http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/fqrlu

The most important thing is to RELEASE IT ASAP. PvE is close to dead in this game for most people outside of leveling.

Not sure what I'm doing yet, but I've been playing TOR less and less. Love Star Wars, love a lot of things about TOR, but the turnaround for patches that add features already in other MMOs is waaaaay too long. No LFG still... this is the killer for me. Also, there's Guild Wars 2, The Secret World, and Diablo 3 in the horizon...

I see other possible directions this game could go in, and they're better than the current one. Criticism makes games better, not worse. Iteration makes games better, not worse. Stagnation and complacency make games worse. This game is not your baby.

Because as human beings, that's how we learn and get better. In this context, hopefully we'll be better informed when we give BW the feedback it needs from its player base to improve the game.

This isn't a thread to compare TOR and Rift in terms of which is the better game, it's about which is the more polished MMO at launch based on what the MMO market expects right now. Rifts main feature is dynamic content. They did a great job at that. TOR's is story, with full voice-over. BW did an awesome job with it. Citing those things as why one is more polished than the other is useless. Compare the UI, the grouping system, guild support, graphics and the engine, stability, basic MMO features such as an auction house and crafting. I think TOR should've come out of the gate with the above more polished, or at least work faster than they are to improve them.

That's some constructive feedback right here folks. No hyperbole, all considered. Added a lot to this conversation. Le sigh.

These are great, yes, they're the reason I love TOR and play the hell out of it. But they're not polish items, they're basic game features that were focused on and executed well. The point I'm trying to make is that there are other basic features in this game that are severely unpolished or half-designed. I could make you a list of features that Rift has that TOR doesn't as well. I was comparing things they share and saying Rift's were way more polished. Let me reiterate: I like TOR better. I have more fun with it in great part because it's Star Wars. But I still can't believe the game was released in this state.

Exactly. The engine alone, being buggy and antiquated, is a deep-rooted problem that they will have to deal with for a long time. Bioware has the better IP though and did some great things with the game. They did enough to make most of us overlook its flaws for some time and enjoy the hell out of it. But now that we've spent countless hours with the game the problems are becoming more clear and harder to dismiss.

I've read some reports from people that worked in the development of this game that it was a huge mess. I am actively looking for the article and will post in these forums when I find it, but I do remember thinking at the time "Hmmm, I'm going to hold on to my money." But alas, I love Star Wars, I wanted to give it a go, and I'm glad I did. I am starting to get worried about the game as time passes though, hence the OP.

Disclaimer: I love TOR. I want it to do well. We criticize the game because we care, at least some of us. I'm also a long time MMO player and have been there for countless launch days. I speak from experience. If you compare Rift launch and TOR's, you'll notice how unpolished parts of TOR are. In particular: - The antiquated and rigid UI, to me the #1 problem that affects everyone's quality of life - Lack of combat log - No LFG/LFD system - Ability delay (mostly fixed) - Animation inconsistencies for abilities (Trooper mortar volley), that cause severe gameplay issues - Poor and otherwise missing guild features - Barebones auction house - Empty planets on high pop servers - and so on... All things that Rift had working in MUCH better state than TOR. Not saying Rift was perfect, but compared to TOR, it felt like a much more polished game at launch. Both TOR and Rift are trying to grab some market share from Blizzard. It's a better comparison. Also, comparing TOR to WoW at launch is like comparing Windows 7 to Windows 95 or something. That's not how technology or software works. When a new piece of software comes out, it's expected to have features and polish of the CURRENT competition, not what was in the market 7 years ago. Here's hoping Bioware gets their act together soon, or I see some server consolidation in the very near future.

Oh derp. I thought the patch notes were for the live version. Thanks.

I've been here since pre-launch, but just specced Darkness for the first time. What do you mean next big patch? All other changes are live. These are patch notes for the current 1.1.2 version and Wither is not giving a stack of Harnessed Darkness.

The tooltip says both Shock and Wither should give a stack of the buff, but only Shock is currently working. Is this a tooltip error? Known bug? What's up?

Yes! I can't believe they released the game with this imbalance.