Never mind - found the fix. For those curious, if your time / date is very wrong (I was off an entire year, after updating a video card yesterday), you will be unable to login. There ya go.

Bump 'cause this makes me sad. Was there an update? If so, I am not getting it.

From what I can see, all servers are up. Maintenance is done. But I am receiving the login service is unavailable message. Any ideas what causes this? Or is it actually down and the playerbase is surprisingly calm?

They are developing "something big" for space combat. I hope that means free-flight combat, where you could utilize a joystick. But here is my vision of how involved space and space combat would be - I feel that space is a huge part of the Star Wars franchise, and should see a lot more development. Aside from Eve, there is nary a decent space themed MMO, there is lots of growth potential. Combat: - Ship leveling: Plenty of room for longevity in an MMO if you could effectively double your leveling. Your ship would gain experience from combat, completing missions and space-based flashpoints and raids. Higher levels lets you wander into more dangerous territory, able to higher level ship gear, etc. - Allow joystick, controller and mouse / keyboard controls. - More control over ship functions in combat - weapons, shielding, afterburners, etc. All the old-style controls at least. Don't dumb it down - MMOs have been dumbing down for years. It would be great where actual skill at piloting and in combat would make a difference. Types of Content: - Vanilla combat against pirates, opposite faction (non-PvP based), other races, space critters, etc. - Flashpoints, where a squadron of ships have a series of objectives. - Raids, where several squadrons have their objectives to complete a larger mission or defeat a capital ship, or huge enemy, or destroy an asteroid base, something along those lines. Some people might be tasked with bombing targets, some with enemy fighter control, others with specific missions. Someone might have upgrades that better serve as a fighter ship, someone else might have better defenses and missiles to take out turrets, etc. - Missions, including class specific. Allow smugglers to smuggle, Jedi to perform relief and rescue missions, Sith to destroy targets of opportunity, science missions, etc. - Salvaging space wrecks, asteroid or other sorts of farming, PvP, simple exploration (perhaps mapping sectors of space for rewards) - there is plenty of space content that could be created. - Space battles: you could take part in larger battles, with objectives and missions along the way. - Planet exploration - landing and exploring on randomized worlds, to search ruins or mountains for raw mats, ancient devices, etc. Ala Mass Effect, or for you older folks, Starflight. Crafting: Ship building or improvements, or Weapons developer. Parts and bits gained by space scavaging. I imagine a lot of customization could happen, to help people look unique out there. I just hope they really take a good look at the possibilities, and vastly increase the space part of Star Wars - it's a huge part of the movies, and even those old space combat games by Lucas Arts were a blast. They have a lot of potential here - personally I hope they devote an expansion solely to the space part of this game.

It's adequate - kind of fun if incredibly limiting. Some of the battles look epic - but imagine what they would be like with free-flight combat. Which is what I hope they are developing when they say they are developing "something big." For those who have never cared for slight simulators of any type (or the old space combat games), I imagine they couldn't care less. I however, hope it improves drastically - there is so much promise there.

No, not having a 50 doesn't mean you are bad, it means you are smart. I have well over 50 levels worth of characters, but none over 25. I have a couple 25s, a few in the upper teens, a couple lower on the opposite faction. Because I learned long, long.. looong ago, that MMOs simply don't have a lot of end game content once released, and usually not for 6 months after that.

I wouldn't take forum whining to heart. A tiny minority of the active players actually take the time to post here (or even know about the forums). Forums for MMOs are always this way. Look at WoW, which is supposedly the pinnacle of MMO gaming, from what you hear about here.. and yet, if you read their forum, it's typically an angsty mix of trolling, complaining, and talking about how dead the game is. Nothing different than here.

LFG was a cancer in WoW. Why would you want something so horrid to be in this game? This game has some issues, but that isn't one of them. Also, if you think stocks indicate how buggy a game is or how it is lacking features, you are a clueless git, honestly.

No, they weren't. Are you crazy? An Ony raid in vanilla WoW took 40 minutes to even get it rolling. Or longer. Azshara? Even longer if you want that world boss. But I am not surprised by all the whining for travel. MMOs were about dedication to suffering through all the time consuming tasks, to be amazingly end gamed geared. Now, MMOs are about gimme gimme.. get everything, as fast as you can, so you can feel really impressed with yourself.

I've done some testing - if I even touch the mouse to look left, either it will work, or it immediately flips out and flings off to the far right. This last play session, I turned off the precision pointer thing within Windows, and it still does it, but I was instantly looking up, instead. Just incredibly frustrating.

In what way am I being hysterical? This according to the other thread was reported in beta. So considering we are already a major content patch into the game, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect at least a reply on the matter. No one expected an "instant" reply, especially considering the 22 page post in the customer service forum was posted exactly one month ago. As it makes the game near unplayable for those it affects, I hardly think asking for a fix so we can actually play their game that we paid for is being "hysterical." My wife was looking forward to this game for over a year. And she is nothing close to a gamer. She has played plants vs. zombies, wow, sims, a few other mmos (briefly), and now this game. Considering how badly she wanted to play it, and now that she doesn't play it at all, demonstrates the level of frustration this issue creates. For the record, I am using a wired Logitech GX9, and my wife is using a wireless Logitech MX laser.

Yes, there is a 22 page post in the customer service area that has been as far as I can tell, widely ignored. That is why I am posting here - to get more attention on the matter. It's frustrating as hell to try and play like this.

I've seen some posts in customer service about the mouse issue that is plaguing some folks. No responses, no fix, no discussion on a resolution. Putting it here as well, so this can get exposure and perhaps get fixed. It makes the game close to unplayable. It seems many players with mice with additional functionality (DPI increase, etc. - razor naga, logitech G9, etc), experience an issue where the camera suddenly veers off in another direction. For example, I turn the mouse left, and the camera severely veers off to the right. Or I am looking straight up into the sky. Sometimes this happens rarely, sometimes it happens constantly. When it happens often, it makes the game near unplayable, and incredibly frustrating. I've run into mobs, run over cliffs, and just given up on playing many nights because of this. My wife who has a different mouse than I, has the same problem on a different computer, and she has all but given up playing the game at all because of this. We are going to let our subs expire at the end of this month if this isn't fixed - not telling this to sound like your typical threatening troll, but because we are giving the game another chance for a month, but there is no reason to play and pay if this isn't fixed. Hopefully your fix won't be to plug in plain, two button generic mice to fix this problem. Please get this forwarded to the right folks, so this get some attention. I love the game, and I don't care as much about aesthetics, or stuff like guild banks - I know those fixes are coming. This problem makes it so I can't play the game at all without swearing in 3 different languages. Thanks!

Yea, this drives me absolutely nuts. I'm trying to give out instructions or check on classes or whatever, and them I am spammed with 24 messages in annoying red. Please fix this.

Bioware, please don't ever include LFF (looking for flashpoint) in your game. If you never include such a thing, I'll stick around a long time, thanks!

Not really. I've got 7 characters, from 12 to 25, taking my time leveling up. And the way each character speaks and reacts differently to the same quests makes them a lot less stale than the same old quests in WoW. I played WoW more than I care to admit, but I think the questing is much better in this game.

Training Droid (Virtual Pet) A small but advanced training droid to hover at your side for combat assistance. I'm sorry, but I am missing where they said this was a full time pet.

I do agree that companions should only get BoE equipment, or hand-me-downs from you. That not only fixed the issue of people rolling on everything, all the time, it gives professions a bit of a (much needed) boost. I took one of my 16s to Hammer, and some 23 level guy was in the group. He rolled need on every single thing that dropped. Drove me nuts.

I think people should be forced to level a character from 25 to 35 in Aion before they are allowed to make any comments about grinding on another MMOs forum. Just saying.

It's a new game. People whine and worry too much. It's fairly polished, a slightly less than average amount of bugs for a new release, has some tried and true features (yes, stolen from prior MMOs.. which they did to the MMOs before them), some new stuff (I think even if it's still the same sorts of quests, the voice-acting makes them 10 times better), and lots of room for growth. Especially in the space combat field. Who cares what some bean counter thinks. If this guy tries to convince folks he talks people out of investing in this company on a daily basis, he is lying through his teeth. I can see it now.. "Johnson and Johnson is up on S&P, there is some growth this week in Apple and Cisco, stock futures are rising after the Italy auction. Oh, and don't invest in Bioware, because like, their combat isn't fluid. There is a delay! Seriously. And like, I don't feel like I exactly rushed to 50, but I am there.. and there is nothing to do! The lack of content is disturbing. So don't invest there." The best thing about the forums is probably a small slice of the playerbase actually read it. They are busy playing. Which I am off to do now. Ciao!

Except you folks who whine have absolutely no conception of how much work and the amount of details are behind such a project. Being in IT for over 25 years, even much smaller scale projects have had multiple snafu's we didn't anticipate, even after massive planning. It's not magic. There is so much to it, it's near impossible for them to fathom all the possible outcomes of changes and design. Get over it. Or just leave, seriously.

Bothersome in flashpoints, much more a problem in raids. Nothing like 26 people rolling need on everything. ML is useless, as there is no /roll command. There should be some limitations for companions, especially in raids.

People need to learn how to play a new MMO. You don't rush to 50 with one character, and then moan about lack of content. I have 7 characters, and take turns playing each. I have a couple in their 20s, several in the high teens. I've had some issues, but nothing game breaking, and there is a lot to like in this game. I've run two raids for world bosses, downing one in 3 shots, one shotted the other one, and no issues at all. They will reset if you take them out of their zones, but otherwise, so far no problem with them. Flashpoints have been great. I just want redone space combat. But for a new release, I am finding this to be an excellent game.

They could open a whole new world in MMO leveling. Your character levels.. and then, completely separate, ship leveling. And as your space combat experience, quests and such grows, your ships level grows (independent of upgrades for the ship). Ship instances, raids.. you could do it all. Professions built around space (buildings ships, to making money on stuff like asteroid mining, piracy, smuggling, and so on). The game's longevity could be increased greatly. I hope at any rate, we get more than space combat on rails. It's an embarrassment to the franchise.

"We will continue to add missions to the space game. We also have a special project going on right now that will expand space gameplay in a significant way... for now the details will have to remain under wraps," reads the post penned by game director, James Ohlen." That sounds promising. In a significant way makes it seem like they are working on free flight. I can't imagine significant being anything on rails.