Social points....

I like the idea of the social points. I just wish there were more opportunities to earn them. The Esseles can net you between 90 and 140 points(probably more but that is highest I've seen). Hammer Station might net you 40 IF you do the opening and closing with a group. That's a huge disparity.

A simple fix would be to have a conversation before every boss battle, like you do on the Esseles. That would add at least 2 conversations to Hammer Station, and 3 if they can figure out one for the droid. If you make each coversation have 5 choice points, you've suddenly added 40 to 60 points at a minimum(with a full team). Add that to the 40ish to start and it's right in line with the Esseles.

As for gaining them in other ways, I do think you should get bonus social just for completing mission objectives in a group. If they gave us 1 point for each objective cleared in a team(regardless of team size) this might encourage teaming a bit more.

Total strawman..... never once did I say I don't want it to be "hard".... as it is, it's not "hard" to get social points, just boring forced group PvE.

Make the other options hard, I don't care. I like hard... I just don't like non enjoyable forced group PvE as the ONLY way.

By that logic, everyone should be able to get the best PvP gear without doing PvP.

Not really, no. I don't care what the alternative path to these points are, I just want something else. ANYTHING else. I don't like group based PvE and would enjoy alternate paths to the gear, that's really all there is to it.

Doesn't need to be quik or repeatable. Just SOMETHING that I can do to work towards this stuff that isn't me standing next to someone else while we talk to NPCs.... which to me, is about as stupid a way to reward gear as you can get.

If you group up with a static 1-50, and do all the quests together you can get to social 5... thats without doing much FPs or heroics..

Actually I think the best stated gear should be crafted and don't really care how people earn it.

If you want to be good at PvP you have to PvP to get good anyway. PvP gear is just something to work for.... if other people want to earn their gear in other ways, why would I care?

I'm sure you're not the only person who can't see past his own view point to understand the other person's. What else is new?

No it doesn't. Talking is done with or without grouping, and really have very little to do with each other, yet the game rewards people with extra gear because they talked to NPCs with another person they may or may not have socialized with in their group. What's the point?

It doesn't encourage socialization at all. It encourages people who'd just as soon not group up, to do so, for points. It's weird.

If you want to encourage people to socialize and make friends in the game, come up with some mechanics to do so, but spare me the act in which we pretend that shooting at the same NPC as you, and then watching a cut scene together is in any way social. It's not.

I have a character that's level 21 and is approaching Social III.

The key is to just always play with at least one other player. This particular character has been played with another player since level 1. *Every* conversation that isn't class specific (where you become a spectator) gathers social points. Just because you play the game solo except for FP/Heroics and therefore don't get many Social points doesn't mean that the system isn't working.

So, perhaps you should be using your own advice?

This ^

Times 1,000

I think that's exactly what it means. It's not working at all.

Think of it this way, I've gained a vast majority of my levels in PvP warzones. I've been grouped for all of them, I have ZERO "social points".... I socialize with players on a daily basis, chat with friends, help people in general, etc. again.... ZERO social points.

What exactly did you do to deserve extra gear over me?

You did solo quests with a friend helping you? Huh? Why would you get better rewards than me for playing on easy mode?