I come to these boards rarely, generally looking for information. Unfortunately, there is usually no answer and usually causes more confusion. But I am running out of idea to provide feedback regarding Flashpoints and Operations. Posting here is not my choice; it is just a mater of last resort.

I have been playing around with story-mode flashpoints for several months now in the hopes of getting crafting material and schematics. Something called “Biometric Crystal Alloy”. To-date, I have not seen any. Considering that my success rate for flashpoint is less then 1 in 3 and that I don’t have the time to do one except, maybe, once a week; I figure it is the luck of the draw. I can find no information that says otherwise.

I come on the boards, and find players claiming that story mode flashpoint are “easy” and quick to do. That has never been my experience. I find them tiresome and long. They are not suited to somebody who gets only one or two hours a day to play. If I had my way, I would not even bother with them, but its flashpoints or player-vs-player and I detest PVP even more. There simply is nothing else to do at level 50, and that is sad.

I run into players doing “speed mode”, which I have yet to figure out. Those always seem to be failures as they take off and I am left trying to fight though everything that they leave behind. They get to some boss and as I cannot get to them, they are a man short. I have had times when the other three players complete the mission and I am stuck at one of the earlier encounters. Most of the time, they get stuck at a boss and decided to kick me for “not doing my job”.

I also run into groups that kick me before I have even loaded into the flashpoint. I don’t usually get an explanation save one time when I was told that I was “under-geared”. That was a story-mode flashpoint, by the way. I look though my gear. It is loaded up with crafted level 50 purple armor pieces and modifiers, leaves me starching my head as to what is acceptable gear and how to get it. To date, I have found nothing that I can actually get that is better save for the daily level 51 armor pieces and that’s only by a few points.

The experience within the flashpoints is generally not favorable, ignoring actions of other players. Load screens take anywhere between one and three minutes. If there is an encounter where there is a bunch of NPC’s fighting each other, things get so slow that I am basically fighting blind. Frame rate is fine but everything moves in bursts with all the practical effects going off at all once. Boss encounters tend to be passable, as I don’t feel I am fighting completely blind. I just can’t count on anything being done in a timely manner.

I have had even less experience with operations. The one I got into took over five hours and we got to a point that it was clear we could not complete it. Mostly we had no clue what to do and had two players jumping back and forth between the game and some guide. Did not help us much as the guides where conflicting and likely out of date. Better in-game documentation would have helped.

Group-finder has not exactly been a blessing. Rather it has been more of a curse. You get dropped into a random flashpoint that you are not familiar with and be expected to perform as if you had run the flashpoint a dozen times. Since it is story-mode, those “daily commendation” are pretty much useless anyway as they cannot be turned into something that can acutely improve your chances.

Outside of flashpoints or when doing a lower level flashpoint solo, performance is fine even during problem encounters described earlier. The sole exception of sporadic server connection drops lasting 10 to 30 seconds.

I don’t see any hardware or home network issues on my side. Ping rates are normally “3 bars”, though Window performance monitor does suggest there is a bottleneck somewhere up stream from my network.

The forums are inconsonant in there usefulness. Players tend to use acronyms that are rarely defined or used consistently. Acronyms like “CC”, “HM”, “BH” and so on. The recommendation tends to require long blocks of on on-line time that I just do not have.

So there you go. I have no idea if anyone else has seen the same behavior and I am not expecting anyone to come up with any suggestions. I just needed to say the piece.

I would recommend, to Bioware, to put in some in-game methods of providing feedback. The short little surveys like where used during pre-release might work.

Sorry if I got a little long, lot of pent up frustration.

Sounds like the majority of your struggles come from more of the community then the game itself. Generally speaking, the community tends to create ways to be most efficient in getting things done and if you are not up to speed with everything then it can become very overwhelming.

I would highly suggest asking/looking around for a guild that takes in new players and helps them learn the ropes. They can sometimes be hard to come by but getting into one would be the easiest means of getting many of these issues resolved. Finding a group of friends that you can consistently run things with will make the game exponentially more enjoyable.

As for some of the questions mentioned in the post:

- Biometric Crystal Alloy can be found of the last boss of any hard mode flash point. The boss will drop one and the group can roll for it. Often times the group will just do a greed roll for it but if you give a heads up that you need it then they will usually just give it to you without any concern. You may also be able to buy one of the Galactic Trade Network as well.

- Because the group finder system rewards heavily experienced players for running flashpoints, you will often find groups that know all the tricks and means to complete the runs as fast as possible (Often around a 20 minute run). Since these people have done it hundreds of times, they try to make the run as quick as possible and get edgy if it takes longer then desired. It's a sad pitfall with the system and the best way to work around it is to run it with friends. You can attempt to explain that your a rather new player and see if they will take there time, but sadly 3 in 4 people tend to not care...

- Loading times, lag, and frame rate issues is always a messy topic with the variety of variables involved. Best I could suggest (aside from asking hundreds of questions) is to work with Bioware customer service reps.

- Acronyms are just something you have to kinda pick-up as you go along. For the most part, they are used to describe the variety of runs or objects used within the game.

GTN = Glalactic Trade Network

HM = Hard Mode

SM = Story Mode

NM or NiM = Nightmare Mode

BH = Black Hole

OP = Operation

FP = Flash Point

BT = Black Talon

BOI = Battle of Ilum

FE = False Emporer

D7 = Directive 7

BP = Bording Party

Kaon = Kaon under Siege

LI = Lost Island

BW = BioWare

I come to these boards rarely, generally looking for information. Unfortunately, there is usually no answer and usually causes more confusion. But I am running out of idea to provide feedback regarding Flashpoints and Operations. Posting here is not my choice; it is just a mater of last resort.

 

I have been playing around with story-mode flashpoints for several months now in the hopes of getting crafting material and schematics. Something called “Biometric Crystal Alloy”. To-date, I have not seen any. Considering that my success rate for flashpoint is less then 1 in 3 and that I don’t have the time to do one except, maybe, once a week; I figure it is the luck of the draw. I can find no information that says otherwise.

 

I come on the boards, and find players claiming that story mode flashpoint are “easy” and quick to do. That has never been my experience. I find them tiresome and long. They are not suited to somebody who gets only one or two hours a day to play. If I had my way, I would not even bother with them, but its flashpoints or player-vs-player and I detest PVP even more. There simply is nothing else to do at level 50, and that is sad.

 

I run into players doing “speed mode”, which I have yet to figure out. Those always seem to be failures as they take off and I am left trying to fight though everything that they leave behind. They get to some boss and as I cannot get to them, they are a man short. I have had times when the other three players complete the mission and I am stuck at one of the earlier encounters. Most of the time, they get stuck at a boss and decided to kick me for “not doing my job”.

 

I also run into groups that kick me before I have even loaded into the flashpoint. I don’t usually get an explanation save one time when I was told that I was “under-geared”. That was a story-mode flashpoint, by the way. I look though my gear. It is loaded up with crafted level 50 purple armor pieces and modifiers, leaves me starching my head as to what is acceptable gear and how to get it. To date, I have found nothing that I can actually get that is better save for the daily level 51 armor pieces and that’s only by a few points.

 

The experience within the flashpoints is generally not favorable, ignoring actions of other players. Load screens take anywhere between one and three minutes. If there is an encounter where there is a bunch of NPC’s fighting each other, things get so slow that I am basically fighting blind. Frame rate is fine but everything moves in bursts with all the practical effects going off at all once. Boss encounters tend to be passable, as I don’t feel I am fighting completely blind. I just can’t count on anything being done in a timely manner.

 

I have had even less experience with operations. The one I got into took over five hours and we got to a point that it was clear we could not complete it. Mostly we had no clue what to do and had two players jumping back and forth between the game and some guide. Did not help us much as the guides where conflicting and likely out of date. Better in-game documentation would have helped.

 

Group-finder has not exactly been a blessing. Rather it has been more of a curse. You get dropped into a random flashpoint that you are not familiar with and be expected to perform as if you had run the flashpoint a dozen times. Since it is story-mode, those “daily commendation” are pretty much useless anyway as they cannot be turned into something that can acutely improve your chances.

 

Outside of flashpoints or when doing a lower level flashpoint solo, performance is fine even during problem encounters described earlier. The sole exception of sporadic server connection drops lasting 10 to 30 seconds.

 

I don’t see any hardware or home network issues on my side. Ping rates are normally “3 bars”, though Window performance monitor does suggest there is a bottleneck somewhere up stream from my network.

 

The forums are inconsonant in there usefulness. Players tend to use acronyms that are rarely defined or used consistently. Acronyms like “CC”, “HM”, “BH” and so on. The recommendation tends to require long blocks of on on-line time that I just do not have.

 

So there you go. I have no idea if anyone else has seen the same behavior and I am not expecting anyone to come up with any suggestions. I just needed to say the piece.

 

I would recommend, to Bioware, to put in some in-game methods of providing feedback. The short little surveys like where used during pre-release might work.

 

Sorry if I got a little long, lot of pent up frustration.

Which server are you on?

MMO's do require you to put some time learning how the game operates. That is specially true for group content like Flashpoints. You need to understand what is happening and why people do what they are doing, it is for a reason they are doing it, specially in fights that involve special mechanics like the infamous "don't stand in the fire" or target switching.

When moving stick yourself like 5 meters behind the "tank's" butt, stay with the group, don't wander off by yourself and pay attention to what is happening around you.

Remember that you are part of a team and you are supposed to do your part, that's why people get angry at you, they have put effort in learning how to play the game, they expect you to at least do the same.

Some people will be more patient than others with "newbies" but everyone has it's limits. You should at least be able to carry yourself, stay with the group and generally don't be the cause for a "wipe".

A social leveling guild tends to be a lot more relax with the performance of the group members and it is a good place for learning the basics.

Which server are you on?

Please post the server you are on. If you are on mine i will try to look you up and show you a thing or two.

Yes which server are you on, I will glady help and queue with you!

If you are the bastion I would be happy to help out. I've got extra alloys too which I have little use for the at the time being.

Hey OP (original poster)!

I have to agree with the other folks who have posted and say that this is a "community-issue" rather than a game-issue.

Coming from other MMORPGs, I've noticed the SWTOR community is a bit... antsy. When I first started (just a few months ago), I was blown away at the concept of "skipping" and things to speed up flashpoint runs in any way possible. To be completely honest, I preferred spending those 1-2 hours in instanced dungeons (FPs) fighting trash monsters.

Jump ahead a couple months, and I catch myself "skipping" nearly anything possible when I play my tanking character. I'm guilty of it, and I don't actually prefer it; I just do it be "courteous" of the group - because apparently time is that valuable. *SHRUG*

Well, I'll keep it short... I could go on for days.

Anyways, if you're on "The Harbinger" server, I'd love to group with you on my level 50 healer and set the speed however you like it. I'm thinking about maybe finding more like-minded people who want to do less rushing through content and more enjoying.

Spinach - The Harbinger

This is mostly true but i find HM FP'S completely useless you can do EV and KP HM with recruit mk-2 gear why bother with columi most people doing it are overgeared farming them for comms, SM Ops take too long to queue and not worth the trouble. HM OPS except EC and TFB are easy as hell yet they are not on the queue list etc and etc.

Ignore this person, HM ops you need more than recruit or your just being carried, even SM ops I'd never invite someone unless they could at least show me they have an interest in being a team player and have a pve set even if its all Tionese/crafted mix.

Theres a lot of nice people and guilds around, I'd suggest you spend half hour looking for them, maybe asking in general chat if theres any friendly PVE guilds looking for members who would be willing to show a new player the ropes.

Post your servers name, if your on my server we can get you the help you need, even help you gear up for ops if your interested, we have 1 or 2 weekly runs to introduce people into them, and regular HM flashpoint runs to teach the game mechanics as well as get gear.

I agree with the community issue. What some people tend to forget (and it is real easy to do) that everyone started somewhere, and not everyone knows all the content front to back. I normally run with at least one guildmate when I do flashpoints regardless of which toon I am playing. We try to be in the habit of asking if anyone needs something from that particular FP, or if everyone wants to skip stuff before we go plowing thru it for the daily quest.

If you are on The Shadowlands server look me up. I would be willing to help you out. I have some guildies who feel the same way. The characters I normally play are on the imp side - Khornell / Drathos / Vestervan.

I run into players doing “speed mode”, which I have yet to figure out. Those always seem to be failures as they take off and I am left trying to fight though everything that they leave behind. They get to some boss and as I cannot get to them, they are a man short. I have had times when the other three players complete the mission and I am stuck at one of the earlier encounters. Most of the time, they get stuck at a boss and decided to kick me for “not doing my job”.

 

I also run into groups that kick me before I have even loaded into the flashpoint. I don’t usually get an explanation save one time when I was told that I was “under-geared”. That was a story-mode flashpoint, by the way. I look though my gear. It is loaded up with crafted level 50 purple armor pieces and modifiers, leaves me starching my head as to what is acceptable gear and how to get it. To date, I have found nothing that I can actually get that is better save for the daily level 51 armor pieces and that’s only by a few points.

I've had this same experience. A group I was in was in "speed mode" and taking paths with their speeders that required a lot of balancing on ledges to go around mobs. After accidentally falling and causing mobs to attack me, I got booted. Reason given: "bad".

Experiences like this make me not want to group up with random people at all. But I've also done two HM Flashpoints where even though they were in "speed mode", they understood that I was new (I always announce at the beginning that I'm new) and didn't take offense when I would accidentally aggro a mob that they were trying to get around.

After my bad experience, I saw two of my Guildmates on Ilium. So I headed over there and we ran through some of the missions and had a great time. So as everyone else has said: Find a guild that is welcoming of new players and just put people who end up kicking you out of the group (or who are abusive in chat during the Flashpoint) on your ignore list.

Hey OP (original poster)!

 

I have to agree with the other folks who have posted and say that this is a "community-issue" rather than a game-issue.

 

Coming from other MMORPGs, I've noticed the SWTOR community is a bit... antsy. When I first started (just a few months ago), I was blown away at the concept of "skipping" and things to speed up flashpoint runs in any way possible. To be completely honest, I preferred spending those 1-2 hours in instanced dungeons (FPs) fighting trash monsters.

 

Jump ahead a couple months, and I catch myself "skipping" nearly anything possible when I play my tanking character. I'm guilty of it, and I don't actually prefer it; I just do it be "courteous" of the group - because apparently time is that valuable. *SHRUG*

 

Well, I'll keep it short... I could go on for days.

 

Anyways, if you're on "The Harbinger" server, I'd love to group with you on my level 50 healer and set the speed however you like it. I'm thinking about maybe finding more like-minded people who want to do less rushing through content and more enjoying.

 

Spinach - The Harbinger

I am on harbinger and will be lvl 50 in maybe a couple weeks (im 41 right now and leveling is slow but im nonstop questing)and would like to do HM FP's and stuff I can go any pace as long as we get the bosses for columi tokens!

Friend my character, totalager and then we can meet up sometime