Glad I'm not the only one. I'm of a mind to open a customer support ticket and request an answer as to why the packs were skipped over during this recent cycle of re-releases of the older cartel pack series.

Title says it all. I thought it was a little shady to go right down the line, re-releasing all the old cartel packs in order...then jumping right over the stronghold packs and going directly to the shadow packs again.

The question still stands. WHERE does this drop from? Is it a random drop or mission reward?

You're not going to see cheap augment kits when 1.3 comes out. You're just not. If 1.2 was any barometer as to what to expect, it's going to be ridonkerous. Crafters couldn't keep pace with demmand on augmented armor. As fast as we could make it, it got gobbled up. This was especially true if the item looked cool to wear (Smuggler's sunglasses being an example). Everybody wearing a slave outfit is going to be wanting these kits. So will the hardcore PvPers wanting to augment out their war hero gear. PvE raiders can crit out their Rakata gear to give themselves a little boost for Denova (and keep their set bonus). When you throw 5 kits out there for 75k apiece and they vanish within minutes, the next 5 will be up at 100k. Then 125k...then 150k.... It's going to be mad until supply finally catches up with demmand. Wait and see. Millionares will be born in 1.3

Because they're two seperate issues. At launch some of them were just plain bugged. In fact a lot of them were bugged. Now it's because players are not looting the node after they gather it. This happens a lot on the lower level worlds like capitol planets because: You have greater chances of new players. You have a small inventory space at that stage. Your inventory fills with junk very quickly. ...and once you start attempting to loot nodes with a full inventory it no longer automatically goes in your inventory but instead remains on the node. If you aren't reading your screen closely enough to see the message you probably just move onto the next node. That's why you run across 4-5 nodes in a row with the same problem. It's one person that took a while to realize they're not actually harvesting the nodes. Their inventory's full. Unfortunately, it's the downside of having your companion auto harvest nodes. You just don't see the inventory full warning until about the fifth node. I agree the issue should be fixed. It's annoying and it robs new players of aquiring materials they might need to craft gear for themselves. Simply have the node reset after 5 minutes if it's not harvested.

If by 'wherever you want to go' you mean the only other server someone has toons on.

You're not reading carefully enough, and not getting the point. It doesn't matter that players didn't start on a particular server on day 1. What matters is that they are there NOW. That they have legacy levels comparable to what they had on their origin servers. In some cases they have exceeded their legacy levels on their origin servers. They will not be adding any more server traffic by transferring toons to their new server. And I don't claim to know what a large number of people will do, and neither do you. I can only suggest that it could happen, and it is a real danger that Bioware needs to address and quickly, before suspicion becomes reality.

I don't think Rouncer is claiming to want the transfers to be a free-for-all rush to The Fatman. But it's a legitimate question for players with toons on multiple servers. Legacy level 30 on server A is a ghost town. Legacy level 28 on server B is a thriving community. Server B is your undisputed primary server. You play there now. Your server load 'fingerprint' (if you want to call it that) is registering as part of the population on server B. What's the harm in transfering specific toons from server A onto that server? Until Bioware can explain that in detail I remain dubious about their whole plan. Now, if enough players like Rouncer feel the same way on this 'thriving community' of a server and decide to let their subs run out....how is that better for the game as a whole, Yanksfan? What exactly would be the impact on the game as a whole if say The Fatman was to suddenly drop to LIGHT in a month or two?

Probably better that you DON'T reveal the list too early anyway. Human nature being what it is, everyone targeted to a particular server will roll placeholder characters to reserve their names, and players would most likely get one character through Act 1 to reserve their legacy surname. You'd see quite a drastic jump in server activity. I can just see it.....

When I rerolled it DID fix the game for me. I was also under no illusions about server transfers. Talk of them didn't exist when I rerolled for the 2nd time. I was fully prepared to leave all that work behind when I rerolled. Since I arrived on my current server I find myself in better shape that I ever was on my original server, and that's due in part to the high level of population. I don't wait for PvP queues. I have access to all heroic missions on ALL planets because LFG requests fill within a minute or two. Being a healer also gives me the perk of getting picked up for raids by a variety of the guilds that exist on the server. Life is good, but it could be better. Do I have to level up another scoundrel to 50, or can I just import him from my old server? It's really what we're talking about here. Not having to repeat work and effort already accomplished. Nobody wants to leave that work behind when it can be consolidated. I completely agree, getting players off ghost town servers with no work started elsewhere is really a good, first step. But if you want to make the majority of the population happy, some thought has to be put in for players that thought rerolling was better than unsubbing. If they are excluded from this whole process, or made to pay....then it really sounds something like this: 'We thank you for remaining loyal to Star Wars: The Old Republic. We understand that consistent, paying customers like yourselves are what keep us in business. As a show of thanks, we demmand you give us more money for the privledge of moving your hard work into a single, central location. We understand that this situation was brought about in part because of our mismanagment and poor implementation, but since we have a obligation to our stock holders we ask that you bear the burden of cost in our restructuring.'

THIS THIS THIS THIS ^^ This is a perfect example of players like myself that saw not one but MULTIPLE servers go ghost town on us. We've rerolled servers more than once, hoping that the server we chose would have a stable population, only to find ourselves in the exact same situation as before....with nobody to play with. For those of us lucky enough to have finally found one of the few servers that held onto a healthy population (a.k.a. Fatman, Jedi Covenant, Swiftsure, Jung-Ma, etc....) and have established that server as our new home, what becomes of us? We play on those heavy pop servers NOW. We have legacy levels that are quickly approaching what we had on our original servers. Moving toons to those servers will not increase server load because we play there NOW. But since we were pro-active and went through the stuggle to reroll from scratch, we might ultimately get the shaft when it comes to bringing our original toons to our new homes. That leaves the option of LEAVING these high-pop servers to move to a potentially high pop one. What kind of a public relations nightmare would you have on your hands if by creating new, high population servers you destroy the ones you already have? I'm NOT paying extra to move toons to my current server. Not when I already paid for the game AND pay a monthly subscription fee. And if you think you can squeeze more money out of your user base by terming that function a 'convenience' then prepare to be shocked as another 400,000 subs leave the game. You have plenty of players with toons scattered all over creation. Although this transfer feature will cater to the players that remained loyal to one server, it largely ignores the population that rerolled once or even several times to make the game truly feel like an MMO. Let's hope as this transfer initiative progresses, you take steps to ensure it aids your entire user base instead of discriminating against a large portion of it.

When I rerolled on the Fatman and started fresh, I went Cybertech. Armoring and Mods can support BOTH force users and non-force users. Synthweaving and Armormech can only support one or the other. You'll have earpieces covered. Spaceship upgrades. Speeder bikes. For PvP, you'll have access to grenades. There's just too much that Cybertech does. It's very useful for leveling up not just one toon, but several. No matter what the class, you'll be able to make stuff for them.

When I re-rolled on the Fatman I went with a Trooper/Cybertech. Spaceship upgrades are something that never go out of style. You make the best, in-game upgrades in that category. Surprisingly they are better than the versions that the vendors sell. They do not drop as loot. Only ONE of the six drop as a mission reward. There is no other way to obtain the artifact quality ship upgrades. You can't say that about most other gear in the game. I can't keep a steady stock on the GTN. If you want the best upgrades pre and post 50, you need a Cybertech. With the game going towards more of a moddable gear oriented theme, you're sitting in the cat-bird seat with cybertech. Planetary commendations? Takes 2 to buy a mod. Takes 2 to buy an enhancement. Takes 7 for armoring. Don't know who thought that one up. Cybertech schematics drop in raids. I can make Columi earpieces that sell for a bunch of credits. And frankly you can't want anything more than that. The best gear should drop in raids otherwise what's the point in fighting epic bosses if they don't drop a reward that's meaningful. I'm as crafty as a crafter comes and even I agree there should be some point at which we kit the players to the best of our ability and say: 'There's nothing more we can give you. No go on out there and pwn face. Bring us back the head of something mean and nasty with pointy teeth.'

True. However Armstechs are one of the few professions (along with Artifice) that have plenty of high level weapon schematics directly available from the trainer. The downside is these 'special skins' require 3 Biometric Crystal Alloys to build. Pre-1.3 if you ran off a bunch of these and missed the crits, you just burned through all your high-end crafting material and got nothing but a plain, old moddable blaster. Now these augment tables create a 'safety net' so even if you miss your crit, all is not lost. Just go to the augment table and POOF. Now you have a REALLY COOL looking blaster, very unique in appearance that you can charge the proper amount of money for in order to recoup the effort it took to aquire the alloys. Needing those alloys was a detriment. It kept players from mass producing them. The risk was too high and so these blasters were truly rare and exceptional to see in-game. 1.3 will be what players want, but it will be the death of the truly rare and exceptional.

The question you should ask yourself, especially with character transfers coming is: Is my end goal to have 1 of each character class on this server? (4 republic / 4 Imperial toons) Your strategy will be decidedly different. Don't just think in the short term.

What this really is, is essentially a 'tax' on low level moddable gear. If I create those cool looking Elvis-type shades for my Smuggler (Smuggler's Headgear) NOW and I crit for the augment slot, I can put a level 50 augment in it now. If I craft that same armor AFTER 1.3 comes out, then I can only put up to a grade 2 augment in it (Tier 17-24) for starters. I would have to get a top tier augment kit, bring it to an augment table and pay 50,000 credits to 'upgrade' the augment slot so it will effectively take a level 50 augment. The sale of the augment kit goes into the pockets of the crafter who made it, but that 50,000 credits goes down the money sink chute and into the cyber pockets of Bioware, effectively removing those credits from the game. It is a creatively disguised money sink once they found out that players prefer the look of 'lower level gear' over the level 50 gear.

I know this is a radical idea but their first responsibility is to the player base who are paying customers, not the media or other gaming companies. And frankly, they deserve a little bad press for some of the blunders they have made so far.

Bioware didn't exactly respond with any kind of solid information when players were asking about character transfers and server merges months ago. As a result, a lot of people like myself saw The Fatman as the safest destination for a reroll. And to be honest, it isn't as crowded as it was when I rerolled. I'm absolutely convinced I made the right call because other 'standard' servers are becoming ghost towns. I came away from Tython in record time, with more XP than on my previous server. Mobs respawn quickly. Getting from point A to point B is shorter because you don't have to cut through mobs that are there just to make your leveling take longer. Thanks, but I don't need 4 XP right now. I really want to get to that cave where the mission completion will give me 1500 XP. Forming a group for a heroic quest took less than 15 seconds. I never had the luxury of completing the heroic 4 quests on my other server before. And the 4 of us TORE through it. If I had my choice between seeing 4 people on Tython and 130 I know which one I'd choose. It isn't even close.

Many players are concerned about the upcoming character transfer feature. One question frequently being voiced in the forums is that of retaining their legacy surname. Is there a mechanic in the transfer feature that will notify a player if the destination server they choose already has their surname locked by another player?

What happened to Then? We missed it. When? Just now. When will then, be NOW? Soon.

It's why I haven't purchased a SINGLE legacy unlock yet. To date, I don't know: If you will be able to transfer characters from a UK server to a US server. If you can transfer SOME characters on a server to another server. If you can find out in advance whether your current legacy surname is taken on the server you have the option to move to. So for me, the 1.2 Legacy update became the 'wait and see what Bioware will do next' update. Ironically, Bioware is calling the 1.3 patch the 'wait and see what's coming in 1.4' patch.

Depends on how many alts you see yourself leveling up. More alts, more bases covered. But if I was to rank the importance: #1 Cybertech: Armoring, Mods, earpieces #2 Artifice: Lightsaber hilts & Enhancements #3 Biochem: Implants #4 Armstech: Barrels #5 Armormech / Synthweaving: Moddable armor Keep in mind, that if you're doing planet quests while leveling then you're probably getting enough planetary commendations to purchase SOME upgrades. It will most likely give you the luxury of eliminating one of the higher priority crafting skills. If you're a force user with a force using companion, you can scrap the idea of Armstech altogether. Implants are rare mission rewards so most likely the value of Biochem will be very high.

When I rolled my empire toons I had one of each archtype so I was building my crafting system as a whole instead of individually. With this in mind, I recommend you have Treasure Hunting on your Sith Warrior. The +5 Crit that Vette has is far too valuable not to take advantage of; especially given the fact that gemstone missions trickle through your mission selection with the frequency of Haley's Comet. Your Inquisitor should have Archeology to take advantage of Talos' +5 Crit bonus. Whether it is used to support Synthweaving or Artifice isn't really your main concern. Squeezing the most value out of your companions is. Artifact Fragments get consumed faster than your Upari Crystals, so having a companion that occasionally crits on a gathering mission is helpful in offsetting this dilema. As was mentioned before, Jaesa has that +5 Crit bonus to Synthweaving so I wouldn't sneeze at that either. Players always say how the 'crit bonus' companion doesn't actually crit as much as another companion without such a bonus. It might feel like that but in reality, over the long haul the crit bonus companions do start to win out in the end. It still is a small bonus that really takes months of crafting to start to see it, but you do start to see it. Best of luck to you in your crafting endeavors.

I found the Consular to have fairly underwhelming companions when I comes to crafting bonuses. The advantage with that scenario is you never feel COMPELLED to take a particular crafting discipline. With that in mind, and with all options open to you, Cybertech has always been a big money maker for me. When I rolled fresh on a new server that's what my first toon specialized in. Sell spaceship upgrades. Frequently. Let that be your money maker. Craft and reverse engineer armor mods. These mods take 7 planetary commendations to obtain otherwise. Enhancements and Mods....take only 2. So while leveling, save your planetary commendations for your lightsaber hilt (7 comms) and enhancements. The Mods and Armoring you can make yourself. You'll make more money with Cybertech than with Synthweaving while leveling from 1 to 50; and practically you'll be able to outfit yourself with just as much wearable gear.

This is the extreme case that will be very uncomfortable for a dev to comment on. You're talking about a moddable, offhand only blaster with a VERY COOL skin. One that's very desirable to dual-wielders. So if you're determined to get an augmented version, let's say you run off 5 in a row with Corso. You exhaust your supply of alloys (15). Burn through the expensive materials and come out with 1 augmented version and 4 non-augmented versions. In reality, you created the blaster that you wanted but now you're stuck with 4 'Flashies'. You literally have 4 guns that may have level 50 blue mods in it, but for all intents and purposes the gun itself is no better than any other random, moddable blaster drop. The only difference is this one is offhand only and has a great graphic skin. So if the devs are saying you can create 10, 'green' blasters and get the augment kit material..... Then you're printing money. This is a band-aid change. It's coming into the game because players want to be able to run around in slave-top bikinis and not get a handicap for it. Even on Hoth. The unintended consequence is that ALL orange gear up for sale on the GTN will now have an augment slot in it. Meaning anything without one will be poo. 'Disposable', gear will be hard to find because players will stop selling those drops on the GTN and reverse engineer for augment kit materials. If new players thought finding gear on the GTN was hard before, they're in for a shock in 1.3. The devs again, have taken something 'uncommon' and made it common because that's what everyone wants (the best gear).