Yeah the first day people were pvping all over but now they only care about finishing the quest. You don't even need the pvp quests to max rep so I don't even get why people are not more competitive. One fun thing I tried to break up the line was to grab my own orb and attack the line, when I died the orb would explode and it killed about 2-3 other people, but I was solo so sadly I couldn't do much to break the line of about 20 people.

I agree that they should keep some of what they have in the game so the world pvp continues to last. Even though my fps dies with more than like 10 people on screen it is still very fun. Just keeping the pvp dailies or maybe adding more in the group FFA and rewarding warzone comms for completing them would be great.

The guy giving the narrative for the video had me on the floor. Dunno why I've never seen or heard of Bruce McLean before but his acting was amazing.

I wish the rewards were not linked to the reputation system. Or atleast I hope that you can max your reputation without having to play the event every day. Also the weapon component tokens things seems lame. I don't want to have to form an operations group or kill a raid boss to get the weapons I want. Hopefully you can earn them without having to group up as well. Should be fun though although if it is as good as it sounds it will be a shame that after 2 weeks that once the event is over world pvp dies again.

The last event Grand Acquisitions Race has a major bug that let you basically skip the entire event by doing a space mission as well as very buggy respawn timers and quest items. I wasn't even patched at all or maybe like a week into the event. I know that bioware has dedicated internal testers but nothing compares to the actual gameplay on the PTS by the public. It just makes no sense why they even have a PTS if they never utilize except for very limited times. Although they said that character copy will be up before ROTHC so I hope we can test that out atleast. Would be awful to launch the expansion without a beta test.

I'm actually wondering what exact type of gear or rewards this is going to offer. Will it be purely cosmetic stuff like an alternate path for gaining social gear or will it be another way to more quickly progress in PVE with reputation offering similar rewards to daily and black hole comm vendors? Will there be any reputation system or added incentives for PVP or open world PVP? By not saying or giving any examples of what the rewards are besides titles it doesn't really give any incentive or purpose especially if you already do the dailies anyway.

So after the constant talk of Bioware devs complaining about how many resources or how much it costs to implement new species into the game I was thinking of possible solutions that would decrease or lessen the amount of resources needed and get more species options available sooner. One idea I thought of was that rather than put new species into the game simply introduce different species "costumes" or "masks" as items in the cartel store. These would be adaptive gear that would enable you to dress up as whatever species you wanted with an existing playable character. The items would simply go on your character as helmets or different gear pieces and since they would be considered "masks" it would not require any additional animation of the mouth and could also potentially eliminate clipping issues since the mask and other gear would all be a set to be worn together. For example you could simply have a togruta mask and once worn it would replace your head slot with a full mask that would basically make you look exactly like a togruta in game. With the existing color match features on gear you could get different skin color variations depending on your chest piece which would save devs time on having to create multiple pieces of art/skins. Or you could simply put different skins on the market without having to make entirely new models once the initial piece is finished. You could expand this to all different types of species. You could make Moncal gloves or boots which would change to the webbed hands and feet, you could even have wookiee masks. While this wouldn't necessarily be completely authentic it would be a good way to get around issues of voice acting or animation for certain species since if you market them as costumes you don't have to worry about those issues. I personally would buy a togruta helmet day 1 and potentially many other species as well if they were introduced. TLDR: Instead of introducing new species as part of character creation make them into adaptive gear costumes for existing player characters similar to the tusken raider gear that is already in the game.

Cartel armor sets not being bind to legacy dont really bother me. You can get most cartel armor off the GTN for cheap. Also I'm assuming people buy the cartel armor largely for cosmetic purposes. I pick and choose which armor I think looks best for my class and the character/species I created. I don't really see the issue with needing to have cartel armor be applicable across multiple characters and I don't get the purpose it would really serve. I don't worry about looks until end game anyway though. In terms of larger items like speeders or even some of the other vanity items or toys/pets I would like those to be legacy wide however as it makes more sense and it something that would make the actual purchase of those items worthwhile. As cool as a vanity mount may be I have no incentive to pay millions of credits or $20 plus for something that is only going to benefit one character.

This is just a cop out IMO. Saying you won't put togruta in the game because you care too much about clipping. Twilek clipping issues are all over the place. There are major clipping issues for humanoid characters completely absent of our species. If you have a cape and ride a speeder your cape clips straight through the bottom of the speeder that issue has been around forever. I know Bioware likes to say they won't release anything unless it is perfect, but I'm sure many people won't care about limited customization or potential clipping issues if the content actually makes it in the game. I would be much happier if they release new species with limited customization options and then add more options in and refine clipping issues or whatever gradually over time. Being able to play as any togruta; limited, buggy, or otherwise is a much better option than never being able to. Of course we also lack the ability to edit our existing characters in terms of hair or makeup so expecting species is pretty much a pipedream at this point. I personally don't feel much incentive to pay for Cathar when every response to adding more species is that it is super difficult and there is no guarantee that devs will even listen to fans for what species they want. Basically you are holding customers hostage by forcing us to buy the cathar race even if we don't want to roll one just for the small chance you may add more species at a later date. I mean you announced Cathar like a year ago and they still havn't been released it is majorly disappointing that Bioware has consistently failed to give any reasonable responses about species that fans actually want.

I'm wondering more about the changes to the trailblazer gear and others that seemed to appear exactly as advertised. I'm not complaining since I actually like the look of the gear post patch, but I could see why people would be extremely irked about this change if it messed up their current customization look. I didn't pay real money for anything, but simply having to redo your outfit especially if a chest piece gets changed potentially having to redo the whole thing is a major hassle. Bioware should figure out some way to make amends though. Maybe just give everyone the old model of phantom gear or add the old model under a new name as social gear or at a very cheap price.

1. Togruta playable species 2. Togruta mask for my existing characters. 3. Option to make all of my companions Togruta Seriously though there need to be more species. They promised Cathar like a year ago and it still isn't in the game, it is a joke. I would also possibly pay if they offered some more options in terms of gear. Some of the things that make me buy gear off of the GTN rather than cartel shop are that I don't like buying gear in sets. I like mix/matching to get the appearance I want so shelling out 10 bucks for a set of armor isn't appealing especially if I just want the pair of boots or something.

For the lifeday pack will it include all the lifeday items or will there still be random chance? For example if I buy a lifeday pack will I get a mount, robes etc. every time or will I have to gamble and buy 10 packs just for a chance at the mount? Honestly if they randomize holiday themed items it will really make me mad because after the holidays there will be no reason to bother and you will either miss out on the chance to get the items you want or they will reach insane prices on the GTN. Even if the life day pack costs more if they guarantee you get all the items and nothing is random I would purchase it.

I agree that the performance of Cathar should not be the sole judge of whether or not introducing new species is economically or resource feasible. I still don't know how the choice for making Cathar the first species was even made there was certainly a decent amount of support, but it seems like the development for Cathar began before F2P because fans didn't vote on it or anything and now it is the basis for all future species. We know Togruta, Nautolan, Kel Dor and others are also highly desired and they could potentially perform better if given the chance. From the livestream Q&A there was the statement that it costs a lot (I'm assuming in terms of labor cost) to build a new species and introduce all the customization options. Honestly just saying this is not much to go by, but I would rather see new species introduced even if they have fewer customization options than other species. If it is truly a matter of dollars and cents then I would play a Togruta with minimal level of customization at launch and then depending upon the success of the initial launch the devs could determine whether to patch in more customization at a later date either for free or at additional cost. Obviously we have never gotten a real clear answer of how much work actually goes into making new player species. Cathar were already in the game so we don't know how hard it is to convert NPC models to player models. If it required any new model work or rigging or if all of it was just in creating new art/textures for things like hair, faces, cosmetics etc. So all I am saying is that if Cathar performs poorly there are other strategies that Bioware can take without simply assuming that introducing any new species would be a failure. I personally would pay a fair amount to play as Togruta even if I was just playing as an Ashara Zavros clone. Rather than spending so much money on modeling 20 different new faces, or 20 different shapes for lekku they can still make customization through cheaper means such as simply offering different textures/paint patterns or like I said before make certain customization options as additionally packs on the cartel market.

I agree that I was surprised, pleasantly surprised, with how Bioware is continuing to handle community relations and I feel that for a time there was a distinct lack of communication or regard for the fans. This was probably due to the internal turmoil within the team and the changes being made as the F2P option was first being developed. However with the lead up and launch of F2P I was worried that Bioware would only care about money grabs and exploiting customers, but if anything F2P makes the developer team more accountable to the community as they have quicker turn around on content and they can relate the influx of f2p players and cartel market activity with the community satisfaction with the product. The communication between the devs and the community has been great and it seems they are willing to really make changes that the community wants to see. The increased perks for preferred status and other changes from the PTS to launch show that SWTOR isn't being left for dead, but I'm now optimistic for how the game is going to grow into the future. The livestream and developer updates like the state of the game blog are welcome additions and I hope to see this not as part of the strategy for F2P launch marketing, but a continuing and ongoing process.

I guess that could work. How do the passes even work? Is it something that sits in your inventory and you can activate whenever you want?

I don't play enough to justify staying subscribed come F2P launch. I really only have time to play on weekends or holidays so I would be willing to pay 2 or 3 bucks every couple weeks or month to just pvp but I would be getting ripped off because I can't buy cartel coins at whatever amount I want meaning I will almost always be in a situation of having too few cartel coins and forced to buy more or too many and just having extra sitting around since nothing in the shop really is that interesting and most items you are going to be able to get cheap off the auction house anyway a few weeks after F2P launches.

Not totally shocked at how this played out. I don't have much of an issue with the dollars to cartel coins conversion but I do feel that if prices stay the same as they were on PTS that some things are priced too high. Maybe I am wrong but are people really willing to put down $10 or more for vanity armor or weapons. Or close to 8 or 9 dollars just for a single saber crystal. I also wish the pricing on some of the weekly access stuff was different. The way they price things is to purposely rip the consumer off. The least amount you can buy is 450 but most unlocks or weekly passes are priced so that you have to buy $10 worth of cartel coins for $5 worth of content. Weekly warzone or flashpoint passes are 240 CC each. If you want to unlock them for a week that is 480 meaning you need to buy atleast 900 coins for 480 worth of content. Then you have 420 coins left over which means you have to buy another 450 coins to get access for another week on top. They are forcing you to buy more coins than you actually need and essentially making you waste money if you just want to unlock game features.

I think you are jumping to conclusions. They will have packs of items as a bargain deal. So each individual item may be 2 dollars or something but then a pack with 5 items could be only 8 dollars just as a way to encourage people to spend more. I think the random item packs are something totally different. I imagine the random packs will be cheaper and you have a chance of getting expensive or cool items in addition to other stuff. So basically it is like a gambling system built in to keep people spending with a relatively low chance of "hitting the jackpot" so to speak. F2P is all about making cash and monetizing the game in every way which means if you only want to buy a single item you will be able to since Bioware knows that and they still want your money. If that option isn't in there it will be added once Bioware realizes the potential cash flow they are missing out on.

3 is a slap in the face. Should be atleast 2 per DAY not 3 a week. I mean you can't even do the daily or weekly this way it is going to kill the pvp community.

F2P needs to be worth the value that is the only thing I'm worried about. While the sub is 15 dollars a month I imagine few people use all the content. If things are fairly priced to where I can select my preferred play style than I won't mind so much. I primarily pvp but if it costs 5 bucks a week or something just to unlock pvp then what is the point of supposedly giving players a choice about there playstyle. All of these previews and teasers are all just pointless fluff until Bioware gives specific details about payment options and how much all of this stuff will actually cost. F2P models are not free, the basic service is so crippling to gameplay that people will spend something just to have greater convenience or experiment. I'm most worried that the A la carte options as they are will be priced poorly and the subscription model isn't worth the price either so people may just drop the game all together.

This is the worst possible restriction. Really the biggest complete failure of the F2P model is restricting pvp. PVP should remain a legitimate way to level. Good luck gaining one level in a year with only 3 wz per week. Unless the weekly unlock is something incredibly cheap like 1 or 2 dollars at most there is no way I would ever pay to unlock pvp. I know they want to reward people for subbing, but seriously how much would I have to pay just to be able to access a key game feature. Updating the list and showing how many coins my account has is all a bunch of garbage, when will they reveal the actual numbers of how much real money=how many cartel coins and how much they actually charge for this stuff.

Most of these changes were good. No real complaints but going to be interesting to see how much the overload change effects gameplay on certain maps. Happy with the buffs to inquisitor though, loving the low cooldown on speed and force cloak.

Why they changed overload I don't understand. I also don't understand why they publish these changes like they are set in stone when they should all be subject to revision based upon testing. I.E. how come 1.4 isn't on the PTS yet? If you accidently get knocked into fire or off a bridge cause of overload it is your own fault. You have to aware of the classes and space around you. A number of important strategies are going to be ruined because of this. As a assassin tank you can no longer use overload in order to get enemies off of your allies particularly in cases like huttball. Also it is effectively worthless as an aoe for stopping node caps in denova or alderran when multiple people are capping at once. I don't necessarily know if it will make the game better but it significantly alters current strategies. Buffs to mercs, sorcs, operatives were all fine. Especially concealment operatives. Also cool to see deception get buffed maybe I will even respec to test it out. Nothing terribly bad but I do want to see how the overall knockback and resolve changes effect gameplay as a whole. Shortening range on some of these interrupts could make gameplay much more offensive with less chance to interrupt node captures or stop the huttball. Also I think Bioware should stick with the strategy of boosting the weaker classes rather than nerfing the stronger ones. I don't consider Marauder or Powertech so vastly overpowered, but some of the other dps classes like Operatives and Assassins simply couldn't compete so I hope this brings them more in line. Certainly better than nerfing something to oblivion.

Personally there should be options. I honestly wouldn't mind if certain items they gave 2 options either for a single character or you could buy it for your entire legacy for a bit more money. If a speeder cost $5 for one character and lets say $7 or even $10 for all your characters I imagine many people would shell out for the $10 dollar option. I imagine Bioware can easily change these things if they see they are not making any money.

Glad I bought this robe early on after launch for like 75k since it is now 1mil on the GTN. Bioware should fix the drop rates, if people want to look a certain way they shouldn't have to spend millions of credits. There is a similar piece for agents a rare unique colored trench coat that I was interested in buying, but the prices are just too insane.