I have to admit...

[SaerethDL]

At first I didn't like the idea of CXP at all.. but then a gave it a fair try.. I have to admit I'm liking it! Not getting all the gear at once gives me something to do and look forward to. It makes me wanna do all the activities and gives the activities a purpose. My luck wasn't so good but after 10 crates I finally got my first set bonus piece, boy did that feel good and I get excited to open up crates! It's 3 am right now and this is the most fun I've had in swtor in a while. Will I get burnt out before I hit 300 command rank? Probably so... but I think this will keep people around a bit longer because it gives you something to achieve and you're not just gonna get your whole set in a few days like previous expansions. PVP is so active and fun now without gear requirements, everybody gets in the action. But there is always a bad side, like not wanting to play other toons because the grind takes forever. Anyways I will see how it goes, right now I feel like may work out to keep people subscribing a bit longer... with new ops and group content coming in jan, who knows this might just turn out great. Edited December 4, 2016 by SaerethDL

[nhsknudsen]

Riiiight. Exciting.

 

Instead of working towards being able to have skill to beat a certain encounter to get a certain piece of gear you can work by grinding piss easy content and get it anyway.

 

There is no skill required, just time.

 

Very satisfying.

[SaerethDL]

Riiiight. Exciting.

 

Instead of working towards being able to have skill to beat a certain encounter to get a certain piece of gear you can work by grinding piss easy content and get it anyway.

 

There is no skill required, just time.

 

Very satisfying.

 

The veteran modes and hardmode-nim ops are challenging, I don't know what game you're playing.. but I love challenge, I beat all dark souls, bloodborne, and demon souls games.

[Eshvara]

I don't really like the new system, but I'm not as bothered by it as others are. I'm just doing warzone's and getting gear eventually. The thought of "gear gear gear" isn't on my mind a lot. I'm just playing.

 

But yes, there is a slight excitement when opening a box.

Edited December 4, 2016 by Eshvara

[Khiriath]

The veteran modes and hardmode-nim ops are challenging, I don't know what game you're playing.. but I love challenge, I beat all dark souls, bloodborne, and demon souls games.

 

I love a challenge too. Unfortunately though HM ops are gated behind certain minimum gear ratings, as are NiM ops. I have now gotten 40crates. From those 40 crates I've gotten 1 Earpiece(actually I've gotten the same purple earpiece 7 times, but can only use one), 1 MH, and 1 Set bonus piece.

 

Musco said it would take on average 1hr of play time per level, and as the points necessary increase, it's going to take far more at the top levels. At current rate, I will be lucky to get one character fully geared for HM and NiM ops, nevermind my many alts(8 of which BW encouraged me to create for DVL).

 

Many of my friends and guild members simply will not be able to put in the time necessary to get geared... My prog team that I've played with since 3.x, some of my best friends in game, can no longer do the content together that we like. We used to be able to set a night aside each week, play through an op, get gear, move on... Over the course of 2-3mos be ready for HM ops. Start the HM ops, after several more mos, be ready for NiM ops. That is gone.

 

I like the idea that people aren't forced to play certain content for certain rewards. However, the play time now necessary to partake of some content is absurd.

 

I also don't like the simple fact that I'm being forced to pick one of my many alts to solely play on if I want decent gear. In short this was a good idea, that was implemented very poorly.

[DisIzMe]

At first I didn't like the idea of CXP at all.. but then a gave it a fair try.. I have to admit I'm liking it! Not getting all the gear at once gives me something to do and look forward to. It makes me wanna do all the activities and gives the activities a purpose. My luck wasn't so good but after 10 crates I finally got my first set bonus piece, boy did that feel good and I get excited to open up crates! It's 3 am right now and this is the most fun I've had in swtor in a while. Will I get burnt out before I hit 300 command rank? Probably so... but I think this will keep people around a bit longer because it gives you something to achieve and you're not just gonna get your whole set in a few days like previous expansions. PVP is so active and fun now without gear requirements, everybody gets in the action. But there is always a bad side, like not wanting to play other toons because the grind takes forever. Anyways I will see how it goes, right now I feel like may work out to keep people subscribing a bit longer... with new ops and group content coming in jan, who knows this might just turn out great.

 

Let me guess - you are not in raiding guild. Let me further guess - you like gambling. I will make another guess/prediction -

if you open another 10 crates and get only junk ,your opinion will drastically change.

[mfourcustom]

The targeted audience finally speaks.

 

All I know is I've now opened across two toons 18 command crates and have gotten the same ****** green chest 3 times lol no purples and a bunch of ****** *** 3.0 era mainhands and rep tokens??? Fun.. really wanna keep playing i'm sure your right op this is all gonna turn out great for the dying community and game....

Edited December 4, 2016 by mfourcustom

[AlCorazon]

OP, what a bunch of crap, or you work for Bioware? System is horrible... it rewards only those who have a ton of time to play!

[StarkHelsing]

Lol, this community. It's so toxic at times. I don't like the new system but there's no need to completely rip into someone that does find enjoyment in it, it's not classy nor mature. It's their opinion. Too each their own. I'm glad you're having fun OP! I can see the appeal in that little 'surprise' you get when you open up crates. The rush of having something drop that you needed is delightful. In reverse the disappointment is also a thing. Ah, the wonders of RNG. Edited December 4, 2016 by StarkHelsing

[Tsillah]

At first I didn't like the idea of CXP at all.. but then a gave it a fair try.. I have to admit I'm liking it! Not getting all the gear at once gives me something to do and look forward to. It makes me wanna do all the activities and gives the activities a purpose. My luck wasn't so good but after 10 crates I finally got my first set bonus piece, boy did that feel good and I get excited to open up crates! It's 3 am right now and this is the most fun I've had in swtor in a while. Will I get burnt out before I hit 300 command rank? Probably so... but I think this will keep people around a bit longer because it gives you something to achieve and you're not just gonna get your whole set in a few days like previous expansions. PVP is so active and fun now without gear requirements, everybody gets in the action. But there is always a bad side, like not wanting to play other toons because the grind takes forever. Anyways I will see how it goes, right now I feel like may work out to keep people subscribing a bit longer... with new ops and group content coming in jan, who knows this might just turn out great.

 

Well, I want to make it clear that everyone has a right to their opinion and that includes you as well. I'm glad it's working out for you at the moment.

 

You mentioned alts and that's where the bigger issue is for me. I like playing different roles in operations and after they nerfed SM ops in 4.0 I'd rather not spend too much time in them. So here's the thing for me. I play republic and empire. I prefer healing. So on the imp side I have 2 healer sorcs, 1 juggernaut DPS, 1 juggernaut tank and a merc dps. At least that is my core team that I'd like to get geared.

 

For the republic side I want to do exactly the same. So that's 10 out of 17 (ideally 18 cause I would use the 65 token for my second sage healer) that I would want geared quickly at least with baseline 230 gear so I can do HM content with them and play the different roles. I am not so worried about it taking more time then to get higher tiers of gear.

 

In vanilla the base tier was Tionese. At some point they made it a lot easier to get the base gear tier so that more people would be interested in doing ops. I feel that currently we are worse off because we are in a situation where the endgame content is years old and I have to go through a massive grind to reach ground zero again for myself.

 

I'm not the kind of person who can focus on one character. I need to use variation and that's why I set up my teams as above.

 

If BWA doesn't get that the baseline 230 gear should be more reliably and readily available to keep players like me interested then so be it. This is no longer a game for me. I am disappointed in that because the game always had its ups and downs but I always kept finding it good enough to play because there was room for players like myself. The game allowed me to play my way. Not 100%, but close enough. This is what has changed now.

 

I played the game from the start.

The first break I took in the first year, because the game was literally falling apart. Once the game had been saved with F2P and the cartel market (sad but true), I came back. I did enjoy the game after all.

The second break I took was a couple of years after because I had some really bad experiences with guilds and I needed to take some distance. I came back because I still enjoyed the game.

This year, there has been a change. I took a break at the end of summer because the game had gotten stale. We hadn't had decent content for 2 years. I came back but it was still stale and hoped 5.0 would revitalise it. I now find it's boring still and the RNG gearing takes the fun out of it for me, because I don't gear characters, I gear up my account. There's no way to explain how much of a monster task that appears to be now. And that monster task is just getting my toons to baseline gear. So now I no longer actually enjoy the game and that's what's really different for me this time around.

 

I cannot stress enough that the biggest problem for me is that it's now a monster task to get my toons to baseline gear so I can again do the SAME activities I was doing only two weeks ago. So I'm glad you're still having fun your way, but I cannot explain this much of an effort to gain access to content I already had access to. It's completely out of balance.

 

If someone asked me what would need to happen for me to want to give SWTOR another chance, it would be that I could gear my alts with a reasonable effort to 230. After that it's ok for me but I just want to be able to play the HM content I was already playing and not have to grind for months in SM crap just for baseline gear. I really hope that people can at least understand my point of view on that.

 

I am certainly happy for those who still like the game, because I wish I would be among them... but I'm not.

[Kheld]

Im having fun. FUN! wow, what a concept.

 

Im also playing a little differently. Rather than grind until my fingers bleed on one toon im playing as I see fit. On MULTIPLE toons. Do some COquest, do some H2s, do some PvP or GSF, do some Uprising, whatever the mood takes me.

 

I have 7 toons at 70, between Ranks 5-10 each. (Took 3 days holiday to get some gametime in).

 

Ive only gotten 5 setpieces & an Offhand sabre true, but I have 13 schematics to make 230 Gear.

 

My main Tank is almost fully kitted out in 230 or above in 5 days.

 

Its a not a good a system as the old Ops for dedicated Raid Teams true, but for everyone else, CXP is possibly the best thing Bioware ever implemented.

 

Cya in game.

[Rheshalea]

As a casual solo scrub I didn't mind the system that much at first glance. But I realize that my sub alone can't keep the game running. Those who need good gear to play the content they enjoy may or may not eventually get that gear, and to keep the game running they need to enjoy and sub too.

 

Then I realized how slowly I as a casual solo scrub get the chance to roll the dice. I don't need the gear. But I also don't appreciate that EAWare dangle the carrot in front of my nose, that they tell me it will take about an hour to an hour and a half of play time to get to gamble, and then snatch the carrot away.

Certainly more demanding activities in the game need to grant more CXP, but the rate at which I accumulate CXP for doing heroics, star fortresses and other solo things is laughable, especially after the gold mob nerf.

 

However, I'm glad this system suits some people. Maybe I'll re-sub after they tweak it so it suits more.

[IanArgent]

Small Sample Size, but I've played 2 nights (slightly less than 3 hours of play time) after making it to 70 on the character I'm putting through KotET right now. 1 chapter (Ch.2), some heroics (all of Belsavis for the bonus CXP mission, and half of Coruscant), and a little bit of GSF. 2 crates and well on my way to a third. So far, right on the nose of ~1 hour of playtime for the first few crates.

 

1 set bonus armor, one non set bonus armor (both of which were upgrades, though I kept my set-bonus armor plate). disintegrated both orange weapons, on account of they were ugly. Pulled a schematic for Cybertech, which was a nice bonus. So far, closer to what I expected than what the forums have been telling me I'd see. OTOH, small sample size, and that first crate came pretty quick.

 

However, I'm not an Operator, the PvE group content I do I either do as 2+2 with my wife, or as a pug through GF. I PvP casually, GSF casually, etc. I don't need the gear, and am content to leave my 204 set-bonus plates in until I get dealt a better set. I'll buy or make the mods I want, as I can afford the time or mats. I'm way more interested in that they added new armor and weapon models to the game than the stats.

[Velgar]

I have been having fun, not worrying about gear much. Got to command level 6, have gotten 4 upgrades plus a bunch of 220 blue drops from mobs to send to my undergeared alts for when I level them. Not hating the new system at all but I have seen the same basic alternate advancement system concept with varying rewards before in Star Trek Online, Nevverwinter, Diablo 3 and Age of Conan.

[Jeweledleah]

Im having fun. FUN! wow, what a concept.

 

Im also playing a little differently. Rather than grind until my fingers bleed on one toon im playing as I see fit. On MULTIPLE toons. Do some COquest, do some H2s, do some PvP or GSF, do some Uprising, whatever the mood takes me.

 

I have 7 toons at 70, between Ranks 5-10 each. (Took 3 days holiday to get some gametime in).

 

Ive only gotten 5 setpieces & an Offhand sabre true, but I have 13 schematics to make 230 Gear.

 

My main Tank is almost fully kitted out in 230 or above in 5 days.

 

Its a not a good a system as the old Ops for dedicated Raid Teams true, but for everyone else, CXP is possibly the best thing Bioware ever implemented.

 

Cya in game.

 

uh. UH. that is a LOT of playing, its very much NOT casual.

 

I currently have a single lvl 70 - a sorc. who is still playing through KOTET btw. took a short break from story to try running some H2, in part because it looks like command xp awarded for finishing chapters is pretty measly. got to command rank 5, got 3 schematics - none of them biochem, 2 out of three basically pants, one being tanking pants. couple of orange shells and greens that I ground down for xp. some green jawa junk, that I also ground down for xp. a terrible relic. yes I had early acess I started playing during early acess, got hit by a bug where you get 1/10 of xp for chapter completion.. which apparently is STILL not fixed. as a casual? this system UTTERLY sucks.

 

so far once I'm done with the story, which I will NOT be replaying, because screw that stealth mouse droid section (well that and the fact that it's ill fitting for any character but a light side jedi). I will not be having fun anymore. at least before I could play around with various other modes, but now that gear is so tied to grind PLUS rng? not fun.

 

its nice that some of you are enjoying this. I hope there is enough of you to keep this game running. though mostly I hope that they wake the hell up and FIX it to stop being unfun rng grindfest of a gating system.

[AlienEyeTX]

At first I didn't like the idea of CXP at all.. but then a gave it a fair try.. I have to admit I'm liking it! Not getting all the gear at once gives me something to do and look forward to. It makes me wanna do all the activities and gives the activities a purpose. My luck wasn't so good but after 10 crates I finally got my first set bonus piece, boy did that feel good and I get excited to open up crates! It's 3 am right now and this is the most fun I've had in swtor in a while. Will I get burnt out before I hit 300 command rank? Probably so... but I think this will keep people around a bit longer because it gives you something to achieve and you're not just gonna get your whole set in a few days like previous expansions. PVP is so active and fun now without gear requirements, everybody gets in the action. But there is always a bad side, like not wanting to play other toons because the grind takes forever. Anyways I will see how it goes, right now I feel like may work out to keep people subscribing a bit longer... with new ops and group content coming in jan, who knows this might just turn out great.

 

Not for me. It gives me something to not even start. I will finish doing the story on a couple more characters and then I think I'll just retire from end-game activity.

 

I already don't do Ops or FPs. I have no interest in participating in this ridiculous grind just to be able to contribute in PvP. Sad.

[Rolodome]

Good luck hanging onto that "fun" after the first week or two.

 

I found it fun on about the first crate, until the realization hit me that there were 300 levels and each was going to be harder to obtain. And the game is giving me more non-collection cosmetics that I don't have room for in my storage. And the layout of the crates is literally CM packs but without all CM items. And word is they're going to sell boosters on the store, even though they specifically said GC would have nothing to do with the CM.

 

And, more important than anything else, instead of feeling compelled to log in so that I can progress it, I don't want to log in and face down that there are 300 levels on each character I get to 70 and I can't even get them basic level 70 gear until I get them enough levels, or gather enough recipes and/or pay out the *** for crafted gear.

 

So those who are enjoying it... good for you, I guess. I can't relate.

[ipadmilk]

The real people conmplaining about this are the hardcore elitists who want full gear to show off before everyone else

[IanArgent]

Good luck hanging onto that "fun" after the first week or two.

 

I found it fun on about the first crate, until the realization hit me that there were 300 levels and each was going to be harder to obtain. And the game is giving me more non-collection cosmetics that I don't have room for in my storage. And the layout of the crates is literally CM packs but without all CM items. And word is they're going to sell boosters on the store, even though they specifically said GC would have nothing to do with the CM.

 

And, more important than anything else, instead of feeling compelled to log in so that I can progress it, I don't want to log in and face down that there are 300 levels on each character I get to 70 and I can't even get them basic level 70 gear until I get them enough levels, or gather enough recipes and/or pay out the *** for crafted gear.

 

So those who are enjoying it... good for you, I guess. I can't relate.

 

You know, I realized. That 300 levels thing? It's kind of misleading, because there is not an end to CXP - once you hit 300 (You're a Spartan!) you're still going to be gaining CXP; it just wont' change the rate of crate acquisition any more. That number? It's meaningless. The meaningful number is "how much CXP to the next crate," which translates to "how much playtime to the next crate?" Yeah, the rewards get better, but unless you're exclusively doing harder level content, it's not that big a deal. (If you were, it sets you back, see below).

 

This system was not built for veterans. This system was built for new(er) players. Which kinda sucks for the veterans; admittedly. But I'm really beginning to wonder if they're backing away from supporting the far left-hand-side of the difficulty/player experience curve because they can't realistically support it.

[Rolodome]

You know, I realized. That 300 levels thing? It's kind of misleading, because there is not an end to CXP - once you hit 300 (You're a Spartan!) you're still going to be gaining CXP; it just wont' change the rate of crate acquisition any more. That number? It's meaningless. The meaningful number is "how much CXP to the next crate," which translates to "how much playtime to the next crate?" Yeah, the rewards get better, but unless you're exclusively doing harder level content, it's not that big a deal. (If you were, it sets you back, see below).

 

This system was not built for veterans. This system was built for new(er) players. Which kinda sucks for the veterans; admittedly. But I'm really beginning to wonder if they're backing away from supporting the far left-hand-side of the difficulty/player experience curve because they can't realistically support it.

Respectfully, I feel like you're making my point for me. The 300 levels are meaningless, as is the gear that drops from them, and the point of logging in. Somehow they have managed to take the illusion of meaningful progress and tear away the curtain hiding the man behind it. I think I speculated in another post that it has to do, in part, with the fact that you can cap a level for anything from killing an Ops boss to killing one Gold mob in a heroic area. It doesn't feel like an accomplishment to cap a level... it feels utterly meaningless.

 

As for who it was built for, it's possible you're right that it was built more for new players, but if so, that was a dumb decision, as I'm pretty sure most of the people keeping this game running are veterans.

[Khiriath]

The real people conmplaining about this are the hardcore elitists who want full gear to show off before everyone else

 

So not the case. I'm simply a player who would like to be able to play a few hours each week with his friends and guild mates. Help new players learn the came. Experienced players become better, and with the veteran players that I've been playing with for years(doing this same content btw), I would like to be able to progress into NiM content before the next expansion and gear grind hits.

 

However since most of my friends are casual players, that is not going to happen this year. They and I simply don't have the time to gear up, so we are thus excluded from the gaming that we enjoy the most as a group of friends.

 

Can I still help new players learn? Sure, but not as easily or as efficiently. Now during ops, fps, ect I'm going to have to focus my rotation, I don't have the wiggle room to slack off in a SM, because, 41 crates in, I've only gotten 3 upgrades.

 

Further to that, I have a large social guild, that would like to run 16m content because we like being social and we like having a lot of events so that we can be social. Unfortunately, already we are seeing a lack of people wanting to do anything other than 4m content because that is where the best rewards are...

 

So no it has nothing to do with being elitist or having the best gear right away. It has to do with needing to play the game like a part time job in order to eventually get to the content I enjoy and being able to fully fulfill my duties as an officer in my guild.

[Shepird]

Uprisings are utter **** in my opinion. One of the reasons I unsubbed. I am casual so I didn't expect Ops like gear. But this new system is a time sink or money grab through the Cartel Market. Just not worth my money or time for me anymore.

[SaerethDL]

You know, I realized. That 300 levels thing? It's kind of misleading, because there is not an end to CXP - once you hit 300 (You're a Spartan!) you're still going to be gaining CXP; it just wont' change the rate of crate acquisition any more. That number? It's meaningless. The meaningful number is "how much CXP to the next crate," which translates to "how much playtime to the next crate?" Yeah, the rewards get better, but unless you're exclusively doing harder level content, it's not that big a deal. (If you were, it sets you back, see below).

 

This system was not built for veterans. This system was built for new(er) players. Which kinda sucks for the veterans; admittedly. But I'm really beginning to wonder if they're backing away from supporting the far left-hand-side of the difficulty/player experience curve because they can't realistically support it.

 

Veteran here been playing since closed beta, have done all content, all 8 classes, all ops, all everything.. and here I am, having fun.

[SaerethDL]

people keep complaining about gearing up.. man you can get full 230 in a day, just join a guild that has schematics or buy your stuff off the GTN. You can raid if you want, you can do challenging content if you want, thats whats so fun is your not locked to anything, its up to you what you want to do. It rewards you for the time you spend in the game, and you dont get everything handed to you in two days and then you quit the game because you can't progress any further and there is nothing to do.

[IanArgent]

Respectfully, I feel like you're making my point for me. The 300 levels are meaningless, as is the gear that drops from them, and the point of logging in. Somehow they have managed to take the illusion of meaningful progress and tear away the curtain hiding the man behind it. I think I speculated in another post that it has to do, in part, with the fact that you can cap a level for anything from killing an Ops boss to killing one Gold mob in a heroic area. It doesn't feel like an accomplishment to cap a level... it feels utterly meaningless.

 

The gear's not meaningless - I mean, right now it's an upgrade (save for the armor plates, if it's not set-bonus). De gustibus non disputandum, but if you're not getting a kick from collecting a crate on top of whatever else you were doing, I dunno what to say. What were you getting from 4.0? They changed the paradigm.

 

Part of the problem is that they haven't had anything new for large-group PvE play since SoR, and there wasn't a whole lot new for PVP in 4.0 (2 maps, one new play mode); I can't recall if you're an Ops player, a PVP player, or both. I really didn't expect Uprisings to satisfy much of anyone, since I figure the set of people who play FPs but not Ops is pretty small. OTOH, I also expected them to be as much an exercise in design before tackling large-group PvE (if we're not going to have more smoke blown in January). I haven't stepped foot in one, won't have an opinion on the execution until I do.

 

And I don't think it was a terribly good idea for PvP to stretch out the gear grind there. I would have left a bolster in and made gear more or less irrelevant for PvP. But, I don't work in Austin.

 

As for who it was built for, it's possible you're right that it was built more for new players, but if so, that was a dumb decision, as I'm pretty sure most of the people keeping this game running are veterans.

 

If that was the case (emphasis mine, above), the game would already be dead, and we just wouldn't know it yet. A game that isn't bringing in regular fresh blood will die. I've seen it happen more times than I'd like to admit. It's the main reason for new editions of tabletop games, even though releasing a new edition will chop off the portion of their player base that already has it all and doesn't want to rebuy everything. Nobody subscribes forever, and BWA may not be able to predict how long any particular subscription will last, but they have a pretty good idea of the half-life of all subscriptions.

 

Everything BWA has done starting work on the 4.0 cycle has been targeted at new/casual players. I don't have any idea why that is, other than being capable of making educated guesses (see above). That it happens to align with how I play the game pleases me; but I'm under no illusions they're doing it to please me in particular. I figure I'm near the target of the kind of players they are interested in.