Okay. I will reiterate that we need some Nerfs. Like this guy: http://i.gyazo.com/a96db6bab07af023e6a8fa50ec66f5ca.jpg

Nerfs.

Another Sorcerer here. (She's my favourite.)

The above is another reason why I like that romance and how it progresses; there's nothing to indicate jealousy or possessiveness -- at least not until it progresses to the point where you know it's long-term and committed. There's very little "skeeze" potential there. Both of you come here and sit by me. The fangirl couch is pretty empty, there's room

Funny you say that. The F!Si/Andronikos romance is my favourite, mostly because it seems so organic and natural. It's not predicated on rank or position, nor is it a case of the LI hero-worshipping you, which most of the other romances I've played through (most, not all, and I haven't played all eight) tend to have. I like a romance with subtlety; and the F!SI romance delivers. The notion that the F!SI is liked/loved simply because of the type of person she is (as opposed to the fact that she's a powerful Sith or whatever) really appeals to me. I think if you take the SI's background as a slave -- as something not worth anything to anyone -- to have Andronikos come in and more-or-less assert, in his own way, that the F!SI means something to him, that's profound. (But I'm also like, the only Andronikos fangirl out there, so take my opinion for what it is.)

Arsenal Mercenary 1. How do you think your Mercenary spec is perceived by other classes? I'm an Arsenal Merc. I think that I get laughed out of town. I bring nothing to the table but theoretically high DPS that can only be sustained in certain conditions. Other classes can do it better and with more utility than I. In a PvP scenario? Free kills. I achieve nothing in PvP on my Merc because the opponent has a laser-lock on my behind. 2. How do you perceive your own spec? I enjoy the spec; the rotation is simple and the damage is high -- again, under a very specific set of circumstances. I've done a bit of PvP and it's disconcerting that the backbone of my DPS rotation can be interrupted so readily, or that it has such a long cast time. I feel like Tracer Missile should be instant or have a short cast time so that it takes skill and awareness to interrupt. As it is now, the cast time is so long that the window for an opponent to interrupt is huge. For PvE: My lack of interrupt abilities is a little jarring, and I really notice it now that I have other level 50s. Electro Dart is a 1.0 min CD; that's not acceptable when viewed against the 12 sec CD interrupts that other classes have (SI as comparison, my only other level 50). Mercs need one of those. Period. I have the feeling that I'm going to be passed over more and more should PvE encounters arise that have a reliance on interrupts or enemy cast management, and that's not a feeling I want to have.

I am in full agreement with you there. I was always under the impression that SWTOR-RP was a roleplaying portal; a means for likeminded players to find each other, post character bios, do some play-by-post. And I figured that all of the "news" would come from the IC goings-on of the participating characters. But no, spoiling people on their front page, stating something BioWare deliberately left vague as fact (as though they knew better) and then saying the equivalent of "eff you, we got ours" when shown that there are people in the community who didn't appreciate the tone or content of these news posts? And then locking the thread on the site about it simply because it's dissent? Come on guys, this isn't good behaviour. All it's showing is cliquishness and an inability to take criticism or invite discussion or debate. And it is making RPers in SWTOR look pretty bad, by and large. SWTOR-RP does not speak for me as a roleplayer. They should not continue to conduct themselves as though they do, especially if they're to continue this habit of spoiling people outright on their front page. People are still getting into this game for the first time. The class stories are still new for them. Respect that. P.S.: I made the nut allergy macro

I don't mind Karen's works**, at all., Her sanctimonious attitude through the last couple of years of her involvement with the SW EU was something that did bother me, though. **by "works", I mean Republic Commando; I don't read post-Jedi EU

It's also important to realize that naming policy breaches are the sort of thing that is self-policed. If you see a name breaking the rules, report it.

You make the place holder and keep it there until transfer hits. Right before you log into your now-Randomly-Named-Toon, delete the placeholder. Then log in on the transferred toon. You'll be prompted to change the name at that point. This is exactly how I did it and I had zero issues (except a toon who kept her random name, but a CS ticket and a relog solved that.) . It's not friggin' rocket science.

Lost one of five -- luckily the character I just started levelling in earnest and *just* started thinking about in terms of RP (so it was a good time to have to change her name); retained Legacy surname.

My BH only answers to Tiona but her full name is Cyn'tion'avi -- but that's also an alias because of her and her family's backstory.

This. It's absolutely right that flipping gender pronouns in the current romance arcs is shoddy writing. To set it up that way just reeks of tokenism or "pandering to the crowd". I know that I want a unique experience when the SGRAs come. I don't want to play through the exact same dynamics I've already done on my straight toons. SGRA are coming with the next story update. The next story update is sometime this year. We know it's coming, we were acknowledged, they have let us know why it's coming with a story update. They are showing writers' integrity and acknowledging that same-sex relationships have different dynamics than hetero relationships (by saying that it's new writing and that not all companions are eligible), and for that I couldn't be prouder. Anything else will be an SGRA simply for the sake of having one, as opposed to another option for a neat story. Inasmuch as yes, there are LGBT people in the world and no, they should not be ignored, it's also important to realize that not everyone is LGBT; therefore, the expectation that characterization be thrown out the window to get an SGRA opportunity out there NOW NOW NOW NOW is just entitlement. We know they're coming. We also now know that the issue is being treated with respect. Unfortunately, we have to wait, but I'd rather wait for quality content than to be given some harshly-done heteronormative relationship with the gender pronouns switched, kthx.

I'll gladly give Skadge to any Inquisitor who's looking for a place to stash Khem Val.

I love Torian. His story was pretty cool (The BH class stuff on Taris was some of my favourite), and I like how he's a character you've encountered previously before he becomes a companion of yours. The Bieber hair is just funny, though. From an RP perspective, my BH just sits there and /sighs when he starts professing his love. She doesn't want a boyfriend, she just wants ... well. You know. So he's been relegated to kitchen duty.

This guide on Ars Technica has some really good ideas for the best parts to get at any budget. I would cross-reference that against the options that this website is giving you. My rig took suggestions from an earlier version of this guide, and I have had zero performance problems with TOR. You want the best for your budget. The site you're using seems to give you lots of options, which is good. Avoid pre-fab boxes though; if you don't want to build your rig yourself, a site like this is the next best thing, so bonus points there. That being said, you may also want to check out this thread right here and take a look at how your GPU/CPU is projected to perform. All signs as of now are pointing to TOR being, for whatever reason, a lot more CPU-intensive than one would expect; take that into account when you build your box. Ensure that you have a CPU that runs above and beyond the game's min specs without overclocking, and of course ensure that you have the power supply to get it all running.

I don't have a hard-and-fast rule about how I get my names, it tends to change from game-to-game. For WoW I used chemistry and funky Dutch town names; for TOR so far I've used name generators, or translations of English nouns into other languages, or things I pull from atlases: Tiona -- name generator, threw out "Tiiona" but I dropped the double-i, then backfilled a full Chiss name around it Salama -- Finnish word for "lightning", 'cause, you know, Sorc and all Sadri -- name I used in a SW RP years and years ago; it's a city in India. She's the one I named my legacy for, Mt Oboa is in Uganda. I try very hard to not recycle character names; as an RPer I like all of my characters to have their own names. Sadri is the only one I've actually repeated, but that's 'cause the basic foundation (Jedi Knight who likes pie) can transfer over quite well into TOR.

You are entitled to any game time you've already paid for, as far as I know.

Ohai, I just found this thread, so I'm just gonna chime in on the discussion that seems to have been going on with the last few posts, basically "what defines good writing/literature"? It's funny that people bring up Tolkien as a benchmark of "good" writing; despite the fact that his books sold well, that his Middle-Earth is an astonishingly developed world, that people read his works generationally (I know people whose parents read them The Hobbit as a bedtime story, and now that their kids are growing, they're doing the same)... All of this and yet I don't find his works readable. I am not certain what it is; the man is insanely detailed in his prose, it's certainly not flowery and it's mechanically very good, but I just found it boring. It didn't engage me. The characters didn't grab me. I didn't feel anything. Years on and it still hasn't engaged me to the point where I still have the back half of Return of the King to read. Personally, for me, I found that Tolkien's prose was too dry, too tangential (if I forget what's going on after you describe the damn door to the Mines of Moria, something's off.), and just not... inspirational enough. And yet I have had people get legitimately angry with me for not immediately falling to my knees to worship at the altar of good ol' JRR. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that "good" and "bad" writing is at first completely subjective; then once you factor in stylistic choices, genre, demographics, character-driven vs plot-driven stories, world-building, and all of the other things that go into crafting a story... it can all become such a crapshoot. I guess the answer is, I don't know if "good" writing can be objectively defined, even for me, personally. As much as I disliked Tolkien, I'm in love with A Song of Ice and Fire, which is the same genre: long-format fantasy. I judge literature based on how engaging I find it; on how well it draws me in and makes me not want to put the damn book down! (And for the record: my main problem with the Twilight books -- from a technical standpoint -- is arguably the damn first-person viewpoint. Your writing and characterization better be damn well phenomenal in order for me to get into a book written that way. First person viewpoint allows an author to choose to stick with vapid characterizations and glorified, unrealistic assessments of situations, and those are both my two hugest gripes with that inexplicably successful book series.)

The Founder title unlocks to you if you a) Get billed as per a recurring subscription or b) redeem a game time code. I see you joined the forums this month. So you haven't been billed yet; you're still in your free month, even though you have a subscription waiting in the wings. So long as you get billed before 19 Mar, 12:01 AM EST, you'll get that title. All of this is laid out here. Once you've been billed, it can take up to seven days for the Founder Medal to come to your in-game mail.

Do you... do you use Unload? Shee, all those Barrage procs just going to waste. =/

It was about here that I absolutely lost it. I like meta-humour like this. Good stuff!

I like threads like this! I only have one character at the moment who's really grounded RP-wise, so I'll post her stats. Name: Tiona Race: Chiss Allegiance: Self (though currently funded by the Empire) Class: Bounty Hunter (Mercenary, Arsenal) Personality: Sarcastic, cocky, violent, passionate Weapon: Blaster pistols, variety of missiles, flame-thrower Armour: Full-body durasteel, right now painted red-and-white Likes: Spicy food (noodles, especially), spice, stand-up comedy, credits, alcohol Dislikes: Half the people who've hired her, Jedi, bugs, blue milk Hobbies: Crossword puzzles, gambling, Huttball, dogfighting (the in-space kind), and a few other things not appropriate for the forum Tiona is the daughter of an Imperial Intelligence operative stationed long-term on Nar Shaddaa. She got into the underworld of gambling, bounties and spice; her parents ended up staging her death in order to keep their name clean in the Empire.

Another inquiry as to the same-gender romance options. When do you plan to implement them? Do you plan to implement them at all? Will same-gender romance be available to existing companions, or are you planning to create new companions for the purpose?

Which is sad, because my BH totally isn't the marrying type. Oh well, Torian can just make sandwiches.