I'm doing my first playthrough in years of the Jedi Knight story arc and got to this part. The music that made it such an epic moment when I first played is gone. I even looked it up on YouTube to make sure I wasn't misremembering. I saw this forum post made in the past year and thought I'd add my voice to raising the issue. The generic music ain't cuttin' it.

Thank you for the rather quick response to this issue. Zeroing out training costs for a month was my proposed solution to this issue. This is even better! R.I.P. Training Costs "You will not be missed..."

THIS. I had a fully functional level 55 who was pretty well geared without PvP or Operations-level gear. He could finish dailies on Ilum, Czerka, and Section X without missing a beat. The first group he went into on Ilum, he died. I'll emphasize the point even more: my level 55 character was--without being able to train the skills he once had that he now doesn't--killed by level 50 mobs. So, you see this awful cycle, devs? I can't afford for my character to train all of the abilities up to level 55. How do I usually make money in this game? Do dailies with my level 55s. I go to complete dailies and can't because...I can't afford for my character to train all of the abilities up to level 55. My suggestion: make all ability training free for a time. Either you guys were malicious and intended for this to be a huge credit sink after that whole "Class Story Leveling Event" which was apparently intended to get everyone to 55 so they'd have to pay all of these costs that you already knew about -OR- you honestly didn't foresee that this was a possibility and did not actually intend for us to pay for this all along. If the former is the case, that's really really terrible to do to the people who pay your salary. If it's the latter, why dig your heels in and say you meant to do it? Either way is not making you look good right now. Fix it, please. I was really starting to like your game again. Not making this right will put me off the game once and for all.

I'm sorry, but this is not good enough. When the developers make such a massive change to the abilities system, players should not have to pay the price for those changes just to make their characters playable again. If I had a playable character at level 55 with all of his abilities trained, I should be able to log in after the patch and have a playable character at level 55 with all of his abilities trained or at least trained at no additional cost.

This is NOT okay. On my main Jedi Guardian, I had Freezing Force all the way up to full rank. Now I have to pay for it again? Not cool. I picked the same discipline as my old skill tree. I tried to pick all the old powers I had, or at least tried to closely approximate what I had before because I don't want to have to re-learn how to play this character (even though that looks like its going to be an inevitability). I still had to pay. Suggested fix from Bioware: Abilities should be free up to the level the character was at the launch of 3.0. Or make them all free for everyone for the next week or two, so this looks like an oversight and not some blatant credit sink.

Here's an idea to deal with the issue of server population, character names, and legacy names that also rewards player loyalty. Make some previously abandoned servers into "new" destination servers and make character transfers to those servers based on when players had Early Game Access (that data was compiled and most likely saved somewhere, right?). Then have an orderly server merge that rewards your most loyal players and doesn't completely invalidate the pre-launch programs you encouraged us to participate in. I didn't choose my origin server--the pre-launch guild program did. I pre-ordered because we were promised (and were given) Early Game Access. I did that so that I could have a decent shot at getting the character names I wanted. I got all 8 names that I wanted on the first day of EGA on the server chosen by the pre-launch guild program. I've checked and my 3 main character names are taken, not just on the assigned destination server, but also on ALL destination servers. Player loyalty and pre-launch involvement amount to nothing in the current scenario. Please fix that. Footnote: Yes, character names matter. BioWare has made that position clear from their focus on Legacy names. If character names don't matter to you, then the current situation works for you and you can go on about your business. But for those of us whose character names matter to us, who have found that our names are taken on the destination servers, and who thought we had this issue beat by getting EGA, we'd at least like to have that taken into consideration during the server merge process.

Good call.

Thank you! At least that's some real live acknowledgment that they're working to correct this omission.

I just saw the Legacy System video and saw that we will be able to create our own family trees including marriage and adoption options for defining relationships. Does anyone know if marriage between two characters of the same gender is allowed in the family tree?

So, to clarify--because I heard this floating around in guild chat without a specific source--are SGRAs going to be integrated into the leveling process or only included in post-Chapter 4 content? Or do we not know? Thoughts on the ideas I heard floating about... INTEGRATED INTO THE LEVELING PROCESS: If it's integrated into the leveling process, will we have to re-roll in order to experience the content? The alternative of offering a reset button for affection would need to be specifically for romantic affection progression only. Resetting affection in general would be unfair to us because all of the other non-romantic ways in which we've gained affection would be wiped out as well. That would, in turn, affect the effectiveness of Crew Skills for at least some period of time, placing us at a disadvantage with other players. POST-CHAPTER 4 INTEGRATION GOOD: It would eliminate the predicament some of us are facing of not leveling our characters in order to avoid bypassing SGRA content. BAD: It's completely ridiculous that you can be heterosexual for 50 levels but not homosexual or bisexual. That exacerbates the feelings of exclusion felt by many LGBTQA players. We'd have to reach 50 in order to play a homosexual or bisexual character. Not cool. Until this is actually implemented or we have more specific information about implementation and how it will affect our characters, we're still in the same position we've been in--except we now have a timeline (this year, yay) and we know they're making these specific SG storylines (which I sincerely appreciate). How this affects current gameplay is still an important question that I think needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

That's excellent news! I think this is mostly what we've been asking for. My only question at this point is: "Free-with-subscription patch or paid expansion?" As far as what we'd like to see in our companions, I'd like to see diverse body types through either more customization packs for companions or more character creator-like customization options. We are a diverse community and we have diverse tastes.

Wow. That's just...a lot of words I can't say here. My support and sympathy goes out to Jennifer Hepler. That definitely provides another perspective on why Bioware may be reluctant to give us an official answer on the SGRA issue in The Old Republic. Some people...sheesh.

There are no toggles for story content. The 'toggle' is a player's choice to either participate in a quest or not. If a player chooses to participate, his/her 'toggle' is a choice to do either good, bad, or neutral things. If a player makes a decision that they did not intend or do not like, they can hit ESC and re-do the dialogue. SG content should be treated no differently.

I'm torn on the issue of hero-sexual vs. intractable sexual orientation. I see hero-sexual as the most efficient and most easily implemented: change gender-specific language and voila, instant SGRAs! Plus players have already become attached to certain companions and it would only seem fair to open those characters up to be hero-sexual. I would just ask that in addition to that we have more companion customizations on the guy side that incorporate different body types for those of us not inclined toward the "tall, thin, neat" variety of gay. If the situation was not as it is where we're essentially treading water waiting for a feature everyone else has and if I were able to make my pre-launch development wishlist for companions, it would be for characters with defined sexual orientations. With specifically homosexual characters, the writing could be more specific, but also those who are afraid they might spontaneously go gay and subsequently forget to press the ESC key to back out of such a conversation would be able to avoid the content altogether by ignoring that companion. I can see issues with that of course, one being that it might instantly 'out' a character because they're playing with "that" companion. But I think it might better address two concerns of the opposing camps: having to see the content and having the content respectfully written. I think it would also open the possibility of exploring LGBT issues with those specifically gay companions in, say, a humanitarian crisis involving a homophobic planetary government (maybe the companion's home planet?). No one else would have to do or see that content unless they were playing with that specific companion, and it would be an interesting dramatic opportunity for LGBT players while giving us a chance to be heroic specifically in an LGBT context--two things that would probably go a long way toward showing us that this content was not just an afterthought. One idea that I presented in the pre-launch forums which wasn't popular but that I think fits in with the dramatic possibilities of the game I've experienced would be to have companion characters who are homophobic. (Trolling with that character could be prevented by making those options only available if the player's character was already involved in a gay relationship.) We already have companions who savor cruelty and punishing the weak, why not include this as a possibility. You might lose affection with them for being gay, but there would also be the option to talk to them about their homophobia and try to convince them otherwise. If you wanted to avoid that companion altogether, you could. I know some people didn't want to see this in the game because the game should be an escape from reality, but I thought that if story lines already revolve around rather serious issues of slavery, genocide, refugees, and the rights of semi-sentient species then this issue would merely add to the serious, challenging content in the game.

And don't forget "Hue to chest"! Making sure the color of my pants matches the color of my chest armor. Fashion concerns over broken stories and dialogue options. Not to be crass, but that's so...well...[pejorative frequently uttered by XBOX Live gamers].

I think we could spend our time and energy more effectively by documenting what's going on for the purposes of bringing this to the attention of an outside advocacy group. Each Dev Q&A session we're ignored is frustrating and utterly ridiculous, but documenting how many SGRA questions have been asked and ignored is key to bringing this to the attention of an organization like GLAAD. Taking this issue to them with only 2 Dev Q&As and a forum thread that hasn't reached the heights of the post-Cory Butler brouhaha forum thread is not compelling evidence for their involvement. I'm suggesting 13 March 2012 as a "deadline" for a substantive statement about this issue from Bioware. I think we should then take this issue to an outside advocacy group to see if they can help us get an answer to our questions. For instance, we could say that we are seeking a statement from Bioware confirming their commitment to LGBT inclusiveness in The Old Republic and specifying if this content will be in a paid expansion pack sometime in the future or if this will be included in a regular "free" content update as part of a regular subscription. (Although, the specifics of what to ask for are up for discussion.) There are several reasons for picking 13 March 2012: It will have been 6 months since the last official statement from Bioware about same-gender options in The Old Republic. Mass Effect 3 with gay male Shep will have been out for one week in North America. Bioware will probably be faced with questions about gay content in their video games, and their PR department should have those answers rehearsed and ready to go. If they have that prepared for Mass Effect 3, then it decreases their chances of pawning this off as not having a finalized statement about SGRAs in The Old Republic. There will have been 3 more Dev Q&As where presumably this question will be ignored again. Let's keep a tally of not just the number of questions about SGRA being asked but also the number of questions about other issues being asked. If the SGRA question is ignored for five weeks in a row while a question that's only asked once is answered, there's more evidence suggesting a pattern instead of a coincidence. Does this sound like a good starting point for planning a specific course of action? ETA: I understand the frustration of those who feel this should have been addressed long ago. Even though I love this game, I will quit if this issue isn't addressed or outright fixed within 6 months of release. I also understand that if we all give up it won't get fixed. If you feel that you can't go on or need to leave the game, we'll continue the fight (for at least another couple of months). If you feel that you can hang on for a little while longer, your help would be appreciated.

Yet we are forced to see and experience content (i.e. heterosexual Flirt prompts and romantic arcs with opposite gendered companions) that we do not want. So the current situation is not beneficial to the game. The use of the term 'agenda' is subjective. While you might consider homosexual content in a video game to be an agenda, there is also a much more ingrained agenda of heteronormativity (i.e. the idea that heterosexuality is the 'default' sexual orientation and that all things should be designed to both cater to and reinforce that as the only 'normal' way) that we are having forced upon us by the constant heterosexual Flirt prompts and the exclusion of same-gender romantic story options and Flirt prompts. Yet OG flirt options are already on everyone's screens, regardless of whether they're wanted or not. In real life people flirt regardless of whether your orientations match up. I think that as long as a [Flirt] prompt is clearly marked we can all avoid making flirting decisions not in line with our respective orientations. And if there's some slip of the wrist, we can always hit ESC. I had to hit ESC four times during my Sith Inquisitor's conversation with Rylee Dray to avoid taking her to a supply closet or asking for a sexually-charged backrub--and those weren't clearly marked with [Flirt] tags. Heterosexuality is being forced upon us, and we're being asked to deal with it. Our characters have no romantic story or [Flirt] options except those that are exclusively heterosexual. Excluding LGBT players from experiencing game content matching their orientation is also an agenda. I'd like to direct your attention toward Stephen Reid's response to others who claimed this was for an extremely small part of the gaming population: I don't care about space combat or raids or end-game content or Ilum or PVP or faction balance or any number of things that may be of concern to you and many other players and which may define what you consider to be the way to play this game, but I don't go into those forums and demand that they stop requesting those features. Please extend to us the same courtesy.

After reading over the latest posts, I'd like to suggest that we all keep a level head about this. I know I've gotten upset about this issue before (oh, the pre-launch forums...), but I'm trying to keep myself from going off into a doom and gloom spiral even when there's no new information from Bioware about this issue. I think we need to try to help each other stay positive about this and stay focused on communicating with Bioware--even if it's frustratingly one-sided. If anything taught me that, it was the pre-launch announcement. It took them a considerably shorter time to make an official statement then, but weeks went by--along with thousands of posts, not to mention a heaping helping of hate--with nothing coming from Bioware except the copy/paste statement from the community moderators. Then on 13 September 2012, Stephen Reid made the official announcement, and after several troll posts in response, Mr. Reid clearly stated Bioware's support for this feature and that it was not for an 'insignificant' (as someone had put it) portion of the player base. Consider this as well: Bioware officially confirmed same-sex romance for Mass Effect 3 in May 2011, almost a year prior to that game's release. They also said there wouldn't be any new love interest characters, leading many to assume that the companion characters would be player-sexual. To my knowledge, there are no further specifics other than that. They've confirmed it and it will be in the released game. Bioware's made a similar statement confirming SGRAs in The Old Republic and has said that it will be in future content updates/expansions/patches. While they haven't commented on the issue of SGRAs, they also haven't commented or given any information about any future companions or the extension of class quests and associated companion content. That doesn't mean we should stop asking or stop posting our thoughts and ideas on the forums (we most definitely should continue to do so), but I think we need to hold off on any doomsday scenarios or specific calls to action from outside groups. For now. We're taking little to no information and extrapolating it into potential scenarios that are defeatist and demoralizing, not just to ourselves but to our fellow LGBT and ally players. Ultimately, I don't think Bioware is going to risk their reputation as a leading supporter of the LGBT community by lying about this content. If they did renege on this or drag it out for a year or more, there would be a firestorm from GLAAD and other LGBT advocacy groups--and I seriously doubt they want to deal with that.

Not sure where I read this, so if anyone knows more about it please direct me to the source. But I thought that someone had said that there was a podcast where some member of the official Bioware team was asked if the FRC's comments had made them reconsider including same-gender content and the team member said absolutely not and that they were still committed to it.

Well, this sounds promising. If this is an issue of "final feedback," then it would appear that this issue is closer to completion than we had thought. I wonder if the plan is to just put this into a patch without any fanfare. Putting something that has already generated a response from the usual anti-gay suspects into a paid expansion wouldn't really make sense from a business perspective. Why turn a major source of revenue (a paid expansion pack going for, say, $60) into the focal point of a boycott/backlash when you can put it into a patch and maybe lose a couple of subscribers who went over the patch notes with a fine-tooth comb. Judging from the number of people asking in this week's Dev Q&A about the prospects of server transfers, a question answered two Q&As ago, they could be...how do I put this delicately...betting on the lack of reading comprehension skills instead of facing a focused campaign with the "gays in space expansion pack" as the target. In the pre-launch forums, someone suggested--and I'm paraphrasing here--that this is how it would probably show up in the patch notes: Increased damage of Jedi Consulars by 0.3% across the board. Fixed issue with certain graphics card drivers that was causing players to crash to desktop. Mobs on higher level planets should now drop rewards more in line with their level of difficulty. Emotes should now animate properly in cantinas. Fixed issue with Flashpoints that was causing some dialogue choices to permanently bug the mission for the entire team. Introduced Telosian Battle Greaves to crafting system. Gays in space. Rakghoul serum is now craftable by biochemists regardless of level. We'll see...

Then my question for Bioware would be: patch or expansion pack? There's a big difference between a monthly content update and a separate product which may not be available for 8 or 9 months. I'm already jonesing to play other classes, but I've been holding off on my non-celibate alts (aka my 6 other characters) until SGRAs are implemented. I am NOT into raiding or any of the typical end-game activities. I'm here for the story and the different classes. My long-term plan for this game (as it was for my previous long-term MMO, City Of Heroes) was/is to play alts. Holding off on playing an alt for 8 or 9 months until the issues of broken stories and dialogue options (that's what this really boils down to) have been remedied is not my idea of fun--or a worthwhile monthly expenditure. On 13 March 2012, it will have been 6 months since the confirmation of SGRAs in The Old Republic. It will also have been a week since the North American release of Mass Effect 3 with gay male Shep. Surely PR will have a strategy in place for handling the inevitable anti-gay backlash and this issue in The Old Republic will be sorted by then. Right...?

Not annoying, appreciated.

In addition to the Facebook Valentine's questions and the Dev Q&A submissions, I'd also encourage those of you on Twitter to reply to this "See if your questions were answered" tweet from @SWTOR.

In addition to the Facebook Valentine's questions and the Dev Q&A submissions, I'd also encourage those of you on Twitter to reply to this "See if your questions were answered" tweet from @SWTOR.

When will SGRAs be implemented? Can we get an idea of where they are in the development timeline? Will they be implemented within the next few patches or are we talking a year or two down the road? Also, when will the lack of same-sex flirting options and properly marked [Flirt] dialogue choices be corrected?