You clearly don't understand the concept of 'addiction,' or you have a pathological lack of empathy. As for the rest, I commend your reading comprehension skills. I explicitly stated the following right at the start: All of those items are capable of being traded. You can sell the orange +41 crystals from the market, the G7 ship parts, the character slot unlocks, the inventory and cosmetic unlocks, all of it. The reference to college students seems remarkably irrelevant. They are not immune to gambling addiction, in fact my roommate in college had a serious gambling problem. That they are spending their scholarship money on non-educational expenses reinforces my point.

Assuming an average of 400 rep per pack (270 greens, 1440 purples, some distribution therein), it costs approx $400 to max this reputation. After paying $400, either personally or through credits to people who paid some portion of that directly to the CM, this reputation still requires that you earned enough random BoP (soon to be BoL) certificates to purchase what you want. These cannot be traded, and despite the reputation being by Legacy, and the items being (soon) BoL, you still need to personally open yet more if you want the items (mount, armor, pet, etc) on more than one character in the Legacy. This requirement for certificates when the reputation already requires using BoP trophies seems excessive, almost abusive.

How many packs do most players buy? 1.5 a month with their complimentary coins? An odd pack here and there? How many actually buy the $53 hypercrates? How many do they buy on average per month? Just like the cell phone companies eliminating the unlimited data plans when the vast majority don't exceed the cheapest limited plan, you could easily put a cap in place that hardly affects anyone at all while still letting you put out a press release about how you are looking out for your players by adding in protection against gambling addiction.

F2P players have to pay to use event gear, so there is little concern about them all just swarming your special snowflake mountain.

Problem: Cartel Packs are a probabilistic reward system that can be readily purchased with a credit card. Solution 1: Apply a weekly cap on Cartel Pack and Hypercrate purchases. This cap would not limit or in any way affect other, non-random, purchases on the Cartel Market or in-game purchases that utilize Cartel Coins (ie Legacy, cargo bay, etc). Solution 2: Put a gambling awareness / help message on the cartel packs, or the Packs tab of the Cartel Market. Solution 3: Put a commendation in every pack, with the ability to purchase any item in the packs from the vendor for a given number of commendations. This puts a floor on the value of a pack, preventing it from being zero regardless of how the user defines value (credits, BoP rep items that need certs, etc). Solution 4: Add a "parental controls" lock on the Cartel Market. People who feel they have a problem can ask a family member's assistance in locking them out of excessive purchases. (Suggested by Urael) Further Explanation: Gambling addiction is a widespread societal problem. It does not require that the rewards be in terms of real cash paid back to the gambler, simply that the reward be something the gambler values. The negative effects of gambling addiction are typically felt by those around the gambler, not the gambler themselves. With Cartel Coins being purchased on credit, problem gamblers can actually drive themselves into debt through their purchases. This does not negatively affect the ability of players to use the Cartel Market to convert dollars to credits, as non-random non-bound items can still be purchased from the CM and posted to the GTN. Additionally, the cap can be set at some reasonable value, such as 5 Hypercrates a month, that still allows for considerable transfer of funds while imposing a limit on the gambling nature of the experience. 5 Hypercrates still amounts to approx $265, and at the current price of approx 300k per Cartel Pack comes to 36 million credits. I would suggest it could be set as low as 2 per month and still not negatively impact 99.999% of non-gambler players.

At the very least, they should cap the number of Packs/Hypercrates a person can buy per week. Just the gambling packs, it shouldn't apply to the "fixed cost for fixed product" purchases. Some people will surely complain "If I want to spend $600 a month on packs, that's my right!" but the flipside is that it puts a control in place to prevent gambling addiction issues. It also puts a cap on the number of crates that appear in-game in a set time frame, which puts an upper supply-side limit on the economy.

That the gambling packs are exactly that does raise a question about the ethical and legal issues surrounding online gambling and gambling addiction. Since it costs real money but doesn't reward anything you can convert back to money, the legal side is probably fine (and I'm sure their team of lawyers checked), but the ethical issue still remains. Some people feel compelled to keep pulling the arm on that slot machine because "maybe this time!" It's one thing when it's just the artifact boxes bought with tokens from in-game play, its another when it is boxes you buy with real world cash.

These complaints weren't just PvP complaints. I never PvP, and I hated the animation problem with Mortar Volley. The new version is much better. I only PvE, and I really disliked the Project delay. Project isn't just damage, its a stun for standard and weaker mobs. That means it can be used to interrupt a cast, but it only did so when it hit. It also only consumed the Shadow tank buff of "Particle Acceleration" on hit. Often I would use Project, only to have it land a moment too late and not stop the attack or hit as hard, all because of the animation delay. This could have been solved by disconnecting the animation and effect, having it interrupt/stun/hurt the enemy before the rock arrived, but that would also look very strange. "Why was that guy stunned before I smacked him in the head with a droid?!" There has to be a balance between animation and functionality. I'm sorry that you personally find the changes to be negative, but many of us feel the opposite and it has nothing to do with PvP.

Just let them be traded on the GTN. It takes 70000 rep to max the reputation. Assuming an average of 400 rep per trophy (greens are 270, blue 630, and purple 1440, so 400 seems a reasonable guess depending on luck), that's 175 packs to max your reputation. That's 7 Hypercrates and 7 Packs, for a price of ~54,000 CC. At the cheapest rate of 5500CC for $40, that comes to $392.73 to max out your reputation. I think once you have spent $300-$500 on reputation (depending on trophy luck), you should be able to trade for the certificates to get the gear you paid so much to get access to. Or maybe this is just BW/EA being really obvious about how dumb they think someone is who would pay $400 for questionable cosmetic options.

I think you and I are using different definitions of the term "looks like." You seem to mean "explicitly creating armor that is meant to exactly match the look of real mummified skin." I mean "created armor that calls to mind mummified skin." For instance, the first Inquisitor armor listed on Dulfy calls to mind the monkey-lizard from Jabba's Palace. It clearly is NOT an actual monkey-lizard, but it looks like one due to the shape of the horn/ear-like structures on the helm.

I only bought one pack and I got one. I'd love to be able to sell it. The items that need them already have a rep requirement, and the trophies can't be sold, so they are already only of value to people who buy lots and lots of packs / hypercrates. For a reputation meant as a reward for people who spend far too much cash on the Cartel Market, it seems poorly designed to punish them by adding a non-trade-able currency they need to buy the rewards they unlocked by paying real cash.

World of Warcraft. Since launch of Vanilla in 2004. A shaman can perform any DW attack with any combination of daggers, maces, axes, or fist weapons. A Paladin can perform any 2H attack with any 2H weapon, be it a polearm, sword, axe, or mace. Very few abilities were restricted at all, the only one I can think of was Rogues being restricted to Daggers for a few abilities in the Assassination tree, but Combat Rogues could use Swords or Fists or Maces for all of their rotation.

I'm pretty sure it is a helm, but it is a helm modeled to look like mummified skin and a dead eye. Obviously it wouldn't be a helm that applied massive scarring as an overlay on your own character's face. They have never released any armor suggesting that is even a possible option for their designs.

I think you are pretty spot on with this. There was a certain Lead Designer who is no longer with us whose comments always seemed to point in this direction, and always came across as the sort of person who first and foremost played a PvP rogue style character and lived to grief people. Knowing what that person was quickly and accurately lets them know if they can or should gank them. Luckily they are no longer around and things are moving, slowly, in a better direction.

This is set by the ability, not the weapon. It takes just as long for a Gunslinger to cast their Charged Shot (I think that's the name) as it does for a Sniper to cast Snipe. There is, however, a variable on abilities that sets some of the base damage range based on the weapon's damage range, so different weapons can produce different results here. An Assault Cannon tends to produce a larger hit than a Blaster Rifle when using Full Auto, an ability that doesn't have a weapon restriction. For Tech/Force attacks there is no difference.

I'm not discussing the lore or how it fits in the Star Wars universe. I am not familiar with the Dengar character, though a quick google search shows he has multiple appearances so presumably he has some fans. While it may be inspired by a "real" SW character, that doesn't change that they decided that their implementation would not be a set of armor with a cloth headwrap as seen in his Clone Wars incarnation (SW WIkia article on him where I saw this image), instead they opted for mummified skin and a dead eye sticking out of bandages with a cloth headwrap. This is the new highest tier of BH gear. If they are pursuing, and it looks like they are, the visual progression model of gearing, this was what they decided would look awesome to a large part of the player base and make people ask "How can I get that?!" Instead, a far more common question will be "Can you please turn off your helm?"

I use the "Report Spam" button to report anyone posting spoilers. Likewise racist commentary, etc, which is far more common than one might expect.

One thing to note is that not all abilities actually require the base weapon of the class. Many Bounty Hunter and Trooper attacks don't use the weapon at all, instead using the flamethrower, grenades, pulse attacks, a punch or retractable blade. Commandos, especially Gunnery, certainly are reliant on their primary weapon, but Combat Medics are not at all for pure healing, though they need it to do decent DPS. So while it would need a lot of new animations, the number is far smaller than you suggest. Jedi/Sith only need 2-3, depending on if single saber, dual saber, or saber staff and accepting that dual might not be an option for all Jedi/Sith (too many Consular/Inquisitor attacks are Force based and use the off-hand for the Force animation, so the constantly pulling out and putting away the second saber would be absurd). BH/Trooper/Agent/Smuggler might be more problematic, depending on the variety allowed. Presumably Snipers would not be allowed pistols, since you don't Snipe with one. Gunslingers and Mercs might likewise be permanently DW pistol, since you can't DW a blaster rifle and that is the essence of their style. Scoundrels, Operatives, Powertechs, and Vanguards could semi-easily be swapped to a pistol/rifle choice and Commandos only need three animations replaced to be able to use Blaster Rifles (Charged Bolts, Hail of Bolts, and Grav Round).

For some abilities, it does not matter. However, many are animated with a specific weapon in mind. Look at "Unload," the Bounty Hunter ability. Used before choosing an AC or as a Powertech, it looks awkward, as they fire one pistol held sideways and their other hand is held near it for no reason. On a Mercenary, however, it makes sense because both hands are actually holding pistols and spraying fire. Unload is not a core ability in the rotation of any Powertech spec. It's just a Mercenary-centered and animated ability that was, for some reason, given to all Bounty Hunters resulting in peculiar animations when used by a Powertech or starter character. Look at "Double Strike," the Shadow ability. How, exactly, does one perform an attack like that without a double-saber? It cannot physically be done. Now, they could do an animation where you strike once in a sort of uppercut style swing, and then flip the blade and slice in a back-handed down stroke. However, that requires a completely different animation not just of the weapon, but of the full character including whatever the other arm might be doing. This is non-trivial. Would it be great to see some of these animations added in so we could have more variety? Absolutely. With how slow and frequently underwhelming their current content releases are, and their heavy dependence on the Cartel Market for almost all new content release, I don't see it as likely any time soon and I wouldn't vote for them to dedicate the resources in that direction. It would be a nice addition to expansion 2, though.

Pre-orders get 5 days of early access, so I'd guess Early Access would be on or shortly after April 8th. If it is the 8th, that gives a weekend release for non-preorders on April 13th. Depending on their staffing and weekend employment policy, they may not want to have their servers assaulted on a Saturday, so that pushes the date back closer to 4/10 for Early Access and 4/15 for normal access as reasonable dates for the earliest you could expect to see it. All just guesswork, but reasonable guesswork.

While I can't agree with most of the suggestions in the OP, the point stands. A lot of the armor in the game looks truly terrible. Most of it is intricate and clearly had a lot of effort put in, but the underlying design is atrocious. No matter how lovingly or skillfully you polish a turd, it's still a turd. Look at some of the new level 55 gear sets. Ignoring that almost no MMO has ever made a decent looking helm, some, like the Agent, are wearable but far from inspirational or capturing any feel of the class. Others, like the Underworld Bounty Hunter gear are just inexplicably bad. Who, when sitting around the design table, said the phrase "Hey guys! You know what would look awesome on a Bounty Hunter?! Gear that makes them look like a one-eyed rotting zombie! Players will love that!" Even more remarkable is that the idea was not only not laughed down, it was implemented.

Yes, because all smart people are weak and either scrawny or fat, right? And people who are fit and in shape are all idiots, right? I mean, you'd have to be some sort of idiot to think that a good diet and regular exercise might be healthy, increase quality of life, or even just be enjoyable.

One of the SWG emulator attempts.

I think it is more accurate to say "The flaws bother me less than they bothered other people, and I find it enjoyable despite them." For instance, I really, really wish that this game had more complicated and modern mechanics. However, I'd rather play a game with great story and lazy mechanics design than a game with great mechanics and lazy story design. So, here I am.

Certainly need some more face options. Every time I make an alt, I end up with either my same female or male face/body combo every time. Too little variety, and so many of the "options" look so bad I've never seen anyone in a group with those choices.