So all the training that the jedi undergo is pointless because in the end all they really have to do is wish upon the force and it happens. The same with the sith, they dont really need to pass on their secrets from master to apprentice, because it all boils down to wish fulfillment.

I see, so the argument is that force will keep you alive through any trauma you may suffer. You dont need to have your blood filtered and cleaned, because the force will do it for you. Your blood pressure doesnt need to be regulated, because the force will do it for you. Thats a pretty all inclusive argument there. I guess logic and medical science can just be thrown out the window. The guy who was cut in half, in real life, still had a functioning kidney. If you think kidneys arent necessary, I'd recommend doing some research. The only problem at this point then, is that according to 'Darth Plagueis', Maul was designed as a weapon. Just a weapon, no force mastery was taught to him. No secrets of the sith were taught to him. He was taught to fight and thats it. So a guy who was never taught to use the force for something other than fighting, now has the ability to keep himself alive in the face of a massive traumatic injury, use the force to cleanse his blood and regulate his blood pressure, maintain consciousness and crawl away to fight another day. Thats seems like a pretty steep learning curve.

Two hearts, then he's got two big ol pumps, pumping that blood out. Unless we're saying that the lightsaber instantly cauterized the entirety of the cut. Nonetheless, you're not gonna make it without kidneys without daily dialysis.

LOL. Real people have survived being cut in half? I dont think so. The shock, the peritonitis, not having an intestinal system, the probable massive kidney damage. The mind boggles. Blood loss would also be a concern as you just lost half of it. The human body has about 10 pints of blood in it. You can actually lose quite a bit of that, but you'd lose consciousness and enough blood would cut off circulation to your remaining extremities. The heart also has to have blood in it to function. This seems like a no brainer, but you'll need one heck of a bandaid to keep from bleeding out very quickly. If I recall correctly from the movie, Maul was cut pretty high up too, he probably had damage to his pancreas too. Assuming that zabraks have a pancreas or the equivalent of a pancreas in the same location. You lose the pancreas, you lose the ability to digest food, which would eventually be problematic. There is evidence of one guy, in real life, who was cut in half by a train, however, the train itself kept his innards contained, and he (only) had damage to one kidney. The train also apparently kept most of his blood from leaving his body, or it left slowly enough that he could call 911, then called his family, then called Domino's and ordered a pasta bowl for later on that evening. Ok, he didnt actually call Domino's. Domino's sucks, nobody calls Domino's.

We've implemented three different endgame options, every one of which results in your death! Enjoy.

Hey, you know, just a girl trying to work her way through college, shakin' what her giant space-slug momma gave her.

I'm pretty sure that some soldier messing his pants in a trench during an artillery bombardment is not what George Lucas had in mind for teenagers to watch. I'm not a teenager and I cant say that I particualrly want to watch that either. Plus, lets be honest, I dont want to watch a bunch of soldiers crossing a linear danger area utilizing bounding overwatch. Jeebus. That level of realism isnt necessary.

I had read somewhere that Maul was later knifed by an exotic Hutt dancer at a strip club on Tatooine, during a table dance gone wrong. They really mean it when they tell you to keep your hands to yourself. I'm not sure which one of the fantastic star wars writers it was that wrote this, maybe it was the Ryder fellow someone mentioned earlier.

All of the metaphsyical hypothesizing aside, you have to realize that Mace was a black guy and the black guy always dies in the movie, unless he's the 'magical' black man, then he might survive. While Mace was pretty cool and used the force, he doesnt really qualify as the 'magical black man', who mysteriously appears out of nowhere, imparts wisdom and/or assistance to the white dude, then vanishes never to be seen again. Correlaries could be drawn that Mace vanished out the window and was never seen again, but that offends my delicate sensibilities.

I agree, the storyline itself is fine as far as plot goes, although I havent completed Alderaan yet. The trooper responses on the other hand seem more like what I would expect from somebody imagining how they think a soldier would respond. Not how a soldier would actually respond. I actually cringe sometimes when I see the options presented for the trooper's response. 'Hoorah, for the Republic' is fine for Hollywood, but presents a pretty hollow caricature of what a soldier is like. Very little depth to the character. I've met and been trained by special forces soldiers in my life. They are typically very intelligent, highly capable, and professional people. Sometimes grim, but not without a sense of humor. The storyline trooper seems to have a dewy eyed optimism and professed love for the Republic that seems a bit naive and simple.

Frankly, if I had fans like some of these folks, I'd make Star Wars episode VII: Attack of the Ewoks. The ewoks would be led by newly discovered sith master Jar Jar and they would go on to kill Luke, Han, Chewbacca, etc, until they were finally put down by Captain Kirk's infamous double-fisted karate chop. The last half hour of the film would be a montage of me flipping my fans the bird and laughing.

Its only a flesh wound, I've suffered worse.

I can say that I levelled my veng jugg up to 43 before I couldnt get any farther. The republic demolitionists kept killing my poor jugg despite either Vette or Quinn as my companion. Got killed three times, managed to kill one. Then I respecced to Immortal, went back and killed every demolitionist in sight, barely losing 1/3 of my health. Yes, yes, I know L2P, dont play vengeance if you cant hack it, etc,etc, no you cant have my stuff, qq some more.

I guess I remember being a little kid back in the 70's and being on the edge of my seat, with my eyes wide open, watching star wars for the first time. I think thats who it was intended for, a simple story about good versus evil, princesses, villains, struggle and the good guys winning. I can see all sorts of rage if Steinbeck came back from the dead and wrote 'Of Mice and Men, part 2', wherein Lennie isnt killed by George's bullet, but his brain heals and adapts and he learns to process thoughts differently, studies, goes to harvard, becomes a rocket scientist, invents faster than light travel and flies off to hook up with some green-skinned women in another galaxy. Then I could see outrage and moral indignation. And a possible lawsuit from Roddenberry's estate. As far as I can tell, we have a guy here who is taking what he created and retelling it with a few more effects for another generation of wide eyed kids. Heck if I know if its for money, I wouldnt presume to know Lucas' mind or anyone else's motivations for that matter. The passion some fans have for these movies is admirable, I think maybe just a little misdirected. Perhaps take some of that passion and energy and go work in a soup kitchen, habitat for humanity, find out how to send soldiers in afghanistan a 'care' package. Having been in the military for nine years myself, I can tell you that sort of thing is appreciated. Find something else a little more tangible to be passionate about. I'm pretty sure Lucas is aware of what you have to say on this issue and is going to proceed as he wishes regardless, maybe even in spite of what you have to say, though that again is presuming.

I dont think we can really say, in hindsight, that it would have been nothing but a cult classic. Theres really no way for anyone to definitively say such a thing. I can say that when star wars first came out, it was the only film of its kind to hit the theaters. There was nothing else like it. There were no dvd players or vcrs, people didnt sit at home and stream movies from the internet. I'm sure there were cult movies, but they didnt go to mainstream theaters. Would star wars still have been huge if the special effects werent as good as they were? Would someone else have done the special effects as well, or possibly better, or worse? Nobody can say what might have been or might not have been. What we can say is that one guy had a vision that he shared with the world and millions, if not billions, have enjoyed that vision. Lots of people worked to make that vision come to light. Sure they deserve credit too. The outright rabid attitudes of some people here is what I dont get. I'm sure that purists can find the original versions of star wars on amazon.com or elsewhere. I cant imagine that its been wiped out of existence, or that George Lucas is tracking down every copy and then burning your houses down to destroy them and kicks your dog on his way out the door. I could then see some hatred for the guy. He's added to and changed some things to his creation, I'm guessing he's done so as technology has advanced and allowed him to do so. Should he feel a need to consult with the world before he tinkers with his vision? He doesnt owe anybody a darn thing. The appalling arrogance of some people to think that they have a right to dictate anything to the creator of something is beyond me. I can see the critiquing, some of the dialogue would make anybody cringe. Perfectly understandable that it would be critiqued. But some of these posts look like theyre made by psychopaths.

I've loved star wars ever since it first came out in theaters, but I dont think I've ever seen a larger group of opinionated, self-entitled people in my entire life. I have the misfortune to work in a public service industry and see self entitled people all day long, taking things for granted, but the one individual who states that he respects George Lucas and what he did and then goes on to bash him for a page and a half and then holds up second rate hacks like Zahn as good authors takes the cake. I'm sure Zahn is a great guy, but lets be honest he's a sci-fi writer. The world does not stand in awe waiting for his next masterpiece. Faulkner and Steinbeck he's not. I'm sure he spins a good story, but he wouldnt be spinning a story at all, if someone hadnt given him a background and done the merchandising and made star wars popular before he ever came along. This is George Lucas' playground, everyone else is welcome to play in it, including you and me and Zahn. I'm guessing he doesnt appreciate it when you drop trou and take a massive dump in the sandbox and then complain that the playground isnt like the playground you used to have as a kid. I hesitate to even put this out there, but I once wrote a story in college and shared it with a class and friends and family. It was a silly story, designed for nothing other than a laugh. But it was funny and I knew it was funny while I was writing it. Anybody who has ever written anything that hit its target, knows it is an eye opening experience. As Stephen King (not to compare myself) says, 'you get off on it'. You want to share what you created and hope others enjoy it too and get a chuckle, or whatever you're going for. You cant help but be emotionally vested in it. Frankly, if I had to deal with some of these 'fans' I'd retire from star wars too. Everybody laughed and enjoyed my story, except for one budding critic in the making, who took it seriously and butchered every page and filled every margin with notes about character and plot development, etc, etc. It was a 12 page story designed for a laugh, nothing else. Nontheless, you tell somebody they suck, when they've shared something they enjoyed creating, it hurts. George created something that we all delight in, an end result is the books by Zahn, this game we're playing, my 1970's star wars lunch box, the halloween R2-D2 outfit my parents made for me one year back in the early 80's. Why cant we just enjoy the story, let George enjoy his story and do what he wants with it. I expect he gets grief almost everywhere he goes from self entitled, self important, nerdraging fans. I feel sorry for the guy, however much money he has earned.

If I recall correctly, there was a concept that light aide and dark side force users lived alongside one another at one point, until the dark side users attempted to take over, resulting in a war. This led to the defeat and flight of the dark side users, who then became the Sith and the lifelong enemies of the jedi. Theres more to it than that, but I dont see any need to delve into the intricacies. Maybe its just semantics, but the implication is that the Sith unbalance the force, not necessarily the dark side. Its the users of the force that bring unbalance in how they use the force, not the force itself. A point which has already been made, in that there is no dark side, there is only the light side and the corruption of the light side by the users.

I saw one person that asked the question, repeatedly 'why do you need better gear, if you're not going to pvp or raid and dont really need it'? I think this is a good question, but it essentially boils down to human nature, which the MMO industry relies upon to profit; If I push the button once, I get a 1974 ford pinto to drive around. If I push it 500 times, i get a 2012 BMW. If I push it five million times, I get a time-travelling delorean with cupholders. What do you want to be seen driving around in? Will you spend the time (and therefore the $ for subscription) to get the delorean? Its the same as framing all your diplomas and whatever achievement certificates you may have and putting them on your wall. Ostensibly this gratifies your ego and other people can look at it and tell you how cool you are. Women may throw undergarments at you if you have enough certificates on your wall. Or maybe you just like to look at your 'ego wall' and drink a vodka martini. You have to be cooler and have better stuff than the guy next door. You just have to, maybe moreso online than in real life. It isnt a question of need at all.

Just keep playing, its part of the story.

I put the chancellor in carbonite. Tormen asked me about it and I replied that I was not a hired assassin, I was a hunter. Couldnt tell you if you still have the option to fight Tormen after that, I think it was there, but not sure. Becoming a mandolorian seemed like a good idea at the time, couldnt hurt your reputation and would likely open up new avenues for business. But then at the end, when you win Corellia I gave a speech about being for hire. Did the same when I did the speechwriter mission back on Nar Shadaa (I think it was Nar Shadaa anyway).

Ok, finished the storyline. I never got treated poorly by the sith, but then I never got mouthy with them either, just asked to get paid and moved on to the next mission. I see that some folks got force choked by Tormen and I can understand why they might feel some animosity there, but I cant say it ever happened to me. On other hand, I played my BH as a professional just looking to do a job and get paid, politics was not something to get involved in or express an opinion on. I made almost all light side choices, didnt kill the chancellor and didnt have a problem with Tormen at the end. Told him I just wanted paid and he said ok. End of story. My character had no reason to kill Tormen, if he was brutal and made the republic cry the next sith might be even worse and probably wouldnt be any better. Biting the hand that fed me would only lead to a bad rep, which would be decidedly unprofessional.

I'm just getting to the ending today, havent made the choice on how to end the storyline yet. There may be some information that I'm not privy to, but it seems questionable that I'd betray the guy who's been paying me for a lot of jobs. Call it being a 'lapdog' if you want, that seems like a flat-out backstab. I dont know, I'll play it out and come back.

I hate to break this to ya, but Mako is a skank. I saw her with half a dozen different guys on Corellia just today. It doesnt get any skankier.

Maybe they can just implement an 'I win' button. You press it and instantly advance to 50th level in the class of your choice. All enemies defeated and storyline complete. You promptly bed Satele Shan and Darth Malgus fetches you mint julips on the veranda afterwards and tells you how awesome you are. I've played sawbones to 50, sith warrior vengeance jugg to 43, and BH merc pyro to 40. BH is, by far, the most likely to survive combat of the three. The heat management takes some adjustment and getting used to, but every class has some sort of limitation that takes some getting used to. Take a look at the other class forums. Most of them are whining about how underpowered they are and how they need to be 'fixed'. You do need to use most of the skills your character learns, not just endlessly spam one button (unless of course youre an arsenal merc, from what I've heard they just bend over and shoot tracer missles at everything).

I disagree with it being valuable later on in the game. I completed the story line and never once cast DS. Ever. Nor should you be running out of energy very much, if at all, later on in the storyline. Between coolhead and the energy management you should be learning as you progress, you dont need to use DS in PVE. PVP I couldnt say, as I dont pvp, but I cant imagine that its worth much there either.