I agree with Mashy. Quit worrying about what the other cat has, how he got it, or how his ease of acquisition is an affront to your sensibilities. You got yours, he got his, be done with it. If this still doesn't solve the issue take a break for a day or two to realize it's a game.

First, he is not "clearly mistaken," only disagreeing with you. Second, merely because you agree with the OP, does not mean it is "marvellously written." The OP is fraught with factual errors that I can only see as intentional so as to obfuscate the point. The shock collar is not inherently sexual. Any connotations to it being sexual reside on the side of the monitor not made up of pixels. Nothing makes this point more than the fact that you cannot shock her, then romance her, then shock her as the OP purports. To even begin to romance Vette, you must remove the collar. Yet, this spurrious line is included in the "marvellously written text" as a red herring, a means by which the OP can make it seem as though the two things are interconnected. Nevermind the fact that you are in control of the choices your character makes. Nevermind the fact that Vette demands you treat her with a modicum of dignity for any romantic advances to find their mark. Nevermind that there exists an entire other line of conversation by which you can treat Vette as an equal, even a doted upon love interest, and even have her friends comment on how she has "softened" the big, bad Sith Warrior. Further, of course the Empire is evil when viewed with our moral compass. That's what a moral compass is for, it provides direction by which we can navigate the intricacies of morality. Without a baseline, the notion of evil, good, or neutrality would be moot. As to the assertion that the evil acts are hollow, and would be better served having a justification of sorts, there is a justification - the Sith world view as encapsulated by the Sith Code. To you, by means of your moral compass, this is hollow and lacks justification, but to the Sith this is their outlook, their moral center. See, that's how a moral compass works, because you and the OP are of a decidedly less than evil frame of mind the evil mentality seems hollow. To pretend that any of these acts would be well received if only there were some greater justification for them is false. How would BioWare creating some sort of justification beyond that of "Evil Empire does Evil Things," allieviate the horror of genocide? Would a more detailed reasoning for said genocide be a salve for the OP? How? By my estimation, that creates a greater problem as you have now taken something the vast majority of us - even kids - take as evil and wrong at face value and created a means by which to justify the action. Now there would be something to get up in arms about... Seriously, a diatribe to rail against the horrors of "sexual violence, slavery, and genocide" only to end with, essentially, "but, hey, give me better justification and it's all good."

My thoughts exactly.

From what I can gather, essentially this: OP thinks the patches are bloated and are a serious issue that has been heretofore unaddressed. While they may not be the most streamlined things in the world, there seems to be a miniscule minority of people who actually seem to be affected by this (as evidenced by his own thread link), thus the majority of posters wonder why he is taking such a hostile approach to the proceedings. TL;DR - Dude needs to chill.

Rhaph, first off nice job. Secondly, a quick suggestion for the masses that I've tossed around with the guildies: Allow for top-level crafters to create an Orange item from a non-Orange; i.e. make a piece of gear that has no Orange equivalent, but you dig the looks of, into an Orange. You can make it a resource heavy Transform schematic. You can make it a further tier of RE'ing wherein RE'ing a Purple gives you a chance at an Orange schematic (current state of RE notwithstanding). Either way, don't merely add more drops of Orange schematics, or Orange schematics for existing (non-Orange) sets, put the onus for these squarely on the crafters. Basically though, BW made a nice decision with Orange gear, let us have access to a few more looks.

Just to add, and hopefully not to derail the thread into a discussion of a very, very small part of the OP, there are completely moddable Green items. The ones I have seen with my own two eyes are, as noted above, either the Cybertech craftable droid parts or certain Companion basic weapons - this is to say the weapon your Companion came with. Not all Companions come with completely moddable Greens mind you, but some do - so check your items before you mistakenly sell off "old junk." *EDIT* And yes, if you do have a completely moddable item equipped on you (or your Companion), all you have to do is upgrade it's mods to keep it useful as you level. As far as finding a "cowboy" set for your Guardian, it may be hard - had you rolled Sentinel, the Medium Armor would be right up your alley, but that's neither here, nor there - but if you scour the GTN daily and get to know some Armormechs maybe you can find something to suit your aesthetic. Best of luck to ya.

Yes, in Preferences there is an option to allow a character of the same class as yours into story areas. Sorry, I don't recall the exact submenu in Preferences, and as the servers are down I can't check for ya, but it's there. Hope it helps, and have fun.