Hello everyone,

I am, in general, in favor of a system like galactic season because it gives me something to do when there is no new content. To me it is not a bad thing to be motivated to do content and quests that I haven't done or thought about in a while. Even if this means the occasional space mission, PvP or GSF. Also, the rewards seem very nice, especially compared to the login rewards, which do nothing for me.

Recently they released information about the GS quests and points needed to level. At first glance, it seems fair for subscribers and very hard for non-subscribers. This was to be expected. What concerns me is that you really need to do quite a few quests in order to get to GS level 100. Not a problem when you play everyday, but more difficult when you don't play every day and might take the occasional holiday or hiatus. As the point of the system is to have you log in as much as possible, this is still understandable. But it does bring me to my point:

When you are not online everyday, and you still want to make the GS deadline, you pretty much have to do the exact quests they tell you to. This seems to be at odds with the 'play your own way' philosophy. Especially when these quests require a specific skill (PvP and GSF) or time investment (OPs). This can make certain parts of the game not viable for a lot of players.

I have been playing this game since launch and love it, so I would really like to max GS level. But I am not always on and I am not always in the mood for specific content.

Am I just complaining here? No, because there is an easy solution. It is possible to let us choose which daily objectives or even only weekly objectives we want to complete. Simply give us 4 daily objectives every day (where only the first 2 give GS exp), and 4 weekly objectives (only the first 2 give GS exp). Give us the choice to avoid certain parts of the game we do not enjoy (at that moment). In the end you cannot force OPs on someone that does not have the time. Or force PvP on someone who is not skilled at it and does not like it. There is nothing wrong with incentivising content, but you cannot force it. Please give us some choice in how we want to complete GS, other than straight up paying for it.

*Yes I know you can pay for the GS levels, but the people who have a lot of money to burn are exactly the people who do not need to buy these levels, because they are on all of the time anyway.

TL;DR: GS seems to 'force' casual players to do specific content while it does not have to do so.

They threw 'play your own way' out the window years ago. It's been "play our way" for a long while now.

Play your way was a catch phrase, it never really was play your way. We've had people try to destroy content others play, purely because they didn't play it. Which is what happened last year, and began the demise of an inclusive CQ, with nerfing certain PvE objectives, trying to nerf crafting, etc. And continued with the campaign this year, that actually killed of crafting as a viable option.

Basically it's becoming, play the way we tell you, or you get nothing.

Play your way was a catch phrase, it never really was play your way. We've had people try to destroy content others play, purely because they didn't play it. Which is what happened last year, and began the demise of an inclusive CQ, with nerfing certain PvE objectives, trying to nerf crafting, etc. And continued with the campaign this year, that actually killed of crafting as a viable option.

 

Basically it's becoming, play the way we tell you, or you get nothing.

so basically actiblizz

They threw 'play your own way' out the window years ago. It's been "play our way" for a long while now.

It’s always been play our way. We just got suckered in when they said it would be play your own way. Sadly, many of us fell for it and took them at their word, myself included.

The game has and always will be play their way and they will drop carrots or use sticks to guide us wether we like it or not. The only choice we really have is to not play. All other choices are an illusion.

To be fair to the devs, the "Play your Way" slogan is still true when it comes to earning Tech Fragments and gear progression, but players (intentionally) misinterpreted it as meaning that they can earn all the stuff that other player types can by doing only what they like to do. This has gotten to the point where Solo players expect to hit Conquest target yields with no effort at all through a mechanic that was originally designed with the intention to be an activity just for dedicated guilds doing group content.

So a big portion of the "blame" is shared among us players as well.

To be fair to the devs, the "Play your Way" slogan is still true when it comes to earning Tech Fragments and gear progression, but players (intentionally) misinterpreted it as meaning that they can earn all the stuff that other player types can by doing only what they like to do. This has gotten to the point where Solo players expect to hit Conquest target yields with no effort at all through a mechanic that was originally designed with the intention to be an activity just for dedicated guilds doing group content.

 

So a big portion of the "blame" is shared among us players as well.

I agree. I've been "playing my own way" for a long time, with feeling like I'm forced to do anything. The couple of times that they did try to force something, WZs for Pierce/4X, I just did w/out them.

...

The only choice we really have is to not play. All other choices are an illusion.

^^ This. I've played about 5-10% compared to how much I played before they nuked conquest crafting and haven't given solo players any objectives to be compatible with other objectives. I choose not to play at all (apart from progression raiding) because I don't have anything to do in game anymore.

- No Flashpoints: Achiever, not even once per week, while pvp, gsf, star fortress and uprising players can repeat their weeklies every single day.

- No infinitely repeatable heroics: when you're out of them, you can swap to another game.

- No reputation token objectives either, because I've maxxed them all long time ago.

- My main won't even get the renown rank conquest points, because it's already at rank 999, and some other toons I play are not that far either.

- No more crafting war supplies, because lazy people didn't like that smaller guilds won a planet a couple of times per year.

I might play flashpoints, even without the achiever points, but the current playerbase is horrible as in toxic and/or incredibly clueless, and leaving a toxic group will lock me out from doing another one. It also never pops for a dps, and only specific MM fps gives decent points at level 75 so I would have to q for MM. And you can forget about q'ing as tank or heals: flashpoints are full of wannabe-tanks who rush ahead and wipe the group, then blame the healer and/or the tank.

^^ This. I've played about 5-10% compared to how much I played before they nuked conquest crafting and haven't given solo players any objectives to be compatible with other objectives. I choose not to play at all (apart from progression raiding) because I don't have anything to do in game anymore.

 

- No Flashpoints: Achiever, not even once per week, while pvp, gsf, star fortress and uprising players can repeat their weeklies every single day.

- No infinitely repeatable heroics: when you're out of them, you can swap to another game.

- No reputation token objectives either, because I've maxxed them all long time ago.

- My main won't even get the renown rank conquest points, because it's already at rank 999, and some other toons I play are not that far either.

- No more crafting war supplies, because lazy people didn't like that smaller guilds won a planet a couple of times per year.

 

I might play flashpoints, even without the achiever points, but the current playerbase is horrible as in toxic and/or incredibly clueless, and leaving a toxic group will lock me out from doing another one. It also never pops for a dps, and only specific MM fps gives decent points at level 75 so I would have to q for MM. And you can forget about q'ing as tank or heals: flashpoints are full of wannabe-tanks who rush ahead and wipe the group, then blame the healer and/or the tank.

You know, I could agree with your opening statement, if I hadn't made my solo conquest objectives on 6 toons this morning.

You know, I could agree with your opening statement, if I hadn't made my solo conquest objectives on 6 toons this morning.

except some weeks are better for solo, some are worse. It also depends on the content you do, and whether you supplement that with other stuff. Not to mention, it also depends on how many toons you try to get to CQ. Especially as they nerfed crafting. Personally I've stopped CQ, I don't care if I get it anymore, and if I do, it's just an extra bit of xp. My small guilds have stopped going after the FS plans, and any other guilds I'm in, if they insist on CQ points, I leave.

This way I really can play the way I want, without having to worry about other stuff.

except some weeks are better for solo, some are worse. It also depends on the content you do, and whether you supplement that with other stuff. Not to mention, it also depends on how many toons you try to get to CQ. Especially as they nerfed crafting. Personally I've stopped CQ, I don't care if I get it anymore, and if I do, it's just an extra bit of xp. My small guilds have stopped going after the FS plans, and any other guilds I'm in, if they insist on CQ points, I leave.

 

This way I really can play the way I want, without having to worry about other stuff.

Exactly this. All other game modes have daily repeatable big score objectives, every single week. Solo players don't.

It also has nothing to do with "being able to cap 100 toons in one day". I quit because of the disparity in objectives between different game modes. My game modes aren't supported, so I'm not going to bother at all. I'm not a fan of unfair or unbalanced games.

except some weeks are better for solo, some are worse. It also depends on the content you do, and whether you supplement that with other stuff. Not to mention, it also depends on how many toons you try to get to CQ. Especially as they nerfed crafting. Personally I've stopped CQ, I don't care if I get it anymore, and if I do, it's just an extra bit of xp. My small guilds have stopped going after the FS plans, and any other guilds I'm in, if they insist on CQ points, I leave.

 

This way I really can play the way I want, without having to worry about other stuff.

It's been this way since Conquest was a thing. The only difference is that now, it's 100 times easier, every week, than it was in the past. Some weeks Heroics pay really well, some weeks crafting, some weeks just missions, any missions. This week it's any missions. Last week I made Conquest just fine on 29 characters with no guilds on any of them. Some of my lowbies ended up near 300k, just playing their class stories, and that's last week, they might get close to a million this week, once I get started on them, since every mission pays, Story Time, and every optional pays, also Story Time, which sort of surprised me. Then there's the Eternal this week, for 25 missions...

That's playing my way, just doing stories on the lowbies, and goofing off with the 75s. 2 Heroics on Voss, and killing some random mobs, Conquest done, total time, about 20 minutes. I didn't hit a cap on Galactic Rampage either, nor did I hit the mission cap. Note: I had 2 Heroics left over from last week, because I stopped on that toon once I hit Conquest, doing the first two Heroics...

So yeah, if "play my way" means log in and start some crafting, log out, and take a nap, log in and "Presto, you've made Conquest" every week? Yeah, you're out of luck. Frankly, crafting should have never been a part of it anyway, but it is what it is.

Exactly this. All other game modes have daily repeatable big score objectives, every single week. Solo players don't.

 

It also has nothing to do with "being able to cap 100 toons in one day". I quit because of the disparity in objectives between different game modes. My game modes aren't supported, so I'm not going to bother at all. I'm not a fan of unfair or unbalanced games.

Solo players absolutely do, especially this week. Just play missions as normal, and you're going to find some infinitely repeatable rewards waiting for you. Every 200 mobs, infinitely repeatable, note, not daily, infinitely repeatable. Every 25 missions, infinitely repeatable, not daily, infinitely. Every PvE space mission will provide you with at least three, with optional missions. Class missions, expansion missions plus optional objectives. All of it pays this week.

 

That's playing my way,

And this here is the problem. The state of conquest fits YOUR way to play, but it doesn't fit MY way. Listing conquest objectives someone "can" do, doesn't change anything. We can all read the objectives ourselves.

And this here is the problem. The state of conquest fits YOUR way to play, but it doesn't fit MY way. Listing conquest objectives someone "can" do, doesn't change anything. We can all read the objectives ourselves.

Oddly, it seems to fit "my way" every week, no matter what the objectives are. Why do you suppose that is?

I think I'd better not elaborate on what I think, I'm still in "you must walk on eggshells" mode.

And this here is the problem. The state of conquest fits YOUR way to play, but it doesn't fit MY way. Listing conquest objectives someone "can" do, doesn't change anything. We can all read the objectives ourselves.

This is the issue, people dancing on the grave of crafting, showing great glee because other people lost some of their enjoyment from the game. Unfortunately there are a few people like that.. I was going to say more, but considering I'm already on Jackie's radar, I'll just ignore it.

This is the issue, people dancing on the grave of crafting, showing great glee because other people lost some of their enjoyment from the game. Unfortunately there are a few people like that.. I was going to say more, but considering I'm already on Jackie's radar, I'll just ignore it.

Oddly enough, I'm not even dancing on Crafting's grave, because way back in the beginning, crafting week was the only way I made Conquest. Under this system, I haven't not made it yet, if I was logged in to play. Even back then, however, I felt like the whole concept of Conquest was a missed opportunity.

Tbh, I understand the concerns, but I'm not a fan of the players' version of "play your own way".

It's become clear that the majority of the players are only doing the easiest bug-free things that net the most rewards for the work, and it's starving a lot of fine content: starving it of both players to do it with and feedback/play history that would bring attention to improving it.

It would depend on what exactly the team wants to create objectives around, but just giving people a choice of what GS objectives out of all of them to do sounds like more of the same or conquest-lite: A place where certain objectives get done to death while others might as well not even be there; and whatever gameplay those latter objectives are linked around will continue to never get a surge of players taking an interest in it even on a monthly basis. Specifically for people that enjoy team-based content which gets less traffic due to any factor, "play your own way" sabotages its own purpose for them.

I loved the rotating renown bonus around doing certain things in the group tab such as Chapters, Warzones, GSF matches, etc because it provided a special bonus for every type of thing to do that wasn't there before. It gave all those modes an equitable incentive and it brought new people in to at least try some of this stuff and gave me more pops and playtime with it, if nothing else.

I'm hoping for the same type of thing with the Galactic Seasons additions. If you're boycotting a type of activity because it bores you so much or you're not good enough at it to have any type of fun with it, that's still your choice, you're not going to die or make your character a failure if you opt out on a day of earning pixels of fake currency on a game.

Those activities you prefer still reward you, I don't see anything wrong with people who have a more rounded participation in the game getting their own rewards for being that type of player.

Every week is good for solo. Yes, some weeks are better. There are weeks where it is ridiculously easy to hit 50k, but never is it difficult to do Conquest solo. I complete Conquest on 30+ characters every week. And no, that does not require playing eight hours a day. I do admit that I have more time to play than others, but doing Conquest solo is never as difficult as some people in this thread want to make it seem. It is Thursday afternoon (13:45) where I am. I have already completed Conquest on 21 characters. I played about four hours on Tuesday, two hours on Wednesday, and so far, about two hours today. You can not seriously make a claim that Conquest is ever difficult for solo players when I have already completed Conquest for 21 characters and routinely do 30+ each week. And no, I never do FPs, OPs, PVP, or GSF, and crafting never added that much, even before the changes.

You can not complain that there is a lack of content when you choose to ignore 90% of the content.

Also, play your way was only and solely ever about gearing. People have tried to apply that philosophy to every other aspect of the game, but it never did. Play your way was about being able to choose what content you wanted to run to acquire gear. It was about not being forced to do specific content to acquire end game gear. Some content would, and does, provide a faster track but all content will get you there. And in that respect, that have held up their end of the bargain.

except some weeks are better for solo, some are worse. It also depends on the content you do, and whether you supplement that with other stuff. Not to mention, it also depends on how many toons you try to get to CQ. Especially as they nerfed crafting. Personally I've stopped CQ, I don't care if I get it anymore, and if I do, it's just an extra bit of xp. My small guilds have stopped going after the FS plans, and any other guilds I'm in, if they insist on CQ points, I leave.

 

This way I really can play the way I want, without having to worry about other stuff.

When CQ was redone several months ago many of us applauded the changes. It worked quite well for most everyone. BUT that didn't last. No need to rehash history. That will only start something up again! The updated CQ's (when it was released at 6.0 I think ???) WAS (past tense) a good way to rehash old content. And now that's gone.

Newer content has been slow coming. The Covid pandemic didn't exactly help. BUT from what I've seen first hand the slow down started before JUS.

Hopefully when this new way of repeating old content is released it wont be nerfed to death.

IMO the team knows how to get the job done. Seems like there is just so much other stuff that always manages to mess things up !!

I do so little these days. I haven't even been messin' with the market that much in over two weeks now !!

I need to find something with a more positive motivation. I'm quite certain that I will.

Every week is good for solo. Yes, some weeks are better. There are weeks where it is ridiculously easy to hit 50k, but never is it difficult to do Conquest solo. I complete Conquest on 30+ characters every week. And no, that does not require playing eight hours a day. I do admit that I have more time to play than others, but doing Conquest solo is never as difficult as some people in this thread want to make it seem. It is Thursday afternoon (13:45) where I am. I have already completed Conquest on 21 characters. I played about four hours on Tuesday, two hours on Wednesday, and so far, about two hours today. You can not seriously make a claim that Conquest is ever difficult for solo players when I have already completed Conquest for 21 characters and routinely do 30+ each week. And no, I never do FPs, OPs, PVP, or GSF, and crafting never added that much, even before the changes.

 

You can not complain that there is a lack of content when you choose to ignore 90% of the content.

Not every week is good for solo, not with a lot of alts. Capping a handful of toons is easy, but when you play lots of alts (and I don't call 20-30 "lots" yet), there is not enough heroics to run because they are once per day. My biggest issue is not that there isn't enough content, the issue is that there is not enough repeatable content for solo players, and the ones we have are not even available every week, like pvp gsf and so on are. That is not fair and it's not balanced.

Trying to convince me that there is tons of things to do doesn't change the fact that different game modes are treated differently. I rather not play at all, than force myself to play content I don't enjoy anymore. Especially since the people who enjoy GSF and whatnot get the highest points, every day, every week. Flashpoints weekly is rarely on conquest. Heroics Pinnacle/eternal are up sometimes, but not every week, and even when they are up, they are not infinitely repeatable. That's what I mean by treating different game modes unfairly, and that's the problem, not the lack of objectives. If people don't understand that by just reading how some of us feel about this, then we should take down the regular GSF, PVP, SF, uprisings weeklies too to balance different game modes, maybe then they would understand. And that would be fair too. Have the gsf, pvp, sf and uprising weeklies on the conquest only sometimes (and not every friggin week) and I will stop complaining, because then we'd all be equally screwed.

Also, play your way was only and solely ever about gearing. People have tried to apply that philosophy to every other aspect of the game, but it never did. Play your way was about being able to choose what content you wanted to run to acquire gear. It was about not being forced to do specific content to acquire end game gear. Some content would, and does, provide a faster track but all content will get you there. And in that respect, that have held up their end of the bargain.

Conquest is very much about gearing still. The only way to get some set bonus pieces is Kai Zykken, in order to get them you need to do conquest with as many alts as possible, or spam TC daily with as many alts as possible. You also still get mats for augments from conquest, and that is part of gearing.

Not every week is good for solo, not with a lot of alts. Capping a handful of toons is easy, but when you play lots of alts (and I don't call 20-30 "lots" yet), there is not enough heroics to run because they are once per day. My biggest issue is not that there isn't enough content, the issue is that there is not enough repeatable content for solo players, and the ones we have are not even available every week, like pvp gsf and so on are. That is not fair and it's not balanced.

Maybe you can tell us how many toons you do call "lots" so we can see where you are coming from. Personally I think that being able to achieve CQ target on 20 to 30 toons by doing only part of the content this game has to offer is more than fair considering people are limiting themselves by focusing on so narrow a portion of the game.

Not every week is good for solo, not with a lot of alts. Capping a handful of toons is easy, but when you play lots of alts (and I don't call 20-30 "lots" yet), there is not enough heroics to run because they are once per day. My biggest issue is not that there isn't enough content, the issue is that there is not enough repeatable content for solo players, and the ones we have are not even available every week, like pvp gsf and so on are. That is not fair and it's not balanced.

 

Trying to convince me that there is tons of things to do doesn't change the fact that different game modes are treated differently. I rather not play at all, than force myself to play content I don't enjoy anymore. Especially since the people who enjoy GSF and whatnot get the highest points, every day, every week. Flashpoints weekly is rarely on conquest. Heroics Pinnacle/eternal are up sometimes, but not every week, and even when they are up, they are not infinitely repeatable. That's what I mean by treating different game modes unfairly, and that's the problem, not the lack of objectives. If people don't understand that by just reading how some of us feel about this, then we should take down the regular GSF, PVP, SF, uprisings weeklies too to balance different game modes, maybe then they would understand. And that would be fair too. Have the gsf, pvp, sf and uprising weeklies on the conquest only sometimes (and not every friggin week) and I will stop complaining, because then we'd all be equally screwed.

Taking them down wouldn't affect me at all, I don't play them, and I routinely do 29 characters a week now. The poster you quoted does 30 toons a week, what's "a lot of alts" mean to you if that's not a lot of alts? The other odd thing is, I don't know how many points another player is making a week, because what they're doing doesn't factor into what I'm doing at all. They could take a year off, and I wouldn't notice, unless they're one of the players that's always sitting at one of the public area heroics I'm trying to do, and thus are in direct competition with me for mobs.

Conquest is very much about gearing still. The only way to get some set bonus pieces is Kai Zykken, in order to get them you need to do conquest with as many alts as possible, or spam TC daily with as many alts as possible. You also still get mats for augments from conquest, and that is part of gearing.

I've done Conquest on 29 toons a week for the last 7 weeks, and I haven't set foot in TC once. Wait, that's not entirely accurate. I have three new toons in the last two weeks, so 26 toons. Ironically, last week, my brand new Smuggler made 289K Conquest points, just doing story and some PvE space. What's really bad about that is that you can't even start Conquest until 10, and she hit 20 Tuesday, doing her daily space mission.

So when you say "It's hard to hit Conquest", I don't know what you mean, since I haven't not made it on my entire stable since I've been back, and I'm not even all that focused on it, I'm largely just playing the game. This week is going to be extremely easy, since every mission in the game will add to it, and every 25 missions will pay a nice bonus. Every 200 mobs will also pay a nice bonus, so this week, if I were one that struggles making Conquest, I'd be really busy in game.

Taking them down wouldn't affect me at all, I don't play them, and I routinely do 29 characters a week now. The poster you quoted does 30 toons a week, what's "a lot of alts" mean to you if that's not a lot of alts?

^This. I think this is less of a "starved for conquest points" problem and more of a "I overextended myself and I ran into diminishing returns from feeding my guild conquest with a bunch of alts I let exist for nothing else" problem

The only choice we really have is to not play. All other choices are an illusion.