That's common practice on just about any MMO I've played. I haven't played an MMO yet that doesn't delete/lock most of the threads that speak negatively about the game passing it off as nonconstructive while allowing equally nonconstructive threads praising the game pass by. Not defending Bioware(I think they are in way over their head here with their inexperience and their arrogance is not helping) but it's pretty common place for that to happen on an MMO forums. Turbine(LOTRO) would have to have been the worst I've seen so far, I actually got a 4 day suspension on their forums for calling someone a carebear on a first offense. As for the banning though, I am gonna call BS. I know they are deleting/locking a lot of threads/posts that speak about the games and not just consolidating threads but they aren't banning a lot of people. I know I personally have received a ton of warnings and had a lot of posts deleted and I'm still here.

And this tired response keeps getting thrown around every time someone posts that question. Again it is not the player's fault but Bioware's for either not doing their research or being arrogant enough to think that their game was above all the rest and wouldn't lose an initial wave of players after the first month. Bioware should have been prepared for a population drop(especially after opening additional servers and starting with as many as they did) and had a system in place, or at the very least a plan, to fix the problem at LAUNCH not just beginning to make one 5 months down the road. That just shows that they were either completely unprepared or too arrogant to believe that there would be a significant population drop in their game. I honestly don't know which it was since Bioware comes off to me as both extremely arrogant and very inexperienced in the MMO industry as they have shown us again and again. You see now Bioware has people leaving their game for 2 reasons, first whatever various problems people have with the game itself(some are Bioware's fault and some are the players fault for expecting more than they should), and second the spread out population on too many servers causing the game to feel dead and servers to be underpopulated to the point where people cannot play content simply because there aren't enough people on their server. If Bioware would have taken the time before launch to set up a transfer system they would only have to be worrying about one of these reasons right now and could focus more on actual content instead of releasing a "content patch" that is primarily just a fix to stop people from quitting the game in droves instead of actual content which is just contributing more to the primary reason people are quitting the game.

Yeah it definitely won't be a WoW killer or anything, it is gonna be a niche game. Personally, as long as it has at least 1 good server, from what I've seen in the beta and read about I'll enjoy myself there. I'm mainly interested in it because it looks and feels different than the tired WoW MMO template that even SWTOR is using. The game itself doesn't have to be insanely populated for me to enjoy it, the servers just have to be populated. SWTOR is a perfect example of this, they have more subscriptions than most(non-WoW) MMOs out there right now(no idea what they're gonna be at after the free months end) but their servers for the most part are absolutely dead or near dead. There are maybe 5 good servers out of 100+ because they didn't have a plan in place in case a population drop occurred. I've played games with <100k subs that have more lively servers than SWTOR does with 1 million+ subs. They terribly mismanaged their servers and only now 5+ months down the road are they working on a fix for the situation.

Well they're well on their way lol. Just looking at this it is just an all around fail and a PR nightmare for Bioware/EA just when I thought they couldn't surprise me and come off as any more unprofessional and inexperienced than they were before. First you have an incompetent GM that has no idea what he is doing making threats against players accounts for playing the game how it was meant to be played. Then you have an incompetent forum moderator breaking their own rules(when it is their job to enforce them ironically) by talking about actions taken against players, in a public forum at that, as well as publicly naming and incidentally slandering certain players in the process. Then you have the incompetence of the "investigation teams" that took multiple investigations(and multiple teams?) to simply find out what a SINGLE GM was up to? What if he had banned the players involved? That would have been even worse because they would then have to compensate the players effected that couldn't log in after being wrongfully banned all while Bioware fumbles around trying to find out what their own people are doing. And I thought the whole non-SWTOR domain site to get your character copied to the PTS(which is probably a fantasy for phishing organizations trying to get accounts) was the peak of how unprofessional this company can be. I have a feeling they won't stop surprising me even after this disaster.

Because a forum mod posted it admitting it was... Reading is your friend.

Who are they grieving over? Did someone die?

I find it kind of funny that you bring up Rift being a reskinned WoW(which it is), and neglect to mention that SWTOR is as well and many people share that same opinion just as they do with Rift, the major difference is that SWTOR has a very popular IP and lots of lore behind it while Rift's is some original stuff they created. It's one of the first things I noticed when I played through my first character in beta, this is really just a reskinned WoW clone like Rift was. Not saying I didn't enjoy it at the time but to call one out and not the other is a joke. Underneath all the over used drawn out voice overs and emphasis on the leveling process it is just another standard Themepark MMO. Personally I'm tired of them all, the 1 night full clears of raid content and then a week of waiting around for the lockout to reset just isn't fun to me like it used to be. I just don't have fun with what this part of the genre has been reduced to, I love progression and raiding but I need more to do than just that to keep my interest enough to continue a subscription.

You can call BS all you want, we were clearing it in 40ish min with the raid in a mix of Columi/Tionese/Rakata gear(Tionese because Columi commendations didn't drop like candy back then, and "Destined Loot" was still on normal mode so a lot of Columi went to waste on people that didn't need it, hell I even had my Rakata mainhand before I even had a single piece of Columi on my Commando). We were all optimizing our specs/rotations to the best of our knowledge(without a combat log at the time) but we were in no way even close to over gearing the raids. I honestly don't care what some random on the forums thinks the right time to clear the raid is, any competent group can clear HM EV and KP with no wipes in 40 minutes easy. The boss fights ARE NOT HARD, if you have the minimal amount of gear required and are not a complete moron that stands in the big red circles on the ground or infront of the boss(if you're not the tank) then you should have absolutely no trouble whatsoever clearing these raids at a very fast pace. The only fight I can think of that had any type of engaging mechanics aside from "avoid AOE" and "beat the enrage" is Soa, the rest of the boss mechanics are just a bunch of underdeveloped unimaginative boring garbage. -Keep in mind I am talking about EV and KP, not EC, I actually enjoy EC's bosses and I think it is a good sign of things to come for SWTOR. Also I don't think you know what "contradict" means or you are just grasping at straws trying to justify your view. When I said "Correct Gear required" I wasn't referring to Rakata at all aside from the Rakata we were getting from killing the bosses which why we were farming it in the first place(hence the "While we were still gearing up in them", gearing up implies that you are STILL trying to get gear from inside the raid). The required gear to successfully run EV and KP HM I would say is a mix of Columi and Tionese at least unless you are being carried by over geared players. Now if I were to have said ""They are not hard in the slightest, as long as you have full remodded Rakata completely over gearing what the raid was intended for" then yes I would have been contradicting myself, but unfortunately I did not say that. I'm wondering, what exactly do you think makes the raids so difficult that it would take more than 40 minutes to clear them on Hard Mode? There isn't an insane amount of trash(hell in EV you only ever have to kill 1 group of trash before the first boss and 1 long hallway after and the rest you can either toss off the edge of the place or completely skip the majority of) and the boss fights aren't exactly show stoppers of difficulty, the bugs that used to exist in these raids were even harder to overcome than the intended boss mechanics so they are even easier now. What exactly holds you up to the point where you can't fathom people clearing this place that quickly without over gearing it, Rakata isn't even that much better than Columi anyway, you even have to remod it to make it better than Columi so it's not like you get some kind of insane performance increase from having Rakata gear over Columi that allows you to shave off 20-30 minutes from a raid.

We were clearing EV and KP in under 40 minutes each in Hard Mode while we were still gearing up in it, whenever we go back to get people's alts gear it is even faster. The only thing that ever kept people held up back then was the fight stopping bugs, especially in EV. They are not hard in the slightest, as long as you have the correct gear required and half a brain you can breeze through them. I'm not saying Rift's entry level raids were any different, they were easy too, but at least they had fun and interesting mechanics instead of a simple "don't stand in aoe" and "kill the boss before 5 minutes is up".

Spot on is not something I think of when I think of his posts. I don't even think he talked to the other developers to get a full understanding about what he was talking about before he posted. I mean just look at some of his posts he did, saying "all purples will be fully moddable in 1.2" and the replying "yes" when asked if he really meant all purples and not just endgame ones, this was obviously false since the ONLY purples that became fully moddable were the ones that were already semi-moddable, that is far from all. Then you have him talking about how we won't be able to reverse engineer orange gear for schematics in 1.2 but most models will become available through new schematics in trade skill missions in 1.2, which obviously was also false since not one person saw a single new orange schematic come from a trade skill mission. All around whenever I see him post I just ignore it now and wait for another developer that knows fully what their talking about to comment on it.

You got it a little wrong here unless they just changed it in a recent patch: HM Tier 1 Flashpoints: - Xenotech(51) - Tionese(51) - Columi(56) SM EV/KP: - Xenotech(51) - Tionese(51) - Columi(56) HM/NM EV/KP: - Exotech(56) - Columi(56) - Rakata(58) HM Tier 2 Flashpoints(only Lost Island atm): - Columi(56) - Rakata(58) SM EC: - Rakata(58) - Black Hole Commendations(61) HM EC: - Black Hole Commendations(61) - Campaign(61)

As opposed to what? SWTOR's 2 Tier 1 8/16 man jokes of raids that can be completed in 30-40 min and they're 1 real raid that will more than likely get nerfed so that the bad players can clear it too? At least in Rift you had actual mechanics on most of your boss fights instead of a simple "kill the boss before 5 minutes are up and don't stand in aoe". I personally enjoyed the raiding in Rift a hell of a lot more than SWTOR, it actually took some attempts and coordination to figure out a boss fight before you downed it, in SWTOR they are all mind numbingly boring and forgiving except for the 4 in EC and all you mainly have to worry about is the enrage timer.

How are they different types of MMOs? They are both Themepark MMOs, SWTOR is just a little more restricting and linear.

This is definitely one of the major reasons I feel it is failing, at least for me(obviously we have the population issues that they are working on fixing but they are just fixing a symptom, not what caused the issues in the first place). I know I personally would have found it fun a few years ago(and did) to quest to endgame and then progress through group content downing bosses for loot just to get to the next one. Now though, I just find it overdone and boring, I simply need more to do when I am not raiding. I started to notice it in Rift before I quit and I definitely notice it here with the majority of my time spent ingame being in the Fleet now waiting on the next raid time. I finally asked myself why I'm spending my monthly fee driving around in circles in the fleet or staring at my bank or GTN with the only actual part of the game I'm enjoying being the raid part. Don't get me wrong, I love raiding and I love the operations in this game(EV and KP not so much due to them being mind numbingly easy but EC is definitely a step in the right direction) but raiding alone is not enough to keep me interested and subscribing anymore and the only reason I lasted so long was probably because of the Star Wars IP. Personally I tried out Secret World's beta a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it because it's different than the current "play it safe" Themepark WoW template that most MMOs are going for now and that peaked my interest. I am actually letting my subscription run out here for now and going to pick that game up to try it out. If SWTOR eventually adds more content down the road to keep my interest while I'm not raiding(I am a big fan of Open World PvP, and I especially think that a Base Control, like other game's Keep Control, type of zone would be a lot of fun) I will gladly come back and play again but at the moment it is unfortunately just another generic boring WoW clone(for lack of a better term) to me.

In terms of mechanics it is harder than Nightmare EV and KP but in terms of gear requirements they are on pretty much the same level. If you have enough gear to do NiM EV/KP you have enough gear to do Story Mode Denova. Whether you are skilled enough to execute the mechanics is a completely different question though, NiM EV/KP are complete jokes in terms of mechanics while Denova actually requires a brain. There are players that have full Rakata that cannot clear Story Mode Denova, this is not a gear issue, this is a skill issue.

Watch the video, you'll feel dumb. And the OP is pretty damn good lol, went right over a lot of people's heads in this thread, even a mod.

That doesn't say anything about Hardmode Flashpoints and Denova is a Tier 2 Operation while Eternity Vault and Karraga's Palace are Tier 1 so it requires more gear than EV and KP do even on Story Mode. I get why they aren't having Hardmode Operations but not having Hardmode Flashpoints on the list will make the tool pretty much worthless.

That question was only in regard to Operations which is understandable why they don't want people queuing for Hardmode Ops. I absolutely still see them having Hardmode Flashpoints in the tool though, otherwise the entire tool is a waste. Even without them though there are still gear requirements for Story mode Operations. Story Mode Denova is a Tier above Story Mode Eternity Vault and Story Mode Karraga's Palace so it requires more gear to complete it(and rewards better gear because of this). Because of this there still needs to be a gear check in place on the tool if anything to not confuse new players that may think just because it is Story Mode that it is still an entry level operation.

Just because it has gear requirements doesn't mean it is not easy. EV and KP are extremely easy in terms of mechanics but you still need gear to beat the enrage timers, survive the bosses, and keep the raid alive in Hard Mode/Nightmare Mode. If you have the gear and half a brain you can blow through the place, especially now because they fixed so many of the bugs which were the only real "difficult mechanic" with the operations. It's even easy to get the gear, you just have to follow the right path and not jump right into content you aren't geared for. Denova(aka Explosive Conflict) is a different story though. In terms of gear requirements Story Mode is not much different than Nightmare EV/KP but it's much more difficult in terms of mechanics. It is a step in the right direction and actually has more challenging mechanics which is why I really enjoy this operation. I would even go as far to say that EV and KP are bad for Denova because it is a night and day experience in terms of difficulty, the previous Tier of Operations does not prepare for you Denova at all like entry level raid content should. If this is a taste of things to come for their future operations in terms of difficulty I will be very happy with them.

I think the most effective way would be the way that Rift did it. They had different stat requirements depending on your class, the role you were queuing for, and the tier of the dungeon. It would look something like: You are a Warrior looking to queue for a Tier 1 Expert Dungeon as a DPS and the requirement would be 100 Strength, 80 Endurance, 50 Hit(this isn't accurate, just an example). If you met those requirements you could queue for that Dungeon, if you didn't you couldn't queue. That way you didn't run into the problem that WoW has where you see people just stacking gear that will increase their item level so they can queue instead of actually getting stats that are useful for the dungeon. That's my opinion of what would be the most effective way to gauge if someone is geared enough to run said flashpoint/operation.

We don't NEED a gear gate, there ARE already gear gates on content so there needs to be a GEAR CHECK on the LFG Tool to account for that, otherwise you have uninformed people queuing for content that they are not geared enough for and causing problems. It should check the gear, bar people from queuing that don't meet the minimal requirements, and inform them what the minimum requirements are so that they can acquire that gear to queue for it.

It's a credit sink, I don't see the problem with it. Personally I didn't buy the Trooper set because I think it's ugly but if people like it, that's why it's there.

While these are good suggestions you have the numbers wrong a little. The Ilum Heroic 2 quest rewards you with a level 49 epic Enhancement while the first Heroic 2 on Belsavis rewards you with a level 49 epic Mod and the third Heroic 2 on Belsavis rewards you with a level 49(124 Rating) epic Armoring. You will get daily commendations for each of these quests and you can buy Barrels/Hilts/Armoring(all level 50 126 Rating epics) from the vendors in the Daily Areas for 8 commendations each. You can also buy Rakata Implants and Rakata Earpieces for 120 commendations each and Campaign Relics for 200 commendations each. Also while you make a little more than 200k from just the quest payouts you end up making closer to 300k+ when you add the credit drops and vendoring the loot you will get.

I would say in terms of gear requirements it can be done in Columi gear but the mechanic execution requirements are much more demanding than EV and KP and that is where a lot of groups run into problems. If you are good with executing mechanics I don't see why you can't complete this place in Columi gear, considering EV and KP are complete jokes and don't really prepare you for this raid anyway mechanic-wise. Over gearing can play some part to overcome mistakes but over all it is about mechanic execution. I mean just look at your comment about you struggling through Story mode Denova in mostly Rakata. The last time I ran through Story Mode Denova we did it in about an hour and our gear was all over the place(some of us, like myself, were in Full Modified Rakata while others were in just Columi, and others were in a mix of Columi and Rakata).

Are we even reading the same post? Where did the OP ever say in his post that he hates the game? He noticed that there is a key feature(that is a standard feature in the LFG Tool in other games for a reason) missing from the LFG Tool by what he saw in the video. It's plain and simple, the endgame content in this game is gear gated by design and the LFG Tool doesn't reflect that so it will cause problems for players that don't know the gear requirements. By adding a simple gear check to the tool that checks the player's gear in question before they can queue you are avoiding any problems that may happen if they join a group doing an instance that they are under geared for. As long as Bioware knows their own minimum gear requirements for their Hardmodes and Operations then this will actually help prevent elitism because the only players that will be complaining about people's gear if this was implemented are the idiots that expect people to be in full Rakata gear to run a simple Tier 1 Hardmode. We are talking about the MINIMUM requirements to run the instance effectively, not the ideal gear requirements to run the instance quickly without any problems at all.