I just figured that since most of the turn-around that this game experiences is high level players leaving for one reason or another, that BW would consider adding a bit more immersion to a planet that high level players will be playing on for long periods of time. I had no idea so many ppl would shoot the idea down lol!

With the fan outrage BW recieved on not having day/night cycles on planets, do you think BW devs took the hint and incorporated a day/night cycle on Makeb? I'm hoping for one, even if it's just on the one planet, it would be pretty cool.

Thanks!

Blacklight Retribution does the gambling boxes as well. They call them Chance Packs. It seems to be working out great for them. I hope it works out great for SWTOR too. One thing I do hope is that like in Blacklight Retribution, they eventually make the chance pack exclusive items obtainable by (a much larger priced) direct purchase once they've been out for awhile.

My entire screen is pink when using SWTOR Unleashed post 1.4 When in retail mode there is no pink screen.

I'm so surprised!

Dat Sith flourish

This ^

The only thing they need to optimize is the handling of assets and shadows. Right now the game bogs down while trying to fetch assets for effects/gear when 30+ people are fighting in an area, even when the game is installed on a fast SATA3 SSD. The ability to turn off self shadows, or have shadows only appear on characters but not terrain, or terrain but characters only have blob drop shadows would be helpful. More options are never bad They've made a lot of improvements so far. I used to get less than 20 fps in Alderaan Civil War, but now It is highly playable 30-60 fps on my rig. Granted this is probably partially due to AMD making driver improvements and CrossfireX improvments, but things have gotten smoother. I can play the game on Very High now, when I couldn't before. The only thing that borders on the unplayable is World PVP with a lot of players.

Improvements to the Current Space Game that could easily be made Ship Velocity. - Add the ability to temporarily reduce the velocity of the ship - Add the ability to temporarily increase the velocity of the ship Explanation: The ability to slow down and/or speed up for a short burst period is as much of a staple to On-Rails Shooters as Barrel Rolls are. Star Fox had it, SWTOR needs it. Video Example: Harsher penalty for holding down blaster fire key. Explanation: Currently, holding down the blaster fire key only slows/stops your shield regeneration. Make it so that holding down the blaster fire key actually drains your sheilds after a certain amount of time. You cannot maintain shield integrity whilst firing off a never ending barrage of blaster fire. In Star Wars books/films you often hear about pilots using techniques like stutter firing to bypass unique enemy defenses. NEVER do you hear about them flying around with their blasters firing nonstop, it just doesn't happen. Better AI ship flight paths Explanation: Right now 1/2 or more of the enemy ships you see in your average space mission enter the screen by flying up alongside your ship as if they were your wingmen or something. They then pass you up and allow you to kill them without even attempting to change course, or evade your fire. This just makes zero sense. Solution: Are they suicidal? Do they wish to die that badly? At least have them do random barrel rolls and change course a few times or something. A preferable solution would be to get rid of the 'wannabe wingmen' altogether and replace them with enemies that fly across the screen and change course periodically. ----------- These are just a few minor changes that could be made to the current Space Game that not only make sense, they are almost required in order to make the game feel like a legitimate game feature and not some D grade Star Wars shooter that can't even live up to Rogue Squadron or StarFox. I'm not asking for some space sandbox like EVE, or even a free form shooter like Jump to Light Speed. I actually like Rail Shooters. I grew up playing games like Galaxy Force, Panzer Dragoon, Star Fox. I actually enjoy a good rail shooter, especially when I don't have much time to play. With the game going F2P the need to bring the Space Game up to snuff is even higher. Make it worth those Cartel Coins BioWare! Thank You for all of your hard work so far on Star Wars The Old Republic!

Very well done! I feel bad for that Sith LOL! SUBSCRIBED!

Awesome! I'm glad it helped you out! I linked to this thread on /r/swtor on reddit.com so nobody has to worry about bumping it too often. It was my mistake to post this in the general section instead of something like customer service!

Yeah, it's in dire need of optimization. They've managed to make some things run better/faster, but things like shadows and low 2x~ AA settings hit harder than they should. Also the way the engine handles asset loading is severely in need of optimization, it pushes a systems I/O to the limit when a lot of players are present. They need to add more settings for people to tailor the game to run properly. Things like more detailed options. Instead of Shadows ( Everything, Blobs on players only, or OFF) maybe they could add the ability to put volumetric shadows on only players, and turn them off of the environment. Or Blob shadows on players, but shadows on the environment. More options is never a bad thing. I guess it goes hand in hand with how some of the character creation options are tied together. Like eyebrows being tied to complexion. They need to split these options up and allow for more customization. I'm going off topic at this point so I'll stop now lol!

UPDATE *** nVidia Users can go to http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=346325 for a complete guide on how to down sample on nVidia hardware. Sorry it took so long for me to find this information out! (You may read on in this guide for an explanation of what Down Sampling is, and how it can help you get a few extra frames per second over traditional Anti Aliasing*** Bump for the nVidia guide! ( I wish I could update the thread title to include nVidia, but the forum doesn't seem to allow thread title changes. )

That's funny I use dual 5770s and the performance hit from AA on High is ridiculous when there's more than a few players around. I tried to change the title of the thread yesterday to reflect that there can be some minor performance loss but it won't update. Really though, in SWTOR there is literally no performance loss, I've been testing it for a few days now. You can even combine it with SMAA or FXAA for even more quality. SMAA + Downsampling looks better and has less impact on system performance. So why not use it?

Shameless bump. I guess I should have put this in a less busy forum section...

Mentor System Customizing options for ships New avenues of the space game More stories New races New planets Redesign of gear Better art designs for gear yet to be released Slug Throwers Vibro Axes Multiple weapon choices for each class Multiple wield styles for jedi and sith Bounty system Krayt Dragon worldboss on Tatooine Swimming Bodies of water to swim in (in worlds yet to be released at least) Ability to strip mods from pre 1.2 gear and retain the set bonus Better epics that aren't just prettier vendor trash Social points awarded for any/all types of player interaction (including PVP) Taxis with a taxi driver instead of the player driving the taxi. (It's a rent-a-car if you're the one driving it...) Companions ride in taxis too Companions ride in mounts with more than 1 seat Other players can ride in mounts with more than 1 seat Improved shadows Engine improvements (performance and optimization) Music looping instead of cutting off Better sound system that doesn't have crazy quirks like hearing 2 NPCs talking to eachother at full volume from 2 football fields away Animal Mounts Improvements to existing game systems (Group finder, Solo Queue on Ranked Warzones, more GTN improvements) Guild capital ships Guild Legacy that discourages ninja gquitters Chat Bubbles More RP Tools More interactive elements in the world (More Chairs to sit in, bar stools at cantinas, kareoke on the stage, etc.) More achievements More complex Codex Dual spec Fighting pits where you can bet on the outcome of player duels An Arena system where everyone wears an arena set that has the same stats as anyone else so the playing field is completely based upon skill and rewards are more for boasting rights than gear grind. PVP system that scales horizontally instead of vertically Mudkipz That's all I could think of off of the top of my head.

Cortosis Weave coated weapons are capable of deflecting blaster bolts and/or parrying lightsabers. It's part of Star Wars canon. If you want a world with only lasers and energy weapons then Star Trek is probably what you're looking for. Just don't call the Klingons weirdos for using those blade thingies, they'll probably chop your head off!

Sorry guys, I'll get the links fixed and input the info about downloading Java as well. The server downtime just ended so it's not letting me edit posts, but ill get on it ASAP! Edit: All done! Thanks again for pointing out the mistakes with the links! Everything should be working fine now.

Haha! I uploaded some new comparison screenshots that are actually of SWTOR instead of Skyrim or whatever that other game was. They're at the bottom of the OP. I hope this helps you guys out! Also, I'm pretty sure something like this is possible with nVidia hardware, although I do not know the method of doing it as I am an AMD user. This method can also be combined with SMAA or FXAA injectors to achieve even more image quality with very low performance hit. You will need to disable the LAA flag on the game to do so, but it does work. Here's a link to the FXAA and SMAA guides. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=2367541 - FXAA http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=1827079 - SMAA

UPDATE *** nVidia Users can go to http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=346325 for a complete guide on how to down sample on nVidia hardware. Sorry it took so long for me to find this information out! (You may read on in this guide for an explanation of what Down Sampling is, and how it can help you get a few extra frames per second over traditional Anti Aliasing*** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As most people know SWTOR's engine isn't exactly a model for game engine optimization. One of the many things that most people hate about SWTOR is how certain graphical features cause such a huge performance hit for the quality they provide. Antialiasing is one of these things. You can set AA to high in-game and it will still barely manage to un-alias the scenery whilst hitting your maximum FPS in the face like Chris Brown on PCP. There have been a few suggested ways of getting around this. Some people have forced AA through their respective driver control panels and achieved slightly better performance/quality. Some have used Injector.dlls to force FXAA or SMAA (The problem with these is you have to remove Large Address Aware in SWTOR.exe and limit it to < 2GB instead of 4GB+) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SMAA/FXAA information NOT REQUIRED TO DOWN SAMPLE - PLEASE SKIP THIS SECTION IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN INJECTING FXAA/SMAA This method DOES work alongside FXAA and SMAA injectors. Here are links to guides on using FXAA or SMAA for even more quality with minimal performance loss. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=2367541 - FXAA Guide http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=1827079 - SMAA Guide Note: both of these methods require limiting SWTOR.exe to using a max of 2GB of RAM. This can cause performance loss after changing areas many times and/or logging out. You can combat this by using the program CleanMem while running SWTOR. CleanMem has been mentioned before as a great tool for keeping your RAM clear of unused data, and I've been using it since March with no problems with my SMAA injector. The free version is... free, and can be upgraded to PRO. Free version has all of the features you'll be needing. http://www.pcwintech.com/cleanmem Just install it and go through the setup wizard on first run to set it up. It has a mini monitor gadget that you can enable that will show your used RAM and your commit charge (optional). You can set it to only scrub for SWTOR.exe or you can allow it to work its magic on any running process. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Downsampling Guide I've stumbled upon a different method on Guru3D.com forums. It involves using downsampling to achieve a less jaggy aliased game without the huge FPS impact. I do not claim to be the author of this, it is someone else's project, I am merely sharing it with you all. I guarantee the files listed in the original thread are safe (I'm using them and they've been scanned with Sophos AV Tool, ESET NOD32, Spybot S&D, Malwarebytes, and SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition) Link to original post by BlackZero - http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=366244 Basically by following the above guide you can set your displays resolution to higher than its normal maximum resolution. For example I set my 16:9 1920x1080 monitor to 2560x1440 (16:10 users would use 2560x1600) in SWTOR and it removes almost all of the aliasing present via down sampling. The following is copied from the original thread on Guru3D.com All credit goes to the original author. Mr. Lolman http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=9282115&postcount=5099 A regularly updated list of maximum resolutions possible according to display model. Thanks to WhiteLightning for spotting these. http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=529285 English language sources and originators of some material used in this guide. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472941 http://www.overclock.net/t/1261203/amd-downsampling-guide Thanks to Kupo for this info, I totally forgot to include it. You'll need Java to run this and it can be a security risk if you enable the web browser plugins. I had Java installed already because it's required to run Minecraft, so I completely forgot this step. Make sure you get the appropriate Java version for your Operating System. Downsampling with AMD: Guide and Demonstration This guide will demonstrate how to use downsampling with AMD graphics cards to attain a higher quality image in games and other applications without the need for high levels of antialiasing. This will be accomplished by using a java based utility called AMDDownsamplingGui. Links to current version: AMDDownsamplingGui_0.2 Rapidshare: https://rapidshare.com/files/486063477/AMDDownsamplingGui_0.2.zip Netload: http://netload.in/datei5reDkdFySE.htm Usage of this utility is at your own risk. (1.) Download the AMDDownsamplingGui utility from any of the links above. (2.) Extract the downloaded archive to any location and find the contained file called AMDDownsamplingGui.jar, run this file and click 'Erstellen' from the bottom right to bring up the following: http://u.cubeupload.com/blackzero1891/1.jpg Change the width and height to your liking and hit enter. I have a 16:10 display and so will be using 2560x1600. For 16:9 displays use 2560x1440. http://u.cubeupload.com/blackzero1891/f0c2.jpg Open display properties from Catalyst Control Centre or screen resolution settings for your operating system to confirm the new display resolutions are now available. http://u.cubeupload.com/blackzero1891/4.jpg (3.) Ensure GPU Scaling is not enabled. http://u.cubeupload.com/blackzero1891/3.jpg You may also need to ensure 'hide modes that this monitor can not display' is unticked from your monitor's advanced settings. http://u.cubeupload.com/blackzero1891/5.jpg Otherwise you may get the following error message. http://u.cubeupload.com/blackzero1891/6.jpg If the tick box 'hide modes that this monitor can not display' is greyed out you could try one of the custom monitor drivers posted at the original thread. Thanks to teleguy for spotting these. http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=42708&d=1336212261 http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=42742&d=1336501568 http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=42700&d=1336078034 All custom monitor drivers from above packed as a single download. https://rapidshare.com/files/4278425148/Custom%20Monitor%20Drivers.zip Drivers.zip Alternatively you could try a custom monitor inf creator utility also posted at the original thread. http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=42719&d=1336299023 Second link for the monitor inf creator utility. https://rapidshare.com/files/2539043629/MonInfCreator0.1.zip (4.) To remove a custom resolution, choose the resolution from the top drop-down menu and hit 'Löschen'. http://u.cubeupload.com/blackzero1891/9.jpg (5.) Watch the following video demonstration that includes in-game footage of battlefield 3 with downsampling enabled. Comparison Screenshots http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9125/screenshot2012072523352.jpg 1920x1080 BEFORE http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/7789/screenshot2012072523363.jpg 2560x1440 AFTER Another Screenshot As you can see, there are FAR less jaggies. All of this with an almost non existent performance hit. The difference is even more self evident when viewed in game. With AA set to OFF and resolution normal, the jaggies are so bad that they make it hard to focus on the game. When downsampling from a higher resolution however, they are hardly noticeable and cause WAY less eyestrain! If you are using a lower res monitor such as a 1360x768 or 1600x900 then you shouldn't need to go as high as 2560x1440, just choose the next logical resolution that matches your aspect ratio. If I were using a 1360x768 monitor which is 16:9 then I would set my resolution to something like 1920x1080 with the utility, this should provide the level of downsampling desired. Side Note: With some games you will have to change your desktop resolution PRIOR to launching the game and setting the resolution in game. Arma II is an example. With SWTOR you do not need to. All you need to do is set it to the high resolution ingame and it will automatically adjust your desktop resolution. It's also worth noting that this method with some games will not result in a zero performance loss. League of Legends is an example, it literally cuts the FPS in half with that game. I do not recommend using a higher than your monitor can support resolution for everyday use and web browsing or movie watching. It can cause crazy screen tearing in movies and causes some text to be read strangely. (It works a wonder while in games though! LOL) I hope this helps everyone achieve a better looking game without having to pay for it with FPS lag.

lol @ $400 system. You can't even get a dedicated GPU in a $400 system. Especially since Win7 OEM costs around $100 by itself.

/signed Great Idea OP

So with all of the glaring similarities between SWTOR and WoW adding something Star Wars canon like Vibroshields would put it over the line and make SWTOR into a WoW clone eh? I doubt it. There's nothing wrong with vibroshields. They're cool as hell. Shields in WoW are just a piece of Iron/Steel/Whatever. Vibroshields are a whole new ballgame. A shield that's so deadly and sharp on the ends that you could just say "Fck It!" and dual wield them! Screw a sword! I can't wait till Cathar come out. Akward romance between a half cat person and a woman. Reminds me of that cruddy Beauty and the Beast TV drama that was on during the 1980's.

They should release a new Class with a brand new storyline in the first expansion. With the new class would be the ability to not only roll as the vanilla races, but also as one new race. ( Wookiee, Trandoshan, Mon Calamari, Barabel, etc..) I'd love to have Wookiees! I can imagine some sort of Weapon Master Class that can specialize as ranged with Bowcasters and Slug Throwers, or go melee with Vibroswords and Vibro-axes. Perhaps even add Vibroshields to the game and give the new Class the ability to use one along with a Vibrosword/Axe as a new Tank spec.