I'd love to know where you get your facts from. Personally, I have played MMO's since they began, and even though I tend to leave after a year or so, mostly due to distractions from other titles, I consider my financial input into the games just as important as yours. Especially as, in the case of SWTOR, I was playing this thing on launch day and was faithful to it for about 18 months or more. Ironically, it was their new game balance and business model that attracted me back recently and I have since been subbing, with my girlfriend, with no intention of leaving if they continue to please us with their current content and game dynamic. If the content was designed around only your groups needs, SWTOR's numbers would fall to that of the early MMO's and be left with only a mediocre collection of nerds, thinking that they are somehow amazing because they play a game that's hard, when in reality, no one gives a ****. Hardly a viable business model for one of the most expensive games made. We're all just looking to be entertained here, so please, get off your high horse and stop making up facts to suit your own experience of what you get, and expect, from this title.

I came back to SWTOR recently, after a few years away from it, and was really pleased with what they had done to the game since the early F2P model. However, last update I was taken straight back to negative feelings when I found myself questing with an utterly useless companion in comparison to what they were like pre-update. I really hope they fix this ridiculous nerf with something a bit more reasonable. I can't help but feel that the dev's are listening to the wrong players when making changes like this. I bet most of those that called for nerfing don't need to rely on their companion to get through the tougher heroic 2's and Flashpoints. *Mouse hovering over unsub' button*

Having seen what F2P did for Lord Of The Rings Online (very successful F2P model), I can only think this is a positive move from EA/BioWare. I guess it just depends how greedy they get with the micro-transaction system they use for it. Turbine (LotRO) were very generous with F2P content unlocking and at the same time had a great selection of micro-transaction stuff to compliment it. It worked well. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it elevated their MMO success to record profits and players, compared to their subscription based model, breathing life back into a dying game.

Simply, not true My PT is one of my fav' classes...

The most sensible PvP statement/argument/suggerstion I've heard so far... +1

3 long server maintanance days in just over a week.. I understand that the bugs need fixing, but this is becoming close to unacceptable. Any more of this kind of thing and I'm going to demand compensation. This latest one was so unexpected and at a really inappropriate time (Saturday daytime), with no warning and no explanations. Just complete outage or services. C'mon BioWare, kick some EA butt and explain how bad this is for your reputation... You are so much better than this!

+1 (metaphorically speaking, as I can't actually find a reputation button on this forum ) Thanks Almar. This is a really useful guide. I've often wondered when someone might have the info on all of these easter eggs. Cheers!

Well said! I've had this PvP flag mysteriously tag me (without warning) on Taris. It caught me completely off guard... However, I do enjoy a bit of PvP, so I had a some fun owning the guy who attacked me, with my Powertech But I totally agree that PvP should be at the users desire/request and not a random occurance because of bugs or oversights by the developers. PvP is fun, but it has its place and that's generally not when trying to do missions

Thanks for the positive feedback on this thread It's good to know it might be useful to some. In this case, I would say that those 2 'Need' looters were taking advantage of the situation. The term very succinctly says 'Need Before Greed'. If everyone had selected greed, as should have been the case, there would have still been a fair roll of the dice that would give everyone a chance to win the loot. Their excuse, after the fact, was improper and incorrect. It's not your responsibility to know what other people's needs are before choosing a mode of rolling. Trust is an important part of any group and it is therefore the responsibility of each individual to play fair under those circumstances. I would agree with you that it was poor etiquette on their part.

A very good and essential point that I forgot to elaboerate on. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to edit my other topic with this info. PM me if you object please EternalNight

Or, it could just be that they've unearthed a few more glitches on the Test Server and want to iron them out before releasing this important patch

There are some extensive and well written guides on this forum. But for new players looking for a quick guide to grouping, here's some general advice that might help: Firstly, never randomly invite a player to join your group. This is considered very rude and is usually declined. If you see someone near to your level and hanging around a quest zone you want help with, send them a /whisper and ask them, politely, if they would like to join you, before inviting them. To invite a player, just type /invite <playername> or right-click on their name in chat, or their portrait and select 'Invite to group' from the context menu. Once in a group, try to be patient if people are organizing themselves before the quest. This can often take 5-10 minutes as the others get to the mission area, or try to organize their inventories for the quest. It's not always the case, but it can happen. Impatient group members are usually frowned upon. If you are creating a group yourself, be sure to take the initiative when people are asking where to meet, etc. As leader, it is your job to keep things on track. If you can't handle that kind of pressure, offer the leadership to another member of the group. If you are invited to a group, always be mindful that the leader is in charge of organizing the mission. This is not narcissistic, it's essential to good group function, and is usually rewarded with fluid gameplay and direction, as well as successful fights. Never just steam into a fight, no matter how tough you think you are. Always wait for the group to be ready before an opening attack and be very mindful of your role in it. Tanks ALWAYS open the assault, followed by crowd control if designated and then DPS. Any deviation from this can cause huge problems with agro for the entire group and can often lead to wipeouts. Also, remain focused - Don't be chatting away to guild members when a group quest is running. It's too easy to miss things that might be important. An important note on crowd control tactics: (Thanks to EternalNight for this esential snippet): When it comes to loot, try to remain calm if you like the look of something being rolled for. Need Before Greed (NBG) is the general direction people expect with loot rolls. And that doesn't mean "I need that for my other character", it applies ONLY for your current character. In some (rare) cases, rolling for your 'Primary' companion can be acceptable - BUT this MUST be agreed upon before questing and it usually only applies for small groups that use their companions to play the more difficult heroic missions (this is, however, a controversial subject). Generally speaking, it's common practice to simply take a deep breath and either roll for greed, or pass altogether, if you don't actually need it for your player class. Rolling need for items that are of no use to you can get you kicked from a group and make you very unpopular. Take time to examine the items, carefully, before rolling. In closing; A good group isn't hard to find, but it can take a while to get organized. Be patient and polite when setting one up or joining one. Once in a group, be friendly, attentive and patient. Remember your role as a combatant. Above all, enjoy yourself

That guide mentioned above is a bit overwhelming to read, so here's a few basics that I hope will help: Firstly, never randomly invite a player to join your group. This is considered very rude and is usually declined. If you see someone near to your level and hanging around a quest zone you want help with, send them a /whisper and ask them, politely, if they would like to join you, before inviting them. To invite a player, just type /invite <playername> or right-click on their name in chat, or their portrait and select 'Invite to group' from the context menu. Once in a group, try to be patient if people are organizing themselves before the quest. This can often take 5-10 minutes as the others get to the mission area, or try to organize their inventories for the quest. It's not always the case, but it can happen. Impatient group members are usually frowned upon. If you are creating a group yourself, be sure to take the initiative when people are asking where to meet, etc. As leader, it is your job to keep things on track. If you can't handle that kind of pressure, offer the leadership to another member of the group. If you are invited to a group, always be mindful that the leader is in charge of organizing the mission. This is not narcissistic, it's essential to good group function, and is usually rewarded with fluid gameplay and direction, as well as successful fights. Never just steam into a fight, no matter how tough you think you are. Always wait for the group to be ready before an opening attack and be very mindful of your role in it. Tanks ALWAYS open the assault, followed by crowd control if designated and then DPS. Any deviation from this can cause huge problems with agro for the entire group and can often lead to wipeouts. Also, remain focused - Don't be chatting away to guild members when a group quest is running. It's too easy to miss things that might be important. When it comes to loot, try to remain calm if you like the look of something being rolled for. Need Before Greed (NBG) is the general direction people expect with loot rolls. And that doesn't mean "I need that for my other character", it applies ONLY for your current character. In some (rare) cases, rolling for your 'Primary' companion can be acceptable - BUT this MUST be agreed upon before questing and it usually only applies for small groups that use their companions to play the more difficult heroic missions (this is, however, a controversial subject). Generally though, it's common practice to simply take a deep breath and either roll for greed, or pass altogether, if you don't actually need it for your player class. Rolling need for items that are of no use to you can get you kicked from a group and make you very unpopular. Take time to examine the items, carefully, before rolling. In closing; A good group isn't hard to find, but it can take a while to get organized. Be patient and polite when setting one up or joining one. Once in a group, be friendly, attentive and patient. Remember your role as a combatant. Above all, enjoy yourself

Ease the transition from WoW? Oh please, is that really necessary?!

Decent audio processing in games is dying... I'm having sound issues too. It seems to happen when there's a few extra players around, but it can also happen when I'm on my own, after a few hours of playing. At a guess, it seems to be with the number of active voice channels being used. For example; a simple ambient sound effect can completely cut out the sound of my vehicle. I've even tried using Creative ALchemy to force it into hardware processing, but it's not utilizing it. I suspect there's only one company to blame for this, and that's Microsoft - for changing their sound API with DirectX to a software only rendering system, which produces far inferior sound when compared to hardware EAX5 etc. It would be nice if BoiWare gave us an option to utilize hardware, but I doubt this will happen.

Although I'm a little stunned that in this day and age of extremely powerful computers, BoiWare are trying to convince us that we can't have high rez textures, I am reassured somewhat that they are willing to listen and maybe even integrate something for us in the future. If I'm not mistaken, we can look back as far as Everquest 2 and LoTRO to find game engines that offer users the ability to set the maximum number of high quality rendered characters in game. I can live with just a simple slider-bar option that let's me choose up to 10 or 15, close range, player and NPC to render, and be very happy indeed. I don't need everything in the game to be super high fidelity, just what's in my immidiate area and MOST IMPORTANTLY my own character and companion. I'm also not an idiot... If I see my game framerate suffering from slowdowns in things like PvP etc, then I will obviously turn down my settings. Please BioWare, I don't need to be coddled. I've worked hard to get nice kit for them and at the moment they just look awful out of cutscenes. I, for one, play these MMO's to progress with my characters and enjoy their blossoming development. Good looking textures go hand in hand with that in my opinion. Anyway, keep up the great work BioWare. Asside from the texture issue, I'm very happy with this game

I'd love to see this added as an option too. It makes a huge difference in the social aspect of the game. With the small, and somewhat insignificant, chat box that's in place at the moment, it's far too easy to miss someone trying to talk to you. And the whisper function is also so puny in it's notification (sound etc) that it can also be hard to get peoples attention. Go on Bioware, bung it in for us please