What aren't you getting? When you do all the content in a planet and an occasional FP, you quickly outlevel content and it gets too easy. Some of us want to complete all the content and still get a challenge. The system you mention where XP gain stops for grays does not help that at all. And obviously you can purposefully gimp yourself numerous ways, like not gearing, not using comps etc. But one of the the fun parts of the game for most PVE'rs is the feeling of continous improvement (gear, levels, etc) and still have a challenge when we play. What I'm suggesting is a way to keep that feeling of progression AND be able to balance to each player's style. Power-levelers can use the XP boosts while completionists can use the XP slowdowns. Everyone wins. And your asertion that only PVP'rs want to reduce XP gain is ridiculus. There are numerous posts here, not to mention my own gaming group, that want to reduce our XP gain for PVE reasons and not PVP reasons. I don't see why you find that so hard to believe. As for the potential twinking in PVP, that is why I suggested XP decrease packs via the Cartel instead of an option for a complete XP halt as suggested by the OP.

They already have +XP boosts as Cartel purchases. I would happily purchase -XP slow downs in the Cartel and it would take almost no effort at all to add it. It is way too easy to outlevel content. And the new Makeb + GDI + Seeker content is even worse. It takes a lot less time to go from 50 to 55 than it did from 45 to 50. A lot less. And it was too fast as it was for those of us that like doing all the content (not power-leveling, just doing it all). Even playing without a comp and not gearing up between 45-50 it was too easy. It also makes the augment kits 7 and 8 pretty useless as you're not at 51-54 long enough to make them worth using. I expect most people just save their money, skip those augments and get the 55's when they get there in the one weekend it takes to go from 45-50.

It's not so much HOW they explain it as the fact that they had an opportunity to do so and they didn't. To your point regarding being able to detect the npc's at a greater range than they detect you, that's basically just another way of saying the player character has an inherent ability that everyone else does not. Whether its through hightened senses as you propose or sensory supression or something else, it amounts to the same thing: a lore based explanation about the mechanic. I don't care much which. I was just pointing out a missed opportunity. As far as the equipment is concerned, I seem to remember there being in the canon something about armor that is particularly resistant to lightsabers. The idea that some material in the equipment contains some force emmiting properties is along the same vein. And given that it's thousands of years before the films, there's a lot of room to expand the canon. In fact, a lot of abilities the players posses were introduced specifically for the game. The books that cover thi era have expanded and added quite a bit to the extended universe, as has the game. A few more won't destroy the continuity of the lore.

I realize the horse has long since left the barn as we approach the 1 year aniversary, but I figure I'd post this anyway as the servers are down and I don't feel like going to sleep just yet. Then again, its easy enough to create new codex entries so who knows? I'm talking about two ridiculous game mechanics that I think could have been covered with a little creative lore: oblivious npc's and magical equipment. The fact that you can wipe out a bunch of npc's while their friends sit around oblivious to it is just silly. I get that it's the standard mechanic in MMO's but it's always bugs me. A little bit of dialogue during the player's prologue quests mentioning the character's "unusual ability" to suppress the awareness/sensors of others could have covered it nicely: "Those aren't my friends you're disembowling - move along, move along". For non-force users, the same could have been handled with something like an ancient artifact owned by the charater (perhaps inherited or found earlier in life). Second, magical gear. Seriously, pants that boost willpower has gary gygax written all over it (may he rest in peace, though I like to think he just leveled out of the prime-material plane). The stat boosts could have been explained with dialoge or codex entries about force emitting/amplifying materials that are used in the manufacture of equipment. Maybe even some quests to steal/protect the supply of the stuff. Just my 2 cents. K, gonna sleep now. Looking forward to 1.6, nite, nite.

Macro's (and much more usefull, key chaining) are already available via thirdparty HW. I strongly recommend the Logtech G-13 which includes a thumb-stick for movement. I literally never use my keyboard except for chatting. Will never again MMO without it.

The action warnings get annoying fast. I'm talking about red text "Target Not Enemy", "Not Ready Yet" etc. It would be very nice if we could turn those off somewhere in the preferences

Just throwing in my 2 cents. Another button doesnt really help and just adds confusion. There are 2 camps of people: those that feel its ok to NEED for comps/stripping oj gear/etc. and those that don't. So.... You just add a LOOTING RULE option for the group lead to disable the NEED button for non-main class loot. That way, its clear when you join a group what you are in for.

I can't get my mind wrapped around the fact that the OP plays with his mother-in-law Damn I'm getting old

Yes, forgot about auto-stacking the mats on RE and mission returns.

It would be nice if materials returned from RE and from missions could be added to the cargo hold instead of inventory. Could make this an option in the preferences.

Just like we can send our companion to sell trash items, it would be nice if we could send them to take the mats in our inventory to the cargo hold.

I support this thread

I think I read in the patch notes that this is fixed for the next update.

Can someone confirm this, I'm at work? I managed to increase my FPS somewhat doing general OS cleanup and optimization (I posted about it) but I thought my DirectX was up to date - according to windows update anyway. I'll try this when I get home as any more improvement would be welcome.

Just doing all the quests in each planet, some flashpoints, with no PVP and no space missions, I've out-leveled the next planet by a lot. And we shouldn't have to restrict our playing just too keep the challenge up. The option to just turn off XP or lock it to be the max of your current planet would alleviate the issue and would not affect anyone else.