This is the second time this happens on my character and it seems to be mainly an issue on Republic side bonus series. It appears some bonus series are supposed to run synchronously while you are on the planet while others are merely an addition after you are done. This seems to be a very non-intuitive design as is and those synchronous quests shouldn't be categorized as "bonus" at a all while others should have their quest givers designated as "Bonus" beneath the name of their quest givers similar to the story arcs. This would probably prevent breaking of quests. It also seems that - on the backend side - there seems to be no tracking of whether a quest has been done or not in order to auto-continue. That this is possible can be seen on Imperial side on Belsavis where more often than not you accidentally complete an objective but will get a confirmation of that once you trigger the relative quest object. Any way this is an old issue and not a critical one to begin with but usually, as a developer, when you have a bucket list you eventually end up fixing things once it affects the experience of your customers.

If you gain subs it's called growth, if you lose subs it's called retention rate.

Undoubtedly this game has to appease three groups at once (BW followers, SW followers, WoW followers). But I would still play it given it was still science/space fantasy and no elves, orks and dragons were used to fill in the blanks.

People like playing antagonizing themes. That and the fact that Empire having this super-polished clean look promoting an architecture based on linear cuts and geometrical perfection in detail has a certain enticing aspect and feel to it. I am on Mass Effect break atm but I have been playing my Trooper for a while (my main is a Juggernaut, my first char was an Operative). I do like the looks of the Trooper gears (for the most part) and the dreaded Grav Round sound is actually one of my favourite ones hehe. But Republic quests and storylines are way more buggy, not quite well tuned and assets like companions are feeling unfinished in parts (like why has Elara Dorne +Aim as main stat but a lot rewards feature +Cunning). Non-class storylines are not actually worse or better than Empire part I feel, but some quests take you deep through Empire territory to the point of forcing you to directly travel through fortified camps (also flagging you) whereas on Empire side you are not forced to do so at all. So far I think most things are visuals-based, things like animations feel a lot more complete, aesthetics in detail are worse for some classes but not all of them. I'd say if it weren't for the lack of polish and the disjointed and unappealing visuals Republic and Empire would be pretty much equal in numbers. I certainly had a fun time so far and discovered things which I found missing on Empire side. I doubt people don't play it because they fear playing the losers or because Republic "are weaklings" (which they aren't, as demonstrated in stories on both sides).

It's an effect of the overlay from the UI elements as text is inserted at a specific layer. There is nothing odd at all, you'd notice alteration once you have done some image processing as I did. Why would someone fake images over this anyway? If someone else was on or is usually on at the same time on the same server (s)he may either come here and debunk the story or confirm it.

The original image looks legit. Checked it via filtering with my Photoshop installation at work and it's not hard to detect image alterations if you know how to use PS unless the guy made sure that contrast and tone-mapping are absolutely the same and noone would go to that length like that over such an issue. Someone just felt like adding a black square and claiming it to be part of the original will make people believe it's a fake. I don't want the game to fail but I think the concerns about server population are warranted. Granted it's early in the morning in that picture and in no MMO I've played people were much present in morning hours but certainly in higher numbers than here. Republic side on my server (Hidden Beks) seems to be very underpopulated. I am lucky if I am not alone in a zone around midnight time already. It certainly differs from server to server, I am sure some servers have higher and even growing population, others however are on the opposite and the absence of a server transfer function usually discourages players from continuing to play.

I agree with the OP. I found another solution, how about when you are on fleet you are getting a standard mini-speeder such as a hover platform.

/sigh For once Blizzard and Activision are belonging to the same holding company named ActivisionBlizzard with both as equally ranked partners. That company belongs to Vivendi (a French corporation). Blizzard is the only one of both with its own autonomous management structure. Their CEO is also board member of ATVI. Stop painting Blizzard as "the good guys being forced to do evil" they are perfectly capable of committing "evil" deeds on their own as well, such as layoffs based on internal structural clean-up. Every move credited to Activision has been Blizzard's own doing. They changed their business principle in the face of having 2-3 years of lower sales than usual.

Also voiced Cyrus in DoW2.

Actually partially true. In addition to your point things are feeling alot repetitive because they forgot to fill the plains with life and variety as well. Every planet with a flora feels like a giant grainfield. Whilst there is the odd bird there is no thing like a critter in SW:TOR. It's like nature consists of plants, monsters and sentient beings only. The main issues I find isn't just how limited these worlds feel in terms of exploration but how limitations are implemented and handled. Take WoW for example, their world design works because everything is an enclosed island or continent. Borders are waters with a fairly visible warning zone (darker) or infinitely high mountain sides. Unless you are AFK or stray far away on purpose you cannot accidentally run into "forbidden" zones and die whereas in SW:TOR you do not have these limitations, almost everything is climbable and areas end in open zones, deserts, plains etc. without any warning given. At least them being planets gives them room for expansions later, but they should give some more room for hitting borders and mark it as such, a dense sandstorm in Tatooine, a thick snowstorm as you are approaching borders marked on the map as dark border zones would actually do wonders.

It's their game and their prerogative. They wouldn't do it if they couldn't count on its success. It's for one character only, so who cares?

I agree wholeheartedly. Even though I had to alter your comment to reveal its true meaning.

I doubt it. The game supports DX9 only. If the game actually had been designed using DX11 features then things would go alot smoother and graphics would have higher fidelity.

It is generally advantageous to address the cons as well because by pointing out the pros only and let the cons brought up in slices by opponents will usually end up in a debate consisting of nothing but endless rebuttals. I have been managing combat logs myself for my guild in WoW and done analyzing since it was actually possible to do so. Even most proponents of that feature are outright wrong when it comes to combat logs. Combat logs if condensed into charts usually end up being a fountain of endless misinterpretations, healers being the ones suffering most of it because alot of people still think healers can be judged by raw output instead of efficiency and ability breakdown. Likewise a plain chart does not take into account someone being on kite duty or something else yet they are usually been judged the same way. There is also other abuse which is that people see them as racetrack ignoring everything else and letting healers and tanks dealing with the downsides of it. It does really create a bad culture because exactly these people are playing right into the hands of those being against such features and there is no better coincidence than being in addition eventually a rightful target for criticism if the meter had been used in fair manner. I think it's a fair thing to offer an option which would hide informations except for yourself, your party/raid leader and officers.

No. My argument relies on WANT. Not WOULD. I am well aware that most leavers are permanent. But there are those who would want to but have better things to do. However back to the point that they need to strike a balance. I would have agreed if it had been their third or fourth major patch but it's the first one. The first content patch is usually the signal for where things are heading to so you don't want to screw up. You are putting things at risk if you rush things out and these risks outweigh often the risks of losing actually more people because of the delay. So you shouldn't sync your deployment cycles with subscription cycles but strive for quality once and god knows Bioware really need to strive for that. Quality often requires many iteration cycles. It's really that simple. Also if it is handled correctly then they won't prolong the deployment based on ad hoc additions. The only reason why they would prolong it is to make sure quality is at expected levels on both sides, developers and testers, OR if they have hit a critical show-stopping issue.

And realistically you cannot strike a balance based on estimates. You actually need to have deployed a couple of times in order to iterate. At the first time it's really better to play safe, those who would want to come back eventually will do so anyway and those who quit but would have waited for 1.2 only would have quit shortly after 1.2 anyway.

What's the matter anyway? If 1.2 was the only thing which would save you from unsubscribing then chances are that your patience and tolerance levels are pretty low already and I doubt 1.2 even with best testing will be free of issues. Issues which would just have postponed your quitting as they will be the thing breaking the proverbial camel's back. Save yourself some money and spread the message that the game sucks as you intended to do anyway. Cheers.

But that's the point: They do and usually they do so even much better for main casters.

You are a caster. Casters usually get stat sticks (link above) i.e. their weapon is only there to carry the stats increasing the characteristics of your caster abilities. If you could actually make use of your lightsaber in a meaningful way then it would make sense.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StatSticks

Erm, how exactly do different things feel repetitive? Isn't this a contradiction? My trooper's storyline plays completely different to my agent which then feels completely different to my Sith Warrior who even gets a meaningful storyline diversion based on his choices. All this "stories are all the same there is no difference in choice", yes, there are, even on my agent I had choices to make. Of course someone expected these choices to be reflected permanently in a persistent world much like Blizzard's phasing did and even they admitted that it has a high tendency to alienate its players. Permanent effects are not possible in an MMO unless it affects everyone at one stage. IMHO you sound burned out and jaded.

It really depends though. I found Scorpio way more resilient than Kaliyo even though I kept both at same gear level. At first I thought it must be because Scorpio is way better by skill set, turns out both are equal, however ranged tanks are at serious disadvantage against alot of mobs which are capable of melee and ranged. Ranged mobs often applies more dots (without even being notified about it) and debuffs but when some/alot of them are having a melee mode as well and then are pretty much a walkover. On the other hand healing companions could use a threat dump, on my Juggernaut I was often racing for threat but in the end Mr.Quinn always won.

Do all bonus objectives, always check for eligibility of the bonus series of a planet (nearly every planet, save Qesh, has one), try getting the 2-man heroics at least (sometimes soloable) and if not just do 1-2 space missions. Should be enough. I constantly outlevel mobs by 3-4 levels at least. Depending on class questing can be difficult or easy, if you're mixing up difficult with lengthy that's another issue, as healing-specced Operative levelling required planning and patience and so did levelling as tank-specced Juggernaut but it allowed ignoring group requirements for quest. However as Marauder or as DPS specced Commando I found most things like a breeze but I have to respect group requirements more often than not.

The forums told me that I should unsubscribe and that having fun with this game is a trait which only a dastardly thing called biodrone possesses. As this logic unfolded to me I made my decision: I will keep my subscription. Reason: Spite. Anyways, I got nothing else to play right now, the game market sucks as a whole. Might as well pick the most entertaining thing right now until perhaps something else pops up. No really, I am still having fun.

About Light and Dark having no consequences. I disagree.