After launching the game with 4.1 I noticed a weird bug. Normally I run the game in fullscreen (windowed) mode. In Fullscreen(Windowed) mode no terminals or screens had any graphics (think the animations on the gtn terminal, the icon floating above mail, etc). None of the effects for animations were showing up either. Fire, gun shots, etc. The actual animations my character did showed up just fine. (this is not limited to just my character). However if I switched into Fullscreen mode I could see my animations again but I started to see issues with the terminal graphics. They seemed to be going through other objects. I could see them through walls and behind them. If I stay in fullscreen mode and turn off bloom, I can no longer see signs or the effects for my abilities. Example 1: This image of how it looks straight on (for reference) http://postimg.org/image/zbidtfa7x/ If I move to the left so that sign is behind the wall in front of me http://postimg.org/image/iy0a9qbrb/ Another similar looking at it through the wall behind it http://postimg.org/image/ja4dybdsj/ Example 2: This is how this computer terminal looks head on (green square) http://postimg.org/image/95gasfiol/ Standing behind a poll http://postimg.org/image/a0gwarbc3/ My Graphics settings: http://postimg.org/image/rjwlxrf4n/ http://postimg.org/image/ixi1p91ub/ I will post my DxDiag in a reply, I getting an alert about text limit Update: It is not just limited to terminals. it almost looks like it is anything that produces light. I have seen everything from the planet surface, gas effects, to speeders though other objects. http://postimg.org/image/bncwnisq3/ http://postimg.org/image/4pacprfnz/

2.6 GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB of ram, Intel Iris Pro 1536MB. As far as heat goes, my fans go pretty crazy when I am Windows anyways. But I try to avoid long gaming sessions on my macbook pro, but when I do I have it on a table and sometimes I use one of those cooling pads (wether they actually help for a macbook is up for debate). The one thing to remember about MacBooks though is that the entire case essentially acts like a heat sync. The case/your lap getting hot is to be expected and in itself is not necessarily bad (there is a point that this is no longer the case though). The macbook pro also does a really good job of getting rid of heat. While the macbook air does not have a retina screen, it also does not have as much power. Unfortunately within the gaming community people like to quickly bash Mac's. Some is warranted due to the limited support of gaming on the Mac OS. But there are plenty of reasons that you have to have a Mac and it makes a perfectly suitable (depending on the Mac) gaming machine if you install Windows.

Using a Mac for gaming is just fine, just not a Macbook Air. Macbook Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro lines are all built to do heavy graphics lifting (under Mac and not Windows however). The issue here is that the Air is simply not designed for graphics intensive work, made worse by running the game under Windows where it is not fully optimized to use the hardware unlike a game running natively on Mac. Sorry I know this is not helpful for the OP, but I get very annoyed when people jump at all mac's not being good for gaming. I use a macbook pro when I game away from home (with a bootcamp partition).

I don't think they ever said how long they would support it. I can't imagine when they said that they were seriously thinking of supporting it for multiple years.

I am a CE owner, why should they give us anything now? It has been almost 4 years since buying the collectors edition. I can't think of any other MMO that continues to add stuff for special edition owners for that long, and most don't add anything past what is initially in the game. It simply no longer makes business sense for them to keep adding things for CE owners.

There is just a very vocal minority that are complaining about certain aspects of the expansion but judging my the fleet and the new planets most seems very happy. However we do have to realize that with any expansion to pretty much any MMO, there will always be parts that some people hate and some love. However you can't think that just because you hate something that everyone agrees and the devs will change.

You do realize there is this magical thing called a contract? Voice actors sign these and agree to do voice work for a certain period of time so they are obligated to do new content. However can you imagine how crazy it would be if they crammed all 40 companions into 16 chapters?

Does this mean that the conquest system will not be disabled for a month as originally announced?

Except under special circumstances (like the update for the 4th of July), the cartel market updates around noon EST on Tuesday and the sales last for a week.

Again, I think its unlikely to happen. All I am saying is that we can't rule it out until we know the scope of the expansion. But I think you may want to look at Halo: The Master Chief Collection. (Ignoring the continued issues with that game) multiplayer switches between engines of 4 different games. The obvious difference is that assets are not shared, but it still does it. My only point is that IF the expansion is actually going to be where you hit 60, you start the new storyline and you loose the ability to access any of the current content and you only have access to things added with the expansion (which is a big question they have not answered). Thinking that the new content could be built using different technology is not out of the question. Now, I also think that if this was the case they would have already said so so its doubtful.

I am only not ruling it out due to how the expansion looks. I still think it is highly unlikely, but not impossible.

As a general rule. I would always post on these threads saying that no way in hell we are getting frostbite or any other engine... However. This expansion paints an interesting picture. It sounds like there is a strong possibility that once you start the storyline at level 60 (your character goes into carbonite and wakes up years later) the entire galaxy will be different. It is very possible this includes literally everything in the game (either planets are overhauled or you loose access to certain planets). In that case, it may not be a stretch to think that if they were modifying/re-creating all of the planets and places you can go anyways. That all level 60+ content would be frostbite while keeping the old engine for legacy content. Still a huge undertaking and I am not sure its it something they would do due to other complicated issues (like switching engines when you go between characters, the UI, and basically anything else that is shared between the engines (abilities, gear, cartel market stuff). More just saying that if this expansion is to the scale that it seems like it is, until we start getting more details about how the expansion will actually look. We can't rule it out. Also don't forget that shadow realms team was building a frostbite game. So they have people in austin that were working with that engine.

It is worth pointing out that the shadow realm team was reportedly rolled in to support SWTOR (even though no one believed it). Also this content isn't done. They still have about 4 months before it is scheduled to be released. To be announced they only need to know what is coming and have enough to prove it exists. I think saying that it had to green lighted around RoHC is a bit of a stretch, at least not at this scale. They may have had plans for it around that time but I wouldn't be surprised if within the last year or so was when the scale of the project hit where it is now. I am mixed on the involvement of BW Canada. Unless they were on a serious hiring spree recently they have their own large projects they are working on (continued DLC for DA:I, next mass effect, and the new IP. I would rather find out that they seriously ramped up the people at BW Austin, especially with the continued story post release that it is talking about.

It could mean 2 things: -It could mean general optimizations they have made to how certain parts the game load what it needs (like the crafting tabs) -They have said before they they don't want to give specifics when they do optimization improvements to a specific part of the game because it may only affect certain hardware configurations. By giving a more generalized note like this people won't complain if they don't see a huge increase in performance.

A partial replacement for TORHead is currently live. Not complete but it is something

I have mixed feelings. As a gay man I really want SGR companions. However I really don't want to have to pay more for it... it feels... weird... As much as I want to romance them, I don't want Bioware to ever change the existing companions. As it stands right now they are defined as being straight. I hate "player sexual" characters in video games. Characters that will match up to whatever sexual orientation your character is (not BI since their sexuality isn't part of their story and they won't talk about either gender). I prefer characters like Dorian, and other wonderful characters in Mass Effect and Dragon age that are actually a specific sexuality (gay, lesbian, Bi, straight, whatever)... I keep hoping that as part of a story expansion we will get a new companion or 2 that actually has a defined sexuality that isn't straight. I am somewhat happy with RoHC adding 2 (?) characters that were gay or lesbian. If you were the opposite gender you couldn't romance them, I wish they turned out to be companions but at least its something. Edit: I can't find it but a few key Bioware people did a bit conversation about the issues with "player sexual" characters.

I think at worst this won't affect crafting at all (honestly how often do most players that bother to augment their gear change their look) and at best will actually increase demand. Right now for me I have my orange gear augmented. When I get a new piece I just pull out the pieces and put it in the orange gear. However now that this is in place. It may be worth evaluating the price difference between: Current: -pulling out the pieces in the old set and putting them in the new set (replacing whats there), which is a lot of credits Future: -Buying a new aug kit -Just switching out the gear, giving me the ability to sell the other one for credits (or reverse engineer). I don't know for sure what the better option is yet, but I will be pricing this next time I get gear.

I have only really seen people complain about the performance of Rishi and Yavin 4, and that was mostly their servers not being able to handle the crazy amount of people when it launched. Seems for the most part performance issues (not known bugs) have mostly died down. At least my prospective. Outside of that. I would be really surprised if this would actually impact performance. But I guess it is technically possible.

I am betting that we will get the packs tomorrow. I imagine we were supposed to get them last week but didn't since the patch was delayed.

We used to get notice when packs were going to be embargoed (generally less then a week). I noticed today that 2 packs were removed and I am curious why we are not getting these notices anymore.

It was on sale for 2 days on Feb 10th for 600CC http://www.swtorcartel.com/cartelitems/244

Changing hands could affect it, But Disney is not against gay story arcs at all. They did all of these (yes Disney owns Marvel): http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/disney-channel-debuts-lesbian-couple-good-luck-charlie-article-1.1603673 (TV show on Disney Channel with Lesbian Parents) http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/marvel-comics-hosts-first-gay-wedding-in-astonishing-x-men-20120522 (Gay Wedding in Astonishging X-Men) I can't find a link (because i don't remember the name) but they do this short film type thing where they show a kid and their family. One of those within the last year or so showed a kid and his 2 dads. Absolutely no issue if you are a same sex couple and decide to get married at Disney. Other cases that I don't know thanks to just how many divisions are within Disney.

Blizzard uses loading screens for the exact same reason SWTOR does. If you use your Hearthstone to travel or you travel to one of the other continents you get a loading screen. If you go into a Warzone, Raid, Dungeon... loading screen. WoW just loads the assets while you normally walk around. This is the exact same thing we have here. You get a loading screen when you travel to a drastically different part of the game (Warzone, Operation, Flashpoint, Different Planet). But once you are on a planet, unless you enter a flashpoint or operation you don't see loading screens.

So in addition to the many other threads that already exist about this. You make YOUR FOURTH thread about this? I am just glad that there is a way to get the certificates at all that isn't getting lucky with packs. (Which I honestly never thought would happen))

I am not sure how this is a "hidden cost". You can still use the item when you get it. Nothing on the item or anywhere in the cartel market does it say that you can use an item multiple times and that should be the assumption. With collections you are paying for an additional ability to get multiple copies of an item (in some cases possibly saving you money trying to get that item again). Probably worth pointing out that direct buy mounts in swtor (the more expensive ones) are around $20 and cost about $5 to unlock in collections. Which total is about the same price as buying a mount with cash in WoW.