Subbing for one month is nearly the best possible way to start this game. You get unhindered XP, the free expansion, and GSF access. Good choice! For transitioning to F2P, and working with restrictions on an F2P account, i've put together some helpful guides. With a little effort, you can do pretty much whatever you want. I've spent the majority of the time since SWTOR went F2P as a preferred player, and have absolutely no complaints. All your characters will become 'inactive' when you unsubscribe. You will then be allowed to activate any 6 characters regardless of F2P restrictions. You can buy additional server unlocks to activate more. Anything you had before you unsubbed, you can access afterwards (except credits). There are two types of unlocks: Character and Account. Character is for just one character. Account is for every character on your account, including other servers. If you like alts, account is the way to go. If you buy them off the GTN, they will specify (Account) in the title. If you want to buy them from the Cartel Market with Cartel Coins, you have to click 'Purchase' first, then it will give you the option to purchase for character or account. Account unlocks cost more than character unlocks, usually about twice as much. Same goes for the GTN in my experience, although if you're patient you can find good deals occasionally. As for other advice, i'll just warn you that it's going to take a little extra work up front. Don't get discouraged, it's completely doable. The extra work is just grinding credits to buy whatever unlocks you want. It'll probably run you 1-3 million credits, depending on GTN prices, and whether you do single character or account unlocks. I will tell you that having one character at 50-55 will make things a lot easier. I've got other info you can find through the links above too. If you have any questions, feel free to ask anytime.

Are you asking for player data for this? Or just making a wish list suggestion? That would be nice if SWTOR provided it. I don't think they would because of the drama that would likely ensue.

No it works for me. I referred two friends in the last couple of months, and at least one of them referred another. Alive and kicking as far as I can tell.

I think you're putting way more thought into this than you need to. You're talking about crafted level 53 & 54 purple items. That's just one or two levels to 55. The bolster stat increase of this over a level 52 blue item is barely noticeable. In fact, you'd spend more time farming out credits and materials than you would getting to the next level. You've also mentioned Obroan relics, which are 55 end game gear. At this point you'd be 55, and the rest of the gear you're trying to get here would be suboptimal. Bolster is simple (finally, after a truck ton of patches). The better the gear is for PvE/PvP, the less 'bolster' increases your stats. The reason is: Top level PvE gear should not be good for PvP. Top level PvP gear needs no boost. Here is my awesome, text-based, visual diagram . 1---------------------------2-----3 Empty piece of adaptive gear. No stats. 3rd best PvE gear (Don't know ilevels) Top level PvE gear Everything between 1 and 2 is your greens, blues, purples of all levels/ranks. The closer you get to 2, from either direction, the more you get from bolster. 2 is where you get the 'most' from bolster. Bolster was designed to bring you within 25% of the stats of top PvP gear. Above 2 gets a 'penalty' for being PvE. TL;DR Anything but the top two tiers of PvE gear will get the most from bolster.

http://www.TORStatus.net has all the servers for you, as well as populations. I'd pick the serve closest to you (East/West).

You don't really send 7 free days back and forth. It's their refer-a-friend program. You just need a referral link (that's mine). You can use it and get 7 free days, some unlocks, and a server transfer. Enjoy! Edit: That post is very old (2012). The refer-a-friend program has taken it's place I believe.

I believe they will return in February with the GSF F2P release. They had some re-balancing issues. As they were in beta, the bomber was the right hand of God. My first go with one I was 6/4/0 and second in damage. Portable turrets OP!

You can assign a companion to each crew slot. They all offer different abilities, so read closely. They will each work passively while you are in the game. Of the crew you assembled, you can choose one to become your co-pilot. Again, each companion offers a different in-game co-pilot ability, so read closely.

What saboteur build did you use? I don't recall energy management being an issue while leveling for me. Course i've been at 55 forever, so it could be something they've updated in the last year or so.

It may be the quad cannons component you're seeing. Changing components changes the appearance of a ship. When I threw some quad cannons on a Strike Fighter, I definitely got that X-Wing feel from it.

How can you not outrun a gunship? I'd suggest managing your power controls a little more efficiently. If a gunship is running for you, you can certainly out-burn them before they can get anywhere.

Needed rebalancing. Back in February 2014.

Think of your guns as individual turrets. They can only hit targets between A and B A |----------| B That is your firing arc. When you expand it, your turret covers more area space. A |-------------------------------| B So when you have a bigger firing arc, your targeting reticle covers more area. It's like shooting out of a small hole, versus a large window. Edit: Here's a much better visual aid.

I've started a tips/help resource here on the forums. You can check the thread out here. It's a collection of the tips i've seen around forums, in game, and answers to the questions I see asked a lot. Scouts are for softening up enemies, or finishing them off. The Strike Fighters are meant to do the heavy lifting. If you're trying to take on Fighters 1v1 with a scout, you're probably going to lose a lot. The game is new now, so you'll run up against enemies who don't know how utilize their ship's full potential, but as time passes, you'll see this start to pan out more and more. You're more of a 'support' ship. Your assists column is what you'll probably want to focus on as a measure for success. If you want to focus on the damage or kills column, Strike Fighters and Gunships are your friends.

TIP: Don't turn your ship left/right. Turn it on it's side, then climb up (effectively turning you left/right). You can climb faster than you turn, so this should boost your speed a little bit.

In closed beta it was different at one time, but I'm pretty sure this is intended now. Otherwise you would see more characters available for unlock. I made sure to log into all my characters and then check. There were definitely no new unlocks.

Your co-pilot has to be at another station on your ship before you can assign them as a co-pilot. Added to the Galactic Starfighter Help Resource.

I'm building a help resource for GSF. I'm putting together tips, answers to common questions, and things that confuse me/others in general as I go along in Galactic Starfighter. If you have questions, check out this GSF compendium for answers. If you have questions to ask, post them in this thread (or on the site), and i'll get 'em answered as soon as I can figure it out myself.

White/Black is Sunday. I'm keeping up with all the black friday weekend sales, including SWTOR for anyone interested. They posted up a dye schedule a week ago-ish.

I've started a gallery of what blaster fire looks like with the different color crystals. I don't really like the idea of buying crystals blind for my ranged characters, so I was inspired to create this little gem. It's a work in progress of course, so it doesn't have every color yet for obvious reasons. Blaster Fire Color Crystal Gallery

Gunslinger? Scoundrel? Which tree? Dirty Fighting, Sharpshooter, Saboteur, Sawbones, Scrapper?

Great site for roleplayers. A+ Recommended.

I think at least one version is coming soon. It was shown in the Community Cantina images as concept art I believe. (That or in this current Cartel Pack release. So much new at once, I can't keep it straight.)

Mezzes are abilities that make you lose control of your character. For example, when an assassin mezzes you in a warzone. You can't move or do anything until it wears off (unless you use your CC breaker).

I don't like leveling a new character, personally. The SWTOR story however was an exception. I was happy to do it once. If you want to speed your leveling up... XP boosts from the GTN Daily Quests (Space, Warzones, Flashpoints) Daily Quest Hubs (At 50+) Combining these will rocket you to 55. For example, buy a flashpoint boost from the GTN, then do a flashpoint daily (especially if it's your first time in the flashpoint). Your XP bar will fill up faster than a jawa chasing droids for scrap metal.