I'm a new player (joined this September) and that's exactly the position I find myself in. There's loads of content - good content - so I'm having a great time playing this. Dunno how many people like me they will have found, though. I can perfectly understand old-timers being frustraded, though.

I agree. This is a spreadsheet-driven move if I ever saw one. It looks neat on paper, it might even save them some bucks by centralizing support, but it's a hassle for players. Why add another layer of inconvenience to players seeking advice after they naturally come to the game's site?

You're not the only one. I think Alderaan is one of the blandest planets in the game.

I'm pretty anal about immersion (that's what this game does best, given the focus on story), so I haven't recovered any of my lost companions via console. My JK will move heaven and heart to find her Padawan Kira Carsen, and is worried about what Lord Scourge could be up to, so I want those to find those companions "within the story" and not via the console. Doc can rot in hell though.

I think that lowbies and highbies just don't mix well, and not necessarily because of inexperience (god knows I have played with some uncapable 65s). A bolstered lvl 20-30 tank - no matter how good the player is - can't keep aggro against a lvl 65 that has access to a full rotation, while the tank will be using basic attack for a lot of time, and will lack a bunch of aggro skills. It doesn't work unless the lvl 65 holds off, which makes FPs longer, harder, and ultimately a chore. I know "you're not supposed to need a tank", but if you don't have a healer (which is most of the time, in my experience), you want at least a tanking class to keep encounters under control. I understand the efforts behind the FP changes. FPs pop now way more often and that's a good thing; turning them into a frustrating experience 50% of the time isn't.

7.5/10 recommendation rating for Star Wars fans. The 1-50 story experience is still pretty great, in spite of the failings that come later (I'm digging the KOTFE story a lot, but there's not much to do after that).

It's not hyperbole if it is true, sadly. When I queue a tactical, I often get grouped with a plethora of low levels and no healer. Now, I don't mind new players, it's not that I'm such a vet myself, and I embrace trying to help them enjoy the game. But even with the bolster they lack a significant amount of necessary abilities, and that coupled with inexperience makes things even harder. Add to it the lack of a healer, and you're in for a fun ride (not). I have had far more tacticals break up than HMs, that is a fact. 90% of those have been due to lack of a healer. When I queue an HM, I get a group of lvl 65s and a healer (I'm the tank). With players of comparable skill levels, that alone is enough to make it easier. Enforce group roles in tacticals, and we're golden. People will then stop trying to game the group finder to get a "good" group.

Or maybe BW should just fix the group finder so proper groups are formed. I find tacticals harder to complete than HMs these days, due only to the terrible groups that get formed in tacticals.

All my characters were at influence 10 at Kotfe start, which was the maximum you could have. So I really didn't have an opportunity cost attached to invest in this or that character. That said, I beefed up Beniko to lvl 30 because I like her and I wanted to have her around as companion in quests, and T7 to lvl 35 because he's my Jedi Knight's most loyal companion. So I really haven't min-maxed companions that much. Korth Vortena is a **** and won't get a single gift from me, though.

I'm 99,99% sure that all of the companions that you recruit outside the main KOTFE story (SF companions, alliance recruiting quests...), are safe too.

Kira Carsen had some lines in KOTFE for my Jedi Knight, in the prologue. So yeah, she's in there. Asking for her fate is an option in one of the Alliance NPC dialogues (forgot which one, might be Yuun), so I'm sure she's set to reappear.

It happened to my trooper alt. I killed myself in Coruscant, in one of the Justicar areas, and it felt so disturbing that I headed straight to the appearance designer to change how I looked and shake off the feeling.

Your past LS or DS decisions in the JK story are acknowledged in Corellia, since they dictate which characters show up supporting your assault. It's not technically the same as the OP is requesting, but I personally loved it.

After 5 hours I'm at 99,5% (fingers crossed) and my net stats utility is telling me bitraider has downloaded 2,3Gb so far. I don't believe for one moment this is a 2Gb+ patch.

I'm on Red Eclipse and I'm still patching. I wish I could get angry at all the companion changes because that would mean I was able to experience them.