I really do know how to play my character. I know she's right on the edge of squeaking through the mission if I do dozens of combat scenarios just right with nary a slight miscalculation on which mob should die first. I just don't appreciate having to stop in the middle of a story and spend a boatload of hours to level a companion I'm not interested in just to get the dual wield sidekick I want. Let solo players blow the bloody fortresses up in story mode so they can get on with the main story without spending hours leveling a second string companion. Buff the mission if need be. Leave EPHMERIS in the mix....or don't. I understand the need for time sinkish content back when the story was being released. It just feels like a road block years later.

First off, sorry for using this thread to air my thoughts. I didn't think they warranted their own thread. As a returning player who hasn't been around since the days of old when Oricon was the latest thing, Star Fortress in Veteran mode is the proverbial fly in the ointment. I'd love to destroy the Nar Shaddaa SF and unlock Veeroa for her dual wield awesomeness, but my concentration sentinel can't seem to manage in 276 gear with a new batch of recently swapped in companions that are just now starting to hit their 20's. I don't need to burn months between chapters since I don't have to wait until their release. I don't have weeks to do nothing but a dozen or so +2 Heroics every single day leveling fresh companions (because that's what my past week or so has been spent doing since hitting chapter X), I don't have millions in the bank for instant leveled companions since this is my first max level character and I still have godly armor set pieces to buy. I don't want to just sail through a cheese game and not be challenged, but this time sink content is a load of poodoo stuck right in the middle of a super awesome story that I was completely into. Players should be able to destroy the Star Fortresses in story mode with the difficulty set at the usual Heroic +2 levels competent players with fairly advanced gear can handle. And to all the super fantastic game gods out there who can solo these things, yes....I am competent. And thanks to everyone who filled in all the details. I now know the Voss SF is a factor in the future, and I *can* go back and do all this later (when it no longer matters to the development of my character.)

Fail troll is full of fail.

Thank you for speaking up. I'm not sure why the fanboy mafia feels the need to diminish valid observations about such a noticeably persistent phenomenon.

Who the heck takes the trouble to write a small novelette on something as lame as taking the long way around broken mission probability tables? There should never be five gift missions in any of my underworld missions queues. Ever. If you're OK with half baked probability tables of catastrophic failure, fine and dandy. I'm not interested in reading long essays about it.

There's a switch.

I'm not jumping though any hoops today. By all means, geek out and attempt to nullify a problem that is clearly demonstrated on the GTN. Maybe someone will read it.

No, you're wading into a discussion and attempting to nullify a point of view with long, windy posts of supreme authority that nobody really wants to read.

Don't look now, but I'm not the one getting spanked in this thread, goob. Please, continue with your peen wagging.

No, it's because everyone is punching the high ticket missions hoping to get tiny bits of Beryllium and ending up with stacks and stacks of Frasium that cost an average of 900c per chunk. Stacks and stacks of Frasium in the cargo bay means 13 frickin' pages of listings on GTN starting at 300c a chunk. Supply exceeds demand because the system is broken. That's why grade 2 scavenged mats laying in the middle of the street sell for double the price of grade 9 exotic underworld metals that can only be acquired from rolling the dice in a hopelessly rigged mission queue.

Yes, yes. Surely I'm confused by the subtle nuances in your grand declaration.

I craft vital equipment for low to mid level characters that literally nobody else on the entire server makes because they're too busy touching themselves to gawd-like purple artifacts. I sell them fairly priced for f2p folks and low level joe's who don't have tons of dough. They sell like hotcakes. I make a pretty penny because I have **zero** competition from pompous goobers who think L19's can afford to pay 50K for uber purple crap they'll end up pitching after a few hours of game play. So, it doesn't surprise me in the least to see know-it-all mega dork gasbags line up in here to tell me how I'm doing it all wrong.

"Yes, the system doesn't work, so why don't you just shut up and learn to jump though hoops and enjoy it?" "Nobody really meant ALL materials when they said ALL materials. They just pulled that factoid straight from their backside. Why dispute the faux wisdom?"

Look, when you get done self preening, maybe you can explain to everyone why Frasium sells for a tiny fraction of the cost per chunk it takes to run a decent class 9 mission. Until then, stick a sock in how great you are and why I shouldn't want a semi functional way to acquire the specific mats I need to craft my wares.

I can't believe you actually think I'm going to read a huge puddle of word barf. My guess is, NO you haven't tried to sell Frasium. And NO, I don't care why.