SWTOR changes I'd love to see in 2017

In my last post I looked back at 2016. In this one, I want to look forward. What better to fantasize about than my favourite MMO, Star Wars: the Old Republic? I saw Rachel's post SWTOR - A look back at my 2016 wishlist and my 2017 wishlist and I loved it - so I decided to go with my own version of the 10 things I'd love to see in SWTOR in 2017 (more or less in order of importance). Mind you, this is not intended as a list of demands addressed at the devs, but rather as an interesting thought experiment. Here they are.

1) New operation

This is the elephant in the room. Not getting a new raid last year was understandable, as the developers were occupied with scaling all the existing ones to level cap. For the record, I'm happy we now have them all available as viable endgame options rather than just having one or two raids to keep wiping on. This year, however, there is no excuse for not adding something new. We are promised a revelation about "new larger group content" later this month, but as the developers consistently avoid the word 'raid', I'm wary. Let's hope we'll get something that will bring back the raiders to SWTOR.

2) Catch up mechanics for new players and alts

The galactic command system is new now, but imagine doing master mode operations with your guild and you convince a friend to start playing. It will take ages before they are able to join you on those runs, making it less likely for them to stick around. The answer of this according to the devs is crafting, but I'm not sure if it's enough.

3) Return of key companions

Once you've started Knights of the Fallen Empire, you lose all your class companions. The developers keep telling us every dev livestream that they want to bring the companions back as much as we do, and I believe them. With the Eternal Throne expansion, the main story has come to a conclusion and finding out what happened to our companions is the logical next step: there is no way they don't know where you are at that point. I hope it happens this year!

4) Sage DPS desirable in PvE

It is going to be really hard to make sage DPS desirable in raids again without making them overpowered in PvP, but that one's on the devs for wanting to go with the same builds for both. An option would be to decrease the power cost of Disturbance in Balance, which would boost sustained DPS (right now you run into power problems when using it) without affecting PvP. Sage is my favourite class, but right now there is no place for them in a DPS role in progression raiding: they lag 10-15% behind the median (source: Conrad). I'd love to bring sage DPS to raids again!

5) Cosmetic weapons

I stole this one from Rachel, but I know a lot of people are dying to see this added to the game. Now PvP gear has been removed there is no reason to have multiple weapons on a single character - and now my lightsaber crystal clashes with some of my outfits. Oh my!

6) Conversations with new followers

Once you've reached chapter 9 of Knights of the Fallen Empire you'll get the option to recruit many 'followers' (how companions are called from KOTFE onwards). And when I say many, I mean many. My sage currently has 35, and she even turned some down. However, once you have recruited them, you never speak to them again. Sure, you can summon them to fight for you, but it doesn't feel the same as the classic class companions, who I really felt attached to. It would be cool if there were conversations with them later on, so you can get to know them a little better. Right now, it doesn't feel meaningful to even have so many.

7) Skills remembering where to go after respeccing

People who occasionally switch their spec on their characters (hopefully, but probably not, the majority of the player base) will know my pain: each time the new skills of that spec spread seemingly randomly over your skill bar, so you'll have to rearrange them to fit your keybinds. Too hard to program it so they automatically go to where you left them last time? I doubt that, as even the old fashioned Lord of the Rings Online has figured this out. This small quality of life change would make me so happy!

8) Dye system revamp

Who is waiting for a yellow and fluorescent green dye? Right, nobody. I was very disappointed with the dye system when it was just implemented, because I still couldn't dye my clothes the way I wanted. The available range of colour combinations is simply too limited. In a perfectly fashionable world, each armour piece would have two dye slots and you could mix primary and secondary colours to your liking.

9) Hood down option, or unhooded versions for each hooded chest piece

This is less pressing than it used to be, simply because of the sheer amount of available outfits, but this would still be a welcome change for fashionistas, especially those that play miralukas.

10) Incentives for group ranked

It's cool that solo ranked has a better population right now because it rewards with a lot of command XP, but group ranked is still underplayed - they never pop. I'd love to group up with my friends, queue up for group ranked and actually get into matches without having to organize things beforehand on the forum. I fear the only way for this to happen is to increase the command XP gained (but if you have another idea, I'd love to hear it).

Then there are things like fix bugs (AoE looting; courting companion gifts, I'm looking at you) and I could've gone deeper into the gearing with galactic command, but I tried to keep it to fun suggestions.

What would you like to see added to SWTOR this year?