That is a very good point!

I feel your pain too DrathSpuds. I can't count the number of toons that have been renamed or how many times we were forced to rename our guild. On top of all of that, how many times has our 'progress' been reset to ZERO on some aspect of the game?

I hear your sentiment quite often. A lot of returning friends are logging in, trying the new content and sending me their real life email so we can keep in touch. A few of them who, like you, are going to see if the devs fix this in a couple of months but like you, if they see that the changes are going to stick, they will leave as well.

I am seeing a much faster drop off than at any other time in the game and I have been around since the very beginning. I am seeing returning players login for the first time in a year or two, try the play the new content, hate the changes, dislike the story, mention how tough of a grind it all is and tell me goodbye before they even finish. People are returning to the game, their characters are much weaker than before in solo content and not logging in again.

I disagree, forcing group has been tried many times before and it ends with people unsubscribing. This was an unwanted move, returning players are hitting the new content, becoming very frustrated and leaving the game. By the time the devs notice anything, those players will be gone for good. This was SWTOR's last change to get some of those players back and the devs by listening to people like you, blew it.

I agree with the OP. The story is so bad that I have little to no interest to finish it and that is a first. Normally the story was enough to carry me through whatever bugs or such I encountered. However, with the mess they made of the story, plus the mess from gear, with the balance issues and a mediocre at best story, I am really not motivated to play much or at all.

It feels like the cost of everything went up. I have a 5k repair bill for for every 30 minutes of play now.

I and many in my guild disagree. I have many returning players try to pick up where the left off story wise and feel like they hit a brick wall. The story mode quest and flashpoints are long drawn out slugfest that are tedious.

The whole thing is a confusing mess.

Agree with the OP, the gearing is total garbage. There are also a ton of other issues that need resolving.

I agree with the OP but I will not be playing in PTS. The changes for me are rather depressing. When I talk to my old inactive guild mates about the changes in discord, they lose their interest in returning. So, I think these changes are going to put the final nail in the coffin of this game.

I disagree, I want to be able to solo, solo content. With this change that is not the case. Also, this debate has happened many times before and for those who want to group up there is always the Heroic and Veteran modes etc.

I have had this experience as well. I am seriously considering just unsubbing and telling me inactive friends to forget it all.

Unwanted and unneeded change. Who asked for this? Why are you wasting dev time on something like this? What problem did you believe you were solving?

Completely agree. They pushed the date back a month so I hope they address this.