While I was at work earlier, I was formulating a well thought out response. Now that it's almost 5 in the morning that I begin this comment, my brain is weary and I'll try and make this as brief as possible. GC should never have been the main path to gearing. If you'd have kept the old system in place and added GC as free crates as a thank you to your loyal customers (with actual useful/fun things), your customers wouldn't be in an uproar. Sure they'd be complaining that there wasn't any meaningful new content, and they'd be right to, but the grumbling would have been minimal. First off, every op boss should drop off gear tokens. EVERY BOSS should drop gear tokens. Even if it's just one token per boss except for final boss dropping two. This whole bosses have a percentage to drop gear thing instead of all bosses dropping gear is just your way of gating us to keep from getting gear in a timely manner. We know it. You know it. You know that we know it. HM FP bosses need to drop UCs. Actually everything part of the game needs to reward UCs. Make UCs the new coms with a new name. Also final bosses of HM FPs should drop 230 non set bonus gear. This way players can get thier T1 ear, implant, relics, mainhand, and offhand from doing HM FPs. People like doing group content and seeing loot drop. It's just frustrating doing group content and bosses only drop cxp boosts and occasional crafting material. Next, the GC crates. The pink elephant in the room. The only gear that should drop is tier gear. But not the gear itself, but it should be unassembled tokens. This way if we get a duplicate gear drop we can use the token to either have a secondary spec or to get tier pieces to our alts through the legacy gear. The rates that tier gear drops should be increased dramatically. By the time we hit T2 command rank, we should be within a piece or two of a full set of tier 1. Now what else should be in the GC crates. I'm sorry, but the empty orange gear that is currently in the crates is just downright ugly and just plain unwanted. You did change it so the empty shells are boe so they could be sold on the gtn, which did give me an idea that would make the GC crates so much better. The GC crates should drop random items from all the CM packs. From the first packs all the way to the present. Armor, weapons, emotes, regens, mounts, you name it it should be available as possible chance to appear in our crates. Bronze, silver, gold and dare I say platinum items should all have a chance of appearing in our crates. You already have the code in place to do this......chance cubes. I learned in college when studying programming, reuse code when you can to make things easier on you. You have the system in place to do this, it would just take a tiny bit of modifying. This would bring the fun to GC crates. Imagine the bragging rights in fleet chat when someone gets an unstable peacemaker's lightsaber out of a crate. As it is now GC crates are full of useless junk. Add to this, every week offer a whole shipment of packs/hypercrates for sale in the market. Start at the first shipment and go down the line till you hit the most recent shipment then start it all over again. Every week, rotate the shipments out. Once people start getting armor pieces from way back that wasn't available anymore, they may be willing to buy packs/hypercrates from that shipment to complete the set so they can unlock it. Granted not all shipments are going to be sought after. Some weeks you may not sell as many, but really, now much resources does it take for you to switch out available shipments every week? Fix GC. Make it an added bonus instead of the main path to gearing. Drastically reduce the costs of UC to buy gear. Add UC to all grouping content and things like dailys/weeklys. Increase drop rate of tier gear in GC crates. Make tier drops in crates unassembled gear tokens. Get rid of the crappy greens/blues gear in crates. Put items in the crates that we actually want. OP bosses should always drop gear. Stop making us depend on RNG for getting our gear. This wasn't as eloquent as I originally planned, but I hope I still got my point across. You all need to fix this, and fix it fast before you lose even more subs.

I was missing the game and grouping with my guildys so i re-subbed for a month. I've checked out the expansion and I'm not pleased with the cxp system. I have a lot of alts that I like to play, but with this system, i'm forced to play one main or i'll be stuck in Tier 1 purgatory for the rest of the year. People complained that this expansion isn't alt friendly with the grind, and what did we get as a response? 3.5 million per character perk for a 10% bonus. are you kidding me? That is just insulting. I've been thinking of a way to make this cxp system work for alts and what i've come up with is leave the command ranks on each character as is and make Tiers legacy-wide. Each character gains ranks separately, but their cxp gained will all add up to a legacy Tier. This way no matter what toon I'm on I'll be contributing to gaining enough cxp to reach the next Tier. As the system is now is way too grindy even one toon, let alone having many alts. Now back to that perk. 3 and a half million credits per toon for a 10% perk. I had to type that again to emphasis just how ridiculous this sounds. Who in their right mind would pay this for that meaningless "perk"? This should be a legacy perk for say 1-2 million account wide that stacks with the command xp boosts that you buy with command tokens. The legacy perk should be boosted to 15% and stacks with the command xp boost for a total of 30% boost. The command xp boosts should be a permanent boost not 2 hours. Keep the boost to per toon and it stays on the character till you hit rank 90 for the first buff then buy the second buff and it lasts until rank 190, then buy and apply the last buff. Prices should be 25/35/50 for the permanent cxp boost. Personally, I would like to see the CXP system go away altogether, but I know BW isn't going to let that happen. But I'm not happy with the system as is and until BW truely makes this system alt friendly and listens to their customers to ease up on the grind requirements, I'll not spend another dime on this game. I already work a full time job and i'll be D@ed if I have to put in another job's worth of hours every week to be able to gear my toons. This system should never have been setup as the primary source of gearing toons.

Found and old 55 page rant post on the shroud's encrypted datacubes, with bioware responding ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey everyone, Our plan with the Encrypted Datacubes was simply to see if packs would be another avenue of getting story content in the game. It will always be the Cartel Market teams goal to look for new and interesting things to add into the Cartel Market which are not gameplay impacting (avoiding pay-to-win, etc.). With that being said, we have heard your feedback loud and clear on this and we have no plans to place the Datacubes in the Cartel Market in the future. Thanks! -eric ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was so much hate generated by these items, why would they still have this in the grand toy pack? Not to mention its all old story that anyone can watch on youtube.

I haven't opened it, so no idea if the rewards have been changed.

Was the grand toy pack. 100CCs. Was hoping for a kolto strike, but did get some nice regens. This shroud's didn't make sense that it is gold con considering the reward for each cube is very lackluster.

I just got one of these out of a grand toy pack. It's purple con with what looks like the gold emblem. From what i've read, it's just a quest to watch a shroud video on nar shaddaa and rewards choice of Major Experience Boost, Major Valor Boost or Credit Boom.... Was this item changed at all? Why is something lame like this a gold item?

While I love the fact that I can get a set of elite armor for my companions by doing the yavin weekly, the fact of having unmodifiable companion gear leaves much to be desired. Everyone's Mako and such looking all the same other than dye alterations will make everything....uniform (pun, indeed). How about making the devoted items modifiable, but making each mod have the requirement of being usable only with said companion. It is the same concept of armoring and barrels/hits being only put into their prospective place once pulled, just all three mod pieces bound to companion type. This way we can have the nice equipment for our companions while still being able to create different appearances for our companions. Also, having the mods only usable on our companions will stop people from ripping the mods/enhancements and putting it into their character's armor.

Well, Bioware, it seems like you wanted feedback posting your intent with the new changes and you got it in spades. 59 pages in just under a week. I really hope you've learned something from this endeavor. It really looks like you all are out of touch about just what is really broken with this game that needs needs an overhaul. The vast majority on this thread are complaining, and we are for the most part saying the same thing(s). Before 1.4 hits the PTS, I suggest you all go back to the drawing board and rethink what your vision is for this game. Time to put ego aside and do what's best for the game.

Of course i've played with the options menu for this game. I have my toons set to show legacy surname.

Not cool, Bioware. One of the main draws of gaining a legacy name was that it is yours and yours alone. If someone saw you on your alt and saw your legacy name, they'd know its you. Now, any tom dick or harry can have the same last name making the legacy name mean absolutely nothing? Bioware, are you intending to tick off your loyal customers that have stuck around since launch?

Overall, I'm very disappointed with the direction of this proposed patch. "Electro Dart and Cryo Grenade now have a 10-meter range. Electrocute and Force Stun now have a 10-meter range." These i can understand, they can be abused now with being insta cast 30 meters can be a bit much. With this change you wont have quite as many chain stuns in effect at once if they have to be up close to cast them. "In addition, while Overload and Force Wave make for great escape abilities, they have done so previously at a cost to the overall PvP experience. What we want for these abilities is to create distance between you and your target(s), but what frequently occurs is a bad experience for incidental nearby enemies that aren’t your intended target(s). Jet Boost and Concussion Charge behave similarly, but they are limited to the Mercenary and Commando. Changing them has a less effective impact on the game, and those Advanced Classes play better with a stronger ability on a longer cooldown. Overload and Force Wave have been redesigned. These abilities now knock back all targets within a 15-meter 120-degree cone in front of you. Furthermore, these abilities now knock back all potential targets instantly; they no longer wait for an animation note at the end of the ability animation." This is just bad, bad... incidental nearby enemies that aren’t your intended target(s) ?? I'm sorry, but any enemy around me in a 360 degree 8 meter radius is my intended target. As others have said, you're making getting away from enemies even more difficult than it already is now. A lot of the time it is enemies behind you whacking on your behind that you want to put some space between them and you. So now, to knock them back I'd have to stop running forward... turn around and moonwalk slowly, activate force wave, then turn back around again to run away.... how in the world is that supposed to help my survivability? OK, you've extended the knockback area of effect 15 meters......only in front of me. Guess what? Being that the enemy was in front of me, other than cases of ledges and the enemy being slightly off to the side being knocked off said ledge, I'm still going to have to run through the enemy to get where I'm going. Looks like Jet Boost and Concussion Charge are going to remain the same because those abilities are only used by 2 classes "Changing them has a less effective impact on the game"? Are you kidding me? Really? To be clear, No, I don't want mercs and commandos to be nerfed in the same way consulars and inquisitors are having done to them. This nerf to cosulars and inquisitors is going to be very detrimental to their survivability. The only positive thing with the change is enemies getitng knockbacked instantly instead of after the animation runs its course. "We’ve also made adjustments to the Resolve system in Game Update 1.4. We’ve adjusted the gain logic of Resolve such that simultaneous and overlapping control effects no longer linearly add together their Resolve gain values. Instead, using a crowd control ability on an already controlled target now applies reasonable Resolve gain values by comparing the incoming control effect to the greatest of existing control effects." My biggest gripe with pvp is getting chained stunned by multiple enemies and die without even being able to move 5 meters before dieing. This change is going to make this much, much worse. So having "reasonable Resolve gain values" applied is going to mean the enemy can chain stun a target many more times before the resolve bar fills up. This is going to translate into targets rarely making it to the goal line unless they are getting solid heals. You should really be looking into diminishing the effects of multiple stuns at once, not allowing more stuns to happen before the resolve bar gets filled up. "Mercenaries and Commandos now have a 30-meter interrupt, Disabling Shot. This ability interrupts the target's current action and prevents that ability from being used for the next 4 seconds. This ability can be trained at level 18." This is a welcome change. Mercs and Commandos are like the red-headed stepchildren being the only classes not able to interrupt. "Afterburners/Concussive Force: Rocket Punch/Stockstrike now immobilizes the target for 4 seconds instead of knocking it back. Damage caused after 2 seconds ends the effect. The knockback previously caused by this skill generated enough Resolve that it was actually detrimental to the Mercenary/Commando’s ability to further escape the attacker." One of my strategies in Huttball is to stockstrike an enemy off the ledge that's waiting there by the firepit. Or in voidstar knocking them off the bridge. Yes, it sucks when getting knocked off ledge/bridge, but that is the risk one takes standing on a ledge/bridge. How about adjusting how stockstrike/rocket punch gererates resolve instead of taking away our knockback. If this change goes live, I'll be specing out of concusive force. It's not a matter me saying don't change this or else, I'm just informing you i'm not going to put 2 points into the ability if there the knockback for stockstrike isn't there. The 4 meter extra knockback for concussion charge is nice, but i only speced concussive force because of the knockback for stockstrike. I'm not going to get into the healing changes because I hate healing and avoid that role like the plague. I'll leave the feedback on that subject to the healers out there. "Polarity Shift/Mental Alacrity now additionally grants immunity to interrupts for the duration. Improved visual FX to demonstrate this effect." This is a big boon for sorcs/sages, but my big concern is trying to kill a healer sorc/sage is going to be near impossible during this duration unless there are multiple targets beating on him/her. "In the case of Infiltration/Deception, the spec’s fragility was of great concern to many players, insofar as it didn’t encourage the spec to contribute well to lengthy fights or lend support to teammates." In pvp it was very frustrating killing a target and even though the fight is over, a teammate somewhere is fighting and I can't restealth. Not being able to stealth even though I am not in combat doesn't allow me to contribute to lengthy fights. My operative's burst is averageish in pvp, but in pve is subpar. There is a reason why groups don't want dps scoundrels/operatives in their pve groups(mainly talking operations here, HM FPs have been watered down so much, it doesn't take much dps). This patch does nothing to correct this issue. "Kinetic Field/Entropic Field has been redesigned. Now critical hits cause you to build a Kinetic/Entropic Field, increasing damage reduction by 1% per point per stack. Stacks up to 3 times." I know you moved the original effect to fade, but you had an ability that gave up to 30% reduction in area effect damage and give in return up to 3% damage reduction after criting someone 3 times. Seem such a minimal gain for a squishy cloth wearer spec that doesn't have the armor buff. This would make more sense for a darkness spec. Which speaking of that... So is this going to be a 1 point talent skill now? "Clairvoyant Strike/Voltaic Slash: Using Project/Shock no longer consumes the buff provided by this ability. This change was made to better synergize with Spinning Strike/Assassinate during execute phases." This sounds really great if I'm reading this correctly. So the buff only goes away if you stop using Clairvoyant Strike/Voltaic Slash long enough for the buff to wear off? After reading the loving that shadows/assasins are getting, why so little for scoundrels/operatives? These changes aren't going to change much for ops/scounds viability in groups.

I wear it because for me its better stats than the rakata survivers that i have. Plus, I've never liked the look of the columi/rakata gear for the consular . Even in the character select screen, it looks brown like it's supposed to. While it doesn't make sense for a tank to wear a "potato sack" for armor, it looks better than the rakata gear.

Can anyone tell me why the Duelist Mk-1 Robe on my shadow looks rusty peach color? The icon shows it as brown. In cut-scenes it shows as the proper brown color on my toon, but during normal game play it looks peach colored? I've done the preview view on my pets and all of them other than the robot looks brown except it also shows their skin as brown where the armor is. I've seen the robe on someone else's toon and it looked brown on their toon, which got me to wondering why it looks off colored on my toon. My toon is Mirialan with a semi dark green skin if that makes a difference.

I want my giggle back. I can't stand the pyrotech pull sound they gave us for TA.

I HATE HATE HATE the new proc sound. It sounds like a BH sound. It's bad enough bioware took away the proc sound that i love, but added in that craptastic sound effect. If you all are so concerned about the sound effect being over played in a big setting like operations, just make it so only the operative procing TA can her his/her own giggle sound and leave the visual cue in so other players can see the proc. Even if you wont give me my giggle back, please, for the love of all that is holy change that lame proc sound.