I'm okay with that. There is a work around for the rng in buying 252 gear directly. The problem is the work around is too slow. What I think is a better fix that still gives incentive to grind gear, but speeds up the "bad luck" protection of buying 252, is increasing the drop rate of 252 boxes and masterwork data crystals in command crates. I don't know what it is now, but I've opened a ton of boxes since 5.10 and gotten 1 252 box and 0 crystals. That needs to be increased a lot. It might not be the most fun way for players, but it keeps the spirit of what they are aiming for without it taking months or 5 of the same AC to finish. Plus the command system doesn't seem to have much of a reason to exist now.

I think more than anything I'm excited for what comes next. For my Knight they've been teasing Kira/Scourge for months and that continued on Ossus. The story itself felt like a good setup for a renewed focus on Empire vs Republic, which I miss. The new characters republic side are solid and I really look forward to seeing them again. I liked how KotFE/ET expaned the cast we worked with... I just didn't like the ones they picked. Sorry, but I don't care at all about Aric or Kaliyo, etc. Empire side I'm not really sold on the return of Malgus, but I can't say it doesn't leave me wanting to know more. I went into it on both sides expecting an appetizer and that's what we got. I thought it was a great way to introduce a new story for us to look forward to. And for the first time in awhile it's a story I'm invested in. We'll see where it goes from there. Ossus itself is a pretty planet and I enjoy the daily area. I like that there are lots of decorations to hunt, datacrons, and WBs. It feels good to be there and run around doing stuff regularly. All things that make it, to me at least, finally feel like an mmo again. I haven't felt like that about a new planet/daily area since Yavin. Iokath is terrible. Zakuul/Nathema/Odessen having nothing to explore. You can only access small corridors of the planet and there isn't anything to do there.

With the exception of the many bugs (software, not the kind we murder) and the shortness of the story I feel Ossus is pretty fantastic. I haven't been this high on SWTOR in awhile. I hope the quality of the content on Ossus carries forward. I just hope whatever is next is a bit longer and with fewer bugs.

Nope. That's why I said I think they need to add a lot of new non-CM decorations. The decoration fabricator droids haven't been updated since launch of strongholds I think. The crafting reagents for fabricator parts require a max of rank 7 parts (the max when strongholds were introduced i think?). They are the perfect place to add some new decorations, including artwork, for people who aren't credit rich. Update the materials required to craft fabricator/prefabs parts used to trade to the droids and add a lot of decorations to all 3 droids. The cartel market keeps the game alive, so I expected/accept most of the best stuff will come from packs. That doesn't mean other sources should be neglected though. Especially if we're going to start dropping multiple strongholds in a year.

They can't really "fix" the "I don't like it part.." That said.... I do think they need to add a lot of decorations to the vendors. They haven't been updated in awhile. Update the crafting materials for the prefabs/fabricator parts and add a lot of decorations to the fabricator droids. The really cool stuff can still be in the cartel packs, but they need to offer some more/new stuff on this fabricator droids. All the parts take really old materials to craft and nothing higher than rank 7. They seem to be putting a renewed focus on strongholds, so now's a good time to add to the decorations available that don't require millions of credits.

That's an option, but not a great one. They don't bother to customize the hook layout options in each stronghold. The centerpiece can be broken down into the same generic layouts that every centerpiece can. The problem with that is that it doesn't give you a ton of "good" options to design a room around. The other problem is the remaining hooks in the room (not the centerpiece or it's other layouts) are clearly designed around a center piece hook in the middle. There are a lot of places you'd want to place something, but there simply isn't a hook in range. I agree having a centerpiece hook as an option is good, but they should have customized the other hook options instead of giving you the same 3-4 alternatives. Manaan turned out to be supremely disappointing for a rather long list of reasons. I hope the train turns out a lot better.

Yeah. I actually prefer it to play everytime. Or would like there to be an option to play it.

The idea has potential and I'm very interested in seeing some screenshots. That being said, I'm not expecting much after seeing Manaan. I really just want something big on Zakuul... say a copy of Vaylin's Palace from chapter 6 would be pretty awesome.

It does not Zakuul is likely the next one for reasons we can't discuss here

It isn't. There are people posting screenshots of the SH super zoomed out and with other glitches. They literally didn't even finish the back half of the buildings we can see. It just turns to nothing a few meters behind the walls to the rooftop garden. That's why you can't get to the starship hook. It's literally unfinished and they don't want you to see it.

The only "problem" here is that conquest and strongholds are still linked. It's stupid that one of the main complaints about a new stronghold is that there are too many possible decorations allowed. What? The more options the better. If you don't need them all to finish that's great, but for those who want more awesome. It's just stupid that you're incentivized as a player to fill a stronghold with crap just so a completely unrelated part of the game can be done more efficiently. Just boost the points earned in conquest by 150%, or whatever % they want, and completely end the link between the two.

You can't get to the starship hook for the same reason there is an invisible wall in the garden. They didn't bother to finish the back half of the island. Once you get past that little area with the subs it just goes all white. They can't let you up to the starship hook or you'd be able to see that. There are some other areas and structures that look like they might have originally intended us to be able to access. Either for cost/time reasons or design decisions they decided to just ship what we have now. Great feedback though. It's a pity all that might change is a few hook layouts. It would be great if they added to it in the future, but that's pretty unprecedented.

I think the worst part is the underwater area. It's a pretty small area made worse by the fact it's chopped into 3 rooms. The majority of the middle room is taken up by the seabed viewing area in the middle. It's a great view, but there needs to be a bigger room around it to decorate. The sides rooms are identical and very clearly designed around a centerpiece decoration. I'm not sure why though... the majority of centerpieces don't really even fit in the room. Especially with such a low ceiling. You can swap to other hook layouts, but they fit awkwardly in the room and the rest of the hooks are clearly designed with a centerpiece layout in mind. It makes it difficult to decorate the room. A nit-picky complaint, but the windows down in this area are kind of annoying. It's a great ocean view, but it's hard to enjoy with such narrow, spaced out windows. I wish they were more like the windows in the Kaas City apartment (without the rain effect). I'm okay with smaller strongholds, but I don't understand why you designed such a large compound and then restricted us to a very small area. If you wanted a small stronghold the Kaliyo apartment on Zakuul is often requested and probably would've fit better. In the open outside entrance area, and the hallway to the elevator, there are several small green hooks next to each other. You should probably be able swap at least some of those to medium narrow hooks. I also don't understand the location of the starship hook. It's inaccessible to the player and hard to even notice. It has other hook layout options, but it's painful/impossible to even see them enough to play with them. Last nit-picky thing. The windows for the rooftop garden are annoyingly blurry for something obviously meant to be an observation area. I like that I can see several submarine vehicles outside the left window, but why can't I get to them? The view from the garden area is just rooftops. You'd think a rooftop garden/patio area on an ocean palace would offer a view of the ocean. TL DR It's a disappointing stronghold for me. I'm sure there are plenty who like it, but for 8 million credits I was expecting a few more rooms and a slightly bigger/better laid out underwater area.

Very disappointed. I don't mind that it is small overall, but the rooms are too cramped and there aren't very many rooms. The underwater rooms especially. Like the two unlocked rooms down there are tiny... too small. Again it doesn't have to be Yavin or Tattooine sized. The rooms we do have feel really cramped and the hook options are weak at best. Definitely need more hook options... Shouldn't there be a few other rooms as well? A bed room or something? The view from the rooftop garden is basically the roof of rooms you cant even access.... ***. You can't even put anything on the other side of the hedge wall. You also can't even get to the starship hook. I mentioned it in general chat and most people didn't realize there was a starship hook. The place looks so big in the pics, but turns out to be 2 rooms and a hallway.

I'd argue it's more muscle memory than carelessness. Let's be honest most people don't read very far into the patch notes if they read them at all.