How long before the Star Wars license comes up for renegotiation? I seem to recall at launch that BW had the rights for the MMO for 10 years. So six years in and we have 4 years left before the licensing plug could be pulled. Not sure any company would invest in such a short term project. Also, with the experience they've had from this and seeing the saturation of the MMO market I wouldn't be surprised if they quietly back out of the MMO market instead focusing on one shot titles that can be released across multiple platforms.

Just go into the interface editor. It's the little cross hair icon that sits above the quickbar lock icon to the left of quickbar 1 slot 1. Or, you can access it from the menu that's pulled up when you press escape in game.

If you are being level synced to a world I wouldn't worry over gear. Level sync standardises your stats irrespective of the gear you're wearing. The vast majority of my alts run through the heroics naked (outfit designer gives them the appearance of wearing stuff), and those that don't tend to be wearing really old gear, think it's the 190 ziost set but it's so long since I've ever looked at gear. If your focus is on solo PvE and levelling with a healing companion, as long as you are over levelled for the area, I really wouldn't waste time or credits worrying over your gear.

Taking pictures with a phone, screen captures!? Whatever happened to a good old pad of paper and pencil I've had it happen numerous times when trying to name a character. Although that's less of an issue now you can use a space

Killing npcs? I thought I was just knocking them out with a glow bat. If I wait five minutes they all return to position anyway It's just a game limitation. Things that bug me are the likes of a Lightside BountyHunter Powertech using a Flamethrower, one of the most hated weapons of modern warfare. Or, the fact that you have no opportunity to avoid the grunts but when you get to the general that's pitted them against you inevitably get a cutscene where killing them (you know, like you've done to all their lackeys) is Darkside and capturing them alive is Lightside. I thought death was a natural part of the force cycle, as long as the killing is done without malice and thought of vengeance then it should have no impact. You've given the person a chance to change but they have forced the situation.

Um, the thread is not discussing Class changes but Advanced Class swap. A Powertech swapping to Mercenary is still a Bounty Hunter. A Juggernaut swapping to Marauder is still a Sith Warrior. An Assassin swapping to Sorcerer is still a Sith Inquisitor. A Sniper swapping to Operative is still an Imperial Agent.

I'll just put this link here so you can see it is a subject that has been debated to death ETA on Advanced Class change? Interesting. The fact that the vast majority of orange shell armours are adaptive now so would have no impact on the very specific situation of a Jugg/Guardian swapping to Marauder/Sentinal or vice versa. Or, indeed, mimicking the same situation you have for any DPS/Tank Discipline swap where you need a whole separate set of armour, weapon, offhand, earpiece, implants and relics. The gear issue is easily disproved as it is already accepted in the current discipline swapping situation. As to the tech most issues have either been removed since launch or demonstrated to be possible. You'd have to retrain the ability tree... removed and replaced with a set ability tree and a handful of utility points that need to be redistributed if you are swapping between pve/pvp. It would cost too much to relearn skills... gone, skill training is free now and automatic for learned skills, portable skill trainers makes learning new skills inconsequential. Removing skills would break the game... demonstrated on numerous occasions around increasing level cap and rebalancing classes that they have the coding to remove skills from a character. Discipline swapping shows they have long had the coding to allocate a differing pathway of abilities/skills depending on a player based selection.

I'd like to see a more open discussion on the internal metrics you gather on how people play the game. Percentages are fine as I know publishers tend to get a bit cagey when it comes to definitive numbers. It was refreshing to see the openness with which the devs recently discussed how they go about balancing classes and what numbers they focus on, not sure why that clarity wasn't there in the early years. I just feel people see their own play style as the most important and then think the majority of gamers play that way and want to see the same content. If they don't have the numbers to hand they have nothing else to base their discussion on. While we're talking about open discussions, and I hope SWTOR has a long and healthy future ahead of it, but can the community be involved in the discussion about what happens when the license ends. Will the servers just be switched off, hope the players took plenty of screen shots. Would Disney be able to maintain some sort of legacy servers. By my calculations we're a little over halfway and I'd like to think there's still some potential to have the game running when the license is up for renewal.

On the up side maybe Joystick control would tame the Gunship snipers Never understood the calls for joystick support, GSF is a subgame within a KB&M game it should use the parent controls or as close to it as possible. Been playing Elite: Dangerous with KB&M since launch and it handles fine having a very similar flight mechanic to GSF.

Reflecting over the weekend I realise I've probably been a bit on the harsh side with my comments on the three Dev threads on GSF. I'll put that down to being a grumpy middle aged man with a serious case of nostalgia for the games of his youth, and maybe a rough week at work. I realise that rewards have to be given for game activity and I have no problem with the unique items given out to those that run progression Operations, another aspect of the game I don't participate in. Unfortunately it would seem many of the potential rewards for placing on a vendor have been squandered in the cartel packs or as cartel coin card rewards. Themed pets such as the space ship models would have been an ideal reward. As would those recharge items that show the player controlling a mini space ship or watching a space battle. The four various pilot suits were given away as an incentive back at the launch of GSF but if not already on the space mission vendor would be a welcome addition. Possibly mounts could feature with some spaceship inspired mounts, after all many of the mounts available to from KotFE and KotET vendors are modelled heavily on the Gravestone and Eternal Fleet. And of course Stronghold decorations, not just small holographics or wall mounted pictures but weapon parts and full size ship models.

The Dev post that started this thread asked for opinions on the idea of adding itemisation for 'ground' characters onto a GSF based vendor. I was giving my opinion that I think that is a bad idea. At most maybe stronghold decorations. I can see the mindset behind this. A huge issue is the low population on GSF resulting in long queue times. Let's do some easy stuff to get more folk playing. The easiest thing is to put the cool armour models, unique companions and such on a GSF related vendor.

I'll put this here as it's a few thoughts that don't necessarily pertain to the other three threads. GSF is a good idea. Who wouldn't want to hop into a sleek fast fighter or bomber for a little fast paced, off rails, PvP action. This is what players were clamouring for from the launch of SWTOR instead of the onrails space missions. However I find the GSF experience to be lacking. The population is so low that queues don't pop with any frequency for me, this is made worse by the fact I have to be on a specific character to develop a hanger. The flight handling is extremely frustrating although I have no idea of knowing whether this is due to counter abilities my targets are deploying or general lagging (although I sit at 35-50ms I see far more rubber banding in GSF than any other aspect of the game) I would suggest a few ideas to reinvigorate GSF: 1) Simplify It's nice that someone got to roll out their own complex gear setups and a wide range of ships. And maybe that style of game has a place on its own terms. But as a side game it's just far too complex. I don't want to have to spend as much if not more time in a sidegame gearing up than I do on the main game. Strip it back to cookie cutter pre-optimised builds for all players with no gear gap. 2) PvE GSF needs a better solo experience as it's hard enough to get matches to pop as it is. I find it hard to believe that a 25ish year old game such as Star Wars: Tie Fighter could accomplish this while SWTOR struggles. Not asking for a realistic AI or space to ground transitions. But some moving targets and some flying practice wouldn't go amiss. I'll put this link here for reference 3) More maps and game-types One of the draws to get me into PvP are new maps and game types. When GSF first launched I enjoyed capture the satellite as it gave me, primarily a PvE player, something to do while the PvP folk sorted themselves out in dogfights. The deathmatch mode pretty much killed the game for me. A better range of maps and game-types that give a balance between ship to ship combat and completing objectives would e nice.

I'm not sure ship balance is an issue. But then I've never been around a well balanced team long enough to find out. Part of the issue is that GSF shoe horns in a whole extra level of complexity to a game where my focus is on the ground character. I want the focus of balancing and itemisation to be on that ground aspect and not on what should be a side game. I would much rather have cookie cutter ship builds with no gear difference between other players. I would much rather be using those cookie cutter ships in a wider array of maps and gamestyles.

I'm sorry to be harsh but GSF is a bit of a turkey. You should be looking at ways to make the gameplay fun and thus get more players in, rather than considering putting the coolest gear on GSF reward vendors thus forcing players into a gamestyle they don't enjoy. Players care about cool looking stuff, just look at how much time and credits players are willing to put into getting the Gamorrean Guard from the Nar Shaddaa Nightife Event, essentially the most tedious and dull event ever created (thankfully I got mine ridiculously quickly but gave up on the mount after 3 hours and 400,000 credits). I understand the later is the easier option.

I've been around gaming for a long time, some of my fondest memories stem back to the original Elite and X-Wing games, possibly my favourite space fighter game of all time is Star Wars: Tie Fighter. I wasn't the best player ever, but I was competent enough and enjoyed the above games immensely and so I thought the GSF would be great fun. Unfortunately it seems to have inherited all of the downsides of an MMO environment. 1) Character specific hanger For my playstyle SWTOR has evolved into a game about Alts. The original story lines remain the most compelling experience the game has to offer and the one I return to and so over the 5 years have accumulated 38 alts. And yet if I want to play GSF I have to develop each hanger individually!? Not sure why this decision was taken. I'd be surprised to learn it was a tech limitation as the engine seemingly has no problem storing and sharing information from one character to another across legacy (family tree details, certain currencies) or account wide (collection unlocks). 2) Matchmaking Lets be honest, matchmaking wouldn't be an issue if the population playing GSF was larger. As it stands though you can wait an age for a game to pop and then find out you're horrendously outgunned. Not a rewarding experience and not one that encourages repeat play. 3) Gearing Why does gear grind still have a place in MMO design? Why make those new to a game (low in skill, low in gear) the cannon fodder of those that have been playing the game longer (better gear, better skill, not always but at least they'll be familiar with most of the maps and game styles). 4) Rewards If you are on the loosing side frequently you find the payout for playing GSF is not worth the time investment. Why remain the cannon fodder of others when you could be using limited game time to reap better rewards. My own focus is on credits (although that is fading now the inflation is starting to push gold cartel market sets through the roof, but that's more the greed of other players) and I'll go where I can get better return on my time. 5) Game experience As I started off with I played a lot of the old space sims, and it's been nice to see a return of interest in them with the release of Elite: Dangerous. I'm not a great pilot but I get by and yet I find GSF to be an extremely frustrating experience. That's why if I want to fly a space ship I go and play a different game rather than play GSF. Seriously why couldn't we have had the intuitive and engaging experience of a space sim like Star Wars: Tie Fighter, a game that's nearly 25 years old.

I think to get the average player involved in PvP you'd have to move away from just thinking about numbers on gear and more about better matchmaking. Of course matchmaking struggles if there's fewer people queuing for PvP in the first place.

It's been a while since I've bothered with PvP. It was never my primary focus of game style and so I'm a bit out of the loop. One of the big issues I had was turning up to a match and getting stomped by the premades with teamspeak and BiS gear rampaging through the warzone. Granted that was a while back so things may be better now. I think there needs to be a difference between Ranked and Unranked PvP. Ranked should be competitive, similar to professional status, with players responsible for their own gearing decisions. Unranked should not be so competitive, closer to social gameplay, players should be bolstered so that stat wise they are all the same. Honestly, I don't understand why MMOs sit with such a cut throat mentality with regards to PvP activity, maybe it's the distance and relative anonymity of the players. Pretty much every real physical sport I can think of separates competitors into those that play for status/ money and those that play for fun. Many sports and games have a handicap system so that social play between those of wildly differing skill abilities can be tailored for. I would be radical enough to propose a buff system in unranked PvP that actually gives a character a buff after they have been killed. Or at least encourage the devs to think up creative solutions for social PvP play that gets a wider pool of players dabbling with it while still leaving the Ranked there for those that want the brutality of gear advantages.

Why are there so many pets? Why are there so many mounts? There are more companions as it gives players a bit of variety.

Pretty much anyone else is preferable for healing, even a generic influence 10 Starfortress companion. In an attempt to keep her unique with her original abilities they've seriously handicapped her in both healing and tank roles. She has no shield and self heal as a tank and her heals are on a significant cool down that results in huge spikes, and she is unable to put a protective shield over you. Not to mention her unique selling point of being a companion that can switch from tank to heal stance during combat has been removed. All companions can be healers or tanks but only selectable outside of combat. About the only role she's fit for now is as a crew skill drone.

I think it more likely the rationale behind the change was two fold: 1) Present an Advanced Class selection more in keeping with the level 60 and 65 tokens. At this point it can be suspected that many new players will be going back to the original after playing the new expansions. 2) Stop some of the complaints from those who find a player that hasn't yet selected an Advanced Class in their warzone or group finder operation. I very much doubt they had any conversation about allowing AC change over it. Even though that since 3.0 they have been removing many of the hurdles (no longer have a skill tree, no longer pay training costs, etc...)

The reward for five years of uninterrupted subscription is a nice idea. Limiting it to a single statue in the collections is a bit harsh. The blurb on the item says '...proudly display in your Strongholds...' maybe this should be amended to '... proudly display in a Stronghold....' Or, you could increase the collection stack to 5~10. I mean BW are currently giving away stacks of 50 posters from the various expansion kits so they can't be overly bothered with players saturating their strongholds with junk to bulk out their completion tracker.

Saw these two mounts in the collections alongside the other cantina mount rewards, have they been released yet or are in place for future events?

You as a player gain the much needed experience to master an encounter, that should make the encounter easier anyway. Throw in better numbers and the encounter goes to 'farm' status which now means those running it feel it is too easy. All I am considering is having flat rate difficulty for content that is mastered through the players expansion of knowledge not the tedious acquisition of numbers. What the gearing system tends to maintain is a level of elitism/snobbery that asks players to join a group with gear as good, if not better, than the potential drop rewards. Given the way the Cartel Market packs tend to sell, I'm sure more OPs players would be interested in Badges of Honour that can actually be seen than numbers that are obscured behind the GUI.

You say it yourself, there tends to be only one way to equip for a specific build by the time you reach endgame. My main query with this thread was to question why the reward structure is in place that gives players that want a challenge even better gear to minimise their effort on every play through.

Streamlining lies at the heart of good game design. The transition from the levelling experience to end game gearing has always been overly complicated by the need to have an abstracted number based system of improvement. Personally I've always felt that if you need a third party piece of software to measure the improvements (parsing) then you've failed as a game designer. Theory crafting may be the bread and butter of some gamers but I don't play games to be an accountant nor to have to look up online guides to min/max my character, again referring to third party literature to figure out what gear you need to equip (the ratios of acc/crit/ alac) is a failure of game design. The difficulty should be in the content such as working out boss fight mechanics, not the minutiae of spreadsheets. Besides which this tedious acquisition of gear places an unneeded layer of stratification to the playerbase. I'd much rather see a game where all the content remains valid and with a variety of difficulty levels to match the players ability. My thoughts on stats are similar across PvE and PvP, if you are such a skilled player why do you need the help of additional stats to help you clear content or kill lesser geared characters?