"For anyone who CAN sense it" That feels like a tacit admission that there are people who CAN'T sense it. But agree to disagree.

He also said that before the fans hounded him into providing a more rational explanation for the Force and Midichlorians became canon...... and he also said it before Disney made it commonplace for characters to get stabbed in the chest with a lightsaber and then just walk it off. (I do find it amusing that this comes up in a topic about talking about KOTFE/ET being a cringefest when Ahsoka looked at the KOTFE/ET's storytelling/plot and said "Hold my beer".) The most logically consistent idea that I've heard is that they do use the Force It's just that, due to both low Midichlorian count* and lack of training, they use it more instinctively. When Han Solo says "I have a bad feeling about this", he is instinctively using what little force ability exists in him as premonitions. In the case of your NFU characters, that is why they are the best. They are instinctively using the little grasp of the Force that they have to be the best Operative, Trooper, or Mando they can. They are using it instinctively to survive situations against enemies that should reasonably steamroll them or, in the case of the Operative, to subconsciously influence people to not shoot them in the head when they're tied to a chair. Sure, it's not the same as waving your hands and throwing star destroyers around but that's a matter of focus and midichlorian count. ----------------- *Yes, I realize that I make that sound like a male fertility issue. Honestly, I don't care if only because I like the notion of characters having quests centered around taking "Force Potency" pills from a gas station and then dealing with the consequences. "OH GOD, MY SABER WON'T IGNITE ANYMORE!!! EVEN WHEN IT DOES, IT BURNS LIKE MUSTAFAR!!! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?"

So, following some discussion on PVP as well as grouping to beat the Rakghoul Nightmare and getting close to tech frag limit again, I got to thinking about starting to gear up my toons. I wasn't planning anything too excessive since I rarely do group or PVP content but it did strike me that it might be kind to anyone that I group with to have appropriate gear. Plus, if I'm going to be honest, credits aren't really a thing for me anymore so using CQ comms to get tech frags to buy mats to sell on GTN has lost some of it's luster. Distressingly, I couldn't find a vendor guide anywhere that listed prices. The closest guides would just list CQ comms or dated back to resource matrices as currency but nothing else. So I decided to just quickly slap this together for anyone else who was in my boat and wanted a complete guide to current costs on gearing your Noble Decurion gear from 324 - 340 through the Conquest vendors. There are two levels of expense. One that starts at 35 CQ and 24400 cr. The other starts at 25 CQ and 21500 cr. The less expensive track by Rating/Conquest Commendations/Credits 326/25/21500 328/30/23100 330/30/24800 332/60/26400 334/60/28100 336/60/29700 338/60/29700 340/60/29700 Total to take an item such as a Relic from 324 to 340: 385 CQ commendations and 213000 credits The more expensive track by Rating/Conquest Commendations/Credits 326/35/24400 328/40/26300 330/40/28100 332/80/30000 334/80/31900 336/80/33800 338/80/33800 340/80/33800 Total to take an item such as a helmet from 324 to 340: 515 CQ commendations and 242100 credits I hope this helps anyone who is trying to gear up through Conquest vendors. *Also, if anyone from Swtorista or Vulkk want to use these figures on any of their gearing guides, feel free.

Thanks for the update. Speaking as an 11-year player, congratulations on creating the second MMO to keep my interest. Thank you to all of the developers and community managers who have been on the SWTOR journey with all of us.

Since the OP is checking age of accounts: Oct 2012 but I probably actually started around 1.4 as I remember when Section X was announced (as well as the Aurora Cannon then later Seeds/Shroud becoming templates for what would become Tactical Flashpoints.) As for whether a "classic" server would work.......Maybe. There are a couple questions. As I understand it, WOW Classic is finishing the Lich King. (I understand that the joke is that soon they're going to need a WOW Classic-Classic server) However, that brings up the point of whether the server will be dynamic or static. Are we talking about a server that starts at 1.0 and then starts releasing expansions/QOL at the same pace as it did before or are we talking about the server being frozen at a certain point? If so, then what point would you want it to be? Am I right in presuming that the Classic Server would be "as it was" without the QOL? For example, I remember when you had to make it to a Quick Travel station before you could use it. In fact, if memory serves, except for places like Nar Shaddaa, you also had to unlock taxis that way. (Maybe I was doing it wrong back then but I remember having to trek all the *^&% way to the King's Pass taxi station just to unlock it. I could have been doing it wrong though.) Would it be a separate subscription model? Basically, how would they fund this classic server in a way that accurately determines interest? As a subscriber, I wouldn't want my subscription to go up to fund a server that I wouldn't want and that might not even be popular. Ideas are Subscription price +$5 to have access to both modern and classic. If it's a static server instead of a dynamic server, you could do a nominal subscription of $5 just to keep the servers running since you don't need to update anything. I mean, I wouldn't be against them doing a classic server but I feel like the idea is being put out without a lot of questions being answered on "What exactly is it that you would want?"

So, since I evidently held up a mirror to Deanna and they didn't like the reflection, I'm going to let their post go and address the more constructive one. I have to disagree with this with PVP. I do not see this at all. What I see is a constant litany of screaming and insults. FPs and OPs are still a little different. While it's less helpful than it was when I started (way before I even knew what CC meant) and the rate of people who would rather quit/bail has gone up dramatically, you still get a fair number of people who are willing to, at least, help someone course correct. Example: Was playing my Mando Tank on Rakghoul Nightmare recently and I admit that I wasn't paying attention with my kiting so my circling started getting smaller. One person decided to yell in general "Make larger circles". I also admit that I didn't see the first one but, when it was said again (without insults), I noticed and corrected my tanking back to larger circles. RN goes down, happy times and looting. To contrast, let's look at one of the most recent Warzones. Other team got southern emplacement so two guns firing at bunker. "V" (Think it was Verily) Odinson is just yelling out insults. I noticed that the other team had stripped all of the guards from the East emplacement so, along with one other (properly equipped) player, we snake the east emplacement where, due to the other player's ability to fight and my smuggler's AOE abilities to disrupt anyone trying to capture, we hold until 5 players stomped us. At that point, we try to recapture South but just can't convert. At no point did I see V say anything constructive. Frankly, even when I was at South, I didn't see him try to play the objective amidst his rants about nobody playing the objective. I can't speak for your experience but I could probably count on the fingers of one hand......after having a horrific lumber incident on that hand.....how many times I've seen a single constructive remark in Warzones and Arenas. At best, in arenas, I will see "focus fire on this one" but even that's a rarity. For the most part, any communication is just insults to the offending player whether that is me, another player, or the whole team in general.

I wasn't going to say anything more but Xerekfell's response warrants one. "People that do "it's just a game" response are typically the ones who lack any real thought process. From my experience, those ones are typically the worst players to encounter since they refuse to learn or do anything useful. They also do the "it's just a game" response because they can't think of anything else to say. Just realize people like them aren't worth wasting your time flaming or trolling. Can't troll someone whose brain is already deflated, it would be kicking a dead horse. " Have y'all considered that, if this is your attitude, AITA would be considering you the one at fault? I get it. You don't want to lose. Going back to the Gears analogy, I used to (and still do) grit my teeth over people who would go AFAIK from the game at the start of the round. But not once have I ever sent trash talk during or after the match. Looking at the other side of the spectrum in FPs, OPs, and PVP, there are always the people flipping their **** over this stuff. As soon as things don't go their way, the chat fills with insults. Some of the people in this topic need to consider the notion that, if they're getting the "It's just a game" response, it's because you're being a jerk.

So this came up in my search results and seeing this plus the "PVP Sucks" topic, I figured that I'd throw my hat in the ring. 1) For the younger ones, this is not true. Years ago, Pat "BadKarma" Fitzsimmons was making free Unreal Tournament Deathmatch maps based on Star Wars sets including the then-recently released Episode 1. Lucasarts responded with a C&D. He took the maps down briefly but, after a discussion with his family, decided to put them back up. Faced with the massive blowback from the UT community and not being as big as Disney, Lucasarts backed down. Disney is a lot larger and have more vested interest in killing off private servers. They WILL curbstomp any attempts to keep private servers up. Edit: Something that I should have mentioned in the original post. Go check out Marvel Avengers Alliance Redux. The admins working on it have looked into it and this is why they don't take donations AT ALL. The ability for Disney to pursue a takedown notice is based on whether you get any money at all. It is not based on whether you are making money. It is a revenue standard and not a profit standard. As such, unless you pay for the server yourself with no donations, you're just as vulnerable to being sued. Further to my point above, the MAAR admins have admitted that Disney could still curbstomp them. It'd be harder with no money changing hands but it could still happen. 2) Even if they don't, how long do you think you'll really maintain interest in playing the same matches against the same 50 people who MIGHT stick around? 3) Seriously, you want the entire game to die just to appease a selfish desire to play an exclusionary server setup with a crap game mode....... Words fail me. 4) Okay, so how do we make PVP better? Okay, let's face it. PVP is and always has been the territory of no-lifers who grind their gear up to close to max. What we have to do is eliminate gear from the PVP formula. Using Gears of War as an example, a Gnasher is the same as anyone else's Gnasher. Sure, you can make cosmetic changes but there is no way to make it any better or any worse damage-wise. As such, the only way to get better at Gears of War is to know your weapons and know the maps.......and think through strategies. I have won many a KOTH match not by charging the circle with my Gnasher out but by providing suppressing fire from my Lancer. This forces the other team to send out people to deal with me or to get continually dropped within the circle. Either way, it weakens the other team. PVP in SWTOR is mostly just "Grind until high equipment score" which is a no-skill proposition. Arena play, even for Vets, is pretty much just "Charge at other team and focus fire". No flanking. No tactics. It doesn't even matter if you know your spec as long as your scores are high. Hell, my low gear toons have actually helped pull off upsets by using the most basic of flanking tactics to panic the other team into focusing fire on the person behind them instead of the real threats. But that's rare. So, what I propose is just to make the whole thing gearless. Everyone is set to a certain gear score ...... and then we see who REALLY knows how to play and who just use the advantage of having someone else pay their RL bills so they can have top gears scores for PVP. It's not perfect because, unlike shooters, this type of MMO is not really oriented towards skill. However, it'll go a long way towards making PVP an actual skill-based proposition. While a lot of vets will angrily stomp off when they can no longer use their equip scores to win matches, there's a good chance that the mode will attract people who are willing to apply tactics. This, in turn, will make the mode more fun and more attractive to players, particularly players who have lives outside of SWTOR. At the very least, it's a better chance than the notion that Disney, a company with a long history of overreaction and litigation, will allow private servers that could conceivably pull people away from whatever multiplayer game that Disney tries to push off on us.

I just replayed it with my trooper and I'm kinda hoping that the first (Heta kills Bask and declares Dar'Manda enemies) and third (betray Shae) choice have consequences. Having Dar'manda in opposition to Heta should cut into Heta's plans due to both the loss in manpower and the increase in enemies who are familiar with the inner workings of Heta's organization. In some ways, betray Shae is the tactically wise option. Sure, she gets beaten up resulting in a loss of face but Heta not only loses a quarter of her troops but they are now turning on her. Manpower considerations aside, this would also make Heta lose face as it would give the appearance to the rest of the clans of a leader whose followers are turning on her.

To address the original topic after sleeping on it, if we were to do a big story drop with a third faction, I would prefer a gradual lead-up rather than just a huge chapter dump. Especially now because, despite what this board seems to think, I have been on both sides of spin-offs like the "Bioware to Broadsword" spin-off. Getting spun off into a subsidiary has a lot more changes than this board seems to think and the team needs time to adapt to changes. I will use the Rakghouls as an example. First, have something on the scale of the Rakghoul event. Something that seems innocuous but, whether through a bonus mission or a log entry, hints at something greater. Then a few extra missions on Taris that build on said Log entry/bonus mission which start building towards this being something more than just an outbreak. Then an FP or two where we find there is a driving force. Except, by the end of the second FP, it turns out that Dr. Lorrick was working for a mysterious someone else. Then the big event (Rakghoul Rampage) where the mastermind comes out of hiding and the plan/threat is actually a big enough existential threat to justify taking away from the Pub/Imp War. (Note to people reading this: Don't get hung up on me using Rakghouls. I'm just using them as an illustrative example of building up to an enemy rather than a genuine desire to see a Rakghoul-centric storyline.)

I feel like you're the only person who does that. I have been doing this for over a decade and the closest that I personally come to that is, if someone is selling a purple for 100 credits and the next lowest is 5000 credits, I will just buy the low mat and flip it for 4900 credits. Also, in a former guild, someone got into a flame war with the guildie because she kept undercutting him. Honest curiosity: Is this something that a lot of people actually do? I'm honestly asking out of curiosity because this is literally the first time that I've heard of this practice of skipping all the undercutters just to find an original price point. There's that but I can tell you from personal experience that people will stake out sellers who are selling blue/green mats for cheap. I see it often where, as I'm doing my mat dump, I'll get one sale and then the person will suddenly start buying up all my cheap mats. This is across multiple categories so I know it's not just a case of "Oh, I'm just looking for gems and I came across it" As such, I suspect that another reason is that so people can't stake out sellers doing charity drops and scoop up all the cheap mats which gives more people a chance to grab the mats at bargain prices.

Two things: 1) I've been undercutting (Usually by 100 per) on Purple/Gold mats as well as Cartel Market items for a little over a decade. This is to say nothing of what others have called me practically giving blues/greens away as well as the infrequent Purple charity drops. Even with my pet/mount collecting habit, I'm still worth something over 3 billion over 8 toons. Undercutting doesn't bring prices down as much as one thinks unless there is a large game population doing it. 2) That said, these changes all seems to be a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. I know this is a reaction to years of people whimpering about GTN prices but it doesn't feel like the current method of GTN actually needs changing.

My apologies. When I said "Low-level content creator", I was mostly referring to number of subscribers. I mean, even Dulfy still has 38K subscribers left and she stopped posting SWTOR/Guild Wars videos 4 years ago. Under 10K subscribers is really kinda low-level these days.

In order: PVP was ever popular? I remember when they shut down the PVP-only servers and people were screaming that "this was the end".....and nothing happened. I mean, the mode is fine but, even during "better times", it was just the same bunch of issues except it was a different bunch of elites who would curbstomp anyone who wasn't optimized. I'm honestly just going to stop playing for a time, I'll come back when the update drops and see what has changed, but I'm honestly going to move onto other games. Can I have your stuff? I think Mark Biggs, who was a pretty somewhat big name in the PVP Community Currently at 9.94K subscribers...... and even general SWTOR Community was right. This isn't the game we fell in love with anymore. I've messaged him asking if he would ever come back, It should be noted that he pretty much left because he got a new job. This isn't surprising. I remember, a couple months before and first few months after getting my current place of employment, I also left for a few months during the Dark Vs Light Event. This included dropping my subscription as I wasn't sure that I'd come back. Real Life changes things as evidenced by the next part. here is what he said. "tbh I left the game behind and started getting into habits that are actually decent for my health, so I'm more happy where my life is now compared to where I was when I was no-lifing swtor. If they make some major changes in like 8.0 I'll poke around in it, but I just don't have the drive in me to go back to the game. On the occasions when I do log back in, I just wander around fleet for a few minutes, try to think of something to do, then log off to play something else." So, essentially, he made changes to his life that were overall better for him than sitting in front of a computer all day such as getting a new job. That's not really a comment on the game so much as he made RL changes that took his focus away from SWTOR. All of us have done that and not just for SWTOR. Sometimes we come back and sometimes we don't. Hell, people like Dulfy have left due to RL circumstances as opposed to SWTOR quality and Dulfy did a lot more than just a Youtube channel. This is not to say that there aren't issues with SWTOR but I just feel like saying "Look at how this content creator has left" is a weird Appeal to Authority argument when it's pretty clear that these changes were largely inspired by the creator's life situation/perspective has changed. ------------------------ Me? With SWTOR, I suspect that I'll be here until they turn the lights out but you never can tell. As I said in another topic, there would be a number of positive changes that would happen to my life if SWTOR folded. Even if it doesn't fold, I might be in a different place in a year. As an example, I remember being at Cybercon (local convention in Fort Collins at the time. Eventually went the way of a lot of local roleplaying conventions) listening to Michael Stackpole speak about the shrinking role-playing market and I remember thinking that I was in it for the long haul. Not an unreasonable statement given that I had been doing tabletop for roughly ten years. About a year later, I was well on my way out. Sure, I did a little Federation vs Empire or Battletech for a while longer but Pen & Paper RPGs were gone from my life and tabletop strategy was something I would barely dabble in a couple years longer before stopping altogether. ------------------------- Stuff changes. If SWTOR doesn't do it for you, you should leave. But, if you do leave, you shouldn't need validation from low-level content creators to convince you it's the right choice nor should you use said creators as arguments to convince other people that it's time to leave.

At this point, I am fairly confident it'll last until October 2025 even if it does go into maintenance mode. After Windows 10 sunsets.... It's transitioned to cloud servers so it won't be quite as big a deal as when they finally killed off XP support but they'll probably still eventually pull "Upgrade or die". At that point, it may be decided that it's time to let the old dog die. And since everyone keeps talking about their post-SWTOR plans: Hell, I save $15 a month and, instead of 4 days of the week doing something with SWTOR, I can spend all 7 days on a monumental backlog of games. Given my lack of interest in ever doing another open-ended time sink like SWTOR, there will be comparable parts sadness and relief that I can close the book on this chapter of my life.