There is one way around... most things that are sold for cartel coins have been put up for sale on the GTN for credits. Won't be cheap, but if you can save up credits you can get Cartel stuff on the GTN.

No, currently you can only get CC by spending money

I did a similar thing in another game except I requested the transfer about 5 minutes after I made the mistake and they wouldn't do it for me. 11/17 was quite a few days ago... Sorry man, but I think you're stuck with 60 days on the "wrong" account.

Good topic. I have completed Agent (mostly LS), Consular (LS) and Bounty Hunter (DS). Of those three, I'm only planning to do another playthrough of the Agent. Consular story isn't as bad as people say IMO, but I'm not really interested in playing a dark-side Jedi. And the Bounty Hunter is my least favorite story so far, so I don't have an interest in doing that one again. I'm currently playing LS Trooper, and even though I'm only a little way through I already plan to play another Trooper. If for no other reason than because I want to play a "femtroop" for Jennifer Hale's VO.

There's no wrong way to eat a Reece's... or to play SWTOR.

Even though the sample you get from a forum poll is small, I think it's still a very useful poll for Bioware. If a poll like this didn't exist, they'd probably just go ahead and pick the next species on their own. I don't think they necessarily should look at this poll and say "OK, It's Togruta next for sure!" There are other factors to consider... like even though I really want to play Togruta, I'd rather they not release Togruta unless/until they can work out clipping issues with the Lekku and thingies. But the poll is definitely significant enough that if the next species they were planning to do is one that is rating very low in this poll, it's probably a good idea to rethink that plan.

The problem Bioware has is that their playerbase is split down the middle between story fans and MMO endgame fans. There doesn't seem to be much crossover between the two camps. This is hardly the first thread on this topic, and these threads always seem to be split 50/50 between the endgame people and the story people. For the record, I'm in it for the story and I really don't care about operations or PvP at all. Because of this polarization, Bioware has no choice but to try to appeal to both groups. If they focus too much on endgame raiding and PvP they lose the story fans, and if they focus too much on story and RP they lose the endgame fans. I don't think they can afford to have half of the players quit. Some people are claiming they aren't focusing on endgame enough, but I think they are in much more danger of losing the story/RPG fans right now. There have been loads of updates to MMO endgame content with yet another Warzone due out in the next update, but there hasn't really been a single story/RPG update to this game since it was released. The only reason story/RPG players still around is that the game was initially released with a lot of story content if you are willing to play through multiple characters. Unfortunately it's been a year so many people have finished all 8 class stories already.

Yes, I know this, but I would have expected that the changes are documented better internally. This seems to be the fundamental problem at Bioware -- communication. As players we often feel there is a lack of communication, and it looks like there's a lack of communication internally as well. If their internal testers had any idea that some changes had been made to companions, I have to believe they would have spotted that bug easily. It takes about 15 seconds to realize something is wrong there. But if they get the same minimal documentation of changes that we get, they are working on insufficient information and bugs like this companion bug will slip through all the time.

According to the patch notes, yesterday's patch had to do with the following things: Submitting support tickets The Cartel Market Trading French audio So how did a patch to these areas of the game manage to break companion functionality? Nothing in the patch has anything to do with companions at all. There seems to be no connection between the patch and the bug that came out with the patch. So what happened? Is SWTOR's code so broken and tangled that fixing French audio or putting Cartel items on sale can somehow break Companion stats? That would be very odd. It seems more likely that some programmer decided to mess around with companion gear functionality without telling anybody and broke it. Genius. We are quick to blame testing when a bug comes out, but if the testers are looking at the same patch notes as us, they really had no reason at all to test companion functionality. If I'm a tester looking at those patch notes, I'm submitting test support tickets, I'm buying the items that are on sale to make sure I get the discount, I'm testing out trading with a preferred account under level 10, I'm playing the conversations with General Avrun in French... basically testing everything that supposed to be affected by the patch. Testers can't test every inch of the game every time a patch is released. They have to focus their testing on what was changed. I think the problem is that they are not being told everything that is changed with each patch. And neither are we, for that matter.

Good on ya, Bioware

Buy one from a vendor or the GTN. Depending on your server, GTN prices may be low right now on the adaptive speeders from the Cartel Market, so that's probably your best bet.

F2P is certainly doing some good things for the game. It's a heck of a lot easier to get a group for low level FPs now, and as F2P players level up characters it should be easier to get mid and upper level groups later, too. The worlds are more populated and the game feels much more alive now. Now if they can stick to that 6-week content release plan, I think the game will thrive again.

There are too many unknowns to get in a tizzy over Makeb already. Will it be free for subscribers or a paid expansion? We don't know. If we have to pay for it, how much will it cost? We don't know. How big is the planet Makeb? We don't know. What else will be included with the release (operations, flashpoints, warzones, new space missions, new species?) We don't know. We don't know much, and you're just going to drive yourself crazy by making up doomsday predictions and getting really upset over them. Since we really don't have anything to go on, I'd rather "predict" that Makeb is going to be extremely awesome. Both predictions are probably not entirely accurate, but at least my prediction doesn't make me all crotchety and depressed.

Oh right, my bad.

I hope they patch this soon. I can't even use Jedi/Sith companions because the bug is such an annoying eyesore. I think they put cosmetic bugs like this WAY on the backburner (there are some that have been in the game since beta, such as capes/robes getting sucked through the front of characters' bodies during cutscenes), and that's very unfortunate because it bugs the heck out of me. I don't see a problem there. Those mods are just bonus stuff if you happen to be the right level for them. You can just stick your own level 1 mods into those items if you want. Or did you not know that the level restriction is on the mods not the item? If you replace the mods with level 1 stuff, you can start using the item at level 1. Changing abilities based on alignment would wreak havoc on game balance, and just because your Jedi is dark side doesn't mean he or she becomes a Sith. Having said that, you can throw lightning if you really want to by unlocking the Sith Inquisitor Legacy (either by getting a SI to 50 or buying the unlock). And Force Choke by unlocking the Sith Warrior Legacy. I wouldn't hold your breath for any changes there. But you can just turn it off from the character screen if you don't like it.

I mix it up because I like to get all of my companions involved in the story. Obviously survivability is best with a healer companion, but it takes longer to kill enemies. If you're doing orange and red missions or trying to solo heroic missions or something, then maybe it's necessary to use a healer companion. But for normal yellow and green missions, DPS companions work fine. Playing with DPS companions is a bit harder as it requires some strategy. I felt like I had to play with healer companions when I first started out, too. But with some practice I got much better at playing with any companion. There could be several reasons why you might have trouble using DPS companions. 1 -- companions not geared up. It may be necessary to buy a few pieces of gear for your companion on the GTN if you haven't upgraded him in a while. Don't forget earpiece and implants, I almost always have to get those on the GTN for my companions. Those stats make a big difference. 2 -- not using CC. Most classes have a decent CC ability (Mind Maze for Shadow). If you have a pack of 4 enemies, you should CC one of them. Or if you have a Strong enemy and a couple weak enemies, CC the strong one and get rid of the weak ones first. You should turn off your companion's AOE abilities so he doesn't break your CC. 3 -- not managing the companion. Bind a key to the companion's attack so you can put him on a target at the start of the fight. There are different approaches you can take -- both you and the companion attack same target to burn it down fast (good for DPS companions like Zenith), or you and the companion each take on a different target to split up the enemies (good for tank companions like Qyzen). For boss fights a strategy I use is to let the companion attack first for a couple seconds, then I attack and ramp up the damage so the boss switches attention to me hopefully when he's close to half-health. That way you're splitting the damage between you and the companion.

I had no idea quickslot bars could be sold on the GTN. That's excellent. As a subscriber, I'm tempted to buy a bunch of those quickslots and sell them cheap to help out F2P players, because it's silly to have to pay to unlock the UI.

I think it's good that it takes some effort and/or money to unlock those race/class combos. In fact I think it's too easy now with CC. Odd combos like a Chiss Sith Warrior or Sith Pureblood Jedi Knight should be very rare.

I'm so glad SWTOR has the option to just start a new character & a new story after reaching 50, because just reading about what's involved in post-50 play is giving me a headache.

I think Bioware really made a mistake with the action bars thing. It's not an expensive purchase, so Bioware can't be making a lot of money from selling action bars, but they have lost a lot of good will with the customers over those stupid bars. It's a big hit to the game's reputation for relatively little revenue.

But see this is where the OP has a really good point -- sure you can pay $10 for PvP passes if you just want to PvP, but you're still penalized with reduced Valor and Commendations. So you can pay your way out of one restriction only to be hit with another one. And if you earn any purple gear from your PvP, you're socked with ANOTHER restriction. Five bucks is a small discount from the subscription fee to only get "full access" to PvP and still have to endure multiple restrictions on that content. I don't think it's realistic to expect players to accept a bad deal like that, especially in the long-term.

That's not a good answer. Bioware's efforts in creating the F2P option was for nothing if the intention is that players either subscribe or not play. If there is any point at all to having the F2P option playing for free has to be a realistic proposition. The harsh limits like those described by the OP make F2P an unrealistic proposition. I know there are people playing with the F2P option now, but I expect that they aren't going to last very long unless Bioware loosens the restrictions a little bit. The problem with the restrictions is that they are not restrictions on game content, but rather on the functionality of the game itself. The ability to simply play the game at a basic level is hindered to the point that with the F2P option, you aren't really playing SWTOR. You're playing a very different and much less enjoyable game. In the long run, that fact is only going to hurt Bioware and the future of SWTOR.

Those early missions are tuned for a player with no companion, so you hardly need a geared companion for it. Once you get your ship, quests start giving optional droid parts as rewards, ostensibly for your ship droid but much more useful in an HK unit. I always thought it was silly that they had droid parts as a quest reward option since the ship droid is not very useful as a combat companion, but it's pretty handy now for people with an HK. Just be warned that going into class mission conversations with your HK will cause you to miss out on any companion dialogue because HK doesn't have anything to say in those missions.

Yes you would still only have access to two characters if you unsubbed -- you choose which two characters to keep active when your sub runs out.

That doesn't surprise me since they probably see it as a companion character that mostly just level 50 players will have. It is a bummer, though. Hopefully he will be full of comments during the Makeb storyline at least (*hint hint* Bioware).