That being said in the subject, the real problem is that the entire scrapper (and imperial mirror) is pretty much locked in to what you have to take as talents. Tier 5 needs 2 more choices for talents, maybe even add something else at other tiers, but 5 is the real problem. After tier 2, you only have 5 points on each tier to spend. If some more abilities (passive or activated) were added...and these abilities were viable for PvP and PvE (e.g. a gap closer since the scrapper tree is a mostly melee build). If BW thinks these builds are overpowered, at least give us some options other than what we currently have. I enjoy stealth classes. I started as a shadow and I enjoy scrapper infinitely more. I hate seeing the nerf bat used when there are really no alternatives for talents. Please, constructive feedback only. This is not a whining thread, this is a thread stating I understand why nerfs might be needed and to offer alternative ideas so the entire tree can work better and scrappers aren't locked into a set talent build.

Most people posting seem to be assuming this is a PvP related thread. In fact, when I PvP on my Republic toons it seems we can't lose. I personally think it's because most Imps are (ahem)young, play Sorcerers and have hotkeyed a controller to their PC and just use 4 abilities they can push buttons with. You have it right; it's not about PvP, it's about being able to find people to group with for FP's, heroic dailies, etc. It's also funny how people think we're "whining" when we're just pointing out that eventually a majority of people that choose to stay with the game will just reroll as Imps so they can actually have people to do PvE content with. When a two faction game dissolves into people that mainly play one faction, the game won't be what it was meant to be. It's not about me "getting over myself", it's about trying find ways to overcome problems. If I were a betting man I'd say the people calling "whiner" and the like are the people playing Imps that don't see the problem from the other side of the tracks. As long as they can own Ilum, run all the FP's they want, have a pretty purple saber, and play Huttball all day, there isn't a problem in their eyes.

If these things were explained in the codex or in the game in any way, I wouldn't have to come here to complain. The game should work, period. If an aspect of crafted items in the game (e.g. scatterguns) doesn't work the way almost all other crafted items work, it should be explained in the codex.

That's nice and all..but there should be a popup telling you that you can't get a better schematic on shotguns and vibroknives. What about vibroswords...stuff like that? You said everything else, but I just want to make sure...

I just found out (after spending 3 hours trying) that you can't RE better versions are vibroknives (or scatterguns). So, what can you RE better versions of besides barrels? I have no desire to waste any more time on this kind of crap that should either be in the game, or should have a message telling you not to attempt it. I'm about fed up with this whole charade of an MMO in truth.

Go get a dictionary and look up the definition of "discuss" and then look up the definition of "whine". This forum and this thread is for discussion. No one is whining.

Exactly. They need to admit there's a problem and fix it before it's too late. When enough people start playing Imperial just to have people to play with (nevermind what stuff looks like for now), they're not going to want to go back.

... Learn to summarize. Any point you may have been trying to make got lost after the first couple of sentences.

This thread is not about forcing anyone to play anything. This thread is about BW acknowleding the problems and the community offering ideas to help balance the faction imbalance so the game doesn't fall apart. Any constructive ideas should be posted. I've given mine, others are welcome.

Let me try to explain how the bonus system could be implemented and work, a little better. A faction census is done daily when the daily quests reset. For your character to contribute to your factions census, you must not have logged on an opposing faction character for 3 days. On days that the factions are reasonably balanced, there is no bonus for that day. Bonuses would not be anything game breaking, merely things that would encourage people to switch sides. Ideas suggested, but not limited to... 1. 10% bonus to credits earned 2. 5% bonus to non PVP damage and damage mitigated. 3. 10% bonus to crafting criticals (e.g. creating multiple items or mastercrafted items). 4. 5% bonus to movement speed. The list goes on. Just little things that would give people playing the underdogs a reason to stay. Sure the Imperials would cry outrage, but it's not game breaking at all. Imperials still have it easier in getting groups together for Ilum, Operations, and heroic conetent simply because they have a larger player base. Edit: All replies while I was explaining how the bonus system would work, and work well, should read this. It's calculated daily and takes 3 days for your character to count. This is how you prevent people from faction jumping...

Probably not, but I don't pull punches. Anyone that's taken time to read the forums for 15 minutes knows it's accurate. As we don't have access to any of the data BW has, all we can do is make guesses based on what we see in the game. When I log onto Republic at, say 8pm there are around 70 people on the station. When I log onto an Imperial at the same time there are around 170 people on the station. This ratio is pretty consistant for any planet I bother to go to, therefore I'm guessing that, for my server at least, the number are pretty accurate: almost 3:1 in favor of the Imperials. Adding bonuses is just one idea. First BW has to acknowledge there's a problem, which they haven't done. My prediction is that if they don't acknowledge and attempt to correct the problem, the Republic will slowly die out as people that keep playing the game switch sides due to lack of people to play with. Once one faction dies out, the game will most likely follow. Like I said, the first step is admitting there's a problem. If things don't change, the game will die out prematurely. I don't think that's what BW wants to happen. Edit: To address the issue brought up about races and resources it would take: the race everyone wants to play is the Yoda race (whatever it's called). A small race like that would require graphics, animations, everything...because there is no "small" race currently in the game.

Please notice that I said "at the very least." If I took the time to list every single thing, I'd still be typing the post after 12 hours.

Adding races would take alot more resources than bonus options would. Animations and graphics at the very least. There are 2 races the empire has that republic doesn't. Is playing a Chiss (or to a much lesser extent Ratt's..which I've seen maybe 10 of total) that more more important? If there were racial abilities that actually did something like wow, I might agree. However racial abilities don't have any real effects and make no real difference. Just add some bonuses like I've already suggested and see if the balance comes. If it doesn't, then you've tried the easy programming code, then move on to something else.

That's why it would take 3 days without switching sides for you to contribute to your factions bonus. It's a similiar idea used in old MUDDs to great effect. As far as bonuses...addition crit chances on crafting (craft multiple items on a single attempt, more mastercrafted items, etc.) to add items to the GTN, additional damage bonuses to help in FP's and Operations,...the list goes on. All they have to do is write some code (code that was used in MUDDs...it wouldn't be that complicated). Face it...if something doesn't change all the money and time they invested in producing this game will be wasted in just a few months. Why let the game fail when they have it in their power to at least try something? If they don't acknowledge and try to correct the problem, everyone will just migrate to the Imperial side for a time before eventually get bored and cancelling.

I like the game, and I don't plan on quitting, but I get on my Imp toon and there's 200 people in the fleet, lots of stuff for sale on the GTN, and WZ's are so numerous we have to play each other in Huttball. I'd rather play my Republic toons, but with the numbers so skewed, there's really no point. The above reasons are only the beginning. Is anything going to be done or is this just going to be a Empire/Sith game? Anyone posting without constructive feedback will be reported for violation of TOS. Don't waste your time denying this isn't a problem, it is. Just throw out some bonuses to the faction that is badly outnumbered....for you to help your faction get these bonuses, you'd be required not to log in onto an opposing faction character for, say, three days. Bonuses to help the economy, drops, PvP costs, etc. When the factions are more balanced, turn off the bonuses...if they unbalanced again, turn them back on. Everyone knows the numbers are heavily skewed in favor of the Empire on almost every server (e.g. 3:1 on my server, Tarro Blood...at any given time there are 3x as many people on stations or planets for the Empire). EDIT (for people that insist on posting without reading thread): This is an example of non-game breaking bonuses I have posted later in the thread. Bonuses would not be anything game breaking, merely things that would encourage people not to switch sides and new players to pick the underpopupated side. Ideas suggested, but not limited to... 1. 10% bonus to credits earned 2. 5% bonus to non PVP damage and damage mitigated. 3. 10% bonus to crafting criticals (e.g. creating multiple items or mastercrafted items). 4. 5% bonus to movement speed. To get these bonuses a player would have to NOT log into an opposing faction for a period of three days. A player only counts toward the faction population if they only log in to their faction for 3 days. These bonuses would NOT apply to PvP. Only bonuses that help the economy and player leveling (as it is much harder to find PvE groups for heroics/flashpoints on a low population faction) should be implemented. A lot of people would like to see better armor graphics as well. I approve this idea as well.

Why would they open new servers when people are leaving the game and the ones they have are empty as is?

All they have to do is provide nice bonuses to faction servers that are way out of balance (e.g. crafting bonuses to help poor economies). When a server hits a more balanced state, the bonuses go away, if it gets skewed again they come back. Not that hard really. Few days of programming at the most.

I've seen a drop from Taral V, but other than that I've not been able to find a shield generator with willpower on it. I've maximized my artifice ability, the whole leveling process I've had to use a shield with strength on it. Now that I'm looking through PvP items, it's the same thing: all focus item with no shield rating, or all shields with no willpower. I'd really like to see this changed. Also, what's the point of spending hard earned PvP points on orange "pvp" gear. None of it has expertise until you get to the "purple" tiers. All I have to do is update the mods, enhancements, etc. and I'd have the same thing. Summary: The itemization really needs work.

While it would be cool, it would only really be an option for duel wielders and a whole new set of animation and graphics would have to be implemented. At this point of the game I think they should work on fixes and issues that have an effect on all players, not eye candy for 1 republic and 1 empire class.

Yeah thought so thanks. Kind of a bad move on BW's part IMO. No incentive to upgrade your items, just the mods in them (and I make my own hilts, crystals, and enhancements). Guess I'll be spending all my commendations from here on out gearing out my companions better.

Is there any reason to buy a new lightsaber from commendation vendors? I've heard there are certain base stats that are higher, but I've not seen anything to confirm this.

Pointless unless they make space combat better than it is now. Space combat is currently similar to 1980's Star Wars arcade games, Return of the Jedi arcade game springs to mind.

Read the post and read between the lines, and then read the EULA. He/they were doing something he/they weren't supposed to be doing and it resulted in punishment for the action. You KNOW if you're doing something that might be considered an exploit. If you even think you're doing something that "might" be considered an exploit, you shouldn't be doing it and you get a ban. Serves them right. I don't even think BW should have to tell people what happened. If you're doing something wrong, you know it's wrong and deserve what you get. The people involved know what they did and are just trying to stir up sympathy by not telling all the facts. Don't buy in to it. /endthread

I would expect that they would work on it as anyone with a job works on it. It's assigned a value according to how important they will deem the problem to be (i.e. they may determine that this other issue is more importat) and allocate resources in a manner like that. Programming isn't easy. With millions of lines of code, it can take time to figure out exactly what's happening. Be patient and trust that this company WANTS to continue recieving over 15 mlllion dollars a month (and growing) from subscription fees.

Then explain. BW says they are investigating. You made your points very clear. What else is there to discuss? You made your point (clearly, as I said), and you got a BW response. 99% of people with issues don't even get that. They wouldn't waste man hours investigating the problem if they didn't believe there was a probelm. Just relax. I'm sure they'll figure out a way to make it better if they determine that the issue needs to be made better. For all intents, I agree with you on the responsiveness, but whipping a horse to make it go faster just hurts the horse and slows it down in the long run.