1) Nope, you miss the point. Having to spend "imaginary" money, means that much less I have, which in turn means that much more stuff I'll be "encouraged" to spend cartel coins on, which means eventually having to purchase some with "real" money. Just to enjoy the game I'm paying a monthly sub for or to have a decent character & companion. And how 'bout those companion gifts "unlocks?" Can I buy those with "imaginary" money? (unless maybe on the gtn for some outrageously inflated price, lol) 2) You say PURCHASE a companion. lol. Kinda makes my point for me rather than discrediting it. 3) "Level" one companion....... lol again. See #1 Not sure why you saw the need to try and discredit and/or invalidate my opinion & how I see things with a condescending "counterpoint" rather than simply stating your own opinion but, meh, whatever. Doesn't change my mind or my opinion.

Thanks, OP. I found this very informative. Gives me an idea what I have to look forward to if I continue on with this game. Personally, I feel that I'm already paying monthly for my subscription and kind of resent the fact that I would be required to pay such exorbitant amounts just to have my companion be able to actually do it's job properly, only to have it taken away when the companion gets taken away, Fine for the people with large amounts of credits they're trying to drain. Not so fine for someone like me starting out with very few credits and every time I turn around I'm being drained to nothing again. Made me think of this vid so I'll just leave it here. Very funny. Give it a watch.

Ok, maybe they *think* they made it easier for newbs, and yes the xp gain in very fast which in the end only serves to put you way over level without the high level companion, without the high level gear, without the high stats in things that don't get gimped, etc., and yet still sync'd as if you had all that. The reality, in-game, boots-on-the-ground so to speak, *real* newbie experience is something else altogether from what (maybe) they were trying to do. This is not about the high level characters returning to do content. And even for them, it doesn't appear to be balanced either, but that's another subject. People keep saying that it's only the endurance & mastery that's sync'd, and maybe another like power maybe? And keep naming all these (to me) astronomically high numbers of alacrity, crit, etc. The reality for a newb is very, very low numbers on any of those stats if you have any at all. Meanwhile the xp keeps shooting you higher and higher so the only stats you're gaining are getting sync'd so eventually it's zero noticeable gain. What I've seen happening in my case once I started paying attention to it, is that at the very low levels you do get a few drops here and there that actually give you a small amount of stuff like defense, alacrity, crit,. And then you get to (for instance) Hoth or Belsavis with a big whopping 0 to 15ish defense, 0 to 30ish alacrity, 0 to 15ish crit, etc. depending on RNG along the way. Oh and a lvl 15-20ish companion. At that point, say I get lucky and get a drop like I did yesterday with a crit increase of 19, that nearly doubles my crit number BUT it drops my defense to zero because the new piece has no defense stat while the existing one did. May have been alacrity, I forget now. But the point is, that new piece of equipment was not truly an upgrade because at least with the old piece of equipment I had a few numbers in all the stats rather than boosting one and dropping to zero in others. But then if I don't equip it so as to not lose all of one stat, then I don't get the benefit of the increased armor, etc. Soooooo, this happens a few times with a few pieces of equipment, until I end up with zero on all those stats that I had a few piddling pts in to begin with, each one keeps going down down down, while one or more goes up and eventually the only ones going up are the ones that are getting gimped with being sync'd. This is what happens for a new player, at least it's been my experience so far. Meanwhile, the mobs are getting harder and harder and you don't have those 1000s of alacrity, 1000s of crit, 1000s of defense, 1000s of all those things people keep saying isn't sync'd, and assuming everyone has, and so everyone's supposedly equal. Not to mention all the gear and their lvl 50 companions. So I'll say again, and I really don't think I'm wrong on this, they have balanced it all around end-game-level players. *Real* newbies appear to have been left out of the calculations. Whether intentional or not is pretty irrelevant really. Yikes, turning into a wall of text here. I apologize and really hadn't intended on going into a lot of that stuff in this particular thread since I've already grumbled elsewhere. lol. I really did just want to know what happened, historically, to bring about this misguided system in the first place since it wasn't a *thing* when I played all those years ago. edit: Also I can see now that there were no incidents or playstyles they were trying to thwart. Apparently it was an attempt to (rightly so) keep the existing player base and give them something to do. I agree that those folks who stuck with it through thick and thin should be accommodated. But I also think, after reading through the many posts on this subject in this thread and elsewhere, that they've been very short sighted and failed to see the impact on the *actual* newbie experience. And as much as it's desirable to keep the core group of existing players, it should be equally desirable to get (and keep) new players. I see tons of people on the starter planets. All running around and appearing to have fun. I have fun on the starter planets as well. Yet as the planets fly by, the populations drop drastically. So either these are mostly *real* newbies who never make it very far, or established players trying to do the whatever is required of them to get a new character up where their others are. Maybe a little of both. *shrugs* Either way, the drastic population drop *seems* to imply a loss of new players, to my mind at least. Just as I doubt I'll ever make it to end game myself because the fun-factor drops off drastically as well.

Bear in mind, as I said, I have no character that has made it past Belsavis (before I'm so disgusted with my increasing ineffectiveness as I level). Highest character is 49. All my, gear is from drops going through the class story and quests. No sets of anything. No bells & whistles on any character. In effect, it's the newb experience even though I did play back at launch, so I think I can speak for at least a few newbs who tried this game and didn't stick around. If I'm understanding everyone correctly, it seems pretty clear that everything got balanced around end-game, even the supposed newb planets, and not for people just starting out. And here I was thinking that the whole syncing business was put in to solve some problem or something. lol.

Well, maybe my terminology is incorrect. I've only just returned, and have no characters anywhere near 70 so when I say *capped* I'm referring to on the lower planets where you're over level and so no amount of equipment upgrades, or stims, or buffs, or anything else makes any difference and in fact your stats go down in many cases rather than up. What I'm interested in knowing, and the reason for this thread, is the history of what was happening that prompted implementing it in the first place. Not interested in what *could* happen if we didn't have it.

This is a serious question that maybe some here can enlighten me on. I left before the first expansion so I was not here when it was implemented and have no clue what was going on in the game that prompted it. So, what exactly was going on in the game that was so detrimental to the game that they felt the need to do level syncing? ..........(edited out level *capping* for clarity. Not talking about the end-game level cap)........... What problems were happening that this supposedly solved? What exactly was supposedly accomplished? I ask because as far as I can see since I've been back, it has completely ruined the experience I was expecting when I decided to return. So maybe someone can enlighten me as to how the game is better with it.

Not to mention new players. Having not played since before the first expansion, I am in a position to see it from the new players' perspective. If it's true that they made this stupid system to thwart the existing player base, (which is in itself a reprehensible practice of some games), that's like cutting off your nose to spite your face. They're also thwarting and alienating new players. It's next to impossible to NOT be over level (and therefore capped), starting almost immediately with the starter planet. The first few characters I made since coming back, I initially thought it was too fast and I was being rushed to the end game. I was doing all the planet arcs & side quests, and rocketing up in levels. And whenever I got a gear drop with the pretty green arrows saying it was an upgrade, I took that at face value, thinking that was pretty handy & one less thing to worry about while trying to relearn the game. So I wasn't actually watching the stats or how they changed when equipping. I personally dislike having to worry about watching numbers, and min-maxing and all that stuff that ruins my immersion in the game, so I thought that was a nice touch. Then I started noticing that I was getting progressively more ineffective just trying to do the class stories and side quests, etc. No FPs, no OPs, no Heroics, etc. Until finally by the time I reach Belsavis, (which is about as far as I've gotten with any character yet), I'm so ineffective I can hardly fight my way out of a wet paper bag, and my companion starts having a hard time holding aggro. I'm not a big fan of having near-death experiences with every other fight, even aside form actually dying, in encounters that should no way be so much trouble. So far I've gotten disgusted with each of those characters and keep starting new ones. I have not yet finished the class story on a single one of my characters. Too much frikken hassle and not having fun after the first couple planets. And half the time "upgrading" equipment does nothing at all, or worse, actually lowers stats. And what's the point of using stims or getting datacrons? No effect half the time. So with the latest character I tried playing, I stopped doing any side quests, skipped all but one or two planet arcs, and did just the class story. By doing that, I managed to only be a little bit over level and sometimes at level. And I started looking when something says it's an upgrade. (I've also tried doing mods but I do better with random drops. Stats don't go down as much). Turns out the reason I keep getting progressively more ineffective is because of the damn level cap (edit: or Sync, or whatever the label is on it). Some stats actually go down when you equip. Meanwhile the mobs keep getting tougher and tougher, even aside from the gimping of the player character, which might be alright if I had any chance of actually getting as strong as they are. So I'm rambling now, I know. So much I want to say here and this is getting too long already. End result is that I'm shelving yet another character, in utter disgust. I'm going to try one more, maybe, before I throw my hands up and say enough, Maybe this game isn't for me after all. Shame, because I love Star Wars, but whatever. Fine way to introduce newbies to the game. Your character will *appear* to be getting stronger, with the levels appearing to go up, and those pretty green arrows saying Yes! This is an upgrade, and all. But the actual experience of fighting as you go along, you'll find yourself struggling more and more with each planet and wondering *** is going on. Skip all the content and you might just squeak through without being too awfully gimped by the time you reach Belsavis. Who needs content on your way to end-game anyway, right? All those levels and planets are just a means to an end, right? Waste of time trying to enjoy the journey and do all the content. Just get where you're going by whatever means necessary and be done with it. Maybe just buy their maxed out characters or use all those xp boosts they throw at you from day one.

I wish there was a "like" button on these forums. So many really good posts in this thread that reflect how I feel about the situation. I wasn't here prior to these latest changes so I can't speak to how it was. But I can speak to my experience since coming back to the game. I too feel that it's too hard. And after much reading since I've been back to the game I'm coming to believe that the level sync is a major culprit. I posted in another thread that I was feeling the skill gain was too fast at the low levels & feeling rushed to the end game. But I think, now, that it's not the leveling itself that's throwing me off, it's the damn level sync. Right from the starter planet you're almost immediately over level and therefor subject to the level sync, and remain that way for the entirety of your game experience until you reach (I presume) the "end game." I find myself questioning, at every turn, whether to choose endurance or mastery or some other stats when given a choice on loot drops, or when I'm upgrading something with mods. I'm asking myself should I even bother with upgrading with mods. Does any of it make any difference to my character since I'm level sync'd with no way to not be level sync'd unless I were to skip all the planets and story and move to whatever planet is the level of my character, if that can even be done? I don't know. What I do know is that with each and every character, it gets progressively harder, with my companion getting worse and worse at holding aggro, (I like to play ranged with companion as tank. Ranged is my thing in any game), and my character getting worse and worse at surviving, until I reach the point I don't even care to continue with that character anymore because it's not what I'm looking for in this game. So I roll another one. Rinse and repeat. Same results. And this is just the class story content so far. From what I'm reading, there's no way I'm going to bother putting myself through trying to do Heroics, FPs or OPs or whatever. To date, I have not finished a single class story. Not one. And that includes my old characters from when I played at launch, before the first expansion. I end up quitting the characters before I even get there and throw my hands up in disgust. So I can only conclude that this game is indeed going the route of most games out there now. Balancing for the min-maxing power gamers and that if I don't want to play that way, then this game is not for me and I should look elsewhere. It's encouraging to me, to see this thread and others I've seen like it. It's nice to know I'm not alone in feeling this way. Whether it changes anything remains to be seen but I guess I'll hang around a bit longer and play my latest new character & see how far I can get with this one. It would be nice to finish at least one class story before I go anyway. (Oh, and before the L2P folks decide to give "advice," let me just say what I said in another thread. I know "how" to play. I've been playing mmos since UO in 1997, probably before a lot of you were even born. I "choose" to play the way I play and to look for games that I am able to play in that manner. Not because I'm incapable of playing the way you "choose" to play, but because I reserve the right to make my own choices.)

True, but by making it so you have to use a work-around, people like me won't bother going through the hassle. Then again I'm one of those odd-balls that doesn't really care about having a lot of credits over and above what I need to buy something I want, so I just never bother with it. If, however, I wanted to buy something and could just hop on the cartel and buy the credits I need for it there & then, I might actually do it. lol. There is no way in 9 hells I will ever buy from some credit-spam outfit, so I just do without.

Tbh, I've often wondered why more games don't do this very thing. Seems like a no-brainer to me that if people are going to be buying credits/gold anyway, whatever currency, that the companies would want to be the ones selling it. May not put the illegal sellers out of business completely as they would prob drop prices below what the companies sell it for, but it might make it so unprofitable for them that they'd rather spend their time on some other game. lol. I'd bet dollars to donuts that a lot of those buyers would rather be dealing with a legit company, and those who never buy from the spammers might buy from the game company.

Yeah, it's really too bad it's so difficult to combat the spammers. Like yesterday on Tython, it would have been funny if it wasn't so annoying. I switched map instances because it was so crowded and I was trying to finish a quest that umpteen others were trying to get at the same time. New instance. Only 5 people on the whole instance and the chat was blissfully quiet for a heartbeat except for someone talking in chat and I could actually see what they were saying without all the spam in between. In less than 2 minutes the credit spam started so I switched to a chat tab with no general in disgust. Man, those people are fast when a new instance goes up. Did they seriously think that one of us 5 players there would be in the least interested in their bs? Well I guess people must be buying from them or maybe they'd give up? Or are the chats all connected? *shrugs*

LOL. If my post came across to you as "popping an artery," I don't know what to tell you. In my mind I was just having a conversation on the topic in the OP. He did ask for opinions after all. Sorry if it offended you.

For myself, I think yes, it is too fast at the low levels. I started a new gunslinger since I've been back. Within 2 weeks, I'm on the prison planet at lvl 49, almost 50 (one more mission will probably do it). I'm not even half way through the class story on that planet. I did all the quests and side quests on the first two planets, started to do most on the third planet but then became alarmed that I was so rapidly outpacing all the content and started doing the class story only with parts of the planet story arcs. And this is without using a single one of the xp boosts they kept throwing at me at every turn. I even started logging off outside of any rest areas to stop the rested xp boost. Still ended up 49 with lots left and subject to reduced endurance and all that ever since the first planet. It's almost as if they want people to just rush to end game and never mind the content. Or maybe this is what the players wanted and that was their response. **shrugs** I feel like I'm being rushed to end game. I want to enjoy all the content. I want to do all the side quests and planet arcs. the whole bit. It's great to give long-time players the option to skip ahead and not have to repeat stuff they've already done a bazillion times but the way it is now it's at the expense of new & returning players who've not experienced it all yet. And then to add insult to injury, this business of losing your endurance due to being over level (which starts on the fist planet), combined with ramping up the difficulty of the mobs you have to wade through to try to do the missions is just frustrating. This is the sort of thing I've been talking about in other threads. It's all part & parcel of power-creep. No wonder they're having trouble attracting and keeping new blood.

One thing I'm seeing is a continuing assumption that *all* players, whatever their playstyle, want or even give a fig for ops, dailies, gearing, FPs, adrenaline surges, constant combat, min-maxing, challenges, end-game, and so on. I'm also seeing a distinct lack of attention to the newbies, who imo are what you really want to attract to this game rather than assuming everyone wants to blast through all the lower content without even seeing it in order to reach end-game as quickly as possible. Personally I'm one who doesn't. So naturally my opinion on all this is going to lean heavily towards story and "flower sniffing" playstyle, and playing *My* way. I can tell you that having returned to this game expressly for the story and solo play, I really don't give a fat, flying, flip for the end game stuff and the consequential ramping up of difficulty that seeps into the lower levels as well. If I want a challenging, non-stop adrenaline rush I'll play PUBG. When I want a relaxing, story driven roleplaying experience, I'll play a story driven, roleplaying game, put on my headphones, light some incense, and try to lose myself in the story with me as the hero (or villain depending on my mood, lol). And having been away as long as I was (I left before the first expansion), I am in a position to see this game from a newbie's perspective. It's very disconcerting to immediately be handed a bunch of xp boosters at every turn. The levels are flying by so fast that without using a single one, I am still over level for the entire game beyond the starter planet, which in turn makes my character gimped with the reduced endurance. Took me forever to figure out what the heck was going on there. So, the new person is going along thinking they're doing good, gaining levels, having fun, upgrading equipment with mods, etc. and all of a sudden BAM, run into brick walls while doing nothing more than their class story. The difficulty starts ramping up at a steep rate. And you start getting your backside handed to you every time you turn around, as well as near constant combat just to move a little closer to your objective. Not everyone appreciates that. In addition to that, there are places where you're completely blocked by uber elite mobs, totally out of place in the progression of the story, blocking the way to continuing without having to do some major internet sleuthing to figure out what the hell just happened. Talk about immersion breaking. Jeez. The first time I hit that was on Tatooine where one republic quest points the way through imperial territory. Come to find out, after internet sleuthing, there is an obscure tunnel that gets you through. Great, thanks!!! Another one is on Hoth where the pointer points you through imperial territory on the south of the map which, after sleuthing, turns out to be a major, years-old, bug that is still obviously not fixed where the pointer is in the wrong place and the actual entrance is to the far north in another area entirely. Now maybe this is no big deal to those who have known about this for years and just skip on through, but for a new player it is almost enough to cause a rage-quit. So, to repeat myself, attention needs to be given to the new player experience so as to attract (and keep) new people. And attention needs to be given to the casual, solo, flower sniffing types. The Star Wars fans who are not necessarily gamers at all, much less power gamers. Catering to the end-game, and the power game, and all the loyal players who have been here all along is great as long as it's not at the expense of the low levels and as long as the power-creep doesn't trickle down into the lower levels. Then again, if they are content with the current player numbers and not concerned with an influx of new blood and wish to continue balancing everything around the end game, then I guess they're on the right path and my concerns are of no consequence. Personally I doubt I will ever play beyond the original story content. Not only does it not interest me, but it's already starting to become a slog to continue with all the elites I have to fight through now just to do my story. Time to start a new character in a different class and enjoy the lowby stuff again. If I wanted that kind of challenge on a daily basis I'd be doing FPs and OPs and stuff or maybe even PvP. And just as a disclaimer before anyone "advises' me to L2P. I started playing mmos on the first day that Ultima Online hit the internet in 1997 and have played many, many others all these years. I've been playing mmos probably longer than a lot here have been alive. Just because I choose not to be a spread-sheet warrior in a roleplaying game doesn't mean I don't know how. I don't need to L2P. I need (or I should say *want*) to find a game that isn't balancing the game around the end game, leaving newbies to flounder, and assuming that everyone wants a non-stop, exciting, adrenaline laced, difficult combat experience. Like I said, there's PUBG for that.

I had a very similar experience recently, although for a different issue. I'm a returning player (which btw, I'll add the disclaimer that my return at the time of an expansion is purely coincidental so I'm not here for the expansion). It's been many years and many things have changed, of course. I noticed on my old characters that the matrix cubes were gone. Did some internet searching and found some old threads that they went missing, things changed, and the matrix shards were supposed to have been returned to the players so they could reassemble them with the new type cubes. Also saw some old patch notes that a "bug" was fixed and that all matrix shards had been returned to those who hadn't gotten them back. So onward. I put in a ticket to say I had not received my matrix shards back. The response I got via email, not in-game, after about a week was that the matrix shards "no longer exist in the game." And the canned "sorry for the blah blah" and all that. lol. Even I knew they still exist since my new characters can collect them and assemble cubes. And that bit in the response that says they responded in game and also in the email, is false in my case. The ticket in game still has no response and it's been about a week ago I got the email. Any attempts to add to the ticket in-game won't work. I keep getting a message the "Sorry" it can't be updated at this time, try again later. So I sent a response to the email politely informing him that yes, the matrix shards do exist in the game since my new characters are able to get them and use them. I got back another email yesterday with a disjointed few sentences about how the datacrons, matrix shards, and cubes are obsolete anyway and not worth pursuing. lol. Yeah I knew that too. But I like datacrons, cubes, etc. So sue me. That was irrelevant to my issue that the shards were never returned to me. I do realize that it's been so many years they may have no way to know which shards I should have had anyway, and had that been my answer, I could accept that. Instead I get told they don't even exist in the game any more. Tthe point of my making this post is to agree with you that they really do need to educate the CS people better, or at the least provide better ways for them to find information. The first response that the shards & cubes no longer exist in the game is, to me, an indication that something is severely lacking in the CS department.