I haven't but sampled a few hours this weekend and that was limited to my Level 20 (now 26) Sith Inquisitor on Balmorra, but the instanced Heroics were definitely more challenging than they have been in a long time for me, and after 3 consecutive spankings by one particular group in one of the Heroics, I stopped to think through what I was doing, and finally got past that group of nefarious rebels. The rest of that particular heroic, I paid much better attention and got through it without getting killed again-- and overall, the Heroics all played great for me and reminded me of the pre-healbot days. I am (so far) enjoying the increased challenge as a casual solo— admittedly, in a pre-70 or pre-75 scenario where this particular alt is concerned. Oh, and going back to normal enemies after a Heroic feels sooooooo much more easier, helping me appreciate the distinction again.

____________________________________________________ Good morning, everyone! A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I started this topic as my own small contribution to the online forum community here— I still prefer to lurk and try keeping up with the posts of the handful of now-favorite posters I watch for on here, but it's been a while and with the recent release of Onslaught, I thought now is as good a time as any— especially since recent discussions on what system changes mean for solo players such as myself. I'm still what I'll describe as a casual solo player who has only taken two or three of the characters from my horde of alts into KOTFE/ET even at this point. I'm quite satisfied with the Classic 8-story SWTOR and reside in a pre-Arcann galaxy. This weekend, I picked up the story again for my Sith Inquisitor where I'd last left her, on Balmorra. The visual changes to elements like vendors and Mailboxes were nice enough, and will be advantageous for new players, in my opinion. The color black seems to be more black now than I've seen (or noticed?) before. I haven't been to the fleet to see the new visual enhancements there but I know from videos what to expect and I am looking forward to the eye-candy. I still can't speak to the gearing aspects, of course, since I still do not group (and have never belonged to a guild) for the same reasons I've read from other solo players here on the forum: social anxiety, wanting to simply enjoy the roses, and for the stories with their diverse options and decision-based outcomes. What I was wearing was entirely sufficient to meet the needs of the content I was engaged in on Balmorra. Drops from combat and missions seemed like what I am used to seeing, though, and the up-arrow on pieces of gear was a nice touch— although I didn't always see a piece of gear or item as an upgrade for my own solo play and simply sold those to the vendors. Combat itself was more challenging and felt like something I hadn't experienced in a long time, or at least since companions became better known as "healbots" who would keep one's character alive through some of the dumbest decisions and engagements, This change in difficulty was especially noticeable in the Heroics I went into this weekend, and apart from getting spanked three times by one particularly worthy group of Republic-backed forces in the one Heroic, I think I enjoyed the challenge, too. The three consecutive spankings forced me to re-think my approach and choice of rotation (who am I kidding, I don't have any rotations; I click on the ones that light up for me, and pick a few other buttons during cooldowns, LOL) and I finally figured out a better series of abilities that worked well in the next similarly-matched encounter. But I sure noticed that going back to general enemies outside of Heroics felt easier after the tougher Heroics. I still need to return to my Imperial Agent who just finished her class story and experience the combat changes in a post-level 70 character, although she won't be entering the KOTFE/ET portion of the SWTOR saga; I do have 2 or 3 force-using characters who entered or went through the Eternal Empire plight that I hope to eventually return to and experience Onslaught, someday. No, she still has Makeb, Ilum, and other things to do besides get hibernated for a few years and wake up in a different galaxy. Plenty to see what happens as she levels from 70 (via Master Datacron and gear upon getting her ship during the class story) up into level 75. So much to do, so little time available to do it all in. Such is SWTOR in the Life of this old, casual solo player.

Oh, I see! --> Works fine IF I use the non-SSL (http) URL... breaks if I use the SSL (https) URL...

Must be some sort of issue with Chrome on my system, but only that sub-forum-- everything else has been hunky-dory. Logged out, logged in, cleared the cookies. Well darth it all!!

Double-checked and everything's the same as it's always been-- but thanks for responding! I'll give my other browsers a whirl, then... been getting the Maintenance page the last couple days via Chrome (latest release).

Am I the only one who is having issues accessing the Developer Tracker? Instead, I get a Maintenance Page... https://www.swtor.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=304

I struggled through almost a half hour of play, and just had to log back out; the lag has returned again on Hoth (Star Forge, population 26), making the game VERY difficult to play. Not just Heroics this time, so I would describe it as nearly as bad as last night's session when there were 40+ on the planet.

This was my experience on Hoth (Star Forge) last night, as well. Population was around 42 during the session. Was especially noticeable on the Heroics, and unbelievably awful when doing an Uber-Elite in that given Heroic (where the target is above the white or gold star targets in difficulty). In fact, at one point in an instanced Heroic, the Uber-Elite suddenly just reset and appeared back to their original location, leaving me to start the fight over again. I've never experienced the "pauses" before (been playing since opening day), but it was the strangest and then most frustrating situation, and I finally just gave up and logged off for the night. I'd do the activating of abilities and found it was impossible to know when they'd activate. The whole fight would suddenly just... Freeze Frame, and then suddenly lurch into action with the buffered keypresses. I logged in around 4am or so this morning (Eastern), with a population of 11, and only had the pausing occur once-- and it was with an Uber-Elite, and only once during that combat match. The rest of the session went pretty normal for the next couple hours which I played, though.

Admittedly, I have been strictly a solo player from opening day of SWTOR, satisfied to play and replay the Classic storyline over and over to the tune of 100+ alts over my SWTOR career, and was so sorely unimpressed with the KOTFE/ET storyline outside of the Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior classes that I have never felt compelled or motivated to take any of my other Classic characters into that section of the SWTOR storyline (even to get to the post-KOTFE/ET content). Still, I find Ceryxp's comments on the expected changes compelling and sensible and personally feel there's merit to what was put forth by him. I'm hoping and looking forward to seeing a much-deserved response from Eric or the team. This was exactly my perception, too, as I watched the livestream. It was the first time that I began reconsidering my choice to leave the KOTFE/ET and post-KOTFE/ET content out of my non-force user characters' experience and remain within the Classic milieu. Eric's post to clarify that Renown would be limited to 75+ only was disappointing and discouraging after the initial impressions conveyed through the livestream. I may be a story-only player who has very little understanding about the gearing aspect of the game, with its stats, buffs, and so on (as long as I can engage with the PVE environs to the point where gameplay has a certain flow to it, which it presently does— at least within the Classic portion of SWTOR)... I still like to see some sort of investment taking place in the background. At the start, it was my Legacy level (which has been locked at 50 for years now); it was satisfying to slowly, slowly see it creep across below my regular Leveling bar to the point where when I finally reached Legacy Level 50, I was thrilled. This was especially "worth" my efforts because it was Legacy-bound rather than character-bound— the whole Command Rank leveling system is unappealing to me for the simple reason that I have absolutely no interest in repeating activities over and over and over in order to level each and every alt through the Command Rank leveling system to reach 300. Out of morbid curiosity, I recently decided to move a Jedi Knight fully through the available content to see what Command Rank level I end up at after I've done every single solo-able mission (Class, Planetary, Heroic, and optional). I purchased a Master Datacron to start at 70, purchased the character-based Legacy perks to max out Command Rank XP earnings, and keep a Command XP buff going at all times... and having just arrived at Hoth I am presently Command Rank 55. I have little reason to believe that by the time I reach the end of the available content (KOTFE/ET and post-KOTFE/ET included) I will be anywhere reasonably near Command Rank 300— the idea of repeating Heroics and other repeatable content the number of times required to achieve 300 is, quite frankly, going to get a Simon Cowell "That's a NO from me" response. To do this again for each and every alt...?! I'd be insane, given the reason why I stay subscribed to support Bioware. Others' mileage varies, of course. So, to have been led to one conclusion about the upcoming Renown leveling system from the livestream to another conclusion through Eric's clarification post simply reinforces my decision to leave the KOTFE/ET and beyond's content to those made of sturdier drive than me. Why should I? For gear that is far beyond my capacity as a subscriber to earn unless I were to become a different type of subscriber? Not that I would ever begrudge those who play primarily for the gearing aspect of SWTOR and engage in the unbelievably repetitive work that is required to that particular end: I marvel at their drive but it's not something that I can do (or would choose to do). My sons are the sort who love earning gear in their MMO platform, WOW, so I do get it. They're happy, and that makes me happy for them— although I'd really like to see them doing that in SWTOR. My thoughts, too! In fact, I want to add that alongside earning Renown (the very name suggests the logic that as a character begins their adventure, they would gain renown across the Star Wars Galaxy— something which is even embedded within the various Classic storylines' dialogue) from Level 10 (or, once a character leaves their starting planet to begin their adventure), it would be especially rewarding to receive an initial set of gear upon reaching level 75 for all the obvious work that went into someone grinding to the extent necessary to get to 75 and to prepare them for what comes next— and then allow gear improvements to build on that under the Renown system. To that end (an initial set of gear upon reaching level 75), tie this earnable level 75 gear set to content: it becomes available upon completing all solo-able content (Heroics, Flashpoints, and Class and Planetary missions). Players who aren't interested in a "template" gear set suitable to their particular characters' class and aren't interested in committing to the storylines would still be in a very good position to enter the 75+ portion of SWTOR, if I'm understanding gear progression correctly, since the potentially upcoming system would simply build on whatever gear those players would have earned up to level 75 anyhow, leading to better things for those players; I presume that the gear that one earns through PVP and group aspects of SWTOR always results in far better gear than what a solo player will ever see (or need!). Just thinking out loud, I suppose.

My first character was a Jedi Consular as well. I haven't brought her back into action since the end of her class story, I think. She's wide-eyed innocent and hopelessly naive, believing that anyone can be redeemed. Sugary, but in a good-intentions-good-heart way. I went with a Sith Warrior for my second, and haven't gone back to a healing role since. But she was and is my first, although she's frozen in time for now. I'm not even sure I could continue to play as her, because the galaxy is so different, the game itself has become so different from the one she lived, breathed, and moved throughout. I agree, too, in that I didn't find the Jedi Consular class story compelling enough to play through to completion again, although I've tried with several alts.

I'll presume that you missed where I wrote this in an earlier response to you: How that misses the point you want to get across about gameplay difficulty, I'm not sure. Or proves that I didn't hear you somehow. If the lack of this feature is a game-breaker for you, then you're not playing SWTOR and are paying a subscription simply to post here on the forum. If it's not a game-breaker for you, and you're still playing SWTOR, then you're talking about a personal preference or change you'd like to see but can evidently live without even if you don't necessarily like it. Which would you say it is?

No, I've been here from opening day as a non-stop subscriber and avid supporter of the cartel market when it opened. Ask anyone in my real life if I don't talk up Bioware's SWTOR. A lot. I remember when the game was like that, but I'm not so sure that I'd want incoming players to have to experience the same. The first generation of SWTOR players broke ground for the second generation of players I see SWTOR as coming into. We remember the sweat and toil it took to settle the galaxy and then we start seeing the next generation as spoiled because they have it so much easier than we did. Was it great for challenge, though, when everything was more difficult? Seems like that's more a matter of personal opinion and preference, neither of which Bioware has no control over.

I don't see how it is possible to "experience a fraction" of the gameplay on the basis of one's character level, much less the storyline. I routinely raise a character to level 70 once they've acquired their ship, and the only storyline and gameplay I miss out on is by my own decision, and most of that I will come back to once I've completed a given class story. Others run side missions and planetary missions differently— or, not at all. I've seen characters running around who had come back to their class story after PVPing up into their 40s and 50s. If there's an issue, I'm not seeing it, and evidently neither are those players coming into their class stories at such a high level. It's my understanding that for those players who want more challenge than is offered by the class/planetary arcs, there are more involved options like ops and flashpoints where factors like cooldowns and ability rotations are essential. Is it easier now to work through the class and planetary missions? Yes, Bioware has optimized the process, and I, for one, appreciate the change in pacing. The only concern I've seen expressed widely about the acceleration of the progression through the planets and toward the KOTFE/ET game is from PVPers who find that newer players are not learning their abilities sufficiently because of the pacing— a point that I suspect is valid to some degree, although I would think that Guilds are the best resource for learning how to excel at a given class, as the player joins in on the larger scale activities provided by Bioware. I'd be okay with Bioware adding the ability to select one's level of play, which would then adjust/scale according to the "stress valve" the subscriber chose to set. But again, expecting flashpoint and ops difficulty out of the general class and planetary arcs seems unreasonable to me because they are two different environs that draw two different types of people who play SWTOR. You start entering into the philosophical when you suggest that a boss fight in a class story should be as difficult as a boss in an op— scaled down but equally dependent on one's speed, ability rotation, and all the other factors that makes an op a success or a wipe. I don't see a problem because I can't think of anyone who wants to stay on the early planets forever anyhow. They want to get to their starship and start seeing the galaxy... or jump into PVP.

Speaking for myself here, I have to agree about the irrelevance of level while I play. I play the class story up until my character gets their ship, and then pick up a Master Datacron from the Cartel Market to set up the specs as I play the class (with a few variations to mix it up), drop a few more cartel coins for Tier 5 Speeder Piloting, and apply the included gear mods and such to my outfit of choice with the respective character. I'm all set to just sit back and enjoy the class story almost straight through. I'll toss in some heroics because I enjoy them, but where planetary quests are concerned, I run those after I've completed the class story, since I don't cross over into KOTFE/ET as a general rule. It provides the experience of my having made a rep for myself, and then going around the galaxy doing missions for whatever motivation suits the character I'm running as. And I also have a huge appreciation for several of the "quality of life" changes Bioware incorporated into the system. Anyone remember when, even as a subscriber, you had to wait a horrible amount of time for your Quick Travel to cooldown? Argh!! Now, it's convenient— especially for those missions that involve plenty of back-and-forth travel! There have been other ones, as well, but the Quick Travel stands out most right at this moment. That and Tier 5 Speeder Piloting! Now if they would introduce day-night cycling... I might never leave the game! ^_^

Thank you for the correction! I somehow forgot that the 500cc comes from being a subscriber, and the 100cc for using a security key.