If you're not a software devoper (HTML and CSS don't count), then it's almost impossible to understand how complicated getting massive amounts of code to play nicely actually is. Given the size of their team, I suspect that they spend a pretty fair bit of time doing QA and debugging, but the simple and unfortunate truth is that no testing compares to releasing it into the wild. Not only does your group of people interacting with the code go up substantially, but it's hard to proactively search for problems in a system you've built for the same reason it's hard to proofread your own essays. You know how it's supposed to look and work. It's only when a (preferably large) group of people gets ahold of something and interacts with or reads it in ways you never intended that the weird bugs come to light.

100% <3 this post. To me a sniper should do relatively small numbers of very damaging shots (at least visually), but things still keel over dead rather nicely, so I'll live.

I am, and fixing code issues can be infuriating, especially when more than one programmer is working on a system. Earlier this week I traced a six line error report that was ostensibly on line 1020 of file A to a one line change made on line 126 by another programmer, in a file I wrote that the other programmer was using a function from. Somewhere in his code there was a small error that didn't register until a search function (which is where the error logs said the problem was), my code, and his code (where the error actually existed) all interacted together. It doesn't surprise me at all that in a code base the size of SWTOR there can be multiple problems that all look similar and aren't easy to track.

Agreed. Bioware takes a lot of flak over the things they do wrong, but I'd like to take a moment and say the new animations and sounds make marksman way more entertaining to play. I'd keep pressing Followthrough just to hear that sound at this point. I'm a pretty solid fan of Marksman talent changes too, I think they may finally have implemented Sniper Volley in a way that works out well. Wasn't a fan of the prior iterations, but the mini burst on demand is nice.

Great, when is this going live?

Do you get a quest to upgrade her as you progress her loyalty?

Imperial Agent storyline was epic from start to end. I just stared at the screen for a solid 3 minutes at a decision near the end of act I. Hunter makes for an amazing antagonist, and the twist/turns along the way were inspired.

Same experience with the collar, though I've noticed it doesn't show up in cut-scenes of talking to her personally.

The "she's a Jedi, so DUH no romance" argument falls apart pretty quickly when you take a look at the game as a whole. Knights get to romance Kira Carsen (a Jedi). Consulars can romance Nadia (another Jedi) without any problem at all. Notice all four of these are still in the Republic and bound by the official Jedi rules, which include no relationships. Jaesa is now a Sith apprentice, doesn't report to anybody who plays by those rules, and still won't actually have a relationship with you? That makes very little sense in the context of this game, and is needlessly restrictive.

The turrets aren't 100% impossible to figure out, my point is that it isn't intuitive, it's poorly designed, and not fun. The number of turrets there are, and the number you're supposed to use should be the same. Pushing basically any button other than left/right shouldn't dismount you. The turrets should be positioned in such a way as to facilitate the right way of doing it, not make it more of a pain. You shouldn't lose all control over firing. I could go on for another couple minutes. As I've said previously, the winning formula seems to be a small percentage of the group needs to use the vehicle (which has an interface designed to make it clear and easy to use) to accomplish a specific task, while the rest of the group can continue to do the jobs they're accustomed to. This eliminates the feeling of "I am being FORCED to do this thing I don't want to do", because somebody else could use the vehicle if you're just really not feeling it that day.

Speaking for myself, I absolutely don't want a faceroll dungeon that can be cleared by four people with mild retardation in less than 30 minutes. I do want to feel like I'm fighting the mobs/mechanics and not the interface/design. We passed the turret event on our third try by doing exactly what someone else suggested, which is have the healer chill in the middle while three others take care of the enemies. I fully agree however that the four turret setup strongly implies that four turrets should be used. Additionally, I was spamming left click for a while thinking that was fire (Right click dismounts, left doesn't), but discovering that when I fired was at least partially out of my control didn't make the experience more fun. The auto-fire just isn't that quick or smart.

Blizzard learned in WoW that players as a rule (not all, but many) don't enjoy forced vehicle style fights. Ex: Coliseum 5 man, they hard to nerf all of the teeth out before it was even remotely accepted. Much more success can be found through only having a small number of players in vehicles, that way people who like them can use them and others can do their traditional job. Ex: Gunship battle, only 20% of any given group had to be in a vehicle, and the goals were well displayed clear. 30 seconds of reading tooltips told you everything you needed to know. In CWG it took me a few tries to figure out that right clicking on anything would dismount you, and that in fact no buttons at all are necessary other than aiming. Additionally, the lack of control over actual firing was irksome.

The turret event at the beginning of the Colicoid War Games is simply not fun. Players are dropped into the turrets with no instructions, no warning, and even with a group that fully understands the deal, it's not easy. Following that, the traps and gate puzzles are just annoying, and the Hazard Droids bug out on their doors. My knowledge of what's after all this is sadly limited, as after our third wipe (two to turrets one to being knocked off the ledge by hazard bots) we collectively decided it just wasn't worth the trouble. I personally think the instance is a failed experiment and should be replaced, but if that's not really an option then the turret event needs very clear instructions and to be made a touch more forgiving on new groups. The Hazard Bots need to lose the knockback and shields need to just go down and stay down when clicked.

Having just gone through that quest, I can confirm I had the "cannot see" issue. If I sent my companion in first though and let her fight him, then engaged from melee range, I could use ambush to knock him off the platform. Since story wise I'm dying to know, if I'd sided with him, would he still have escaped?

I cannot tell you how wholeheartedly I disagree with this statement. I have never felt more connected to groups I've found through spamming /1 for an hour than I have through groups put together through LFG. If you don't want a cross server system I can somewhat understand that, but if I like someone I'll friend them, if I'm ambivalent I won't and if I hate them I'll ignore them no matter how the group got together. As it stands having to get to a big collection of dungeon entrances from wherever in Timbuktu I am doesn't help my immersion or my desire to actually participate in groups.