OR, you know, they can simply dismiss their companion if they think they're too OP and is making the game lazy and uninteresting... And the rest of us can have the companions' usefulness restored

If you find that pool of data to be too limited, perhaps open the PTS to Preferred too, and every once in a while, act on PTS feedback. This will save you time and money, and us players - potential disappointments. As to the changes highlighted in this post, they are a good first step, but also more changes will be needed - FIXING THE CONQUEST, removing the currencies caps, incentivizing playing on multiple alts again and un-nerfing comps are the ones off the top of my head.

Well, in 6.x, while doing Story Mode FPs on a 306 gear toon, I got a plethora of 270s, sometimes a 302, or a 304, the crafting satchels and maybe a deco. So from what I can tell by reading your experience, nothing has changed. For current gearing, I see Vulkk has made a pretty good guide, so if you feel like reading, check it out. P.S. Both 306 and 312-320 etc, are Bound to Legacy gear, so you can transfer it freely to your other toons as they go through their stories.

I meant Story Flashpoints, not class or chapter story, sorry for the confusion. I was replying to this post: Otherwise yes, the KOTET/FE and Onslaught do drop some handy crates with a significant bump in iRating, as well as the new storyline dropping the 312-318, which are almost instantly obsolete as you can buy a full set of 320s after getting your first character through Conquest. I did upgrade one earpiece to 324, tho still haven't gotten my implant and I don't know much about afterwards. I guess I'll find out in ~16 days

Isn't "Last 30 days" the past 30 days period on the calendar, irrelevant of months? Also, why is there a decimal on the player stat, that seems odd, considering a player is always 1. I can't be 0.5 of a player, I'm either 1 or a 0. In that sense, what is a -6.9 players or -79.3 players, or whatever the numbers

Story always drops junk. If you want to gear through FP, you'll need to do at least Veteran, preferably MM. But that was before 7.0. Currently I don't know what it drops with the 320+ gear introduced into the game, but if it still drops your current iRating+x, in time you will be able to upgrade it.

To be fair, this right here really is the problem, it's not having fun in SWTOR with friends because of SWTOR, it's having fun in SWTOR because of friends. Yeah, I feel the same. I've been playing since late 2017, and I've been sub'd on and off. Every time I could afford to, I was supporting this game. Up until now, I've never felt the need to post in the forum. Every expansion until now I found was OK, or good, and even liked some of them. I haven't mind things changing, things being removed or replaced, because they were always (and this is only my opinion, based on my playstyle, not forcing it on anybody), being replaced with something that was equally as good, or at least acceptable, that in time managed to become the new norm. But this time I find it different. Everything feels restrictive, and I feel like I'm being punished playing more than the allocated 5 toons (the resource cap thing) and wanting to play content that is different from the narrow selection of the week. I'm predominantly a solo player. I don't do Ops, I never liked PvP, only did it to progress in GS1, and I'm not doing it in GS2. I never particularly liked the GF FPs, maybe we'd run some with my guildies off the GF, did my Story FP, and that is it in that department. I enjoy GSF and welcomed that it started popping with it being added in GS, but I can't be playing that all the time. So I did my story, finished it on all 8 classes, did some heroics, leveled my alts, participated in the events, crafted and decorated my SH. I used to play 4-6 hrs a day, every day with some few exceptions, and vacation times. I've also had some full days playing, 12+ hrs on a weekend for example. I loved the game. Conquest has always been a big part of my gameplay, I loved the rewards, the sense of accomplishment, and our guild has an amazing internal rewards system that adequately rewards effort, so I did my best, and put 10+ characters through conquest every week. The changes to conquest are a big deal for me. I'm not even allowed to choose the activity I want to do, in order to CQ, or if I do, I feel like I'm wasting my time and efforts. So I have to force myself to like the choices being made for me. The reason this was done, from what I've read is in an attempt to solve the economy issue. And it is my own opinion that the 6.0 crafting has a lot more to do with price increase than the conquest rewards. I mean yeah, sure, conquest has produced 6B credits in game (afair), but far more than 6B has passed through my account from selling T11 crafted goods on the GTN in the past year alone. Are we saying that I got all the moneyz in the game? No. It's a chain reaction and restricting resources, increasing the difficulty and time needed to collect and/or make them, only makes them more expensive. And ofc if 1 heal stim is costing 1 mil, you're gonna increase the price on whatever you're selling, to be able to afford it. But I digress... All of the above is said to illustrate my personal point of view that the amount of effort required in 7.0 to do some basic things like conquest and gearing is far greater than the rewards provided, and I'm questioning the need to put myself through it. And we have 6.0 to compare it to, so this only makes things worse. Perhaps if we could have all of the dailies and all heroics back, and were free to choose from them, it would make things less bitter. The solo play has become a total slog, the grind and the tunneling and monotone repetitiveness of the very few things available per week is anything but fun. I guess if you don't do conquest, this point will be "whatever" for you. If the intention was to make us play slower and achieve less, then I guess mission is accomplished?

They do offer compensation to ppls with the Ryzen issue. Nothing for the rest of us with incompatibility with the UI. Which is understandable, it could potentially open the door to a lot of exploitative behaviours, but nonetheless .. it sucks to be us rn. We can probably return to playing the game after March 22 (-ish). But the chore factor is off the roofs, while the entertainment factor is barely there anymore, and I'm not sure I personally will ever love it as I did pre 7.0. Please, please, please, BW, do something about the fun, would ya?

Thank you, for posting some details about the updates. For all of the people who shared additional problems with the UI (not only for its high contrast), I do hope you'll be addressing their issues as well. 👆 Also, this right here made me feel a bit worried. And also speechless, considering the state, in which that new UI has been released, and the overall UX we've been getting from it. In addition, would you also comment on the new system, that vastly feels punitive and restrictive, instead of appealing and FU* (which has vastly become a dirty word in 7.0): - No more than 5 alts? - So should we be creating new chars and playing with them? - What about my old chars and all the ones that can't do conquest because ... 👇 - Conquest is harder and grindier to do (the rewards don't show for it) - Leading to guilds suffering, but especially small guilds - Being tunneled to play specific curated content, instead of what I feel like playing on that day, w/ that toon. - Feeling punished if I play something else, by getting meager rewards. - Also taking away our quick travels to planets. What are orbital stations for, anyway? - Shared tagging is cool, but what about the clickies that take X minutes to resp? It sure is fu* to wait in line. And you should see the lines, oh, they're magnificent! - Neutering companions, I mean, why even bother with them anymore? - No self heal and comps being a little more than a talking pet at this point? Erm ... - Things take forever to clear. Even white mobs. Yay for them, I guess? - This reminds me, I have an active sub that is being wasted, because it's physically hurting me to play the game. Got any suggestions? But back to the new system ... - Skill tree at the top is very unbalanced. I'm forced to make either a big sacrifice, or any of two other big sacrifices and the result is an old lady with a worn out gear that sometimes jams so she gets knocked in the teeth by the weakest scum in the Galaxy. I heard repairing the gear has gotten more expensive, so .... economy problem solved, I guess? Compare that to the powerhouse my char used to be with their shiny 306 gear, actives and passives, the carefully mixed and matched gear bonus, mods, amplifiers (gee, these were sooooooooo expensive! So expensive .... so ... it still hurts how expensive, I can almost cry. All gone!). I felt like on a treasure hunt, looking for the right mods. And now... The new gear doesn't even have a green arrow to it, it's so anti-climactic. I just have to play whatever you tell me to play, burn a bunch of resources bc they're capped, and slowly and painstakingly grind my way to another green gear with no green arrow to it ... Multiply this by X alts we all have and you get ... you guessed it - not Fu* And we're coming to my next point, why do I need a Senya statue anymore? It was good popping the trainer and reading and understanding that new skill, and how it ties with my other skills. Now I didn't even know I progressed in that department. For a vet player this may pass as a non-issue, but add 7.0 skills into the mix and I'm at a loss what's happening. Can't imagine what a new player would make of this. I'm sure there are plenty of other problems with this "new vision" for SWTOR, but as I haven't played past the first week, this is all I've got. Luckily, other people have documented their experience in plenty detail and the information is in here, in the forum, gen chat ingame, as well as I'm sure, social media, DM/s, and PM/s. Like you said, you have plenty of data. Bring the Fu* back, please! It would be great if we can get some insight on all of this. Thanks. (P.S. I feel like I should point out that Fu* = Fun, so this post doesn't somehow get unnecessarily moderated)

My bad, there's this post here: https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=1003579 So the UI is getting the contrast reduced, and hopefully there will be additional changes in the 200+ fixes, mentioned to alleviate more than just this one aspect of the UI problem. March 22nd, cross your fingers, guys 🤞

Sooooooo, still no word after that Feb 25th post?

I would agree with you they ought to close the account/disable access to the services, if they didn't also offer a F2P access to the game. So why not instead just revert the account to a Preferred - that was exactly what I wrote, but with your coffee analogy. You assume a scammy behavior (get a service, but don't pay for it), while I assume refund and revert of services no longer in use due to mismatch in the offered product and what the client can safely use. If you want to call this cherry-picking, then I don't mind. Edit: P.S. We can agree on the UI needing changes, and at the same time disagree on their refund policy.

....eeeeexept the 3 players responding positively in the "Is anyone actually liking the new UI" topic

@Kryptonomic, thank you for putting into words what was lingering in my mind unshaped and unable to come out. I completely agree with you on all accounts

Actually, a more accurate scenario would be: you go to McDonalds to get your coffee, but they have started using a new additive to enhance the flavour that is not announced. You instantly get seasick/massive headache/massive migraine, but whether you knew that you would get a reaction, or not, is irrelevant, because you were not in a position to make such informed decision in the first place. Naturally, you make a request that either this is changed to the old recipe, or any of the safe options from a list you provide, so that you, and the group of people who react to the substance, can continue to safely drink their coffee. After all, this is a health hazard, and bad for business. You request that if they insist on using this substance (after all, it's their product), a warning be issued so people know to avoid it, but every employee in the store, in management, in their online community etc. is ignoring you and neither happens. You've joined their new subscription program that allows you to prepay your coffee for 6 months ahead at a discounted price, but since you can no longer drink that, you request a refund and that you'd be reverted to their free coffee program instead. This is literally the nature of what's happening. I fail to understand why you're so outraged by this, truly.

I had to actually select your text just to be able to read it. But to be fair, the solution to the UI problem is not necessarily to revert to the old UI (which I personally don't believe will happen). It's enough to make some small tweaks, really. And this is not a difficult thing to believe possible, after all, they have changed it a few times over the years, the very thing we're discussing now is subject of a deployed change ... - For the contrast issue that causes eye strain, phantom vision, queasiness, headaches and migraines, I believe it will be enough to stick to the old colour scheme with the textured background and the low contrast and not focusing on empty space. - Tweak the the coloured outline and overlays to help with item's visual identification - Revert to the old fonts, or at the very least, increase the size of the new ones so they're more easily read. - Repair the unfortunate dots that cause some people with certain conditions anguish. These are of the top of my head. Please feel free to add yours to the list, or correct me if I prescribed something wrong. This will allow most of us to return to playing the game. They can take their time later with the tabs, the drop downs and the scrolls and what not issues that do not prevent people from playing, if they want to.

Wait, you get banned for a refund????

Currently it's in the known issues bug list.

Don't forget, you defeated the Immortal Emperor ... And his children .. And then the Immortal Emperor again, all three of him.

a) The same cyan border is added to the quickbars, which are constantly on display in the UI. The difference between the Qbars and the inventory is, that when the Qbars are empty, they're not being highlighted in cyan, only if you already have an ability. (I personally love how the brightly coloured ability icons work with the cyan, just, muah *chef's kiss* - yeah, this is subjective, I know, but it's bad design and I'm calling it out). Also the overall contrast there is not as high as with a black background (like the inventory). In my case it still adds up when I play for a few hours. - All of my characters (21 total, but 14 active across all servers) now have their abilities changed and rotations out their respective windows. My Qbars are jumbled up, barely anything is where it used to be. So I do have to interact with the ability tree and muster some form of rotation, that is being changed as I go. Whether I liked it, or not, I have spent collectively couple of hours staring at the skill tree and quickbars in an attempt to find something that fits the way I fight. - The GTN also has some of the new "improvements" applied to it, but it's only partially and it looks more like a mistake, than a conscious decision (mind you, no UI designer would ever consider this a finished product! I can go on and tell you about all the things a proper designer would never, but that's not what you're asking, and there are plenty of posts describing just that, it's a good read). Every time I open the GTN, the inventory also pops up, and if I don't need to sell stuff, I either close it, or hide it behind the GTN's interface so it's out of sight. b) I do have to do some inventory auditing, whether I like it or not. I squint as I do and I find myself only briefly keeping my gaze on it, and then moving my focus elsewhere. Spectacular user experience, I know. After playing for some time, the inventory fills up, and while I can auto-sell the junk, I can't do that for the gear and/or other random drops like companion gifts, decos, medpacks, stims, materials satchels, etc, plus my daily login and GS2 rewards. - This new gear is still too unfamiliar for me, so I have to read up on it and decide if it's a keepers or a goners. All the gear that is to be kept for this char, or an alt, is separated, the rest is crushed for mats. - Do you remember how easy it used to be to determine junk from valuables? Now I actually have to read everything to find out what's what. Even if it's not an issue for anyone ... it's still a very poor user experience, and needs to change just based on this account. - Another time I need to interact with inventory open is when I create a loadout. Until I gear up (assuming that I keep playing enough to do so), I have a loadout with my augmented 306 gear, and another one that I update as I obtain new gear/shift lower end pieces to alts who do the same. - Also I GTN stuff on multiple alts - everyone has their trade and their niche, and I can't do that with a closed inventory. I haven't timed my interactions, but as you see, there are things unavoidable. Even after I finish up with my fighting styles, gearing and loadouts, I'd still have to interact with the inventory to clean, sort, consume, venodr, crush, mail, GTN, archive stuff. Assuming I .. you know .. keep playing.

Vendor is cheaper, as per usual. Last I looked was was around the time a hypercrate was worth 200M - and some gift types were selling 0.5-0.7M/piece. People were buying them, too. I have no idea about current prices

I generally have higher sensitivity to light scenarios than my family members, and most of the people I know. I also have myopia and astigmatism and I'm sure these are the contributing factors to my reactions to the new colour/contrast scheme they use in-game. I end up so fatigued, my eyes nope out on me after I've played for some time. I have lingering specters of the bright UI objects afterwards. All this straining and my brain being unable to compute is causing me headaches. I sleep more than the usual to alleviate the fatigue - nothing else being changed (I'm a creature of my habits). I didn't log in last night and woke up at my usual time. I too have never had complaints in the five years I've been regularly playing for hours at an end. Nothing else changed, but the 7.0 and the new UI changes. Other people will tell you they have migranes, some have phobia attacks form the dots, creating a honeycombing effects, others have difficulty reading the new font/font size. I have no idea how many people are affected, but I've made sure to make my case known with Bioware/EA - in my cancel subscription form, in-game ticket, PM's to the devs, and here in the forum. I guess if anyone knows the exact number of people affected, it should be Bioware/EA, if they care to count them.

They have companion gifts? These can be GTNd if you don't need them, the gold ones esp are being sold for ridiculous amounts. Not that I have any idea how to handle 3200 crates

So is there nothing in these acts that require the game developers to provide a safe environment, or at least warn about potential harm if their product is used if they don't care enough to provide a safe environment? I'm not interested in suing, I'm not even a US citizen, I live half way across the world. The majority of us here are looking for ways for this UI problem to get acknowledged, and fixed.

So apparently there's this thing called "The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines", or WCAG, which is a standard for "requirements to improve accessibility for people with disabilities". So yeah, they're kinda obligated to provide a safe environment, independent of whether you choose to participate in it, or not.