With the game failing as hard as it is right now, I cant help but look back at ToR and think about the lessons learned from this MMO. I learned some things that made me think, BioWare was on the right path but somehow got lost on the way. But just like everything, there are stages of evolution. And evolution never pays off without risk. Hopefully, MMO gaming will have learned something from BioWare, choice matters. I say this because I believe the next MMO that chooses to endeavor into the Star Wars Universe should stay with the idea of choice. Allow me to describe my ideal vision of SW: The Next MMO. (Or even ToR now, just entirely revamped) TL; DR @ Bottom For Those Who Don't Enjoy Reading I Need A Home World.... Imagine starting the game neutral. You are fresh to galaxy and you choose your character based off what you would like to be. (For the sake of this we will stay with the class premise known to this game.) Say you choose to become a Bounty Hunter, but instead of starting off in a world like Hutta based just for your class story, you instead start off on a world based on your chosen race. As you load into your race world you are surrounded by things unique to you and your race. However, your starter planet is currently neutral, you are factionless! You have yet to be tainted by the poison of the empire or the good of the republic. But as you begin to quest you are asked to make choices. Choices that earn you light, dark, or neutral points. Dark points lead you towards the Empire faction, Light points leading you to the Republic faction and Neutral points leading you to your own unique faction that is as shady as the choices you have chosen to make. In essence, this makes your choices mean something, want to go full on dark? Fine! No problem... you will eventually be given the option to join the empire! But if one day you should change you're mind... you have to go back and redeem yourself, make new choices, change your fate, change your path and eventually be given the option to change your faction. This simple idea gives the player the option to be an individual. You are in control of your destiny and are not pigeon holed into 'one faction.' Your choice matters, choose well. I Need A Companion... So now as you are questing through the planet of "Chiss Homeland" on your bounty hunter level 7 leaning towards the dark side, but not sure what you want yet, but you know this... you need help, you can't go this alone. (Now, this is where choice again should come into play. I ask myself frequently in this game, why must I have Mako? I don't like Mako, I feel forced to make light side choices based off of gaining affection for her.) So lets scrap the whole idea of class specific companions and toss it out the window. Lets base companions on planet and dark/light/neutral options. So for "Chiss Homeland" lets assign Mako/Kaliyo/Khem/Vette/Aric/Corso to that planet and keep these companions available to all players on any starting planet. Now, as you quest through your start zone your dark side choices have lead you to quest hubs that will have Kaliyo and Khem at them. (The general idea here is that quest hubs, instead of being linear e.g. your level 24 you should be here! It is your level 24, your leaning towards the dark side, this quest hub is unique to you. Respectively someone who is 24 and neutral will be led to another quest hub with Aric/Corso and someone who is 24 and light side would be lead towards another quest hub with Vette/Mako.) This makes your companions unique to the choices you make. They mean something! So you get quests from both Kaliyo and Khem, you work through problems for each one of them gaining affection from them as you progress through your starter planet. However, at the end of your planet, you have to make a choice. Which one would you offer a job to come with you? Kaliyo? Khem? Who do you prefer? So lets say you pick Kaliyo, you worry the DaShade is as likely to eat you as he is to help you. Now, Kaliyo gives you an option as you gain her as your companion... Kaliyo says, "So boss, you tell me, what do you need?" Player Wheel Options: I need help healing/damaging/tanking Now your companion becomes not only someone you may like and enjoy for the affiliation to the faction your leaning towards, but she isn't pigeon holed into a certain role. You pick the role that best suits your play style. Now, do this for every planet, but lock it so that each companion only can fill one role. Say you picked heals for Kaliyo, none of your future companions can be a healer, they can only be a tank or a dps etc and the options dwindle to just range dps/melee dps after you assign a tank etc. Basically from this point on you scrap companions being class based and assign companions to planets/faction choices respectively. Basically you could be a Chiss Smuggler, who has Aric as a tank, leaning towards the neutral faction. This makes characters more unique, everyone is different. Better yet, you may have the same companion as the guy next to you but they could both do very different things. You Have Reached Level II Dark! Congrats, your choices over a couple of planets have lead you to level II dark. You get a summons in the mail from the empire. You go complete quest and enlist into the Empire! Now that you have a faction, PvP has opened up for you. This is where life gets interesting, especially for people on a PvP server. With the planets no longer limited to republic/imperial factions you now have huge planets with large open areas to accommodate the different quest hubs based off factions. As soon as you land on these planets you are flagged (unless on a PvE server in which case PvE rules apply unless in contested zones.) Now for the sake of this, we will say your a level 25 Imperial Bounty Hunter. You have natural enemies, anyone light side aligned is red to you. Fight to the death, or hide and slide away the choice is yours. Neutral factions however appear as yellow to you. This gives the choice. You guys are neutral to one and other, unless you openly attack that person they are not your natural enemy. Additionally, wins against players of another faction award you darkside/lightside/neutral faction points relative to your faction choice, credits and valor points to be applied to valor ranking. (No, the player who looses doesn't loose his credits, we will just call it a stipend issued from your faction for helping to eliminate the enemy!) Giving credits and faction alignment based of world pvp kills helps to create an urgency for world PvP. It literally pays to play... (I would also note, you would not be awarded valor points to apply to your ranking for any player who is not within 2-3 levels of you which should help eliminate ganking/farming of low level players.) You are now playing a game where choices mean something, world pvp pays to engage in, and classes/companions are as unique as the choices you make. The game continues to progress like this until you reach cap level. So I Am 50 Tell Me About My End Game... PvP So you're now a level 50 Imperial Bounty Hunter! You're valor rank 30 which makes you a gladiator. You are now able to purchase PvP gear with your valor points from PvP kills. You have three options for engaging in PvP. RvR, WZs, and World Objectives. Allow me to elaborate. (RvR) In RvR you queue up and are teleported to a massive map with multiple objectives, each match houses 100's of players. Basic rules are engage the enemy, capture objectives, claim the main base. Keep it as simple as possible since it is hard to coordinate that many people. This map would be a place to go to grind out valor points, enjoy massive instanced PvP for people on PvE servers, try out builds, new gear, practice etc the most leisurely form of pvp available. To keep participation high, this would be the place to grind out easy valor points for purchasing starter/mid level PvP gear, mounts, vanity, appearance items, and titles etc. (WZ's) In my opinion all WZ's (especially in this game need a revamp). Arena is not the answer to competitive PvP but Ranked Warzone's have potential to fill that niche. But lets take it to the next level shall we, 8v8v8, three factions, three different teams facing off, one objective, capture the base and hold it. Winner takes all. Hold the base by having the most players from your team alive in the base The longer people stay alive and continue to fight, the more your team controls the base. (I'm open to input here its a work in progress in my mind.). Participating in WZ's requires queue'ing with a premade. Additionally, WZ's award valor points that can be spent towards top end pvp gear, exclusive pvp mounts, exclusive pvp titles etc. (World PvP) Take Ilum revamp it entirely. Have end game mats and material available on that planet to whoever controls the world. Thus end game materials and crafting can become viable and gives a sense of urgency to controlling World PvP objectives. (On another note, for the PvE folks completing boss encounters in raids opens up areas where you have access to the same end game mats to harvest so you can PvE for end game materials as well.) PvE Endgame No changes come to mind immediately except making end game mats available via raiding. If anyone has ideas, please feel free to post them here. Raiding has and always will be in my mind, learn mechanics, go beat boss up, get gearz, rinse repeat. End Game Craffting In an effort to make end game crafting important and necessary I suggest that all orange armor come from crafting. Mats, schematics, materials can all be harvested off planets, end game materials from raiding/controlling world pvp objectives. Additionally, sets now should only contain 4 pieces. (Chest, Legs, Hands, Boots) Helmets, Ear Pieces, Wrists, Belts, Implants Relics for BiS PvE and PvP end game should be made by players. Again open to suggestions here. Anyways... these are my ramblings... the ideas I had for ToR. What ToR could have been, should have been, What I believe could have been ideal for this game, if not this one for a future SW MMO. Because choice is what I believe players want. TL; DR- This is the kind of MMO I would like to see made, one with choice and options that actually mean something in a Star Wars Universe.

Lmfao!

Lmao... I cannot even say I am shocked at this point. Game officially just took an arrow to the knee.

QFT and might I add.... LMFAO

People paid to watch the Titanic movie... People love watching crap go down in flames! People will pay to participate in watching something burn! Dont act like its not true. That's why when their are accidents on the side of the road people stop and stare, duh.

You said you don't like to disclose personal information... However your first paragraph of you OP was a small summation of your life story. Contradiction- A combination of statements, ideas, or features of a situation that are opposed to one another. Reconsider not getting educated....

Your bolded statement there... was contradicted in your original post here... As for your claim to fame and fortune, I highly, HIGHLY doubt it. Additionally, you should have quit while you were ahead. You made valid points, you could have left it at that. HOWEVER, your youth is showing in your later posts as naivety and impulsiveness are stripping away any credibility you have. I suggest you desist immediately and save face before the adults tear you apart.

Ur sig made me giggle

O Hi I remember you, you whispered my character on Dromund Kaas and told me how you would do dirty things to me. Nice to see you troll the forums too!

Aside from him getting the century wrong, (he is after all only 14) I find it laughable that even a child can see how flawed some of the things are in this game. Sorry you disliked the game, however I would say this post, while obviously has some points, could have been put into the unsubscribes thread where 30k+ other people have already discussed these things till they are blue in the face.

My experience with group finder.... On a healer - 45 minute queues On a dps - Well... right now I have gained two levels and been online for 3 hours with no queue pop. GG BioWare, cross server should have been implemented.

Not everyone likes what you like. I shouldn't have to play the way you do to enjoy a game. In fact your post seems pretty self indulgent, play the game this way or you wont enjoy it? Maybe you should walk a mile in someone elses shoes and gain some perspective. It also sounds like you want this game to be an interactive book, not a game. I want to enjoy the story, get to 50 and be the hero in fp's, pvp, world objectives and battles. Not roleplay on alts for days. So I entirely understand how people want spacebar runs. Add an option to LFG to have 'non-story' runs. A lot of us would appreciate it. More options are always beneficial.

An option needs to be added to group finder for 'story mode' and 'non-story mode.' I can understand you want to watch the cut scenes, however after seeing them four hundred thousand times I am the jerk in a FP harassing people to spacebar. And frankly, I am not the minority. So I think this needs to be addressed by BioWare. I shouldnt have to keep sitting through the story, its not how I want to play, however people who want to see the story shouldn't have to put up with folks like me either.

Hands down winner..... CAPTAIN UNEXPECTED DICKPUNCH (Scoundrel) -Iron Citadel

I think the people complaining in this thread fit in to one or two catagories.... 1) You dont know how to play your class. -or- 2) You dont understand the mechanics of other classes therefore you dont know how to counter them. Example: I am in a wz with a sage @ 50. She says "Stop healing me, let me die I am out of force." This person, also told me I was stupid since I informed her if she managed her force and cds she wouldn't have this problem and that dying is the worst way to handle it. She then told me the patch broke her class, it wasnt her fault and that I needed to 'L2Read Patch Notes.' Example: Sage gets ball in Huttball. *****es about people passing to him because he dies to quickly. Mean while instead of force running away from the melee on him, he plants his feet and begins to heal like a frantic lunatic while eating ravage from 3 juggs. Did he really expect to live? Hello, aoe knock back run like hell, pop ur HoT, pass then heal.... I can go on the list is endless of things I have seen sages/sorcs do then blame the 'nerf' for breaking them, or the light armor. Honestly, the problem is when you rolled that class it was so outrageously overpowered you never realized it till you were brought in line with everyone else. Learn mechanics, effectively pop cd's, and you will be fine. I know, I seen sages/sorcs own still all the time. You just have to think and not mash your forehead on the keyboard.

I dont care what they see. Why should I. What are they gonna do? Throw me out of a group because I dont have enough credits in my bags? So what if I have died a lot and they can see it in my statistics, maybe I die a lot because I played the objectives and just threw myself at turrets to keep a cap from happening. Personally, if you want to hide this info thats fine, frankly I dgaf what people think about me, my stats, or my build or my tree. This game is so cookie cutter anyways its not like it matters.

Yes, they can copy your spec, gear, etc. But they cant copy your skills, ability to adapt when **** gets hairy, and dedication, and that;s what makes a player truly great. Gear and specs are just that, plus, most of that **** you can just google anyways.

I have four Hot Bars and I am using almost every ability on them. I dont see the issue... Granted I use some less frequently then others. For example 1-12 (I have a naga) are the things I spam most frequently, Kolto Infusion, Slow Release Med Pack, Kolto Cloud, my insta heal etc... Thats one whole bar. Then I have another bar that is strictly attacks, this is my ctrl + 1,2,3,4 etc. It includes my slows, stuns, melee damage attacks, movement break cd, etc. Thats another whole bar. Next, I have an AoE bar, it is my shift + 1,2,3 etc it has my bombs, adrenals, buffs, med pacs and wz med pacs on it. Three bars in! My fourth bar is my mounts, legacy crap, basically my junk bar. This is usually alt + 1,2,3 etc. Moral of the story, while one of these bars doesnt get used much, the rest of this **** gets used all the time, and if they take even one of my abilities from me I will QQ like its no ones business. I use EVERYTHING, even if its only rarely. So no, dont take my skillz.

Ok, so this is like the tenth time today this has happened. I get into Huttball, I am a Frog Dog. Yes I am sure I am a Frog Dog. Score Card Reads as follows http://tinypic.com/r/166g9r4/6 Whats up with this... Why is this getting messed up? I am not a Rotworm, I don't have the ball, my enemy team has the ball...

Agree with OP 100% For that matter can we get someone with yellow text in this thread with an answer other than soon? Some information on PAID transfers would be lovely, whats the hold up?

It is exactly what it sounds like. You outrange attacks that do damage or LoS (Line of Sight) them so they can't complete a damaging attack on you, thus saving you HP. If you are a ranged class you should be kiting all melee and out ranging caster attacks. *Edit* Best example I can think of is say a merc is casting tracer missle, you run behind a pole so he cant finish a cast to do damage to you. Then pop back out and attack again. It makes him run after you, like chasing a kite.

This is so quote worthy... I almost choked to death on my soda. +1 To you sir for making me LMAO

This is too much text and I enjoy reading.... Which says a lot.

I put all mine in recruit gear! It makes me feel like I have a whole team of pvp players on mah star ship!

1) Voss 2) Kel Dor 3) Nautolan