Let me start off by saying I've been here for a very long time, since that seems to be how everyone establishes merit these days. I created this account around 6 months before the game was released. I was one of the first rounds of closed beta for the game, and yes I remember all the famous beta quirks like pink boots. I've been subbed continuously since launch, etc. I'm not one of the OG 2008 Ubermensch, but I've basically played the game since non-Bioware Friends & Family could physically have a chance of accessing it. I not here to rant or rave. It should be obvious from my forum account that I don't post very much. I'm here to logically and reasonably lay out why I believe Command Gearing has a decent chance to be the final straw in SWTOR's tenuous relationship with guilds. I like to think of my guild as a dipstick for the state of SWTOR as a whole. We're a large, multi-game organization that had an absolutely massive contingent at launch. Over the years, we've dwindled as people get pulled away to other games, and SWTOR offered less and less for individual guildmembers. RPers? Slowly left over a lack of story content and the recent shift away from any sort of "traditional" Star Wars story - i.e. Zakuul. PVPers? Slowly left over a lack of new WZs, no true replacement for the large-scale PVP that Illum once promised, and a general lack of attention from the dev team - lackluster season rewards, etc. The casual members who drift between games and came to SWTOR for the story? Subbed long enough to knock out KoTFE and left. What was left for my guild, and what has kept the chapter together was twofold: the simple IP of Star Wars, and an enjoyment of classic MMO PvE Gearing - essentially Ops, since FPs were ever only a stepping stone to them. Now, there's a whole other argument to be made how the removal of Empire Vs. Republic story in favor of this generic, homogenous Zakuul story dilutes the staying power of the Star Wars brand, and doesn't really even constitute an "Old Republic" story, but that's for another day. Today is for the point that Command Gearing removes the need to ever do Ops; and thus the need for BioWare to ever make new Ops content ever again, removing the last thing holding many guild together as anything other than a loose association of individual players sharing in an XP boost and an apartment. My concern lies in a "point of diminishing returns" for Command Points. Quite simply - what is the reasoning behind ever again struggling through the challenge of a NM Op? While we've been promised "Substantial" differences in point reward, BW has failed to account for the fact that these HM/NM Operations are not efficient for players. They never had been. Progression Raiding has always focused on the challenge of slowly improving upon a difficult enemy - classic "git gud" challenge made enjoyable by your friends (most often your guildmates) progressing with you. Everyone from 1.0 remembers the feeling of finally getting full Tionese gear and joining your friends in SM Ops. Now, why would any member of my guild feel the need to plan an Op? Why would we spend out Sunday night hanging out, diving into content, helping fellow members improve and get geared when even the most difficult content promises only the possibility of a new level that offers the possibility of a new piece of BiS gear, only assuming you managed to clear it all? Why struggle through? Why not just, since everyone else will be geared to roughly a sufficient level, grind out medium/hard flashpoints/uprisings that everyone has played a million times? Why risk the possibility of a poor night of progression raiding when in that wasted time you've been passed in level by someone who's just been grinding thoughtlessly? I maintain that people will recognize this diminished return and will move away from the traditional content that kept the guilds who have stuck with this game from the beginning alive. Couple this with inherent frustration with RNG, and the fact that helping a guildmember gear up is no longer basically possible, you've left guilds (again "traditional" ones), with frustrated guildmates who have no easy way of helping newly returning friends gear efficiently and have no real incentive to be pushing at the edges of progression content when they could just pug low-rate-of-failure group content. This, quite simply, will induce long-time members to leave for brighter pastures. Cue negative feedback loop. Guild have already had a very hard time maintaining the players that kept them alive. I know people will comment quickly that Ops were a "niche" and that plenty of people play the "emergent" gameplay that KoFTE has developed with story - that's fine. All I'm saying here is that one of the last institutions that consistently supported this game is going to be very adversely affected by these changes, and that's REALLY not a good thing. I'll leave you all with this thought: This new gearing is paving the path to players being non-associated single individuals who have no incentive to engage in real collaboration or teamwork with others. Once everyone knows the mechanics of the Uprisings, everything will be on autopilot and there will be no need to engage with anyone. Everyone will have great gear. Why at that point even be social?

^ Yup. Sorry if it was unclear.

Ok, yes, so this might seem like a crazy idea, but I think it would be very cool for there to be a "barracks" on the guildships. Of course, it would be it's own zone like your ship, but it could be a series of smaller guildmate rooms so people could have a spot on the ship. This could lead way to lots of other perks, such as bonuses in conquest for every person who has a house there since they would be like "minutemen". You could have the guild even get a portion of the cost to purchase said barracks room so they could put money towards the ship itself. Obviously, if the guildmember is kicked, they are refunded. Just thought it could be a fun idea. Like living in your fraternity house in college.

Okay Bioware, if you're going to put something as cool as the Kingpin's Rancor at the end of a riotously frustrating and simplistic credit sink, at least give us the ability to sell the Golden Certificates we don't want for, say, 5 Kingpin tokens. Some of the prizes are cool, but my extra certs become pointless after getting tons of them, winning the Magnus twice, and breaking the machine. Most of us just want that Rancor.

Exactly what I am in game. Rolling around like a Space Cowboy making massive amounts of credits without any real allegiance? Bounty Hunter life for me.

Lightside hunter is Paragon Shepard from Mass Effect 2. /thread

In the end, that's why being the Bounty Hunter is the best. You don't really have to care. Personally, I like that the Empire pays better, and working with Darth Marr is a ton of fun, but my BH still isn't attached at the hip to the empire and will burn any Sith to the ground who tries to mess with him (Looking at you, Tormen.)

I don't care if they make no sense. I don't care if they're not canon. But just using the "shrink" tool on the Bowcasters and selling them so Bounty Hunters and smugglers can use them would make a lot of the rage go away. And maybe even a gray/silver color crystal for the melee users? Seems like everyone would be happier.

Sorry to sidetrack from the Alderann anecdote we have going on, but I'm going to /sign this. As a player who just decided to come back to the game, I don't think BioWare is doing a very good job of trying to keep me as the patch that I came back for killed my spec. I don't wan't to be one of the 400k, BioWare, but I will if I have to.

I took a break from SWTOR a few months ago as schoolwork piled on. And now I come back to enjoy my main, a level 43 Bounty Hunter Merc. I jump into PvP and that's where stuff starts to go downhill. Stuff isn't getting blown away like I remember it. I remember Arsenal Merc to be a class that just stood there and melted faces, and boy could it melt 'em. i consider myself pretty good at PvP, (back before my hiatus I would almost always be top Damage and Kills in WZs. Huttball 99.9% of the time) but I can't get any ground with my attacks. Even when I would be the player who was "in the zone" the most (doing everything as best as possible/ kicking arse) I would end the warzone to see that I was middle of the pack in DPS, top 5 in kills, and died a few more time than usual. I don't think I've gotten worse. Hopefully not. What did BioWare do to my class??

I mean, people who know what they are doing will wipe the floor with you if all you have to stop them is a three second interrupt. When this happens to me I do any of the many options available to me: 1. Unload 2. Rail Shot 3. Heatseekers 4. Rocket punch 5. Jet Boost 6. Electro Dart And pretty much any other ability that isn't Tracer missile for THREE SECONDS. And then I go back to my rotation and melt your face.

I love people who think that as I Merc I can't toast someone who comes up to me in 1v1. What do I do when you jet charge me or grapple me? I Pop my shield, jet punch you with a knockback, hit you with two tracers. By the time you get to me I use jet boost. Then you're even father away and you're slowed because I hit you with unload. You don't make it to me a second time.