I wish to convey my gratitude and most heartfelt thanks to the SWTOR team, the developers, community members, and all others who dedicated their time and efforts to helping resolve our issues. Speaking for myself, I especially am relieved and very happy to be able to return to my Home away from real life, to find that so far all seems to be well. Thank You BroadSwoard especially for putting up with our complaints and criticism while doing everything possible to resolve issues for us and keep our favorite game running, we are lucky to have you and it shows. ☺️

I spend the Lion's share of my gametime in my strongholds these days, acquiring decos's, crafting for creds, working for acquiring outfits, and a lot of the solo minded type content, 10+ years sub account as well but I have surprisingly little to show in my legacy tabs in content outside of how I like to waste my time here. - as to say I haven't really ventured out and accomplished even close to what some players could likely accomplish within a year. so it's not like I would really have a lot of ancient or archived items/chievos/titles, obsolete content etc... I do think it all is related to our in game settings or something we can't effect out of game, and how that does/does not interact with changes they make relevant to things like cutscenes, cinematics, in game lighting, 'the force lightening', ambient lighting etc... As a lot of noticeable changes have taken place recently like when all the lights were turned back 'on' or 'up' significantly on deco's, speeders, crystals, certain armors and the like that restored them to what they were previously or better. but with that being said..., was there a reason they were dulled down or turned 'off' in the first place? During Bioware times in the 'Onslaught' expansion in particular I remember a similar problem happening and soon after it was like turned the lights off, and it stayed as such until after the 64bit client patch, then to the following patches when Broadsword started restoring the shine and shimmer to things that had been dull for years. Mek Sha is another example of this IMHO, sooo many surfaces and angles, sooo many lights, graphics sinks, and processor vacuums. I cant get any of my deco's to get along in my Mek Sha SH, like they are fighting eachother on the programming level or something... 😑 as an edit, I'd like to add that this (Onslaught) was also the time when a number of mysteriously unavailable and unresolved decorations like the Osuss 'Void Crystal Container' and Ossus 'Shifting Crystal Container' (both non existant outside of list) showed up in the master list of decorations as Reputation Sourced Decorations. Every time I've scoured the internet for additional info about these it has always been a dead end, not to say others didn't go searching as well, but that their endeavors were never successful. To my eyes this seems relevant and possibly pertinent to current issues as there are a handful of visually exotic items recently introduced like the Metallic and Pearlescent Dye Modules.

I don't know what to think of it all either, too many examples across relevant threads do make logical deductions for any one 'single' cause. Perhaps to imbue some levity on my perceptions I'll change up the setting and maybe let's imagine our favorite game is like a used car... with a missing owners manual and an incomplete or missing vehicle history report? maybe even a salvage title? Guy who just bought this car is trying to install performance parts and a new engine designed for a newer make/model just to find he's not able do it and his SAE tools aren't adequately fitting the Metric nuts and bolts every time he lifts the hood to pull an old part out... Maybe the game is best as an analogy to an apartment building....... I intend absolutely no offense to BroadSwoard whatsoever, but this feels like they are the 'new' landlords of our apartment building, and Bioware are the 'old' landlords. Perhaps there were some holes BW slapped a fresh coat of plaster and painted over, or patched with duct tape instead of fixing it the right way before change of ownership? And the other side of that coin - BS maybe didn't inspect the property or ask as many questions as they should have? New owners are always met with surprises whether they occur naturally with time or were inadequately repaired in the past, But nevertheless I am grateful for Broadswoard and their efforts to keep the lights on, water flowing, and heat available for when its cold. As a paying tenant I don't have the access to Structural Blueprints, Utilities Diagrams, or warranty information on the appliances in my unit either... but does the maintenance man have the tools, resources, and information he needs to get things fixed? Are there enough maintenance people to fix mine as well as an unknown/increasing number of other units when they all go out at the same time? How long can a landlord tell a tenant to wait without water while we work on getting it fixed before the landlord should bring in additional help? Do the owners have the blueprints? When the Landlord installs new fancy lights in the lobby, it causes our units' start flickering or not turning on at all does that warrant telling the tenant they need to go buy all new custom designer halogen or xenon bulbs to match? No... I think logically the new fancy lights are the problem and they didn't wire it up correctly, its not the budget friendly energy efficient bulbs in the tenants rooms. I don't want to sleep in an vacant unit without my belongings, bed, clothing, etc.. I want my stuff. If I am locked out while the landlord is doing maintenance in my unit, I don't want to be told to sign a new lease on another unit while I wait, and I especially don't want to move into a different unit without being able to bring all of my belongings with me. And if my unit burns up in a fire as to destroy my belongings, my renter's insurance is supposed to re-imburse me for damages, but that can't replace everything.

since 7.4.1 7.4.1a was the 'join the fight' bundle speeder fix (again) patch

In my case (as I posted a few days ago here), I was able to play (Intel400 integrated 128vram) for a few hours before the common load screen problem. The outfit I legacy unlocked after first logging on after 7.4.1, and was character cycling to spread it around my toons / servers was The 'Covert Energy' set - complete set. leaving my newly outfitted toons in new outfits as a reminder to myself as to what I was last doing on that toon. I was doing a few other things - mostly acquiring the new stronghold from the track on multiple servers but with recent posts here I feel this to be a relevant question. I know it's an old set but could adding pieces of the covert set to dozens of toons across 4 servers in a few hours be a factor? It wasn't the equipping of this armor set that was my catalyst but was within just a few minutes of the last action I performed before inability to reach my character screen/login ever since. Prior to 7.4.1 I only had the Covert pieces on 1 toon on the Satele Shan server, but after 7.4.1 it went to the following: Darth Malgus - total 30 toons, 6+ of them newly wearing some covert pieces as current outfit---> ( I was on this server when acquiring this threads issue) Satele Shan - 11 toons, 6 '''''' Star forge - 6 toons, 1''''''' Tulak Hord - 4 toons, 1 ''''''' so every toon I just put the covert pieces on is currently wearing pieces of the set on the character select screen, given the intended use for the set as a way to 'hide' the equipped gear in any certain slot, I wonder possibly that if it is an outfit issue - How many of us have multiple toons wearing any/all parts of it on a few of our toons currently? I'm not intending a roll call necessarily but maybe a thought about that set itself as it is much more unique in its qualities? In addition, most of my toons on all servers have at least 10+ outfit slots unlocked, some close to 20 outfit slots. and only 12 of these toons (on Malgus) and 1 Star Forge are past shadow of Revan expansion for relevance if this has anything to do with content involving companions in new Date nite content.

I would hope at least an extension on remaining subscription time, and/in addition to an extension on term length of new Galactic Seasons track to equal the time between 7.4.1 patch and actual real resolution of this issue. And as a due diligence - taking serious consideration of what caused this problem in the first place before any other patches, game additions, new content etc... that may cause it to happen again. It's an understandable idea that future content can only involve technology updates and be reliant on largely what's considered to be benchmark levels of tech, but it's always going to be a fact that existing, new, and future players (especially paying customers) can not be expected to go out and pour money into their machines just to play a game. Accessibility I think has been the saving grace for this game in the past, I and likely many others feel a general tone of elitist apathy at times in game or in forums sometimes when these issues happen to our favorite game. The fine line between cutting edge improvements to the game and maintaining the longer established and loved content here may be blurry at times but we know that many games have come and gone by the wayside because they became exclusive by proxy - and I hope that doesn't happen to this game any time soon.

@ryuteki if you are referencing my post about when I got my new PC yesterday - I purposely DID NOT transfer anything from my old PC with what you said here being in mind. But I wonder if when I downloaded the game from swtor.com and entered my credentials to begin the installation from the launcher screen if that pulled my accounts files from on to my computer... Now in hindsight I wonder if I should have just created a new account to download the game first, then after seeing if I could play a new account,... then attempt to login with my account. But from the large number of others in this thread with relevant posts about making new ones and comparing the results I don't think I would have had success. I truly think its something I (we) could really only access or change in game. 😑

I feel like our accounts are being sand-trapped somehow? I had posted in a different thread that mine WAS working at first after the 7.4.1 patch until I was trying to help my friend who was not able to play at all after the 7.4.1 patch. Immediately after 7.4.1 and servers came back up I was able to be on long enough to gather enough conquest points to acquire the corpero SH via new GS on the 4 servers (TH, SS, SF, Malgus) I have multiple toons on, so probably 2 or 3 hours, -on my old PC intel4000 graphics hp manufactured in 2013. But I'm not trying to draw attention to my hardware... But to the fact that I was on and acquiring new items brought by the patch until my friend contacted me asking for help. - The last thing I did on my account - in game - was turn conversation depth of field off in my graphics settings, then proceeded to switch characters. <--- This is when I was plunged into limbo with the rest of us here. only progress I was able to make at all was to server selection screen while servers were down for 7.4.1.a - then back to splash screen limbo ever since. I have done all suggested to me directly from the others here, customer service, updating and/or installing drivers missing or needed for the aforementioned specs etc. I did make a purchase for CC's redeem code from amazon after seeing the new items available, but all I had purchased in this small window of time (immediately after 7.4.1 and changing my depth of field setting) before limbo was an outfit unlock (legacy) and was retrieving that outfit on the other servers as I was starting the tracks to the point of acquiring the stronghold and speaking to the co-responding mission NPC. The toon I was on when helping my friend was in the Mek Sha stronghold when I changed my conversation depth of field before attempting to switch toons. My friend and I are both modestly holding on credits in game - less than 500mil on any given server but are sitting on recent purchases of unspent CC's, I would hate to think it were a possibility that our CC balances or credit amounts would have anything to do with this issue ; but aside from other unlocked items/achievements/collections/titles/reputation/ etc.. I can't fathom why its affecting some of us and not others, because in my case it's not switching between pcs and hardware that has been the catalyst, it was changing one setting AND going from a handful of CC's to a larger amount to blow on new items and legacy unlocks whenever this is resolved. 😔

Thank You, I remember when game downloads used to let you know what else your PC needs to run the game correctly. Glad you are willing to help. 🙂 ---> now 18 ish hours later 'my edit' after installing directX and 2nd install on new pc after ^ my original post in white, still no change. I getting the cinematics I haven't seen since first getting into the game 10 years ago before freezing in splash screen still.

I took these past 2 days as a sign, - to do what I've been putting off for a while and went and got a new PC. Setup new PC and downloaded the launcher from SWTOR .com, entered my credentials in launcher and waited while it downloaded the game (took 5 hours on new PC, 8 on my old) - Now I cant even get to the splash screen. When the launcher just comes up, enter my creds, click play, and the play button fades..... but nothing happens. tried repairing the launcher install, and am now re-installing the game again... all specs on this new PC (manufactured 2022) are way past minimum system requirements for swtor, running windows 11 all up to date in every way. Could it be related to something older accounts may or may not own or have unlocked that could be causing this? Collections Items? Strongholds? Achievements? Location in Story Progression? Boosted Characters with retroactively reacquired companions from Odessen terminal? These are some but not the only things that existing accounts have that new accounts do not yet have, and that other older accounts may or may not have either. I have the Mek Sha Stronghold on multiple servers for example, and in the 4.7.1 patch notes it stated small hooks were an issue being addressed in that patch. If the issue addressed in that stronghold's hooks would change how I had mine set up could that create a non compliance? Forgive my layman understanding/lack of deeper knowledge of these things I just had to put this out there as a potential "Why" some accounts work and others do not now. Wish Us Luck!

Alas, now that servers are back up, can't get past Splash Screen. 😔

For the sake of this being seen and to bring light to one of the potential problems causing this issue. For my account it was only 'conversation depth of field' that caused my problem. When I turned it off in game after update I could not return to character selection or past splash screen upon restart. today after going in to the settings file and setting it back to 'true' in the settings file I can now see server selection again, once servers come back up I'll know for sure but I think it's solved for me. Worked for my friend as well.

I found these ^^^^^ last few posts to be more helpful than 2 solid days of customer support, I too can now see the server selection screen finally (servers are down for mount patch). Curiously mine was the 'conversation depth of field' had to be set back to 'true'. back to what I had it before the game stopped working for me on Tues. -----> But, now that servers are back up it has gone back to freezing on splash screen Thank you everyone in the Community for some options!

In my case, since the 64bit client update last year all patches have become a nightmare and massive time sink for me, I've had to re adjust my graphics settings every single time they've included a new 'optimized' default setting for graphics in the patches. I understand my older pc is part of my problem but it is within operational range. It seems when they alter graphics tooling for cinematics, etc.. it is causing more frequent issues.

As I've been reading the larger thread about this issue - the talk of intel graphics being affected more than the others - in my case may be part of my issue, however I was able to play fine after the patch until I was helping my friend who could not play at all after the patch and started changing my graphics settings in game to see what would happen. My dinosaur pc is Intel4000 graphics and I have to keep all settings at a minimum for smooth gameplay. It was 'CONVERSATION DEPTH OF FIELD' I turned off that caused my freezing on loading screen, progress wheel spins for a second or two then stops. Programs stops responding then windows prompts to either close the program or wait for it to respond, Have to ctrl/alt/del to close it.