For what it is worth, this excerpt of an interview is posted here: http://www.dualshockers.com/2012/01/26/interview-biowares-cory-butler-and-the-future-of-star-wars-the-old-republic/ The interview is between BioWare's Cory Butler © and Guiseppe Nelva (G) of Dualshokers.com (dated January 26th, 2012). G: Some servers have a faction balance that seems quite skewed one side or another. Is there any future plan to give local advantages to the outnumbered faction in order to encourage them to come out and fight against the odds? C: We are hyper aware of server populations and faction balances on the servers. As far as what we’re going to do about that, it’s something we’re keeping up our sleeve right now, but I can tell you for sure that we are looking at that very seriously and we’re coming up with a plan of action there. AND! G: A couple weeks ago you teased us by naming a new planet that will come with the March update: Denova. I did some research, and I couldn’t find anything about it anywhere. Is BioWare creating Denova from the ground up? If yes, what kind of involvement does LucasArts have in the process? C: We are creating that planet ourselves. There have been a couple of instances where there are planets that haven’t shown up in previous lore: Kaon for example. LucasArts is very involved in the process and we go through them to make sure everything is in canon and following the overall lore and they have been in from the conceptual stage all the way through implementation. Hope this helps! Edited to add date of interview.

My main is a Consular, Seer. I absolutely loved the story and the way they wrapped my character into the final act. (I do wish I could have assigned positions to all the people on my ship.) It was very cool. I loved the story.

There is a lot of good information on Wookieepedia. Go way back and you will find the Infinite Empire pretty much had conquered the known universe and taken many, many civilizations as slave states. Eventually a plague wiped out most of the Infinite Empire and many of the slave states rebeled and freed themselves. After several hundred years the Republic began to form from the free planets, somewhere around the year 25,000 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). The SWTOR game takes place during the two year period 3643-3641 BBY, so 21,500 years passed between the formation of the first republic and now. (You will also note several different calendars and timelines from different origins.) Lots of history out there, and you are correct that many things have not changed of the many millennia. Sometimes I too think it is strange...but for extremely advance civilizations the incremental changes in technology might be far smaller leaps than we now see in our current world. (Hard to know what exactly happened and why, but I think it is odd too.)

Cooler stuff? In my day the cooler stuff was a big patch of woods across the street with a creek running through it. We would be in the woods all day catching crfawdads and having dirt clod battles, playing fox and hounds, building forts....all the stuff kids used to do. We did eventually get an Atari (there was no 2600, 3200, 6400, just an Atari). We played it a lot, but still rode our bikes, ran home from school, camped out in the backyard... I do miss that stuff (at almost 50 years old now it seems like yesterday still...) I think today's kids miss a lot with all the technology that makes them too "plugged in" to stuff. Sure, my view is slanted to my own past, but at least I acknowledge that. All that stuff you say is cool, I can't stand it. Old fart here, I admit. Stood in line for the movie Staw Wars (it wasn't labeled "A New Hope" yet, as there was no "Empire Strikes Back" yet, that didn't come out until 1980). Ah, well. Time gone by. The new cool stuff ain't all that cool. I like the old stuff; bikes, dirt clods, crawdads, pup tents...now THAT stuff was cool.

It is not failing. There are issues to be fixzed. Some of them are serious (end game PvP is horrendous) but they are doing a great job with getting patches in. Every game has issues......it is part of the industry. They are well aware of how many cry babies are here on the forums. They see the same names boo-hoo-hooing every day.

I could care less about sam gender romance options, and if you never implement it, it will be too soon. I WOULD like the option in the romance category to put the kabosh on the whole romance thing for some of my characters though. I play a family of five characters, the mom, dad, and three kids. Neither parent has any interest or intention of having any sort of relationship other than a professional one (the children are a different story). It would be nice to remove that option, as the limited options are, well, very limiting...so, Will there be an option to shut off any romantic interest from total horn dogs like Theran Cedrax? (He is relentless...)

My main is a 50 Seer...and is certainly not OP. Healers are targeted almost every cast, so it is very helpful to have a reliable rear guard. And since there are usually just 1 or 2 per WZ, once one of us is defeated, all enemies target the other healer. OP? Hardly. We certainly don't need a nerf.

They might be bots, but are not BW bots. Maybe goldselling bots run by the prison population.

I know on the Republic side, there is a vendor on Coruscant that sells an orange "Parts". There are also a few that sell orange "Sensor" and "Motor". ALso check the commendation vendors.....some might also be on the planets, but my ship droid, C2-N2 is almost all orange gear (for the actual droid parts at least. Keep looking around. There are several out there. Torhead doesn't yet show the level of detail needed to fill out your toons...

Well, with the current mechanics, no one else sees you in your ship anyway. But I agree, I would like to name my own ship in case that ever changes.

Belsavis is a prison planet. What is there about a prison, with walls, that is confusing? Prisons should have walls. There is a point in the quest line(S) where the "Go kill this boss and come back.." at least gets stacked so you can get more than one completion at a time. Hoth was very open. I was able to explore most of Hoth at about level 25......I did get slapped silly right off my speeder several times, but once I recovered I could run away and live through the attack. It isw one of the only planetys with a truly open feel without being channeled into bottlenecks.

Yes. I'm unsubbing from that other game. I love the lore and canon and will keep working on my characters while they add more content , patch and bug fix.

Awesome! We hope to see you there! Let one of know when you are online!

I'm on "The Ebon Hawk" server, which is an RP-PvE server. We have a pretty good crowd there, and there is some RP there, often in Fleet cantina, in a few other places, sometimes even including in Warzones. I have been pleasantly suprised when most of the group RPs wherever they are, as it does turn out to be contagious.....and when every around catches the bug, it is great fun. It IS however, VERY annoying when plugheads like the Padawans you described start characters on an RP server with zero intention of RPing....or worse, if they were RPing, to roleplay in the manner they chose, since there is no possible RP enforcement except for the limited options available in the game world. Still, interceding in obnoxious RP is appropriate, and I think the OP handled it really well. Cheers to you! Keep up the good work! More RP everyone!

Ortolan. These guys are awesome! They are really fearsome warriors on Hoth, of all places. Not sure how much trouble it would be to get an armor set on them, but they would be a blast to play!!

Hey everyone! If you like the Republic and RP, or have been curious if you would like to RP, or want to give RP a shot, please feel free to start up a new character and join us in Ronin, a Roleplaying Guild. Most of our guild is older, although there are a few younger players. We currently have 60 members, with a third to a half at or approaching level 50. We are just starting to raid if you are interested, we do some PvP, some RP in various places in the game world(s), and are currently organizing galaxy wide events. Come join us! If you grew up with Star Wars (I was a teen when Episode IV, A New Hope, came out, so I'm pushing 50) start up a character on the Republic side, submit an application at the link below: http://roninswtor.guildlaunch.com/recruiting/app_account.php?type=&gid=242783 Once on The Ebon Hawk, look for one of the Ronin officers Seiko Stormrider, Rian Cen, Hadrin_Maas, or Kairii. (Just do a "/Who" and enter Ronin instead of the planet name.) Hope to see you soon!

Hey all! I'm 49, grew up with the Star Wars lore, stood in line over the summer of '77 many times with my then best friend, Scott. As such I am Republic all the way. Empire was not the sexy alternative it is now. Empire was evil incarnate (and still is as far as I am concerned). Collected Star Wars and Star Trek toys and memorabelia for years, and even have some "Revenge of the Jedi" items before they renamed III (revenge not being a very Jedi like trait, so they killed it). Retire in March from 20+ years in the military. Currently on "The Ebon Hawk" server, RP-PvE), and already in Ronin guild. If anyone wants to join in check for any Ronin members online. Glad to see more in the over 40 crowd! Makes me feel less wierd and more "common". Cheers to the mature crowd! What we lack in twitch reflexes we make up for in planning, teamwork, and execution!

I tried to do everything there was to do on Quesh while there and the population never went above 3. The other two players appear to have popped in, done the class quest as fast as possible, and popped right back out. I was hoping when I went there to farm some cool Biotech mats (since the lore has lots of interesting things to say about that), but there weren't any unusualy or unique mats. I did all the quests that appeared, took about two hours and have not bene back. Quesh is a lonely little planet.

Oddly, some cantinas are considered "in private" for companions, and some are not. The cantina at Republic Fleet (I seem to remember) did trigger a companion quest once, but usually you go there and they do not trigger the quest. You have to go to a tiny out of the way cantina, or back to your ship to complete. My 50 Consular picked up Nadia Grell in low 40s I think. She did have one or two pop up, but once I hit 50 and returned to the ship she had like 6-7 in a row. I would have much preferred these spiulling out over the course of time. It would have made the interactions seem much more realistic, learning of her development and increasing maturity and responsibility. Still, try the little planetary cantinas and see if the quest icon pops.. Some will, some won't.

C'mon! She's a hottie! You neven know when you'll get your chance with her! And she didn't want you to get hurt anyway. She thinks you're cute! Maybe later on.

Nar Shadaa is a tough nut. The Heroics there are level 30-32 (you can get starting quest at 28 I think, but it is extremely tough), but Nar Shadaa's normal quest levels are 20-24. So you have a 6 level gap between normal and Heroic. Most players have left Nar Shadaa and don't come back. They don't even come back for the neutral GTN, as most of the gear there is below level 30 items, with the bulk between the normal questing range of 20-24.

OP, Please learn to spell before you call out the developers and shout the game is dying. Thank you.

Anyone who is saying all the people leaving WZs because of DCs are making excuses. We all know most of the deserters are leaving because their team is losing or they are fishing for an easy WZ win by popping in and out. A penalty is good for deserters, and good for the non-deserters too.

Leveling is waayyy too fast. I'm for a much slower leveling process, and level limits...after say, level 20 you should only be able to gain one level per day. Then the content locusts would level at the same rate as the more casual player. Crafting gains are waayyy too fast. Since when is it an automatic gain for each gather, craft or mission? Most all of them are "Do it and get a gain." Even casual crafting gets you close to 400 by level 50. The Heroics are tough, and good on 'em for making the Heroics tough. A few of the Bonus Missions are tough and require a group (or if not able to find a group, level more and come back, but not as rewarding). Apparently everyone feels entitled to insta-gains in level, crafting, elite gear, awesome mounts, higher reputation, higher ranks....everything. It would be nice for gains to be rare, levels hard earned, gear really tough to come by (and even nicer if everyone at end game didn't all have the same gear....a horrible problem in WoW and several other gear based games). Make some gear ultra rare so there are only a few items of that type per server with wearout rates so they are eventually destroyed and a different player can get that item. Clones at level 50 will be a problem as long as levels and gear are easy to come by, and the game is based largely on gear.

You had nothing else to do. Stop complaining. I completed my Consular storyline and made it to level 50....only cried once when I saw what the Empire did to my home planet of Corellia.