Wow, a yellow post within almost five minutes of putting this up. That's a rare kind of attention (in my experience). Hopefully my thoughts & comments will be of some help to you.

The Buggy: Like any game of this magnitude, there are bugs galore. As I could never make the in-game bug reporter work, I will simply list what I have found here. Some of these bugs may have been repaired with the most recent patch, but I can only go over those I have found while playing. - Animated: Animation bugs galore. Riding the bird thing on Alderaan, there’s a weird bit of animation that throws the bobbing of your character out of synch with the bobbing of the bird thing. I saw this specifically on my Type 4 female Twi’lek. Every now and then the lightsabre bounce will fall out of synch with the running Jedi/Sith animation using the “ninja run” (one hand forward, the sabre held back and behind). Sticking animations when you trigger an item (most notably when you drop an item off in a drop box, like a bomb) and your entire upper body gets locked from 10-30 seconds in a rigid stance even while you run around. - Floaters and Clippers: Again, these were all seen on a type 4 female body. The “Rugged Smuggling Belt” (and identical models) has a mass of pixels floating some feet off the left side of the character, which is most easily seen when running. The leather torso with the oversized collar (I don’t have the specific model name, but it is earned as a smuggler on Couruscant, often the first Orange moddable you get) has the amusing penchant that, during cut scenes, the collar front will separate from the jacket and physically lead the character by up to double its length. I’ve seen it lead, twist, shift up and down and all around, distorting all the way in those “cut-scenes”. Late scoundrel reward belts have the hip strap clip through the butt of the smuggler. - Vanishing Weapons on Companions: This one is pretty recent from what I’ve seen. Whenever the companion is summoned (either via the comlink or a speeder drop-off point) he/she has their weapon drawn. If you hit up a gathering node before getting into any sort of combat, the weapon will vanish from the companion as they scan the node. It will stay vanished, even if you get into combat (I can’t tell if it affects their outgoing DPS or not), and your companion will do all his/her attack animations as if they were holding an invisible weapon. The only solution I’ve found is to unequip and reequip the weapon. If you have combat before using a gathering node, the companion will begin “storing” their weapon normally. I have noticed a lot of “sheathed” lightsabres remaining lit, however. Unknown if it’s related in any way to this bug (probably not). I’ve also noticed some vibroblade weapons are vanishing from some companions as well, while others stick through portions of their back now. - Tough to Handle: One of the weirdest bugs I have seen is in the conversation cut scenes. My Smuggler (and I’ve noticed this on the Bounty Hunter, Trooper, and Imperial Agent as well) would pull her gun in the middle of the conversation, and immediately the gun would start sliding back in her hand until the grip was somewhere in her wrist, and she was holding it just forward of the trigger guard. She would then hold it like that for the duration of the cut-scene (until she “holstered” it again). It would always draw out fine, but it would “slide” out of position the moment she held it “aimed”. And no, this is NOT restricted to one gun. I saw this the entire way from 1-50 on my smuggler on multiple guns (and 1-18 on my Bounty Hunter, trooper, and Agent). The longer the gun is, the more noticeable the slide is, however (Thus the orange pistol I got from the vendor on Alderaan and continually upgraded the second half of my Smuggler’s run made it very clear, where-as the stubby starter pistols, not to mention “Flashy”, made it a lot less apparent). It’s like the gun “slides” to hold it by the middle of the weapon instead of the handle. -Zabrak Legacy: I hope this is a bug or an oversight, but I want to make sure it’s known. The Zabrak race is selectable by every class, right from the beginning. I don’t think buying a legacy to allow the Zabrak to be “playable by every class” is worth the effort of playing the Zabrak through 50 levels or One and a Half Million credits. If anything, they need a reward similar to what the humans got (the only other race who can be “every” class). - How Interesting: I find some of the background conversations between NPCs amusing. I’ll might even stop and listen to them… if they didn’t follow me around. I genuinely don’t get this bug, but when I walk away from an NPC conversation, I expect to leave the conversation behind. Not have the remainder of the conversation suddenly pipe through, at full volume, 30 seconds after leaving their audible range. This is not restricted to a planet, or an NPC, or even a character, this happens with every character, with every NPC conversation. Coruscant to Corellia to Korriban to Dromund Kaas to wherever. This has happened on every planet, which means whatever method you’re using to code these conversations is broken. There’s just no nice way to say that.

The Ugly: This section will go over those decisions that made me scratch my head and simply not understand exactly what the creators were thinking. These things simply seem silly to me, decisions I felt were simply confusing, or things I genuinely disliked but only affected me personally. - Come Sail Away: Yup, the first entry here is a follow up to my previous comments on the ships. My main confusion here is the decision to lock each class down to a specific ship. That, to me, seems like an artificial limiting of options and choices for the player. The Smuggler ship is the only one not swappable with a different ship story-wise, as it’s the only class with an arc that has to do with something special about the ship (or in this case, cargo on the ship) in Chapter 1 of their story. Rescricting what classes can use what ship seems like an intentional limiting of the Star Wars universe’s most viable money sinks: purchasing a new ship! Seriously, how many hours would some players put in to buy a phenomenally expensive starship for themselves? 20 million credits for a new ship (for example) would have led to easily upgradable incentives in new ship designs released for in game purchase, and possibly even a legacy system to allow new characters to start with the ships you’ve already earned/purchased. It’s purely cosmetic, wouldn’t alter play in any way, and players would work endless hours just to replace a ship they don’t like with one they think is cool, or just to get ahold of every ship they can (the “collectors” out there). The possibilities here are endless without artificially limiting the choices. It’s a far better money sink than Speeders…. - Dragging Your Feet: This is another thing that makes me wonder what the creators were thinking. Speeders, the SW:TOR equivalent of a mount, seem horribly out of synch with their costs. I can understand the Class I license costing as much as it does, and giving us a +%90 movement speed is nice. What I don’t understand is how a Class II license only gives an additional +%10? I mean, that’s so minimal it’s negligible. I didn’t bother buying a speeder bike for that license (my crafting skill let me build the “Custom Built Speeder”, so I made my Class II for next to nothing). At Class III we’ve increased a whopping %20 from the starting figure. We’re rollin’ now! Seriously though, upgrades for speed should be, in my opinion, at the minimum %25. If the speeder licenses were changed to +%100 at Class I, +%125 at Class II, and +%150 at Class III it would actually be worth the cost. I would, of course, prefer a larger upgrade, but %25 is the minimum I feel it would be worth the cost. But at the current levels? If it weren’t for cybertech and my Custom Built/Hotrigged Speeder Bikes, I wouldn’t even bother. My free Digital CE Stap would do me just fine…. - Choose Your Weapon: This one confuses me to no end, it honestly does. The classes are heavily restricted in what weapons they can use, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Why wouldn’t a Bounty Hunter be able to use a rifle? Why is an Assassin forced to use a double ended saber? I can’t DPS as a Marauder with one single-bladed lightsabre (despite it being the single most iconic combat style in the movies and previous games)? And why can’t a scoundrel run around with a shotgun instead of a pistol? My Agent and Trooper have to have cut scene pistols, so why can’t use one when I want to play them? The only argument I can see being made against opening the choices up are the four dual wielding advanced classes (Mercenary, Gunslinger, Marauder/Sentinel) out of the sixteen. In my opinion, the simplest fix would be to make moddable weapons that “act” as dual weapons. For instance, you would technically equip one weapon labeled “Dual Pistols” on your Gunslinger, and you would visually have twin pistols to draw and use. In essence, the game would handle dual weapons the same as single weapons, and relegate the difference purely to how it is shown on your character. It would become a cosmetic choice instead of a forced decision based on class. DPS could be normalized across each weapon type (Dual Pistols equal to Single Pistol equal to Rifle etc etc) and it would turn the weapon you use into a personal choice. In the end, the only weapon restriction would be Melee and Ranged. There will be complaints (I wager a majority from the PVP contingent), but this gives more choice to the player and opens up what weapon types are viable to use. It will also make adding new weapons later a lot easier (reverse grip Lightsabres, for instance). Want a Marauder with a double-bladed sabre? This solution would allow it. A Gunslinger with an assault cannon? Not my speed, but why not? A Trooper pulling dual pistols from his belt? Not a problem. Bounty Hunter with a sniper rifle? That’d be pretty sweet actually. This would open it up entirely. As for the Companions, they would get in on it too. Certainly, you’d have to restrict non-Jedi from using lightsabres, but it would open up all the melee weapons for the individual companions. Qy’zen with dual vibroblades? Risha dual wielding pistols? Mako with an assault cannon? T7… er… wait, that doesn’t work for him (but then, he has his own custom weapons anyway). Honestly, in any game, customization is king, and opening it up is always a good thing. - My Ears are Bleeding!: There are a few “nails on the chalkboard” type sounds I really want a way to shut off (without shutting off all the other sounds). Stuff like the clicking/clinking sound vibroweapons make (Make it stop!! That sound is the sole reason my smuggler would NOT use Bowdaar! It’s a torture that makes me want to claw my ears off!). The “vworp” sound some explosions make (I always get confused where that sound is coming from). The high pitched “bree bree bree” sound the AA cannons make (drives me crazy… not from the sound, but from how constant they are if you’re in an area near them. If you spent a lot of time in a heavy assault area, that sound will haunt your dreams!). If they were just mellowed a bit, they would be tolerable… except that vibroblade sound, that HAS to go… - Eat a Sandwich!: Seriously, the femmes in this game are really underfed! Type 1’s look like they’re starving to death, and Type 2’s look like anorexic teenagers. Type 3’s Amazonian look is sure to make most males feel insignificant, even if they are only the size of the average male (and the type 3 males make the femmes look like lightweights). Type 4’s are supposed to be “fat”, but honestly they’re the only ones who look like they are an actually proper weight and body-shape, and are even close to attractive. I would really like to see this addressed (I know it won’t, but one can hope). So until then, give any Type 1’s and Type 2’s you pass a sandwich and a few creds, they are very obviously in need and can’t afford a decent meal. - Vocal Inclination: This is a personal distaste for me, but one I wanted to bring up. Put simply, I think the voice acting of the character limits us as players. I want my character to be MINE, thus giving him/her a voice of my own. What if I envision my smuggler as a former Imp finding his own way through life? You can’t give your character an Imperial accent as they ply the space lanes, you’re forced to use the voice you’re given. Yes, I dislike this. If I had the option to select from a handful of voices, I’d be less critical of this, but given the sheer amount of voice acting already in the game, I cannot see that happening (and honestly think it’d be a waste of time to try). The lip-synching and insistence on voice acted conversations detracts from the overall experience for me. - One Of Us: Lack of playable Aliens. Yeah, I’ve read what has been said about it (including the promise of a new race before year’s end via the Q&A. My creds are on Tortuga or Cathar), both from the producers and from the players standpoints. My opinion is simple: customizability is king. I cut my MMO teeth on City of Heroes, and I hold a lifetime subscription to Champions Online. I’m of the opinion that the more you limit player customization, the more you limit the appeal of your game. Yes there’s a threshold involved (after all, CoX and CO hold an insane amount of customization!), but to flat out tell us that non-human-like aliens are essentially “too weird” to allow us to play is downright insulting. Due to technical limitations of the engine, I fully understand needing to have characters with two arms and two legs, but to tell us that we have to have a human face and need to look almost human while being surrounded by unique and exotic races is just pouring salt in the wound. It doesn’t help that there are constant comparisons drawn to the previous Star Wars MMO, Star Wars Galaxies. I played SWG briefly (I really couldn’t get into it, it just wasn’t MMO noob friendly), but with that comparison also comes a comparison of the races SWG allowed versus what SW:TOR allows. Given my earlier comments about the fully voiced dialog from your character, and how it removes the player’s ability to characterize their own character, it should come as no surprise that I place very little weight in the argument about lip-synching. Using alien speech and sub-titles would save money, save time, and allow you to get away with far more exotic races. I mean seriously, is it too much to ask that my Smuggler be allowed to play the same race as her FIRST TRAINER? (For those who didn’t do Smuggler quests, the first trainer was a Rodian, complete with a species lore point right behind him) Seriously, that’s not just rubbing salt in the wound, that’s grinding it in with a stiletto heel and a troll-face. Even with lip-synching, there’s a number of races that could have easily been included who have human mouths (even if the rest of their head is alien), and a number of races whom you cannot see the mouth due to masks they have to wear. Honestly, I would have been more sympathetic if it had been claimed that they only had time pre-release for so many races and planned to add more in time. We players would have spent our time arguing/speculating/eagerly anticipating future races instead of crying foul!

The Bad: This section will go over those aspects of the game I found the least enjoyable or the most questionable. The areas and problems that I feel need a closer look and additional work. - Art Direction: I’ll start with one of the first caveats in the good section here. Most of the art direction was good, but I felt there were some spots where the artists fell down on the job. As odd as this may sound, the most visually enjoyable words were those most “open” to explore: Hoth, Tatooine, Alderaan, Voss… but the least enjoyable and most fatiguing worlds to traverse were the very linear technological ones. They were often bland and visually tiresome. Worlds like Coruscant, Corellia, and Nar Shaddaa (ESPECIALLY Nar Shaddaa, I cringed everytime my smuggler quest chain sent me back there) became a blur of browns and greys, and turned into endurance matches to just finish the blasted world and get out with my sanity intact. - More Art: Continuing with the caveat above, I wanted to comment on the outfits for many characters. Honestly you made them over-complicated in terms of color schemes and shapes. Much of the work would have been better handled by keeping it simple (I mean seriously, I just want a pair of black leather pants for my smuggler, is that too much to ask for?). An inquisitor does not need shoulder pads that bend at obscene angles and look like they’re made of poorly molded flexible plastic. Standing still, the model looks alright, but in motion the shoulder-pad model bends and stretches like a circus contortionist. Some measure of communication between art and animation assets would have really behooved ya’ll. - Datacrons: Oh how I hate to love, and love to hate these things. I love the incentive to explore they provide, but some of these are downright PAINFUL to reach, or worse, require the one thing an explorer doesn’t want along: other players. Part of exploring is going off BY YOURSELF to check out the uncovered bits of the map. The datacrons are an excellent incentive to do this more and more, but somewhere along the line this message got lost. Ignoring painful to get datacrons, like the 40 minute balloon ride on Tatooine or the precision jumping tricks on Nar Shaddaa and Hoth, you have a variety of datacrons that require two or more people to acquire. This doesn’t count the ones that are hidden in “heroic” areas or behind Elite or Champion bosses (a good stealthy class, like my scoundrel, could get to them solo), but the ones like the green shard on Taris (republic side, which requires two players) or the rogue probe droid on Hoth (which requires enough players to take down a Champion 47th level boss). It’s almost as if it were forgotten that the players most likely to look for datacrons are those least likely to have a group or guild to support them. Players like me. - Come Sail Away: The counterpoint to the good ships is, of course, the bad ones. I have to wonder how the absolute nightmare that the Bounty Hunter ship even works. Seriously, it folds three swiveling engines into the superstructure? That has to be one of the most impractical designs in the game (not to mention an engineering nightmare). And the republic shuttle, that thing is physically impossible! It would literally tip over on those little insect legs, since the engines and (upward folding) wings are all on the back half, which would imbalance the thing every time it landed. That’s saying nothing of the passenger bay that’s only half the length of the shuttle, halving its carrying capacity. It’s a physics impossibility, and utterly implausible. Oh, and the hammerhead design for the Jedi ships are just flat out ugly, I’m sorry, they really are. They are, perhaps, one of the single most practical ships in the game though. Also, does someone want to tell me why EVERY ship has to have a swinging wing or panel? Not every ship in the Star Wars universe swung or folded parts, but it seems like every ship in TOR has something that spins, rotates, opens & closes… I mean seriously, the Sith ship shouldn’t bother with those idiotic opening wings, same for the rotating “cuffs” around the engines of the Smuggler ship… it just looks silly. Just making something glow brighter as the power ramps up is enough. Sometimes less is more, and there is a habit of overworking simple designs in this game… - Say What You mean: I often see that my dialog options are vastly different than the responses my character will say after the selection. Sometimes the differences are so drastic that you wonder how the heck the two are even remotely connected. It’s almost as if the game is trying to trick me into going darkside or piss off my companions or something. My spacebar gets a workout sometimes when I get into conversations, and my character goes off into left field from where I intended, and I’m forced to back out and restart the conversation to pick something more akin to the response I thought I was choosing. I’ve seen this aspect lampooned in a few fan comics and videos, so this isn’t something that only I am noticing, and it needs tweaking. If my screen says “I don’t see a problem with that…” I don’t expect my character to say “Stop bothering me with your petty problems…” and the like. Heck, my smuggler pulled a gun on a guy once when I selected an option I thought was meant to THANK the character. Is it any wonder a majority of us select to have the Darkside/Lightside choices easily and clearly annotated? At least then we can avoid the worst of the confusion. It’s like a DS character that wants to threaten an NPC, and ends up playing with his kitten or something. There are just some really weird disconnects. - K.I.S.S.: One of the biggest hurdles I have seen in the game has to do with the sheer number of abilities a player will get per class, and how many of those abilities are necessary to use if you even wish to achieve a moderate level of skill with the class. Honestly, some of the required power rotations for each class reach a level of insanity I cannot hope to replicate. With my Scrapper/Scoundrel, I had to use at least six abilities constantly, with another three on a priority rotation, and three or four “panic buttons” (depending on what was on cooldown). Honestly, this is too bloody many! I consider a 4-5 button rotation (up to 6 if you include priority cooldowns) ideal, with one or two panic buttons. Anything more is “flavor” for those who can really tweak every last point of efficiency from their character. Some of it is a coding issue, like having “Back Blast” and “Shoot First” as separate abilities, when really it would remove so much headache to combine the abilities to just have “Back Blast” do more damage when used from stealth (This is just an example, there are many other “situational” abilities that could use this sort of simplification). Others are just the sheer number of abilities that crowd out the quick-slots. When Jedi/Sith tanks complain that in order to tank competently they practically have to be able to play the piano on their keyboard, you know the system is over-complex. SW:TOR would really benefit from some power simplification. My personal suggestion would be to take a few classes/specs and really pare them down to a simpler level for those who prefer simpler rotations (heedless of the “hardcore” players screaming bloody murder about it). A few classes being extremely complex I can handle, it lets those with better memories and reflexes than myself play at the complexity they prefer, but I really find myself overwhelmed by the overabundance of skills I am continually handed.

The Good: This section will go over the aspects of the game I found most enjoyable. The feats and achievements that I feel should be lauded and commended. - The Universe: It must be said that Bioware should be commended for getting the world to feel like Star Wars, while still making it their own. It’s obviously the universe of Luke and Leia and Vader, giving us that starkly “lived in” feeling that set Star Wars apart from its contemporaries, however it manages to carve out its own identity as well, giving us a fleshed out world/universe with its own villains and threats to overcome. For once, I feel like I have a playground in “Long Long Ago” and “Far Far Away” that does justice to its inspiration. - Art Direction: While there are problems here (which I’ll note later), overall the art is fantastic. Each world feels like a unique entity all its own, with its own art assets and visuals that make it stand out. It definitely helps with visual fatigue to move from brown to white to green… etc. Each world is a character in and of itself. Some outstanding worlds, in my opinion, were: Hoth, I loved the wide open wastes blanketed by snow just begging me to explore. Voss was absolutely breathtaking, like the world was caught in a perpetual autumn with reds and greens and oranges blending together. Alderaan had an intensely peaceful vibe to me, the rolling green plains and majestic mountains… too bad there was a war around to wreck it all. - Exploration Encouraged: According to one online survey about the type of player I am, I am a %100 explorer (and %0 killer) in my style of play. This means I am the sort of player who constantly wants to know what is over that next rise, and will immediately set about finding out. Giving out exploration rewards only encouraged me, but adding Datacrons to the mix to further reward me for checking out those little out of the way corners is icing on the cake. While I feel you overcomplicated some of it (I will address my feelings on that later), the idea at its simplest is wonderful. It gives me even more incentive to get off the beaten path and check out those little nooks and crannies. I do wish some worlds were bigger, but the sheer amount packed into this game for each world is fantastic. - The Hero’s Journey: the literary tool of the Heroes journey is a structure on how the main character grows as he or she progresses through the tale. Now I only have one level 50 so far (A smuggler/scoundrel/scrapper) but I can say that you pulled this off well in the story arcs I witnessed. To start off as a cocky loner pilot to the leader of a small ragtag team of misfits (including a farmboy, a scam artist, a former slave fighter, a deposed princess, and a vengeful warrior) that goes on to challenge one of the Empire’s top generals was an excellent arc. While I had my reservations about the first “chapter” with Risha, the rest worked out favorably. More importantly, my journey won’t be identical to the next person over (or if I chose to go back and do it again). I went all Lightside and kept Corso by my Captain’s side the entire way (and eventually she even married him, he was just so adorkable). The next guy over might stick to the darkside and seduce Spar. The fact that we can choose those options, even in the confines of a relatively linear story, is impressive. I also found past deeds being referenced an amusing touch as well. To have them KNOW I was a lightside Smuggler (and even get made fun of by an NPC smuggler for doing “charity work”) is a wonderful touch that makes the character feel like she wasn’t working in a vacuum. - Stories Galore: While there is an overarching “Imperial/Republic” storyline, the fact that each class and even each world has its own story is fantastic! I’m an alt-o-holic by nature and I play relatively slowly (and I know it), but I love to play with new ideas and make new characters. Once my smuggler hit 50, I immediately left her sitting somewhere on Corellia so that I could swap sides and roll up an Inquisitor/Assassin, just so I can witness her storyline. I played EVERY class (both sides) up to the point they finished their “prologue” and acquired their unique ships (more on those later) just to get a feel for the storyline, and each one indeed has a UNIQUE story! Add to it how the story will change depending on if you lean Light or Dark side adds all that much more chance for exploration! - Come Sail Away: As a note from the art earlier, some of the ship designs are fantastic here. I particularly loved the utilitarian ship the Republic Commandos receive, the Sith ship is so reminiscent of the Tie Interceptors that I instantly fell in love with them, and the sleek lines of the Agent’s ship made me feel like a superspy. Seriously, these ships are fantastically designed! More, some of the ships in the background that we can’t fly or really even interact with still draw the eye. Among my favorites are the single folding wing heavy fighter that doubles as the shuttle to Hutta at the Imperial fleet (I want one!), the swinging wings of the republic fighters, the utilitarian and stocky imperial shuttle (both of them)… oh, and the little hovercars you drive all over the place from a lot of “taxis”. I so want to appropriate these designs for use with my character!

Dear Bioware, Allow me to introduce myself, I am one of the over a Million subscribers to your Star Wars: the Old Republic MMO game. I am neither “hardcore” nor “casual”, but fall somewhere in that odd middle ground a large number of us gamers do. I enjoy my time playing, but can only spend so long at the computer before I need to do something else. I’ve had the pleasure of being able to witness the growth, and grow alongside, of the video game industry nearly since its inception. Ever since my parents brought home that first “Pong” machine I have been fascinated with what producers like yourselves have been able to create. I was weaned on Atari, I cut my teeth on Nintendo, I grew up with Sega, and served in the Navy with Sony. I have been playing video games for as long as I can remember, and I am now nearing forty years old. I use the name online as “Polecat”, but my name is Thomas. Good evening. My play style in your game is most easily outlined in the following manner: I focus purely on PVE content, with no interest what-so-ever in PVP. I prefer to solo, and have zero interest in raiding or flashpoints or what have you, and no real interest in joining a guild outside of a small circle of friends. I dislike anything that feels like a “grind” (which to me is anything overly repetitive, such as dailies) and will flat out refuse to do those missions/quests. I am a raging alt-o-holic, and will create and create and rarely get many characters out of the mid-levels unless the storyline really draws me in. Generally this is how I play all MMOs. Some games work, some games don’t. SW:TOR mostly works for me. I won’t make any claims to be an “average” player, but as I said before, I’m not “hardcore” or “casual” either. I have spent the past few months learning, leveling, and playing your game, sharing in both my enjoyment and frustration, and now that I have finally leveled my Smuggler/Scoundrel character to the max (50), I wish to share my thoughts on your “masterpiece”. There are good things, there are bad things, there are choices you made that make no sense to me, and there are bugs. In the end, I merely wish to tell you my experiences and give you the feedback I feel you deserve. I will break this response into sections, for convenience.

I'd be happy with the look if they just stopped making that god-awful clicking/clanking sound! That's like nails on the chalboard (and the sole reason my scoundrel/smuggler would not use Bowdaar).

Let's see, I went a Lightside Smuggler/Scoundrel. I really only used my ranged tank (Corso) with his harpoon shot/jet pack shut OFF, as well as his AOE abilities. I would have swapped to Bowdaar, given a Scoundrel is essentially a melee class but... I hate hate hate HATE the sound sheathed vibroweapons make (that metallic clicking sound drives me INSANE!) I never took Risha, Akaavi, or Guss out of the ship. Risha became my go-to girl for slicing, with C2 running easier slicing missions. Guss would have been nice, but as a scrapper/Scoundrel I wanted a tank to keep the heat off me. Akaavi might have worked, but she suffers from the same problem Bowdaar did and that "nails on chalkboard" sound of the vibroweapon, plus she was essentially the darkside companion for the Smuggler (Risha is more neutral). As I said before, I went Lightside. So I went up to 50 with Corso... and a lot of frustration (due to other reasons), and never took any of the other companions out even once. Bowdaar only has a few + relationship points with my smuggler from a random dropped gift or two....

Precisely! That's exactly the sort of thing I am suggesting...

I just found this out last night when I cam across the classic cowboy/gunslinger hat on Voss. I couldn't even VIEW it on my Twi'lek, I had to use Corso to see it. When we hoped BW would fix the hats for us twi'lek players, we didn't mean remove the hats entirely!

I don't quite think that would work. After all GSes don't get the shotties (Tho I COULD see it working with a pair of sawed off, but then they would need to add the models), but I mean give us the option to use the shotty as your main weapon instead of the pistol. No pistol on your hip, but a shotgun on your back that you draw and use for everything instead of just Backblasts and Shoot First and whatnot....

Is it wrong I think we should have an option to trade out the blaster for a shotgun as our primary weapon entirely? I mean really, just let me mod a shotty and I'll use that all the time instead of my pistol.... I know it's a pipe dream, but it'd be cool. Could even replace the recouperate animation (which never works right on the female bodies anyway with the pistol wedged firmly in the thigh) and with the one used for Flachette round.

Someone at BW was asleep at the switch... racial unlocks for the characters are included, including the proper presence bonus for humans. But they forgot something. You can "unlock" the Zabrak for every class... but they can ALREADY be every class!! Zabrak and Humans can be every class in the game!! BW goofed.

Good evening. I'm going to do my best to make this as brief and to the point as possible. That said, I have some concerns for the Legacy update in the 1.2 patch. First, I will inform you know that I am not a "hardcore" player, despite the number of hours I sink into these games. I'm also a raging alt-o-holic with no desire to find a cure. That said, the Legacy update holds some questions I've not been able to find answers to on the boards (with my luck they're just buried in other responses). As such, I wanted to ask them here... 1)Species Unlocks: I really want to go over this with a fine toothed comb. As an alt-o-holic, it is very important for me to maximize the customization options. The idea of unlocking new species/class combinations are VERY attractive to me. But there's a disparity in the what races will benefit the most from it, as well as a lack of information how it will be handled. Firstly, the species that will get the most benefit from this are: (3 way tie) Miraluka (Jedi Guardian & Consular), Sith Pureblood (Sith Warrior & Inquisitor), and Chiss (Agent & Bounty Hunter). As you can see, each of these 3 species can ONLY be 2 classes, thus make the most of a class unlock which would give access to the remaining 6 classes. Runner up: Rattataki (Sith Inquisitor, Agent, Bounty Hunter) This is the only species I found locked at 3 classes (Most were locked at 4) thus would still gain a large benefit from the species unlocks as well. The species to gain the LEAST from the unlock (discounting humans): Zabrak. The Zabrak, like humans, can be EVERY CLASS. I've heard nothing about compensation they would get in lieu of the racial unlock.... All that said, there is a point. There seems to be, for someone like me, a very large disconnect between what races will gain the most benefit from the Legacy system. Some players will obviously get a LOT more benefit than others, simply by virtue of what they close to play at the start (before any of this was revealed). If I had known this when I started, I would have done a Chiss Agent up to Legacy, instead of my Twi'lek Smuggler... So the question here is simple: How is this being handled? A straight unlock would be unfair tho those who play a Zabrak, or even a Cyborg (who can be 6 of the 8 classes) versus someone who is playing a Chiss or a Miriluka and will unlock 6 new classes for their chosen race. 2) Multiple Legacies Let's be honest, I was being honest when I said I was an alt-o-holic. This means half of the fun is constantly choosing NEW races with my characters. So how will this be handled? Will I be locked down to a Twi'lek when my smuggler gets her legacy, or will I be able to go in and unlock other races and legacies? Will I be able to get a Chiss Operative and unlock a legacy for THAT character? What about a legacy for my Mirilukan Counsellor? Seriously, a Miriluka bounty hunter, or a Chiss Jedi, sounds too cool to pass up! I'm willing to put in the play time to unlock those, Bioware... but I need to be sure it's worth my time first. 3) Unlocks: Server or Account? I need to know how the unlocks are being handled. Are they account wide or only server wide? I need to know, so that if I run out of slots on one server, I can take my unlocks with me to another server and keep right on trucking. I mean seriously, I already have my home server nearly filled with characters, all right around level 20 (I have exactly one slot left). This is an important issue to someone like me, who will happily spill over onto new servers with new characters. It's also important for me to know, since I also DELETE characters, if that toon I deleted will take it's unlock with it... 4) Future Race Additions It's a given: Bioware will eventually give us paid race changes. I honestly can't see them NOT doing it. Furthermore, I cannot see Bioware not adding new races in the future. I'm hopeful for actual alien races (Non-humanoid faces please!). You have no idea how badly I want my smuggler turned into a Rodian... But future race hopes aside, there is an important question here: How will the Legacy system handle future races, whatever they may be? If we pay to change the race of one of our characters, how will that affect their Legacy? If my Twi'lek Smuggler was one day changeable to a Rodian (IhopeIhopeIhope), how would that affect her legacy? Would I be forced to pay to change ALL of the characters from her legacy? Would they automagically change race? Would she be removed form the Legacy she built? Furthermore, how will new races play into the legacy? if you lock players into these original races now, that will dampen the desire to try these new races. "Oh, I have to abandon all this swanky stuff so I can play a new race? Pass." Seriously, that's like shooting yourself in the foot if you haven't already planned contingencies. All of these are important questions, at least to me. I am sure there are questions I'm forgetting (and others will remind me of in the responses), but these concern me greatly about the Legacy system. Personally I could care less about the legacy armours. My sole interest is in the unlockable customization and class/race combinations that come with it. Thank you for listening.