Then you're imagining an incorrect scenario. This is not how games are developed and maintained. People get this idea that there's a manual to operating a game's engine and once you've taken a 6 hour course on the game's engine (after your degree in software engineering of course) that you can work on any aspect of a game, and that's simply not true. The game devs specialize in certain subsystems of the game (ie. email or combat) and are generally ignorant of how the other systems work ( well, let's say lacking the knowledge necessary to be able to work on them); and it generally takes months for a dev to get fully up to speed just on their aspect of a game's software in order to reach full productivity. As a general rule in game studios, new content development is mostly handled by senior staffers in order to create as few bugs as possible, while bug fixes are delegated to junior staff so they can become familiar with the software's idiosyncrasies. Johnny SeniorDev might be working on building a PvP arena, but it's Jimmy JuniorDev who gets the job of fixing the bugs that creep through, thus insuring that both bugs and new content are being worked on simultaneously. Moving Johnny to fix bugs means you're likely to slow down progress on the bug fixing because Johnny then has to be brought up to speed on what bugs they're looking for and they also have to make sure that he's not interfering with the work already done by other bug fixers. Bug fixes are generally handled by a team that is both dedicated to bugs and familiar with the game sub-systems to which a particular bug is affecting. For example the guys fixing bugs affecting the game's email system probably know very little about the combat systems and can't just be repurposed by managerial whim to fix bugs in a system that they are unfamiliar with: it would take weeks, possibly even months, to get them up to speed on the other system. You also can't just grab a new graduate from a software engineering program and toss him into bug fixes for the same reason you can't just repurpose the email guys to fix combat bugs: they need to be trained and that is not something that can be knocked out in 5 or 6 hours. So to say that taking away Project A from Johhny to go work on bugs doesn't work because Johnny doesn't work on bugs so you have to teach him how to do that. And saying that you'd leave Jane Dev on project A so Johnny can work on bugs only doubles the problem: Jane and Johnny may have both been working on project A, but Jane was building the doors while Johnny was building the walls, so now Johnny has to learn how fix bugs while teaching Jane how to build walls. tl;dr? In software development everyone only works on their own little piece of the puzzle because that's all they know how to do; trying to put them to work on another piece of the puzzle will only slow things down. And that's not a school of thought, that's how it is.

Wow... it feels like almost 15 minutes have passed since someone suggested this idea. While it sounds great in theory, in practice bug-squashing patches never work. I'm not going to get into the whys and wherefores of it, I'm just going to put in a link where this phenomenon is explained briefly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month If you don't want to read the article (which is just a short summation of an actual book), basically the idea is that working with computer code isn't like building a house: you can't just throw a whole ton of manpower at fixing bugs in order to squash them all by some arbitrary date; and in all likelihood the more manpower you throw at these problems, the longer it will take to fix them.

The event doesn't start until August 14. I see a lot of confusion coming on this one. Would have been best if they left it out of the patch notes.

You can't get it for free on your other characters, but depending on the armor set it can be unlocked at a discounted price via the collection system once you've "collected" the entire set (aka equipped all of the pieces once so they are bound to you). After you've collected the entire set on one character, you can log into one of your alts, find the set in the collections menu and purchase an account wide unlock (usually about 60CC to 400CC depending on the set). This does not work on armor that came with the slots filled already: you can only purchase those from the market.

I run with both Kira and Jaesa using single bladed sabers. There is a very, very slight loss in their damage output, but the plus side is that single bladed saber animations are much more appealing than dual bladed.

As this game is my primary entertainment outlet, I honestly do love throwing money at this game for useless stuff and legacy unlocks that I just can't afford (making credits isn't a problem for me, it's just that I just end up spending them buying CM gear from the GTN instead of saving them for the big legacy unlocks). That having been said, 2100 CC for a companion to a single character? No thank you. Plus, if the pricing stays consistent with HK-51, you'll also get charged an additional 350 CC for each extra character that you want this companion for (or else the million credit unlock fee). I was cool with the companion costing between 400 to 700 CC per character as I'd really only want one or two of my characters to have that companion, but 2100 CC is too rich for my blood.

As many others have stated, SWTOR should most likely run fine on Windows 8. However, there are A LOT of games that have issues on Windows 8 (yes, they are slightly older ones, but we're talking about a large number of games from 2012 & 2011, not just stuff from 2007) and most pure gaming machines are still built with Windows 7 because of it. It's best to check out if all the games that you presently play, or are hoping to play in the near future, will work with Windows 8. If this is a custom built machine that you're getting, many of custom manufacturers will give you the option for a Windows 7 "downgrade" or a dual boot system that will do Windows 7 & 8.

I wasn't debating whether or not the MMORPG genre is niche or not. The poster I was responding to claimed that every MMORPG other EQ and WoW was a failure: the measurement they were using was clearly whether or not the games achieved WoW-like subscription figures, as opposed to whether or not they maintained profitability for several years (which is the measurement that gaming companies and their investors use use). As for "niche": MMORPGs are subsection of video games that generates over a billion dollars in combined annual revenue for the various companies that develop, distribute and run MMORPGs. By any market analyst's standards, it's tough to consider the market "just a niche". Besides, "niche" itself is subjective. In the 1980s, comic book sales and readership were ten times what they are today, and yet they were considered a niche form of entertainment; today they are considered mainstream, but the best selling ongoing series from DC or Marvel Comics in 2013 would be on the chopping block for cancellation in 1983 for the same sales numbers.

If "success" in creating an MMORPG must be defined as having millions of subscribers, then only World of Warcraft has ever succeeded: even Everquest at its peak never broke past 500k subscribers. I see companies continue to spend tens of millions of dollars developing and distributing MMORPGs... and then they turn around and run them profitably for years. So, please define "failed" because you and I clearly do not share the same definition.

All of the cartel market armors are wearable by humanoid companions (but not droids). I have purchased dozens of different sets either directly from the cartel market or as loot from packs on the GTN and I have most of my characters and their companions running around in cartel armor. A player could buy a set of the Stalwart armor for their Trooper and then have all the rest of Havoc Squad wearing the exact same gear via the collections duplication function.

I could not agree more. If everyone who does not like the current set up simply refused to participate, then the number of people doing the event would drop dramatically. Don't like the possibility of being dragged into PvP then get organized with like minded people and boycott: EA can see the number of people who are participating, and if they see that the numbers are lower than expected, they'll ask why; and when they get the answer that the people avoiding the event don't want to possibly get dragged into PvP, they will change something. Coming on the forums, whining about the event's set up and then running it anyway isn't doing anything: that's whining for the sake of whining.

I'd rather see permanent boosts that can be bought via the market or legacy.

testify!!!

I would like to see a couple options added for the hyper-crates of cartel packs. Presently the only hyper-crates are packs of 24, which works out to a little over $50 for a hyper-crate and that's a bit too much for me to do in one shot: I usually buy about 5-10 packs over the course of a month when they're on sale. However, if there were a couple options for smaller crates, say a 5 pack and a 10 pack in addition to the current 24 pack, I'd be inclined to purchase more via smaller hyper-crates due to the overall lower price tag compared to buying them individually. So in a given month I might normally buy 5 crates for a total of 1600CC (320CC per pack), but if I could buy a 10 pack for around 2560CC (a 20% discount for the bundle) then I'd probably grab the 10 pack. It's not a huge thing, but I'm there's a lot of people who would buy a crate of 5 packs when they otherwise might not necessarily buy the packs at all because of the price tag.

The simplest answer to the question posed by this thread is this: Electronic Arts defines the core experience of the game as being the game as it existed the day before the free to play plan went live; everything within that portion of the game can be had with no real money charges to subscribers if they so choose, and without the limitations placed on the free players; anything that has been added to any aspect of the game since the launch of free to play is not part of the core experience unless EA has decided to integrate it into the core game experience package as they define it. Electronic Arts has to be the one who decides what the core experience of the game is because the hundreds of thousands of people who play this game have far too many diverse opinions to be able to come up with a unifying answer. If you're uncomfortable with the way that EA has chosen to make money with this game, then it would probably be best for you to find a game where you're more comfortable with the monetization scheme because, whether you like it or not, what EA is doing is working here and thus they have no reason to change. I'm not saying "love it or leave it", but this thread is yet another generic complaint about selling cosmetic/vanity items that you want, when the vast majority of all micro-transactions in all video games are exactly that (selling cosmetic/vanity items): that's not helpful and it's definitely not going to change EA's main strategy for making money on this game. If you narrow your problem down to one particular issue, say post-creation appearance modifications costing CC or no method of directly purchasing a large number of the desirable styles, then you've got something that might make some sense to pressure EA to change on; but yet another "why are you nickle and dime-ing us" whine about the most profitable aspect of this game's micro-transactions isn't going to result in any sort of change. Pick a battle and fight it, but don't think for a single second that a subscription will ever mean that you're going to be able to get every cosmetic/vanity item you want, whenever you want it.

Unfortunately you're most likely dealing with integrated Intel graphics, so even if you do update drivers (which I'm hoping you've already done before coming to the forums) there's really not much that you can do. The only real options that you can try are to set your graphics settings to bare minimum and drop your resolution down to the lowest point that maintains the same aspect ratio of your monitor. I'm no fan of Apple, but switching to a gaming laptop looks to me like it's going to be a huge hassle for you. Even at a bare minimal spec an Alienware 14 is going to weigh over six pounds, which is probably about 5 times more than your Macbook; and Alienware is one of the very few companies that even makes a 14 inch gaming laptop (the majority of them are 17 inch and usually weight in over 10 pounds). Any gaming capable Windows based laptop is going to be very heavy compared to what you're using right now, and if you move to a gaming rig you'll probably be cursing it by the time you get back from your first trip. Unfortunately, light weight and gaming capable just don't mix in the world of laptops. In the end, all I can say is try try lowering your resolution. If that works, you're golden. If it doesn't, I'd honestly suggest finding a browser based F2P game that you can play while on the road over trading in the Macbook.

While double xp weekends are pretty cool, we've already had an entire month worth of double xp weekends so far this year. I wouldn't mind seeing them do it one more time before the end of the year, but honestly I'd like to see it much closer to the holiday season as a year end celebration type thing.

Not so much any sort of summation of the state of the game as it is a request for more playable species. Hopefully more are on the way. Just don't expect anything that isn't mostly humanoid and doesn't speak basic as the devs have stated that they have no intention of making less human-ish species playable in the near future: they it's about how players will likely relate to the story if their character is a type of species that is difficult to relate to. I'm not sure if I agree with the argument, but they do have a valid point.

This idea appears to be about one thing, but at its core it's really about something else. On the surface, it's about creating low level mods for adaptive gear so players can appear how they choose pretty much right out of character creation. I approve. But at it's core, this thread is pointing out the fact that player crafting is in drastic need of an overhaul. Pretty all of the crafting professions, arguably save biochem, desperately need reworking for a smoother and more balanced progression. And given how the game's cash store is in many ways linked to the player economy, introducing new players to those concepts as early as possible is a smart business move, and reworking the crafting aspect of the game to better support that is also a smart move. I wholeheartedly approve. As for developers not liking to go back and rework low level content, this is true: they don't, but that's actually a remarkably shortsighted design decision and using that as a reason not to do it is equally shortsighted. At some point a MMO developer has to go back and smooth out lower level content to account for mudflation otherwise they get an unbearable grind to max level that repels new players. They can do it in little bits along the way and most players hardly notice, except for the inevitable "I had to do that back when it was hard" grumble from the occasional long time player. Or... they can wait seven years and then try a desperate "let's wave a magic wand" solution and produce Cataclysm: one million lost subs in six months, largely due to launching an expansion that over focused on low level content; but one that they needed to do because they had neglected those low levels for seven years. In today's F2P driven MMO marketplace, the low level starter content is actually the most crucial content because that's what brings in new players, which will lead to paying customers if it's been done right. Given that the draw of this game is built around an epic, character driven story that begins right at level 1, all introductory aspects of the game that supports that story should be constantly monitored and continuously adjusted for the best new player experience possible. Saying that the return on investment for adjusting early level content is too low to consider is just plain bad game design, and it's poor business planning.

I know, right? I've been playing MMORPGs for a little over a decade now and I can't count the number of times I've read about the looming threat from the upcoming MMO that shall crush all others because it is absolutely perfect and has no flaws whatsoever. Sometimes it's a blatant rant, sometimes it's dressed up like concern. "This game is gonna shut down within six months after Vanguard comes out." "when Champions comes me and sventy pursent of teh pop are going there have fun on your empty servers" "It's just that I'm afraid of what's going to happen to this game's population when Warhammer Online comes out." To give you an idea of how far back I've been reading this, I remember posts telling me about how WoW was going to cause Everquest to shut down within six months. Sure, WoW was/is huge, but it's ten years later and Everquest is still here.

This topic needed another thread.

If you're interested in the continuing adventures of Luke Skywalker, the comics are also a pretty good place to go. Much like the Thrawn Trilogy is the recommended place to start for post Episode 6 novels, Dark Empire from Dark Horse Comics is where the comics started off and it's a pretty good read as well (Dark Empire II... not so much). The early novels and comics date back twenty years now and in that early part of creating the Expanded Universe no one realized that they were created the Expanded Universe lol. Strange as it seems now, back in the early 1990s Star Wars was no longer considered to be a property with real money making capabilities, and as such Tim Zahn's novels and the Dark Horse comics series were considered niche fan-service products. So you can expect that you'll find a few things here and there that don't necessarily mix with one another because at first the authors just thought they were essentially doing some one-shot work as opposed to creating a cohesive post-Jedi continuity. But do yourself a favor when you get into exploring the Expanded Universe: don't get overly attached to any of the "lore" or "history" contained within. First, it makes you into one of that guy who whines about the tiniest little things in this game that don't jibe with something established "book X" of the EU, and nobody likes that guy. Second, anyone with half a brain in their head knows that Episode 7 is going to pretty much invalidate the entire EU as being canon within the first five minutes. Enjoy the novels and comics for what they are: damn fine stories set in a Star Wars Universe.

I'd love to see guild capital ships. About a billion years ago SOE teased that for SWG, but nothing ever came of it.

Oh noes... something went wrong the system. I'm sure that no one is attempting to fix it. We need to start a sarcastic thread "thanking" the developers for this minor inconvenience because they couldn't possibly have other things on their plate right now... like fixing a broken subscription service... after midnight at their local time... You are exactly the right amount of upset about this.

Here's one at Newegg.com: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152393 I suggest shopping around Newegg.com a bit as you'll probably be able to find something much better there than you will in a big box store, where they'll most likely point you towards something from HP or Acer. In your price range, you probably won't be able to find something that can max out SWTOR, but you can definitely find something that can play it very well. Some simple hardware stats to look for: CPU: Core i5 or i7 (if you get an i5 CPU, you'll probably be able to get some beefier extras elsewhere in the rig like blu-ray and such) RAM: 8Gb or higher Graphics: Nvidia GTX 660M or higher