No, Way too grindy, not alt friendly

I came back a little over a month ago to power through the story, and was pleasantly surprised that the conclusion to the story was not gated behind months of additional...grinding. So as someone who intended to leave after the story here are my 2 cents. As the gaming demographics clearly show, casual players make up a far larger majority than what one may classify as a hardcore player, now unfortunately these labels are misleading, as quite often the casual players are playing multiple games at once. This is not a bad thing, as it also means that content doesn't get as stale as fast for those who will consume the content when they want as their attention can be pulled in other directions. Now notice I didn't say mmo players, as when we're talking about casual gaming, we're talking about all forms, mobile, console, action, mmo, etc. etc. the list goes on. And the amazing thing is...its been proven over and over that casual gamers are the ones more likely to spend real world money on their entertainment. This can be proven by how successful micro transaction games are on multiple platforms. So where does this lead me in this post and how SWTOR's change interact with the economic powerhouse that are casual gamers? Grind...yup, pretty simple. There's a fine balance that needs to be achieved about trying to hook the casual gamer to spend enough time...and enough money to feel their time and money is rewarded, and unfortunately it does not seem like these changes to CXP work towards encouraging casuals to consume at their own pace to be equally rewarded. Now of course those of you who feel that more time invested in an activity should some how intrinsically mean greater rewards have failed to understand that games are ultimately about making a rewarding experience for all...hence inclusiveness. Command levels and loot boxes actually is on point for that, the concept makes sense, reward players for playing when they can, what they want...the failure on BioWare is that they made it a grind fest. I'll argue with you day in day out that RNG is the culprit , because people enjoy a certain element of randomness (imagine how gambling would be if you were always guaranteed to win the jackpot just for spending time there *rolleyes*) I digress though, and in short..,... BioWare, you've missed the boat in making command leveling be so slow (yes even with the gains), and now with the proposed changes, you're just adding more grind.

The virtually dead "PVP" servers would like to have a discussion with you..... Oh right...pvp is about rewards.....not actual 'red is dead' like in other games...

But your post has logic...and an obvious skill factor attributed in recognizing opponents abilities! Your post is rubbish because what the masses want isn't smart play...they want to tunnel and get pissed when it doesn't work the way they wanted!!! on a serious note....we can...without any sort of snide remarks or attitudes 100% legit say to all the ******sandmoaners that you really need to learn how the mechanics work....just like this guy did!

So...now you are wanting to balance classes around stacked scenarios? I'd love to see you try and do that rationally and not have your head explode with also making the classes actually contribute in a non stacked scenario. You're effectively asking them to consider balancing X class with the assumption that they should be performing at 1/2 or 1/4 that due to a potential stacked scenario, and yet ...as in the other posts the new DCDs are actually pretty easy to circumvent ..... since you play sniper lets say that your CC immunity..your roll...your damage...your burst should your sheilds should all be balanced around the assumption that there are 2 or 4 of you that will focus something. Hah.. merc dcds too stronk....... well don't hit them with they have their dcds up and they wont heal... merc dcds too stronk!!! Nurf!!

ikr? but no...don't you dare say L2P to the masses!

So....again...its pretty fantastic self healing ..if.. you are ignoring the mechanics and hitting them thus healing them. Again, if people drool around and don't understand that they are causing the mechanic to work in their opponents favor, and them blame them for their own mistake.... well not sure what to tell ya other than it really is a L2P issue... I have limited experience in ranked myself, but the mechanics for these defenses are hard to believe that they weren't designed for the issue that was 100% undeniable pre 5.0...which is the constant tunnelling of Mercs since they were very easy to kill under any focused pressure. This now gives them breathing room..but as have been pointed out, AOEs...stun/CCs...those negate our 'wonderful invincible modes'. But no worries, people wont learn, and will continue to ***** until they get nerfed into oblivion again.

Don't worry, it's falling on deaf ears cause people rather ***** than learn mechanics in regs!

naw..it's the aggregated intelligence of people who ***** about balance in any mmo's pvp system, don't sell yourself short!

And the same can be true about those who farmed traditional methods of game play in other mmos....farming x, y, z boss for months and either a. never having it drop or, b. when it does drop...having to wonder if you'll win it vs x,y,z other people who want it too. I honestly feel that if they toned down the cxp required, we wouldn't worry as much...which would also encourage alt play...to..yup grind cxp for more boxes. But i'm fairly certain they're wanting to make a crapton on cxp booster sales!

This is about what i'll agree with.. Not that GC is bad, but that the grind seems extreme if we're already feeling bored by only rank (mid teens). I have not done the ranked arena myself but now that I know the rewards are that stupid good..why not.. And that's exactly how it shouldn't be, because now people will massively queue for ranked arena...not for competitive play, but for easiest path to rewards. They really need to re-evaluate time vs reward for events in CXP, so it truly encourages the mindset they quoted 'play how you want and get rewarded'...

Disagree, as you paint a scenario that a 'new player' would somehow be taken under the folds of some 'guild who will just run operations for them to get all the gear'.....lol The reality is quite a bit different, and you can see it in the attitudes of the veteran player base who 'bail in flash points due to a bad', or how infrequently story mode ops queues pop. Again..is the actual RNGness of the system good...probably not...is the meta mechanic of having gear normalized and rewarded for any activity you do good? absolutely, That is clearly closer to a definition of inclusive vs exclusive...as your scenario requires 'best case scenario' 7 other people taking their time to gear up and train a newbie in operations to suddenly become 'inclusive'...aka raid ready. PVP was a great alternative vs PVE since it could be consumed at your pace...but again, the exclusivity was the expertise stat...new player plays the game...waits till later levels to try out pvp, but doesn't have the gear and just gets fleeced over and over...well not anymore! I will agree the grind for the rewards may need some tuning (which i believe they said they would monitor), but my verdict is still out on the RNGness

Thus the logical fallacy committed that their target demographics are the 'die hard raiders/groupers', when the gaming sector as a whole has proven monetarily that casual gamers are a larger market audience which then equals an over all larger potential revenue stream. While I will agree that the grind fest of cxp required for rewards maybe a bit extreme (especially for those of us who like alts), I actually agree with the majority of the sentiments of the original post. I will summarily disregard the arguments including anecdotes that reinforce the 'exclusivity' brought up for both pve and pvp, because OPs title was about why this system is a more inclusive system. Which it totally is...play what you will/want/enjoy, and get rewarded for it. No longer does someone who enjoys PVP and PVE raids/flashpoints have to dedicate insane amounts of their free time to 'stay competitive' because of the differences in a 'pvp' stat. No longer does someone have to rely on a guild to 'carry them through ******** content' to help the 'new guy' catch up, .... Now we can focus on the mechanics of the encounter and the classes and the game play.. Now again...does GC have flaws...yes...but is it as awful as some say...matter of perspectives. Remember, as much as you'd like to think that mmos live and survive off the most 'dedicated traditionalist - must grind warzone coms / pve coms' for that next gear to make me competitive for the next treadmill... you've eliminated potentially thousands of casual 'and could be arguably more skilled than you' players who are just exploring, and the history of mmos (especially this one) has shown not only can it survive, but become profitable by adapting to the times. Again, I'm no champion of the GC or CXP...I feel that after 4 days of playing the game without an intent to grind...I hit Command lvl 16 out of 300...it's too grindy, but the fact as an on and off returning player since launch, and mmo player since the Ultima Online days...I welcome the fact that I can pick up these games, play at my own pace, and get some rewards vs having to slave away at a game (aka guild and raid raid raid, or group pvp over and over again). Really im just glad they removed expertise!!!

signed for ...mass effect..

IKR? I mean most of the QQ is coming from regs where the mentality is still...'dog pile the merc'....hence 5 people all attacking you with the VERY obvious different reflect/heal bubble...yes thank you for healing me instead of CCing me! The real question/balance/analysis should be coming once we start seeing a healthy ranked pop..but then again this games always had an issue trying to balance pvp for ranked vs regs... So just enjoy it while it lasts, give it next content/balance patch and we'll be useless again.