Exactly. There's a reason why there's such a small number of people who have proliferated through the years. The industry has huge washout numbers, probably more than Hollywood-proper. (And by "washout" I mean people who actually get their shot and fail or realize they can't do it.) The industry has huge turnover. Any who think studios will just be able to find other people without experiencing a huge drop in quality are kidding themselves.

Spreadsheets and target dummies: MMO's in a nutshell.

They have, however, changed the accessibility of content. Multiple times. And, any way you slice it up, the chapter is content, which is the OP's point.

I don't know if "more difficult" is the right word, but ranged definitely has advantage in some cases. As poster above said, in PvP, it really depends on who you're playing with and who you're playing against. However, as far as PvE, the one big advantage came with movement casting. With the way most boss mechanics are, any decent kiting Lighting or Arsenal (and Virulence to a lesser degree, I suppose) can maintain almost 100% time on target while navigating mechanics.

I think the overall "feel" was inspired by Luminara's robes, obviously, with some ideas grabbed off the garb of various background senators and what-not thrown in for good measure. It's par for the course as about 90% of the game's production (art/sound/etc.) is pretty PT derivative. As far as any real-world artistic inspiration, I really have no idea. I'm sure you could draw some connection to various monks--especially Hindu and Tao Buddhists--but that's more on George, I think.

I suppose they're "okay" in the same sense someone who's 100lbs. overweight and a heavy smoker is okay. They may be going through the daily motions fine, but they certainly aren't healthy. And the future outlook is pretty grim. And I think the recent 90cc transfers were basically, to extend the analogy, hitting the sauce on top of everything else. All four starter planets on Harb have been as busy as I've seen them in a long time, all week. My guess is a lot of people transferred one mule and have been re-rolling other characters. I expect this trend to continue.

Nifty. But I type slow and like to fact check, so it took my longer than four minutes to write the post.

I think the rumor was about RLC. My guess is Jaesa was one of the companions they wanted to add to KofFE, but she was just unavailable. She was a series regular on a TNT series through the end of last year and shot two films. And that was on top of her Robot Chicken work. And she (somewhat) recently had her second child. I think it was simply a matter of being too busy. And the "rumor" started as they do. However, a lot of people seem to have the impression that she's "too good" now, but, AFAIK, she's been conformed for Tifa in the FF7 remake, so I doubt that's the case.

The big caveat here is, of the games whose grinds are actually "worse" than SWTOR's, I can't think of one where players have to pay to participate. That is to say, they're all fully F2P with the option to P2P instead of P2P with the option to F2P.

^ It seems to me like it basically just rubber-bands now, which, as you say, is silly.

Think back to when you were a kid and you asked a parent to make you a PBJ. But, instead of whipping out the Jiff and Smuckers Grape, they start throwing together some bizarre concoction of unsalted "organic" peanut butter and apricot jam on multi-grain sourdough bread. You tell them that it looks gross and you're not going to eat it. They don't listen and hand it to you anyway. And you just sit at the table staring at your plate all grumpy-faced. So after a few minutes they cave and say, "Fine, I'll make it better." They pick up, take it back to the kitchen and start slicing some rhubarb to throw on top.

Not to mention the nerf is completely antithetical to how GC was promoted. As I said in a different thread, it's a total case of "any color you like..."

Didn't Ben say something in the launch Stream about taking a break until after the holidays?

Your mail server might have auto-sorted it into a different group.

The questing of the day: Can Eric keep his Powerpoint bullets under 50 characters?

Huh. I threw a bunch yesterday at people on fleet and didn't get anything. Then the first one I threw at an buffered I got a package. I just assumed it was a change they made cuz the CXP--like not being able to target NPCs anymore.

This is what I initially wrote, though I did edit it a bit for the sake of this thread: Galactic command needs an overhaul. It is far too restrictive and inhibiting, especially within the modern MMO climate. While advocating for its complete removal may have its appeal, doing so would ultimately prove reductive and impractical. There are few changes that could improve it short-term: 1: Greatly increase CXP across the board. Instead of reducing everything to bare minimal, all current values should be doubled. At least. Also, do a better job of weighting rewards. Not all elites are the same, nor are all champions. Killing the droid on Hutta should not be worth the same as one of the more difficult group bosses. 2. Furthermore, add ways to obtain CXP. Bring back some of the old (dead) content, like have special event days where the old daily areas get an extra bonus on top of the regular “Planet” bonus. And add a weekly for world bosses that rewards significant CXP. 3: Focus all loot tables and items to be class/spec specific. There’s absolutely no reason why a Jedi should receive an orange, modless blaster rifle that isn’t legacy bound. 4. Add CXP booster unlocks to the Legacy window. 5.) Make all the character XP boost items work for CXP--at a lower increase than the CM items.

Yup. I got the last field where it tells you to list issues and "be specific." So I typed out a few paragraphs and then it told me my answer could only 50 characters. 50.

This. Especially in the era where catch-up mechanics are the trend. This is the exact opposite.

You get a chance for a parcel when you hit an unbuffed player. Standing around fleet spamming isn't the best way to do it since everyone will be trying to spam and "race" to get people whose snowflakes come of CD. But if you just keep it bound to something easy you can find people in the wild all over the place. I got five this morning just from hitting random people while doing dailies on Yavin.

SSN is your friend.

Only 17 crates for me. (On my Guardian.) But I've became so discouraged that I pretty much gave up and went back to leveling lowbies. I have yet to see a set piece and have only managed two 230 blues: A head and main hand. But the head I got twice. I've gotten the same green earring four times, which was quickly replaced with a blue and then a purp. So of the 17 "gear items" I've gotten six ear pieces (four same) two of the same helms and a main hand. The other 8 items aren't even worth mentioning. I did have a little better luck on my Merc, but only got her to level 5. She actually got two set pieces, but they were both the same wrists. And the set bonus was class specific, and I don't have a Commando. In fact, the tool tips mention HSM specifically, so I don't even know if it would transfer even if I did.

Like most long running bugs, you may as well make a Jugg and name him Godot.

I think the $800+ they've spent on the game is insulting enough.

Exactly. It says a lot about PCs when the only way they can make friends is to bribe them.