I was looking at the cast list for this game (on IMDB.com), and it's no wonder the voice work is so good! They have some very good actors working on this one! Some highlights: Jamie Bamber (who you may know as Apollo in the Galactica reboot or as Kennedy from Hornblower) Grey DeLisle (who you may remember as Tourette from Bloodlines) Fay Masterson Nolan North (who did Deadpool in Hulk vs Wolverine) Maury Sterling (who you may recognize from the A-Team) Jennifer Hale (who was Bastila and now Satele Shan) Deboarah Unger (who I've always had a crush on) ... and more besides! Amazing actors working on an amazing game!

This is the thing many of the PvPers defending and perpetrating this kind of behaviour don't seem to get. I'll give you an example. At STO, there is almost NO PvP. The reason is, even at early levels, Klingons have a significant advantage, and Federation players get rolled with ease. No one likes being fodder for someone else's fun, so these early level PvPers stop PvPing. This in turn means there are no higher level PvPers, because they all quit when they were lower level. Then the PvPers complain that no one is PvPing and that it's dead out there. They don't seem to realize that THEY are the ones that killed it. I've seen the same thing in many games. I call this kind of thing GRIEFING because that's what it amounts to. If you're having fun at someone else's expense, especially if they clearly can't compete, then it's griefing, and should be actionable. Of course, this would be far less of a problem if there were no combat levels to unbalance these situations, but that's a whole other thread.

Got my second ship, and the sense of disappointment is rather more profound. The reason is that this character is a smuggler who has no way to smuggle, since he can't actually fly his own ship wherever he needs or wants to. I REALLY hope they do something more with this. Also, I've tried the ship missions, and they are just as disappointing to me. I don't feel like I'm in control of the ship at all (because, of course, I'm NOT), which kills the whole experience for me. I really, really hope they do something more engaging with this, too.

Ah, my bad. Didn't notice that.

You can change advanced class? How?

Boy, I sure started something, didn't I? To be clear, I'm not here to lament the lack of free flight. I'm here to lament the lack of immersiveness, which is the whole point of an MMO, after all. If all you want is to be instantly in action, MMOs aren't for you. MMOs are supposed to have a slower pace, more to do than just fight - a whole WORLD to explore and become part of. A lot of developers (and gamers) seem to be forgetting that. I caution Bioware against forgetting it themselves. To this end, I have made my comments, and here are my suggestions. I suspect they've been made before, in one form or another. Currently, there is NO WAY to enter your ship while it's on the ground. It should be part of the docking bay area. That is you should be able to do the following: Enter the spaceport and use the elevator. This takes you to an instanced docking bay, where you enter your ship by just going up the ramp. This is no different than entering a building in the rest of the game. You launch your ship in one of two ways. 1) Go to the flight deck and launch into local space using the helm. This would start the launch cutscene and put you in space, just as it is now. 2) Use the Galaxy Map to choose a destination. The launch cutscene would begin, and you would go directly to the local space area of your destination. In either case, landing would be initiated from the HELM, not via spacewalk, which is what we currently seem to have. I would also institute travel times based on the distance travelled. You could accelerate the time by paying more fuel costs (for the instant gratification crowd...). Further, it would be nice to have some ability to pilot the ship in local space (NOT combat, though I want that too). It doesn't have to be anything dramatic, just the ability to move around (perhaps you sit in the pilot's chair and engage the helm, steering with the mouse, and moving with the ASDW keys). Give me the feeling that it's actually a SHIP that I CONTROL. We'll talk about piloting in combat and lame rail shooters another time.

The thing is, I never get to fly the ship at all. It launches itself from the spaceport, is immobile in the area I'm in, and in the area I go to, and it lands itself. The only time I get to "fly" it is during a rail driven thing where it flies itself, and I'm restricted to sort of moving side to side (Space Invaders, anyone?). I only flew one "space" battle, to escort some ship, and found myself rather confused by my ship veering around away from things I'm trying to shoot at (like Capital ships, whose turrets I'm trying to destroy, but which I can't steer towards because my ship is flying itself). Add to that the brain-dead enemy fighters flying PAST the escort (me) so they're in perfect position to get killed. Add to that the ship I'm escorting taking a meandering trip past every enemy ship it can find, rather than flying straight to its destination. Nope, the space game needs a LOT of work. It's late now, so I'll post my suggestions tomorrow once I've had time to mull it over.

And boy was I disappointed. Let me explain why. First, I enter the docking bay, and walk up to the ship on the ground. I had hoped, since the bay is a private instance, that I would be able to walk right up into the ship. However, this was not to be, I click on the back door, and immediately the ship launches. I didn't get to explore it while it was landed, I didn't even get to go to the cockpit to launch. The cutscene just started automatically. I guess no one wants to go aboard their ship while it's landed. Once it finally loaded the interior and went through the little tour, I was free to walk around. This part I enjoyed. This was my Inquisitor, and the interior of the ship was nice and atmospheric. Too bad there was nothing to do on the ship. Once on the bridge, I looked all over for a way to manuever the ship, but apparently I don't get to control it at all. Eventually, I activated the galaxy map and was given an option of going to specific places. I thought I might explore the uncharted area, but there was nowhere to go there. In fact, unless I wanted to go to a specific already well known planet, I couldn't go anywhere. So, chooing a system, I engaged the engines and hit the hyperdrive. I thought, "Well, I'll just go back to the locker and sort my gear while we're in transit..." but there was no travel time at all. Boom, leave, there. Damn, my ship makes the Falcon look like it's mired in molasses. Now in Tatooine space, I found myself looking at the planet, off in the distance. However, with no way to actually fly the ship, I was left wondering how I was supposed to land the ship. Turns out, I have to exit the ship to land the ship. As before, I don't get to to any flying. All in all, rather disappointing, and I haven't even reached the boringness of the tunnel shooter yet. I can only hope they will be making some changes to the way ships are accessed and operated in the near future. Space craft are important to STAR Wars, after all.

See, if you don't want a world to play in, why are you playing an MMO? If all you want are scenes with a lobby and instant travel to the scenes, then why are you playing an MMO?

Ok, I apologize if my comments have been covered, but I didn't have the energy to read 53 pages on this. I just wanted to address some of what was said here. My comments are in GREEN.

You could also keep someone out of the conversation and have THEM prep for battle...

I've never been a fan of massively overpowered foes. Sure, in some cases it makes sense (from a setting standpoint), but in many, I find it breaks my ability to be immersed. The first example of what I mean is at L10, on the Black Talon. You fight through, and finally face a "Padawan" who is as tough as four apprentices. She uses powers no padawan I've ever made has, and has so much strength, there's no way she could possibly be just a padawan. Sure, she's "champion" level, but that's a game mechanic explaining... what? NPCs are basically the same people we are. If I made a Twi'lek consular, she should be the same as that NPC one, because we're essentially the same character. If the NPC is going to be stronger, there needs to be an explanation (NOT a rationalization - there's a difference) that makes sense within the framework of the setting. Further, just making foes into big piles of points is, to me, lazy and boring. How much more interesting would it be to fight a group of four elite padawans (since PCs are roughly on par with elites), rather than one champion? It would make a whole different kind of dynamic battle. Anyway, I'd rather see more of that kind of thing than just big inexplicable piles of points.

I've been looking for it too, can't find it. I'd do a search to find threads about it, but....

I'm in the exact same position as you. I like the idea of being a healer, but I hate the Assault Cannon. I wonder why they didn't make the abilities useful to either weapon the class can use (I wondered this about other classes too - like forcing Marauders into two sabers)? I think I may go Commando regardless. I'll just be more comfortable that way. I can always switch to an Assault Cannon when I need to, and use the Rifle at other times. I still wonder why I can't use a Pistol, though, since we see it in use in all kinds of cutscenes...