o_O. That doesn't match my recollections at all. DAoCs population was heavily imbalanced, but it had 3 sides. The 2 smaller sides could join forces to bring a battle to balance. It didn't always work, but in no way did the populations magically move into balance during my time in that game (more the opposite occured as people fled under-populated realms/servers). Likewise, from what I recall WoWs population was moved into "balance" by the introduction of a pretty horde race, not through player's deciding to be fair or whatever. DAoC was essentially a PvE grindfest. Since then games have changed - an experience bonus would have no obvious value in SWTOR. (you level quickly, there's no real death penalty, and the content is worth experiencing, not skipping). A valor bonus would have dubious value, and a gold bonus would simply cause inflation. Fitting with the lore is not a good way to balance a game: - it's not good for the game if Republic players find it more difficult to get groups. - it's not good for the game if PvP is imbalanced. /shrug. This issue doesn't bother me much, but it's not going to solve itself and it is quite real.

Well, kindof. Fine: "Sure" -> "Yes, that sounds great. We'll meet ...." "No" -> "I'd rather clean a scarlak pit with a toothbrush!" [discovery, fun etc] Not fine: "Is that all?" -> "You [censored] is that all I get!!!???!!!!" "Hi" -> "I'm going to kill you and everyone else, and eat your remains with a nice Chianti!" [psychopathic avatar, not fine, causes a disconnect with the player]

The same thing happened to me previously - try switching it off, save, then switch it back on and save that... might work?

I think most people starting the game don't know much about class balance, so I wouldn't read too much into the exact details of 'imperial ability is 0.25 seconds faster'. So, why would people pick Imperial over Republic? - Imperial stuff looks better. Tie fighter, imperial star destroyer, [a ship that looks like the normandy from ME] vs a bunch of asymetrical ships some of which look like they're going rusty. - whilst the exact details of ability A vs ability B is 'beyond players', the feeling of 'reponsiveness' is not. Having delayed abilities feels unresponsive. - the SW universe is actually quite poor. The films were great for their storyline, Episode I focused more on 'the proper universe' and pretty much stank. Biggest problem? Jedi /yawn. Edgy? Sexy? Fun? Pretty much the opposite of all of those... - storyline. The most popular classes are the ranged Jedi/Sith. The Consular storyline "takes a while to get going" (as far as I remember anyway, I kindof gave up on it). - architecture. The problem with curvy, spacious buildings is that you can spend 5 minutes just walking into a room. Special mention to Corruscant senate and Alderaan's palace-thing! bonus points for putting the taxi rank around 16 miles away from the senate. I ended up playing a republic commando and enjoy it - but my first choice was imperial.

This will be unpopular, but what the hell - no-one ever called me popular. "The game needs cross-server LFD before the 'natural exodus' starts". Every large MMO has a population spike at the beginning of the game, it's a natural thing "OMG, it'll be the best thing ever". Oh, no ponies???!!!??? I can't kill the quest givers? I can't grief people. BBBBAAAAAAHHHH!!! /ragequit. That's followed by a substantial number of people leaving (it happens with all MMOs and certainly isn't a criticism of SWTOR - partly I think people's expectations are stupid). So a sharded game quickly gets a decent/sensible population, but spread over a large number of servers... grouping becomes more difficult, as does PvP. It was an issue with WAR, it was an issue with Rift, and it'll likely be an issue with SWTOR.

Sorry, but you're wrong. (there needs to be a sticky somewhere) A shard="a server". SWTOR is sharded (we pick a server for our characters), as is WoW, Rift etc. Cryptics games (and I think eve) are shardless. You all play together in same universe. An instance="a zone". Most typically it's used as shorthand for 'multiply instanced' (running the same instance on the same 'shard' more than once). SWTOR has an multiply-instanced "open world". Cryptic's games, conan, GW also fall into this category. WoW/Rift/EQ do not use multiple instancing for the open world. (afair) Private instance = "a flashpoint". It's just an "instance" that only certain people are allowed to access. --- The problem with multiple instancing is simply that if the game creates 2 instances, but now only requires 1 instance, what does it do? AFAIK there is no good answer - and so you may see 2 mostly empty zones when only 1 is required...

I think the core design reason is to make the player understand that they have a ship, along with justify the cost of building the ship models: - from the inside of a ship, you have no idea what it looks like. - you don't fly your ship apart from the mini-game thing, and I'm not sure how many people play that. So, without the hangar, you'd never actually see your ship apart from the skippable launch/land animations... I wouldn't say the core design is wrong, but the current situation needs improvement - too many loading screens and far too much running. (the constrast with STO here is striking, both games have managed to get this wrong in spectacularly different ways)

In the case of Corso a more logical fix is to replace that stupid ability with a basic taunt? (afair he didn't have any melee abilities).

The terminology here is wrong: - a shard is an MMO server. - a zone can be 'multiply instanced' (usually just refered to as 'instancing'). - private instancing is 'flashpoints' and the green doors etc. So this game is sharded, multiply instanced and has private instances. Cryptic's games are shardless, multiply instanced and have private instances. Rift/WoW I believe were sharded, singly instanced, with private instancing. --- A key problem with multiple instancing is not creating instances but collapsing them: - a game creates 2 instances A/B, each with 100 players. - 3/4 log out, leaving 25 players in each instance. - 50 players will fit in 1 instance! Yay.... but hang on, how the hell do we do that? The game ends up with 2 underpopulated instances, but with no particularly obvious way to merge them - nor any way to close one.

The stories don't detract from the game - I don't think anyone finds that, but an MMO can't have the driving force as 'storyline'. I've done Esseles once. I've done it a second time. The second time I found myself wanting to press the spacebar, because I know precisely what happens next, but I watched it anyway. A third time? I'm going to spam the spacebar - but without the talkie bits, the flashpoint gameplay is incredibly weak and repetitive (let me guess, 5 robots jump out on us... just like they did at the last 4 doorways, we massacre them and move on to another doorway?). I don't blame people for liking the game, or the storylines... but I do not see the game as a long-term option for players.

Kindof... Terminology: - a shard = a server. There are some shardless games (cryptic's games are shardless, and I believe Eve is). - an instance = a zone. If the same zone exists twice on the same server it's called usually called "instancing". - a private instance = a zone, typically created on-the-fly, that only certain people can enter. Flashpoints are a good example. - phasing. Creating 2 or more instances of a zone in different states (e.g. one with a town destroyed, one with a town repaired), and putting players into the appropriate instance depending on gameplay reasons. So yeah, SWTOR has "open-world" instancing.

I've got a bunch of low-level crafters: - bio-chem is awesome, obviously lasts to the end game, is always useful for everyone, and at least at low level has stupidly low costs. You can also analyze every silver or higher creature - cyber is good and useful, but you waste cash on 'underworld trading' if you want to make useful things. You can also scavenge any silver or higher droid . - slicing is 'free', but you can't make anything, the income so far has been tiny/negative, and over half the world nodes I've discovered have been broken . You do get mission schematics essentially for "free", but I'm not sure that they have great value as they only last for 1 mission. The other advantage to slicing is that it doesn't cost (much) money, so it's easier to start it whilst you're saving for a speeder than the other skills... but in practice there is no reason to take any skill other than bio-chem.

It's a strong game, but not a great one. It's a weak MMO, but not a dreadful one. 7.5/10 - it has a troubled future, but shows promise...

One possibility is that the texture atlas is used to reduce loading screen times (SWTOR likely loads the majority of it's textures on zone-in rather than on-the-fly)?

You're confusing issues: video 1: gameplay shown using the greatest PC in the world at 25,000x19,000 resolution. Fine. video 2: shows cutscenes instead of the actual content. Not fine. Requires a disclaimer about not being gameplay, then it's fine. video 3: shows gameplay using textures not available to players. Not fine, even using a disclaimer would be dodgy. SWTOR has ended up as video 3... and I guess for pedants it probably breaches various rules in the UK (not that I really care, just my robes a bit blurry).

As far as I remember: 1) Copy the game to a different drive (obviously shut it down, along with origin if you use that). And rename the old version in case of problems. 2) Install 'link shell extension' (search google for it, download and install it). 3) Right-click your new game folder, and 'Pick Link Source'. 4) Right-click inside the origin games folder and select 'Drop as... Junction'. 5) Profit. (this is the process used by many people for moving steam games onto an SSD - needs windows XP or later etc).

"Sorry, but if you want to play this game, you've got to play a character that you don't like" -> Forcing a player to level a character that they don't enjoy is a pretty good way to reduce server populations. I'm not sure if the developers intend to do that?

IMHO the review is valid, but not entirely fair (in terms of 7/10 - I'd put it more in the 7.5-8 category). 1) world design is terrible. Pretty, but unsuited for an MMO. 2) travel is stupid. 3) the flashpoints (that I've played) are heavily flawed. 4) PvP is currently silly. 5) Open-world pvp has been described by players in the same way as the review. 6) Nar shadaa is actually pretty boring, ditto corruscant. They are essentially dungeons dressed up as worlds, with all the negatives that comes from doing that. 7) Space combat "isn't". 8) The game's MMO features are miles below the standard expected of a AAA MMO in 2011. ^ IMHO those are all perfectly valid comments about SWTOR as released. The review is unfair in not praising the positives: 1) The companion system is interesting. 2) The quest system is way beyond the norm. 3) Branching quests are implemented, even in things like class quests. 4) The look of the world is good and immersive. For me the review is 'from the point of view of an MMO player' and so comes across negative as the game is very weak as an MMO.

I mostly agree, but IMHO (3) may just be a knock-on effect of 1 & 2... If you die in PvP due to being massively outnumbered/leveled, then you are more likely to bunch up and try to win a battle with better odds, than repeatedly die in a pointless manner. As you play more defensively, the rest of your team either bunches up with you or fights in even more one-sided battles etc. It's also worth considering that (2) may be partly down to the differences described by the OP - PvP players are well known for taking any advantage that they can get. Although I don't pretend to understand most of it - the 'project' difference in the OP, I've certainly seen that make a difference in pvp. (if you're trying to interrupt someone planting a bomb then dealing damage 'in a while' is not as useful as stopping them before they plant it!)

Nar Shaddar/Corruscant aren't cities - they are more akin to dungeons. Which would be nice, but they are used as normal quest zones... so 'doing normal quests' requires fighting x-hundred trash mobs . And, of course, if you miss a quest (e.g. the icon for it is almost off the screen, so you return to base without competing it), you then have to fight all the way through the entire zone to get to that marker... and it wasn't fun the first time. And both zones are covered with secondary quests that require 'kill 15 mobs', 'kill 45 mobs'... That's just not very good design. (there's also a high population of shielded mobs in those zones, making the fights slower - just generally adding to the sense of 'get me the hell out of here!!!!')

1) People prefer not to roll healers in MMOs. 2) Lack of dual-spec massively hurts SWTOR. If you've tried leveling as a healer, it's rather tedious "we've created this awesome world, with all these great creatures!!! and you can watch your NPC companions health bar whilst he explores and fights them all!!!". Hmmm... 3) Strange lack of healing classes. 4 slots in a normal group. 8 classes per side, 3 'specs' per class giving 24 combinations - 3 of those combinations are 'proper' healers, giving a basic healer ratio of 1/8. 1 of those classes (operative/smuggler) is massively underpopulated, and it's not clear how many players of the other classes have rolled them to heal. It doesn't work in theory, and it doesn't appear to work in practice either.

^ This, even when soloing. Me - mob The mob drops an AoE on my position, so I run around behind him and hit him from that side. AoE - mob - me The AoE STILL hits me if I stay in melee range . There are 2 problems here: 1) AoE abilities extend way beyond their markers (any BH/Trooper players should know this already). 2) These abilities are stupid when used at point-blank range against melee classes. For ranged classes, it's interesting/forces you to move, but for melee it's plainly stupid.

On my server: Imp: Sorcerer #1, Mercenary #2, Assassin #3 Rep: Sentinel #1, Sage #2, Guardian #3

^ This, although the complaints have nothing to do with 'instant gratification' per-se. - get on speeder to space port. - run through space port, click on elevator [loading screen] - run across hangar, click on ship [skippable movie, followed by loading screen] - run through ship to cockpit, click on destination, run back to door, click on it [skippable movie, followed by loading screen] - run across hangar to elevator, click on it [loading screen] - run through space port - get on speeder. [bleep]!!!!! Immersion is fine, but ... not like that! -> as you're facing loading screens galore, combined with physically steering your character/clicking, most of this isn't a restful time to spend chatting to other players/guild/whatever. -> some missions are literally 'go to this person on a planet, have a chat, leave for a different planet'... In theory the space combat would create a bond between the player and their ship, in practice it's not exactly STO space combat , so we're left with this rather artificial mess. Obvious suggestions: - put all the ship hangar elevators nearer the entrance of a spaceport. - then remove the hangar entirely. The player jumps to/from their ship from the spaceport via the movies.

Good, simple list: "2. Map Waypoints" I've never understood why the taxi map doesn't show where the quest objectives are. It's just a scaled version of the main map, so it shouldn't be much work? "9. Dual Spec" That's supposedly being worked on already. Simple changes: - the chat window should default to 'just showing chat'. It's difficult [you gain 10 experience] to [you gain 10 experience] help [you gain 10 gold] [you gain a fried egg] [you gain a cheese burger] someone ["I was talking to that a guy over in the industrial sector about buying sheep"] when [you have found another taxi point] [you gain 10 experience] [you gain 10 experience from finding the taxi point] [you have sold a fried egg for 10 gold] both people's chat window default to a spam-filled mess . I think it's useful during development, but then developers forget to turn this off. The game has tabbed chat windows - create a default one called 'log' or something, and put the spam in there by default. - split items by simply shift-clicking or similar. It's common to see items appear in global chat when people are attempting to do it with the current shift/click/drag combo .