While the "MMO" part of the game is an important part, I would argue that the "Star Wars" part of it eclipses it, just as the "Final Fantasy" part of FF14 and the "Elder Scrolls" part of TESO eclipse their own MMO natures. Another thing to consider is the suit side of it; in this case EA, whose current higher-ups (last I heard) have little interest in Star Wars beyond what makes money. And so long as SWTOR makes any kind of money, no matter how small, they likely don't care how little funding it has. I'd assume that their current stance (the real one, not the corpo-speak one) is something along the lines of "Make do with what you have; and if you stop making, we shutter you." The main part that makes the entire Alliance arc feel significantly different - at least to me - is that it feels like a soft reboot. The player is renamed "The Outlander" and then "The Commander" and doesn't get his previous title back until the end of JUS; the story (including Forged Alliances & SoR) turned to a one-track deal (no separate Pub & Imp perspectives), and the majority of the story-relevant companions are either new, have some connection to the story (Theron & Lana were heavily involved in the lead-up), or bring some other significant skill to the initial Alliance Crew lineup (Scorpio's connections and tech savvy, Jorgan's soldier training, Kaliyo's penchant for destruction, T7's utility as a proto-Astromech, Gault & Vette's infiltration capabilities). If anything, the Alliance Arc feels like it should have been a standalone Single Player title with little to zero connection to the original 8 Origins; outside of obviously being a continuation of SoR. But there's no use in pondering could haves and should haves when we only have what is.

Ah. That objective. Gotcha. I'll do that. I've been getting tired of all the subtitles being shoved into that log anyway.

What's "Sparks of War" in this context? Wasn't that an old update title? Yeah, I was being sarcastic. People only ever use GF for FPs if they're grinding Hammer or Athiss, or if they're looking for Seasons targets. I get that Hammer is the shortest of the FPs available and makes for an easy grind, but it gets boring doing that over and over without end. I call it a "bug" in the same way I call it a "bug" that the Warzone queue keeps dropping me in freaking Huttball. I'll make a note of it and see if I can figure it out when I log in next.

Speaking from a story point of view, is what I meant; not necessarily "game as it released on day one".

You're missing out. It's a great story, especially if you lean into the idea of playing a Palpatine-style character who just wants more power at any cost; even if it means gaslighting a poor naive Jedi girl into unknowingly becoming your dark disciple.

Is that because they're bugged and don't work properly? Or are people not using the convenience tool tin the game because they've gotten used to using secret chat rooms and Discord? There's a huge difference between those two scenarios. Because I know that the VetFP one works perfectly fine. It has a bug that only drops groups into Hammer Station or Athiss, but it groups people up and drops them in a FP.

Guess it's time for tech-minded fans to start on "SWTOR: Offline Version" or "SWTOR: Peer-to-Peer Version". I personally think KotET itself is fine, minus one huge decision near the end of Chapter 8. It's everything afterwards that I start finding problems with (It really should've been Senya, not Vette or Torian, because now the writers can't use the actually interesting characters that I have an actual connection with; which really shines through in this era where Mandalorians are a huge thing and the two Mando Companions (Akavi & Torian) don't have anything to do with it because a player may not have them by the time they get to Spirit of Vengeance | Also, where's SCORPIO? Will there be any retaliation for the death of Acina/Malcom?). The team doesn't have much of a leg to stand on right now, in terms of negotiation power. The Star Wars fandom is at each other's throat so bad that the shows are barely performing, merch is moving like cold molasses, and games not named "Fortnite" or "Jedi: something" or "Lego" are likely gonna suffer for a while.

It's at least supposed to give a quest item for Qyzen Fess' Alliance Alert (either hunt in specific places on Hoth for 3 "worthy" beast targets spawned at random, or fight pre-KotFE WBs to "tell him of your hunts"), but I've done that WB with that quest open twice now, and neither time gave me the item to turn in to Qyzen. I'm fairly certain it's supposed to drop loot and just isn't because of bugs. But considering it's Quesh, that doesn't surprise me. Quesh always felt kinda half-baked. Also, I never knew those hidden channels existed, I'm unlikely to ever use them, and using a solution that's already in the game and staring us in the face (Group Finder) just makes more sense to me.

For being as old as it is, and for not having as much choice as many of us would have liked in it, Vanilla continues to prove itself as peak SWTOR. I never got to KDY, because I can't be bothered to try and group for it when every Flashpoint should have a Solo-friendly mode (seriously, why does Directive 7 of all FPs have a Story mode, but the one where you meet Bey'wan and Krovos doesn't? Mind boggling.). Skipping past Dread Masters & Shroud Part 1 (I can't get groups together for them), the Makeb story was interesting, but never had much to do with anything afterwards (there are occasionally vague references to Iso-5 technology during the Imp side post-Zakuul, but that's it). Forged Alliances & Shadow of Revan were cool, and I personally loved how the original writers seemed committed to continuing Revan's story so long as Tenebrae/Vitiate/Valkorian remained a factor. The soft reboot of KotFE, KotET, and Fractured Alliances... Like, I appreciate the attempt at telling a new story that focused more on player agency, and I love the Alliance base...but not enough was done with the ideas, and there's no good aftermath to the whole ordeal. You can't decorate the base, you can't have every companion (I swear, the option to choose between Vette and Torian makes me want to say words that would get me banned from the forums), the Fractured Alliances arc has had no ramifications (SCORPIO return when? Retaliation for the death of Acina/Malcom when?), and it really felt like they were stalling for time while they brainstormed how to contrive things back to "Pub vs Imp". JUS + Onslaught were a lie. This was not the big return to Pub vs Imp they claimed it was. Player agency was taken away from us. Even if you want to remain The Commander, you're forced to pick a side and follow orders, and you're not even the star of the show. Arguably, Tau and Arn are the stars of the Pub story, and Krovos, Rivix, and Anri are the stars of the Imp side. The locations were interesting enough. Ossus was interesting in concept, even if it was executed poorly (that terrain is so mid it's painful). Onderon was nice to see in a game, and Mek-Sha was a cool new location to introduce to the lore (tons of cool fanfic stuff could happen on that planet). But nothing about the story itself stands out as interesting. Echoes of Oblivion, the epilogue to the KotOR/Knight-Warrior/Commander story, was far more interesting. After that, it's just a prologue to 7.0. One made up of Flashpoints. Finally arriving at Legacy of the Sith....it's obvious that the age of the game combined with the lack of budget, the beginning of the 2020s, and the move to another studio has hit the story hard. The Player Character has been firmly set in the "I'm now part of the supporting cast" role, the actual main characters haven't even been good so far, the return of Malgus instead of making a new Darth working for the Empire has yet to be justified, and the budgetary necessity of drip-feeding us the story has only hurt it more. I'll try and reserve my final judgements for after the story has wrapped and we can see the full picture, but it's not looking good so far. Not to mention that they keep making side content when they really can't afford to (Lane & Bessi, Galactic Seasons, a new seasonal event). If I were the creative lead, I'd halt all production on the side stuff and put all the writers on figuring out how this 7.0 story fits together and how it'll be satisfying to have gone though all of it. In short: things were amazing at the start, then were kinda okay but not terrible for a couple updates, then the writers started writing themselves into pretty tight corners, and now the time has come for them to reap what they've sown. They went too far down a restrictive narrative alley, and they have to face the incoming train head-on.

Yeah, I'm still kinda working at things "from scratch", and the non-Heroics are rather dull after the 50th time through, so it's been a long road for me. I have one last BP to acquire, but I haven't done it yet because the grind got too tedious. Plus, all the prices on the GTN are absurd. I see that the way I look at rich people who "buy and sell art": it's just rich people playing hot-potato with amounts of money I'll never have in my entire lifetime.

+1 This is why I keep insisting to other players that we do not need new Companions every few months. That's because it's easier for the budget monkeys to hire cheap writers that are told to write a railroaded story. And it doesn't help that the content has to be dripped out one half-hour at a time. Tau and Anri haven't been that bad. Tau has her moments of eyeroll, but Anri's sat pretty okay with me so far. Krovos is a bit full of herself, but that's typical for Sith. The new Cathar chick in the Kessan's Landing update was pretty dumb. I get they're a naturally aggressive species, but the things she was saying at the end of the chapter, and the way the native soldier was portrayed as "well meaning yet incompetent"? Yeah, that felt forced. And that may get even worse with the new Evoci chick leading the slave rebellion in the next update. Shae's always been a bit brusque, but that's expected of a career soldier. This obsession she has with Heta, though? IDK. Feels a little out of character for the usually laid-back and level-headed Shae Vizla. Unless Malgus or one of his allies is doing something to her head. Heta is 100% girlboss, and in the worst possible way. Only way it could be worse is if she was fighting against a male Mand'alor. But I feel like we might see Ri'kan stab her in the back and usurp command; now that he's no longer the favored lapdog. Sa'har feels like they're trying to tell a story of someone in over their head fighting off Dark Side temptation, but it's coming off as more whiny than Prequel Trilogy Anakin.

From what I've seen of the GSF menu, you can't even do anything with FleetCom except turn it into the requisition currency at a vendor. And I doubt that's changed in the past couple months.

IDK how long you've been playing, but the PvE Fleet tokens - as of this writing - don't seem to be a Legacy-wide currency. AFAIK, they're per-character. So you have to do every single mission every single day for a couple weeks in order to get all the craftable components. It's not a streamlined situation where you can do the grind on multiple characters in a day. And I can't remember if the parts and blueprint items are even able to be transferred over Legacy Cargo, or if it's Bind on Pickup. Did you use a more established character to "cheat" the items onto that new toon, or did you do it from scratch the way a new player would? That's the only one I'm somewhat confident with, and even then it's 50/50. The one I hate the most is the asteroid field one where you have to go through the tunnel of mines that shoot at you. Really makes me wish I could unlock that turret on the top of my ship and have Corso or HK blast at things.

Okay. I mean, I've seen the PvP mounts and a Saberstaff (they won't let me preview the stuff in lockboxes). And they're kinda neat, I guess the Nexu mount would be cool on my Hunter, but I still don't want to have to grind through content I hate just to get some kinda okay cosmetics. And I doubt they could do anything in a PvP season that'd entice me to grind it, other than some pie-in-the-sky scenario like unlocking new combat styles or Origins. Maybe then I'd actually subject myself to that torment. Otherwise, I really couldn't care less outside of M1 and Pierce. I agree that the crappy PvP Consumables are a terrible "incentive" to get new players into the scene. But if there's really as big of a PvP following as people are trying to have me believe, then it's either not going to be too bad an issue (free Credits for a marginally longer grind) or y'all will be able to make enough of a stink that the devs will pay attention. But, if you think it'll help, I can edit my post to include a change. Maybe a PvP Gear box wherever they placed PvP Consumables. Still does nothing for the long-time players, but it serves the same incentive of getting new players in.

XP is irrelevant after lvl80, credits can be gotten from anywhere, that currency is for gear that's specifically balanced for PvP. On my side of the issue, Warzone/Arena PvP drains Credits away from my PvE gear, and GSF is an island unto itself outside of it's Seasons objective, with it's sole connection to the outside being a drain on Cartel Coins to buy 4 ships or a bunch of limited cosmetics. GSF is even supplemented by PvE Space, as you can trade in that currency for GSF currency!

I'm not a dev, I cannot answer that. Sounds like a bug. Make sure you did it right. If you did it right and still don't have it, go make a bug report about it.

Okay, so what's your point? PvP, by it's very nature, is parasitic when introduced to a PvE game. It exists solely for competitive-minded players to compare sizes and rarely if ever provides benefits outside of itself. Warzones/Arenas require gearing outside PvP first. GSF is mostly self-contained aside from "crew members". Are you saying we should remove all PvP elements from SWTOR because they do nothing for the core gameplay?

I have no reason to be sarcastic. I despise PvP, and only do it for M1/Pierce Alerts, or if I have no other options during Galactic Seasons. Plus, the decorations and outfitter items so far just haven't appealed to me enough to make me do something I hate doing. But I am glad that the people who like PvP are able to do it, and I'm glad they've been given a longer window of time to obtain the rewards.

I know. They're replacing Seasons Companions with Ventures. It's a way to make you earn the companion instead of just getting them. Still would like something to do with them instead of having them sit around twiddling thumbs. I actually never knew that. I'm only just now getting up to Iokath on my Warrior and was planning to go Imp anyway. My methodology was to filter down to "universal characters that are "guaranteed" to be gotten" (characters that can be obtained by every Origin regardless of narrative choices and aren't locked behind Events or rare drops), and threw Treek in there because some people might not want to purchase her from the CM and may not know that you can get her contract for 1m Credits in the Fleet Bazaar. I've had her so long that I actually forgot about that. Back when the game was initially released, that's how it actually happened. The Companion Story Events that pop up every so often in the vanilla story? Those used to be locked to Influence level, to my knowledge. It was moved to story progress for convenience sake. I don't think they'll add romance options to every character. They likely could, but I don't think they will. That's a lot of work, and they're a tiny team. Unless you'd be willing to take the steps to become a professional game writer and get hired for the job? Besides: I don't really romance anyone from post-Vanilla. The only time I'm doing so right now is my Agent and Trooper, who are starting to court Theron (I think I missed my chance with Jorgon, or got locked out because my Trooper is a Nautolan; and I just thought it was thematically ironic for my Imperial Spy to romance a Republic Spy). You can unlock a "Use Random Mount" ability that chooses a mount at random from any mount you tag as "Favorite", and outfits can be changed on the fly via the Outfitter; though I'd personally prefer if they stopped chasing after Derpney trends and focused more on their own designs. I'd be perfectly happy with getting more companions if: 1. They had more development and characterization than one simple trope & 2. If I had something to do with the massive amount of companions that can't fight by my side Otherwise, I'm perfectly fine with Seasons experimenting with other types of rewards.

Total number of Unique Companions (named with personality and custom appearance) in the game: 73 Minus 2 for Torian and Vette being Schrodinger's Companion (one can be dead while the other is alive) Minus 3 for Arcann, Senya, & Koth (they can be killed in a Dark Side playthrough) Minus 1 for SCORPIO (who "dies" during Zakuul arc) Minus 1 for Vik (never returns after SoR) Minus 2 for Malavai & Elara (you can only have 1 join you depending on which faction you sided with on Iokath) Minus 1 for Theron (you can kill/abandon him as a Dark Side choice at the end of the Nathema Flashpoint) Minus 18 for characters exclusive to particular character creation choices (Mako & Akaavi are exclusive to Smuggler & Hunter; Vector is exclusive to Agent; Felix, Nadia, Cedrax, & Zenith are exclusive to Consular; Doc is exclusive to Knight; Andronikos, Ashara, & Khem Val are exclusive to Inquisitor; Jaesa is exclusive to Warrior; Corso & Risha are exclusive to Smuggler; Pierce is exclusive to Imperial Alliance Commander; M1-4X is exclusive to Republic Alliance Commander) Minus 14 for characters that you can easily miss (Altuur, Fen Zeil, Fae, & Amity are from Galactic Seasons; Hexid, Ranos, Okarr, Paxton, & Shae have to be bought at one of the GS Token vendors; Lysslo & H2-WF are rare drops (Hive of the Mountain Queen & A Traitor Among the Chiss respectively); Gamorrean Guard, Phrojo Nuray, & Quick Vrik are Event Rewards (Nar Shaddaa Nightlife & Dantooine Pirates)) Minus 1 for Treek (Cartel Market purchase) Keeping every remaining permanent companion from the post-KotFE era results in 30 guaranteed companions (number assumes completion of all Alliance Alerts, Star Fortresses, & the HK-51 side quest). You can only have 1 with you at a time. You can only have 8 doing a task (which must be micro-managed). That leaves 21 - 29 guaranteed companions sitting around twiddling their thumbs at any one time. Thusly I ask you: WHY DO YOU WANT MORE??????? Most of these characters have barely any story to begin with! Why would you want more useless characters?? I would much rather have a legitimate use for all my idle companions before we get any more of them! Like, set them to passively farm crafting resources or something! ANYTHING to give them some form of use when they're not in battle with me!

I don't really need help finding them. I know where I can find some, and I wouldn't need a lot (he's currently at 8, just about to pop 9). I just find it weird that it never gives me the Rogue Cartel Warbot trophy regardless of if I die during the fight or not.

The only way that I see them getting more people into Ops is: 1. Do what you suggest and unlock the 1.x - 3.x Operations for f2p users 2. Provide Story Mode versions that are comparable to the Story Mode Flashpoints (cutscenes, not as difficult enemies, NPC allies that can actually help complete the mission) 3. Ensure the mission releases with as few bugs as possible Paragraph 1: MMOs (with the exception of SWTOR and maybe TESO) are traditionally about grouping into guilds. It's as much a social app as it is a game. If aspects of the game aren't immediately accepted wholesale by the entire community, it gets left in the dust. I would know. The other MMO I play, Warframe, has this problem in spades. From what I gather, GSF didn't immediately jive with the entire community (the controls are awkward at first, the progression is completely different, there's zero chance for variety in builds. there's barely any customization compared to Outfitter, it's solely PvP with no PvE elements that would allow players to get used to the controls or provide some other kind of challenge). There'd have to be significant changes and additions to it, and seven years later, I don't think the current devs are willing to go through that trouble; at least not right now. Paragraph 2: There's zero comparison to be had between SWTOR's GSF and SC. I have no idea why you brought that up. Paragraph 3: Squadrons failed in the way that most PvP console games fail; it had a lackluster Single Player campaign, it was PvP focused, and it tried to push eSports on it's players when it really should have been an arcade-like PvP akin to CoD, Halo, or Battlefront. It it didn't take itself so seriously, it might still be relevant. Plus, it took what's otherwise a niche and tried to advertise it to the masses. There's a reason flight-sim games aren't mainstream. Paragraph 4: At this point you may as well be asking for the moon. If the dev team didn't give GSF any attention in seven years and keeps making excuses as to why they can't add it's Galactic Seasons objectives to PvP Seasons, then there's clearly no interest from the dev team. And take it from a Warframe Player: if the devs have no interest in what you're asking for, it'll never happen. This team is half the size they used to be, has no apparent interest in GSF, and is more focused on QoL, asset modernization, and Story updates.

What it says on the tin is what I'd put in here. Set it next to the existing toggle for making headgear invisible during gameplay. Best of both worlds.

I know subtitles are part of the System Messages, and the "Other" tab displays only System Messages. But I never play with the chat window open. It's distracting to look at, and it never goes away during cutscenes. Having subtitles separated from that would be a good addition to the UI. It could easily be set above the ability bar or mini-map, if it took the form of a widget.

Hm.... Many of the new locations we've been getting post-Corellia have been fairly small or otherwise constrained when compared to Vanilla (and I think Quesh was added afterwards, if I'm not mistaken). Out of the possibilities listed here, the only one I think is at all viable is Ryloth. They could very easily kit-bash assets from Tatooine, Makeb, and Ruhnuk to create it; though it would likely be the same size and linearity as Ruhnuk. If I were to go pie-in-the-sky and wish for something on the same level as Vanilla planets, I'd say Kashyyyk or Naboo would definitely be on my list.