The current state of this game is really worrying me… I had high hopes for it and really thought Bioware would succeed in their vision, since they had so much passion with KOTOR and making TOR its successor (there might still be a flicker of hope). I am still subbed at the moment, but the following are just some of the things that have bothered me since Beta (along with some ideas). 1. Extreme loading times: The long and excessive loading times are a major issue with SWTOR. When you have to zone upwards of 4 times to get to your ship and to another planet, it becomes no fun and frustrating very fast. 2. Lack of true exploration and the lack of “standard” interactive MMORPG elements: There are thousands of chairs in the game but none to sit in other than the one that takes you 4-5 loading screens to get to… Using EQ, SWG and WoW as examples; I could wander off to the middle of nowhere and find a small spot of my own and watch the day change to night. And even though there were hundreds of players on, I would still feel a sense of exploration. In this game, you know exactly why there are no players around…, because there are no players on… The planet Nar Shaddaa has so much potential to be more than it is at the moment. This planet could have been a major social hub for players; with Cosmetic Parlors (barber shop/plastic surgery), gambling, drinking, live dancers, arena matches (KOTOR1) and all around decadence (it’s a bloody gangster planet for crying out loud). Instead, it just felt like Coruscant by night. 3. Graphics Engine/Character Selection/Creation: I was never a fan of the choice of stylized graphics, but decided to give it a try. The Character Creator was/is still a major negative for me. I still don’t understand why Cathar was not a species of choice over “Cyborg”, which should have been a cosmetic trait added to any race (cybernetic eye/lekku/arm/leg for example). The current design of twi’leks (the twitching, feather-light lekku and the decision to have them stick out of hoods/helms) turned me off from wanting to play one. Sith purebloods have only ONE face per gender, with the ridges and lips being the only change to the character’s head model. 4. My ship is not my own: Definitely one of my major issues with Class ships is that they need to be given freedom to be customized, inside and out (think themes from Fallout 3 or Commander Shepard’s quarters in ME2). I don’t really care for the frozen Han Solo in my cargo hold, and would like to feel like I am at home in my ship, and not on a transport shuttle. Let me assign my companions to pilot duty, ship maintanace and such, and not just stand around looking pretty (or pretty ugly in Skadge and Khem Val’s cases). I would also not like to take off and land EVERY time I enter my ship. On another note; we should have no need to take a shuttle to a planet when our “highly advanced and heavily armed and armored ships can be used to a much better effect. During fleet mission Ops/FPs, a Social Point dice roll could be used for the group to see whose ship will be the one in the cinematic and land on a planet or be the command center for holocalls with mission NPCs. That way, players get to see inside of your ship and interact with it (that is, if we were to get to customize it). Another nice thing would be to have class quests intertwine with class ships. For example; a jedi or trooper needs to sneak into Imperial territory and the only way to do that would be by Smuggler transport. There could be a GTN-like bounty board where players ask for transport, and the smuggler/bounty hunter or such accepts it like a quest. Upon completion, everyone gets a reward in the form a large amount of social points/Legacy points (which could lead to SP/LP being a form of currency to purchase Social/Legacy items instead of millions of credits). 5. Legacy System: The Legacy System, in its current form, just seems more of another money sink and carrot-on-a-stick grind. Also, I don’t want to play “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” or be “my cousins, sister’s, brother-in-laws, best friend’s, father’s, aunt”. Surnames should not have been tacked onto the Legacy System. I would have liked my human, rattataki or chiss, etcetera, to each have their own Legacy and surname if I wanted it that way.

I have agree with this… Honestly, it should have been a no-brainer with Bioware that a large amount of the people that would be playing SWTOR was an MMO veteran in some shape or form; so they would most definitely have high expectations for the game (myself included). I myself played EQ1 for four years and WoW for a better part of seven. To me, a major part of WoW’s success was that they took what was fun from EQ and added to it. The game was not perfection incarnate, but it was very good when it was in its prime... I used to love (in both EQ and WoW) wandering out to the middle of nowhere and exploring. Even when there were hundreds of players on, you could still always find a small place to call your own just for a little while… That does not exist in TOR at the moment, as everything seems boxed in to where you know exactly why you are alone in an area (population is down and little to no one is logged into the zone…)

Yes, this is (and has been, for me at least, since Beta) EXTREMELY frustrating. With the game being as hyped as it is, I see queue times remaining like this for several months. This is only Early Access, so I can only imagine what next week will be like, let alone the holiday weekend...

The first out of the six builds I played as a Bounty Hunter, I chose Mercenary because that was what I had planned before Beta. The second build I decided to try the Powertech and fell in love with the AC. This, honestly, was the first MMO to make me enjoy playing a tank, and the Bounty Hunter (and probably Trooper that I will play for my Rep side main) fits my game-playing personality much more. The Powertech has plenty of abilities to throw at the enemy in combat. Flame burst, flamethrower, explosive darts, short-term cc electro darts, up close melee retractable blades (in Advanced Prototype tree), Jet Charge, the AOE flamethrower spin (forgot the exact name) and Grappling Hook (ala MK Scorpion move). Also, as a Shieldtech with Mako at your side for healing, Guard (group member/companion threat reducer) and Ion-Gas Cylinder (tanking stance), you can test your soloing limits in those first 25 levels far better than a Sith Juggernaut. The Flame Burst ability has a talent in the Shieldtech tree early that will help reduce damage on the Powertech. And there is also a talent buff that makes (if it has not been changed) rocket punch activate Ion-Gas Cylinder for another threat generator. So now that the Beta is done and the true game is upon us, the Powertech has made me torn between that AC and my earlier original choice of the Arsenal Mercenary.