FP Difficulty Settings

[tharbison]

Can we change the difficulty settings for FPs now? I see on our avatar we can set 'Story Mode' or 'Veteran', but I think that only applies to tactical FPs? For 'regular' FPs, it seems each time I've q'd up it says 'Master'.

 

I haven't seen that setting anywhere. Is that the default for regular FPs?

[HomerMorisson]

Can we change the difficulty settings for FPs now? I see on our avatar we can set 'Story Mode' or 'Veteran', but I think that only applies to tactical FPs? For 'regular' FPs, it seems each time I've q'd up it says 'Master'.

 

I haven't seen that setting anywhere. Is that the default for regular FPs?

 

How do you queue up precisely?

You can do this one of two automatic ways:

 

1) Via the new GalCom screen (CTRL+G), where you have a dropdown menu box below the big Flashpoint icon to select the difficulty for the flashpoints, ranging from Story over Veteran to Master. Naturally you need to set this before clicking on the big Flashpoint icon.

 

2) Via the regular group finder, where you can either queue for just Veteran (formerly known as Tactical) or Master (f.k.a. Hard Mode) or for both and the system chooses depending on which difficulty level has a group ready for you fastest.

 

If you only ever get Master FPs when using method 1, use the dropdown menu to change the difficulty; if you only ever get Master FPs when using the second method, you must have only checked the box for Master FPs and not the one for Veteran FPs.

[tharbison]

Thanks, I saw the drop-down on the GC interface last night. It is set to 'storymode', yet when I got a group, it said it was 'master'. I q'd up using the GF button not the GC interface. Maybe that has something to do with it.

 

I guess if the others in the group all selected 'master' then I'm SOL! Or maybe the default for q'ing using the gf button is 'master'. Thanks for providing feedback I appreciate it.

 

The good news is we still cleared even in 'master' mode

Edited December 6, 2016 by tharbison

[HomerMorisson]

You can only queue up for Veteran or Master FPs via the GF, and the system only takes your choice into consideration.

 

I.e. if you deselect everything but Veteran FPs in GF, you will always be grouped with other players who queued for a Veteran FP... outside of severe GF bugs, there is no way that you could ever land in a Master Group while queuing for Veteran and vice versa.

 

Thus if you used the GF and ended up in a Master FP even though you wanted a Veteran FP, then you forgot to deselect Master FPs in the list (remove the square checkmark).

Edited December 6, 2016 by HomerMorisson

[tharbison]

Thanks. That makes sense. I must be missing something in gf for that. I'll double check tonight.

[Taraq]

So you tell me they changed the difficulty names from storymode, hardmode and nightmare to storymode, veteran and master because it was to confusing for some players.

 

And now we have for Flashpoints,

Storymode (old) = Storymode (new)

Tactical (old) = Veteran (new)

Hardmode (old) = Master (new)

 

And for Operations,

Storymode (old) = Storymode (new)

Hardmode (old) = Veteran (new)

Nightmare (old) = Master (new)

 

Where's the consistency dammit???

Edited December 7, 2016 by Taraq

[HomerMorisson]

So you tell me they changed the difficulty names from storymode, hardmode and nightmare to storymode, veteran and master because it was to confusing for some players.

 

And now we have for Flashpoints,

Storymode (old) = Storymode (new)

Tactical (old) = Veteran (new)

Hardmode (old) = Master (new)

 

And for Operations,

Storymode (old) = Storymode (new)

Hardmode (old) = Veteran (new)

Nightmare (old) = Master (new)

 

Where's the consistency dammit???

 

You're joking, right?

 

The consistency is right there in your post!

 

All easy modes are called Story Mode.

 

All medium difficulty modes are called Veteran Mode.

 

All high difficulty modes are called Master Mode.

[Taraq]

If you look at it that way ok. But the old HM operation is now called veteran and the old HM flashpoint is now called master it's completly different. Edited December 7, 2016 by Taraq

[HomerMorisson]

If you look at it that way ok. But the old HM operation is now called veteran and the old HM flashpoint is now called master it's completly different.

 

Yeah, but the inconsistency was with the old system, whereas the new one, in this one regard at least, is the better approach.

 

In the old system "Hard Mode" meant two vastly different things depending on wether you were referring to FPs or OPs... for FPs it was the highest difficulty, for OPs it was the medium difficulty, but both were called the same despite not being the same at all.

 

With the new system, if you talk about Veteran Mode, everyone will instantly know that you are referring to the medium difficulty setting, no matter the actual gameplay mode, i.e. FPs, OPs or Uprisings.

 

Thus the new system unifies the nomenclature for difficulty modes across all types of gameplay, and that is both much more consistent and much more intuitive than the old system. =)

[DawnAskham]

Sorry but the new names make as little or less sense than the old names.

 

A tactical flashpoint (Vet) which can be accessed through group finder, is bolstered, accommodates random players from 15-70, can be all DPS, and has kolto stations to heal on boss fights is nothing like a hard mode operation (Vet) which is not in group finder, is not bolstered, requires level 70, requires tanks and healers, and does not have kolto healing stations.

[HomerMorisson]

Sorry but the new names make as little or less sense than the old names.

 

A tactical flashpoint (Vet) which can be accessed through group finder, is bolstered, accommodates random players from 15-70, can be all DPS, and has kolto stations to heal on boss fights is nothing like a hard mode operation (Vet) which is not in group finder, is not bolstered, requires level 70, requires tanks and healers, and does not have kolto healing stations.

 

That's completely beside the point.

In both cases, Veteran Mode refers to the medium difficulty setting of each game mode.

 

That FPs aren't the same as OPs, no matter the difficulty mode, is self-evident.

[tharbison]

I think I got this figured out. So for FPs (only);

 

Storymode is only accessible from the GC interface, and is solo only w/Gesusdroid

Veteran is old tactical, non-trinity, and is accessible from the GC interface, or, via selecting 'Tactical Flashpoints' via the GF

Master is old hardmode, trinity, and is accessible from the GC interface, or, via selecting 'Hardmode Flashpoints' via the GF

 

Does this sound about right?

Edited December 7, 2016 by tharbison

[HomerMorisson]

I think I got this figured out. So for FPs (only);

 

Storymode is only accessible from the GC interface, and is solo only w/Gesusdroid

Veteran is old tactical, non-trinity, and is accessible from the GC interface, or, via selecting 'Tactical Flashpoints' via the GF

Master is old hardmode, trinity, and is accessible from the GC interface, or, via selecting 'Hardmode Flashpoints' via the GF

 

Does this sound about right?

 

About right, yeah... you can however access all Flashpoints "manually" directly via their questgiving NPCs, of which the majority are on the Fleet, with some being on their respective planets, i.e. the "Battle for Ilum"-NPC is on Ilum, the "Battle for Rishi"-NPC on Rishi.

 

So this is another way to start FPs in any available difficulty mode including Solo/Storymode, where applicable.

 

Apart from that, you got the gist of it, yes... the same is true for the new Uprisings as well, btw.

You can start those either manually via their terminals on the fleet, via the GalCom screen or via the Group Finder in both currently available difficulty modes.