Thank you for acknowledging the problems that provoked me to open this post. A guild can be purchased by anyone, I have left guilds that are polluted with group-think because the guild owner doesn't know the game, when you have a group passing around erroneous info, that group fortifies it's own confirmation bias....such as GM's insisting that crit can be stacked to well over 2K...etc...etc, and that guild's new players tend to take the GM's word as solid. To the other suggestions regarding alternate ways to get Vets to help..... The problem isn't that Vet's have no means or format to help new players, they have no reason to stay, they've been leaving the game....specifically PvE raiding players, whole guilds have left the game, I personally know 3 raiding guilds that've dropped subs for this reason, there's no reason to work with new players & repeat the whole arduous process of wiping/repetition all over again .

Yeah, there's been a lot of defensiveness over Vets having any perceived advantage. While the game did have a problem with PvE elitism back in 3.0, less in 4.0, I think the CXP system took it to the other extreme, now anyone with too much time on their hands spams heroics and assumes they're in charge of group content when they have the highest gear rating.....but no experience. This was the rationale for #3 and #4. .

If you're a WoW employee, maybe this is a good strategy, but no, you won't see consensus on the notion that increased subs will cause decreased subs. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd, especially when group content is so prevalent, this is, after all, an MMO.

I agree, which is why "recognize more experienced players" is only one of the bullet points of the 6 (#3), for Pugs, GF/PVP random queues, so a given group can decide whom to listen to for strategy, vs guessing who's advice to listen to....or a new player can decide if stacking crit to 2400 is good advice when the adviser has, say, 5% overall experience/achievements.. This idea came to me when I healed a pug Op, the tank refused to guard my healer, mobs picked me off as soon as we pulled without CCing....he then told me it was my own fault for "overhealing and ripping aggro". I left the group, yet another half hour wasted in a pug run by a domineering newcomer who doesn't know what he's doing. This is killing group content, further limiting appeal for Ops/FP's and WZ's in an era that Bioware lacks resources to Develop new content and vets are growing tired. ** Guys, read the entire O/P before commenting. .

Assuming you have large # of overall achievements, planetary, heroics, codex's, reputation...etc - You would benefit immediately. From there, #5 would give you incentive to group with any new players on lower planets spamming to run heroics, or fight WB's...etc. Apparently you didn't read the whole post (yeah, it's lengthy), no need to sub to attain the legacy stat bolsters, they'd retain the existing system to sub in order to reach max level & BiS gear. - re: "I always get the top gear for all of my classes every time they shuffle the system and it’s a workout but it’s fun for me" There would be almost NO advantage for vets beyond the time it takes to earn the achievements, as any new player can attain the same achievements, barring several obscure one's like archived or DvL, this system would encourage all levels of experience to engage the entire game, not just PvP, PvE, or story portions. I fully agree on the content point, and so do the vast majority of players, this forum is littered with the same suggestion - but in light of 5.0 starting out with a CXP grind that pushed us into repetitively grinding the exact same high CXP content (Bestia, KP adds...etc) we were bored with by the end of 3.0, this idea started to form as I watched Veteran players leave the game early in 5.0. It took me around 300 hours just to regear my main at the start of 5.0, in 242's, which was then bumped again to 248's, and then again we had to upgrade augs more recently, all with barely any new content.....and between bolster & level synch, there's almost no reason to bother, aside HM Ops/FP's, which barely anyone is running now. (try queuing for HM FP's, tell me how that goes) Agree, fully, which is why I suggested "mentor" achievements to incentivize Vets to run new players through Ops - as it stands, I have almost no reason to spend the time gathering a group, then spending two more hours running an op when the gear drops are so abysmal.....even NiM now only drops a single 248 token @ last boss, sad. A HUGE mistake Bioware made was to eliminate Ops passes, using Ops passes is what lured me to sub, I sampled them, but got sick of grinding to buy passes, so I subbed......now, the pool of players to draw from to run Ops is diminished....both Raiding Vets and new free players are out. They should just open access to all content to all players, just restrict gear drops. Read my #2 suggestion....I have found Group Ranked much more enjoyable, I run regs with the same zeal I load the dishwasher or take out the garbage, solo ranked and regs are awful, constantly imbalanced...I stopped bothering with solo ranked, only do regs because they go fast. That was the whole idea, "cheap" ....5.0 was obviously a low budget attempt to engage us, and it failed, both by pushing Vet/endgame PvE players out (or into PvP, which is another page of gripes altogether), and by pummeling new players who solo queue PvP, which the game seems to want to push us towards. My suggestions would help both to reengage Vets with existing content and new players (see #5), and make newer players more situationally aware to make it less burdensome to invite them to Ops (see #4)

For you, True. Only players that do Ops, play PvP, Heroics, work achievements or any other portion of the game would benefit. ** Considering that 5.0 opened with almost no new content and a CXP grind that pushed us to exhaustively redo existing content for 100's of hours just to regear back to BIS to resume 4.0 progression - and they did it twice over (242, then 248 gear), I don't agree. look at the achievements of any Ops Vet that's at or near 100%, you usually see they have massive gaps in achievements on other portions of the game, there's no reason to bother. Then, add a "mentor" achievement system that further buffs stats for working with new players in all group portions of the game....No more seeing those players spamming fleet chat for, say, HM ToS or HM DF, DP, Rav, for hours, then finally giving up. Vets would have a reason to walk them through it. they would also have a reason to resume older portions of the game with gaps in achievements. .

<Bump> Had to revive this thread after reading this - http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=942924. The suggestions above would require minimal coding, encourage vets to return to sub, and incentivize all players to play existing content in the event of a lack of Dev budget. Increased subs would increase revenues, EA might even allow the game to live on. .

I agree, I have repeatedly made the exact same suggestion and I get troll ganked by how "stupid" I am to make such a suggestion, I suspect the forums are more frequented by those who have the time to spend discovering exploits, then browbeat opposition here to preserve the status quo. Gives adage to the old expression "the silent majority"...whom, in this case are, or will be, former subscribers. ..

I no longer bother with solo ranked for this reason, have made the same suggestion repeatedly. Imp side out-populates pubs, so almost every solo ranked match has a healer on Imp side against 3 or 4 pub DPS's, players often leave matches when they see the group balance, leaving it 4 on 3. The overall effect is that solo ranked is virtually dead, queues take far too long to bother sitting & waiting, no one wants to queue. The same applies to regs, for the speed of queue's many just queue to rush through the 4 losses to collect daily rewards - going afk & squatting is very common, folks stop caring about the match when it's usually so lopsided. The end result is a lot of angry blame within the team, and winners making crude comments to the losers. Group ranked is growing in popularity for this reason, you have the ability to form balanced groups & at least have a fighting chance, but because of the time it takes to form groups, it's not as fast as regs... This is not good when 5.0 has evolved towards PvP, not good at all .

Having addressed SWTOR's 32-bit engine a few times here on the forums, to rebuild would be equivalent to redoing the whole game. I agree, but with AE, a publicly traded co calling the shots, we can forget about it.

For PvP, where 5.0 swung toward PvP. something's got to be done with Regs & solo ranked queue imbalances, it's demoralizing to play a game you expect to lose 75% of the time because there's no heals or tanks. It's misleading to queue "solo" only to get serially farmed by premades, when it's supposed to be "solo" queue's. For PvE, it's obvious Bioware has budget constraints, so create a system for existing (and maybe new) achievements similar to datacron's buffs, revive existing PvE content by making it so that planetary achievements and Codex's are worthwhile just like datacrons, they buff legacy wide stats. "Mentor achievements" & buffs, experienced Raiding guilds and PvE'ers are gone or leaving, once they attain Ops achievements there's no reason to stay and teach newer players, change that... Make it worthwhile for vets to stay, along with the above mentioned achievement system. old vets would return for the fact that existing content & previously earned achievements, atop helping new players, equate to something tangible.

The "/played" idea was only tentative, more important are the cheeves. but both would incentivize players to play more, and sub....at least for the Ops cheeves and the BiS gear to reap the full benefit of all buffs with BiS gear at top level. Neither lvl 70, nor BiS gear can be attained without subbing, I don't suggest altering that, only adding these buffs to the existing system. The amount of buff not suggested, and let's not ignore most content is either bolstered or level synced anyway (PVP, I get ganked in full 248's by guys in junk all the time), but yes, those with existing cheeves, such as yourself, would benefit, however, new players also have the opportunity to get the same cheeves.....it would also serve to revive your interest in old achievements you never bothered with....same for me. Plus, you and I would be further incentivized to go to, say, Coruscant and help new players on the World Boss, Heroics, planetary missions, etc, via suggestion #5... The old planets would be humming with activity, new players would be engaged in group content for cheeves, like killing droids, animals, and NPC's for the planetary achievements....GF would pick up again with those of us who haven't done, say, 25 Kills of last boss HM Rishi or Bloodhunt...etc For example, I also did DvL, and when 5.0 came out the added 8 alts were almost pointless under the new CXP system for the fact that you could just use the one rank 300 Alt to gear the rest....took me roughly 250 hours to get rank 300 on my first alt, wasn't gonna do that again. If we had something tangible, aside the bonus armor set that's only good for new expacks, DvL would've left a much better aftertaste.

You, in fact, don't know what you're talking about, every expack is a race for power, we strive to regear as fast as possible, we want bragging rights, we like to overpower in PvP, or pull aggro in Ops, imagine if a Founder ex-sub learns he has, say, a 10% buff for his efforts over the years and he can increase it even more via #5, that's a resub.. As it is now, we get a huge surge of subs at the start of each new pack, then they drop once leveled and geared, This game's achievements are hundreds, maybe thousands, and Bioware could even add more....all on existing content, and very few players bother with them because there's no tangible reward or reason to get them. As for incentives to sub, perhaps a prerequisite that you're at least a pref customer, or sub every so often in order to enjoy any buff's/bolsters, but also - READ # 5! Now, read the whole thing, you're not responding to the actual idea, some of what you're saying is not what I suggested.....Subs that are senior players, founders, would benefit the most, but none of the achievements aren't available for newer players, just the time to earn them is key....time spent playing the game.....and #5 would continue the incentive to Sub with no end, now that Ops aren't available to free players. As for incentivizing subs, true, once you have the cheeves (please read #5), there may be no incentive - just as the incentive also goes once you're fully geared now, but that's where #5 comes in....you didn't read it... I started as F2P, didn't even consider subbing for a few months until I tried an Op with a pass, those passes were a great sales tool, Bioware should have gone the other way and allow Free players to sample Ops, but not have access to the gear drops. Founders, who've already done the lower planetary, Ops, FP, WZ and miscellaneous chieves would benefit the most, and there'd be an incentive to return to the game. - See #5 PvE Players, in particular, are leaving for this reason, experienced Raiding guilds are all but extinct, players that know HM/NiM Ops are gone - there's no reason to continue Ops with at or near 100% chieves. again see #5 Story missions are mostly the interest of casual & RP players, regular active subs like myself burn through story in short time, I know I do. If Bioware has a tight budget, then this would revive interest in existing content with minimal coding & cost. Read the ENTIRE post before kneejerk reactions to "some" of the post.

In 3-1/2 years of non-stop, albeit compulsive gameplay, these are my observations. In my opinion, #1 would yield the biggest surge in subs/resubs for the least cost & resources - #1- Retroactively convert the achievement system to something like Datacrons, reward players with something tangible for time, dedication, experience and seniority, say, legacy stats are bolstered according to % overall achievements, perhaps factor "/played" time into the equation.(not time sitting in strongholds though) Vet players would be incentivized to return and enjoy the results of their existing achievements, far more players would be engaged in existing content, world bosses, hidden achievements, codex's, old planetary achievements...etc. #2 - Fix regs/solo ranked queues, limit stuns/slows, If you want to continue promoting PvP, Nothing as unenjoyable as queuing solo ranked with four melee DPS's against a balanced team with heals/tank, spending most of the match stunned as the opposing team picks off your team mates, followed by team mates angry misguided blame & insult, opponents hazing over a cheap win.- Doing dishes, riding rush hour traffic is more enjoyable. #3 - Some openly visible way to see players' total game experience, or even one that displays experience within a given instance (Op or FP), maybe a status bar. Checking legacy achievements is far too cumbersome, many new players aren't aware of them. All too often group content goes south when one guy insists he knows what he's doing and decides to be in control, the group wipes, and he blames someone else, this is one of the biggest reasons GF content is fading in popularity. #4 - Class tutorials, more intuitive game experiences while leveling incorporate "trials" into class stories, to teach the basics, add real time parses to player status bars so they at least see a number for their DPS, HPS, protection/threat - Most players just entering endgame from story are clueless about Target of target, rotation, enlarged debuffs in frames, interrupts, defensive's, LOS strategy, utilities...etc...etc. #5 Mentor system, offer incentives for vet players to work with newcomers Vet players have no reason to teach rotations, mechanics, HM Ops or FP's to newcomers once they have the achievements, I know at least two raiding guilds that are circling the game like hawks, but not subbed, waiting for a reason to come back, give them a reason, similar to #1, maybe stat bolsters for secondary "mentor" achievements, or similar. #6 - Gen Chat is often septic, childishly vulgar, I just assumed it was Bioware policy to not censure or guide free speech, but after seeing several posts deleted here on the forum, i see that's not the case. I come home from work some days and see what's in chat, then log off or go to another planet, all it takes is a single unsupervised 14 yr old spewing highshool-esque jabs about someone's mom's genitalia to completely alter the texture/mood of gen chat, players leave, have a bioware rep make their presence known on occasion, not to censure, but offer passive guidance regarding harassment or ToS violations.

That may be part of it, but imo the bigger problem is the game was prominently PvE players, and @ 5.0 we were pushed more to PvP, then, PvP queues in solo ranked & regs are not balanced. The end result - PvE players that assume big DPS (AOE damage especially) is all the matters vs capping, staying at guard, or not breaking CC's, or players constantly losing, left wondering if the matches aren't rigged or exploited when regs/solo ranked queues are constantly imbalanced. Doing regs dailies has become a daily chore, angry players blaming each other without realizing they had no heals or tanks, opponents rubbing cheap wins in your face with insults... Doing dishes, or driving in rush hour is almost enjoyable by comparison. . .