You example is correct, but it doesn't account for the fact that a Light V will have Light I-V available. Only Dark gear is unavailable. A Neutral ends up with both paths unavailable. And with the most interesting looking gear put at the ends of the aligments, it really does encourage people to spam out their alignment rather than go with their personal choices. For choices to be more than just points on a meter, the Neutral gear needs to arrive soon.

Yes, I have to agree. I have run Black Talon and Esseles so many time, but I have yet to experience all the classes' and genders' responses. We are talking about 24 different possibilities in the 3 option responses. And most people tend to go for the same few. For instance I have run Esseles about 10 times, yet only once was I lucky enough to get the post-battle conversation with the Ambassador because people see LS points vs no points. Afterwards the entire group (who hadn't experienced it either) agreed that it was in fact much more fullfilling to go that path because it actually made things a lot more fun on the bridge.

To me it seems to be slanted towards higher rolls the longer you haven't been able to answer. In 4 mans I haven't experienced many back to back answers from the same person. But I have experienced a whole lot of really low numbers for the person who just got to answer. Maybe it is the other way round, that the one who just got to answer gets a malus to his/her roll. The few times I have seen back to back answers the winner hasn't rolled very high, the rest of us just rolled even lower. If you are going to use the book analogy, then my question is: If you don't want to read the same book several times in a row, why do you keep insisting on opening it and expect everyone else to jump along with you to the end? Just don't open the book and you don't have to run the risk of reading it. Seems simple to me.

Interesting. A yearlong, and pretty significant decline in activity. But also important to note; increases in holiday seasons, christmas in particular.

Oh yeah I remember that guy. And several others which ends up the same way. I have killed the little guys, or most of them, and the boss is left standing. I then ress and kill the boss. Seems like it is the MO for tackling half the 'boss' quests. The worst yet is the very last Voss quest (pre-bonus) in the dirt hole, that Abyssin guy. He was quite the handful for a healless spec.

It is one of those cases where the color restriction really doesn't make sense. It all harks back to the old movies where the Rebels had scarlet laser cannons and the Imperials had green. Blue was ion cannons (actually only used a few times during ESB). This has stuck throughout the EU as far as I have been able to dig up. Basically it is a case of 'that's what we have always been doing'. Too bad that was also the case for red and blasters, but that didn't exactly fit the color restriction rule, did it now? So sometimes old traditions stick it out, in others they don't. Even if it ends up looking stupid. In any case, the Empire as such isn't Dark or Light, the inhabitants are. Same with the Republic. But again, this is merely a showcase that the restriction should be factionbased, not alignment.

Main spaceports. Alright, Quesh isn't really that important so it can be excluded if need be. The simple matter is just that the traveltime is far too long considering that you have to return as well. Having listed purple gear with good stats for surprisingly low prices, and not selling them for 15 levels is plain old silly. The last listing was a mere 500 creds more than vendoring just to check if there was even anyone out there looking. But I should have expected that given how I couldn't find any crafted stuff aside from a few crystals. Literally I have had little reason to visit the GTN, despite having found stuff to sell.

Just a tighter cone of selection for cover spots. That should solve any issue. If people can't manage to not use the cover screen and roll too close to the target, then I say it is their own problem, not one of the system. It is a systemical issue if they can't see the cover spots because it is outside their viewable cone. Rolling to cover is a very cool and effective defensive mechanic when there are places for it. Removing it would be a significant reduction of survivability. SHIFT+F people, learn it or remap it to F and ignore physical cover entirely. No need to remove rolling to cover when there are people who can manage that effectively.

A bonus only relating to Followthrough would be a huge middle finger to Engineers and Lethality Snipers. Snipe makes more sense.

I have learned to not target my target prior to a pull and place my shield in a physical cover location. Simle enough. Shift + f also works nicely. But while I manage to use cover, it doesn't mean that the little green man shouldn't pop up out of the cemera angle. There is already such a system in place, check it out and move the camera in a coverfilled area, the little green man/arrow will jump all over the place. So a reduction of the cone to fit the cemera nagle would be a most beneficial change. I also subscribe to the no cover with the back to the target, however it does have some use. In encounters it can be a great help to basically roll around the zone leaving a melee target running in the middle. My personal best of this kind of cover-kiting was four in a row, too bad I didn't dish out much damage due to the interruption bug. But now that it is supposed to be fixed, this can be used to greater effect. And honestly it is a load of fun. As noted by others, Lethality Operatives ARE melee. Shiv requires melee, and Shiv is required. That settles that.

I'm only annoyed that it only targets 3 enemies. But the nades tend to cover that problem. I would just wish it was more like the BH and Trooper versions. But since the poor Juggies and Knights have almost nothing, I can't complain too much.

Which is exactly what it was called by the devs. I find it to be fun, if not a terribly engaging aspect of the game. I do it when I get a little tired of running around. A bit of mindless gunning and bombing it a good way to get the energy back. Essentially BioWare said "and we will ship it with a cupcake." When people then see the cupcake, instead of enjoying that they got a cupcake, they complain it isn't a damn weddingcake. Yes, we all know that cake is most likely a lot better, but that isn't what we got, what we got is still nice if you accept it's position and size. It's a minigame, it's there for fun and currently nothing else.

Does the last section also imply something for those that have gotten in, but disconnects and are then put in the queue? I mean it can really put a cramp on groups when someone dcs and they aren't likely to return within an hour.

I rather like her attitude. Not because she agrees with me, but the way she reacts when she doesn't like my actions (when she actually reacts that is). Yes, she is a bit strange in real world terms, but she comes from a pretty nasty planet and I doubt it would be a stretch to call all Rattataki nuts. And it certainly isn't hard to keep her happy. Even if you run the professional attitude. It is only once you go holier than thou Light she might get testy.

Just going to rip at you a little here, all friendly stuff. So my point is that while I'm not really capable of going and running the numbers right now, your method is perhaps slightly skewed. You did right in not considering crits (though there might be a slight difference of crits in the trees, for a quick baseline comparison it is perfectly alright), however going by top-end damage things can get out of hand quickly. Say we have two abilities, one does 1-100 damage and the other does 60 flat, they have the same activation and the same talents affecting them. Over time the second will do more damage, but your study will favour the first (the true comparison would be 50.5 vs 60). I'm not going to assume that we have such a case here, but it is worthy of consideration for future reference. The correct way is not that much harder though, merely (high+low)/2.

Heh... yes. Can't believe I missed that one. 2% for two abilities compared to 2% for everything.

People will be like this, it can't be avoided. But I might point out that the majority in most games are not, however when someone does pass over the node you are fighting for, you won't really notice. But you will notice the tool that steals it. We can sit all day and argue about being nice and not, those that are nice will remain that way, and the others... well you know. Anything we agree on will just be a 'code of the willing'. It won't matter much. Tagging nodes would help this greatly though. It is still the same person that needs to kill the mobs, and since it is only a tag you can't just loot and run. I wonder why such a thing isn't used. I mean what is the argument against it? It won't hurt the tools, and it won't hurt the nice. But it will help the guy trying to fight for the node.

I know how you feel karaoke. Until the time comes, I will assume that more energy will trump the end Engineering talents. Thus my plan will be something like this bastard build. I freely admit that it isn't a known spec as such, but I have heard good things about it from testers that reached 50 and ran Ops. The main benefit is the boost to Snipe in both trees and the energy bonus from both tree in Imperial Methodology and Sniper's Nest. Also it is pretty strong in AoE and personally i dropped a point in Lethality for EMP Discharge, that one I can't be sure about due to the crit value from other talents, but the combination of Vital Regulators and the resetting of Adrenaline Probe I give it the benefit of doubt.

Did you get The First as a title? I don't expect it as it would be water down completely when you can get it so much easier later. But still, grats on the kill.

Now I will make a pretty outrageous argument, but I will appreciate it if everyone stays along for the entire thing. The companion is indeed part of the player. That is true, but as noted it is a solo thing, it is something that boosts the personal experience of the given player alone, nobody but him. I think we can agree on that. Now lets take the case of a guy Needing on a piece of gear for the looks over a guy that can actually use it. Rude? Yes. But hey the guy can argue that looking good in this gear boosts his personal gaming experience, hence he can do it, just like that other guy in the group who needed something for his companion that this guy wanted. Both a pretty subjective, in that they make the person feel better about soloing. You can even argue that the look-Needer actually benefits from his little move in Flashpoints. The Companion-Needed will generally not. Now, one of these two actually benefits from the stats, the other doesn't, but the basic situation is in fact rather similar. The question remains, why should everyone else suffer for your solo needs? The answer is "they shouldn't".

Greed is already the option for companions. Once we are at 50 our companions cover all possible loot versions... So the Need for Companion is simply the new Greed and Greed is pointless. Thus Need for Companion is pointless for the start. It changes nothing worth speaking of.

They do. As far as I know all types of AOE pops CC that isn't a regular stun. However, Explosive Probe shouldn't as it isn't going to blow up until you shoot at it (mostly). So it is a great way of setting an enemy up while CCed.

If this is true, then it can be a serious issue if not fixed soon. I'll admit that currently it isn't huge, but it keeps up then we will see a lot of annoyed people in the future.

Say what? I'm 4th... but not in.

September was a pretty small month, if we go by the US retail numbers. October is much bigger and November was even larger than that. So I find it unlikely that they can cram all of October and November into one day.