oh and d: make more of the game group reliant by upping the difficulty of the enemies e: reconfigure the classes to be group reliant on the other classes

because a: the games only just started b: future additions will add more group content c: even the entertainer on SWG could kick a jedis *** with the right gear and buffs and the entertainer didnt have any combat abilities

something like the entertainer form SWG provides major skill crafting combat buffs can change your appearance and such as well as active battle support was an awsome class to play i was actually hoping they would introduce somethign like that to the game it would give them an excuse to pop in loads of features into as purely a support role

an expansion on my previous suggestion about the lvls ups, taking everything i read on board this is what i came up with this is also a way to introduce a little bit of cross classing . a skill tree system based off the crew skills format and the talent trees. at lvl 10 after getting your advanced class (from the quest) you are directed to a small number of npc's 4 for each class each to represent a skill tree, three of the npcs represent "schools" of the specializations of your advanced class and the last one represents one of the other "component" class your your base class (for example jedi knights component class would be consular) you can choose any 2 of these schools to train in. after the initial training you also gain the "skill tree" tab at the top of the character sheet displaying your current schools the differant bundles and which ones you possess once you have trained the initial skills you dont need to visit them again you gain a set of skills that affect your basic ability for example; jedi knight: lightsaber skill: increases accuracy and parrying with lightsabers lightsaber talent: increases damage by a small amount with lightsabers lightsaber tricks: increases critical chance with lightsabers lightsaber focus: increases the amount of focus you can build up defensive training: increases your armour by a small amount each class have their own equivilant and each school has more school specific skills for example a damage bundle have more dps and devestator type skills (damage per second and damage per hit) while healing would have more HPS (healing per second) and tank have more defensive moves while the cross class school has only the basic skills and some select powers form the component class (modified for the appropriate resource) but they will never get the advanced class powers each of these skills gain up to 3 points per lvl but at every 5th lvl after lvl 10 you get a "package point" to train a bundle of skill points and an ability be it passive or active. you dont get just one option though you can 2 or 3 BUT you can only choose one each bundle has a differant ability and a differant assortment of skills the differant bundles allows you to customise your class a bit more fluidly without having to spend money on training while still restraining the options. not all the school specific skills and abilities will do direct damage/healing etc instead they improve your class abilities skills as passive bonuses and the abilities (depending on whether passive or not) as permanent buffs or slightly less effective long duration buffs everyone please feel free to point out flaws and offer up alternatives or fixes to this.

so maybe the 1 allocatable point and attack defense healing would be a good start on customisable lvl ups and include a toggale button onm character sheet to automatically allocate points based on your class for those who like automated lvl ups

personally i would love to see 1 allocatable attribute point maybe 3 base skills: attack defense healing and maybe an automatic skill system allocation according to class (SWG had each class have their own class specific and combat style skill set which all affected specific basic trait which improved at each lvl up this made their classes very balanced in function in relation to each other while skill focusing on the class because they wernt "jack of all sectors" a commando could volley droids with their mini guns but soon as a jedi closed in they would be buggered in close combat without some sort of close combat class to assist for example whereas the opposite is also true a tank ranged and dps ranged could easily take down a jedi if the tank ranged drew the attacks)

aye i know but there could always be a "auto level" button/option on character screen for those that don't want to bother though i personally would still like something extra with lvling coz atm its like the only purpose it serves is item access and powers which yea all good and essential doesnt actually make it strand out as you dont actually notice the stat increase much unbless your paying close attention. even if its just a allocatable extra attribute point

oh and balancing for balance sake is stupid balancing everythign to c**p destroys the game (look at WoW now compared to how it started) balancing should only be done on a mechanic that makes a massive boon to a class that makes it over powered in relation to the rest of the game (like giving sith warrior ship a X10 nuke and then changing it to anti armour shell) i think the talents need overhauled to the specialisations of the calsses their for rather than balancing to the other classes in relation

im not saying "switch the lvl up system for KOTOR system" im saying make it more adhearant rather than cloning the stereotype set by WoW and its predescessors. for example SWG took out all kinds of manual lvl up for a completely automated version and put a massive emphasis on the equipment and resources that system also allowed them to make the non combat classes work VERY well together AND they had a working skill system as well as a couple other class systems on top of the base. those being class space settlement that as far as i have seen is unique to itself as i havent seen anythign of the same kind on any other mmo. thats the sort of thing i was getting at SOMETHING more unique to SWTOR than mainstream to set it apart so instead of flaming for flamings sake how about you all be constructive with your critiscism and contribute or offer up alternatives to this suggestion as your usually expected to with suggestions (also see my previous suggestion about introducing fighters) i have played just abotu all other mmos and im aware that mainstream set up is whats used now days BUT the only mmos that stand out in my mind are SWG anarchy online WoW and star trek online and champions online because they all had very unique lvl up systems when they were released (and many of those still do with the exception of WoW due to clones and SWG for being officially shut down) i just wanted to offer up something to add SWTOR to that list for something other than predescessor games and namesake

besides that SWTOR is so popular becuaise its a lucas arts and star wars release, star wars will always have a bigger fanbase than WoW which in comparison is a rather esoteric genre

aye but theyve taken so much form WoW they may ahve as well overhauled WoW itself into starwars. SWTOR is effectively KOTOR 3 like WoW is warcraft 4 i expected somethign at least simmilar to the previous work not Warcraft 5

i know that the current lvl up system is what all the other mmos are using but thats because thats what WoW uses but seriously JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING IS BUILT LIKE WOW if i wanted to play wow id go sub to WoW nbwo im not asking for a complete overhaul just try and make SWTOR more unique to itself. and i have some suggestions for that. 1 introduce attribute point allocations on each lvl up instead of automatically allocating them (with highlighted stats to show main stats) and some sort of skill system that improves your raw ability not your abilities themselves for example weapon skills; to increase your accuracy and/or damage with the weapon in question (when you select this it pops up a window of all the weapons you can use which then adds that focus like a feat and all the skill points in the future added to weapon skills adds to that) each point increases damage and accuracy by like 2 or 4 combat style skills like weapon skills but for your style (heavy weapons dual wielding pistols dual wielding melee single blaster, single sabre) increasing how much damage you get from: heavy weapons; increases attack rate by 1% per skillpoint dual wielding; increases offhand weapon damage by 1% per point 1 weapon fighting: iimproves critical hit chance by 1% per point parrying: improves the chance to successfully block/deflect an attack by 1% per point Force focus: this increases your abilities with the force all force abilities take 1% less force to use and 1% less time on activation time Combat focus:increases your armour by 1 point and your damage by 1 point per point Targetting: increases your accuracy and critical chance by 1 point per point i dont have suggestions that cover all classes as ive only played jedi/sith and this is just to show what i mean im aware that those all impact abilities more than they are supposed to but you get the idea this way its a more unique lvl up system for the game and helps to make it more adhearant to the previous star wars games than the WoW game and expansions while still keeping the attraction (obviously the skills would need to be overhauled by the dev team to how i've written them.

i have a suggestion for the space mission model. basically introduce fighters, at lvl 10 when you get the quest to leave you could be given a basic 1 man fighter that you take to the station (and keep) and can then use for space missions by going down to the hangers and activating it which opens up a starmap. at the fleet you can also buy other types of ships and later at higher levels better more advanced ships that can hold better equipment and items. the ship types are fighter bomber interceptor these three have differant flight paths within the missions to their type and specialise in their own type of combat (this is to introduce a set up for multiplayer (party) space missions. fighters go alongside the capital class you get after 2nd planet as supp0ort while the bomber focuses on destroying defenses and key structures of the target and the interceptor focuses on taking down enemy fighters. a party can all join the same space mission if: they are in the same party they all qualify for the mission in question selecting a mission with a party now opens up a "party ready?" box to allow all of the party members to sally into the mission and confirm what they want to go out in you can manually select the mission your party agreed on or click a button on the starmap which only lights up when the party members have a mission selected.