Yeah, I'd probably say "Those will never get implemented in the game, because they are against the lore". If I had much of any confidence left in the developers. They have shown a real propensity to half-arse it in a lot of aspects of the game.

More and more "give us an appearance tab!" threads seem to pop up on the different boards in the last days. I hope things concentrate in this one, for reasons of tradition.

It's the clown wars, alright. Set bonuses alone ensure that.

If the mod system is worked over that it can be used effectively at level 50 ( and it doesn't result in four to five times the workload to maintain it over normal raiding... that's just unreasonable for a cosmetic system ), then it should be maintained. If the developers think that everybody has to wear the incredibly ugly clownsuits they prepared for us at level 50, then an appearance tab should be implemented ASAP.

Not much more? Mounts come in 90%/100%/110% speeds. Yeah, not all that exciting. And, yes, this game has way too much forced empty space, where nothing happens. Try changing between two planets a few times. Travel to spaceport -> go to elevator -> take shuttle to orbital station -> run to hangar access -> get to spaceship -> travel to new planet -> go through docking tunnel -> run to orbital shuttle -> run through spaceport -> drive to new location. That's just to change zones. Yippee.

If you love the Clone Wars, it surely ruins immersion. Otherwise, it increases that factor of the game, since you see people wearing different outfits. Which makes the game closer to real life, i.e. it enhances a sense of realism.

This is patently wrong. Have you not set foot on the planet and followed the PvE storyline?

Let's just say that a guy named Professor Walsh is rubbing his hands and going "Good. Goooood." Well, actually he'll be saying "told you so!". ^^

Jedi Consular has a bad to mediocre story and the majority of her/his companions are either bland or downright horrible. One companion is cool, but he rubs a lot of people the wrong way and he is a pretty bad choice for a force mystic. The female love interest is ultra-nice, but she is so nice that she has close to zero conflicts.

A very well written post. I applaud you. I am unsuscribing for RL reasons, but it was made quite easier by some of the things you wrote about and other problems with the game, all of which can not just be fixed easily. There are big issues with crafting, companions, the lack of comfort options and a general antiquated design goal of "keeping the player logged in as long as possible". The latter one is especially egregious, because there are just so many damn time-wasters in this game, where you are essentially just doing nothing but running from place a.) to place b.) and have to jump through lots of hoops to do it. Just traveling from one planet to another becomes a chore, because of the several stations you must pass and the including loading screens. But the conflict of an MMO with making the player character central to the story is a factor which may have played a big subconcious role in my growing disenchantment with the game.

It's one of the points on my list of "baffling design decisions of SWTOR". And, yes, it's a pointless time-waster.

And believe me, this isn't easy for me. I've been a huge Star Wars fan since 1983, I've been reading the forum every day since December 2008, actively campaigned for gear appearance customization and defended the game on multiple occasions to friends. It's just that there are design decisions which I cannot follow logically and which really impact my enjoyment of the game. Another example which I forgot in my list of really problematic game systems is the implementation of companions. Supposedly we should be able to take the one which like most everywhere. Only that this is clearly not working. Healer companions are superior to every other type ( unless you play a heal specced character yourself ), so for my Jedi Shadow the choice of companion comes either down to taking Tharan Cedrax or gimping myself, because I want to quest with Nadia Grell at my side.

While I didn't per se "rush" to level 50 ( I took care to watch all the cutscenes and did plenty of senseless running around, because I didn't know the best paths to take ), I reached 50 after two weeks. I am quitting, although for not directly game-related reasons, but for RL ones. However, I see a few endemic problems with the game as it is, problems which would necessitate an overhaul of some parts of the game systems. - Unnecessary running. The worlds are gigantic and there is a lot of just running for runnings sake. Like the "get on your ship, get off your ship" mambo between planets. - Crafting is not only largely useless at endgame, it also keeps you logged in all day. This has turned into more of a hassle than a feature. - Ranged classes are clearly superior to melee classes. And three of the four force user AC's are melee. That's... not good for Star Wars fan retention. IMO, of course. - Endgame sets look horrendous. I mean, seriously. And since they have indispensable set bonuses, everybody is going to have to wear them. Which makes the orange item mod system a joke. And so on. I am sure all the bugs will be fixed within the next two months, but those points above are deeply built into the game. I guess I am spoiled by how polished WoW has gotten over the years, but they are points where I have problems tolerating them. We'll see how things look in a few months, when my RL issues are resolved.

The game most assuredly has a lot of needless empty running time built into it. It's one of the things I regard as a fallacy of MMO design: "You need to make absolutely sure that players are forced to spend as much time as possible in the game to accomplish anything of note". WoW got over that years ago... I hope the SWTOR devs do it a faster than the ones from Blizzard. An MMO should make you feel welcome and give you the chance to accomplish something in a relatively short amount of time. SWTOR doesn't really do that. Even crafting requires you to stay online a lot, because otherwise you'll miss companions returning from missions.

Don't worry, OP, BioWares solution is already in the game: Set bonuses. Endgame sets look horrendous, but have really good set bonuses, rendering the whole orange item system meaningless after you finish leveling. To make it clear: I want appearance customization, I have been fighting for an appearance tab or something similar for well over a year on the boards. But the current system has huge problems. So while the orange gear system is maintainable during the leveling process ( although it complicates it a lot ), endgame will force us all into wearing hideous sets and all look like clones. So the OP shouldn't worry too much, BioWare is on his side. Just not during leveling.

Naja, sie wurde im späteren Beta erst wirklich durchgezogen, dann aber auch konsequent. Die Leute die das nicht glauben wollen, sollten einfach mal zwei der Spiegelklassen so auf Level 16 hochspielen. Sie werden sehen, das man genau die gleichen Fähigkeiten und Talente bekommt, nur mit anderem Namen. Nur das halt anscheinend einige Fähigkeiten der imperialen Klassen durch "Animation = Resultat" Design leicht besser sind als diejenigen der gespiegelten Republik-Klasse. Noch hat keiner ein Beispiel vorgebracht, wo dies einmal umgekehrt der Fall ist. Dies bevorzugt die sowieso schon populärere Seite noch mehr, was nicht gut für das Spiel sein kann.

You do that, I am sure we'll eventually win. And I guess they are just playing the game intensely. Eventually, Seon and others will be back. Also, there are quite a number of threads about the horrible endgame gear and how the mod system fails at endgame. The problem is only that without a search function everybody is creating new threads and/or losing track of his own posts. And subbing to every thread you post in also sucks. Well, I still have until the 18th apparently, so we will still be talking, but I want to take a moment to thank you, Dutch, Seon, Ethern, Gallinos and lots of others for the excellent discussion.

Einfach mal ne Bonusserie auslassen und für den nächsten Charakter warmhalten, dann ist's schnell wieder vorbei mit dem Levelvorteil. Ist mir mit meinem Jedi-Schatten passiert, weil ich einige Planeten nicht mehr sehen konnte. Und die Mobs sind auf Deinem Level oder hast Du schon wieder 2+ Level mehr als sie? Es kann auch einfach an der Klasse liegen, der Jedi-Schatten braucht selbst als Tank am besten immer seinen Heiler-Companion, sonst werden normale Goldmobs echt zu Kämpfen, wo man mit 10-20% Gesundheit endet. Manche Klassen im Spiel sind anderen klar überlegen, was den PvE Content angeht.

<sigh> I just unsubbed, however not for appearance reasons ( although it is one part of the game which just gets on my nerves ), but for other, college related, stuff. I will surely be back in a few months, you guys keep on the good fight. I'll look at the thread until my current playtime runs out, so I may still post a few times.

Compared to other BioWare storylines, this one was mostly "meh!". The first chapter was downright terrible, the second and third ones got better. But not better than average. There definitely needed to be a "I am the vanguard of your destruction. You exist, because we allow it. You will end, because we demand it".

Klar, mit überleveln kann man jeden Content schaffen. Sollte ja keine Überraschung sein. Und wenn man ab level 40+ nicht aufpasst, kann man recht schnell mit der Schnauze im Dreck liegen, schon gegen 2 silberne Gegner. Außer man nimmt den Heiler Begleiter, dann ist alles easy.

I'm leveling a Jedi Knight and, so far, Kira has been far more interesting as a love interest.

Did it today at level 25, killed him on the first try, wasn't even close. Although I did use a medpack ( one of the sort which heals both my companion and me ) when I was at 50%. But I didn't even need to pop Saber Ward, so maybe I am just used to fighting boss mobs by now and interrupting them with a well placed kick. Got a Jedi Shadow at level 50, so I've seen my share of difficult class story boss encounters.

You get a set of mails from her after your marriage, three so far for me. But they don't add that much to the whole plot. So, yeah, Nadia is for you if you want a completely conflict free romance. She just loves you abjectely and that's it.

Sure, if it otherwise has no stats and only adds it for 15 seconds every three minutes. I mean, you would surely wear that, right?