Republic side on Ossus. Character has completed all prior storyline content in the game. First mission (The Lost Colony) is impossible to progress because I don't see Tau anywhere in the mission beyond the very first cutscene on the planet. I've done exactly what the mission asked and am supposed to talk to Tau to continue, but she's nowhere (I'm guessing she's supposed to be my companion). In fact, my companion menu is completely broken while on Ossus. Numerous companions show up twice, etc. I've submitted a bug report and created a ticket in game with zero response so far. Hate to be the guy that plays this "card," but I've subscribed consistently for about 4 years now. You guys have been working on this patch for 6 months? Maybe more? What on earth is my money going towards? I can't progress past the literal first mission of this content that the dev team has been bragging about for months. Everyone in general chat right now is chiming in that they've experienced some sort of serious bug since arriving on planet. What is subscriber money going towards, exactly?

Wow. All of us here on the forums (and in game, for that matter) aren't used to such open and honest communication from a developer. Thanks for that! (A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one) The things you mentioned that are scheduled for the June patch are huge. Most of us have been asking for some of those things for years, and almost all of us have been asking for an easier way to get full set bonus gear since 5.0 was released 6 months ago. These are very, very welcome changes. In case you happen to read this reply, I have a quick but important question. One of these changes addresses the problem of companion influence, which we've been asking for since 4.0. Are there any current or future plans to allow us to customize the new companions' armor (Lana, Theron, Senya)? Additionally, will any of these new companions ever see their own customization kits released? The community has been asking for a response on this for a year and a half now, and to my knowledge we haven't received a single one. Thanks again for the honest communication, Keith. This community has desperately needed, and even deserved more communication from the dev team for a very, very long time. We're really looking forward to your roadmap, as well as the rest of the changes you have planned for the future.

You said most of it there yourself. The state of a game's community generally reflects how the game and players are being treated by the developers. Most of us are very passionate about the game and/or Star Wars in general and want the game to succeed. We've spent a lot of money to support this game, and most of us actively tried to make suggestions towards the devs on how they can improve the game. And yet, despite a very passionate community who have been more than willing to support and improve the game with both word of mouth and our wallets, we're met with: an endless stream of bugs (some of which haven't been fixed in years), constant server crashes and/or lag problems, a focus on cash shop updates and very lacklaster actual content updates, lack of communication from the dev team, bad idea after bad idea that pisses off 99% of the playerbase, fun aspects of the game that have been completely forgotten and left to die, etc. I could go on, but the longer I type, the more I want to go and cancel my sub right away. With all that said, it's no wonder the community here is so toxic. If anyone feels like getting even more depressed over this game, go check out the forum and reddit pages of games like ESO, WoW, and GW2. Those devs actively try to communicate and make the game better for their players, and as a result those communities are flourishing. Yes, there will always be a certain amount of toxicity on game forums...but this game has it worse than any other game I've played, and it's because to BW/EA we're nothing but dollar signs.

TBH I'd rather they take their time and bring back the force sensitive companions when they can be part of an actual story and play a big role. Ideally we could also make some conversation choices that will determine if companions like Ashara or Jaesa turn out to be light or dark, What I don't want is for them to rush to return the force sensitive companions, like they did in 5.2 with Elara and Quinn. Those two companions were, by far, the most disappointing return out of any that we've had so far. I really don't want to see the more important and impactful companions returned in such terrible fashion.

Lots of misinformation being spread in this thread. The Iokath Operation is NOT part of the main storyline. It is NOT required. It will NOT have any effect on the main story moving forward. It's for people that want to do Operations only. Yes, it is tied into the main story, but you will be able to finish the main story and continue it when more is released in the future without ever touching the operation. Hint: The Operation mission isn't a Purple Mission, like every other main story mission is.

I agree completely. I was pushing for a new daily area on here and reddit for years, and I was so pumped that we finally got a new one. And yet, now that it's here, I don't have any reason to go run dailies. The republic side armor is terribly bland, and the imperial side is just a tiny bit less bad. All the boosts seem cool, but the price for buying a single-use walker is so insane that those clearly aren't worth buying. The mount is pretty cool, but that costs less than a single-use walker does, so I'll probably buy that and be done with it. Where are the cool armor and weapon sets that people would actually want to grind for? Where are the new dye and crystal schematics? Decorations? Companion customizations? Anything remotely worth our time? I guess they don't want to ruin the nickel-and-dime gambling experi--.....I mean Cartel Market experience for their players. We all know that everyone here really wants new Cartel Market stuff more than anything else right? (/s)

I agree. I think Lana was handled well in the Iokath story. She was really only used to set up plotlines, and our characters had a few nice lines with her if we romanced her. They clearly dropped the ball with Elara and Quinn though, big time. One of them should have joined up with our alliance and then become our main companion for Iokath, and then other should have been given some legitimate closure (as was promised in the livestreams). It's too bad...I was frantically trying to get my Vanguard up to the Iokath story so I could reunite with Elara. I don't think I'm even going to bother now. I agree that Profit and Plunder is a good benchmark for how returning companions should be treated. Lana and Theron are used to set up plotlines, and then we spend the rest of the time with our returning companions.

Devs, when you do bring Kira and other main companions back, please do it better than in 5.2. Quinn and Elara's "return" was hardly a return at all. One of them got three lines and magically appeared in your contacts window, and the other vanished into thin air and is presumed dead. I've heard their returns were lackluster even if you're playing a warrior or trooper character, although I haven't played either of those classes through Iokath yet myself. Most of us thought that we'd be running through the entire Iokath storyline with Quinn or Elara at our side, but instead we got Theron (who we've seen more than enough of for two years now). Please do the remaining companions better justice when they finally return. (I will say though, I really enjoyed how Lana was handled in this chapter if your character romanced her. I'd love to see more of that in future storylines.)

Replayable companion conversations, conversations for new companions, and the ability to put new/old companions on your ship post-KOTFE are things this game desperately needs.

Yikes. Haven't tried this for myself yet, but I really hope it's just a bug. BT and Essles were great for getting both CXP and crafting mats. As you said, without the CXP, now it will just be pointless compared to running any other flashpoint. Why....why do we constantly have to endure these stealth nerfs that serve no purpose other than to give the players less options for having fun. Devs, please just let us play the game the way we want to play it, without trying to dictate and herd us into only playing the game in a very specific way. These stealth nerfs that take away player options really need to stop.

Yep. I enjoyed the rest of the new story, but Quinn and Elara were handled poorly. Their "return" was very, very lackluster. I didn't think I had Elara as a companion at all until I saw her in my Main Companions window.

I enjoyed the story quite a bit. My only complaint is: Other than that, I thought it was all very well done.

^^^ This is the proper way manage/produce a game. Well done, Keith. We're looking forward to hearing more from you in the near future.

This bug has been around since way before 5.0. I think it dates back to at least 3.0. So to answer your question OP, no, it likely won't ever be fixed. The devs either don't care enough to fix these types of bugs that have existed for years now (as usual), or they don't have the manpower to make these types of fixes while also working on content updates. For those that don't know, the bug is almost completely random and happens when you use the console to shoot back the ship as it's powering up the main attack (screen reads something like "ship ability has reached 200% power"). When the bug occurs, the ship remains back there and continues to build power without being able to be interrupted, until it essentially one-shots all the group members. It's much more prominent in Master Mode FPs, where you can't just DPS the boss down super quick. There is in fact a workaround for this bug. Everyone in the group has to use nothing but their basic attack (serious) while you focus on taking down the ship. After shooting the ship back 5 or 6 times, it will finally crash and not be an issue anymore, and your group is free to burn the boss. This workaround leads me to believe that the bug occurs because some groups have strong enough DPS to take down the boss's health quicker than what was originally intended, and since the ship's power up is likely based off of how much health the boss has, that is where the bug occurs. This is why we've seen this bug occur so much more in 4.0 and 5.0, because the level and health scaling wasn't accounted for properly, and most groups take down the boss quick enough to trigger the bug. If any Developers happen to be reading this, take notes.

Well said. Mirrors my thoughts exactly.

Is anyone really surprised at this point? Is delaying a single patch to fix major problems a big deal? No, but we've seen this happen time and time and time again. Can anyone legitimately name a patch in the last 2 or 3 years that wasn't either delayed or littered with game-breaking bugs? The players have come to expect incompetence from this dev team. Many of us were saying "I bet 5.2 will be delayed too" last week when the twitch stream was delayed. I just wish they were held responsible for their actions like any other MMO. The game would likely be in a much better place than it is today.

Honestly, ESO is fantastic. It's not a typical MMO like WoW or FFXIV, but it's spectacular for what it is. I tried it a few months ago and haven't looked back. It will likely become my primary game once I finish the content in 5.2 (which, let's be real here, will only take a few days to complete). So I agree with the OP, ESO is absolutely worth trying out, especially during a free week. With that said, this will be moved to Off Topic right away.

Name checks out.

Good point. I think they could definitely add stronghold mechanics to ships without interrupting or breaking cinematic scenes. They would just need to make it so that there aren't any decoration hooks where your player or companions stand during cut scenes. Problem solved, everyon'e happy. Also: new galaxy map looks solid. Looking forward to using it.

I don't disagree that nearly every ability in the game is useful in the right situation. I use every single ability that my shadow and merc have in pvp. The point that myself, and I think OP as well, were trying to make was that excluding situational abilities like roots and stun breakers, there are just way too many abilities in general. Does an engineering Sniper need 5 dots, 3 aoes, 4 defensive CDs, 6ish various utility abilities, and all the other primary attack abilities that the other specs have as well? There's plenty of room for pruning there without making it too simple or reducing situational effectiveness. I hate to use WoW as an example, but it's perfect for this situation. They used to have terrible ability bloat, but they made it so that each class's specialization only receives the abilities that are most important to it. The rest are removed and given to the other specializations that require them. All or most of the situational abilities remain untouched. A good example of this in SWTOR would be: Arsenal Mercs keep blazing bolts, and unload is removed from the class all together. So Arsenal gets to keep an ability that is essential to its rotation, and it's removed from IO and Bodyguard in favor of those disciplines focusing more on their respective roles: dot management for IO and healing for Bodyguard. A quick and easy fix like this for every class would reduce the ability bloat significantly, but still leave us with enough abilities to react to any given situation.

I dont play anywhere near as much as I did pre-5.0. The cinematics and gameplay for the KOTET chapters were fantastic, honestly. Every other aspect of 5.0 was/is terrible though. I'm a major Star Wars fan that played this game religiously for years, and 5.0 just made the game so stale for me. The 5.0 changes made it crystal clear that BW's only focus is to make as much money as possible with as little effort as possible, regardless of how much they upset their playerbase. I'm staying subbed with the microscopic hope that 5.2 and beyond will bring some life and fun back into this game.

Can confirm. Only reason that thread is still alive is because people log in daily to post "hey everyone, isn't it wonderful that we all love a character who tried to betray and murder us??" To each their own though.

From what I can tell, the problem isn't melee classes being broken and/or too weak. The problem is that the two Flavor of the Month classes, Merc and Sniper, happen to be ranged and are insanely overpowered right now. I have no trouble doing up against Sorcs or other melee classes as a shadow, but going up against a merc or sniper is just stupid right now. Mercs have cleanse, pushback, rootbreaker, rocket out, and three heal-to-full abilities, while still putting out some of the best dps in the game. Snipers have root, stun immunity, aoe slow, knockback, leap-forward x2 (can't remember the name), some of the best defensive CDs now in 5.0, and also put out some of the best DPS in the game. I think melee is in a fairly good spot right now, but going up against either of these ridiculously OP classes is just asking for a beat down. Too bad we aren't getting any class balance changes in 5.2. They're desperately needed.

As the title suggests. Currently there are a number of different vendors and items in the game that are impossible to access without Cartel Market Certificates. With the exception of the people that hoarded them, these haven't been available to players in nearly three years now. I would take this suggestion one step further, and also add Cartel Market Faction reputation to Command Crates as well. Most of the old packs that gave CM reputation tokens are no longer being released and haven't been seen in years. So we have vendors and items in the game that 95% of the players can't access because of outdated and forgotten tokens/reputation. Many of these items are highly sought-after and would give players a reason to grind galactic command.