I can imagine that you've never worked in a large scale development studio that runs multiple departments. You don't just "Share" resources from one department to another, If the WOW department wants to use the WC3 engine, they have to "BUY" the engine from the WC3 department. Granted, the "BUY" is on paper only, but you need to accurately assess the total development cost of a product, and if you're taking software from another department without paying for it (Someone paid for it originally), you do not have an accurate cost assessment.

Ultima online was 2D and did not use a graphics engine as we know it today. However, it used a considerable amount of material from Ultima VIII. Everquest did build it's own, but considering it was the first 3D MMORPG ever, I kinda have to say that this is not the norm. WOW, modified the WC3 engine to fit there needs. So they created their own, but not specifically for WOW.

According to: http://www.gamespot.com/news/ects-2001-world-of-warcraft-announced-2810134 Blizzard initially used an engine that they had developed for a previous game. That does not count as creating a unique engine for the game. AKA they took an existing engine and modified it to fit their needs. Edit: I R GOOD GRAMMARZ

Could you cite examples of MMO's that took less time and less money to develop that created their own Engines and were commercially successful? I do not believe that they exist.

Should work just fine, I haven't done it with the physical media, but have done it with digital downloads. Edit: Yes your characters will still be there.

I'll call your BS. What may seem more complicated doesn't always make it so. I can tell you what IS more complicated. A server system that is capable of housing over a million individuals (Compared to EVE Online's 150,000-300,000.)

Just bolded the important terms. Again, I'm happy to wait until we have some kind of meter that will allow us to truly measure this before screaming the sky is falling. I'll even bookmark this thread and come back and apologize to you and let you tell me "I Told You So!" if it turns out to be correct, but right now, I don't think being chicken little helps anything.

You're absolutely correct in that regard. I do want to point out that there appear to be significant heat reduction talent synergies with alacrity that make me wary of agreeing with you. Hence I need to see numbers.

It will always come down to a question of reliable throughput vs longevity. Alacrity will give us more throughput at the cost of Longevity, this has always been and always will be the case (For those of us that played WoW anyway). This is the same arguement, but we have no way of guessing which one is more effective at this point in time, without some serious number crunching. Which is not possible in this game at this time. And let me state that in WOW, haste won out a vast majority of the time. So yes, you are just guessing.

Can you give me definitive numbers that back up your statement? Oh wait, we don't have combat logs yet. I think you're just "Guessing".

Hold your breath.

<Opinion> Here is what I think could change about the Merc->Arsenal tree: I feel that to possibly combat both of these, make it to where you can use unload and power shot while moving. IE just like rapid shots. Change the animation on Tracer Missile to the same animation as missile blast. This way we do not have to stay bent over all the time while dpsing. Simplify some of the abilities that Mercenaries get. I feel there is alot of bloat that could be combined that would make the class more intuitive. IE Explosive Missle/Fusion Blast, Missile Blast and Tracer Missile, Power Surge and Thermal Sensor Override. Again, will these make the class better? I don't know, but those are a few things I wouldn't mind seeing. </Opinion>

This guy has it correct, You will not get compensation for your decision to play on a high population server. If an ISP is experiencing issues, you cannot use your internet. I SWTOR has queues then you can roll onto another server and continue accessing the service.

Hello there, You're anecdotal evidence does not negate the fact that every MMO ever released has had ques on at least some of it's servers. You may not have experienced them because of the server that you chose to play on, but they have definitely been there. Queuing players allows initial populations to spread out evenly across many game servers. Without this feature you will end up with everyone on very few realms and everyone's play experience greatly impacted. I for one am glad that the ques have been implemented at a low level, and I look forward to the day when the population limits are increased and the queues go away.