Dude, the valor gain is bugged atm. You get 200-400 valor if you pop ONE area of effect attack in the middle of a group -> die -> respawn -> repeat. Hotfix incoming for sure, and hopefully a valor reset as well. It's insane. - Elim

The reason I call it biased, is not because on most PvP servers the empire are outnumbering republics - which of course in itself is not a fault of Bioware, but they do have control of implenting, say, the valor buff that is achieved when capping bases. As Republic are indeed the underdogs, we are not only outnumbered, but we also gain a lot less valor per kill than Imperials as we will basically have a hard time even getting the buff at all. How is that not biased? Also, I've played on the underdog side on many MMOs so I'm not QQing about pop ratio, but it is still very much unfair the way it is now in my own humble opinion. Don't expect many on the republic side to stick around for the madness that will be about around prime time...it will only get worse. - Elim

My fellow comrades in arms, I hereby call on a boycott of the PvP zone in Ilum and I ask you to join me in my protest against the bias to Empire by the developers due to the massive population imbalance at this time. I demand changes to be made to the zone, to favour the republic faction so PvP can at least be somewhat fair, as well as a valor buff in Ilum as well as in Warzones. Lastly, a picture says more than a thousand words...this was only taken minutes after servers went online: http://imageshack.us/f/441/screenshot2012011815312.jpg/ That is all. EDIT: To clarify on why I consider it to be biased towards Empire, in case you haven't seen my post on page 2: - Elim

I started playing the game on the 14th at 6pm (wave 4), and dinged 50 at the 20th. I skipped none of the spoken dialogue that was in english, and skipped some, but not all of the "alien" conversations. I didn't do many flashpoints due to lack of people around my level, nor did I PvP that much tbh. All in all, it took me around 4 days played. Though, endgame PvE wise is kinda "meh" at the moment. I've cleared every current Flashpoint in HM that isn't bugged(can't pick up the HM quest for about 6 of them), and one raid in normal (Hutt Hospitality). Eternity Vault was bugged on our server, as the boss wouldn't spawn after killing the two turrets at the entrance, so I suppose we'll clear it this week; if it works, that is. Other than that, I felt that the pace for leveling was ok, not too slow, nor too fast. - Elim

^this. Also, there are a lot of videos on explaining all the tactics, and there are still only a couple of guilds that have cleared NORMAL mode. I doubt anyone will clear stuff in Nightmare until at least 1+ month down the line. Even then, there will be new content where there probably won't have been beta testers who have done them 50+ times already in beta testing so everyone will have a fair chance at it. I'll bet that none of the guilds getting server firsts and stuff NOW, will be the first when the first patch comes with new raid content, as people will start of on a more equal level, all geared out and everything. They wont stand a chance against the 'real' hardcore raiders. Heck, I'm clearing hard-mode flashpoints with my guild(those that works anyway) and some bosses takes 10-20 wipes to get the tactics right, especially if you lack a CCer or a good class with interrupts. The game will probably prove to be enough of a challenge to casuals, as long as they don't start nerfing it. Why do you care anyway? There will always be people rushing through content, no matter what MMO you play. You could delay it like in WoW:BC with attunement as a timesink, but still doesn't really do much other than serve as a nuisance. - Elim

As a Guardian at level 50 that has done plenty of flashpoints (started with Hard modes as well) I can tell you that I'm struggling in getting a solid rotation. It definitely needs more work as I keep pushing buttons, yet the skills can have like 0.5-1 second delays before actually executing. The animation can start, but get interrupted due to me using another skill too quickly. Quite annoying, but I'm getting more and more used to it. Should be fixed/tweaked nonetheless. To anyone having serious problems with it I suggest that you increase the queue time for skills to 0.75 seconds in the preferences menu, as I feel 0.5 seconds is way too short, and 1 second is too long. You could experiment with it yourselves, but changing the queue timer to 0.75s made a huge difference for me in getting a better rotation. - Elim

Greetings, I've started farming hard-modes with guildies and others on my server that are level 50, but currently, most of them doesn't even seem to "work", in the sense that you cannot acquire the quest for them, and therefore are restricted only to the normal mode version of the flashpoints. Esseles, Taral V and the level 50 flashpoints are the only ones that appears to be working afaik. Oh, and while you're at it, could you please fix the constant crashes upon leaving/entering flashpoints? Third time today that it happens(Entire group got disconnected), and now it's peak time, so I'm in a 1000+ queue... It's kind of hard to enjoy the game when it constantly throws you out. The game's great, but some things shouldn't really have made it to launch in the state they're in atm. - Elim

Yeah, one of the world's largest game developers that has had financing for like 80+ million dollars have no idea what to do. /sarcasm - Elim

lolwut? You're just jealous you don't have a lightsaber of your own - Elim

Heh..the Republic Fleet on my server is packed with people 24/7. Don't know what server you guys are playing on. - Elim

Should take longer than a month for the average player, especially after 30-40+ as it kind of slows down a bit. Do keep in mind that it'll possibly take longer than it has for people that have powerleveled through the content, as there will be more competition for mobs, loot and what not. We're about 8-9 people Republic side on my server at 50, and pretty much just as many on Imp. I think the pace of leveling seemed fine, considering that Bioware pretty much expects you too make alts. There's what? Eight storylines to go through? If they made it much harder to level the casuals would come after them with pitchforks as it would take them "too long" to go through multiple characters. - Elim

Something I noticed when doing a bonus quest on Voss with several secondary quest givers part of the objectives, is that the added quests actually could go past the hardcap. Considering that the quests belonged to the actual Bonus quest and was really just a pre-requisite for completing it, I suppose they decided to allow those quests to get added in case the quest log was full. Noticed that this happened for the class quests as well when I received two of them at the same time for my storyline. - Elim

Guess I'm lucky, because on my server there's already 3 healers at level 50. We're already doing level 50 dungeons / HCs. Will probably pug Normal Operations soon enough. - Elim

Sorry for bumping this, but it needs more attention. Have not seen a single thread on this matter on these forums. - Elim

The client crashed and now I'm in a queue with 1400 people in front of me. :/ At least I'm level 50 and don't need to rush tbh. - Elim

Hello, Important warning to players doing flashpoints: I'd just like to bring to attention that in most(not all) flashpoints the SWTOR client crashes upon leaving the flashpoint through its intended exit (not using the exit area button). I just cleared Directive 7 which took us about 2h+ due to boss bugs(permanent immunity shield) and especially learning the tacts on the Bulwark boss encounter. As we killed the final boss and departed the instance towards a shuttle, at least 2 of us crashed and are now in a 1400 people queue. It'll most likely take us 2h+ to get back into the game, if we are lucky. I thought you actually had a very long beta period with testers, which makes me very curious to know how things like bunny mating could happen when a boss spawns replicas of a player. See screenshot below: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/24/swtorbunnies.jpg/ Do note that it seemed only to be intended for one to spawn, but at the last phase, the last player, they kept on coming. I was the tank, which is kind of ironic, considering I was the only one left alive at that point. Just warning you guys to avoid using the intended exits, and stick with the "exit area" button near the minimap. Though, I've experienced crashes, as well as several other people, even when using that method. I've made ticket reports on this matter, and I suggest more of you do the same as we need a quick fix to this (and other problems, galaxy map glitch in a party with shared quests as an example.) - Elim

Wow, really? That's crazy. And I thought Bloodworthy was a packed server. Only 15 min queue thus far, but it's increasing. - Elim

Wow, I just noticed that they've added like 14 new servers for Europe. No wonder they've reduced the cap on the larger servers temporarily. Those servers will be ghost towns if people don't roll there. - Elim

The developers for Aion did the same thing after the 48 hours of early access were up. First there were like 24+ hour queues during early access(no timelimit on AFK so people just never logged out..), and even though not a huge amount was playing at release, they still lowered the pop cap, trying to force people to pick other servers. It's kind of a good idea for population spread, but can make some people very angry. I mean, I'm on leave from work atm, so time's not a problem for me, but for people who are working and actually do a lot of irl stuff atm, they are sometimes in queues for longer than they are able to play. - Elim

The reason why servers like Bloodworthy are so full isn't really Bioware's fault tbh. People either join the server because they like their name or possibly have friends there. Also, many guilds with hundreds of players in them decided to roll on Bloodworthy despite being assigned to other servers. Bet they'll have to raise the cap again anyway, as a 10min queue at 7am CET on a tuesday morning is kinda meh. Imagine what will happen at prime time. I ain't logging out today for sure. - Elim

EDIT: Nvm, noticed that people had already mentioned the config edit possibility. - Elim

My family hates me right now. Game is so awesome that I just have to play it as much as possible. I'll grant them some attention in a couple of days for christmas celebrations. - Elim

Doubt anyone is 50 yet, but pretty damn close. On my server I think the highest is 43-45 on the Imperial side. Republic got 2x 40-41s. There will definitely be people dinging 50 today or tomorrow. - Elim

By my experience it's usually 2-3 people doing it in shifts. Never done it personally, but I competed against a team of 2 people playing one character for the server first back when EQ2 launched PvP servers. They never logged out once - I slept approximately 2h per night for a couple of days, and 'won'. Not that anyone cared but me, but it was a fun experience. They called me nuts when they learned that I was doing it alone. Got 2 people on my current server in TOR that seems to do it in shifts as well. Never logged out for 3 days straight according to some people in general chat. They are around 40-41 by now. Guess they'll have to roll alts and wait for people to catch up later on, as they can't even do heroic quests(4) at this point. - Elim

^ This. I've played a lot of MMOs and even powerleveled like a freaking robot a number of times, even though I'm just an ordinary, organic meatbag. Back in -07 (I think it was) when EQ2 launched their first PvP servers I claimed server first, but I did so because I enjoyed to compete, not because it gave me any bragging rights whatsoever. For the record, I'm not powerleveling in SW:TOR. Actually one of the first games that actually is really, REALLY fun to level in. I'm sure in a year from now, I'll be skipping most of the side quest cutscenes, but that would only be after I've done multiple playthroughs. As most have already mentioned, let people play the game in their own way. They can decide what to do with their own free time. - Elim