1) How do you feel about the Role Play in General Not very good. There isn't a lot of it going on (at least not in the open), and what does go on in the open is the most pedestrian kind of tavern-RP imaginable. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against cantina-chat--it's actually how I found a great guild of role-players in a previous MMO title--but I use sentence structure, punctuation, and grammar as a rough detector for identifying good role-players. About 80% of the time I can't find anyone who meets that baseline. The few good people that I've met and added to my friends list have not turned up online since. 2) Which side has the better Role Play ? Republic. For roleplaying purposes, I'd say that Imperial role-players are the #1 killer of immersion for me.

^This guy gets it. They could really just have a shuttle that goes directly from Fleet to planet, as far as I'm concerned. Run to door, click object, wait a second Run to ship, click object, wait a second Run to ship controls, click object Run to ship exit, click object, load-screen Run from one side of space station to the other, click object, wait... It's just daft. However, the original complaint that there are load-screens at all is even more daft. How exactly do we get from one planet to another without a load-screen? A full featured flight simulator with take-off and landing? I'm sure Bioware is working on that right now.

Ever since I was introduced to the Star Wars universe as a kid, I've been a loyal imperial. The Empire was a classic example of "bad guys have cooler stuff". But in this game, the dialogue choices and NPC encounters are so two-dimensional that the Empire just looks cartoonish. Then again, looking back on the films, perhaps this game hasn't fallen far from the tree. Ultimately, I think I just have a hard time getting behind either Sith, or Bounty Hunter because of the Mary Sue-ish nature that both groups have developed into (not that the Jedi aren't, though). The Imperial Agent is an exception. That story has some nuance and, at the very least, acknowledges that the Sith are overemotional teenagers, destined to drive the car off the road. However, I'm the type of person to play whichever faction is less popular, so my agent mostly collects dust these days.

Haha, every time I try to start a Smuggler, right off the bat I hear the first dialogue option "Thanks to my lightening reflexes and crackerjack timing", I immediately log out and delete the character. The voice acting, overall, isn't terrible.... The female Agent is quite good, for example, and there are a number of good NPC voice-overs. But it's definitely very hit and miss. Regarding the OP, SWTOR is definitely more closed-in than any number of MMOs I've played, but it hasn't bothered me too much. The poster who made the analogy of SWTOR planets being the equivalent of "game levels" hit the nail on the head, I think. It is a tremendous waste of art resources, and the developers would do well to bring higher level players back to planets with future STORY quests, with environments altered to show how things have changed since the player last visited. Beyond that, I would urge the developers to stay away from more room & corridor planets like Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa. Environments like those really highlight the limitations of the game.

1. Jek Tono Porkins 2. Wedge Antilles 3. Biggs Darklighter The trifecta.

I just posted a thread bemoaning the terribad clothing options for Light Armor wearers...this idea would pretty much address my complaint entirely. Excellent suggestion.

Thanks for the suggestion - however, the social gear and cartel pieces have the same problem. If it's not a robe/gown, it's long pants and long sleeves (and bonnets, lolwut). To be more specific about what I'm looking for: you know what the light armor pieces look like for female Imperial Inquisitors? The sleeveless tops? The same ones that miraculously turn into square-yards of drapery when worn by a Republic character? Unless I'm mistaken (and please let me know if I am), there is nothing in the game that comes close to that for Light Armor. "Tusken raider", "pilot", and "gang member" aren't quite what I'm looking for. I'm hoping with the Cartel store, the devs might finally have some incentive to making a variety of clothing available. I know people were complaining about Consular gear when I left the game, maybe now that people can pay directly for this stuff, Bioware will pick up the ball. As of right now, I'm looking at the Equipment section of the cartel and it's all full body armor, full body robes, and long sleeves/pants.

TL:DR - The armor options, especially for Light Armor, are in desperate need of stylistic variety. Currently, my options for appearance are robes, gowns, and metal bikinis. There has to be a middle ground. After coming back to this game from a lengthy hiatus, I find myself more suprised by the things that have not changed, rather than those which have. Among the growing list of things that I imagined would have been addressed by now, gear appearance for my Light Armor-wearing Consular has become a sticking point. Essentially, this character is resigned to wearing ether big heavy robes, gowns, or metal bikinis. There is nothing in between. I started a new Jedi Knight who came across a piece of Medium or Heavy armor that was sleeveless and with a bare midriff. It looked rather sporty, and I thought surely there must be something like that for Light Armor, right? Well to my surprise, there is nothing to be found - which is exactly the same state I left this game in so many months ago. Bioware, do you need someone to do textures? Seriously, I 'll do it. I'll do it for free. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. We don't have to be either covered from head to foot in drapery, or wearing nothing but metal wire pasted on our naughty bits. Lets put an end to the reign of burqas and bikinis. Let's have some variety. Let's do something wild and crazy like...short sleeves and bare tummies.

"There's not a finer sight in the galaxy than gassed rebels running out of a cave into the waiting blasters of your own battalion. Well, perhaps sunrises. But for those you have to wake up early." -Surveillance Officer Trecht

Well this is interesting. People are plowing through RE with a poor success rate, meanwhile a small amount of people who inevitably will have great success through sheer dumb luck and no work of their own, are confident that the system works just fine. Fascinating! Ruhx is correct, an upper limit on failed RE learned schematic attempts would make the whole thing much more enjoyable for everyone. A scaling % that increases with each attempt would be ideal. Such a system could even be used to greatly improve the crafting criticals.

Engineer isn't bad at all right now. When people say it's not a "viable" spec, they're grossly exaggerating. Each tree has it's pros and cons, some people just find that Engineering fits their play style better than other specs. Just play what you enjoy. It's true that Plasma Probe is currently underwhelming, but I still manage to put it to good use. The 1.2 changes will be very interesting.

Has anyone else found it harder to get UWT Metal missions to pop up when several companions have already been assigned to a few? I can get a Rich Metal mission right off the bat with my first companion, perhaps only zoning once or twice. From there, it will take 10+ re-zones to get moderate or abundant for my next 3 companions. But, without fail, I cannot get a fifth metal mission for my fifth companion. I can re-zone for an hour straight, and never come up with anything but companion gifts and fabrics. It makes me wonder if there is some sort of governor built in (in my case, I've -never- been able to get all 5 companions on metal missions at the same time). It's entirely possible that I'm just having a bout of bad luck, but in any case UWT is still quite a PITA for reasons that have been abundantly evident in this thread.

There are other Engineers out there?! I am also in the camp of "it just feels right". I've tried a lot of different specs, through all 3 trees, Engineer just feels the most comfortable to me. I am looking forward to the 1.2 changes though - when I first used Plasma Probe, my initial impression was "you know, it would be nice if this slowed or snared..."

Best agent name I ever saw was "Shagbot".

One would think that snipers, of all things, would be able to sneak around to get into position. Concealment is sort of a big deal when it comes to sniping. Not only do we not bother to conceal our position in SWTOR, but we go out of our way to sport a large, glowing red marker, ensuring the enemy is aware of our position at all times. That said, I don't think snipers should get full-blown stealth. I'd rather see something like a cooldown that gives us stealth for, lets say 15 seconds. Just long enough to move around and get a good spot. Additionally, I'd like to see something where entering cover grants stealth after 2 seconds IF you don't take any action. Taking action would remove the stealth, and you'd leave to leave and re-enter cover to gain it again.

Rank doesn't appear to have much significance - for example, Rank 8 Shiv costs 26k, Rank 2 Eviscerate costs 26k. Rank 2 Shield Probe costs 31k. The price appears to be determined by the level, instead. Rank 8 Shiv and Rank 2 Eviscerate both require level 38, Rank 2 Shield Probe at 41. The same, however was not true for my consular. I didn't think to grab screenshots unfortunately, but I distinctly remember paying ~10k for a number of abilities at level 50. My sniper, at 41, doesn't have any upgrades that cost less than 20k.

At level 50, my Shadow had a number of ability upgrades which cost between 10-20k to upgrade. My Sniper, at level 41, is expected to shell out between 25-32k per ability. Has anyone else noticed a similar discrepancy between Republic and Imperial training costs? With my consular, there was never a point where I had to forgo upgrading an ability due to cost. With the sniper, however, I find myself having to pick and choose my upgrades based on priority - Snipe over Overload Shot, for example - to avoid bankruptcy.

After finishing the Consular story, I decided to look up some videos to see how the Knight compares, especially in the finale of Act 3, since I felt pretty underwhelmed by the whole thing. Consulars got ripped off. Comparatively, the Jedi Knight is baby jesus and the Jedi Consular is the afterbirth. The Knight is facing down Darth Vader and the Emperor in the throne room, while the Consular is running around on Endor, taking out faceless, nameless storm troopers. The Consular story just invents hordes of villains that you've never heard of, and you're supposed to just accept that these enemies are REALLY REALLY important to the story. Even the final "twist" thrown in at the end is dull and predictable. Meanwhile the golden child, Jedi Knight, is almost literally cutting the heart out of the Empire.

Glad to see this thread. I just hit 50 on my Shadow, and decided to try PVP because I'm pretty tired of quests/PVE. Then I discovered this whole expertise thing. As far as I can tell, without PvP gear I'm pretty much just a free kill for the enemy. That also means I'm an obvious disadvantage to my team. That sucks, Bioware. It's as if the whole system was designed as some kind of weird hazing process. "You must get rolled X times before you can participate in a meaningful way."

You know, I really can't disagree with anything here. The only other story I've played through to any great extent is the Agent, which is a fair bit more interesting than Consular. However, I've noticed that even the Agent story is also rife with many instances of always being one step behind the enemy. Anyways, "Galaxy's doormat" is a pretty good description of the Consular. Although I haven't actually finished the Consular, I'm on Corellia now, and I pretty much assumed the identity of the first child precisely because it would be SO *********** PREDICTABLE, CONVENIENT, AND BORING. That tells me a lot about the quality of the Consular storyline. The companion system is a mess overall, I think, but perhaps more so for the Consular. I understand that Bioware wants us to have "ironic" companions whose personalities are sort of a counterbalance, but Theran is inexcusable. What's more annoying is the fact that, as a Balance Shadow, I pretty much have to use him, at least for anything of moderate difficulty (bosses). I want to use Nadia, since she is my Padawan, but the game forces my hand. Iresso and Zenith - who are they? Oh those two unwanted guys that hang out in my ship? Honestly I pretty much forget that they even exist. There are too many companions, it would have been better to just give 2 or 3. It would have allowed Bioware to focus more on giving each companion more interesting personal stories and development, instead of spreading it around many companions that just end up collecting dust inside the ship.

I wish they'd add a "powers customization" slot, like the appearance slot. So Nadia, for example, would have either a set of Shadow melee DPS abilities (as she does now), or a set of Sage healing skills. Each companion would have 2, perhaps 3, possible load-outs. I have a Balance Shadow, and I'm pretty much tied at the hip to Theran. I did use Qyzen for quite some time, but the difference in survivability and downtime between fights is staggeringly huge. I like Nadia, and I'd prefer to have her tag along as a companion, but even fights with just a few regular mobs usually ends up requiring a post-fight meditation. "Gold" mobs are out of the question. With Theran, there's just no stopping between fights, and I'll walk over bosses all night long. Basically, not choosing Theran is gimping myself. I am biased against the system as a whole, though. I don't like having a ship full of companions that just get ignored, or only pulled out for special occasions. Seems like kind of a silly idea on Bioware's part.

No, apparently you don't because your first line included some garbage about wanting to play the class du jour, which is at best only true for some people. There is a spectrum of reasons for wanting an AC respec that has, apparently, evaded you. You then tried to qualify your argument with an appeal to popularity. Although I could care less if they add this functionality or not, I have yet to see anyone provide a reason WHY this is a bad idea WITHOUT employing logical fallacies. Every argument I've read is an argumentum ad antiquitatem, argumentum ad numerum, or non-sequitor.

OP: Force Lift is a marginal CC ability by itself. The cast time makes it unusable for impromptu CC/interruption. However, the Balance tree has talents that improve it, making it an instant-cast, AoE, and cause a stun to the target if the lift is broken early. So, for Balance consulars, it actually becomes quite powerful. For each class, there a number of abilities which everyone has access to, but only certain builds will get good mileage from. You might use it here and there for the hell of it, but unless you are specced in the Balance tree (and with the appropriate talents), its uses will be very limited.

Working on Act 3 for both Consular and Agent - the Consular starts off with a very sluggish pace by comparison. Act 1 was unforgivably bad. What you have is a single mission, which is interesting by itself, but then repeated 4 times to fill up time. Every "boss" in Act 1 was a perfect stranger who I really didn't have any vested interest in. Act two isn't a great improvement, but it plays into the diplomatic aspect of Consulars more. Agent, I have to say, is a superior experience - although that may have something to do with the fact that you are a normal, non-superpowered individual who does extraordinary things. Act 2 took an interesting turn by involving the player character in a very personal way, which the Consular story has not. It also has a plot device in Chapter 1 which feeds into Chapter 2 quite nicely, something that seems lacking with Consular.

I disagree. Snipers are trickier to play. Use of cover, timing abilities, kiting - comparatively, my BH has been the proverbial faceroll/EZ mode experience, and has a much more useful range of abilities in the early game. The point about getting a healer early on is true, however. Things get easier for Snipers when they get their healing companion, but that is not until much later in the game. The best reason to roll a Sniper, or any kind of Agent, is the story. It definitely feel like more care went into the agent story than....oh let's say... Consular, some of the most uninteresting and uninspired writing I've seen in this game.