Well then, let me ask one final question: If I skip them (as I have done with all the Operations - at the time I reached them I was still Preferred, so wasn't allowed to do them), will I be able to go back later and do them, if I choose?

No story component? I thought they were part of the story, that you had to do them... and do I gather there are certain companions you can't get if you don't do them?

Unfortunately, it seems they're not going to be soloable for me. As a relatively casual player, I've been able to get through pretty well all the content in the game up til this, and if I'm not going to be able to do it with the gear and companions I have (highest influence on any companion is 12, I think). What I'm hearing is that these are kind of mini-raids, where you more or less have to have the specific powers at the specific levels, used at the specific times... or you're going to be effectively unable to play it. That's unfortunate... especially because it kind of stalls all story progress, as these missions are part of the story. I guess I'll have to wait around until I can find a group. Oh well, it IS group content, after all.

I've tried the first one (Alderaan) about 10 times now on my Sage. He's my best equipped, most experienced character, around 276-280 gear. The basic, minion level enemies are as tough as strong enemies. The strong enemies are like elites and the elites are stronger than champion level enemies. ONE Knight of Zakuul will slaughter my companion AND nearly kill me, unless I'm VERY careful. And these missions are setting me into fights with SEVERAL of them at once... plus around 6-10 minions... PLUS a champion level enemy spamming instant kill aoe attacks. As far as I'm concerned, they're unplayable in anything less than a raid. It's frankly not much fun. I get that it's group content, but EVERY other Heroic I've played has been more or less doable, if I'm careful. This... Putting me up against as many as 20 foes, all of them insanely strong... it's just not anything like any other Heroic mission. As I say, just not much fun. (Whoops, sorry for the necro, I did a seardh for the topic and didn't notice the date)

Communities didn't work as well as they might have done in Galaxies... but having the ability to drop a house (and having a choice of WHICH type of house) almost anywhere and decorate it how you liked... worked very well indeed. I had several homes. One was on Tatooine, just outside of Mos Eisley on the ridge overlooking town. Another was on a high butte on Lok, overlooking an oasis. Both had balconies I could sit out on, and watch the world go by. My main home was on Corellia, on the shore of the ocean, just outside of Tyrenia, surrounded by trees. My alt had a large house up on the hills of Naboo, overlooking Keren. There were other houses around all of them, some inactive, some still being used. I thought it was brilliant.

I'm not sure you're quite understanding... The only thing that would change is where you click to start the animation. Currently, you walk up to the door and click that. The animation plays (you can skip), and you load into the ship by the door, already in space. In my version, you would walk up the ramp into the ship (NO loading screen, the ship interior is part of the bay geometry), go to the cockpit and click the launch button THERE. The animation would play (you could still skip), and you would load into the ship, but in the cockpit. Landing would be handled the same way. Instead of clicking the back door while you're in space, you would click the button in the cockpit to land the ship. The animation would play, just as if you had clicked the door, and you would load into the landing bay, in the cockpit of the ship. You could then walk down the ramp into the bay, and on to adventure!

It may be no one has made it possible to restart the character's progression as suggested... that doesn't mean it can't be done. Let this be the first time! Open world housing worked BRILLIANTLY back in Star Wars Galaxies. There's also neighbourhoods in Lord of the Rings Online that are nominally part of the world, but are instanced with houses within. Something like that could work too. The point is to give characters the opportunity to live IN the world of the game, instead of in a room of a gigantic stronghold (or in the whole gigantic stronghold) that doesn't feel like part of the world. Taking off and landing are poorly handled. For example, if I'm in space, I make my ship land by opening the back door... ostensibly into open space. My suggestion is meant to rearrange the sequence of events so they make more sense, and also to allow us access to our ship's interior while still in the landing bay. Functionally speaking, it's not really changing much of anything, it's just a question of sequence of events. Yes, characters can gimp themselves in order to be equipped the way the player would like. To me, that's not really a desirable option. I'm forced to do this already, with my Gunslinger (who I would prefer to use one gun) and my Mercenary (also one gun... though he SHOULD have the option of a rifle). Gameplay wouldn't be affected by this suggestion. Skills would still function just as they do now, only the animation would be altered to reflect the equipped weapon. The upside is, the animations are all in the game already. It would just be a case of using them in the appropriate places. Note also, this would not take anything away from anyone. If you prefer using two blasters or that saber staff... you CAN. This would only allow people who prefer something else to have it. Nothing is lost, but something is gained, and I see that as a positive thing.

YOU LET YOUR DAUGHTER BE BURNED ALIVE YOU MONSTER!!!!11! I mean, lol, fair point. I should have noted I meant doing those things with your WIFE.

I've been around since beta. In that time, I've seen a LOT of suggestions, and made many myself. I don't think any of them have ever been implemented. No matter. I'm back again, and I have a list of things I've been thinking about since my return. It's a bit of a long read, but I hope you will find something good here. Some would require substantial work, some should be pretty easy. Let us choose our ship. I love the Trooper ship, I wish my Jedi could fly it instead of the usual Jedi ship. Let crew wander the ship, doing things, perhaps interacting, at least within their room (eg. Qyzen is in engineering). Allow us to reset characters (so we can start over without losing gear and other unlocks). I have several characters I would like to start fresh on, but don't want to lose gear and other unlocks I've accumulated since launch. Create housing areas on planets (like neighborhoods, but allow us to plant houses wherever we like, using existing designs). The houses should be the generic one or two room places we see on many worlds. Allow crafting of custom items with attributes we want (eg. appearance, sound, etc.). I love the LOOK of many weapons, but would prefer other sound effects. Add routine activities (Smuggling, Hunting, Operations, Intelligence, Research, Politics). This will require flight sim. More on this below. (I know, this one would be a BIG job) Add downtime activities (Pazaak, Sabaacc, Swoop Races, Gladiatorial Games, etc.). We've been asking for Pazaak since BEFORE beta... Add repeating "married" dialogs and scenes for after the relationship stories conclude. I mean, why would our "spouse" keep repeating the same generic dialog? Why can't we go on dates, or fool around AFTER we're married? Fix surnames in chat so the name is capitalized (as it's supposed to be). This one should be easy. My character, Nomen Parr's name appears in chat as "Nomen parr." Just have it capitalize the names the way WE set them. Redesign landing bays so the ship is part of the bay, allowing us to enter the ship like a building. Launch and land from the cockpit. Launch cycle should follow this procedure: 1. Enter the landing bay. Go up into your ship (which is PART of the landing bay map, as many buildings are part of their maps). 2. Go to the cockpit, interact with the launch controls. 3. Launch cutscene begins, load into the cockpit in space. Landing cycle would be similar: 1. While in space, interact with landing controls (would be the same as the launch ones). 2. Landing cutscene begins, load into landing bay (in your cockpit). Replace the two proficiencies "Blaster Rifle" and "Blaster Pistol" with a single proficiency, "BLASTER," which allows the use of BOTH. This will allow classes able to use one to use the other (ie. Agent, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Trooper). This would require that relevant skills be modified to use relevant animations (eg. Power Shot uses a pistol. If the character equips a rifle instead, Power Shot would use the animation from Snipe. The effect would remain the same). I REALLY want to see this one. My Bounty Hunter REALLY should be using a blaster rifle (the way Boba Fett, Dengar, IG88, Zuckuss, Weequay, and almost every other bounty hunter in Star Wars does)... and an Operative would be FAR better off using a pistol IF THEY CHOOSE TO. Sniper Rifles and Assault Cannons are specialized equipment, they should remain exclusive. It would also be nice if this could be extended to MELEE weapons, lightsabers in particular. I've never played a Marauder or Assassin, Sentinel or Shadow, specifically because I can't use a SINGLE SABER. ROUTINE ACTIVITIES. The various classes would be doing things in the world of the game as a matter of course. Smugglers would be transporting goods and smuggling. Bounty Hunters would be hunting bounties. Agents would be spying, Troopers performing duty missions, etc. Bounty Hunters would follow a system similar to what we have during Bounty Week, except that they would be free to do them at all times. Other classes would have to wait for the event. Smugglers would be transporting goods and/or smuggling, as follows: 1. Smuggler would choose a job from the job board or contact. 2. He would go to the relevant cargo bay to acquire the goods. 3. He would then have to transport the goods from the bay to the spaceport. If the goods are legal, he might have to worry about bandits trying to steal from him. If they're illegal, he would have to avoid being scanned by the authorities. Being scanned would result in him being attacked and if defeated, the goods taken. Escape and a bounty gets put on him. 4. Once in his ship, he launches and flies to a departure point. This follows the same sort of thing as getting to the spaceport. Legal goods risks pirate attack. Illegal goods must avoid scans. THIS WOULD REQUIRE FREE FLIGHT. 5. Arrive at the destination and unload the goods for a reward. Illegal goods would be worth more, but the risk and difficulty would be higher. Agents would be given repeatable tasks, following generic mission parameters. That is, go to a location and hack a system, or steal something, or assassinate someone or what have you. Troopers would have similar kinds of generic missions: escorts, defenses, assaults, transport missions, etc. Anything military. I'm not sure what sorts of things Sith or Jedi would be doing day to day, though. I'm sure I can think of more, I'll add to the list as I do so.

I've been away a while, so coming back and finding items in the hundreds of millions... came as a bit of a rude shock. All my characters COMBINED might have around 12 million. There's absolutely no way I can afford much of ANYTHING on the GTN. It's a bit disheartening. Add to that the limit on Preferred status players is ONE MILLION. That means they're not going to be able to afford anything but the lowest level, most basic gear or items. It's pretty sad, really.

So, I'm back after another brief departure, and on my return I find myself wishing a few things were somewhat different. So, I have a few suggestions. First, it would be nice if we could go back to giving our companions what weapons we want. This is especially so with the Jedi/Sith companions, who are all stuck using saberstaff (which I loathe). It would also allow us to use some of the weapon rewards we get that USED to be there for our companions, but which they can no longer use (eg. Qyzen used to use a techblade, and there are mission rewards that include Qyzen's various techblades... even though he can no longer use them!). I see no functioal difference in what weapon the companions are using, so let us give them whichever weapon suits us (and them). Second, I thought I'd go back and do the Flashpoints I'd skipped over as I was leveling. I went to where the courier droids were, who would send me to the Fleet to talk to Satele Shan... but they seem to be missing. I've no idea why, or what benefit could be had from removing them. In any case, I started queueing for Flashpoints... and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. I'm a healer, I wouldn't have expected to have to wait so long. Now, SOME of the Flashpoints have solo modes (eg. Taral V, Maelstrom Prison, etc.), and those I could do right away without having to wait unduly. My suggestion therefore is that you make solo (Story) versions of ALL the Flashpoints, so we can at least DO them, even if the rewards are lessened. Third, I found myself acquiring this nifty Masterwork Force-Master gear. I equipped some, but duplicates were dropping. I decided to strip out the mods and upgrade my Lightsaber. It was VERY expensive to strip out the mods, and then when I went to put them in the Saber, it said I wasn't allowed to, the mods were only useful in the gear they came from. What then is the point of making them mods? Why would they be removable at all? More, why is there no warning that the mods can't be used in any other gear? At the very least, there should be some warning, or the mods should be unremovable. Ideally, I'd like to be able to USE them in other gear. I'd have other suggestions, and have posted them in years past, but these are new things I've been thinking about since my return. I hope the devs might consider implementing these changes.

Ya, there used to be droids for the early flashpoints, for example, on Nar Shaddaa beside the shuttles to the Fleet. They're not there anymore, and I don't see them on the Fleet either.

So, my character has gone through his story, done Ilum... and I was looking for something I could do. I realized, I'd never done any of the flashpoints, with the exception of Esseles, so I went to find the messenger droid that sends me back to Fleet to talk to Satele Shan about Hammer Station (the first of the Flashpoints). To my surprise, I couldn't find the couriers, and I was informed that they had been removed. This baffles me. What on earth is the point of removing them? Oh, I can go to the drop deck on Fleet and get the quest there, but Satele starts her dialogs with "Thanks for responding to my call..." I didn't GET any call, because the droids that do it have been removed. So what was the point of removing these NPCs? What benefit is there to be had from removing them?

Well... since I prefer single saber, I would play Guardian/Juggernaut. However, because playing them is incredibly frustrating and painful (because of the nonstop stuns, holds, sleeps, knocks, bounces, interrupts, etc.), and because their skills just are clunky and not very fluid, I prefer to play a Sage, and then get stuck in melee. Of course, they took away the Sage's lonely only saber skill, leaving them with only the basic attack... So, in answer to the question, Guardian (Juggernaut).

Again, I'm not bothered by the increased difficulty. Harder foes I can handle. Even the jumping puzzle (which I loathe) is manageable. The problem is that this quest line which has been soloable (even these last couple, with some difficulty) suddenly is undoable without additional players. Enemies, I can defeat given time and strategy. Jumping puzzles I can solve given time and strategy. It's IMPOSSIBLE for me to press four buttons at once, no matter how much time or strategy I use. THAT I object to.

So, I've spent the last week doing the macrobinocular missions on my Sage. I've been enjoying them, it's nice to have a challenge that isn't beating things up. The puzzles are a very welcome change. However, tonight something changed that has soured and essentially ended the whole arc for me. It began with a mission on Nar Shaddaa chasing some bad guy by jumping from car to car to car, all while moving around, and all while being assaulted by 12-1 odds, all strong or elite foes. The jumping was bad enough, I've NEVER enjoyed that crap, since I spent 16 hours trying to jump up a bunch of boxes in the original Armored Core. Fighting the foes was kind of a nice switch though, as they were actually a challenge. That brought me to the last mission, to find the Shroud. I infiltrated his lair, beat up some droids, then found I had to activate four buttons at once. I'm ONE person. In other words, the quest line is over, because I can't seem to get anyone to help with this damn thing. It's incredibly frustrating being trapped in a situation where I CANNOT do anything for myself. Spoiled the whole experience. All that work all that effort... and after spending hours on that damned jumping nonsense... to be basically given the finger by this idiotic mechanic... Disappointing. Frustrating.

Honestly, I don't like ANY of the Consular companions. Qyzen is a one note companion with no personality. Points, points, points, points, Scorekeeper, points. That's just about all of his dialogs in one line. Tharan is a little better, in that he's got some personality (and Holiday for some levity). The trouble is he's a one note insufferable ***. I'm a genius, I'm a genius. Did I mention I'm a genius? That's about all his dialogs amount to. Next we get Zenith. I don't know why I would want this irresponsible, reckless bonehead on my ship, but the game forces him onto me. His story is similarly one dimensional, with him directing EVERY dialog back to Greystar. Beyond that, he's just endlessly grump, grump, grump, with nothing interesting or appealing to engage us. Iresso is the next one, and he's bland and wishy washy. I'm only just getting him on my latest Sage, but he's so unremarkable that I can't remember anything about him or his story, despite having played through the Sage several times now. Finally we get Nadia, who is as bland as white bread. She has no personality beyond being whiny, and what makes that worse, she's the ONLY romantic option the Consular gets. This is exacerbated by her being added so LATE that there's almost no way to develop a relationship or even an attachment to her. So, ALL the Consular companions are exceedingly weak (especially compared to some of the cool companions other classes get, like Kaliyo, Vette, Jaesa, Kira, and others). I'm about as well to use C2N2. Oh, you wanted to know type... Well, most of the time, I play my companions on Healer, because they don't take all the kills for themselves, and it lets me feel like I'M the hero, not them.

Ah, I see. A shame, I was hoping to get an hour or two in before I had to go to work. I guess I won't be playing today.

I gather there was a maintenance today, that started at 6am (my time). It's now 1pm and the servers are still down... Any word on when they'll be up again? There's no information on the server status or system alerts pages.

That's nothing. Over at ESO the difference in DPS ranges from around 2500dps to upward of 55000dps (at the same level). Balance.

I keep going back to the Warrior too. It's visceral, and satisfying. Not as well written as the Agent storyline, but it's more directly satisfying, and has a fantastic villain, arguably the best villain in the game in Darth Baras. More, the Warrior has better companions in general, and has the most options romantically (Vette, Jaesa Dark or Jaesa Light). I once evaluated all the classes, their abilities and stories, and the Warrior was a firm #2 overall. If the Juggernaut's gameplay was better, it might have taken #1 (but the skills are awkward, slow, and don't synergize well, and the class suffers greatly from the ENDLESS stuns, holds, knocks, bumps, blinds, slows, snares, etc.).

Ya, there were a couple of minor issues, but they weren't as pronounced as they are now.

A favourite trick of mine is only available during the Rakghoul plague times. Go get infected with the plague, then go stand next to a spammer until you explode. He will then become infected with the plague, and after a time, he will ALSO explode. Silence, blessed silence, will ensue.

What irritates me is that the balance was actually pretty good back when the game launched. As usual, they went off fixing things that weren't broken, and they broke the game. Every design team seems to do this, even though they're ALWAYS warned not to, and the result is always the same.

I've seen this kind of thing over and over for 35 years, going all the way back to PnP games. One of the best examples of this was in Champions. In that game, there was an NPC bad guy called Dr. Destroyer (think Dr. Doom). The designers of the game gave him abilities that were so far beyond the power level of the characters that he was unusable. For instance, he was given a ranged killing attack that did 7d6 damage (for reference, a MAGNUM would do 2d6). This attack had its range penalties and limit removed. Destroyer was then given telescopic vision such that he could fire this attack 10 times per second at a distance of 7 kilometers. ONE shot was capable of killing the players' plane, so he blew that up with the first shot, then killed each player character with one shot each. It was after this that I revamped all the NPCs in that game for my own use. I came to realize that an enemy that is capable of doing that much damage was unplayable. More, his defenses couldn't be so unassailable that he couldn't be hurt. Thus, I came up with the following design philosophy. Enemy bosses should do about as much damage as the players do. If they are especially strong bosses, they can do up to 50% more damage. More, the defenses the boss has should never be more than 50% stronger than the PC is able to have. This allows them to actually hurt him (if they can't, there's no GAME). If the boss is supposed to be a particularly strong boss, his HEALTH should be increased to make him a threat. If he's to have stronger defenses, it should be as a result of some story element (such as Malak drawing power from captive Jedi, or some such). Either way, his damage needs to be limited as described, because the player HAS to be able to stay in the game, or there's no game. Of course, this assumes players and bosses are constructed the same way, using the same rules (eg. in this game, NPCs would have access to ALL the powers and skills players do, it would be like fighting another player). This general design scheme has informed ALL the games I've created or run ever since then, and in every case, it improved what was often unplayable situations. I've suggested it to various game designers over the years, and no one has ever so much as commented on it, let alone implemented it. It should also be noted this is not something written in stone. When called for, there would be flexibility. However, these cases should be RARE EXCEPTIONS, used only very carefully.