I'm sorry, but I don't accept that as a valid concern in THIS game with the current server populations. Back before the server consolidation that MIGHT have been valid, but even then, how much more damage could be done. Certainly the situation is completely different now. There are literally 200+ people in Fleet during regular hours, EVERY DAY. I don't believe server populations are remotely THAT fragile. Again, I wholeheartedly disagree. I've played about 10 different MMOs dating back to Eq1 and each and every one has had a server transfer option, while perhaps not at Day #1m but CERTAINLY withing the FIRST YEAR! This IS a basic capability that SHOULD be available to players by THIS point in the development of the game. I DO agree that server health is VERY important and that is tied directly to the server population. But, just how many server transfers do you think will occur?? Over the course of time, server transfers DO tend to even out and the number of transfers OFF a given server balance out with the number of transfers TO that same server. Earlier in SWTOR's life cycle this wasn't true because the server populations went well below a critically small number before action was taken. But those conditions simply don't exist now. The server population and subscription numbers are pretty static at this point. I agree here, this would be ONE good solution. But, again, I don't believe that we would see an exodus from 1 specific server causing the problems you describe. Kak

WHEN are these going to become available?!!?!? At this point I'd HAPPILY pay $50 per character to be able to consolidate all my chars on the same server!!! You've already proved you have the tools to make this happen when we had the server consolidation last year. WHY IS THIS STILL NOT AVAILABLE?!?! This is a very basic option that every modern MMOs has in place from day 1. I have friends that would love to come and play with me except for the fact that they're stuck on a different server and don't know anyone there...so you lose out on BOTH a monthly subscription and the one-time transfer fees!! It's simply good business sense to enable this ASAP. Respectfully, Kak

I'm currently working on fleshing out some of the Arch-Type as well as Advanced Class LPs and will add those one by one for everyone's review/criticism. Kak

I agree that the list here is too large to have every item addressed in a single patch. And, it isn't my expectation that all of these areas would be addressed. But, I can certainly hope! Kak

reserved for MORE future use...

Here's the first pair of Advanced Class Legacy Points: [size="4"][b]Sith Warrior Juggernaut / Jedi Knight Guardian[/b][/size] [size="2"][b]Thick Skin[/b] Juggernaut/Guardian 3 Ranks 3/6/9 Points per Rank[/size] Improved Melee Mitigation (3% / 6% / 9%) [size="2"][b]Rapid Dodge[/b] Juggernaut/Guardian 3 Ranks 3/6/9 Points per Rank[/size] Improved AOE Avoidance (3% / 6% / 9%) [size="2"][b]Enhanced Invincibility[/b] Juggernaut/Guardian 5 Ranks 2 Points per Rank[/size] Adds 1 second to your Invincible Ability per rank. (Immortal) [size="2"][b]Improved Guard Stance[/b] Juggernaut/Guardian 3 Ranks 3/6/9 Points per Rank[/size] Further Increases your melee and ranged defense while in Soresu Form by 2% per rank. (Immortal) [size="2"][b]Improved Single Saber Mastery[/b] Juggernaut/Guardian 3 Ranks 3/6/9 Points per Rank[/size] Further Increases your melee damage while in Shien Form by 2% per rank. (Vengence) [size="2"][b]Advanced Impale[/b] Juggernaut/Guardian 3 Ranks 3/6/9 Points per Rank[/size] Increase the damage of Impale by 5% per rank, increases the duration of Eviscerate to 9 seconds, and the duration of savagery to 12 seconds. (Vengence) [size="2"][b]Improved Endless Rage[/b] Juggernaut/Guardian 3 Ranks 3/6/9 Points per Rank[/size] You now generate 2 rage when attacked in Shii-Cho form and the effect can occur every 4 seconds maximum. (Rage) [size="2"][b]Advanced Dark Resonance[/b] Juggernaut/Guardian 3 Ranks 3/6/9 Points per Rank[/size] Increases the Crit chance of all force abilities an addition 2% per rank. (Rage) [size="2"][b]Enhanced Taunt[/b] Juggernaut/Guardian 5 Ranks 3 Points per Rank[/size] Increases the duration of taunt by 3 seconds per rank AND reduces the cooldown by 1 second per rank. [size="2"][b]AE Taunt[/b] Juggernaut/Guardian 1 Rank 15 Point per Rank[/size] Enables an additional taunt that forces all targets within 15m to attack the player for 10 seconds AND places the player at the top of the aggro list for each mob upon completion.

[size="4"][b]Ship Improvements[/b][/size] [size="2"][b]Strengthened Ship Armor[/b] ALL Classes 4 Ranks 5 Points per Rank[/size] New materials technology in ablative nanites improves the amount of damage your ships's armor can withstand giving +2 Ship Armor. [size="2"][b]Improved Dielectrics[/b] ALL Classes 4 Ranks 5 Point per Rank[/size] Improves the dielectrics of the capacitors in your Beam Charger adding +2 Blaster Damage [size="2"][b]Enhanced Super-Conductive Ceramics[/b] ALL Classes 4 Ranks 5 Point per Rank[/size] Uses bleeding-edge ceramics in the superconductors of your Beam Generator improving Ship Blaster Rate of Fire by +1 and Ship Shield Strength by +1. [size="2"][b]Magneto-Hydrodynamic Breakthru[/b] ALL Classes 4 Ranks 5 Point per Rank[/size] A new tech breakthrough by Imperial/Republic Physicists increases Energy Shield power output resulting in +1 Ship Blaster Damage and +1 Ship Shield Strength. [size="2"][b]Rapid 3-Phase micro-plasma inducers[/b] ALL Classes 4 Ranks 5 Point per Rank[/size] Advances is plasma technology improve the energy recharge rates of your ship's generators, resulting in +1 Ship Shield Regeneration Rate and +1 Ship Blaster rate of fire. [size="2"][b]Optimized Internal Hardpoints[/b] ALL Classes 4 Ranks 5 Point per Rank[/size] Improvements in the design and layout of your Ship's proton Torpedo Tube system gives it the capability to carry 1 more torpedo. [size="2"][b]Black Market Avionics Upgrades[/b] ALL Classes 4 Ranks 5 Point per Rank[/size] Implements custom-crafted upgrades to your avionics systems allowing your missle sub-system to fire, guide, and control 5 missles before requiring reload instead of 4. [size="2"][b]Rakata Inertial Dampners[/b] ALL Classes 4 Ranks 5 Point per Rank[/size] A friend of a friend of a friend knows a guy who has developed something called a "Flux Capacitor" that allows your ship slightly greater manuverability. [size="2"][b]Distinguished Flying Cross[/b] ALL Classes 4 Ranks 25 Points per Rank[/size] Allows you to purchase an additional ship that is customarilly used by another class. [size="2"][b]"Moore's Law never dies!"[/b] ALL Classes 5 Ranks 10 Point per Rank[/size] Increasing miniaturization allows you to add an additional gear slot to your ship.

[size=4][b]General [/b][/size] [size=2][b]Improved Strength[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Strength by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Endurance[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Endurance by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Aim[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Aim by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Cunning[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Cunning by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Willpower[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Willpower by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Presence[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Presence by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Expertise[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Expertise by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Accuracy Rating[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Accuracy Rating by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Critical Rating[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Critical Rating by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Defense Rating[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Defense Rating by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Tech Power[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Tech Power by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Focus Power[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Focus Power by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Alacrity[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Alacrity by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Power[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Power by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Improved Surge[/b] ALL Classes 10 Ranks 1 Point per Rank[/size] Increases your Surge by 1 point for each ability level.[size=2][b]Enhanced Run Speed[/b] ALL 5 Ranks 5 Points per Rank[/size] Increases your base run speed by 2% per level.[size=2][b]Enhanced Speeder[/b] ALL 5 Ranks 5 Points per Rank[/size] Increases your base Speeder speed by 4% per level.[size=2][b]Correlian Artisan Mastery[/b] ALL 1 Rank 25 Points per Rank[/size] Allows you 1 additional Crew Skill Selection.[size=2][b]Improved Teamwork[/b] ALL 5 Rank 3 Points per Rank[/size] Increases the amount of Social Points you receive by 10% / 20% / 30% / 40% / 50%.[size=2][b]Meditation[/b] ALL 5 Rank 3 Points per Rank[/size] Your continued efforts to commune with the Light/Dark Side of the Force have increased the amount of Light/Dark Point you receive by 10% / 20% / 30% / 40% / 50%.[size=2][b]Miser[/b] ALL 5 Rank 3 Points per Rank[/size] Increases the number of Credits you receive from mobs, chest, and quest rewards by 5% per level.[size=2][b]Cross-Training[/b] ALL 1 Rank 25 Points per Rank[/size] Your efforts to learn the intricate nuances of your class have caught the attention of a Master trainer who is willing to teach you a skill/ability from the other Advanced-Class for your Archtype. (i.e. Juggs can learn 1 Marauder skill/talen, Snipers can learn 1 Operative skill, etc.)

An Open Proposal to Bioware : Legacy Points I would like to propose an addition or, perhaps more correctly, an expansion of the Legacy System as it exists now in SWTOR. First, allow me to present a case for WHY a change of this degree is even needed. To the gaming industry and savvy gamers, SWTOR is seen as a WoW-clone. This isn’t derogatory or a slight in any way, shape, or form. In some regards it’s a compliment. But, I think to anyone who has spent a little time in the genre, it's pretty obvious that the core game is in fact very WoW-like...and that's OK. I'm not here to debate where WoW-clones are good or bad. This is just a statement of fact. However, this fact also means that you’re going to have a much lower population cap that you likely anticipated. Allow me to elaborate. I suspect that at some upper level in Bioware and EA the original selling point for the game to get its funding went along the lines of, “we take an existing model that is popular and easy to digest (WoW) and wrap that in another universe (IP) that is also warmly-regarded and familiar (Star Wars). It’s a can’t miss project!” Of course, I say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but, I would venture a guess that isn't too far off the mark. The reality is that the game didn’t pull nearly as many people away from WoW as the business types planned or wanted. And, it's had some issues retaining people once they hit the level cap. The reason why is fairly obvious to hard-core gamers, like myself. Yet, what we see as obvious is completely mysterious to the game company executives. If the game mechanics and game-play are nearly identical, why on earth would I leave the game I’ve been playing for YEARS, with all the time and effort I’ve devoted to my character(s)?!? As a player, perhaps I'll check out the new game but if it doesn't really hook me with something new to offer, I'll just go back to my security blanket that is WoW. No doubt, you’ve identified this early in your design stages and fed it up the ladder. The real problem is that the mechanisms you chose to try and distinguish yourself from WoW don’t affect the core of the game in any fundamental way. And, that core is GAMEPLAY. Yes, the voice acting is nice, and, we all enjoyed it for the first week or two. Now, to be quite honest, it’s a bit annoying. The players who aren’t just playing this like a single-player RPG and truly view it as an MMO (read: those folks that are still actually playing) are wearing out their spacebars on their keyboards to skip past these time-consuming dialogues. The voice acting is a hook without any real “bait” on the end of it. Frankly, I would have been just as happy with the game if none of that voice acting was in the game at all. I would have MUCH preferred that you take those development dollars and resources and spent them in other areas like features (PVP, LFG tool, etc.) and content (more raids). Take a look at what the Rift team is doing in terms of “content releases” both in terms of the amount of material, quality of the releases, AND the frequency of releases. Those guys and gals over there are doing it EXACTLY RIGHT! You all should be taking notes, as should EVERY other game studio IMHO. BUT…there is one glowing star of brilliance your team has only to leverage properly to turn this game into the WoW-beater that it could be. The Legacy System. This is a brush-stroke of pure genius! This could be a nearly endless well of content, character development, and gameplay enhancement that could pay dividends for the next DECADE. However, you’re not quite utilizing it right. First and foremost, you need to immediately eliminate the “credit purchase” options. You don’t need any more artificial “gold sinks” in the game. There are more than enough of those already. What there aren’t ANY of…EXPERIENCE SINKS! And this is where my proposal begins. All players, but especially the hard-core raiding crowd, need something to keep them busy once they reach the level cap. The first, and most obvious, is Raid Content. This is effectively a “gear hunt”. Bigger and badder mobs drop better and better lewtz so that we can go fight even bigger and “more badder” mobs, so that we can….well, you get the idea. Well, no person can stay sane spending all of their in-game time raiding…well, very few at least. Players at the level cap need ANOTHER outlet to continue developing their character that doesn’t involve getting the next piece of gear, a la WoW. What WoW and the abundance of WoW-clones have continually failed to capitalize on is the other side of that same equation…CHARACTER ENHANCEMENT. Give these players a game mechanic where they can improve the abilities, skill, and capabilities of their characters. Enter LEGACY POINTS. Legacy Points are earned through the normal course of gaining experience. Anywhere and in every way that you earned experience as you level up you can also earn experience for Legacy Points. As you gain Legacy Points, you can them spend them to “purchase” small, minute enhancements that permanently improve your character (specific details and examples to follow below). Bioware could set up this system so that you could only earn Legacy Points once you hit the level cap, OR, they could allow you to earn them starting at say level 40. They could also set the system up so that are you’re leveling up you could control the percentage that went to your regular experience bar and the remainder went toward Legacy Points. Bioware could also adjust the required amount of experience to earn a Legacy Point to balance the effort vs. reward curve wherever they like. For example, the amount of exp required to go from level 49 to level 50 is 454,634. So, maybe you set the exp cost for a Legacy Point at ~175,000? Now, some of you older and more experienced MMO players will immediately recognize the core of this system. Make no mistake, I’m NOT trying to claim this is a new idea OR that it’s an original idea of mine. But, I think it’s a system that could be leveraged and made even better in SWTOR with the groundwork that’s already been laid. If you look at other MMOs that have similar systems, you’ll see that this feature is WILDLY POPULAR and one of the key, distinguishing marks of the game…which, as I previously alluded to, is something that SWTOR desperately needs IMHO. Right now, the Legacy System, while good and very interesting, is largely a money sink. I think most people in the game day-in, day-out would agree that there are more than enough money sinks in the game already without adding the Legacy System on top of it. In fact, it’s literally driven a number of people I know to purchasing credits from 3rd party sources, which I think we all agree is less than ideal. Other friends of mine were completely put off by yet another money-sink and cancelled their subscriptions. So, let’s take a look at an example. Below are some rough details on what I had in mind both in terms of General as well as Class-Specific and Advanced-Class-Specific Legacy Points:

I don't know when exactly the 1.4 patch is going to end up going live. But, I'd like to take the opportunity and make my personal "suggestions" to the fine crew at Bioware about what I'd like to see added/changed in the game I love. Please note, these are my personal choices, I encourage you to add yours and debate the ones I've listed if you like. My hope is that some of this gets to the Senior Management and Creative Directors there at Bioware *cough*JamesOhlen*cough* :-) - Add a plastic surgeon's office to the capital worlds and Fleet depots so we can change our appearance after character creation. This should come with some credit cost of course. - Speed up all vehicles considerably. Seriously, the differences between L1, L2, and L3 are almost not noticable unless running right next to each other. IMHO, these should be L1 = 100%, L2 = 125%, and L3 - 150%. - More tradeskill love. Now that non-socketed items are nearly irrelevant, you need to give Synthweaving, Armormech, and Armstech some love especially at the end-game. These tradeskills are almost entirely worthless at the end-game. Each tradeskill really should have something to contribute at the end-game, and the new Augments are a nice start! More and varied consumables would be great too. And, make more "unlimited use" consumables! These are awesome, you just need to give them to more than just Biochem so that things are more balanced. Remember....reward the players that work the hardest with the best rewards. - Dual Spec. Come on, it's time. There's no legitimate, rational reason to not have this in the game by now. - Continued performance optimizations. I know you're working on this continually, but, keep making this a priority. Load times need to keep coming down and lag in high population zones (Read: The Fleets) needs to keep getting reduced especially now that server populations are back in full. - More Space Combat missions. Make some missions that use group mechanics so 2 or more people can play these together at the same time like a Flashpoint. Add a "Story Mode" and a "Hard Mode" to each of the Space Missions and reward the HMs with additional exp, credits and comms. How about "bosses" within these space missions that are either required for that mission or optional and give additional exp/credits/comms when destroyed? - Guild Capital Ships. - Personally, I'd like to see more differentiation between 8-man and 16-man Ops. 16-man Ops are harder in every way, therefore, I feel they should not only offer MORE loot, they should be the only source for the BEST loot as well. I know this is a pretty controversial topic. But again, I feel strongly that the players that put in the most work and kill the hardest bosses should be rewarded with the best loot. And, there's no doubt whatsoever that the 16-man Ops are significantly harder in every regard, let alone logistics, than the 8-mans. - New, additional, EPIC Class Quests unique to each Advanced Class that reward the player ultimately with a "game changing" item for their Advanced Class. Most quests in game have 1 or perhaps 2 stpes before they're completed. Some of the longer quests might have 3 or 4. I'm talking about a 25 step quest where there's NO hand holding and the individual class communities have to really work to figure out the puzzles. At the end, perhaps the Sith Marauder might get rewarded with a Legendary set of light sabers that of course have a Color Crystal, Hilt, Mod, Enhancement, and Aug slots...but ALSO has an innate "proc" that has a 10% chance to go off and when it does, it hits for say 1000 internal damage and heals you for the same amount. Something like that tuned for each advanced class would create a LOT of excitement to solve the Epic Class Quests to get these items. Later Expansions could add new steps to the quest line which reward the player with even more upgrades to the Weapon/Item. - HUGE expansion of the Legacy System and combine this with a shift to Exp based Legacy Percs rather than buying them with credits. I'll go into details on this topic in a stand-alone post. - Macro System. Why was this not in at launch??? You don't have to open things up so much that everyone is just hitting one key the entire combat sequence like in some MMOs, but, please for the love of all that is good, give us a LITTLE functionality here! As a reference, I always thought EQ1 had a nice balance and WoW's was a bit too much. - Another full Operation that's parallel to EC in terms of difficulty and drops. - More character slots per server. Perhaps even make this a Legacy perk. Perhaps 5 distinct levels and 2 new character slots per level?? - Guild Perks. I know we hate to copy WoW, but they got this one right straight away. Also, it's a very easy way to add additional content and perks to the game for minimal development. - An in-depth dye system for coloring and customizing your armor. - a HUGE expansion to the gear and customization for player's Ships. Right now, there's only 1 single selection for a given slot on your ship at level. Give us some choices and selection. How about "Orange" gear in those ship slots with new types of modifications that can be made by players? See...this could give some of those lacking professions a bit of new life! Also, missles need to ramp up damage in addition to how many we can carry with each "tier" of ship upgrades. Once my ship is max'd out, the blasters/phasers do almost as much damage as a missle...that simply shouldn't ever happen. - More Minigames. Pazaak gambling with NPCs AND fellow PCs would be great. Pod racing with nice credit rewards. - Companion expansion. Let me get ANY of the companions from other classes once I reach a certain level (perhaps 50? maybe 45?). THEN, let me give them the abilities I want from a pool. This way I can craft a melee DPS companion or a ranged tank at my own discretion. Perhaps a small talent tree to go along with this that's set to each class arch-type. - A fully customizable UI. It would be even nicer if this was XML based. Give us the ability to create our own UI elements. Nothing fancy, just a bit of our own style and taste to put into the game. - 5 more levels and a Chapter 4 that's specific to the Advanced Class not just the arch-type. - More emphasis on Achievements. This is not nearly prominent enough in the game right now. And, this needs to have a score to apply to it. Once again, I hate to mention "that other game" again, but, WoW did this nearly perfectly. Just copy that system and we'll be perfectly happy. - This one is a bit more subjective, but, when playing with an EQ1 buddy of mine who was new to the game, he said everything around him felt "dead". You can't interact at all with most of the NPCs or the environment. I know it's a GARGANTUAN amount of work, but, bring some life and personality to these NPCs...no voice acting is necessary. Give the worlds around us some depth and distinction with the NPCs and environments you've already created. - A mentor/side-kick system. Some other MMOs have already done a very good job with this and SWTOR seems like the perfect IP to have this as well. Plus, it'll really help the existing player base bring new players into the game. - More playable races. One of the defining characteristics of the Star Wars universe is the VAST number of different races that interact. ALL of these should be available to players AND have distinct, good, and usable racial bonuses. Perhaps some of these with truly exceptional racial bonuses have to be unlocked. - Have player decisions during quests mean something later in the game and have consequences with teeth! Just as one example, for the players on Droumnd Kaas, their decisions surrounding the Revanites quest line/initiation could tie into possible Legacy options later in the game or at least play into The Foundry FP. Weave this into the fabric of your universe in a dense and meaningful way and I think a LOT of very good things will happen in the player base. Just having light side/dark side and companion reputation adjustments isn't enough. those really don't have teeth to them. Weave these decisions into core story elements for the player that affect options and quests later down the road. - Shared bank tab(s) between all your characters. This could also perhaps be another Legacy perk. - Solo and/or 2-player FPs and Ops with up to 4 players. Reduced quality drops, but running the same exact content, just tuned for the number of players. - Many more World Events/GM Events like the Rakghoul Event. Things like this add flavor and color to the virtual world. Players feel engaged when they get to experience these events. Design and implement more and more of these ASAP! There was tangible excitement in-game during this event. You guys hit a real home-run with it...do it more! - Make the client a true 64-bit, multi-threaded client. I was surprised to be told it wasn't already. - Expansion on Light/Dark ranks beyond 5. Perhaps expand this to 10 and provide some actual perks for achieving ranks, such as damage bonus on force attacks, or increased buff duration, or a passive, innate alacrity increase. Something tangible that helps but isn't game breaking. I think that's a good list for now... Kakgumu

When are paid, open transfers going to be available?? I currently have my toons split across 2 different servers and I'd like to get them all together on the same server now. When can we expect this option to be available to us? thanks, Kakgumu

Here's my personal list. Most of these have been mentioned already, some haven't. I added a little bit of description where I thought it was necessary: - Add a plastic surgeon's office to the capital worlds so we can change our appearance after character creation. - Speed up all vehicles considerably. Seriously, the differences between L1, L2, and L3 are almost not noticable unless running right next to each other. IMHO, these should be L1 = 100%, L2 = 125%, and L3 - 150%. - More tradeskill love. Now that non-socketed items are nearly irrelevant, you need to give Synthweaving, Armormech, and Armstech some love especially at the end-game. These tradeskills are almost entirely worthless at the end-game. Each tradeskill really should have something to contribute at the end-game, and the new Augments are a nice start! More and varied consumables would be great too. And, make more "unlimited use" consumables! These are awesome, you just need to give them to more than just Biochem so that things are more balanced. Remember....reward the players that work the hardest with the best rewards. - Dual Spec. Come on, it's time. There's no legitimate, rational reason to not have this in the game by now. - Continued performance optimizations. I know you're working on this continually, but, keep making this a priority. Load times need to keep coming down and lag in high population zones (Read: The Fleets) needs to keep getting reduced especially now that server populations are back in full. - More Space Combat missions. Make some missions that use group mechanics so 2 or more people can play these together at the same time like a Flashpoint. Add a "Story Mode" and a "Hard Mode" to each of the Space Missions and reward the HMs with additional exp, credits and comms. How about "bosses" within these space missions that are either required for that mission or optional and give additional exp/credits/comms when destroyed? - Guild Capital Ships. - Personally, I'd like to see more differentiation between 8-man and 16-man Ops. 16-man Ops are harder in every way, therefore, I feel they should not only offer MORE loot, they should be the only source for the BEST loot as well. I know this is a pretty controversial topic. But again, I feel strongly that the players that put in the most work and kill the hardest bosses should be rewarded with the best loot. And, there's no doubt whatsoever that the 16-man Ops are significantly harder in every regard, let alone logistics, than the 8-mans. - New, additional, EPIC Class Quests unique to each Advanced Class that reward the player ultimately with a "game changing" item for their Advanced Class. Most quests in game have 1 or perhaps 2 stpes before they're completed. Some of the longer quests might have 3 or 4. I'm talking about a 25 step quest where there's NO hand holding and the individual class communities have to really work to figure out the puzzles. At the end, perhaps the Sith Marauder might get rewarded with a Legendary set of light sabers that of course have a Color Crystal, Hilt, Mod, Enhancement, and Aug slots...but ALSO has an innate "proc" that has a 10% chance to go off and when it does, it hits for say 1000 internal damage and heals you for the same amount. Something like that tuned for each advanced class would create a LOT of excitement to solve the Epic Class Quests to get these items. Later Expansions could add new steps to the quest line which reward the player with even more upgrades to the Weapon/Item. - HUGE expansion of the Legacy System and combine this with a shift to Exp based Legacy Percs rather than buying them with credits. I'll go into details on this topic in a stand-alone post. - Macro System. Why was this not in at launch??? You don't have to open things up so much that everyone is just hitting one key the entire combat sequence like in some MMOs, but, please for the love of all that is good, give us a LITTLE functionality here! As a reference, I always thought EQ1 had a nice balance and WoW's was a bit too much. - Another full Operation that's parallel to EC in terms of difficulty and drops. - More character slots per server. Perhaps even make this a Legacy perk. Perhaps 5 distinct levels and 2 new character slots per level?? - Guild Perks. I know we hate to copy WoW, but they got this one right straight away. Also, it's a very easy way to add additional content and perks to the game for minimal development. - An in-depth dye system for coloring and customizing your armor. - a HUGE expansion to the gear and customization for player's Ships. Right now, there's only 1 single selection for a given slot on your ship at level. Give us some choices and selection. How about "Orange" gear in those ship slots with new types of modifications that can be made by players? See...this could give some of those lacking professions a bit of new life! Also, missles need to ramp up damage in addition to how many we can carry with each "tier" of ship upgrades. Once my ship is max'd out, the blasters/phasers do almost as much damage as a missle...that simply shouldn't ever happen. - More Minigames. Pazaak gambling with NPCs AND fellow PCs would be great. Pod racing with nice credit rewards. - Companion expansion. Let me get ANY of the companions from other classes once I reach a certain level (perhaps 50? maybe 45?). THEN, let me give them the abilities I want from a pool. This way I can craft a melee DPS companion or a ranged tank at my own discretion. Perhaps a small talent tree to go along with this that's set to each class arch-type. - A fully customizable UI. It would be even nicer if this was XML based. Give us the ability to create our own UI elements. Nothing fancy, just a bit of our own style and taste to put into the game. - 5 more levels and a Chapter 4 that's specific to the Advanced Class not just the arch-type. - More emphasis on Achievements. This is not nearly prominent enough in the game right now. And, this needs to have a score to apply to it. Once again, I hate to mention "that other game" again, but, WoW did this nearly perfectly. Just copy that system and we'll be perfectly happy. - This one is a bit more subjective, but, when playing with an EQ1 buddy of mine who was new to the game, he said everything around him felt "dead". You can't interact at all with most of the NPCs or the environment. I know it's a GARGANTUAN amount of work, but, bring some life and personality to these NPCs...no voice acting is necessary. Give the worlds around us some depth and distinction with the NPCs and environments you've already created. - A mentor/side-kick system. Some other MMOs have already done a very good job with this and SWTOR seems like the perfect IP to have this as well. Plus, it'll really help the existing player base bring new players into the game. - More playable races. One of the defining characteristics of the Star Wars universe is the VAST number of different races that interact. ALL of these should be available to players AND have distinct, good, and usable racial bonuses. Perhaps some of these with truly exceptional racial bonuses have to be unlocked. - Have player decisions during quests mean something later in the game and have consequences with teeth! Just as one example, for the players on Droumnd Kaas, their decisions surrounding the Revanites quest line/initiation could tie into possible Legacy options later in the game or at least play into The Foundry FP. Weave this into the fabric of your universe in a dense and meaningful way and I think a LOT of very good things will happen in the player base. Just having light side/dark side and companion reputation adjustments isn't enough. those really don't have teeth to them. Weave these decisions into core story elements for the player that affect options and quests later down the road. - Shared bank tab(s) between all your characters. This could also perhaps be another Legacy perk. - Solo and/or 2-player FPs and Ops with up to 4 players. Reduced quality drops, but running the same exact content, just tuned for the number of players. - Many more World Events/GM Events like the Rakghoul Event. Things like this add flavor and color to the virtual world. Players feel engaged when they get to experience these events. Design and implement more and more of these ASAP! There was tangible excitement in-game during this event. You guys hit a real home-run with it...do it more! - Make the client a true 64-bit, multi-threaded client. I was surprised to be told it wasn't already. - Expansion on Light/Dark ranks beyond 5. Perhaps expand this to 10 and provide some actual perks for achieving ranks, such as damage bonus on force attacks, or increased buff duration, or a passive, innate alacrity increase. Something tangible that helps but isn't game breaking. I think that's a good list for now... Kakgumu

Really?!?! The concept is actually quite straight-forward. If you want to do the larger raids, then you build a larger guild. As the number of raiders on a given server is fairly fixed at the moment (assuming transfers and mergers are still some time away) then this would obviously require guilds to come together and merge...something that is already happening on my particular server. So, I don't think the idea is a stretch in the slightest. Again, the idea with this one point I made is to ADD something additional, not take away the existing 8 and 16-man content. It would just give those people who are so inclined another raiding option. Over my personal history in MMO's I've seen guilds time and time again morph themselves to adjust to variable raid sizes. In EQ1, I started in a 72-man raid environment. THAT was normal...and we enjoyed the hell out of it. Then, with GoD (iirc) came the advent of the 54-man raid. We grumbled for a while, but, that had some advantages to it as well, so we adapted and made the transition to 54-man content. Guilds got a little smaller and more of the sprang up. Then along came WoW with 40-man content...for those of us that wanted to raid that content, we adjusted again and formed guilds that had the right number of active members to support that level of raid activity. Soon, 40-man content was discarded as well...yadda...yadda...yadda. Get the idea? Just because YOU aren't interested in a specific type of content doesn't mean someone else isn't. And then equating YOUR particular interest level to the idea and associating with it being a "bad" or "good" idea is intellectually dishonest at best. Just say that you're not interested in it and leave it at that. What's good for you might not be for someone else...and vice versa. I have voiced MY ideas and feelings on what would make this a better game for ME...and it's my heartfelt belief that these changes would make a better game for the community and Bioware as a whole. But, no issue is going to be seen the same way by 100% of the people. So, where my personal feelings and ideas lie somewhere in the middle of the realm, I've tried to support my case with facts and sound reasoning. I still believe that having a larger raid option available DOES help build a stronger and tighter knit community, and you've provided no counter-argument whatsoever against that other than "me no like". Personally, I like raids. I like small raids for some reasons. I like larger raids for other reasons. I think BOTH have their place in an MMO. The beautiful thing about a well-crafted MMO is that YOU can choose your own level of involvement. If you don't like large raids, that's perfectly fine...don't do them! If you don't like PvP...that is also perfectly fine...don't do PvP. Etc... The bottom line is that if enough people want to do something, large-scale raids or otherwise, the guilds themselves are malleable enough to reconfigure themselves to handle what their members want to do. Kak

Rikhar, If that was your big take-away from the 8+ page word doc of issues AND solutions that I proposed, I'd say you failed to grasp the true meaning and purpose of my post. If, on the other hand, you honestly believe there's nothing to worry about and the game is perfectly healthy, I would say you're an ostrich sticking his/her head in the sand. Time will tell... Kak

I honestly don't read these forums much at all. I am quite sure that many, if not all, of the ideas and/or points I've raised may also have been raised by others. I am equally sure that there are 10x more issues and ideas on these forums that I don't think are pressing, critical issues and are not included in my letter. And, as LordMathys pointed out, I most certainly am NOT speaking for anyone other than myself. I thought that being a forum post by an individual that this fact was self-evident. Trust me, I'm not speaking for you or anyone other than myself. I suspect that most folks will agree with some of my points, and disagree with others. But, my opinions are my own and these posts are a reflection of what I feel are the most critical areas of the game right now. Kak