Posting only in agreement to what's been posted already by many: The changes here hurt new/poor players who are struggling to accumulate wealth more than it drains the wealthy. The charges affect things new/poor players use to save money -- and time. For instance, my habit of going to the fleet and using hanger terminals there to go to planets at no cost is a habit formed when I was broke.

OK, let me get this straight. One kind of WEEKLY takes on five or 10 minutes -- but let's say 20. Another kind of WEEKLY takes 1 hour, but let's say 2. And the balance problem is perceived to be the WEEKLY that takes a couple of hours per character, not the one that takes only 20 minutes. Now in fairness, group-finder is a pain if you're not a tank or healer because DPS are a dime a dozen. True story; I play tanks and suggested to a healer I teamed up with that we just two-man one of the flashpoints. He rightly pointed out there would be no wait at all in GF and we might as well do a couple of DPS players a favor. But plenty of players have done a favorite flashpoint solo. I've done it with a DPS playing along with another DPS buddy without breaking a sweat. And if you both have stealth, two players can do Hammer Station, for instance, in less than 15 minutes. So no, I don't see a problem here at all, and I have 48 characters.

OP Your post is well thought out, factually based, balanced and accurate. You should post it somewhere where these things matter.

You opened this thread with a very good post. Now you as much as declare that only raiders' opinions have any value. My sympathy for your situation -- watching something you worked to build collapse -- just largely evaporated.

Exactly. I'm not saying Bioware has a good plan. But this, as described here, is clearly THE plan. This ship has sailed. Agree with this too. The rest of the post deserves a better reply than I have time for at the moment.

Indeed. That said, let's acknowledge that a guild of singularly dedicated raiders has little reason to hang around any more. Let's also acknowledge, however, that if raid-only players were a truly vital segment of the customer base, they simply would not be treated this way. We would not have gone two years without a new op, nor would most of the changes of the last two expansions have been made.

The OP has a valid point: The game no longer fits the style he and his wife want to play. But the shift in this direction's been clear since KotFE came out. This expansion, the conversion was largely completed.

Yes, that was my mistake.

If the OP's point is bad, posting it won't make it valid. If the OP has a point, claiming it's bad won't make it invalid. Insisting that a position shouldn't even be challenged, however, makes it sound like there's not a good comeback.

Thanks. Wow. Glad I didn't do any star forts after 5.0 dropped.

I'm not at home and can't check. Sorry. Tank armor was available from the vendor for Armormech.

Me too.

Although you're clear that you're talking about mats you can get on your own, it should be noted mats from hard-mode flashpoints are a lot more plentiful than they used to be. Hammer Station, for instance, drops three exotic isotopes -- per player. No rolling. No need or greed. Everybody gets three. I haven't done a star fort since 5.0 came out, so I don't know if they the new mat when you kill the exarch or the old one. Probably the old one but I'd like to know for sure. Those can be done solo.

Hard Mode Flash points give 100% grade 10 mats now. Hammer Station has lots of scavenge. That I've confirmed. Athiss should have lots of biosysthesis from critters you kill (and archaeology too, IIRC,) if nothing changed on that in 5.0. Two people can finish those two. Even if you don't want to do the whole thing, at least some mats are available from the start.

(emphasis added) I agree. Note, I'm not cackling here. I wish it had been the "WoW" of Star Wars that it was clearly intended to be. But that didn't happen. Now, to avoid taking the thread off topic, I'm going to reiterate (less sarcastically) that OP is right. I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy new armor, mods and enhancements were to r/e and how easy it was to get the mats. Crew missions on my platoon of alts got enough mats to upgrade all my toons crafting skills without ever leaving the stronghold.