Not limited to Skadge - I didn't want him on my ship but there he is anyway. The problem is the linear and unchanging nature of the game story. The story needs to let you decide who to invite on to the ship. It would be really cool if you could select your 5 companions from a pool of people that you meet along the way. Would make sense to have a limit on the number but allow you to select who. I see no reason for this other than it would have been extra work to do 6-7 companions worth of voice and missions per class. Of course if they'd given the choice they could have overlapped some companions to multiple classes..

I just saw "The Newcomer Bundle" in the notes, what's included? Anyone purchase it?

sgr is just a few easy convo tweaks. Space needs a complete code rewrite. Sgr took over a year and it's still only promised for next quarter for some of the game. I've given up, sub cancelled.

Two things I found odd, as a casual player. First I have always found that I get and give friendly responses to any questions. At worst I'm ignored but I assume this is because people are playing the game and busy! Recently with the increased populations I have found interaction with other players better than ever and enjoyed quite a few ad hoc groups and FP pugs. The second point was about making cash, I have a level 50 BH and find it easy to make 50k in a few hours play. Just one good FP or a few Black hole missions seems tobe enough. Added selling excess crafting materials and pickups on the GTN and the credits really roll in. The thought of selling companion gifts for a few k a time doesn't seem worth the effort.

I used to do a lot of modding for a persistent world version of Neverwinter Nights (Bioware, google it if you dont remember!) This was a fantastic game and genius in concept while at the same time being as buggy as a termite mound and terribly written. NWN was great not because of coding and official content patching but because the community was able to write their own content and share the experience online with others. With SWTOR they don't have new problems, its the same old rubbish caused by poor management and hiring cheap inexperienced coders. They hired people straight out of uni and claimed it was because they wanted fresh talent. This is great but experience counts for a lot and they didn't get the mix right. This is my opinion as to why we see so many rookie mistakes. The failures in TOR were not caused by EA, but they have been exacerbated by it. I'm not sure what will fix it, but trying to gouge the subscribers for a cash injection is not the right answer.

Thanks, I start using more cc and geared up better with more crit and accuracy and I can take elites 2 levels below or a couple of strongs at a time now and that was even using bowdar with lvl 35 gear. I'll try the adjusted rotation tomorrow and Guss on a Heroic 2+ and see what happens. Feeling much more confident and moving more fluidly through missions so thanks a lot.

Are you using a wireless keyboard?

What's that then? A very good point raised though, this game has really struggled with population and makeb will be horrible without enough players.

that's actually very easy to answer. The full price is £11.99 (GBP) and that is EXACTLY the same price as 2400ccartel Coins... so why not charge 2400 coins?

thanks, my gear is mostly lvl 43 required now - it was 39-41 when I posted. Implants and earpiece are still 35-39. Corso has been getting a lot of blues and all gear is within 5 levels. It sounds like I'm not making proper use of CC. I tend to go in guns blazing with Charged Burst + Trickshot as an opener then Flourish Shot, Vital Shot, Speed Shot and repeat. I sometimes open with flash grenade but that's about the only CC I use. Thanks,

At least if its in the Cartel MarkeT you can use your carte coins earned by having a subscription to purchase them. It's not like it's worth saving the coins to buy story content or expansions is it?

I really liked the quest, I did it with my BH Healer and my son using his Sith Assassin. Took a while getting the jedi temple part with our low level alts as we worked in a spiral from the outside and the part was right bang in the middle. We found the others fairly quickly though. It was good to work as a team and we even got lucky with the PUG for the hard mode FP. We where a little under equiped so it was a real challenge, especially the very last instance, we wiped a couple of times due lack of proper tactics. The reward was great though, getting HK fully geared while I was walking around in greens and blues. Wish they'd do more stories.

ok so this is my current gunslinger. I often reach a plateau against elites and even strongs, unable to reduce their health while taking a pounding or watching corso die. Any help appreciated. I'd like him to be more effective by the time I reach 50. Gunslinger Lvl44, Sharpshooter. str: 52 Pre: 331 aim: 101 Cun: 885 End: 804 wil: 52 exp: 0 Ranged Dmg(pri): 368-481 Dmg(sec): 43-80 Bonus Dm: 235.9 Accuracy: 94.00 Crit Cha: 22.59 Crit Mul: 66.59 Tech Bonus Dmg : 360.8 Bonus Hlg : 259.7 Accuracy : 104.00 Crit chan : 21.67 Crit Mul : 66.59 Energy reg: 5 Activation: 1.03 Defense Health : 10048 Armor r: 2438 Dam red: 20.25 Defense: 5.00 Skill Tree 32/3/0 http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/gunslinger#8i898cce9e-30-0

Your not alone, my gunslinger is now level 43 and just started Belsavis and feels weak compared even to my BH Bodyguard Healer spec! That could be because he's lvl 43 not 50 but I'm guessing its more to do with wrong spec, rotation or tactics. I could only just manage the lone elites(lvl41) guarding the 3 shield controls if I used heroic moment, the first was very close, the second took two attempts. Surely I should be able to take an elite one on one? I tried TORPARSE and did a few of belsavis mobs last night and it indicated around I was doing around 600-800dps... no idea how that compares to other lvl 43 gunslingers.

Useful tool. Thanks for the link.

Yeah, people have been saying that since launch... and then leaving. http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/31/tracking-star-wars-the-old-republics-declining-subscribers/

I'm sure this comment will be lost in the thread rants but dont mmo expansions usually include an expansion on gameplay? I'm no mmo authority but I've been around the block a few times and all the expansion packs I've seen include extra gameplay features rather than just some new terrain and more of the same missions/instances. Flying mounts, minigames, mounted combat, new craft skills or hobbies seem to be the norm for anything classed as an expansion. What's in Makeb that expands the gameplay? I also don't know of f2p games that dont let you pay via your cash-shop currency for content packs.

Those subs have been paying for the ongoing development of the game for a year now have earned a lot of cartel coin. I think most of us would happily exchange this coin for real content given the option and those that wasted it on cosmetics would have nobody to blame but themselves. This would allow EA to syphon back some cartel coins while ensuring only long term subs get free access to new content. The problem is, many of us subs aren't really sure what we've been paying for recently. Almost all the efforts seem to be going into development of the cash shop while they've actually acknowledged that non-game breaker bugs and feature requests are being ignored. It's not that its too much money - its that we've already paid.

wow that's cynical! What surpises me is that Cathar isn't on the list - or am I blind? 1. Devronian 2. Bothan 3. Kel Dor

I would love to be able to control crafting and browse my characters and cargo hold/inventory on an android app. I may even be persuaded to pay for the app.

I have always found it odd that my Bounty Hunter can only use blaster pistols. Why can he never learn the skill of a club, or vibrosword? Why can my Jedi not pick up a blaster or electro staff? Why is there not the option in game to use an alternative weapon - even if its not well suited or the most effective? There is evidence of this both in the films and in this game. Corso, a trooper uses a pistol, Torian, a bounty hunter uses an electrostaff. Ob-wan in episode III used both a blaster and an electrostaff while General Grievous used light sabers. Surely as our characters are supposed to be unlikely skilled heroes they should at least be able to equip a few different types of weapons.

It's really tough to think of just 3 without cheating and lumping stuff together... 1. Immersion - day/night cycles and more of a living world feel. 2. Space - at the very least multiplayer space for PVE and PVP. Including full control flight and exploration would be ideal. 3. Minigames - time wasters to play with other players. Sabaac, pod racing, rancor baiting, whatever. I put this at #3 over new story, planets and alien races because I believe it would be easier to accomplish quickly. No point working on a 2 year project if all your customers up and leave from boredom after 18 months!

I played in the beta up to the Esseles FP and loved it. My wife gave in and got me the game for xmas but I didn't log in properly for the first time until boxing day. Sadly the game has failed to deliver the expected features and content for me, it seemed that after the first FP it all started to go downhill! I took a break mid year despite having over 5 months remaining on the sub and played Lotro for several months. This was as much due to the empty servers as the gameplay issues. Came back with my two kids on F2P. Full servers now mean we can do flashpoints again. All said, I will be surprised to see this game around for xmas 2013 without significant changes.

The i7 is more than enough, you need a decent graphics card and low latency internet connection to back that up to avoid lag and fps issues then if you want to squish loading times an SSD or Hybrid hard disk will help but a nice fast SATA will do ok. You don't list enough of your system specs for anyone to give you some properly targetted advice but this should at least set you looking in the right direction.

My thought exactly. Shoddy.