Please look at the gearing system in multiple ways. So far in Swtor we had gearing systems from Operations, PVP with expertise, Command Boxes, and now weekly missions. I honestly dont thing any of these ways to get gear is all that bad. The issue is when you only make it one way. I would suggest making every way possible to grind. Does that mean players will get gear faster? Sure but honestly who cares. It might slow down player to only have one system but the trade off is players enjoying the way they acquire gear. I would put in a gearing system that allows top end gear come from operations, pvp, and command crates. If you want to put in a weekly mission to make players go to your new planet that is fine too. But a lot of different ways is the key. Also please dont put in different gear for PVP and PVE. Making players who enjoy both aspects gearing two sets is painful.

I wouldnt call it false advertising but I would link it to every post that they say they are trying to have better open communication to the player base. This is the benchmark of what not to do. You should never commit to doing something unless you know you can keep good on it. Once you are able to not keep good on your word you should come out with another post to explain why you cant and what communication your going to start having again. This keeps your player base to believe you actually care to let them know whats going on.

Please whatever you do dont bring back separate gears for pve and pvp. That divides the player base. Usually to grind a top level gear it takes awhile to have to grind two gears for one character its painful, for people who enjoy both pvp and pve. My ideas of gearing system should always be available by multiple ways. Always have only 1 set of gear for pvp and pve. 1) Gear that can be purchased through UC- This will be difficult as you have to try to determine the amount of hours it would take for a pvp to buy one piece and a pver to obtain it to try to be fair to both sides. 2) Gear through the command system. This is the best gearing system, because you get cxp for anything you do in game which could reward you a chance for high end gear. This should always be used as a bonus gearing system. Since it would reward the pvpers while they pvp and pver's as they pve. 3) Operations- Should always have a source of high end gear. I would do the latest operation drop the second highest gear in SM and highest gear in HM. I would also do a priority mission that lets you do a random operation in SM to acquire second highest gear and HM to acquire the highest gear. Ex. Right now you would have GOM and Queen drop 252 in SM and 258 in HM. Weekly priority missions would be (think it was 3.0) random operations excluding EV and KP. In SM the operation would drop 25 and HM would drop 258. 4) If you like to install a fourth option of gearing that is relevant with the new content you put out that is fine. Kinda like you did with the crystal gearing system. This will give another option of gearing that makes your new content stay relevant. As long as its with the other gearing systems. Having these different gearing systems doesnt force your players to play a certain way. It gives multiple ways of gearing up. Makes players to continue to enjoy the game they have been enjoying before the new gear came out. It wont force them to play a gearing system that they dont think is entertaining. Those are my thoughts.

With 40 alts I am not sure any gearing system would fit you. I really dont see how the crystal system would be better than the command rank system. In command system you would only need to grind 1 character for each class to command rank 300 and make legacy gears for all your alts to share. This system would be the same way. I cant imagine you would want to spend time doing 40 world bosses groups and 40 weekly missions to earn 2 crystals a week and do it for as long as it would take to level a character to full 258 gear. That sounds horrible. So I would assume you will do the same. Focus on 1 gear for each class and use it through legacy. Only difference is one system is brutally boring and the other system is actually fun. Sure the rng sucks sometimes but at least your playing content you enjoy and not force to playing two weekly quests over and over. Anyone with a lot of alts it only really matters about 1 thing for gearing and thats the ability for legacy gear. Thats what I did for all my alts. I dont have nearly as many as you but I love the command system. I think it was the best gearing system there is. Nothing like working on achievements, pvp, gsf, flashpoints, uprisings, operations, or just roaming around the world killing anything in your way and getting cxp that gives you a chance for the best gear. I also think that this system should always be in place but should work with other systems. For gearing purposes you should not only have one way of getting gear. You should have multiple ways of getting gear. 1) Gear should be obtainable through pvp/gsf ( UC) - Vendor to buy specific gear with UC 2) Gear should be obtainable through Command Crates- New ranks 350 for 252 and 400 for 258 3) Gear should be obtainable through Operations- Priority weekly missions- Random SM drops 252 gear and HM drops 258 gear. 4) Gear should be obtainable through the crystal system- Current system If they would of added all these ways I think people would of had a better outlook on gearing. Make gearing fun by offering multiple ways that people can achieve it instead of one way.

I disagree big time. The probably isnt command system but they way they rolled it out. Command system is a great gearing system but it should always be another way to gear. Command system lets you play the game in many different ways and get cxp and boxes that give you a chance to get the highest gear per your rank. That is an amazing idea. The problem is that it should never be the only way. Operations should also have the ability to get the highest end gear. Pvpers also should have a way to get the highest end gear. This way you could have multi ways of getting the highest end gear. You could pvp, run operations or do anything you want in game.

The problem I see with the gearing system is you limit your players. You learned nothing from the whole command gearing system that you put out over a year ago only to throw it away. The whole point of command system was you were able to enjoy all aspects of the game and be able to get the highest gear. Now you went backwards by limiting the way players can acquire the new gear. I do like having the new planet be a place to acquire the new gear but you dropped the ball by not adding it to the mix you already had. The best thing about the masterwork shards is you get to buy what piece of gear you want. Take that with adding new command ranks 350 that would drop 252 gear and 400 that would drop 258 gear and it would of been almost perfect. To make it perfect you could of added something for the raiders. You could of had a random weekly operation that if you did it in SM that would drop 252 and if you did it in HM it would drop 258. This would of gave your players multiple ways of gearing up. People still would of ran the ossus mission due to getting masterwork shards to choose what gear they want. Its just they would of kept on playing and not being bored because they have to wait to the next week.

I agree. Even though I do agree with most people that you should do it because its fun, however i do think it makes it better when you are rewarded. There currently three different ways to get your BIS gear but I would of added a few more ways. I would of added two new command ranks 350 and 400. Command rank 350 would drop the 252 and 400 would drop 258. This would of kept the command gearing system relevant. Im shocked that they spent over a year on this system and doing tons of revamping it to make it useless. I guess you can still use it to gear up alts and a slim chance of getting 252. I would of also added 252 drops on bosses on the daily GF. This would of made kept the old ops relevant. Last thing I would of did was make a new weekly random HM Ops that the bosses would drop 258. I think back in the day it was called priority ops. This would create a lot more ways of dropping new gear and keeping old ops/command rank relevant. Now it seems like you log in your char. Do two weekly missions for your masterwork data crystal, queen operation and then you wait for a week. Just my take on the new gearing system. .

I believe the fleet does have some determination on the health of the population but its mainly directed to the health of the solo and small guild players. For those that like to run solo or in small guilds they will look at the fleet as their main social hub and hang out there because they are looking for ops/fps or any other group activity. This is why I think you always see the fleet blow up on certain instances like a new expansion or release of a big chapter or a merger. As people come back to try it out the fleet numbers grow because they are looking for groups and are not in bigger guilds. As they tend to get in a bigger guild or they quit the fleet starts to shrink to a smaller average number. At least thats my take on the fleet activity in the past 8 years I played.

I believe the fleet does have some determination on the health of the population but its mainly directed to the health of the solo and small guild players. For those that like to run solo or in small guilds they will look at the fleet as their main social hub and hang out there because they are looking for ops/fps or any other group activity. This is why I think you always see the fleet blow up on certain instances like a new expansion or release of a big chapter or a merger. As people come back to try it out the fleet numbers grow because they are looking for groups and are not in bigger guilds. As they tend to get in a bigger guild or they quit the fleet starts to shrink to a smaller average number. At least thats my take on the fleet activity in the past 8 years I played.

Sorry to hear that but I personally think the new system is soooo easy to gear. I been here since day 1 and have never had top end gear due to not being able to do NIM Ops. Now with new system I have 5 in gear 248 and 3 in 242. I would probably have all my toons in 248 if I didnt take a 3-4 month break due to time availability

Are transfers still 90CC'S?

Yeah fixed it. So that even states how much better the new system now is then before.

It only got better with 5.0 for you. Before 5.0 you had to settle for the highest planet gear or do SM Ops. Now you can buy the highest planet gear and just play and start getting 230 gear once your 70 without doing any ops. If you want you can still do SM ops to gear. Can even probably buy 230 gear cheap on the gtn. Not sure though since I dont use the GTN to buy gear.

I liked it when 5.0 came out and I even like it more with the improvements they made. I enjoy all concepts of the game. I play GSF, PVP, Operations, Daily Heroics, Conquest, collect achievements and more. I been here from launch and never unsubbed due to always creating my own content while I wait for new content to arrive. I have completed a lot of HM Ops and only Nim I ever did was EV/KP. Before 5.0 everything I did except for operations was fun but not rewarding as it gave you no gear towards advancing your character. Its nice to do some heroics and build command pts to obtain a chance to get gear and possibly get capped gear. Pre 5.0 I had 0 chars with capped gear because I didnt run Nims Operations. Now since 5.0 I have 6 toons at command rank 300, 1 toon at 275 and one toon at 250. I have 3 capped toons with gear at 248. Three other toons at command rank 300 are at 246/248 gear. RNG might not be friendly at times but at least you get a chance at loot. Its easy to get 246 gear which is better than ultimate gear since it has a set bonus and ultimate gear was top gear without set bonus. Only difference is now you can obtain 248 gear without doing NIM OPS.