I'll be a lot more excited for what the future of SWTOR holds when and if they fix the crippling optimization issues that make the game completely unplayable for me on a system that exceeds recommended specs across the board and has zero problems running everything else I throw at it. I understand how software development in a structured environment works. I get it, content development teams and bug fix teams are two different teams and reassigning the former to work with the latter may not actually improve turnaround time on fixes, etc. But right now, I have a $60.00 paperweight, so I'll just go back to scanning dev posts every few days until I finally see they've fixed their ****.

I don't doubt that the game is running fine for a majority of players, and I couldn't be happier for them. I've just gotten to the point where I can't filter out which "my game works, it's you" posts are trolling and which just fail basic logic and reading comprehension forever. Some people's performance issues are 'self-inflicted' through low end hardware, poor installation, drivers, viruses, thermal issues, trying to make waffles in their DVD slot, etc. Some people have legitimate problems, and most people run the game without any major show stopping issues. We don't have the numbers for how many people fit into each of these groups, and it's painfully obvious to me from Bioware's press comment that either they don't either or they're not being entirely straightforward. The statement from the linked article basically throws people in the second category with legitimate problems under a bus and marginalizes them.

Every time I read this, I die a little bit more inside. For the sake of discussion, let me try and break this down in a way people who insist on posting this over and over again can understand: People with better systems than yours are having this problem. While we're on the subject, no, your performance in Call of Halos 3 isn't something that can definitively state whether or not you should be having problems in this game, but chances are pretty high that if your system is capable of playing everything on the market at HD resolutions without breaking a sweat, SWTOR should not be bringing it to its knees.

Female bounty hunters get an awkward conversation option where she asks you how you "make wearing dura-steel look good" because if she wore it, it'd look like she "strapped shipping crates on her chest." Yeahhh...

I killed her... and then got the same email about 5 minutes afterwards from beyond the grave. Then Mako started talking about wanting to take her on vacation with us after we finished the great hunt, and I was like >___>...

I tried getting along with her, but in the end we just have too many irreconcilable differences. I'm a "professional," and she cramps my style. I get paid to do a job, and I take it as a personal point of pride that I do that job well without any unnecessary complications. Mako's affection change criteria boils down to: kill dudes she dislikes for petty, personal reasons and let her feelings get in the way of the job constantly. "Likes professionalism and mercy" my asteroids. If I get summoned to a meeting by some big imperial head of state, and just happen to show up right as that guy's boss decides to force lightning him in the face for his own incompetence, why the hell do I lose standing with Mako for it? *grumble grumble*

Hi there! You must be new to the internet, but it's okay, everyone has to start somewhere. The individual points of your original post could be generalized to include virtually any online community ever made, so let me share with you some wisdom I've picked up over the years: The onus of creating a good community is on you, the player. Reach out to people. Make a few connections. Surround yourself with the company of people you enjoy being around and you will have a much better game experience for it.

Orion Server, guildname "Masters of Orion." E&B was my 'gateway' MMO, and is the one I hold the biggest soft spot for. Main character was a Terran Tradesman. E&B players, represent!

You just gave me a huge incentive to keep leveling up despite the game-breaking FPS issues. Camo-plant bounty hunters ftw! Just, whatever you do, DON'T use recharge and reload while you're hiding in the bush. It'll break your stealth... by burning the bush down.

I'd love to see what the justification for doing so was, but alas, that would require the search function. facepalm.jpg I'll echo that google is how I've been searching the forums, though.

I've been testing and troubleshooting this issue for almost this entire last week and have made no headway in it. It seems incredibly likely that it's a software issue with the game having poor optimization. Running a Core 2 Duo E8400 overclocked to 3.3ghz with a GTX 460 1gb under the 290.53 beta drivers. I've tried the latest stable release as well as older driver releases with no measurable difference in performance. I'm only running 2gb of RAM on the system, but it shouldn't be capable of producing frame drops as terrible as the ones I'm seeing. The system has adequate power and my temps under full load are fine and stable. My frame rate varies from 50-60 stable in some areas to less than 10 in many, many others. I've spent four days straight troubleshooting and testing. When in certain areas, the GPU usage plummets down to 1-2% and the card throttles the core clock speed down to 'standby' levels. This has the obvious impact of dropping FPS down to about 10. When the GPU usage raises to about 40-50%, I get stable framerates in the 50-60 fps range. An easy location for me to recreate the issue has been around the instance entrance for the Bounty Hunter hanger in the Sith fleet; standing about 30 feet outside of it completely kills the card, standing inside of it runs normally. None of the graphic options result in any significant FPS gain when changed, except in areas where the card is actually doing its job, in which case turning down shadow quality can yield an extra 12 fps or so. For reference, I just tested the system on Skyrim and recorded a constant 40-50 fps in outdoor environments at 1920x1200 resolution on high settings with 2x AA / 8x AF. Bioware really, really needs to get their act together and look into this. As made obvious with a simple google search, the number of people being affected by this is huge and there's no reliable solution for anybody.