If you stand still and click on the empty companion circle it will summon him (but not if you or a party member is in combat). He can be dismissed the same way.

For the first world all you can get is a chest piece, 16 commendations from the first world will let you get a blue chest piece for you and your companion, more commendations from the first world will not help you. You get commendations as both mission rewards and loot drops. The commendations vendors can be found on planet and at fleet. For flash points you need to find a group the old fashion way troll chat and make friends.

You could try installing the game in a non-protected directory, but I think it may still ask you for permission to run.

Questing, drops, and commendation gear will get you buy. Crafted gear is better then that gear though i.e level 15 crafted gear will have better stats then level 15 dropped gear. I'd check the AH when you get the chance and look for bargains, but make sure you have the cash you need for buying your skills and what not. Don't buy gear from vendors that's just a waste of cash except for commendation gear of course. Being an Armormech I make my own armor and spend my commendation's on mods for my blaster's.

Yes this. But the only way back to the planet I found is to fly my ship back.

I know perfectly well it was slicers who where paying 5k for my lvl 23 gear and financing my crafting leveling, but I doubt the few players who where whining where the reason it got nerfed. Most likely this was the plan from the start. They set the income from slicing high to put cash into the economy and then once players hit end game and started to roll cash flushed alts they nerfed slicing figuring the end game players would keep the cash flowing. I wished they had waited a little longer to nerf it say until after I had maxed my crafting skills but we will see how it plays out.

Surprisingly not as much as you might think. I find this game to be very easy on the CPU and heavy on the GPU which makes it much more upgrade friendly then other mmo's.

Well if he is on a high pop server then yeah AH but on a low pop server not so likely. Go to your map (m key) and on the right side of the map click on the vendor option. You can then mouse over the vendor symbols to see what they sell. My main is empire (a much easier if less spectacular map to find your way around) so I'm not sure where you need to go but I think the lower level of the senator place maybe? Also you could try looking around fleet as well.

Well I got this GPU GTX 460 768mb from Best Buy (in store not online) for $112 and it lets me run everything on high (except shadows). The GTX 550 ti is a step down from GTX 460 in performance though it does use less power, so you can think of it as being a couple of steps down from the GTX 560 and a few from the GTX 560 ti. Still any of these cards will let you play SWTOR on high.

Well for a point of reference I'm running a Core 2 E7500 @3.6ghz, 6 gigs DDR2 mem, and a GTX 460 768mb. With that I run every thing on high except shadows (no AA yet) at about 45fps outside and 75fps inside. So yeah your system will crush the game. One thing, you do know that the GTX 560 is a step down from the GTX 560 ti right? The GTX 560 will still let you run this game maxed but I just thought I should point that out.

I haven't played the Trooper but I do play the BH/Merc. One possible issue with the Trooper is that the story from what I hear is not a feel good one. I can say that the story line for the BH is very good (imo it's better then any of the movies). I would worry more about story line in your case then class mechanic's if the story is going to depress her it might be a bad choice making her not want to play.

The grass and tree sliders are on the bottom of the advance area, you have to move the slider on the right to see them tho as they are the only settings that are cut off from view normally. I'm running a Core 2 E7500 @3.6ghz, 6 gigs of DDR2 mem, and an GTX 460 768 mb. I have all my settings on high (except shadows which I keep at low) And I generally see about 75 fps inside and about 45 fps outside. On my laptop I keep everything dialed down to min, it runs just well enough for me to craft use the AH and move around.

Yeah it's the mad ramblings of someone who thinks they know what they are talking about but don't.

Yeah I'm with Pugz on this one your system will crush this game no problem (well shadows might still be an issue till they fix it) but up that power supply to 600 - 650 watt's for breathing room, and make sure it's at least 80% efficient.

Did you turn shadows off? Also what about the sliders for grass and trees did you turn those all the way down to? Unlike most mmo's this one is very gpu heavy but light on the cpu.

I think you mean your cpu is a Core 2 E6400. Your specs should let you run at med settings at 20 to 30 fps I 'd say. Your memory may be whats holding you back. If your running vista or Win7 I think you need at least 3gig of memory. If you upgrade to 4 gigs of memory that might fix your problem. I run with every thing maxed (except shadows which I keep at low) using a Core 2 E7500 @3.6ghz, 6 gigs of DDR2 memory, and a GTX 460 768mb.

They could give invites to players who could then give them to friends, and the players who give them to gold sellers could be shut off from getting any more invites. Still ether way expect to wait a few months before something like that happens.

This is whats know as a me to post and some find it annoying but there I go anyway. I'm with you op I can stand to wait a little while now and then at launch, besides still lots of servers without queues and I love the fact that the game runs smooth while I'm playing. Better a wait and a great gaming experience then no wait and a bad one!