That's weird. It sounds like there's a permissions issue somewhere -- this happens sometimes when a game doesn't have proper Read/Write authorization to a file. Maybe Bioware flagged the files with the wrong permissions? I rebooted but was able to log in with no issues. My launcher is set to run as admin. I use Bitraider. How is yours set up? Really curious to know if this is the issue...

Try deleting your Bitraider file (Program Files x86 > Electronic Arts > Bioware > Star Wars The Old Republic). The game should verify, then download the patch. Just did this and got in. Now, there's a new minimized window in the middle of the left side I can't get rid of. But I'm in

I'd give a platonic hug to some of my favorite companions during their Alliance alerts. My warrior would have totally hugged her lil sister Vette. My trooper needed to hug Elara. My consular and jk needed to hug their padawans. Same with my smugglers when they finally reunited with Akaavi.

Friends of Old is absolutely way out of whack-- I've done most of the vanilla Imp heroics after 6.0, and this one is probably the roughest. I'd even argue the open world part of the Sithspawn quest is too hard for a new player. Those gundarks hit like mack trucks and a newly minted juggy crumples like tissue paper. New players don't have defensive cooldowns or interrupts, or any skills at all really. Bioware seems to have forgotten that not everyone plays at max level all the time. Starter planet content shouldn't be balanced for high-level players. It needs to be tuned to what a level 17 player can survive.

Confirmed. I thought it was a glitch a couple of weeks ago, but I had a second repeat last night. Please fix this! Sub-level 75 players get no XP whatsoever from this flashpoint aside from bonuses.

I can confirm this on the Republic side. Been running a level 55-60 sentinel through Battle of Rishi, Blood Hunt, Korriban Incursion, Assault on Tython, and Legacy of the Rakata. I haven't gotten any gear drops at all since the last patch. On the Imp side, I ran my level 72-75 juggy through Boarding Party, and Korriban Incursion. I've received standard Ossus gear on her-- but lots of tanking gear for a DPS toon.

Pub side contenders-- maybe: Nar Shaddaa: The Morgukai. Lots of golds and high-value silvers at the top of level sync. Most of them are pretty well clustered and distributed. But they're in a confined space and the golds have a really long, annoying stun. Works best with a stealth melee toon. Lab Animals: All at-level silvers, but there are lots of them and in decently spaced clusters. They're great AOE fodder, if you've got a decent companion. Shadow Extraction: Again, all silvers, but there are tons of them. Gobs and gobs. They're also pretty nicely clustered. Hoth: Humanitarian Aid: A good mix of at-level golds and silvers. Nothing too particularly annoying to kill either, even though it takes a while. Frostclaw: If you want lots and lots of mobs plus some variety, there's a mix of everything from champs to golds, silvers, and lots of trash. The trash is really annoying, though, with mini-knockbacks that come five or six at a time. Corellia: Starfighters of Corellia: Nicely spaced and a good selection of silvers and golds. TBH, I'd go Humanitarian Aid

You really love theorycrafting, don't you? That's awesome! Me, I see all the choices, spreadsheets, storage tabs in legacy, and my brain short-circuits. Then I start going catatonic Right now, I have three tabs in legacy. One is mostly Onderon stuff if I ever feel like taking the rest of my 70s to 75. Except I'm using the DvL set and I'm going to be sharing one set of 306s at max, so I should probably just vendor it all. One is companion gifts. The third is random all-toon access, including more jawa junk than I know what to do with And I already feel overwhelmed with that. I hit 306 last night-- finally! *does happy dance* I'm skipping sets and fine-tuning because it's too expensive and there's way too much to wrap my brain around. So, aside from getting the rest of the weapons to 306 for my 75s, I'm going to finish crafting 228 kits and augments for those pieces and call it a grind. *does happier dance* No more Conquest! No more endless flashpoints! No more boring dailies or heroics unless I'm broke! It's ALL DONE

I'm going to have to start doing this Seems like a huge time and logistics saver. Right now, I dump off my next-lowest piece into my cargo hold so that whatever 75 toon I'm trying to grind for frags or Conquest on can help herself. Kind of annoying.

Are you using Takenna on the Imp side? The vendor behind the big desk. The lotto vendor is pretty much going to always give you an upgrade unless you get one of those moddable pieces. Then, you might get a downgrade if the RNG on the mods doesn't favor you. Rip out the good mod, or disintegrate the piece. Otherwise, if you get a fixed-stat adaptive piece, it'll be a significant upgrade over what you're currently wearing. Stay away from the Unidentified Equipment piece at 250 frags-- but slot-specific unidentified stuff is usually a pretty sure bet. I'd estimate your chances of getting a useable upgraded piece at over 95%. Ex. When I was at iLevel 303, the RNG vendor was giving me 306 upgrades from my 302s. You're far away from using class vendors, Kai Zykken, or any set bonus stuff. Don't even worry about that until you're at 305 or 306. Most of your gear at this point is stuff you're going to be wearing for a day or two at maximum as you progress through the ranks. Right now, I'm at 305, with three or four 304 pieces remaining, and most of that is thanks to the RNG vendor. The solo path takes longer, so you have to be willing to jettison the kinds of wisdom that work for people who grind group stuff heavily. The first thing to get rid of is the need for certainty. That's just going to hold you back in the new gearing system.

Ugh. Seriously? Figures, though. It feels like a very Bioware kind of a move. What sucks is that all of these little buffs that make the game less tedious and more playable happen at level 75, when you really don't need them. I feel even more sorry for new players now.

You know what I miss? The supercharged speeder quests from Ziost. Those are still a lot of fun I'm not sure why Bioware stopped making them in favor of walkers and mouse droids.

Do you think that urging people to dump more money into SWTOR is going to encourage Bioware to post more frequent content updates? Either way, whether unsubbing or opening our wallets, players have little to no impact over the decisions of our EA and Bioware overlords.

This week was really solo-unfriendly compared to last week. Almost every objective was either a) expensive in credits and mats or b) geared toward high-end group content. I managed to do it on a few toons anyway, but I feel like my soul's a shriveled husk The best bet always seems to be dailies-- CZ-198, the Black Hole, and Yavin all pay out pretty well in CXP despite not being objectives. I think I got half again as many CXP points on Yavin alone as I did trying to do the False Emperor flashpoint.

The big one-- you're not getting anywhere solo without spending tech fragments. So get ready to hear your favorite lotto vendor shouting at you at least once a day. My main is iLevel 303 now with some 306 pieces, and it's because I'm using my legacy and rewards across multiple 75's to fuel her. 1. Story Flashpoints. And don't do multiple flashpoints in a row. This one's kind of weird. Pre-patch, I'd been grinding the first two bosses of Vet. Red Reaper because I'd get a decent drop or two. Post-patch, the drops dried up. I was solid gold, iLevel 302, but I was starting to see purple 290s without a single hint of gold. So, just to check, last night I dumped Red Reaper from my quest log and ran Story Korriban Incursion, then Story Legacy of the Rakata. Korriban got me two 306 relic drops off the last boss, raising my iLevel to 303. Legacy of the Rakata got me one 302 piece (I'm working on 304) and one mod at 300. The rest, really low-rated purples. I think Bioware sneaked in some kind of anti-grind algorithm into rewards to keep us moving through content. So if you love flashpoints, you're going to have to mix it up. But based on getting gold rewards from story mode, I'm thinking trying to grind vet stuff isn't worth the stress anymore. 2. KOTFE/ET chapters You get a "story crate" from each one when you complete it, except ch. 9. My JK got a 300-rated piece (think she's at 301 overall) from one last night. So it's possible to get decent level gear from them. 3. Conquest + Renown crates Both give you tech fragments to gear your main. If you see one of your 75's close to the next crate, grind it out if you're close to 325-350 frags. That's a new piece for your main. Plus, if you're running old dailies, you're going to ding at least a couple of crates and a few hundred more frags in the process. 4. Onderon dailies/weekly This one got mentioned already. Pub side is less grindy than Imp side now that they fixed the crashed ship daily. 5. Treasure Hunting Oops, mentioned above me. Sorry!