75 player could out level them. I queue for them when this change was made and had a fun time. Come later down the road they would be scale for level 75, with their goal of making them challenging, as stated in an article. Majority of their playerbase was not interested in challenging group content, and after an hour of queueing for them after 7.0. I fond out uprising died out again, because I believe the majority don't want to play challenging group content. 1. PVP weekly wins, only. Making weeklies and dallies require pvp wins for unrank, going for the all or nothing route for hardcore players. I only played PVP once in a while, but when I play I would finish the daily at least. then when this change was made, as a causal player I knew I would rarely finish the weekly, but I would keep the weekly with me. And then 7.0with the weekly resets. Now am not aiming to ever complete that weekly. However I am not going to try to finish it, it is only for actual PVP players, who play pvp often. Weekly resets: forcing players to finish a weekly, even if they don't have time. I say this is terrible. I don't have time to try to get 4 wins in pvp. or to get all three world bosses. No reason to do dallies areas a day before reset if I can't finish the weekly. Sometimes I like to play other things in the game, so I don't finish the weekly at the end, now I being force to. This is for the hardcore, for players who play dailies and pvp very often every day. gearing: we all know 5.0 introduce the concept of solo players who can gear to max gear rating, and despite it's terrible execution with RNG, I did like the casual solo gearing concept. However in 6.0, gearing in solo content or casual group flashpoints, was executed perfectly. And it was fast. come 7.0, we now have 5 or 6 gearing currency, and a slower and confusing gearing system. where only hardcore ops players can max, and with the only route being old content I did years ago. I get anxiety when do operations, so I don't do them. I been playing the game for years I have done each heroic on planets dozens of time. With 6.0 gearing I did the Mek-sha and Ondereon dallies, with the Shipyard flashpoint. And I would do short group flashpoints. Now with only Elom for gearing if you want to only grind in new content, but Elom long, and for some reason newer content does not give out more currencies than old content, so it is slower. And it's broken and long for a group, and their a possibility it's overtune for level 53 players, like nathema currently is, so I am not going to queue for it. It's get boring being force to play this slow and unfun gearing system on old content, where in 6.0 it was fun and free. It's like one day being offered 10 flavors of ice cream one day, and the next day you are only one flavor and you dislike that flavor. BW wants player to group for ops no matter what, they want so badly for this game pillar to also be ops or PVP, despite all the those things, be meh in comparison to other MMOs. So they try to force players to play ops and pvp, to justify future production of Ops and such, leaving and unfun experience. Are PVP players having fun doing master Ops for max, are mostly casual players having fun playing ops. Are veterans having fun playing old content they did already. Where before people did as they wanted. You know before 6.0 then killed off bug hunt because people did them to get the most XP and they removed because it was unfun. Well is that not the same thing as forcing players who don't want to do ops, they might be having an unfun experience. Not to mention making new operations extremely difficult and not something for random groups. I believe operations should offer the fastest route to max gearing, decorations and mounts. 6.0 dxun officered players a mount and tacticals, if that was not enough to get players to get operations, with the rewards, maybe the majority don't want to, but at least were having fun and not being force to do something they don't want. There were some good changes for the game, such as bonuses on implants, less abilities, switching advance classes. Changes that work for this game. How do I see the game? All in all the game has always shine in story. in 4.0 devs and EA said it was the most subs they had since Makeb, The problem with 4.0, is that it didn't give solo or casual players anything to do except for old heroics for RNG cosmetic crates, and alliance alerts. Which meant a lot of those players leaving after the story. 5.0 gave them a terrible gearing system, that solo players could do, and uprisings that were over tune and bad rewards, with no solo version. Which meant players also left. I love 4.0, I think the story was amazing, despite me hating killing off companions and killing characters, and me being the chosen one, I love it. I think 4.0 understand what the game actually was, meh mmo, that can't handle 16 people fighting, but with amazing story content. it was lack of content outside of story solo players and small group players could do, that was its downfall. Despite some vocal players on forums not liking the direction at the time, however I do think majority love it, and were quite vocal when the story focus direction was over. I guess the perfect expansion for me is 4.0 story content, 6.0 gearing, with seasons pass, with mini games, with at least 1 small czerk like daily area, and czerk-198 like flashpoints, meaning short but fun flashpoint, with some side quest in kotor style, with 7.0 class changes and allowing player to switch advance class. With uprisings just as easy as flashpoints, and PVP and ops are optional. With no PVP required wins and no weekly resets.

Based on what I played so far on Onderon I did Focus, path A, I do not main a guardian. I am a casual player. 1. kind of , because it still has still the same abilities, no new ones. However I don't feel like guardian who can take a lot of damage nor do a lot of damage. 2. I feel that there was not enough abilities that gave me focus, I did have to use the Strike ability lot more than live. Cyclone slash feels useless to have as well and waste to pick. 3. No I do not feel effective, I do not know if the balance is done or not, but the balance is not good. my C2 companion just kept dying, and I could not take one elite. Even though C2 affection was level one, I should be able to play with just a affection level one companion. Also I kept running out of focus a lot more then live. It takes longer to kill enemies, which I think is a bad thing, what I like about swtor is that enemies don't take long to kill. So I don't feel effective at all. 4. Right now, not much with Focus path A. however it is annoying to run out of focus a lot more than live then I remember and also dying lot more, when it is out of my control. I do not feel effective. I do not feel all of my abilities are meaningful, and some of the abilities have lame animations which makes it less exciting. 5. Focus path A. I feel that you can add more abilities to choose from and/or replace others. You should add new useful abilities with different cool animations to choose from, that do different effects to make it exciting, to make the class feel effective. with less abilities it's important that all the abilities feel important and the class feels exciting. I do not feel that with Focus path A. . Also I feel all the animations for the abilities need to be made more exciting. Let me explain With less abilities then you should focus on making all the ability look at least kind of cool. Because with less abilities, even if one ability looks boring then that will hurt the class. when there is more abilities two or three dull ones is fine. There are many that do look boring like Force stasis on Jedi Knight, or the Telekinetic Throw on Jedi consular. So I think you should at least consider to redo the animations for many. To make it feel more exciting, I think you should make more abilities into AOE in some way. Tab targeting gameplay gets less exciting with less abilities, I think making some of them AOE would spice things up. As an example, you can have Blade storm explode upon impact. Have not played the other paths yet, but I heard there is a passive that makes saber throw AOE, I would suggest have that passive already part of the ability and give it a new passive available. Maybe also combine force leap and swelling winds, you force leap the enemy which causes an explosion around you. Also abilities that If feel are useless right now Abilities Cyclone slash, Again I am casual who mostly does solo, open world, group flashpoints and sometimes Ops but this AOE is useless imo, in PVE, and really, does little damage and right now there is no point in having it. Blade blitz is really only useful in PVP I feel, as for PVE it's not useful. Force Exhaustion I won't say is useless per say, feels weak but again could be the balance in PTS is bad. I feel it could use a new animation it is kind of lame animation ability. so some other ones that can be gotten rid of without replacements is these two. Force might, the abilities that gives you the class buffs, I feel class buffs should be made into passives, there annoying to have to click the ability every hour. You can have it to where once you join a group the class buffs you have go to everyone. Also make to where the class buffs do not appear in the buff bar, just let them be passives in the ability window. Introspection, the Regeneration ability all classes have, the class out of combat healing ability. I feel you should just it to heal once your out of combat automatically like many MMOs do, there is no reason to have an ability for it, just let it happen automatically.

May I suggest for the breaker you look at what Wildstar did. Basically if I remembered correctly when you were stun, there would be a bar above your head, you had to press a random button on your keyboard repeatedly fast until the bar filled up. As an example lets say you got stun, you would see a bar above you and with a letter next to it, you would repeatedly push that button/letter on the keyboard until the bar filled up and you would break free This would be the funniest way to add a stun breaker Also as a side note, in wildstar, if I remember correctly, if you were knock down to the ground, let say from force push, you would roll to get back up fast. ( roll was not an ability on the bar in wildstar, it was just push the back button twice) . However this would require giving everyone roll. if my first suggestion is not an option, and your putting the breaker on an ability, I would say I think, you should get rid of every stun from PVE enemies in open world. imo

Thanks Jakie for the response, IMO I am definitely glad of lowering the amount of abilities. if I have time I will download PTS this weekend to try it out and give feedback. Also very happy after so long we will be getting loadouts, should of happens years ago, but better late then never

I agree and I think the problem is that the pts was rushed, they said it is the restrictive phase in terms of abilities but still. I do believe that this change was needed, I do think there are too many abilities, but yeah I think they should of waited to put it on the pts until it was complete and balancing had been done. So I do think I will wait until the restrictive phase is over, and the balancing to give feedback and pass judgment.

Yeah I agree, I love the new character sheet, but I hope for at least an option to exit the amp window IMO.

I had another idea so what if they started over and add five new one for each faction, and did the same thing in mass effect 3 did for the old mass effect 2 companions. For those that don't know in mass effect 3 you didn't get any of the companions you got from from Mass effect 2, however they could be part of the main story of mass effect 3 if they were alive. they had a decent size part in Mass effect 3. If the companion died in mass effect 2 they would be replace by another new character. So what if they add 5 new companions for each faction and had the old ones at least once play a part in the main story and if they were dead a alien speaking character would be there (no voice acting required). This would mean they would break off from you, story wise, which I think could let to interesting stories. Like what if Ashara created her own order, or Koth left to help zakuaal, and if Koth could be dead he would be replace by a alien speaking character.

From what I read off discord from his replies a few weeks ago, he basically does it when he's off work and does not encourage other devs to go to discord as he thinks it would be a bad idea. Overall I don't think there is a problem with it, it's his time and his choice.

Yeah I think 5 news one is a good idea. the problem with the list, of the remaining companions, is that with our character going to republic vs empire, most of those companion would not join the empire. except for Lana and scourge, plus HK(but not everyone has him).

Sorry it's been a while, by sub expired and I am using a referral Yeah I agree, I really hope we can go back to that, I feel starting over is the best way.

Thank you very much for the fixes and update, looking forward to the patch, great job.

I am assuming you mean the level rass ordo bug, i(t's the only bug I aware of for the story) They stated about week ago the fix will be in 6.2.1 (in a few days) http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=9917441&postcount=22

Yeah true, I do think both Lana and theron, have a lot of content, there getting, there mostly just quest giver now. However yeah there not concern about how much a single romance content gets when it comes to the non killable companions. I do think those that are killable BW wants to give the same amount of content, to at least it feels like it. Oh yeah at any time, they can say he's alive, we never see him die.

Question what is the starting credit price for the lock quality, on PTS I heard it was 160,000, is that still the same? Also if I reroll on unlock quality, will that still increase the price for the lock quality price

Here the thing it's only Lana and theron right now who are meaningful. I agree Kotfe should of focus on small manageable number. I suggest BW adds another crew of five and that's it, and focus on them. I do suggest either way BW add an option to get rid of companions in your companion window no longer going to be in the story, like Vette on a non SW, Jorgan, or alliance alerts like Qyzen, Yunn who was not even part to the main story to begin with.

The reason that I think they do have the resources is a old quote made before kotfe. In a interview charles Boyd he was asked this: "Speaking of 'Shadow of Revan' and 'Rise of the Emperor': many players complain that companions with connections to the story have been neglected. Lord Scourge, who once even worked for the Emperor, has been completely ignored and also Lieutenant Pierce, who was born on Ziost, doesn’t say anything when you arrive there." Here is part of Charles boyd response: "Lord Scourge, for instance, that would have been awesome, I would have loved to do that, but you would need the story to branch hugely to do that and then you get in kind of an unfair situation when one class gets way more content than another," Note I think Chares misunderstand most people wanted just a couple lines, not hugely branching out the story, but that's not what this is about. This quote is the highlight "get in kind of an unfair situation when one class gets way more content than another," I think the writers, believe if they give one possibly dead or rejected companion, a 10 or 20 minute conversation, they would have to give all romance companions that have a kill or reject option a 10 or 20 minute conversation, which if I counted correctly that's about 19 romance companions that have kill or reject (both LS and DS jaesa have a romance now, so they count as two) , that's too many to give 20 minutes, so 1 minute conversation missions is easier for them for all of them. I think 5 news ones would be better ,manage, and BW could just focus on those with most of the story updates. But despite our different opinions, your right we all just want companion interactions.

Plus most of the romance companions have a reject option (except for Vector, and Temple), which means the same thing as a kill option, barely any content if any

Don't get me wrong I would love it to have meaningful and a good amount of companion reaction, with old companions. However besides 1 minute alliance alerts, BW doesn't want to do that with the killable ones, and I feel there are far to many romance companions for BW or an company, to do meaningfully imo. That's why I suggest news ones, because I love companion interactions Yeah I agree, I know people wanted to kill quinn, but the problem is BW doesn't really do with anything with them after. Also in my opinion, I do think the have the resources to do five new companions that interact with the story, I think it is possible.

I keep forgetting to reply to these post, sorry it took a while, I believe I get it. But yes, in a better world, I would want more conversations with the old romance, but there are too many and lot of them can be dead. So I think starting over is the best option I agree, besides companions BW needs to stop killing characters so fast. Empire really has no important faction characters yet. Hopefully Tau and General will lead the Jedi and republic, and will become a important faction characters, and Malgus can be the important faction character for the empire. I do think BW should stop listening to players who ask to kill them off imo

A little correction in my post. Lana only shows up in the mission only if you killed theron, senya and Arcann. If you tell Theron not to come, he comes anyways, lana does not for that. I think scourge, would of made more sense, because I think Kira had to be the one to take Satele and the jedi home imo, I think Satele and her students will still knocked out. She would care for the jedi more.

Though there are way she does become part of the mission, I am guessing BW did not want to write multiple scenes (spoiler tag not working for me for some reason) She becomes part of the mission if She comes if Arcann, senya, and theron are dead to chase off the shuttle

Yeah I agree, but what I love about companions the most is the interaction with our character in the story, or the companion stories they hac. On a off note, Still can't believe Lana, had no companion story yet. a least, theron had a book about him, Lana should at least get a companion story

I think you meant to reply to someone else? Or maybe I was confusing, in my very last post, because there is a misunderstanding.

No, 1000 percent, No imo. They killed enough companions, because of posts like these. they are going to be characters we won't like, this not mean we should kill them or reject them. I dislike quinn, but it was a bad idea to add a kill option, because of some people wanting to kill him. Same goes here.

Pretty sure I got the guild conquest rewards on all characters I did. So I think it's a bug