If this is the video blog, I'd rather not have known about it....it's nothing. It contained 0 new or useful information. But thanks anyways for showing me this, now at least I know not to get my hopes up.

I'm just curious it was stated in February that instead of developer story livestreams, Bioware would be doing developer story videoblogs. But there was no story vblog in February. I know there was that one guy at the end of the March producer's livestream for 5 measly minutes, but there was no story vblog in March either. (Unless they do it today.) So my question is, did they discontinue the story vblogs without ever having started it? I, for one, enjoy SWTOR lore and story, so an update would be nice on what's happening with the story updates.

I have a question and I hope someone can shed some light on this because I don't understand what's going on. Today, sadly, I had to reinstall Windows and that meant deleting and redownloading SWTOR. I downloaded the setup file, started the installation process and the game was downloaded and installed without a hitch in about 45 minutes. 31 gigabytes downloaded at a speed varying between 16 and 20 MB/s, although that's far below the top nominal downloading speed of my internet connection. Here is the puzzling thing. Right after downloading the game files and launching the game to make sure that it worked, I started downloading the PTS files. Download speed is atrociously slow here, however, I've been downloading the PTS for over five hours and I don't think I'm even halfway done with it. Average download speed seems to be between 2-4 MB/s, but often dropping as low as a few hundred kilobytes. Why is there such a massive speed difference between live game and PTS files? I understand that there are server limitations and I can't use the full 100 MB/s download speed, but why is downloading live game files 10x faster than downloading PTS files? I'm sure it will finish in a few more hours but it has made me curious. Does anyone know the reason for this difference?

Yeah certainly, if they had any QA whatsoever they would have fixed it the next Tuesday after detecting it - or better yet, might have caught it during testing. It's just that it's better to wait one month for a fix than two. Seems like we have to take sad little pleasures where we can these days...

I am beginning to think here that it's called the Eternal Championship for a reason. It will probably take an eternity to finish and release it. But, hey, it might become the exclusive sub reward if you sub throughout the second half of the year?

Whilst the naked Aric issue can be circumvented fairly easily and quickly, I have to agree that it is simply baffling that a bug of this magnitude in practically the first 30 seconds of gameplay would go through to live servers. Their internal testing and quality assurance services are non-existent. A more significant problem is that if you don't reset the mission until you defeat the Zakuulan ambush in the swamp, the reset button will be greyed out and Aric won't show up at the vantage point. This has made several of my friends stuck on their mission for now as they cannot restart the chapter anymore. A bug, which forces you to reset the mission is acceptable in my opinion in early access. A bug, however, that makes the mission undoable is not. That's the real problem here. However, I have to concede that (in my personal opinion at any rate) Chapter XI is somewhat better than Chapter X. (Maybe some people liked Chapter X more, it's personal preference, so I'm not going to hold that against Bioware.) Still, without the Eternal Championship and/or any Alliance alerts, this patch seems somewhat short. It seems, however, that Bioware did indeed fix the Ops bug (despite having there been no mention of it in the patch notes) - at least we didn't see any misaligned markers in ToS tonight. That's a point in their favor.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it's definitely positive that you're being more forthcoming about details than before. It's also a good thing that it's going to be available for testing on the PTS. Whether or not you'll actually listen to PTS feedback is another matter entirely, but nonetheless I'm hopeful. More communication and testing is sorely required to whip this shambling community back into shape and for Bioware to recover what little credibility it might have left at this point. I'm saying this because it's issue no. 2: you repeatedly discredit yourselves with your deadlines over and over again. I understand that you're not going to release the Eternal Championship because it's not finished and you want to make it balanced, bug-free and fun. But...and this is a pretty huge but.....YOU HAD ALMOST HALF A YEAR TO COMPLETE 10 SINGLE-PLAYER BOSS ENCOUNTERS....you're getting what I'm getting at right? EC was slated for 4.1, then 4.2, then (if we're only going to get more information in 4-6 weeks) it looks like it won't even be finished for 4.3. Do you know what my boss would say if I told him that I'm going to be 4-6 weeks late with my project....three times in a row? Most likely I would be fired within a day. Now, I'm going to assume that the reason for the delay is not the developer team's laziness. I'm going to assume that the developer team is so pressured and underhanded at this point that it's unable to cope with the demands of their own schedule. If true, this speaks volumes for the future of the game. Let me just ask this one question....how can we expect new flashpoints and operations, if you can't finish 10 single player boss encounters in 6 months? P.S.: If you're asking for 4-6 weeks just to give us further information, you had to have known long before now that the EC would be delayed. I was quite excited about this and was looking forward to this quite a bit, so please next time give your subscribers more than 2 days of forewarning....

Yeah it is really funny how they think people are sitting on the edge of their seats the whole month waiting for a one-hour quest and two companions most will never actually use. Personally, I've found Chapter X mediocre on my first playthrough (although Kaliyo is not the type of companion I'd use on most of my characters) and I've only done it 3 times since its launch. They need to understand two things: 1. A one-hour quest is hardly immersive, by the time you start enjoying it, it's already over. 2. No matter how good the story is, people will find it boring on subsequent playthroughs. (Except maybe if you're playing a class that formerly had the companion in question on his/her crew. Long story short, you really should allow people to test every patch on the PTS for gamebreaking bugs like these. You don't want to allow people to play KOTFE? Fine then, disable the quest, but OPS/PVP/GSF should be tested before the deployment of each major patch. (Also BW put Ziost on the PTS in 3.2, so they should start that practice again.)

My guild is not happy about this....none of the guilds are I presume. Most of my old friends already quit the game because there is so little group content to do and now you're going to leave the existing Ops broken until 4.3? Are you actively trying to drive people away? On that note, you had 3 patches last week, two of them emergency ones. How did you manage to break stuff so thoroughly you weren't even supposed to touch?

I'm getting an error message now: Login service is currently unavailable. Every time I try to launch the game, I run into a different error ranging from the game simply not launching through unspecified errors to unavailable login services....awesome!

Same issue, after downloading the patch the play button takes three times as long to light up than it did before the patch. When I press it, the launcher closes and nothing happens. Seriously, what did you mess up this time? Will we have to download a patch for the patch for the patch?

Really, if you buy hypercrates with real money, when you know full well that you might not even be getting ANYTHING new from the new packs, you only have yourselves to blame. A friend of mine opened a hypercrate and was frustrated as hell because over two thirds of the items he got were chance cubes, and over three quarters of the items he got through chance cubes were older **** he didn't need or want. For a new pack, he got very little new... I would encourage everyone NOT to buy cm packs with real money because that will only reassure EAware that this new moronic gambling **** is working. No. When they release a new pack we want - shockingly - new items from it. Not *********** Antique Socorro Blasters, not Cybernetic Body Armor and certainly not more recolored iterations of the same mounts and pets. You can come here to complain about being used and manipulated, but really you go into their scam willingly...

It's not possible not to miss with offhand attacks. I checked some of my DF Gunslinger parses and some skills miss as much as 15% of the time with 701 Accuracy. Next time, do a parse and see for yourself.

Until your interrupt misses on Draxus. Or the lightning adds resist your knockback on Styrak. Then the whole group dies.

Hi, the stats from the new accuracy stim (Advanced Polybiotic Proficiency Stim) can be seen in the Torcommunity database. Apparently it gives 218 Accuracy and 90 Critical Rating. So, I checked the options and you can apparently swap out 3 Augments or 1 Enhancement and 1 Augment to gain Crit or Alacrity. The former leaves you with 1 Stim, 2 Enhancements and 2 Augments equalling 700 Accuracy. (218+168+168+73+73) The latter leaves you with 1 Stim, 1 Enhancements and 4 Augments equalling 678 Accuracy. (218+168+73+73+73+73) So it still doesn't solve the issue of whether or not it's worth going below 100% Accuracy and gain 22 stat points but risk missing a vital ability. But If I were to swap out 3 Augments, should I take Crit or Alacrity instead? Or does it depend on the spec in question?

Please, please tell us this doesn't mean that the default way of getting accuracy for DPS will be through stims, because if I have to throw out my two 224 Initiative implants, I'm probably going to scream. Can you tell us exactly how much Accuracy the new stim gives?

I just want to mention it quickly that yesterday, while doing the Black Box heroic on Tatooine, there were so many Sand People corpses on the ground that I literally couldn't see my teammate or my companion. Hundreds upon hundreds of dead Sand People blanketing the ground. The situation in front of the hut with the clickable object was so bad that my FPS dropped to like 2. And I don't think I saw all the corpses. There must have been hundreds more underneath the visible ones. Anakin would be proud.

This is interesting because I just did the Alderaan heroic Star Fortress like an hour ago in a mix of 220/224 gear with a rank 50 Lana WITHOUT any buffs (as if I was going for the achievement) on a Sharpshooter Gunslinger and I was really surprised at how easy the supposedly most difficult solo content in the game was. I was never in any danger of dying, in fact I don't remember my HP dropping below 60% at any point, and even that only at the final boss. (Granted, I took full advantage of DCDs, Unity, Heroic moment and droid CC at the Final encounter, but everyone has access to those.) I am still of the opinion that they massively overdid the nerf and companions were fine before, but I was honestly surprised how easy Heroic Star Fortresses were after the nerf. Also, please explain how you have close to 5000 presence. I have a rank 50 companion and every single datacron unlocked, but I only have 3678 or something (off the top of my head.) Even if you use presence boosters, 4928 sounds extremely exaggerated.

Title says it all. It took me close to 2 hours of mindlessly mashing one button to get Lana's influence to 250,000. And I was giving purple gifts, mostly rank 5 and 6. When you are giving thousands upon thousands upon thousands of the exact same companion gifts (for example rank 1 and 2 for cost efficiency), there really should be a "Give Companion Gifts in Bulk" option. You click it, designate how many gifts of the same type you want to give and you'll get the corresponding amount of influence. Please, this is needed very much. No one's gonna bother maxing the influence of hundreds of companions, when reaching the cap with a single one takes more than an hour of one button spamming. This is incredibly annoying and needs a solution. Please, considering doing this, it would be a huge QoL improvement for everyone!

Homage to KOTOR, my ***, that's total ********.....Ran out of funding and/or didn't have enough time to record VO for Alliance quests is what happened. This just feels weird, like playing a game from 10 years ago. You can't have your main character speak up to a certain point, whereupon he becomes mute. It just doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't a Trooper talk to Admiral Aygo? Why wouldn't a Jedi talk to Sana-Rae or a Smuggler to Hylo Visz? I haven't had the option to recruit old companions yet (as I've only done Alliance stuff with my Smuggler so far), but what's going to happen on other characters? Is there no VO when the Troopers talks to M1-4X or Yuun? When the Consular talks to Qyzen? When the Inquisitor talks to Talos Drellik or Xalek? When the agent talks to Dr. Lokin? Who the **** thought this was a good decision? How is this in any way an improvement over what we had previously? (If they wanted to open up more conversation options, they could have easily added dialogue choices to the left side of the wheel, or even make sub-menus with an "investigate" option. Just how they did in Mass Effect.) The fact that it emulates KOTOR and creates a sense of nostalgia doesn't mean it's good. It is outdated. It feels incredibly out-of-place in a fully voiced game. You can't have parts of the game fully voiced and parts, where your protagonist is suddenly mute. P.S: If you want to bring back elements from KOTOR, why do you stop at that arbitrary point? Why not reduce classes to 3 and make combat round-based? You know, as an homage...

...and I bet the vast majority of players want to see a definitive answer to these. This is most likely nothing that hasn't been asked a million times before, but I need to try in the (vain ?) hope that we'll get some clarification this time around. I'd very much like to see these questions answered but I'm starting to run out of patience. - Is it true that you're downscaling leveling to the planetary level+2? Have you considered the ramification of this? A lot of MMO players (myself included) enjoy the feeling of becoming more powerful over time, so that eventually low level mobs pose no threat to us. If you're really going forward with this insane idea, then at least make it optional, so those people who want none of it (like myself) can continue leveling as normal. Also, what will this mean for planets with very high level bonus series, compared to the normal questline? Off the top of my head, I think Alderaan's normal level range is within 32-36, whilst the bonus series is something like 40-42. If you want to allow us to be able to do the bonus series, our level in this case would be downscaled to 44. How is doing a lvl32 heroic at lvl44 any more challenging than doing it at lvl60? I don't think that the planetary leveling system would support this method, with bonus series quests being usually far, far above the level range of starting quests. Also, how would it feel if after Corellia you went back to Korriban to face off against your old master and you're suddenly lvl12 again. Wouldn't it feel incredibly out of place if while you were going to confront your old nemesis during the final quest, you'd have to worry about the same K'lor'slugs you encountered at level 1? - Why is the stat combination necessary? I understand combining Crit with Surge, but why are you getting rid of the main stat values? A large part of the MMO endgame requires attention to gear and many people (myself included) enjoy fiddling with gear and finding out the best possible stat combination. With this change, you'll force all DPS to wear the same gear: Mastery Armorings, Power Mods and Accuracy/Crit Enhancements. If you're not worried about not having the proper set bonus, I'd imagine you can get away with having a single set of tanking, healing and DPS gear and still do relatively well at endgame content. This does not feel MMO-like to me at all, it takes away all the satisfaction I had from researching and assembling my own gear. (Also, some clarification on datacrons would be appreciated.) - How do you envision the future of PvP in this game? The class changes seem to be 100% PvP oriented and they'll radically alter the metagame - and not in a good direction. Are you aware of this? Are you aware of the fact that all the extra mobility added to most classes is going to increase the pace and dynamic of the game to the point, where everyone is running, teleporting, jumping, rolling, etc. around like crazy and the whole game becomes a big blur? Specifically, what's being done to address the viability of the two least favored classes in Ranked PvP (Mercenaries, Snipers and their Republic equivalents) ? Neither of them can survive being focused like other classes can (basically 4v1 situations in Arenas), due to not having a strong defensive cooldown - the Sniper is slightly worse off than the Merc. However, the Merc suffers from very bad mobility - yet in this mobility race, you're further nerfing Merc mobility. Rocket out is useless without the Smoke Screen talent and 20m is well-within the kill/gap closer range of most classes. With all the crazy new speed buffs, melee can easily catch up to the Merc again if not prevent him outright from moving backwards. So how is this in any way balanced? - What is going to happen to crafting? We heard rumors that you're removing certain crafting materials, recipes and overall simplify the process but when are we going to see the confirmed details of the affected crew skills? Crafters need time and advance warning to prepare for such a major overhaul, establish new market trends and find their place on the post-4.0 GTN. Clarification requested. - What's going to happen to improve group finder queues? On my server as a DPS it's already practically impossible to find a group, unless you're queuing with a tank and/or healer. At times, I observed that the group finder was properly and completely empty, unable to backfill even DPS. In the past weeks during prime hours, I had to ask guild members to queue because apparently the group finder did not have a single person in it - and voilá - each time they got into our group instantly. Where and what is this mythical "Better than cross server queues!!!4!" thing you were talking about a year ago? What about the rumored megaservers? Again, update requested. - GSF is practically dead. Is anything being done to revive it? Most people who were interested have already gotten their achievements and maxed out their ships, so they don't really have anything to do anymore. Where is the Infiltrator ship class that was once proposed as a new ship type? Is it cancelled indefinitely? - Making crafting non-repeatable will radically and drastically alter how Conquests are won. Are you aware of this? Why was it necessary to make this change? Now the two most efficient ways to gather points are either playing PvP or creating locks for the final GF Ops boss. Is killing the first 4 bosses once, then the final boss seven times the intended way for large guilds to gather points? Because that's how it's being done. If not and you're going to disallow this sometime, then will PvP be the only way to participate in Conquests? Aren't you forcing too much on people here? - Can you tell us how these vaunted "story chapters" will be delivered to us in the future if that is the direction the game seems to be taking? I get it that we'll get 9 new chapters of a single, unified class story (Boo !) but how many hours of gametime does one chapter offer? How often will new chapters be delivered to us? When can we look forward to new FPs and OPs - this is an MMO game after all. With a single class story, what's going to differentiate one class from the next? Won't tech-using classes feel out of place going up against a galaxy-conquering, world-devouring Force entity? Valkorian is the type of guy a Jedi or Sith might face, I don't think a Smuggler or Trooper or Bounty Hunter has any business dealing with this kind of threat. Aren't you really sc****** the bottom of the barrel if the only thing you can muster against Valkorian (by far the largest threat to existence in recorded history) is one measly Smuggler? What's he gonna do? Kick him in the nuts? I have many, many more specific questions to ask regarding practically every aspect of the game, but I'd be happy if you provided answers to at least the first three. If these things are going to happen, if you simplify the game to the point, where everyone is doing the same story, wearing the same armor and downscaled to the same level, then this game won't be my game anymore. Are you removing those elements from an MMO game that appeal to so many MMO players to cater to F2P casuals? If you do, I imagine you'll lose a lot of subs again.

Darth Binks Darth Darth Binks...

I agree with what was said here before, making Jet Charge/Storm available to all Vanguards/PTs is something that should have been done at launch. I can even see the reason for nerfing Hydraulic Overrides/Hold the Line for VGs and PTs with the jump they're getting. However, Commandos/Mercs should get a passive that reduces its CD to its current value, because even with Rocket Out/Propulsion Round factored in, they're one of the least mobile classes in the game. I'm sorry to say this, but Transpose/Translocate is a stupid ability. First, from a lore standpoint, can Vanguards and Powertechs teleport now? ***? How do you explain that? Second, considering that 99% of the time tanks are either in front of the bosses in PVE or in the middle of the action in PvP, why would you ever EVER want to place a presumably wounded person in that situation? It sounds like the ability is designed to give some reprieve to targets being attacked, but really, when you want to be ignored by the boss, do you really want to be RIGHT IN THE FACE of the boss!? Where it cleaves, does PBAoE attacks and drops circles on the melee? I'm sorry, I just don't see the benefit from this ability at all. In order for this to work, the tank would have to first run to a safe place, then use the ability. Can he really afford this roundabout way to essentially drop the aggro of one person? I think not. Also, why don't they get the jump at lvl10? Make Transpose/Translocate a lvl61 ability for the Shield Tech/Specialist disciplines. It's stupid that VG/PT tanks will have to wait essentially until the end of the game to get their gap closers? Furthermore, with all the mobility and gap closers being added to melee classes, will one 20 meter jump backwards really make all that much of a difference? It's a much needed ability, but the extra mobility melee classes are getting is kind of negating the benefit. It might sound too much of a cliché, but I am very much afraid of what these new changes will mean to the PvP metagame. Do you really want to turn PvP into a running, charging, jumping, teleporting, zigzagging blitzkrieg and ramp up the pace of the game to the point, where no one can catch anybody? The difference between melee and ranged classes will be meaningless, if melee will be able to instantly close the gap to their targets multiple times - this turns ranged characters into melee characters with less armor and worse defensive cooldowns. And it won't help those classes that need the most attention in PvP (and especially Arena) viability - namely Mercs and Snipers.

No, it's not good, because it does not address the fundalmental weakness of Snipers, nor does it make the class more desirable in 4v4. The reason Snipers are almost always targeted first in arenas, especially in ranked PvP, is that this class does not have the tools to survive focus fire. Whilst most other classes have at least one skill to survive focus fire (like Force Barrier, Kolto Overload, Undying Rage, Enraged Defense or combat stealth) for at least a limited amount of time, a Sniper is completely at the mercy of the healer when targeted. Having played a Sniper/Gunslinger for a very long time, I can tell you from personal experience that 9 out of 10 times I get focused and killed even before the healer. Now, you might say that happens because I'm a bad player, but plenty of times I have seen players on my team type "kill sniper/slinger first". Because of the medium armor and worthless dcd's the class has, it cannot afford to facetank damage the way juggers, pts or even maras can. Burst melee disciplines (Deception, Fury, Rage, Concealment, Pyrotech etc.) present the biggest threat to Snipers of all, because Shield Probe and Evasion in and of themselves are woefully lacking when it comes to adequate protection. I always try to prevent melee classes from coming into melee range very hard, because once they do, it's basically game over (unless I have a dedicated healer). So all things considered, when it comes to Sniper survivability, I'd say that knockbacks, roots and slows contribute much much more than Shield Probe and Evasion will ever do. However, if they are dedicated towards killing the Snipers - especially in the case of multiple (burst) DPS like in (ranked) arenas -, then this tactic becomes utterly meaningless. Class viability is judged by the effectiveness with which individual classes can survive being focused. Those classes that do this the most effectively and/or can stealth are the most desirable (currently Juggs, Sins, Ops, Sorcs, Maras). The Sniper cannot do either, so it is currently considered a free kill. The 4.0 changes will not alleviate any of these problems, in fact, the extra mobility being added to other classes will only serve to exacerbate this phenomenon. Therefore, being able to use Shield Probe and Evasion twice in a row will accomplish nothing. It won't extend survivability by a meaningful time period, nor will it discourage other players from immediately zerging the Sniper in Arenas. Proper survivability can come in two ways: either give us a very strong defensive skill on a long cooldown (similar to Enraged Defense or Force Barrier) or give us extra mobility on a short cooldown (similar to the new teleporting skills). Ballistic Shield has a 3 minute cooldown, yet it absorbs only as much damage as Reactive Shield does for Mercs, whilst that skill has a 2 minute cooldown. I'd trade every worthless application of Imperial Preparation for a reset on Ballistic Shield, but even that wouldn't be enough anti-focus in an arena. Not to mention the fact that it's a slap in the face of the class, considering it's getting back its pre-3.0 ability, whilst the other classes are getting new abilities. Imperial Preparation will be completely and utterly worthless in PvE, and it won't provide enough incentive to make the class more desirable in (ranked) PvP.

Oh, idk, maybe because burst melee specs tear apart a sniper in a few seconds? With literally the worst defensive cds in the game and no anti-focus tools whatsoever, you cannot simply stay put and take the damage of a deception assa, fury marauder or concealment operative. And because all other classes are getting speed increases, the sniper has to be allowed to remain out of reach for the melee. What's another useless shield probe on a 3 minute cooldown gonna do????