I don't really consider it "pay to play". Even if I wasn't playing, I would still keep the subscription as an investment in the future. I want more.

Population wouldn't be an issue if MMO's would abandon this lame "trapped in a fishbowl" system where your character is shackled to a single server. And I don't mean transfers, I mean being able to play your character anywhere you please at any time. It would solve so many problems. I understand the downside of inhibiting community familiarity and accountability, but that can be mitigated by a "Footprint" system, whereby playing on a server builds up a footprint (similar to legacy), which grants benefits and incentivizes people to stick mostly to one server. And if that server starts going belly up, they can transfer the footprint at a diminished exchange rate to another server of their choosing. I'll probably get blasted with "Not an MMO" rhetoric. At which I will chuckle and roll my eyes.

Player character need should always trump companion character need. Since companions are not as effective as players, a piece of equipment on a companion is not granting as much benefit as it would on a player character. Therefore, rolling "Need" for a companion is a devaluation of the item.

There are a lot of people, myself included, that are playing because we want a gigantic, perpetual BioWare Star Wars RPG. The MMO aspects are something we merely "put up with". It's not that I'm against interacting with other players. I just think the MMO brand of interaction is pretty terrible. Not that I would refuse a group invite from someone whose goals happen to be aligned. But the general chat? I'm not even paying attention to that and I like that I don't have to.

Isn't the whole point of an MMO so that people can come together in common loathing? The second you make an MMO that people don't complain about, it will be accused of not being an MMO.

Just got to this quest. It's broken, plain and simple. The dark side option which lets you bypass the dungeon probably meant they didn't get nearly enough feedback to address the issues. Those "Strong" Gormaks in the instance do ridiculous amounts of damage. By the time you kill one in a one-on-one fight, you might be down to a quarter health. But they put two of them together and will kill you and your companion in no time flat. I got by them by sacrificing my companion to them and destroying the generators they are guarding. Then, running out of the dungeon instance. The Warmaster himself is flanked by two "Guardians", which while not strong, have too much health and take too long to bring down. I would kill one, then run out of the dungeon. Kill the other, then run out of the dungeon. When I got back to the Warmaster, the first Guardian had respawned as a green "friendly" (bug #1). So, I kill the Warmaster and don't get any credit for killing him (bug #2). Standing around, angry, I noticed that the second guardian had respawned also as a green NPC. A few minutes later, the Warmaster respawned as a hostile NPC and I killed him again. Still, no credit. I left the dungeon and reset the quest. I'm probably not coming back to my story until I'm max level. Fix it, Bioware.

Find your crew skill trainer. Schematics unlock for purchase as you progress in the skill.

Are you talking about Chapter 1 Risha showing back up at her old post in the cargo bay (happened to me) or just a straight up clone of Companion Risha working at the crafting bench (happens with all companions)? You'd think the ships, being such small, frequently visited spaces, would be pretty polished. Sadly, they are not. Bioware, get that Rattataki off my ship!

PVE on Ilum is the worst. As a scoundrel, the Imperial Officers can spot me and break me out of Stealth from attack range. It's ridiculous. I suspect they're the ones that are generating the long-range aggro and making res-invulnerability not work. I can't even vanish against them. For whatever reason, some designer thought the game needed a unit to make Stealth classes miserable and in so doing, they broke the game for everyone.