The easiest MMO I've ever played

What, frankly, is the point of having us do this? How can people defend this with a straight face? This isn't "movie cut scene" leveling - that argument is off base. I don't know a SINGLE SW movie, or any action movie, where that's the level of drama there is - the hero is irrelevant and cannot possibly in any way be killed. Can we all just admit that, whatever the case "used to be" before 4.0, whatever the crowd that's being catered to, whatever one's skill/playstyle is, there is absolutely NO REASON whatsoever to call the above a "game"? And it's a horribly boring movie too.

This is broken, this is not intended. There's just no way this is working as intended. I stand by that. Time for us all to be honest.

The game really wasn't easier. Not overall, at least. Not for most people, and not in most instances.

Yes, in that one instance, where you are at max level and are at non-max level planets, the game is technically "harder" because the mobs couldn't do damage before and can now.... but honestly in the current game state, while they can damage to you, your companion will still slaughter them before they are able to get your HP down below 80%.... and that's with you pressing no buttons and wearing no gear.

So saying it was easier to fight mobs you outlevel by 10 or more levels was easier before 4.0, as opposed to during 4.0. is kind of like saying its easier to beat someone with no legs in a race as opposed to someone with no legs and no arms. They're both impossible to lose, so while technically one might be easier, the margins of difficulty in this instance are irrelevant, because in both cases there frankly isn't any real challenge. There was never any difficulty present in that portion of the game originally anyway, and there certainly isn't any now, so using it as an example of how 4.0 is harder is... well, unconvincing, to say the least.

But the more important point here, and why 4.0 is overall easier then pre-4.0, is that pointing to content you outlevel by 10 or more levels and saying "See, that one part of the game was easy before 4.0, and less easy after, so therefore 4.0 is harder on balance" is logically flawed. You should be looking at the game as a whole, focusing particularly on gameplay the way it is intended to be experienced, and the way most people experience it: in this case, running content you don't outlevel (not significantly, anyway).

Most people pre-4.0, and post-4.0 for the matter, wouldn't/aren't going to be running through their class stories at level 60 the whole time. Most people would be roughly equal to the class story level. And, when you're playing content the way it is intended to be played, at the appropriate level, I think it is pretty indisputable that 4.0 is vastly easier to pre-4.0.

Pre-4.0, you could actually find bits of challenge in solo content, without having to manufacture it yourself. Post-4.0, you can't at all. And pointing out how running content you outlevel significantly is marginally more challenging (and its very, very marginal.... as in from totally impossible to die, to practically impossible to die) doesn't prove the game is harder overall.

As a side note, level sync's property of giving you large amounts of xp for content you wouldn't have gotten anything for before 4.0 mean that players are much more likely to be extremely over-leveled after 4.0, contributing to the decreased amount of challenge in 4.0.

I really, really hope you're right about that. Because if it isn't working as intended, it's only a matter of time before Bioware fixes it. And if it is working as intended, that means it's going to take Bioware changing their intentions for this to get fixed, which will take who knows how long.... if it ever happens at all.

That said, I have trouble believing it isn't working as intended. Given how long the level of challenge has been a controversy (since 4.0 launched), and given how Bioware has done several rounds of tweaking companion strength and combat difficulty since then, I would be surprised if Bioware is unaware how easy the combat is, and that it isn't working as intended. I mean, if they've been paying any attention at all (to their metrics, the forums, or just the game itself) they should know how solo content combat (a core component of their game) plays out. It seems likely that they are aware of how combat plays out, and since they seem content for the moment with it (after several rounds of tweaking), I would say it is, in fact, working as intended.... as backwards as those intentions seem to me.

But I hope I'm wrong, and you're right.

So datacron hunting (which is known for its own intrinsic difficulty, in the form of puzzles) and achievements are a little harder to complete now with level sync. Thank god we got that. Who cares they ruined the rest of the game to do it, but at least they toned down how easy it was to fetch datacrons and hunt 10,000 snorblox on planet alderaan.

I'm one of them, but I agree with OP about the lack of challenge. It's pretty boring to just breeze through everything without any kind of effort. Even if I only have 1-2 hours a day for the game I'd still want to fight for the xp.

And I think you quite plainly answered the question of who should be able to play - you or people you want to exclude for reasons outside their control simply because you can't be bothered to make any adjustments.

I understand your point. My point is simply that, no matter when it was, pre or post 4.0, none of the content has ever been overly difficult. At level, I don't believe companions are OP at the higher difficulty planets. Perhaps Bioware should allow level syncing options where you get to choose at or below planet cap...would that make you happy?

I also think it's ridiculous that 99% of the complaints boil down to trash being easy...like anyone really gives a flip?

This is the type of comment I think we need to stay away from. The adjustments you are talking about aren't realistic. They "solve" the problem by adding difficulty, but no player should be forced to downgrade their experience like that. That's literally a form of breaking the game to me. Is there a middle ground of sorts that each "camp" can concede to? I'd like to think there is. But, it requires your line of thinking to be modified, and it requires the opposite to be modified.

And no no no. "Outside of their control?" What? What is stopping any person who thinks something is too challenging in this game from learning/ improving? What stops any player in any video game from learning/ improving? That answer rests solely with the player, and what they want to do. If they honestly don't want anything more than an interactive movie of sorts then I'd suggest they are playing in the wrong sandbox. It's not a mean thing to say, sometimes people, well probably a lot of times, try to fit the square into the round hole and don't want to give up for whatever reason. Really though they'd be WAY happier substituting one experience for one that's actually a better fit.

This. It's been said multiple times. The game can be quite a challenge without your OP companion. I found that just slamming my head against the keyboard doesn't work when all companions are on crew skill missions.

You can't cater to everyone, sometimes people get left out. Should all basketball hoops be lowered a foot because some people are too uncoordinated to reach that high? Oh but wait, that would exclude little Johnny who can't reach that high either. Maybe we should just make them all chest level then to make sure we include as many people as we can. Oh, you know what though, that might be too high for a toddler. Hmm, guess that doesn't work either. Better just keep lowering it.

You and others keep trying to paint this as some kind of binary situation. "Well it was never hard, so let's just make it easier, it's the same thing right". There is a continuum of difficulty.

It was here-ish:
|-----------------/\-------|-------------------------|
easy.........swtor.....medium..................har d

Now it's here:
|-/\------------------|--------------------------|-------------------------|
plays itself.........easy........................medium. .................hard

Sorry, I had to adjust the scale on the second one a bit.