So Last night on my ship, had a random person running around in it somehow. Not sure what has happened there other than some instance merge or something. I didn't know them at all. Noticed since moving to the cloud there are fairly frequent issues with abilities not activating when they should be when raiding (for example, going through rotation and activating the abilities in order but then they don't actually activate in order the activate in a random order or not at all) yes I've checked my connection which is full fibre 500 mbps and has shown now downtime on my connection to the internet. I've asked a few people and they seem to be experiencing similar issues since servers moved to cloud. Last one, this morning playing PvP the game randomly kicked a bunch of people and made me freeze in place until it eventually kicked me as well. Was told by a PvP player who was in there with me that this was also happening last night.

Essentially this. I absolutely thing modifiable gear should be for everyone. I've not actually heard anyone say that it shouldn't be a thing. I've no doubt everyone will get it eventually (my personal bet is that it'll be 2 months from the new ops drop) but I don't see why everyone can't have it from the expansion drop. I don't think the item rating should be equal to the top level from all other areas of content but I certainly think that modifying your stat allocations by swapping out item mods is more than fair. Crafting should be something along those similar lines. I still really think PVP should have its own gear set but that's my own preference.

Edited as somehow posted twice.

Son, you are fooling no one. You deliberately misinterpret everyone's words to fit your agenda against a section of the playerbase. You ignored literally everything that I said should happen. But to help you understand the concepts of difficulty I'll give you an example. Ralph spends 2 hours a day doing sums. The sums that he chooses to do are 1+1 and only 1+1. Jenny spends 2 hours a day doing quadratic equations and mathematical proofs. At the end of 6 months they both sit the exam. Jenny gets better results than Ralph. Ralph cries "Why does she get better results than me? I put in the same amount of time!" You can't disparage, insult and accuse a section of the player base of which you know nothing about simply because you don't want to do the content that they are doing. Pretty much every gearing system this game has ever had has rendered one gearing path either more difficult or less rewarding. Always. Just because this time it's more in favour of NIM players doesn't mean you get to cry.

Not at all, all game modes are relevant. But not all game modes should be rewarded equally. Rewards should be scaled to difficulty. If we're going to sit here and compare the difficulty of dailies vs NIM content and say that they are the same then I don't know what to tell you, you're abhorrently wrong. You're once again trying to turn a debate away from it's intended topic to feed your narrative about "NIM players get everything without effort" when it really isn't the case for one. The debate (in case you couldn't see it on your high horse) was about Bioware hating casual players or not. My argument is that they do not, I've presented my point of view as to why they don't i.e it all comes down to money and they don't hate any particular group they just do what they think will make them the most money. Your argument comes down to "I don't get what I want, it's all the Endgame raiders fault." I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not going to do endgame raiding, i'll be doing SM ops, FP's, some pvp, crafting and conquest. Like many players here. You argue that NIM players want to be treated special. Indeed you've made this same argument in multiple places only to be shot down not just by NIM players, but pretty much every other facet of the player base as well. This expansion isn't about NIM vs Everyone else. Stop trying to make it that way so that you feel better about not getting to max gear for minimal effort. The gear is largely irrelevant. I didn't like 5.0 or 6.0 gearing but I played and didn't complain about it. I don't think 7.0 is great either but I think it's an improvement. I'd like to see PVP get its own gear sets and I'd like to see modifiable sets at the lower item ratings to even out the stat distributions so people can get more approximate BIS for their item rating. I'd like to see that crafted gear be close to highest rating but not the actual highest rating. Most of these things will happen within a few months of launch but it would be good to see them earlier. But, if they aren't there, if they change their mind and radically go back on everything and give YOU the system that YOU want which is gear for no effort then I really wouldn't care either. I'd just play what I want to play, do what I want to do knowing that I'm skilled enough to clear the content that i'll be playing with pretty much any gear that drops. If you aren't then I feel bad for you, work a little bit at improving your skills and if you still struggle then just a little patience and work and you'll get higher tier gear to carry you through the rest. TLDR: NIM isn't only relevant content, but difficulties for content should be taken into account. If gearing changes to **** gearing method then I and most likely the people you are crusading against so vehemently won't care and will just do it anyway. Only entitlement here is yours.

This is remarkably impressive. Can I ask how you get the inputs? I'm assuming you use some sort of virtual set up with your eyes and head movements and you have some sort of way to use your feet but the level of multi-tasking on this is super impressive. Really, congrats.

They don't hate casual players. The majority are casual players and if you put in casual effort, you get casual rewards. Differences in philosophy over gearing aside (a theme that's been debated to death already and really needs no further words) the game is a MMO. Bioware does not make decisions with a big board in front of them saying "Who do we hate this expansion?" They make decisions on "What can we do that will make us profit?" The more skeptical amongst us may argue that it's closer to "What's the least amount of effort for the most amount of profit?" and I would find it difficult to argue with that statement. Trouble with "casual players" is it's such a broad sweeping term. You can be a casual player but still do MM operations but you could also do nothing but dressing up, it's really not helpful as a criteria to establish. Solo players seem to be the biggest FOTM for complaints. About a variety of elements but they all boil down to "Why is my multiplayer game not solo player friendly?". Simple answer is that it's multiplayer game, more complex answer is not really worth explaining because people don't want to hear why they don't get their own way. As for becoming a model where expansions are purchased..... Please never suggest it again. The game would die. Look at the last few expansions. Think about the amount of hours play time that it actually generates. Now contrast it to a bought expansion such as FFXIV and their play time. I can guarantee it's not close. In fact I can virtually guarantee you that you can complete the last 3-4 expansions of SWTOR in the time it takes you to do FFXIV's. It's just not comparable. They are also not going to turn around and start giving us 50-60 hours of content in an expansion every 18 months as well as an additional 8 man raid, several 24 man raids and 4 flash points every 18 months as well. People won't pay for it. The expansions for this game by contrast would be about £2-3. They are better off with their current model. That said, yes there are issues with the game, bugs existing since launch in certain FP's, heroics, cutscenes what have you. They'll always be there, they simply will not fix them as it has been noted multiple times. What the game will do is steadily soldier on until it becomes unprofitable and then get shuttered by EA. At the end of the day, the game is here to make money, not pick on players. Don't assume malicious intent just because a particular set of changes affects you personally.

Firstly, I really appreciate you sharing and providing context. Having worked in the care industry for several years supporting people with precisely these types of problems I can offer my sympathies. In suggestions around content. Taking your time in SM ops may be the key, I know you may not enjoy being carried through them if you have a flare up but it'll let you see the operations at least if you wanted? I appreciate in your unique circumstance the gear is a helpful cushion as it were. It may still be depending on the gear in relation to the content you play, we won't know until launch.

Absolutely understand how a disability would limit you. Not knowing what your disability is I can't offer you any advice in terms of strategies to help you manage or become better. I appreciate gear would help you out in your unique situation but (and I say this with the greatest respect) MMO's and games in general are not catered for people with disability. In all fairness I also couldn't come up with a system where the game was made easier for people with disabilities without that system being abused by the player population. As for the the argument of the people not subbing after xpacs (different persons comment), yes, people stop subbing after xpacs, also before them, during and any time in between. People stop subbing and start subbing all the time. I hear a lot of talk about people not playing anymore because of how "terrible" the xpac is but they still post here day after day, most of them will still post here after the xpac. Will this xpac lead to some players leaving? Sure, just like every single one before it. As for this mass exodus being alluded to. It's all just guesswork, rumour and bravado until they leave and we no longer see them on the forums or in game. I would happily wager some credits that 90% of the people complaining that they'll leave the game (for probably the 4th expansion in a row) will still be here after the expansion. Whether the 10% that do leave is replaced by a greater number joining/re-joining remains to be seen. The real rub of the issue is that what drives more people away, more than gearing, raiding, pvp etc is the sheer lack of content. If you're a new player, great! Loads to do. If you've played the game a year, chances are you could have done all the content you wanted to do already. There is not enough new content, nor will there ever be. The team is not big enough and there is not enough investment by EA (this is a guess work, but if the dev's are getting a huge amount more money than they used to for the game, where else is it going?) so this game gets minimal new things every couple of years. People complain about gearing or XYZ and the wheel keeps on spinning.

Whilst this original post seems to scream "Give me what I want because I want it" the problem exists solely with the way that the gearing is being set up. MM Ops SHOULD be the top tier of gear you get in the game for PVE Content. PVP should get its own set of gear. The rest of the game modes should have a moddable set of gear on a lower tier than the top ranked ops gear. The only 2 modes that really provide challenge in the game are MM Ops and ranked pvp. And even in ranked it really does depend on who you come up against. Give them back their gear option that they used to have with expertise and people can play in their own sandboxes and be happy.

Having played for several years, firstly through class stories only, then adding pvp with occasional flashpoints, then through to NIM raiding at a much later point of the game but now only play with my friend who has just joined I can (like many) see both sides of the argument here. But what it does seem to come down to is: - Nim players want the best gear for doing the hardest content in the game. Whilst a small section of the NIM raiding community will be able to do the NIM content from the outset in base gear it is nonetheless a small section of the community. Many others are going to require putting in the time and effort to get that higher gear to get clears of those raids and that's ok. - PVP players seem to be getting a lack of customisation in their stat allocations due to caps being below the max tier gear. I'm honestly all for bringing back PVP gear. I know they really wanted to simplify how many gear sets you had etc when they changed it (then they bought out this system of a ridiculous number of sets per class). - Conquest/Solo Players seem to want max level gear for their journeys and it seems from some of these messages to be wanting to be massively overscaled for the content that they are doing (dailies, FP's etc) and that they don't get to do so. I'd like to offer some assurance there. You will be massively overscaled for the content you are doing. If you're looking for the content to be trivialised by the gear then do not fear. That is what will happen in even the lowest tiers of gear, your companion does it for you almost immediately and your level of gear even though below the level of a NIM raiders is going to be more than sufficient for what you are wanting to do. If you simply want power for powers sake and not to do anything productive for it then I'm not sure what to offer you as a consolation that for the first time in quite a while you can't reach max gear in 1 day of grinding. I can only apologise that the sun has sent on that for this expansion as it has often done for other types of players in other expansions. The developers often to switch who gets the best/easiest gearing method in terms of effort vs reward pretty much every expansion. This is just next in a long line of these changes. The one thing I do think would be reasonable to add is the ability to modify the lower tiers of gear rather than having them of static distribution. I've not seen anything saying that they'll be adding that but I think that would be reasonable to add. As for the tiers of gear, NIM raiding should really get the highest tier of gear. There's not a single argument i've seen in these forums that really holds weight against it. People keep saying that WOW did it and everyone is leaving WOW (I kinda think how stale the storytelling got and the massive amounts of bad press they got did an awful lot to make that happen personally) but these are different games, different playerbases and the games aren't anywhere near comparable. SWTOR is in it's own separate bracket. It doesn't have regular content updates (by content I mean more than 2 hours) it doesn't do paid expansions. You get a small expansion (content patch) every 2-3 years that at most will take 5 hours of your time and that is if you take it all slowly and spam basic attack. In the end it all comes down to this. Those same people you see screaming "I'm not resubbing" please feel free to check their post history. You'll find that they always complain in every expansion, always threaten to unsubscribe every expansion and they never do. The people that actually unsub from the game you will not hear from. They just quietly go about the business with no drama and leave the game. Think BW doesn't care about you leaving? It does, it'll have a metric of how many people leave for this expansion. They'll look at it and see that it's pretty much same as normal. People feeling like what they say to BW doesn't matter are generally right because their words hold no meaning to themselves. Scream that you'll unsub every 6 months and never do it you've automatically shown that your word means absolutely nothing. Never promise or threaten something you can't deliver on. Gearing system for 7.0 I much prefer over 6.0. It's my own opinion, I'm not going to be doing NIM anymore because I have other games that fill that niche more fully so I really don't need top tier content to do MM flashpoints, some conquest, pvp and class stories. It's just unnecessary. If people feel like they need the top level of gear for not doing any content then you do you. But try doing the operations to get there and you'll see why that community resists the idea of free gear for everyone.

To be fair I get what they appear to be doing as well. I like the gear changes they made for 7.0. I left the game pretty much straight after the Onslaught Expansion (if you can call it an expansion) so been gone quite a long time at this point. Came back to see literal bays full of inventory on every character at max level and remembering one of the reasons I left in the first place. The new gearing system is simple and accessible to everyone. Seen a lot of forum posts that it favours NIM players over all the others. Hard to argue there, having used to be a NIM player i'm sure they'll appreciate some love on that front. The main gripe that I can see is that gearing to max iLVL for other game modes is going to take a bit longer than through operations at NIM. This is kind of accurate and inaccurate, as it's only quicker through operations if you actually manage to complete them. The number of "NIM Prog" teams I've seen that will sit on beginning Ops for months at a time was ridiculous through 5.0/6.0 so it's not quite as cut and dry as people are saying. It's a method where there is a chance of failure. Not to mention that the lockouts prevent a character from just re-running the operation every day to get the gear (unless something has changed in my absence). With the other methods of gearing there isn't really a failure option. Veteran FP's are not challenging enough to the extent that people can't get through them. Reason being is if you have a group of 4 players then only 1 of them needs to be competent and you'll get through. They can carry it. MM FP's, the base ones can largely be soloed so again, not really an issue but perhaps more out of reach for a larger percentage of the player base. Solo players can still gear through conquest in what will perhaps be the slowest method. I don't see an issue here, the game has historically awarded greater rewards for group content, the game needs to encourage group content but have those options for solo players if they really wish either through not playing well with others, wanting a single player experience or to make things more challenging to themselves. There is a gearing option, it's the same as the other options (except NIM ops) but slower. What seems to be the biggest bug bear of the players that have issues with the new gearing method (maybe? Hard to tell sometimes) is that the NIM ops have a slightly higher item rating (I think that's what I read) and that they have it modifiable so they can min/max their stats. Whilst I don't see why you'd min/max your stats for any other game mode other than PVP, I can certainly understand the desire to have more control over the stat allocation in your gear. I'm all for the other methods of gaining gear to also have at the max iLVL the ability to swap out mods etc on their gear. I also would be fine with those being crafted. But i'm absolutely fine with all of those happening whilst still being say 4 item ratings below the NIM gear. I won't be playing NIM ops, that time has come and gone. I'll do SM,VM ops, maybe some PVP if I fancy and obviously conquest which you basically earn by existing. I won't get max gear but for the content i'll be actually doing, why would I need it?

Might not be the best rotation in the world but this is what I use

Same issues, also missing conquest rewards on top of it.

From a gameplay perspective that would be a good addition to the game in general and definitely improve PVP matches. From a selfish perspective, it's damn hilarious when you see it happen, even better when they accidentally walk in to the flames on huttball because of lag xD I've managed to be killed by the flames whilst stood underneath the platform before so the bugs at this point are just funny