The impression I got from the live stream does point to my descriptions being the destination they want to end up at, but I cannot reconcile what I see on the PTS with this final vision. Even as an unfinished version, the current PTS build appears to be going in another direction toward a different endpoint rather than representing a step towards what I have outlined. The PTS build appears to be geared toward taking each Discipline and advanced class ability set, forcing players to choose between skills and passives at various intervals from these combined ability sets, and labeling the resulting reduced, customized set a loadout. Nowhere in my description do I alter how Disciplines work mechanically as they do on the live servers now. All Disciplines, base and advanced class ability sets are kept intact as a complete set, then made available to the player to choose from independent of class story. An early PTS build for development of the system I have described would have nearly all changes made during character creation. Players would then create characters with the clear goal for testing being whether their newly made character had the initial ability set they expected, and whether they gained the appropriate skills and passives as they level. Once again, holding those ability sets constant compared to their live server versions. Additional testing to ensure certain ability animations match what is expected from the class e.g. does the BH still use flame animations where appropriate? Once those systems have been tested and validated, a new PTS build is introduced for the less restrictive version I described to introduce and test loadouts. It's good to hear that the intended endpoints of these systems are as I envision, but that makes me even more concerned and confused from what I see on the PTS from a development standpoint.

Hello all! I think this is about my fifth or so post on these forums in the last decade, but I thought I'd throw this idea out there while we're still hopefully early on in the development process. From the LotS announcement livestream, one of the highlighted features/goals of the Combat Styles system is "More Choices in How You Play." While a laudable goal, the current implementation as we see on the PTS arguably runs counter to this goal. While players will have more choices in the sense that we will have to choose between skills/buffs, we will have fewer choices during actual gameplay since we will have fewer abilities than the current live version. Removing tools available to players, then advertising the system as having "more choices in how you play" baffles me. The arguments for and against ability bloat and pruning I will not rehash here. Instead, I'll outline an alternative that arguably serves the stated goal of "more choices" greater than the current Combat Styles. After the LotS announcement livestream, one of the hypothesized implementations of combat styles was the uncoupling of class/story with weapon proficiencies and, thereby, the Discipline options. I much prefer this idea because it opens up the possibility for players to choose what gameplay style they want irrespective of what storyline they want. I will start with a framework for the more restrictive version of this idea: Character creation: - Choose your faction: {Republic, Empire} - Choose your story: {Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler, Trooper} or {Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, BH, Imperial Agent} - Choose your combat style: {Single saber, dual wielding saber, dual-saber} or {single pistol, dual pistol, rifle, sniper, autocannon} Player will be presented the options within { } and select one, thereby determining which follow-up list will be displayed. For example, if a player selects Republic then of course only the left story list will be shown. If the player then selects one of the Jedi stories, then only the left combat style list will be shown. For some combat styles, there will be another follow-up choice to further specialize when there is more than one advanced class currently using that weapon, such as the single pistol (Powertech style vs scoundrel style). In this way, no player character currently in the game will need to be changed because they already fit into this mold. For new characters, this system allows much more freedom in choosing how you want to play through a story of your choice, with the main limitation being the split between Force and non-Force classes (for story reasons of course). The story choice will still impact what animations your combat style uses, but its impact on game mechanics stops there i.e. a bounty hunter who chooses the combat rifle to play like a vanguard would still use flame-based animations. There are other considerations for game balance (a BH sniper with heavy armor?), but overall implementation of this system should be relatively straightforward since it maintains our current Disciplines as they are. All work put into balancing current Disciplines is not thrown out the window. Respec serves exactly the same function, the only potential difference is what Discipline options you have. Want your own Din Djarin bounty hunter who can actually make use of his sniper rifle in-game? You can, just select Bounty Hunter for your story, then sniper for your combat style. Load into the game, see you've got a starter sniper rifle and immediate access to the base class abilities that an imperial agent would have but with bounty hunter style animations e.g. flames, electro dart, etc. Hit level 10 and you have the three Discipline skill lines currently available to agent snipers. How about a Mandalorian heavy as seen on The Mandalorian? Easy, select Bounty Hunter story, then assault cannon for your combat style. You now essentially play through the BH storyline with the mechanics of a Commando but with BH animations substituted when appropriate. I hope I have established the variety of combinations this system opens up, and therefore how it exemplifies "More Choices in How You Play" more than the current PTS system. Now for the less restrictive version: Instead of locking a player character into essentially a particular advanced class playstyle for the life of that character, what if you allow the respec option to undo their choice of combat style? Played for a bit and find you don't really like the sniper style on your bounty hunter? Respec to dual wielding pistols, but with the gunslinger Disciplines and give that a whirl. I must admit I am hesitant to fully outline this version since implementation would likely be a headache with swapping weapon proficiencies midgame, and the implications to the advantages of alts. Regardless, it would take a lot more time than the restrictive version to develop, so I doubt we'll ever see it, let alone before LotS launches. Enough of my rambling for now. What are your thoughts? Have I completely lost it? Is this real life? Is this just fantasy?

With the upcoming changes opening up discipline options and tying the Force class options to LS/DS alignment, it would be a good time tweak how certain choices in the Knights expansions are determined if you skip forward and start one of the post-KotET stories. Currently, the choices of who lives and/or is saved is strictly determined by faction, putting my light side Empire characters in a rather awkward position and vice versa. Because I do not enjoy grinding through those stories over and over on all alts, the majority of my characters haven't even started KotFE, instead being left in story limbo. A check of the character's current light/dark alignment instead would solve this dilemma, although a more elegant solution would be to walk the player through the storyline and give them each option individually a la Mass Effect 3 style. Looking forward to seeing what other gameplay changes you have made!

Hello all! Something I didn't see any mention of in the patch notes: I still have quite a few of the old premium/prototype/artifact gift fragments that used to come from treasure hunting missions. I see no mention that the associated vendor on fleet is being removed, but I don't want to be sitting on completely useless vendor trash when I could have bought a bunch more companion gifts with them today. Has there been any word/mention on this matter? Thanks in advance!

The one day out of the year I check the forums, lo and behold a topic I might be able to contribute to! Scanning through the thread I didn't find any specifics (apologies in advance if they are there), so I should ask: 1. What specific uses will this machine be required to perform while at school? 2. How often will you be carrying this machine around? How long will each of these trips be? 3. Are there any software packages that your academic program recommends you have on your personal machine to avoid the need to use the school computer lab (most engineering programs on my campus have a list)? We can see if any/all of said software will work better on a multithreaded/multicore processor (data for the mobile i5 vs. i7 recommendation). 4. Is ease and speed of setup/takedown a priority for this machine (if you have classes scheduled back to back and several blocks from each other, time is valuable)? This takes into account battery life (will you need to carry, take out, plug in, and pack away the AC adapter) and general bulk of the machine. 5. If you have been to your classrooms already, are outlets readily available for everyone who wants to plug in to do so? I've been in some older rooms that only had outlets along the outer rows so people using a laptop in the middle of the room had to be on battery the entire lecture. After thinking of these answers, have you considered a desktop at home (gaming grade specs; custom build from any number of reputable sites) complemented by a tablet (light weight compared to a gaming laptop, touch screen, very easy setup) for school use? You mentioned a desktop would result in you being even more of a hermit, but in the long term I cannot honestly recommend a gaming laptop without ruling out other, more cost effective alternative setups. Quite a few of my friends and fellow researchers have been switching to a tablet (with a carrying case) as it allows for them to quickly get situated, doesn't require a lot of desk space, and because of its size allows them to forgo a backpack/briefcase/etc. Depending on the models you compare they can also have quite a respectable battery life at the cost of a smaller screen and, of course, the ability to quickly run more resource heavy software (gaming and such). Something to think about on top of all your other options. On the topic of laptops, I fully support others' recommendation for Asus' Republic of Gamers line, the G750 especially. Comparing a friend's G750 to my almost 4 yr old MSI GX640, the Asus feels like it has a sturdier shell and overall better build quality whereas my MSI truly feels like plain plastic. Granted, this plain plastic has lasted through 4 years of abuse at my hands, but it still could do with an upgrade. The biggest difference I saw between my MSI and the Asus was a dramatic disparity between heat dissipation: The Asus GPU was running almost 10 deg C cooler. Some of this I attribute to the difference in GPU model, but I must also consider the cooling system of the shell itself. Another thing to watch out for is my MSI vents heat out the right side of the unit, almost directly into the area I usually have my hand if I'm using an external mouse (the Asus I saw vented out the back). Not the most comfortable spot after an hour of gaming... This is turning into a wall of text, so I'll end with some general experiences I've had with manufacturers: My first laptop was a Dell XPS that had nice performance (for the time) with a subpar cooling system that resulted in the GPU frying not once, but 5 times in 3 years, the first time at the 14 month point after purchase (luckily I bought the 3 year warranty). In the beginning, customer service and tech support were both excellent (always got someone in Knoxville, TN whenever I called), but in the third year went downhill fast. Outsourced tech support, even for what was their premium line, did not impress me. What originally was resolved in 5 min with Knoxville support (Graphical artifacts on screen? Documented high temperatures on the GPU? We'll have a tech come out and replace your GPU and heatsinks within the next couple business days /end call) turned into someone reading from a script, taking 30 min for what should've been very clear from my initial description. Since then I have not heard anyone praise Dell in any manner, either for their service or computer products (besides their monitors, but that's another story). TL;DR: I cannot recommend a Dell computer for any purpose due to poor quality of both product and service. A few years back I got the MSI laptop from XoticPC. I did not experience any trouble at any point in the process and would buy from them again if I need another laptop (after comparison shopping of course). You probably won't need to customize any laptop, but I find that site easier to navigate and quickly look at the options than Amazon. Of course, I'd restrict your search to Asus machines, possibly the Sager/Clevo as well (rather bland looking but you might like them, just beware of the differences in warranty). Hope that giant wall helps!

Might I suggest (realizing this will likely open up a whole other can of worms) that the same customization vendor they recently added for PCs be used to customize certain companions as well? Options for these companions will of course be limited to basic things such as hair, hair color, facial hair etc. A possible overview: Restrictions: - human companions will have the most options, though still likely restricted to the same body type and of course species - nonhuman, organic companions (Khem, Qyzen, etc) will have limited options such as eye color; this maintains the viability of current companion customizations for these comps as body recolors with more complex patterns like Khem's don't fit in the current customization vendor UI - droid companions would need the same kind of options as the nonhumans to change their color pattern, though obviously changing eye color for T7 does nothing Such a system would allow people to change Kira/Vette/Doc/other humans to suit their precise look if they don't like the current customization options while maintaining said options as viable for the nonhumans and droids as customizing the latter two groups would require significantly more work. Enough of me babbling. What do you guys think?

For those of us who don't have a lvl 50 toon, what should we do for credits (besides abusing our companions )? Such as the leadup to 25, I am consistently in the 60-70k range but then feel like I shouldn't be dumping over half my savings on a single skill (I know this will change with 1.2 but I imagine it will still be a bit pricey). It is also around this time when skill training in general starts becoming more expensive slowing my accumulation of credits considerably.

YES! Sooo many times now I've gotten into cutscenes where I feel the urge to hit ESC and remove all my companion's headgear before restarting the scene because I hate the look of some of the gear. Especially for conversations in my ship, why should they be wearing full armor anyway? Also, as a small convenience I would like a mailbox in my ship so I don't have to land/dock just to check my one new mail I just received. Very nice list!

I've got a level 37 sorcerer who is also Light III as well as a level 18 Jugg who's already Light II and I must say I enjoy the LS decisions a lot more than the DS (which made me feel like an *** much of the time). I especially enjoy setting off on a mission to do something, then a LS option comes up and I chose it thereby taking a different path. Then going back to the quest giver (usually an Imperial Officer), they start ranting about how I failed the mission and how I basically suck and I chose the dialogue option of "I am Sith" which usually ends up being "I am Sith, [rank of officer]. I do what I want. I don't answer to you." or something along those lines. Their response of "Uhhh..." is priceless. Definitely helps that Vette likes my LS decisions too.

Not sure if this has been stated before (haven't been keeping up with the latest; been ingame ) but I got an email late last night stating my CE order from Amazon is shipping soon with a delivery estimate of TOMORROW. Also interesting is my next day shipping now shows as release date shipping. Unfortunately, I'm going on vacation for the weekend tomorrow so I won't get to play again until Sunday night, but it's nice to know the physical product will be waiting for me and I won't be needing a grace period after all. Happy gaming and of course may the Force be will you all!