All these assignents, and so close to Christmas! This really is the final straw, I swear my uni hates me Will be back at the end of this semeseter. ...What did you think this thread would be about?

It's what I do. I;ve never onced asked for help. The majority of the worlds information at out fingertips, yet people would still rather complain when they don;t understand something.

That doesn;t necesarilly void the previous point that players should understand how to play their class. Heroics should (and still are) be able to be soloed by a reasonably skilled player with their companion. Can we stop using Bipolar to describe things? Thanks.

http://dulfy.net/category/swtor/4-0-class-guides/ There you go, all the help people need. Will they stop complaining now?

But crap isn't taking longer, you can now level to 50 just by completing the SOLO content for planet and class stories. Heroics are optional, and the rewards from them aren't necessary for levelling or completing story content.That's significant faster than pre-4.0.

They don't want to be helped. Those people generally are here for the Star Wars IP only and have no interest in learning how MMOs work as they seem to be under the belief that being somewhat decent at these games is reserved for only the nerdiest of basement dwellers. They want to solo everything, even content that isn;t meant to be soloed, and will refuse any offers from players to help.

This threads primary intent is to discuss the fundamental aspects of the games gameplay. Companions are a part of that, but those arguing for god mode companions seem to take issue with the gameplay in general. That's what I hope to discuss.

Those examples are things we can change. We can;t change the gameplay because it was designed to be the way it is. It's how the game's engine works. The only way to change it would be to make an entirely different game using an entirely different engine and if that's what you want, this isn;t the place to ask for it. And I did leave when the companions were OP. I take my own advice, unlike some.

I like the idea a lot. As pets are Cartel Market items, it might make sense to sell 'Pet name tags' on the Cartel Market in the customization section, which will hopefully give Bioware a reason to consider it.

I like this idea a lot, but it seems like something that would be better saved for the next major update. I can't see them rushing to implement it. Hopefully more people will like this idea and they'll keep it in mind for when they do.

A lot of people are complaining that they no longer have god mode companions. Whilst we can all agree they could do with a little boost, a lot of those complaining are unwilling to offer sensible solutions. Companions should match the player in terms of stats and damage/healing output and exceed that with appropriate influence and presence levels. Here's how I think it should happen. Item levels should be calculated and give a seperate, new stat reading (which we'll call gear score for now). An example of how this will work - a player is wearing gear with a 216 item rating in all slots, adding that up will give a gear score of 3024. This score will be used to determine the companions stats so that, at base level, they will have similar stats to a player wearing gear of that quality. Companions stats can be improved further with influence and presence. This way companion progression is tied to player progression, giving players an incentive to gear up and ensuring companions will always be at a similar level of strength as the player character. A secondary suggestion (to help players new to the game) would be to give the first character first time players make a buff or token of some sort to improve companions stats by 50% (until the player reaches level 50) to help them through the story. This buff or token would be available to the first character players make on each server. This would be in addition to the above change.

The companion nerf isn;t really what I want to discuss here. If people don;t like the gameplay, why are they here? What do they actually want (other than for companions to carry them through the game)? The game is what it is, that's not going to change. It doesn;t seem fair to me that so many people who don;t enjoy the gameplay want to spoil it for those who do. Yes, the game isn't challenging, but you know what? I like the different classes, I like the abilities, I like learning my rotations, I like boss fights that require actual input and strategy (timed interrupts, etc). And so do a lot of other people.

I seriously doubt many of the people complaining about the non existant grind have ever played another MMO.

If you're burned out from the grind (which is practically non-existant compared to the majority of MMOs, especially with the revamped levelling) then just take a break from it until you feel like playing again. It's what I do. Once you stop getting enjoyment out of it, it makes no sense to continue. It makes no sense to play if you don't enjoy the gameplay. It's like going to a Cantonese restaurant and asking for a big mac, what's the point of going if you don't like Cantonese food? I want to see suggestions that will improve the game for everyone and build upon what's already here. It seems a lot of players want to completely revamp the entire game and turn it in to something else entirely.

Well unless Bioware decides to port the game into a new custom engine, the gameplay is going to stay the same. That's a fact. So yes, I do have a bit of a clue about that. There's a few threads at the moment full of people saying how much they hate the game. Does it make sense for them to be here? Does it make sense for Bioware to listen to them?