This is the way. Same issue here.

I have the exact same issue.

What he said. +1

No one runs flashpoints to skip the dialog. If the conversations are not important to them, they might skip through them to reach their objective (flashpoint completion) faster, but actually skipping a cutscene isn't the purpose of the exercise. If you watch the full scene with all of its dialog, you will still reach your objective. It might take you an extra couple of minutes, but you'll get there. You get what you want. If someone is running a flashpoint to see the story bits, though, skipping the dialog will mean they don't ever reach their objective. They might as well have not even bothered to queue up in the first place. Not every flashpoint has a solo mode, and some people actually like playing the game with others, and enjoy the social element of the group finder. Your time is not more valuable than someone else's ability to play the game as it was designed. If your time were that precious, you would probably be using it for something other than playing SWTOR, and definitely be doing something other than posting vitriol in the forums. This issue isn't new to 4.0, in fact there were people ranting in the pre-release forums about how mad they would be if someone in their group refused to skip dialog. Mind you, this is before any of these clever folks had even played the game or run their first flashpoint. My personal opinion is that the one noob who is playing like a tourist and actually enjoying the game is worth more than three meth hamsters treadmilling through content they don't enjoy over and over and over and over and over so that they can win some meta-prize. But, hey... what do I know?

I guess that's a fair question. Here's the thing, though: if I'm trying to run 15 flashpoints quickly for the benefit of my guild, I'm gonna be running those flashpoints with guildmates. We're all going to be on the same page, with the same objectives. I'm not going to go into 15 flashpoints with random strangers and expect them to give a stale turd about my guild, my conquest objectives, or the fact that I'm trying to rush through or past content as much as possible. If I'm joining the queue to get 3 strangers to run a tactical flashpoint with me, I'm going to be aware of - and accepting of - the possibility that one or more of them might want to watch the whole dialog, or be incompetent vis his assigned role, or be an unsophisticated kid, or whatever. What I won't be doing is acting like a feminine hygiene product by demanding that any of them rush past the content they are enjoying just so that I can go as fast as possible. The flashpoints are designed for the party to follow the path, fight the MOBs, fully engage in the dialog, etc. I appreciate shortcuts and the ability to skip dialog, but I don't go into a flashpoint with strangers expecting they they're gonna play like I want to, and if someone wants to watch every cutscene and get every bonus objective I'm gonna try to be supportive of that. When I queue in the group finder it's because I want to play with other people. I run flashpoints when I want to, and don't run them when I don't. It is difficult for me to relate to the idea of blasting through game content like it's some kind of job. I play to relax and unwind, and nothing about 15 speed runs in a row seems relaxing at all to me. I'd need to be paid, and paid well, to do that. Maybe there should be a "speed run" toggle in the role selection box, and a preference toggle for "only match with other players with the same speed run setting." That way you folks who are treadmilling like a hamster on meth can do your thing, confident that your group is all focused on the same thing. Seriously, though... 15 flashpoints and 15 warzones in one day... people actually do that? That seems about as much fun as a hangover.

You can still "do a tactical" if one of the group members wants to watch the entire damn dialog. It takes a few extra minutes, sure, but you still get what you're there for. As far as your dailies and conquest crap, I have to say I'm endlessly amazed by the fact that MMOs can get people to do stuff they don't want to do just by assigning some worthless meta-prize to it. I mean, you clearly don't like to run flashpoints, such that if you have to run one as designed it turns you into a raving butt hole. And yet, giving you a meta prize like the conquest rewards gets you to queue right up for it. Daily. So I'm suggesting people chill out and calm down, let people watch the damn cutscenes in tactical flashpoints if they want to, and everyone gets what they're after at the end of it. You're saying that it's wrong for someone to slow down your frenetic run for daily or conquest completion, even for a few minutes, even if that's not what they're playing for. Yeah, one of us is a self entitled twit, but it ain't me. I suspect they created solo mode flashpoints because a lot of people were avoiding flashpoints altogether after unpleasant encounters with people like you.

To respond to the OP (I haven't read many of the replies): I almost agree with you. I have a strong dislike for the "bigger, badder, more epic" adversary thing, although Zakuul is not remotely the worst offender (how big will the next death star be?) I do have a few points with which to talk you down off your ledge, however. As you note at the end of your post, the KotFE story isn't over yet. When Vitiate did his thing on Ziost, it gave him some kind of revelation. We don't know what that is yet. The strength of the new empire is its drone fleet, which has at least two weaknesses that we've seen so far, and probably has more secrets surrounding its origin and ultimate purpose. The tech on Zakuul is not even in the same league with the Gree's, so that's not an insurmountable hurdle. It might seem that your class story is rendered inconsequential because you're looking at all of the class stories at once. If you look only at the smuggler's story, for example, then the Republic still exists at the beginning of KotFE because you saved it from nefarious imperial plots and whatnot. With regard to the difficulty, I don't know what to tell you. Having gone through the expansion with several characters, the only kolto station I've ever used was by accident, because it was right next to the panel to lower the force field on Korriban and I clicked on the wrong glowing box. The game's really easy now, but... the story's pretty good so far, and the characters (Lana especially) are superb. It's becoming more like an interactive movie in many respects, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you try, you can get your character killed, so the possibility of failure still has some psychological potency, even if it is not a practical risk. I think the most important thing to me is this: I want to see what happens next. I am actually, sincerely curious about how the story of KotFE will play out, and that's going to keep my subscription active this year. I have a bunch of theories, and I want to see if they're right. I want to re-unite with my companions... well, most of them... and see what they're doing and who they became over the past 5 years. I want to see Arik's tantrum when he finds out my trooper is now Lana's cuddle bunny. Dude, she searched for me for 5 years, and you just sat in a trench with Forex writing letters and feeling sorry for yourself.. I digress. For me, the expansion is fun. I hope it remains so.

As an aside, nothing I posted above was meant to apply to a hard mode flashpoint. If you want to be a tourist, you aren't looking for a hard mode.

Because it is the BEEPing "right way" to play it, by which I mean the way the game and the flashpoint was designed to be played. Skipping dialog and running over the top of the tents is a great way to speed up the flashpoint run, but it isn't ever something I should be able to force on another player. If we all agree to blow off the bonus, skip as much trash as possible, and space through the dialogs, that's great... but only if we all agree to it. I hope I never get to the point where I get petulant over another player running content "as intended." I'm just never in that big a hurry.

Well, yeah, ok. If someone is actually slowing everyone else down just to be a tool, then absolutely vote to kick their butt out of the flashpoint. I can't argue with that.

It's simple: the "default" way to run the flashpoint is to follow the path and watch the cutscenes. Once you've been there a time or two, you learn that you can jump down a level or run across a ledge and bypass several groups of trash mobs, just like you can hit the spacebar to skip a couple lines of dialog. That doesn't mean it is the "right" way to do it, though. It is an optional shortcut. You only take the shortcut if everyone is on-board with that. If not, then just take the time to do it right. Kicking someone from a flashpoint because they want to actually play through the flashpoint as it was designed to be played... that's the kind of turd move that you really only see people pull when they're protected by the anonymity of the internet. Actually blaming that person for ruining your fun... that's some of the worst gamer entitlement I've ever seen.

Bovine manure. If you want to watch the cutscenes and dialog, for the first or 50th time, you absolutely ought to be able to do that. The only way that (or any) content should be skipped is if everyone agrees to it. Three people don't get to tell the fourth that he or she can't play the game the way it was meant to be played. If you find the cutscenes so unbearably tedious, what the hell are you doing running the flashpoint in the first place? This game is designed around dialog scenes, didn't you notice? I mean, I spacebar past every possible "huttese" line, because hearing the same voice say the same gibberish has really lost its appeal, but I'm certainly not going to wet myself in nerdrage if you want to savor every syllable. Knock yourself out, take your time, it's not that big a deal.

While you can't see who spacebars and who doesn't, you absolutely can see who cancels the conversation. If someone in a flashpoint I was running pulled that crap, it would guarantee that I never hit that spacebar again in a conversation in that flashpoint, and the second time it happened I would initiate a vote-kick for that expletive little expletive.

Solo mode is the solution to the problem of the tools who spew "spacebar" in party chat at every conversation. If you're trying to see the story, you're a lot better off in solo mode because you don't have to deal with sphincters, wieners, and infants of all ages. On the rare occasions when I do queue up for a flashpoint with strangers, I will typically spacebar through conversations that I've already seen a hundred times. The exception is when someone gets petulant about it, demanding that everyone skip the dialog. Then, I take my time and gleefully imagine the nerdrage.

On the one hand, I'm glad to see continuing support and attention for those of us who play the game solo. On the other hand, I'm unsure why you think we need "higher tiers of gear." With gear at 200-208 and a companion at 20+, I already feel pleasantly overpowered relative to the KotFE content. If you give me a bunch of gear that buffs my characters up even more, you might was well let me "spacebar" past combat encounters. I would much rather have gear that looks better, and that I can equip on lower level characters.