Honestly, I didn't think this many people would have trouble understanding the intent of my post. A) I think SWToR actually did a pretty incredible job in terms of the amount of content available at launch. B) I think the UI team is by far the weakest link of the whole place; I've written user interfaces for just about every type of game across just about every type of implementation - either the UI team started over from scratch fairly recent to launch, or the team is simply not nearly large enough/experienced enough for this sized product. I'm assuming it's mostly budget constraints causing the UI to fail, I just don't understand how Bioware/EA didn't think it was worth increasing the size of the UI team early on - knowing full well how important a quality UI is to the player experience. C) I honestly didn't expect dual-spec at launch, but I expect it soon after - you know, mostly based on the fact that the developers said "We hope to have dual-spec in if not for launch, then shortly after..." THAT SAID, my complaint is not what's missing. It's the communities inability to actually discuss what they think is missing and what direction they would like to see the game take in the future without instantly being dismissed with "GO BACK TO <GAME>!"

I should clarify... I am a software developer myself, I fully understand the concept of budget constraints and deadlines. Of course I do not expect SWToR, or any launch MMO, to have each and every feature that it's designers want it to have at launch - that would make for some unambitious developers. I also do not expect the design team to actually want each and every feature from all of it's competitors in the game ever - that would make for an insanely bloated game. However, there are basic accessibility features that maybe should have been prioritized a little higher. Or, at the very least, the community should be able to discuss said features like a room full of mostly adults without the constant stream of "GO BACK TO <insert game said feature is most commonly associated with>!" The reality is that most complaints could be sated with more community interaction; love them, hate the, be ambivalent towards them - but one thing Trion has done very well (the last major MMO launch) was community and respond to community concerns. Nobody is suggesting that SWToR should have every feature and as much content as a seven or eight year old game, that would be preposterous. However, it also isn't competing with those games as they existed back then - it can't be as robust, it cannot be as large, but it can at least be in tune with the modern MMORPG. Hellgate: London suffered from similar vision problems. The developers had a great idea, but put entirely too much emphasis on certain aspects and completely failed to evolve or at least match the industry in many areas resulting in an absolute abomination of a game. SWToR isn't anywhere near that bad, but it's the same basic concept - you cannot do everything, but you can be selective about what you do and where you polish.

Fun fact, SWToR is not a time traveling product competing with other games as they existed seven years ago... it is competing with other products as they exist today. I really, really want to see SWToR continue to grow and thrive, but when huge portions of the playerbase have the ridiculous MMO attitude that if there's any criticism at all of a product, you should just "go play WoW..." you're only shooting the game you enjoy in the foot. Not every member of the community will agree 100% on what direction a given product should take over the years. However, just because two people disagree does not mean one of those people would rather be playing World of Warcraft - or any other MMO. When some says "ugh, I can't wait for dual-spec" it doesn't mean they should go back to WoW... the developers have said since before this game was even released that dual-spec is coming if not for launch, then soon after. It's a feature that SWToR is absolutely, 100% going to get sooner rather than later. Being excited for an announced feature of this game has nothing to do with anyone's desire to go play another game. SWToR tried some new things and was largely successful. It also failed to keep apprised of genre-standard accessibility features that help make some of it's competitors so successful. The user interface team in particular really needs to get their act together fast; if they cannot fix the UI's major shortcomings, at least open up the API so that we the coalition-of-developers-who-enjoy-SWToR-when-not-working can fix it for them (I don't mean DPS meters or dungeon finders here... I'm talking about basic UI features such as proper proc and debuff tracking)... The reality is that comparisons to this games number 1 competitor are absolutely valid, especially when such a significant portion of the talents are direct copies mechanically of WoW talents (some even have literally the exact same name and effect...). SWToR clearly, clearly tried to attract the WoW playerbase and make the transition as easy as possible - but equally clearly, they seemed to miss what makes WoW successful in the first place - accessibility. SWToR is an amazing game, and I really hope it continues to improve. Honestly, the #1 complaint I have so far is the unavoidable playerbase issues found in "not-WoW" within the genre. You cannot raise any criticism, no matter how valid, without instantly being dismissed by frothing fanboys who think Bioware can do no wrong... Anyhow, keep up the good work - here's looking forward to what should hopefully be a very exciting March update!

Heck, even at lower levels it can be a pain. I spent an hour spamming general earlier this evening (after work EST) looking to heal a hammer station group with zero bites. Ended up just pvp'ing instead.

Wouldn't they WANT to get the new patch in the hands of early adopters if it was ready?

PvP is getting about ridiculous with half the team bailing as soon as the opponents appear to have some slightly larger chance of winning.

Spoken like someone who has never programmed on a large team before... It gets significantly more difficult, not easier, to maintain a clean and functional codebase as you increase the amount of developers. There's a reason every MMO has forum posts from the developers saying things like "It's not an issue we can just throw more money at..." and it isn't just to blow smoke up the communities collective rear. The general rule is that you can pretty much add as many eyes as you want to something (in situations where tracking down a root cause of an issue is problematic), but adding more hands (to actually go into the code and make changes) should be done only when absolutely necessary. There are obvious exemptions of course, like adding new features where there isn't already a reasonable sized team working on said system, or replacing developers when a certain task becomes understaffed.

Hyperbole much? How is it "evil" or "abuse" to enjoy a crafting profession so much that you use it on several characters? If it involved some sort of actual abuse of game mechanics, or clearly unintended use of game mechanics I'd buy it. But what you are saying is "abuse" is literally just "Use a crew skill as provided by Bioware on several characters." If ANY crew skill is so beneficial that people feel compelled to take it on several characters and chain missions, then clearly it is unbalanced. Why would the "BAN" people from literally just using a crew skill that they created on one of two legitimate ways (gathering in the world and/or sending on missions)? Slicing missions are still very profitable, and slicing in the world is still incredibly profitable. Sorry you can't lazily reap ridiculously overtuned benefits from hitting one button anymore; pretending that the change was a knee-jerk reaction to "abuse" from "evil" people is ridiculous at best, and more likely just plain trolling.

Except that if you aren't trying to get any blue/purple unlocks - it's comparatively very, very cheap and easy to powerlevel to 400 with a given profession. If they nerf Biochem tomorrow it really just isn't a big deal to switch to something else...

35 Sith Inquisitor (Assassin) 30 Sith Warrior (Juggernaut) I've got to say, having seen my wife's Imp Agent story and the Warrior story, the Inquisitor is by far the least interesting so far.

I'm not sure where that number came from... Snipers and Marauders being upset that they do not have a tanking or healing tree to spec into? tl;dr - it's false, there is no hybrid tax.

Except that doesn't cover 90% of the times when ToT is helpful... People aren't asking for the ability to select your targets target, they are asking for the ToT to appear as a UI element so they can actually monitor who is being targeted.

Huh, I actually liked Alderaan. Tatooine is what put me to sleep.

Works fine with Dark Charge for me. Obviously doesn't AoE with Lightning or Surging though (as it is not supposed to ).

Ahhh, yea - the early 30's Khem starts to become more and more useless for an Assassin (still nice for a Sorc though). Around that time I started to find the whole thing more enjoyable with a dps pet, especially Ashara once you get her. EDIT: One thing I'll add is that around the time I ditched Khem I also started CC'ing mobs and disabling the AoE capabilities of my companions. I found that CC'ing the hardest mob in the group and just quickly burning down the targets one by one left me with a similar total kill time for the group, but less damage taken (having less targets alive for the later parts of the fight).

I assume once there are enough 50's they'll do a "50" bracket and a "10-49" bracket, which would be fine. At the moment there just aren't enough 50's to have reasonable queue's on many servers yet.

Honestly, until the mid 20's the other two specs are pretty much garbage. What is your current spec/how are you playing though? As you really shouldn't die too much with Khem Val out. Is he in his tanking stance?

I didn't mean it in an negative context. I played WoW on and off from vanilla until now; it's a great game. I've also played CoH on and off since it was released, it's another great game. I played AO for years - great game. I've played tons of DAoC - awesome game for a PvP'er in it's prime. I've played EQ/EQII/WAR/Rift and countless other MMO's that I felt were not great games, but were worth checking out. I'll never understand the MMO "The game I am currently playing is the absolute best thing since sliced grapes, and everything else is an abomination to the gaming industry/only for children/nerds/noobs/<insert random, but not accurate demographic here>." Different MMO's have different strengths and weaknesses. My comment in a more verbose form could have read something like: "Hehe, I call her Azshara sometimes too - on account of the fact that I also played World of Warcraft. I enjoy seeing other people make the same slip, as it creates a shared sense of nostalgia amongst a diverse community of game-hopping MMO'ers."

http://www.hotrodacc.com/swtor/comp.html That's a pretty good rundown.

You can tell who played WoW, because they call her "Azshara" instead of "Ashara."

This is pretty much the truth. Khem Val until the mid 30's when he starts to suck really bad and can't really hold aggro off of you anyway, then transition to Ashara when you get her and run as double DPS. Pull Khem back out for any elites/class quest bosses. (my reasoning here, and why I switched, is that Khem takes more damage even equally geared in the 30's than I did with full dps spec and gearing - so I had to seethe him back up constantly anyway... ending the fight faster with a dps pet led to significantly faster overall questing).

I would say that, if you want to play selfishly the Operative is probably the best melee at the moment - but if you want to play to win, the Assassin takes the cake imho. Jugg ain't bad for the latter either, but a deception-spec Assassin with Dark Charge and Guard can be an absolute beast. At 50 you have the option of being really invested in Darkness but having Raze, which is an awesome-sauce build - but it really doesn't work until 48ish (when you can have Raze + the core Darkness talents). If you have a real solid pre-made unit, a Marauder is indispensable. The problem is that for a Mara to be good, they really need to be working with a tank and a healer.

The Obfuscation increase is only while stealthed. Let's say normal movement rate is 100 units per measure of time: NORMAL: 100 Stealth: 85 Stealth (with Obsfucation): 85 * 1.15 = 97.75 You can reproduce this easily enough, run in stealth with Obfuscation along side someone running out of stealth - even though you are inclined to believe 85 + 15 = 100, you'll be slightly slower than them (2.25 units per time slower). I have not tested it, but Sprint most likely worse multiplicative as well, so Normal: 100 * 1.35 = 135 units per time Stealth: 85 * 1.35 = 114.75 units per time Stealth (with Obfuscation): 85 * 1.15 * 1.35 = 131.9625 tl;dr - Stealth adjusts your base movement speed, Obfuscation and Sprint are stacking, multiplicative increases in that speed. Obfuscation is only active while in Stealth.

Except they didn't... that attitude has just permeated pop culture for the past 60 years >.> "Some people have 'x' belief." "Some people came from World of Warcraft." "Ergo, people from World of Warcraft brought that belief here." That's about the worst sweeping generalization I've seen on an MMO forum about any game thus far. The desire to play the 'bad boy' would have been prevalent no matter what. Especially considering how, in this particular universe, the 'dark' side is - by lore - more powerful. The dialogue only makes it worse. My wife is about as 'good-guy-greg' as they come, but she absolutely loves playing her dark-side Sith Inquisitor because she enjoys all the witty, sarcastic things her character says. It's easier to write humorous dialogue when someone is being a dick, so dark side characters ended up with more fun dialogue.

I just about died laughing... I know people from MMORPG.com and the larger MMO community loves to blame WoW for everything, but sweet mother of Jesus >.> Really... the 'bad boy image = cool' concept came from World of Warcraft? James Dean is rolling in his grave... (note: I'm also not saying the concept began with James Dean, it clearly did not - only pointing out a commonly referenced 'bad is cool' actor who lived and died well before World of Warcraft >.>) ------ P.S., the 'pvp servers horde outnumber' had nothing to do with bad = cool and everything to do with horde having clearly better PvP racial abilities in vanilla.