With the size there is 2 aspects to this story size and overall size of the actual expansion. There are 2 different things and I do see the amount work in the bones and structure of how they are taking Swtor in the future. We can expect a expansion probably storywise in terms of Rise of the Hutt Cartel but overall size of the actual expansion would be closer to full Shadow of Revan or Kotfe. All the changes (ripping advanced classes/combat styles off of base classes/origin stories, expanding the ability to allow characters to be multiple combat styles, loadouts, the features with force users and alignment, some of the UI changes, probably some tweaks they will have to do to class stories as the killing animations and what not are actually linked to the advanced classes/combat styles so there is some things they have to get with that) they are doing is going to take up the bulk and probably 80% of the expansion in itself. I do not see us getting like Kotfe where each month was a new story/chapter (with actual combat and not cs) release but I do see more story coming out throughout the yr next yr much like Oricon, Ziost and Ossus in terms of content. Probably more CS drops could be every month though but scattered out. Length of the expansion it will probably be completed in about 30mins - 3 hrs with repeatable daily missions that will hold us over and also the grind of gearing plus the OP on release. None of the expansions so far have really lasted more than 5 hrs upon initial launch so it is safe to say that will be the case again. This expansion is basically laying the foundation for 8.0 they have already hinted at things that will be coming with 8.0 which 8.0 could be the biggest expansion of swtor but in order for us to get to that point they have to get all the work done that will allow them to get to that point. Rework of the system is going to be throughout next yr some things wont be implemented right away with LotS (which we having no idea the extent they are planning throughout next yr to help flush out the expansion and get everything ready for 8.0). Overall longevity of the expansion I would say with what they are planning for 8.0 we could see 2 yrs. Don't really see Legacy of Sith ending before 2 yrs as it is going to take them awhile for 8.0 maybe a slim chance of a yr and half. I would also not be entirely surprised if we do not get 8.0 next yr like we did with kotet after kotfe it was what a yr between those 2 the shortest amount of time between expansions.

While it would be nice they most likely will just re-release new versions of old armor with new textures rather than improving what we already have.

The reasons you want it to save time and skip things is the reason why they do not have it they want you to actually experience the game not just skip everything in sight. Honestly it would not surprise me if they stopped stealth runs in flashpoints for that very reason as well but that's a different subject entirely. Flying in swtor makes sense from it being star wars though when you look at it only about 40% of mounts would actually be able to fly and that would be actually a lot of work going in and figuring out what mounts could actually fly and should not be able to fly. Then in flight they would have to change animations of those mounts as well to fit flying. Ontop of that environments from Swtor planet wise were not exactly meant to be flown over or through so many of those areas would be desolate and look barren probably kill you by being a part of map that was not meant to be traveled. In many aspects there would probably be no fly zones over towns and outposts meaning you would fall to your death if fly over them which would be funny to see all the people just falling out of the sky because they think they should be able to fly anywhere in the game unrestricted. With flying in Swtor comes the inevitable also argument why can you not travel from planet to planet through open space with mounts which would actually be a argument that sparks with the addition of flying. Flying has I would say has .0004% chance of ever being implemented in Swtor mostly for the whole skipping aspect of swtor as Bioware actually hates people skipping content.

As for the rewards I would assume it would autofind what fits your Combat Style that you have activated at that time. Rather than finding your base class's equipment list. Loot from raids and flashpoints will be most likely distributed the same as right now they I hope they expand it to also include your 2nd combat style when running not just what you have activated making it easier to get gear for the 2nd combat style.

From the PTS nothing is tied to the Base Class/Origin stories except the character voice/storyline and companions, all your skills are attached to the Combat Styles/Advanced Classes for LotS. So effectively the current advanced classes that are link to the same Base Class will share the some of the same abilities through what is generic for them. Even if they are used with other Origin Stories going forward you will still gain those abilities as there are no abilities through them anymore just the Combat Styles.

new gearing system I think we are due for a new system that is not command or renown as they seem to go into a new system every 2 expansions. classic - rothc had a shared gearing system, shadow of revan and somewhat kotfe had the same gear system, kotet and onslaught had the same gear system with command/renown. With that being said it is time for a new gear system based off what they have done in the past. Though with how they did command and renown we may see a new variant of it though i will say Renown palls in comparison to command which command was not great to begin with but it was still a better than what we have now.

New classes were hinted at for 8.0 not 7.0 because they are trying to get to get the system up and running before they start adding new classes. as for whole new classes storylines like base classes/origin stories that wont happen but we may get new story missions here there for current base classes. Honestly personally with the choices of the combat styles based on your advanced classes which is how the kills such as lightsaber, doublebladed saber, lightning kills, blaster kills are determined through that so it would be interesting to see if they actually opened that up for the expansion.

it is more likely we will get another server than adding another Americas server. Though who knows they may decide to return a Oceanic server but it is very unlikely we will see another Server in the Americas,

The whole 2nd combat style is only if you are sub not sure if you are going to be able to keep it active if or when you go preferred but subs get 2 combat styles upon completing any act 3 of class storyline arcs and f2p and preferred before expansion get only 1 combat style as it stands right now which maybe subject to changes or cartel market changes if they feel they can market off it later on but will still be limited. Yes I do see them eventually coming out with maybe a item that you can have upto 3 combat styles per character that you could unlock 1 per use. And i also see them releasing a potential item that may undo a combat style choice later on down the road (it is doubtful but it is possible when it comes to the power of real money). It is all kinda confusing with the whole darkside 5 lightside 5 switching to the opposite class of your original class. Some say it is automatic others are saying it takes your 2nd combat style slot. Seems like a lot of people have different interpretations of that livestream interview. Until we get it in PTS or live we will not really know for sure what exactly they are going to do with it.

i wield it with my main in my offhand

As many people have already thought about this so has bioware, Bioware has already stated that they are looking into it for 8.0 and beyond. It wont be 7.0 as they are getting the system ready. But its frees up Storyline, making mirror classes/specs, Voice Acting where they do not have to add additional voice actors they just tie them to pre-existing storylines.

I would be for them add sorters and filters to character screen. sort by classes, species, faction, lvls. Filter by classes, lvls, factions to go with your idea as that would help out a lot actually.

Nothing will be done to combat it, if they do something whatever they choose will cost them players in the long run. If they squelch credits players have on themselves and in legacy banks then people are going to be mad about them doing that. If they lower the prices allowed to be posted for on GTN players will just flood general/trade chats with items for sell at a uncapped rate. or doing multiple credit trades for to get around that. In fact 1 of the only ways they could combat the inflation would probably never happen as it would cut into their profits which is allow creds to do collection unlocks of cartel market/event/legacy gear and/or appearance modifications. If they do nothing its going to get worse if they do something its going to be negative so they are in a lose-lose situation regardless which is why they will do nothing about it.

maybe 2 or 3 but not all because you could literally have upwards of over 70 companions nowadays in Swtor thats just unrealistic. 2 or 3 maybe for flashpoints I do not ever see companions being alone in raids for solo-raids.

companion gear was actually originally capable of being in outfit designer they changed when people were abusing Master Ranos, Khem Val (returned), jeasa's (returned) weapons because people were skipping stories to get those companions back and then selling off the weapons on the gtn for their equal on the cartel market or more as with khem val's sword was actually on back compared to the ancient sith warblade which was on hip. some of the gear is still able to be use from other classes depending class set gear being really the only issue it seems like. the actual item drops from storylines that are class still technically can be used by any classes. just set gear does not translate well. As for your suggest if it was only like legacy bound than I can agree but it would have to be at least somewhat better controlled than it was before.

I know they were not dropping in PTS from heroics in the latest patch. However the Legacy gear from them has been added to cartel collections for that reason alone i do not see them going away anytime soon. Since that would reduce some people's legacy bays by 3-5 just of legacy gear from those crates.

I would open up all the class based customizations such as sith inquisitor scars, bounty hunter facepaint, tattoos. vaylin arm tats, tenebrae's tattoo scars on his body. There is a lot more than can allow and to make our characters feel a lot more like our own. Sure there is some maybe still be some carbon copies out there here and there but it would allow more personalized characters. And not just for sith purebloods either but for all species and classes.

I would go as far to say maybe facepaint, tattoos, brands also tied to the sith purebloods.

Armors I would want to see in game (in no order): Darth Krayt's Yuuzhang Vong Armor Darth Nihil's (1 of the underlings to Krayt) Darth Bane's Clone Wars Armor Anakin's Leathery Jedi Vest/Tunic Arcann's Cyborg (since we are getting the mask soon as a cartel collection) More Variants of the Dread Masters' Masks as each 1 of them had a slightly different mask Cyborg Legs like Maul's (less likely but would be interesting) Rest of Nihilus's robes (as you can make stuff resemble them there is however nothing close to matching or looking good with his mask) A few of Starkiller's outfits more of the inquisitorius outfits Deathwatch mandalorian armor Maul's Mandalorians' Armor Senya's Variant Knight armor (as it is a bit different that Zakuul Knight and Horizon Guard's) Vaylin's Sleeveless/hood down outfit (that she had in Kotet rather than the kotfe 1 we have) Maybe more ancient sith armors that look less cybernetic and more like a samurai-ish or warrior like (during the time of the actual purebloods before the dark jedi conquered them).

I would settle for being able to change their armor as their armors do not look that great.

As a player since launch and a constant subscriber, I could not really careless if people would get replicas or legacy versions of old gear there is still bragging rights that you had the originals when the originals were still in the game. I have earned lot of stuff over the yrs it does not bother me in the slightest if people gain access to some replicas or late versions of old gear for cosmetic purposes. There is still a lot of stuff in the game that most of those players will never have access to because they are not as likely to invest as much time or real money for subbing to actually get. In fact I want them to bring back the old planet vendor gear as there was some cool weapons and some cool armors here and there. 1 that comes to mind is a mask from Hoth on impside, also quest rewards had some variants of revan's robes, some cool inquisitor sets. Bounty hunter sets we almost already got all their good sets from Heroic crates that you unlock on Odessen or collections through the cartel market. There is also the potential for them to bring back the old black core crystal recipes that were lvl 50 and now are lvl 1 crystals. There is some stuff I am not so keen on them releasing but they can release slightly altered versions which would make more people happy. The game has been 10 yrs this December some of stuff people want back were really not that great to begin they are ok and do have a place in swtor and was pretty dumb to remove them from the game in the first place when they removed planetary commendations and other forms currency they could have easily just made them credit sinks and been done with it. With LotS coming out and the direction they are taking the game it would not surprise me if they do not open up all that for players especially since Heroic crate Legacy Armor is being added to cartel collections and the Advanced Classes/Combat Styles being ripped off the Base Classes/Origin Stories we are likely to a return of some of the old stuff making a return much like we saw a return of some of the armors in Onslaught through set gear. Bioware does not put much time into new weapon and armor designs that much anymore outside of maybe what Ranked PVP rewards if that. Most of the stuff we have now for gear is either cartel market outfit designer crap or garbage looking gear that is really our sets and weapons.

We will see a increase of promotional items from other star wars games going forward much we have seen promotional items in the past decade for everything recently released star wars content at that time. some will be cartel market other will be freely given in the mail part of disney/lucas actually pushing promotionals on EA and Bioware. Other than that really doesnt change much for swtor.

I am going to answer this question a bit differently as this is kinda a open ended question depending on what characters so i am going to throw in sith/jedi combo as well to the mix. Sith: There are a few that i could list in this from Nihilus, Darth Marr, Ruin, Naga Sadow. Nihilus because probably in terms of power in all of star wars he is probably 2nd or a close 2nd to Vitiate with Sideous maybe a little bit more stronger because Sideous was not consumed by the need to devour the force and life essence of people to sustain his life. He is a planet devourer tier of sith his power really knows no bounds even technically when he was killed he really not killed as his life was tied to the his mask which eventually ended up in the Jedi Temple of Coruscant. Darth Marr he was very much a level headed Sith, whereas Malgus was not as level headed. Marr was more of a gray sith in terms of his role in star wars. yeah there is no such thing as gray jedi or gray Sith but Marr was not light side until after death he was still darkside but he was far more open to the lightside than most Sith during his time on the Dark council than most sith would ever be. Ruin created the Sith Battlelords during the New Sith Wars. Ruin was another Jedi turned and became like so many other great sith before and after would be. May not have been as strong as some of the sith but in terms of knowledge within the force he brought the sith back from obscurity. Naga Sadow because of his sith alchemy the fact he was defeating the republic with ease due to illusions until he got too cocky on it. A really cool sith in general in terms of his armor and his powers. Jedi: I would have put Obi-wan in this but there was a lot of mistakes he made with Anakin from being too harsh at times when he was guilty of the same rashness as padawan/youngling, even Obi-wan had the romance with the Duchess of Mandalore which he knew about Anakin and Padme but Anakin feared that Obi-wan would find out about the marriage of Anakin and Padme's. There is also a few times Obi-wan actually channeled the darkside through himself to beat Maul after Maul struck down Qui-gon and also when Maul killed the Duchess Obi-wan was not using the lightside of the force in those moments he was very much tapped into the darkside. In fact he had the chance to actually save Anakin after he chopped of Anakin's limbs he could have actually brought him back to yoda for healing physically, mentally and spiritually. He chose to give up on Anakin because of what Yoda said to him before Mustafar. Would he have been able to reach Anakin maybe, maybe not but the fact Luke got through to Anakin also meant that Obi-wan did not do enough to actually bring him back to the light. So my answer to this 1 would probably be Yoda as for the pure fact of him being the avatar of light. If Order 66 had not happened the way it happened Sideous vs Yoda would have been a much different fight they have indeed had Mace, Yoda and Anakin against Sideous. Though Yoda would not have needed help because Yoda had really only fled from Sideous the toll from Order 66 had on Yoda weakened him a great deal not only from emotions of the fallen jedi but actually weakened his connection to the force itself. And he still was giving Sideous a run for his money until that final attack which Yoda fell in. Yoda was not perfect he did have his mistakes including giving Mace too much power on the council and during Phantom Menace Mace was actually grand master at that time not Yoda, as Yoda had stepped down from grandmaster only too take it back up towards middle and end of the clone wars. Mace was going to replace Yoda after Dooku left the Jedi order. Mace had a lot of faults within him and was a huge reason Anakin actually went to the darkside as Mace and Anakin rarely got along but Yoda and Anakin respected each other. If Yoda had more influence on Anakin and his training and Anakin was allowed to study from each Jedi Master like Revan was they would have actually probably been far better off. Anakin would have been probably even stronger than Sideous during Revenge of the Sith and probably far less emotional than what we seen. He would have still used his emotions but he would not have let them control him. Honestly I would have liked to seen more of Yoda's overstepping in Anakin's training because of the brotherly bonds that Obi-wan and Anakin shared often were a issue. Sith/Jedi combo: Revan as a jedi he refused to have a single given master or conform to just 1 lightsaber saber instead he went out of his way to learn as much about the force and combat as he could. Which he implemented in fights changing between saber forms to throw enemies off balance or for a loop. When he became sith he didnt fully become sith he became sith out of necessity and when he broke free from the emperor's mind control he remained sith infact he was going to remake the republic into his empire and the jedi into his sith order because the jedi were ill-prepared for a war against the sith that had been hiding for 1000 yrs. Which in a manner of speaking for a time Revan was technically a Emperor in his own right maybe not took up the title like Malgus during False Emperor but the fact he was forming his own empire indeed makes that a case. Probably only a few sith that outclassed Revan in terms of power or skill being: Vitiate/Tenebrae/Valkorian, Nihilus, Marka Ragnos and Tulak Hord. Even his redemption he was not fully returned to the jedi nor was he returned to the sith he followed his own path which caused him to be torn between the force. Unlike Anakin, Revan was not consumed by the force on either side. Bane considered himself Revan's apprentice because of the training and guidance Revan gave him in the holocron. The sith order actually actually in many regards owes its survival through Kotor years to RotJ to Revan. What does not actually get mentioned that often however is the influence Revan had on the emperor during his imprisoned for 300 years. We do know Vitiate went to Zakuul several times but it was not until around the time Revan was captured that Zakuul actually starting taking shape as neither light nor darkside. It is also stated that he kept Vitiate from attacking for so long which really allowed him to focus on Zakuul as a whole while the dark council pretty much did their own thing while thinking they served Vitiate. It can be taken that due to Revan's influence and showing the emperor the lightside that it Zakuul Knights and the society itself actually became what it became otherwise it would have resembled a much darker order than the sith empire. Revan's influence was far greater on the galaxy than most even realize. Even the remade jedi order under Meetra Surik who was 1 of Revan's generals, apprentices and closest friends means the order actually even for a time was under Revan's guidance. Not to mention the bloodline of his and Bastilla's being in the order for centuries.

As much i would like the Kel Dor I think they would use the Kissing animations as a reason not to do them. because of their masks and their mouths are not real humanlike to begin with and that would be why that dont but i hope they do. Devaronians Duros Nikto (maybe) Anzati Zeltrons Nadia's Species Chargarians Voss (but we have not seen further body types of them) Kaleesh would be nice but probably the same reason the kel dor dont get add the kaleesh wont be added.

True I looked at the patch notes 10 times and never saw it once