Yes, those of us with a cannon who use it AND the regular snowball throw are getting 3x CXP compared to snowball only. But I don't think it is a bug, I think it is an oversight on Bioware's part. IMO, that makes it worse than a bug. I wish I could give you my cannon, because I'm no longer playing.

I'm on board with the no new content problem. It definitely means/meant I logged in less to the game. That is one of the 5.0 problems. However, the main 5.0 problem I see is that "RNG/grind/trying to maximize cxp time" took what fun was left in the old content of game for me and removed it. My game time is is falling to zero. The new system demotivated me to have anything to do with SWTOR anymore because the new system overlays everything and the new system is the opposite of what I consider to be fun. Despite Bioware's almost non-existent content delivery, I still managed to find ways to have fun and unwind playing SWTOR pre cxp. Now, I'd rather mow the lawn. The problem with the forum, imo, is that Bioware keeps telling us to keep that feedback coming - but when I do I am told by the CXP & Bioware supporters that I don't understand what my problem really is. I'm told that the problem can't be that the RNG/grind/cxp maximizing is not fun - the problem is I feel I deserve something, or I don't understand that there isn't new content, etc. etc. CXP grind for almost non-existent rewards given on an RNG basis = Not fun, Not thrilling, Not exciting, imo. I don't know who it is Bioware claims to be listening to, but it isn't me. It isn't my friends, and it isn't many other folks I see on these forums.

What stopped me during the 4 years I was a sub is rng. During those years I did buy a few packs/hypercrates off the GTN and always regretted it - RNG sucks. I'd never pay real money for RNG. There is stuff I have liked that was CM stuff, but I'm not gonna pay for junk - virtual junk at that. I can no longer just take it on faith that Bioware knows what it is doing, so I personally wonder if they lost far more $$ than they gained by the RNG pack method. Certainly they never got money from me except for my sub.

Just sayin: those Bioware devs keep telling us to leave our feedback, "they want to hear it and they are listening".

Very nice post. Completely agree.

Are the bonuses actually working now? The last time I checked, uprisings/planetary/flashpoints (the mission bonus, not the box bonus) and from what I hear, GSF - these bonuses don't actually give you any extra cxp. They "say" bonus, but give the same mission cxp as non bonus days. And, before anyone asks, yes I take the missions from galactic command. For example, a planetary mission (say CZ) gave 450 points on regular days and 450 points on "bonus" days. Was this ever fixed?

No new group content is no good, no arguing that. But you really don't seem to hear. To get raid gear for my healers I used to run raids on my healers. To get gear for my 'play dps' toons I used to run around and play. Now I would have to use all the time I used to play 4+ toons on a single toon and get whatever RNG has to offer that one toon. And nope, 5.1 won't help because Pub raid team won't be able to spare that 1/8 extra piece once a week to me, and I won't RING win that 1/8 chance to win the single piece in a pug imp side. Can't do dailies, events for fun on a dps toon anymore, so no ZERO, NIT, NADA upgrade gear for them (And I'm a bad dps, won't show my face in a veteran level fp without the basic lowest current tier gear, cause that wouldn't be fair to other players.). Pre 5.0 I controlled the gearing of my toons mostly. For my main toons, Yes, I had some RNG on the gear I was working on, but with 5 good pieces droping from every op, I had a better than 1/5 chance of getting something. And since I usually ran 2 ops, I pretty much had a guarantee upgrade 1 time a week. And comm gear could tide me over for left side gear inbetween. For my dps toons, I geared them at the pace I earned comms. When they had a mixture of 216/208 gear I'd take them into group content. Now, in the first three weeks of 5.0 have been starting to experience what life would be if I continued to sub: Play 10 to 20 hours a week and get an upgraded piece of gear for a single toon by RNG. Good RNG might mean one upgrade a week, Bad RNG means probably one upgrade pice a month. The 1/8 chance to get something in 5.1 will work out to maybe one more piece of gear every 8 weeks if I was lucky so an extra 6 pieces of gear a year,. lol, yea only people who are lying to themselves could be honest and say that is better. It isn't. It is Smoke and Mirrors. Why do I stare at the log-in screen trying to decide if I want to log in to a toon in 5.0 - because there is nothing to look forward to. Can't do group content, the folks who say 'you can do group content with your current gear' - well, no, I can't (dps toons are not good enough, healers - if they could find a group - are wasting time doing so because they won't get any gear to help them move to harder stuff). In otherwords, the grind + RNG have completely demotivated me to play, because I find them to be completely unfun. I'm done here by the way, no more answers. Grind + RNG fest 5.0 SWTOR is no fun. No matter how many times you and the devs try to tell me that they are fine, I know what it is I don't like. Stop patronizing me and telling me they are great for me, and/or I don't understand what I don't like. IMO, there is no THRILL, EXCITEMENT in 5.0 just the opposite. IMO, the devs have shown ZERO ZIP NADA evidence that they listened to my point of view and made only the most infinitesimal change (which would add MORE of the grind + RNG menchanics into my game) to supplement the new GRIND + RNG fest 5.0 new gearing. They didn't understand anything if they think 5.1 is evidence of LISTENING, or them making HUMBLE changes. 5.1 is the same/worse than 5.0. And 5.0 is GRINDgoRNGRound house of horrors. So let me ask you the same question you started with with me, tell me just why are you here in the threads where people are speaking out against 5.0 changes? The only reason I can see for you to be here is to patronize and belittle those who don't like 5.0. So, right back atcha but why are you here? Really. Would love to know.

Ok, you asked for it. I pretty much have two types of toons: Healers I used for raiding, and dps toons that I almost NEVER use in a raid but am more like the typical casual player: would do dailies, events etc. on. Different problems for the healer and the dps toons. I can't gear my healers to raid in the current system. Pub side healer was the fill-in/fall back healer to the regular 8 man progression team. If they had a healer on vacation or sick, I was good enough and (barely) geared enough to fill in. Problems: 1. RNG hates me, I will not have the gear to help a progression team and they are having enough trouble trying to gear themselves. 2. I don't have the time to devote to the grind to be able to get anything but the starter gear, and even then, with my RNG I could reasonably expect it to take 100 to 150 cxp levels to have complete STARTER set. Imp side healer usually pugged Hard Mode raids. I can't play that healer anymore because cxp on that toon is a loss for pub toon. So at best that toon will have the legacy items the pub healer gets but no off-hand/implants/relics/ear piece. My dps toons I used to gear up with comm gear. This was fun for me. I'd set out goals - like where to use my blue comms vs. green comms, and slowly work them up to somewhat reasonable (tho not well balanced, I know) gear. Flashpoints would fill in enhancements and this was my 'fun time' in Swtor. Now in 5.0 problems 1. Can't play dps because that is cxp that main healer toon won't have to get pieces she needs. 2. No com gear anymore, just whatever RNG gives. So all the fun is gone. Why bother doing some bounties when I'm just going to disintegrate the crap I get anyway. 5.1 does nothing to help this at all. The grind is something I don't have time for. RNG means I can't work up a set of gear for fun, like I used to with my dps toons. RNG + a 1/8 chance one time a week in an op to get a specific piece means I won't have any unassembled pieces to use with the tokens I do get in crates. I was hoping 5.1 would do something, anything to ameliorate the grind + RNG that utterly ruined SWTOR for me. But all it did was add an additional grind and RNG layer to supplement the command crate gearing - it did not offer an alternate route. (And the ninja pug problem in ops in 5.1 is going to keep me from doing any raiding with pug groups, so what is the point.)

It is a semantic point, and if there were a word to describe someone who has unsubscribed such that they will no longer be paying for a service, but are in the window of time where the payment the person made in the past still covers the service, I'd certainly prefer it. Because I do not pay Bioware anymore: I do not consider my self a subscriber. Again, your mileage may vary and it is a semantic point.

The main problem was not being able to selectively spend gear tokens because there are no gear tokens in 5.0. 5.1 will bring another go round with RNG (which in my opinion is the main problem with 5.0, the god awful grind being the secondary problem) to let one, if they are lucky, approximately a 1 out of 8 chance, fill in a selective piece of gear. In my opinion, that isn't even an improvement over the current system. Your mileage may vary. But I haven't seen anyone or heard of anyone who would say "The main problem in 5.0 was not being able to selectively spend gear tokens" on a PVE side anyway. (perhaps that is true in the PVP side? I must admit I paid very little attention to that side of things because I do not enjoy pvp in SWTOR).

I had a recurring subscription which I cancelled. I received a gift of a two month time card which I had added to my time just prior to 5.0 early access - so I had prepaid up through some time in February. I paid for that time, and I will probably play some (less and less each day it seems, we'll see) through that time. I thought KOTET was superb story so I will probably do those chapters on one or two alts before I say goodbye. Since I cancelled my former subscription and removed my credit card from the account so that the last payment on my account was and will be November 2016, I consider myself a former subscriber who still has time on the books. If there is a better term for someone who is in that interim period I am willing to use it instead of "former subscriber".

Yes, I have played 5.0. I unsubscribed the day before early access became all sub access. A sub that had been continuously active since a few months before ROTHC hit. My subscription time runs out in 2017. I'm not sure why my complete disagreement with the developers use of the words thrill and exciting to describe what I experience with RNG crates, my complete disbelief that the devs are humble or listening, or monitoring - why that makes you think I want to take a few more subs with me. I assume each sub will make up their own mind whether the new allRNG SWTOR is worth their hard earned money. And I assume my posts are falling on deaf ears. EDIT below to reply to part of your post that had not yet gone up when I quoted: I see no evidence the developers have listened to anything. The stream and Erics post today clarifying the situation with PvE gearing unassembled pieces being all RNG (except for last boss) tells me that if they listened, they sure didn't understand. And disappointment and dread is all I feel for each RNG crate. Disappointment and Dread do not equal Trhill and Exciting in my book.

Why am I here, really? Because I used to love this game. Because I started playing SWTOR a few months after my mother died and for several months there it was the only thing good in my life. Because this game deserves better than how it was butchered in 5.0. Because even tho I know better, I can't squelch the hope something someone says might get through and into a devs head, the hope that someone at Bioware might see how bad this is and do something and the downward spiral might be stopped. That is why, really.

For the thrill, um no, because it is exciting, um no, because bioware is humbly listening to the SWTOR customers, um no. Got me, can't think of one good reason to have changed SWTOR into this RNGgoRound house of horror.

Dear Ben: Exciting, thrill, humble, listening, monitor..... I don't think these words mean what you think they mean. Yours Truly, Former swtor sub who knows how to use a dictionary.

Only the last boss has guarantee and they didn't specify the "chances" on the other bosses, but given the NM loot situation in 4.x before they fixed it (5% chance of dropping nightmare loot), I expect it to be something on the order of the next to last boss having a 5% chance to drop something, the boss before that boss 4%, ... That is a GUESS, they haven't said anything about what the chance percentage will be. Like you, only one guarantee drop per op is nowhere near enough to tempt me to resub.

Well, I agree they should bring this back to CM. But I'm pretty sure the Snowball Cannon first appeared life day last year. just sayin.

Yeah, I have come to the same unhappy conclusion that last week's dev stream was smoke and mirrors. It will be even more of a crapstorm when the so many folks who still have misunderstood what BW did say the PVE changes were are faced with the reality. Even if it was a reasonable amount of tokens (say 5 to 10) and even had Bioware given each boss in an op a drop, I would not see it as much of an improvement, especially on the 'I want to play my alt and not get behind' front. But if what I suspect is true: (I suspect MANY more tokens will be required and that it will be rare indeed for an op to see more than the single guaranteed loot drop) then I foresee a LOT more unhappy folks on the unsub (or not resubbing) train.

I honestly hope you are right. But I don't think the goal on Bioware's part here is to give the players an alternate route to gearing. I think they were pretty clear that the goal is to help the "rare" unlucky soul fill in the one piece of set gear they are missing. Your "viable" statement - well it depends what the goal Bioware has. And I very much fear it is far from what you are thinking.

I think you hit the nail on the head. IMO, they clearly do NOT WANT this to be an alternate way of gearing. And remember, you may have tokens, but only 1/8 people will leave an op (with a weekly lock-out) with a piece of gear most likely. I think it will ADD to player frustration, not lessen it. I also think that the number of people who 'misheard" (or were misled) by the stream into thinking every boss would drop a token is going to make this situation even worse.

No, other bosses just a CHANCE - undefined what chance exactly.

Agree 100% What I also find stupid beyond belief is if you get purple jawa scrap you can disintegrate it for 20 to 40 command points, blue you can disintegrate for 80 command points but green jawa junk gives you 150 or 160 command points. Because BW didn't even understand the difference among the three types, so each one is worth 10 points, regardless if it is the purple or green or blue ones.

And I have to assume that it was a SMOKE and MIRRORS dev stream last week and we'll be pretty much no better off than we are now. We end up in the same place, unless we see workable change we won't resub, but I'm starting off assuming the worst. At least I hope I'm starting off assuming the worst, given BW track record, it could well be I'm also being optimistic.

Well, those are my expectations. (btw, I edited my post to get rid of the decimal points, that was a mistake in my first post.) And that is why I'm not bothering to resub. I doubt BW will tell us the actual percentage chance of earlier bosses dropping something. BUT, remember: BW had that 4.0 Nightmare loot drop at 5% before the hue and cry and I would be shocked if they are planning to change any earlier boss in an op to drop higher than 5%. The point is, we don't know. BW's silence on the subject is, imo, evidence I'm closer to the actual numbers than you are. But we are both guessing. I was just shocked at how high your example percentages were.

Wow, you are optimistic. I expect something more along the lines of this: Boss 1: 1% chance to drop a random unassembled piece Boss 2: 2% chance to drop a random unassembled piece Boss 3: 3% chance to drop a random unassembled piece Boss 4: 4% chance to drop a random unassembled piece Boss 5: 100% chance to drop a specific unassembled piece