I don't mean to whine, but I think I've been pretty patient about this. The game has been out for an entire year now and we STILL cannot choose the colors of our clothes. Some people might not care about this, but this has been my biggest gripe about the game since it launched. Honestly, color customization seems like a basic feature to me, and I was truly surprised that the game didn't have it at launch. The fact that it is now an entire year later and, as far as I know, the topic hasn't even been mentioned by the devs, seems unthinkable to me. The "match to chest" feature currently in-game is alright, but honestly it has always felt like an unnecessary band-aid feature. And it's certainly not fool proof. For example, I bought the Honored Adept’s Shroud from the Cartel Market. Now the robe is mostly a dark brown (I thought it was black when I bought it.) but there is a thin white trim around the edges. The robe looks fine, but when I use that "magical" match to chest feature, for some reason my pants, boots, and gloves all turn mostly white and it looks horrible. I then had to find some pants, boots, and gloves that looked good without using the match to chest feature. Which was a hassle. I'm also sick of being restricted in my appearance because of my character class. As a Sith Inquisitor, pretty much my only options are long robes, and apparently I'm only allowed to wear black, red, grey, or purple. Honestly, why is it not possible for me to choose how my character looks?! I am so sick of all of these pointless little headaches and hassles. It's a hassle, and sometimes impossible, to try to find an item that I like, with the right coloring, that can be modified, and is useable by my character. And if by some miracle I find the piece I want, I have to spend money to move mods around and at lvl 50 that can add up to a couple hundred thousand creds just to change your appearance. Oh, and then there's the armor Set bonuses. My gear is currently Columi and Rakata, and because the bonuses don't transfer with the Armorings I don't get the Set bonuses if I want to use my own customizable gear. So even though I EARNED the Set bonuses, I can't use them unless I give up customizing my appearance. I'm just SO frustrated by all this. You, the devs, have said that customization is important, yet it is STILL a total pain in the *** to customize our characters. Why?!

Moved to Customer Service

Thanks again for all the support and comments, and please continue to share your thoughts. I wanted to add one more thing I thought of: In the GTN when looking at an item to purchase, it should show an average price so you can tell if the seller is being fair or asking too much. Not only does this help stabilize prices, but I would like it as a seller so that I can know if I am asking a fair price for items I'm selling. I'd suggest that the average be based on all sales in the last three days, or at least the last couple hundred sales for items that don't get as much traffic (like specific pieces of equipment). Or maybe just allow us to specify how the average is calculated.

Are there currently any plans to introduce some kind of armor dye system that will allow us to freely choose the colors of our armor? The current "match to chest" feature is nice, but extremely limited.

So, one yes and one no. Hmmmm... might have to just test it myself.

I couldn't find a better spot for this question, but if there is one feel free to move it. Basically, do the Character Perks that increase XP gain also increase the amount of Legacy XP gained from the specified activities? Or do these offer no benefit to a lvl 50? +1000 Social Points to anyone that can share any info about this.

Sure, on the first day people will try out whatever they can. But a week or two later and how many of those characters do you think will STILL be wearing it? Besides I don't think they'll be allowing male characters to wear the slave girl outfit. I mean, you're suggesting that they somehow go through and create restrictions to only allow outfits that look good. That's impossible. Even now there's plenty of outfits that don't look good. There's outfit combinations that clip horribly, but the devs can't be responsible if a player WANTS to look bad. That kind of thing happens. That always happens when people are allowed to choose, but that doesn't mean you should take away the ability to choose.

The release of Mass Effect 3's Extended Cut DLC. Not sure which will win my attention. Could be off TOR for a while if the Extended Cut can mend the hole in my heart that the current ending caused. I'll never let go Jack!

"Sitting is for the weak, and feeble."

OP, I'm like you and have stories for my characters. But honestly you don't even have to bother with the family tree thing. It's really just a way of earning more rewards for the time you have spent playing your characters. Like others said, once you make a legacy name you can hide it and never have to show it. There are three options on the Social tab of the Preferences. Say your character name is Luke and your Legacy name is Skywalker, you can have it show as "Luke Skywalker" or "Luke" then underneath in smaller writing "The Skywalker Legacy" or just hide it and you'll just see "Luke" And no it has no effect on the other legacy powers or perks.

But the thing is, there would only be a Commando wearing a robe if someone really wanted to put their Commando in a robe. Just because it would be possible for players to do this doesn't mean that they would. Like I said above, the last MMO I played was City of Heroes. Now in that game you could EASILY make a horrible looking character with super bright clashing colors that just looked annoying. But you know what? Hardly anyone did. You see, you're assuming that just because it would be possible to make these ridiculous looking characters, that players would do so. But most players don't want their character to look ridiculous, and so they won't. But maybe I find a pair of Bounty Hunter gloves that would look cool on my Sorceror, or maybe I want my Jedi Shadow to dress like a smuggler to look less conspicuous and fit in with the crowd. Why shouldn't I be able to do that? I mean, with the coming social armor changes, a Trooper could run around wearing the Sand People mask, the Voss Mystic bottom robes, and the Belsavis Prisoner shirt... but how often do you really think you are going to see that?

While I think the new ability to wear social armor as effective gear for all characters is a step in the right direction, the amount of social armor is such a tiny fraction of the amount of all of the possible appearances. For example, I would love for my Trooper to be able to wear a Smuggler style trench coat and hat. Wow, seriously? You don't want to be able to pick the colors of your clothes at all? My main character is a Sorceror, and probably 80% of the gear available is black or red, and that's just not how I want him to look. I don't know. Maybe I don't understand how crafting is suppose to work. But if I've been playing for months and still don't quite get it, I'd think there's a problem. I mean, I like to think I'm pretty smart but something about Synth. just isn't clicking for me. I mean, I've started crafting high-end augments and selling them and that works fine for me, but I've crafted some orange gear and I've put it on the market a few times but no one seems to want it.

Thank you SO much for your post Mr. Boudreaux. Honestly, I am simply overjoyed to know that someone in the development team has actually read at least some of this thread and heard my thoughts. I'm a very happy Jawa. At the moment I think the biggest thing that can be done for customization would be a dye system so we could freely choose the colors of our clothes and armor. This is most certainly not my first MMO. I've accumulated at least 5 years of subscription time in City of Heroes. It is the only other MMO I have ever subscribed to. Granted, it does not follow the typical MMO formula, but that is why I enjoyed it. And although many of the things I may be complaining about are how most MMOs work, they are not how MMOs have to work. I have tried trial versions of many other MMOs and did not enjoy them. I tried a trial of WoW and absolutely hated every minute of it. Everyone looked the same and quests were pointless "Kill X amount of Y" or "Collect A amount of B" tasks. It felt like I was doing chores, not playing a game. That is the current problem with the end-game. It feels like I'm doing chores, not playing a game. Doing a bunch of repetitive tasks to increase my stats so that I can do more repetitive tasks is not fun. I do not want to spend hours suffering through boring gameplay just so I can get a new pair of boots or gloves. Some people may say this means I'm lazy and don't want to work for the rewards, and to those people I say... you're absolutely right! This is a game! The second it starts to feel like work is the second I stop playing! A new pair of boots or gloves is not enough of an incentive to slug through 3 hours of mind-numbing gameplay. What keeps me playing this game right now is the story. Playing through the different class and planet quests or experiencing a good story-driven FP with a team is why I am still playing this game. If not for those, I'd be gone.

Thanks again everyone for sharing your thoughts. But do try to not attack the devs or engage in "DOOM crying." Instead of insisting the game is dead, suggest what you believe will keep it alive. Chessack, thanks for the post. I agree wholeheartedly. The amount of conversation in Black Talon/Esseles should be the NORM, not the exception. The devs really need to remember this going forward in the game's development. This kind of group story experience is something that only TOR can offer, and they should take full advantage of that. (At least I don't know of any other games with this kind of system.) Honestly, TOR needs to separate itself from the pack and build upon what makes it unique rather then trying to appease the typical MMO players. In other words, don't try to make WoW. WoW already exists and those that want to play it will play WoW. Honestly, I'm disappointed by the current philosophy that the end-game is driven by obtaining better loot. I mean, I grind dailies and repeat FPs and Ops over and over again to get better gear, then that gear allows me to basically do more of what I'm already doing but at a slightly harder difficulty. And that gets me better gear so that I can... do you see where I'm going? Gaining better gear isn't a reason to keep playing. The only thing that will keep me playing is new experiences. Now that doesn't necessarily mean new content. Often, a unique gameplay system can provide many more new experiences then new content, and for a fraction of the work. For example, the Black Talon FP is fun to run multiple times. Why? There's lots of different possible conversation combinations. The fifth time through on my one character, I still caught a few lines of dialogue I hadn't before. This is also why I would love a deeper and more complex character development system. If we had a larger potential for unique and more varied builds, we would be able to try new builds, tweak builds, and create unique characters that would ultimately offer the potential for many new game experiences. As for the high costs of items like legacy perks, I'd still like to hear more opinions from people. Like I said in my first post, I don't know if it's just me or what. Are most people happy with these prices? Maybe it's because I don't like to spend my time grinding dailies on my 50. I'd rather play through the storyline on a new character, but I'm not going to earn a lot of money doing that. But when it comes to equipment modifications, I still believe it should be free, or at least extremely cheap, to unslot them. I realize the game needs money sinks, but it should not be a money sink to customize your character. Raise repair costs or increase the GTN fees if you have to. And again, make all gear adaptable like the social gear, or at least make all orange gear adaptable. Let us dress the way we want to dress. I mean in the new Q&A you mentioned how when you make a Bounty Hunter outfit you've decided a Bounty Hunter should wear heavy armor. Why? Not all bounty hunter's wear heavy armor, and not all players who play Bounty Hunters want their characters to wear heavy armor. You mentioned "Boba Fett, Boushh, Dengar," but what about Cad Bane, Aurra Sing, Calo Nord, or Mira? Why look at that, all bounty hunters and not one of them in heavy plated armor. All I'm saying is, let us dress how we want. Please.

Hah, it's funny because it's so sadly true. And in regards to the last post, I agree. When I did Black Talon (most of my time has been Empire side), I thought it was awesome because we were having all of these group conversations. It was really like a group story we were all getting to participate in. I was getting to see the personality of other people's characters. Then there were the FPs after that... and hardly anyone got a chance to talk. So, yes I would love for FPs to have more conversations, but I feel like the Social Point system should encourage ALL forms of player interactions, not just Flashpoints.

You should really try reading it. It doesn't take THAT long. I put a lot of effort into it and people seem to like what I have to say. *waves hand* "You want to read my post."

Some people only have a couple hours a day to play, and others would rather spend those 2 hours doing something fun besides the exact same missions every day.

Exactly, hours of work just to put on a new pair of pants? Better use the restroom BEFORE fighting rakghuls next time.

I completely agree. Once you pick your class, advanced class, and skill tree... that's basically it. Sure there can be a few differences in where you place the points, but nothing that makes you feel unique from someone else that picks the same skill tree. I would love a deeper more complex character progression system. Again I completely agree. That's kind of what I am trying to say with this thread. We have the core game experience (combat, quests, story) but we need the game fleshed out a bit more. We need to fix the kinks, clearly define the core systems, and then expand upon them. I would also like it if crafting was expanded upon. For example I'm a big supporter of mini-games in an MMO. They help break up the monotony and provide something else to do when the typical questing feels repetitive. I tried Free Realms for a while, and although I grew very bored very fast... I loved the mini-games used for collecting crafting materials (the actual crafting mini-games weren't as great). But through simple puzzle mini-games you gained resources based on how well you did and by accomplishing certain goals. Now I'm not suggesting that TOR copy this system exactly, but implementing this kind of game philosophy could be fun. It's not impossible, it's just harder and takes more time.

Well, maybe it's because the last MMO I played didn't have this type of crafting, so it's a new experience for me. But I guess I assumed that if there was a recipe to make an item, I would have a REASON to make the item at some point. I didn't realize until later that I was wasting a bunch of money making a huge cluttered list of recipes I didn't need. First, this is assuming you have 50s to run dailies on. Second, dailies can get pretty boring and tedious pretty fast. And the whole RE system hoping for that 20% to hit to learn an improved version feels clunky. A possible alternative would be to essentially have a kind of experience meter for items. So you have a green recipe, once you make the item 5 times (just for an example) the recipe xp bar fills and then you get to pick one of the blue versions to learn. Then you make the blue version 5 times, that recipe's xp bar fills and you get to pick a purple version to learn. See what I'm saying? A critical success making an item could fill the bar 2 instead of 1. This would allow you to ONLY learn the recipes you want without creating a bunch of clutter. Wow... I feel extremely insulted. I'm not crying about not wanting to do the work. Believe me, I don't mind putting the effort forth. But that doesn't mean that putting the effort forth has to be mind-numbingly dull and tedious. When I suggested the crafting system be "simplified" I didn't mean you should have to do less work to craft an item. I just meant the crafting system should be easier to understand and navigate. Like I said above, as someone coming into this kind of system rather new and not knowing what to expect, I've found the system rather "unfriendly." Like I said, as a Synth how was I suppose to know that most of the recipes I was buying would end up being useless clutter? And why bother having all this clutter at all? Again the game does a poor job of explaining the game systems. For example, many of the Med and Heavy armor recipes in Synth require Scavenged Metals yet in the codex entry it never mentions Scavenging. The game also never explains how to get Exotic crafting materials which are needed for all high-end gear. All I'm saying is that it is hard to play (and enjoy) the game if you're not sure HOW to play it.

A lot of people seem to complain about the space combat, but personally I like the rail-shooter feel. Honestly before it was announced I didn't think space-combat would be in the game at all. I like the rail combat because it allows them to create a sequential mission and create a story. For example, I remember the first time I played one of the asteroid field "kill squadron" missions. I thought I'd just be dog-fighting a bunch of small ships, but then the dreadnought starts to appear from behind the asteroid and I had a kind of "oh crap" moment. The new space missions look super exciting also, where we will be assaulting a larger structure and zooming through tight tunnels, much like Lando and the second Deathstar. If anything, I would like to see the space combat expanded upon and used more often. Also create longer story driven missions.

Well yeah, I mean technical issues are a given. Game stability is important. I still get some odd crashes or my game suddenly closing for no reason sometimes, but it's rare enough that it doesn't hurt my game experience too much. I wanted to make this thread to point out what I feel are key issues with the current game design. I mean there are lots of things I'd like to see done. For example I wish there was a greater variety in the roles for a character to play. Currently it's just heal, damage, and tank. I kind of wish there was greater options for buffing allies, debuffing enemies, or controlling enemies. But that's not what this thread is really about. I wanted to make this thread for a few reasons: 1. Point out design issues that I believe are seriously holding the game back. 2. Make my suggestions on how to fix them. 3. Discuss with other players to see if they agree/disagree with me, or if they have other ideas. I truly hope the devs have read this and have taken my concerns to heart. I truly want the best for this game. I would absolutely hate for it to fall to the way-side and just fade-out like so many MMOs, and so I am trying my best to give constructive criticism that will help the game live as long as it possibly can.

No offense, but if you've only been playing two days I highly doubt you have been able to experience the systems we are talking about. We are talking about the end-game quest and gear system which is different from the rest of the game. And I don't know how much experience you have had with the crafting or which crafting profession, but the system isn't the most user-friendly. And I don't think it's too much to ask that a game tells you how to play, rather then leaving you to try to figure it out.

Honestly I haven't tried selling many green or blue items. I mean, when I was leveling up the gear I got from missions or with commendations was good enough for me and my companion, so I didn't need to buy anything off the GTN. And I figured that if I didn't why would other people? But you said you sell 60-65% of the gear you put up for sale? Is that a good number to you? I mean what do you do with the other 35-40% of the items? Just sell them like the garbage loot to a store?

Only lost one name... my Legacy name. While I once was the Soulreaver Legacy, I am now the Soul-reaver Legacy. Looks bad but I was attached to the name. I even tried Soulreaper and Souleater first but both were gone.