Thank you for your response. I realize my OP is not as clear as it could've been. The tooltips do tell you what icon is what buff, but you can't tell this from a glance, which is the purpose of the icons. You have to rely on hovering over for the tooltip, and we know other aspects of tooltips are bugged, such as the cooldown counter.

Well, if he and others are too busy or lazy to read (I know he's probably being facetious. I've seen him comment on threads tens of pages long, OPs, and replies even longer.) then they don't have any need to comment. In their current form, they are inferior replacements for the old symbols.

Because it's a title. It's called title case. This isn't a scientific paper, nor is it a business report. It's just an argument. You're going to contest this thread because I didn't include a kriffing TL;DR?

The TL;DR is called the introduction and the conclusion. Didn't you learn about arguing a position in school?

The new, in-game Class Symbols that you can choose to display above people's Nameplates don't do their job very well. Compared to the original symbols, they are difficult to read. They are way too specific to discern from afar, they don't color match with their mirror class anymore, and the number of colors and the lack of bold colors make them blend into their surroundings. However, they may still be salvagable. There is a price to pay in design for realism, and that is readability. There's a reason signage in the real world uses basic shapes, for they are easily and quickly identified, understood, regardless of language; and stand out from their surroundings. The new class symbols rely on realism too much. They use complex shapes with a lot of negative space and combining these makes them especially not scale well with size and distance because you lose all the details. This is most prominent on Warzone scoreboards and Group Finder match notifications. The old symbols used basic geometric shapes to create abstract images, and while cryptic in what they depicted, if anything, once learned, they were easily read. Even the new Class Icons (which I abhor in their current form) adhere to these principles! Another aspect that was ignored with the new symbols was the color matching of mirror classes. This helped players, especially new players, identify which Advanced Classes were mirrors of each other, which greatly proved helpful amongst large groups. I don't understand why this was done away with. It's a great way to communicate to new players what classes are related. The number of colors now used adds to the problem of readability. Before, there were only eight colors. Now there are 16 colors. That is a big difference of things to keep track of in sea of people or in the chaos of a Warzone or Op. On the topic of color as well, many of the new icons' colors contribute to their difficulty to read. I have particularly noticed this with the tech classes. This may have been done intentionally with them (the only exception being the Vanguard using white), but there are a few Force user classes as well that suffer from this problem, blending in with the environment. The old symbols used bold colors, if not always bright ones, which stand out much better. Even the ones that don't have a color problem still have the problem of realism over abstraction I mentioned earlier. Since weapons are being used for new symbols, some of these may be able to be corrected as easily as combining the old Base Class Symbols with the old Advanced Class Symbols: Knight - lightsaber pointing up overlaid on the Guardian's shield Others could just use the old Base Class Symbols: Sage - Consular's Force emanating palm Sorceror - The Inquisitor's Lightning hand This was basically done but in less abstract forms, making them difficult to read. [*]Scoundrel - Smuggler's single blaster pistol, maybe minus the credit sign Some just need to be more abstract: Commando - assault cannon, the chevron rank insignia as an indicator of military membership, is unneeded Vanguard - looks to me like the Vanguard's symbol is a carbine, SBR (short-barrel rifle), or a sawn-off shotgun (which seems to be the Scoundrel's new symbol). Most people aren't going to know the difference. A more abstract blaster rifle would be easier to identify. This can already be seen with the Gunslinger's dual pistols, which were the only Advanced Class Symbol preserved, however in a different color which makes it harder to read [*]Powertech - a highly stylized flame, similar to the old symbol [*]Mercenary - a stylized rocket, instead of the realistic one used now I don't know how, but the new Sniper symbol is harder to read than the old Base Class symbol, and it's a more abstract version of the Base Class Symbol. It must be the color. Operative could be a knife and a dart or syringe. The skull is too ambiguous. A syringe could be used to administer medicine or drugs/poison but then the Scoundrel needs something to pair with their blaster for uniformity. Neither of them use darts like the Mercenary, so maybe a kolto canister or medpac. Mercenary and Commando would then need some kind of indicator for healing too for consistency. Other classes will need more creative solutions, such as Assassin/Shadow, Warrior, and Sentinel. Maybe just cross the sabers on the Sentinel like the Marauder? Maybe all symbols would improve with a slight thickening of their outlines. They may not require drastic changes. It seems most Republic classes use circles in their designs while Imperial classes use hexagons, sort of reminiscent of the faction emblems but they break this trend when appropriate sometimes (Guardian's shield, Sniper's reticule). They're mysteriously absent from others. Continuing this trend could help with quick identification of whether you're looking at a Republic class or Imperial class at a glance. Cross-faction PvP and "combat styles" diminish the usefulness of this distinction though. I would much prefer a return to the old symbols than these new class symbols, but with some revisions, they might work. Using principles of design, basic shapes to form abstract images with a limited number of bold colors is far easier to read: https://i.imgur.com/7BC9B33.png I may not know what they are of and some may have taken time to learn what they mean but I can read them. Using complex shapes to make realistic images, each with their own color, some of them lacking in boldness is hard to read: https://i.redd.it/ql8n4lq9mh481.png I may know what they are of and instantly know what they mean, but damned if I can read them.

Sometimes when you have a Class Buff applied to you because of the group you're in, the wrong Buff Icon will display in your Buff Tray. It's usually your own Class Buff Icon but it's not always, so I've sometimes seen three of my own Buff Icon in my Tray as well as icons mismatched with their expected class and buff. This also happens with friendly targets, but it seems to happen less frequently with them less than yourself. I think it has to do with people being a different class from the opposite faction but I'm not sure. I've submitted an in-game bug report on this as well.

Since the 7.0 update, the GSF targeting computer now has a black oval that fills most of it. It's normally transparent. It's really annoying to have to put up with. I have also submitted an in-game ticket regarding this bug.

What did you try to fix it OP? Did you try anything? You give information on the problem, but not what you tried to resolve it. This kind of information will help the devs in solving the problem. Otherwise it discourages putting any effort in to fixing bugs. I tried running a repair. No errors were found. I then tried deleting what I think are the assets paks that should contain the texture: swtor_main_art_dynamic_leg_1 swtor_main_art_dynamic_leg_a_1 swtor_main_art_dynamic_leg_b_1 swtor_main_art_dynamic_leg_c_1 I deleted one, ran a repair to redownload, and then logged-in, because I didn't want to have to redownload too much. Reinstalling the game seems ridiculous and is extremely unreasonable for players with internet plans that have bandwidth caps (which most ISPs have in the US). None of these yielded results. I'm not sure if this set was removed, as it and the MK-1 set are essentially Orgus Din's robes, but other old sets persist through the game, even if they were discontinued. If it was taken out of mission rewards, I hope it will be made available from a vendor for cosmetic purposes like the drops from Commander's packs were.

We are now up to 7.0 and this bug is still not fixed. Not only that, but BioWare continues to feature the Resolute Guardian set on their Knight character they feature in promotions for the game. What should be a professional production is marred by this bug. I don't make any assumptions that this should only take "a few hours of coding" to fix, but I don't know how BioWare can ignore a bug that affects something that is front and center when promoting the game and for so long.

Oh please, you're not sorry. Spare me the niceties. I don't expect perfect balancing, but I do expect something better.

I don't like this change either, especially: Having to pick up the Heroics all over again Having a Heroic lost when I'm close to finishing it near reset time The Heroic Transport staying on CD instead of being reset I can only guess this was done to fight bots, but everything is conjecture without a statement from BioWare. I doubt we'll ever get one. Don't tell players to do them at another time. This doesn't just apply to Heroics but any Daily or Weekly mission. Not everyone is the same chronotype. People shouldn't have to schedule their time around a daily/weekly reset.

The repeating weeklies and dailies have made the upgrade time significantly less though. I remember how slow it was when you just had your daily and your weekly. If the objective was based on wins, it wouldn't improve things. You'd still have people queuing and doing nothing. It takes about 24 hours of constructive flight time to become a skilled pilot. People don't understand it takes time to learn GSF. They didn't learn their classes in a day...unless these are the players that cried there were "too many abilities" and just use a handful of abilities, the ones that finally got their way with 7.0, along with the PvPers crying about TTK. The first season actually drew in a not insignificant amount of players that became GSF pilots, so not all are coming to contribute as little as is required to get the objective done. Some learn about a great game mode they never bothered to try all these years.

Exactly, you didn't have much to say. Is that what you think, or are you saying that's what a rookie will think? I haven't seen a rookie just be concerned with only doing damage. They should be satisfied with that, but they want a kill. And that can be used against them, because chasing is usually a bad idea. An experienced pilot will exploit your bloodlust and lead you into their wingmates to take you out or keep you occupied so you don't actually make use of that Damage Output you just picked up. Aces don't care so much about kills, as there are always more to rack up, usually flying right past you in the furball you're caught in the middle of. There are of course exceptions but the general rule is "don't chase." Rookies need to exercise patience, knowing that eventually they will land that killing blow, especially as their skill improves. It's not all about upgrades, but they certainly help. BioWare actually made the right call in the case of TDM by making only damage medals count instead of kills. Even if all they do is some damage, if they're going to do that much, they tend to want to improve their skills. It's the leeches that spoil matches, which is why there were more last week, because they could in theory do nothing and work towards the GSF objective as opposed to this week.

Alright, I have something else to say now. There is probably a better way to do scaling than what was done, but I don't know the formula they're using to cap stats. This was probably just the quick and dirty way of doing things. A real solution would take more time to calculate and implement with the personnel and resources they have on hand.

If you read the whole thread, I did. Here, let me show you, since it seems you decided to jump into the discussion and judge without any context. It's not like it's a 30 page thread.

Kind of off-topic, but you mean the font in general? It does feel strange, but I noticed something. I have my System Messages set to maximum size in my UI. When they come up, you can see the font used now is the same exact font as used during the credits of all the Star Wars movies. It's especially noticeable with location popups, because the color is the same. The fact it feels weird elsewhere though means it's not appropriate for all uses. If the same font is being used everywhere. The site definitely isn't mobile-friendly. To those people all I can say is, "Don't use a phone." There aren't many fora that are mobile-friendly. They just have to deal with the ones that aren't. When there are that many of a thread on the same topic on the first page, that's just kriffing ignorance and childish "if I yell loud enough, someone will pay attention" logic. Those people need to be smacked with a dead tree edition of the guidelines.* They don't encourage conversation nor facilitate communication. *I am not advocating beating children with this statement.

This also highlights the problems the Ability Purge is causing with content that was designed with abilities that are now removed. Dumbing down companions with cookie-cutter abilities is now also finally proving problematic, which was done with 4.0, but never reared its ugly head before because companions were so powerful. If they had the original skillsets and we still had all our abilities, it would probably be doable, but not without a fight. I wonder now if tertiary stats were capped to combat against bots. We've all heard the suggestion of separate instances, but I've never seen it outlined in this kind of detail. You've really thought this through. I've also never seen a suggestion of using the Veteran's Edge mechanic and tying it into Premium grade armor. That's a good idea, and I wonder if that would be less painful for BioWare to implement. Either way, I think these are both viable solutions. I myself would prefer instances. Choosing to go without armor or your companion, as many have suggested, is definitely not an option, or the devs would have built the game around such options. The only viable option players currently have is the White Acute Module to keep from overleveling content, which was completely optional, but what BioWare did was impose a method of play on everyone whether they wanted it or not. This goes for the removal of content as well such as bonus missions, NPCs, flashpoint couriers, bonus series breadcrumbs, etc. Something they could do regarding companion power is introduce an item like the White Acute Module that would cap your Presence on worlds to match the caps they have set now. I only suggest using an item to debuff because it would probably be more of a hassle to make it a reward for completing each class story. To portion of the playerbase that has been used to getting their way for years, it's not a good feeling to have a change imposed on you that you didn't want now, is it? Is it? Is it? Is it? That's an even more apt description than what I said. I'm putting a reference to this in my sig whenever I get around to it.

What? The fact that humans are animals (rather even if they be rather sophisticated in some aspects) does not justify that kind of behavior in a GSF match by you or anyone. I can't tell if you're being sincere or mocking me in your response. Kills aren't the medals that count, as much as I would like them to, they don't. Only damage and satellite captures and as you already know, sat defense medals count.

That is a despicable tactic, and veterans will hunt you down and kill you. You are being nothing more than cannon fodder and being rewarded for it. This is why there needs to be more of an incentive to go on the offense, BioWare. You get pilots like this otherwise.

Oh yes it usually is, since there are usually upwards of 3, 4, 5 or more on the same topic oftentimes. Most are just too lazy to put in the effort. If one can search the internet and find what they're looking for, they can do it here too. But it also has to do with people being too stupid to use a descriptive title. They often use clickbait titles which fight against using the Search function because I believe it only searches titles by default.

You didn't state any options, so what are your suggestions for making the game more challenging? It should not take until the player gets to expansion content to learn a basic concept like interrupting. Its importance should be taught soon after you were meant to learn the ability. At launch, players either learned how to use their abilities or had a really hard time progressing through the story without getting a group together. No, they didn't ask for it to be done by capping tertiary stats. BioWare has repeatedly dumbed down the game, and if they wanted to nerf companions too, then they should've just went back to them getting stats from gear. If they wanted to blunt the power of abilities, they could've done that by adjusting damage dealt, damage reduction, and increasing cooldowns, not purging abilities. That was the lazy way out. It's like dealing with a malicious genie. "You said you wanted to be rich. You didn't say anything about being happy." "You said you wanted a family. You didn't say you wanted a happy and healthy one." "You said you never wanted to have to worry about money. You didn't say anything about being rich or in control of your life." It should be known by now that any requests put forward to BioWare need to be extremely specific, so as not to leave any room for their own interpretation. Thanks for quoting me out of context. Full quote below to show your motivations from quoting me out of context. No one ever asked for tertiary stat caps. Mob HP was not changed. The world mobs were tuned for difficulty from launch. The "bullet sponges" you speak of only came into existence with KotFE/KotET. The only thing that changed in the open world was players and companions could become so OP from overleveling, they could tear through them without ever getting through a full rotation, which started with 4.0. I don't agree with it being like this once a player has cleared content, but I don't I agree with unfolding a chair and cracking open a cold one while your companion wipes the floor with enemies either. And I don't agree it should be like this before a player has cleared content. The only problem is they removed abilities from everyone that the original stories were tuned in mind for so now content is as artificially hard as it was braindead easy before.

No, that is not a choice. One should not have to handicap themselves to make the game challenging. There should be an amount of innate challenge built in because you otherwise get players that basic attack through the whole game and don't even know what an interrupt is. No, they wanted the game to be challenging like it was until 4.0, especially the boss fights. They didn't ask for stat caps nor for an ability purge. This is BioWare twisting the words of the community as usual. They really should've seen this coming though. The community rarely gets exactly what it requested from BioWare. Almost every time, they don't even get it in the slightest. Why this happens is probably obvious, "This is easier" or "This is the only way we could do it." Well if it's the only way BioWare can do it, maybe they should run it by the players first. Isn't that what a Public Test Server is for?

It would help if people could follow the guidelines and not treat the forums like Reddit or Discord. They can't follow simple directions and use common sense. No wonder why they campaigned for the ability purge. We had to fight this kind of idiocy to get the Bonus Series Bug fixed. Even though this is the Bug Reports forum guidelines, they really should amend it to the General and Suggestions Box forums as well. They are all polluted with redundant threads that dilute information across tens of threads sometimes. How does anyone expect BioWare to go through each thread and record the useful information out of them, if there is any? Do what Bug Report guidelines say, search before posting. If a thread already exists, contribute your experience with that bug or add your support to a suggestion, etc. Don't be concerned with necros. Forums retain knowledge and chronicle events. It's not a conversation in real-time. No one should care about necros if they have something relevant to add to the discussion, seriously.

I haven't noticed that defense and capture medals are only for certain tiers of each but I haven't been tracking that closely. I agree, the criteria are ridiculous. It's pretty brutal, even for a vet. All medals count for Warzones. Assist medals should count, because if you're getting Assists, you're doing damage. I'm a GSF vet and a pretty damn good pilot, but I've never seen a medal for 40K damage from myself or anyone. The highest I've ever seen is 30K, and I consistently do more than 40K. That has to be a typo. If you get team deathmatch, the best you can do is three medals if you're good. Woe unto rookies. These objectives are made for vets with full knowledge of flight tactics and upgraded ships, even though making the daily and weekly repeatable has shortened the upgrade time now. In domination, it all depends on the flow of the match, if you're good and your team is not utter bantha poodoo, you could get three for damage and maybe two more for defense or capture. It all depends on how good or bad the enemy team is and how much satellites are contested. To get more than eight medals in domination is rare, to get more than ten is almost unheard of. I've gotten gold only a handful of times because the circumstances of the matches have to allow such domination. By rewarding just defending and capturing, you are incentivizing pilots to just hold position on satellites and do nothing, because there's no effort needed other than to hold the satellite, so even if the team is losing, they are guaranteed something. And if they go on the offensive (which you need to do if you only hold one satellite if you want to win), they actually risk losing medals that they were guaranteed if they just held their position defending. Losing teams should want to win and winning teams should want to do everything to secure victory. There needs to be more to motivate action in domination that leads to contesting satellites. I've already seen behavior changes to over half the team sitting on satellites for their medals in some matches. Making Assist medals count would encourage more activity in these matches because then you're not penalized for going on the offensive. If BioWare is worried about abuse, we pilots are much more aware of kicking leechers than PvPers are, but the only action that a leecher could exploit is sitting on a satellite that isn't being contested for the Defense medals, which can already be done.

There is quite a bit of original music that was made for the game. Like all Star Wars games before it though, it does use a lot of music that was written for the movies though. I do not know the legalities behind this, but it must be complex for streaming, as a developer gets permission to use the music from the copyright holder. But I guess that does not extend to reproductions of gameplay which can be very annoying for people that want to show accurate reproductions of their gameplay. I'm not a lawyer, maybe a lawyer can clarify. And OP, your title is awful. Tells me nothing about what this thread is about.