Lol, very true

Yeah, very likely not. Not at this point. Then again, when more and more additions to the game (those multi-specs for example) are made that let people use more variety of gear, the pressure for them to add alternative becomes bigger after every "ninja post"

It's no different from seeing it drop and losing roll. They could also alter the drop-% in such a way that when "rare" item is rolled by the RNG, everyone in the team gets their own random rare item. Another way to get this going in SWTOR is make the drops (mostly) tokens, and then let everyone trade them in to pick what they want. Everyone would either get the same amount of tokens, or the "general token" from boss etc would be rolled. In either way, noone would be entitled to anything, and there would be no fighting who deserves what.

Well it's not even ninja looting to begin with. Ninjaing something is rather different than breaking artificial "rules" set by some random individuals. Swtor is so full of entitled players claiming their right for certain loot that the best thing BW could do is go with a system currently in Diablo 3: everyone in the team gets their own random drop(s) that others cannot loot. Otherwise it's just endless whining how someone deserves something more than other. The OP already mentioned rolling for "off-spec", which with the introduction of field-respecs and multi-specs will become very common (are you seriously saying the nice chaps respeccing for heals to get teams going shouldnt be allowed to Need dps item for instance?)

Yep, that would work well. Seen another MMO that I play(/ed) do it exactly like this, and it works well. Key thing is that the devs/community reps/whoever posts the link asap when the interview/news is available. So it's not the player's job to find the info

With new things/changes coming as you say, may I suggest making this official website the go-to place for players looking for news about the game, specially on it's coming updates. So far most of the info has been on third party sites first at least, and it feels pretty stupid having to follow them to look for news, instead of the game's own site. By all means keep giving interviews and such, but give the content here as well, or at least a link.

These people indeed do not need the money. The main thing being pointed out by numerous posters is that the money is there, it just takes little bit of effort to get. This for people who claim that "casuals" can't afford few hundred k to replace mods/pay repairs. Being casual is one thing, being lazy is another

Seems that the implementation will be like I feared: Every crafter (that can make the kits) will be crafting the exact same "augment adder", as every item uses the same kit (excluding making lower level kits). So instead of individual crafters having the chance to make, or at least slightly specialize in making certain augmented pieces, we'll all be making the same item now. Can't say I'm too excited about that. Critted oranges will likely become pretty obsolote, as people will want to pick the exact look they want - which itself is a good thing, don't get me wrong. I just wish the implementation for them to do that would have involved crafters in a bit more interesting way, say making specific augmenters for different items, or better, by allowing crafters to learn the recipes and distributing the augmented versions that way. Can only hope BW gives us some new, good looking (=people want to buy it) gear to craft soon to give some variety.

*shrug* Well, to start with, most players aren't casuals (depending on the definition ofc), just look at the official numbers given by BW/EA (playing hours per session etc). Repair costs were already brought down a lot, full repair for Rakata geared 50 is now like 25-30k. Pulling every mod out of endgame gear is around 100k. And you aren't supposed to do that every day There's so much money raining down from the sky from dailies alone that anyone prepared to put in tiny bit of effort can afford those. There's also inflation. I'm not sure whether you don't understand it or just want to ignore it, but with the speed "new money" is brought to the game, there needs to be credit sinks as well. Otherwise we'd soon have forums full of "casuals" whining that they can't afford stuff since the prices have rocketed.

Can't even do that, since, at least based on these forums, people would blow a fuse if you dared to need for that reason. Bringing less geared alt to need for appears to be ok though What would make geared 50s to do these? Something that is of value for them. Currently, main thing would likely be BH coms. But getting them from wipe-the-floor difficulty content would discourage doing Lost Island/Denova. At least the reward amount would have to be very small. Personally, getting some grade 7/8 crafting mats (or rather, columi tokens and able to buy the mats with them) might be reason enough to do old HM every now and then. But again, the speed at which you get those could not be too high.

First of all, thank you David for answering questions here, very much appreciated. These are also the things I'm wondering about the most. I would assume he meant the item level (however it is calculated for oranges - maybe level req without any mods) Also, does certain tier of "augmenter" work on any item, or is there special augmenters for say armor and another for weapons? This I'm little worried about. It sounds like it could collapse the market for crafted augmented oranges, if making the augmenter is too cheap/easy. And in that case selling the augmenter (which,depending how specialized they are, every other crafter is selling as well ) wouldnt make up the loss. The situation I'm worried about is kinda what happened to slicing (only have alts with that, so not too annoyed myself). They used to be able to "make" (ok, gamble ) augments. This was taken away from them, and instead promised they'll be the ones selling raw materials to make the augments. What actually happened is every slicer is now selling the same grade 6 purple material (and getting tons of blue mats noone wants). I wouldn't want that to happen to the other crafting professions now. Would it be possible to "tier" the augmenters based on how high augment can go into them? And make the endgame augmenters require considerable amount of "failed oranges" (more than that 10) and/or some of the grade 7/8 crafting materials (which aren't operation-only, for those worried. You can get them via space battles, I'd also suggest making them buyable with daily/columi commendations). This way there would still be market for crafted augmented oranges (cheap way), and selling the augmenter would actually be profitable enough to make up the loss. And ideally make the augmenters specialized enough so that every crafter isn't selling the same "grade 50" piece.

Exactly same thing here. They are very nice for PvE stuff, but for warzones (specially Novare which requires esc to cancel and still loads the cutscene forever) mainly annoying. Ok for introduction the first couple of times, but after that I'd really like to turn them off.

Anything to give more use for your companions past 10k/level 50 would be welcome indeed. /support

Being able to do flashpoints with multiple companions would be great. It doesn't have to replace group finder though - both would be ideal. Gives the ability to do the content the way each person wants

Will there be different augment kits for different armor/weapon slots/types, or different kits for different level items, etc? Or just one generic "augment kit"? 'Cause if it's the latter, it makes crafting very boring. Just one item that every other crafter is making as well :/

Something like this sounds good. If it's only one item per item type ("synth augmenter", "lightsaber augmenter", etc), the market is just too small (or maybe "concentrated" would be a better word). Similar to what would happen if we only had one type of craftable orange now. Or maybe we could have "light armor chest augmenter" etc. Point being, if crafting various orange outfits becomes (almost) obsolete, crafters should get many different replacement things to craft, instead of one item that everyone is making.

Yes please, this would be really nice. Add in the following 1) Hide schematics you dont (currently) need instead of fully deleting them 2) Create your own "favorites" crafting list, where you could put up the recipes you use most often 3) Force the crafting window to remember settings, for example if you had closed "heavy armor" list it should stay closed the next time you open the window and crafting would become lot more user-friendly.

Well, BW doesn't offer it, but there is a way. Kinda. I can't stand the new design either (colors and the big empty spaces between threads being biggest issues). Seeing how many people seem to like it though, I figured there's not too much hope to even get option for old design, so I googled around a bit. And what do you know, at least for Firefox, there's this style-file called UserContent.css What it does, is it allows you do define your own css-profiles for various sites. http://thebarnharts.com/firefoxcssoverride.asp explains the basics. So far i've managed to restore the old spacing between threads, the black-blue colors for thread-view and various other things. I still need to fix some issues with viewing threads, as the 2nd post seems to lose background now. Also BW seems to use different thread-styles for different threads, making it a bit messy to alter the styles. I haven't done any web "coding" for like 10 years, so it's been trial and error, but at least this allows to fix some of the issues with new site. If anyone has the time/skill to make css rules to get the old design back and almost-perfectly working, feel free to share the code

It was indeed nice event. To answer the question why it was fun: - Surprise event, long enough so one wouldn't miss it during a weekend holiday etc, but short enough to not become another daily. - Soloable content, with some bonuses for teams. - Reason to visit old planet (funny to see 75% of Tatooine population level 50 ) - Nice idea behind the rewards, although infected companion, Ghostbusters suit or slime-colored crystal aren't really for my taste. Maybe for halloween. But the idea was good, special pet and the crystals with good stats especially. For future events, - It would be nice to have at least one really tough boss/encounter for solo play. None of the "bosses" in this event were really any challenge. - The announcemets on fleet were really nice, immersive way to spread the word, but after few days they became bit invasive. Maybe just visual "news" at the screens with an in-game mail from "containment agency" or whatever it was would have been enough. - Personally I found the virus spreading on fleet pretty hilarious and just like real virus spreading, but I can also understand some might consider it disturbing as well. And for really new players (though I dont see them spending too much time on fleet) 2k for vaccine is actually notable money. So a bit better "opt-out" might be good.

100% agree with this. Also, solo doesn't have to equal easy. Something like this *should* have the challenge-level needed to keep people entertained, and not be another daily quest that you do half-asleep This as well. Bolded the most important parts. It shouldn't be a walk-in-a-park easy-way for gear. And it could have lockouts (whether that be daily with less drops or weekly with more drops) similar to Operations to avoid farming the gear too fast.

Hasn't been headaches for me luckily, just tiresome for eyes and harder to read in general. After some google'ing aroud I did find a somewhat working solution. Firefox allows user to define their own CSS styles for the sites of their choosing. I havent done any web "programming" (wouldnt exactly call html/css that, but anyway) for like 10 years, but after some trial and error managed to restore the old spacing between the threads as well as the black-blue colors. Well, mostly. Thread-view works pretty fine, but posts inside thread get a bit bugged (background problems), have to try and fix those hehe. Anyway, for those wanting to fix some of the issues with new site, http://thebarnharts.com/firefoxcssoverride.asp gives some basic info how to play with Firefox's user styles.

Yeah, option for old/classic style would be very welcome. Keep the upper part of the site if you wish, but please give option to have the old appearance for threads. Especially the spacing, I could have 19 threads visible on my screen before, now only 14. And if at all possible the old colors would be so much better as well. Just make it an option, I know plenty of game websites/forums where people can choose from different appearances. Give option to change spacing and colors (and disable that mouse highlighting, thats like '99 ) and usability would go up a lot in my book

Old one was better for sure. I can live with the color theme though, but could they please change the thread titles back how they used to be. Now they take two lines instead of one, and only thing the bottom line is used is thread starter and last poster names. What this means, is there's now only half the amount of threads visible on the screen as before. Makes reading the forums more difficult for no good reason. Edit: Checked old open tab, remembered wrong. Was two lines before as well, they just took less space.

Have to agree. Some of the quest stages are a bit of a clickwar but no biggie, for their first ever event (that obviously hasn't been even PTS tested as it's a surprise) it's a job very well done. As you said, it has story behind it (the announcements in fleet were a really clever way to get people there!), quests can be done solo but theres the boss for people who want to group, and nice vanity stuff as rewards. Nice job indeed Hopefully it lasts a few days at least so you dont have to chain-explode to get enough samples though Edit: If what I read is right though, they really should either make the companion customizations tradeable, or only reward player with one his/her class can use. No point giving Kira customization for trooper etc.

Having issues as well. Music doesn't work anymore: no music in space missions, no music in the new OP, etc. Also companion sounds coming from well. Terrible noise in fleets ("fixed" by turning ambient to almost 0%). The "instructions" not playing in warzones (which is actually good for Hutball lol). Was there a surroud sound option before the patch btw? Only "surround" effect I remember was those fighters coming from behind you in space missions. If I could choose, I'd rather have the normal sounds anyway, sounded better. Also most members in guild having sound issues as well, not just me / posters in this thread