Don't patch until the patch is patched. Otherwise you'll need a patch for your patch after they patch the patched patch.

Actually a "best case scenario" would have been to actually do your testing before this disaster of a maintenance period started. Find the bugs before you take the servers down. Either test yourselves (which you obviously don't seem to do unless you've already taken the servers down), or put the patch up on the PTS and have the users test. Since you're just having the subscribers beta test for your with the complimentary "early access" you might as well have us test it for you before you put it on the production servers. Imagine how much embarrassment that would save you. Because believe me, this is a total embarrassment. But hey, thanks for keeping us informed. Will you also be informing the subscribers about the prorated refunds they'll be getting for not being able to access the servers today or for not getting their "two days of early access" that you've been touting as a major selling point for being a subscriber?

Taking all that into consideration, and all of it is well founded logic. You would think extra emphasis would be placed on TESTING before you drop it into production. And when I say testing, I don't mean the "early access" beta testing that they force subscribers to do and then pretend it's a benefit. I mean actual in house honest to God smoke testing and system testing. Then drop it on the PTS as a production grade patch even if you have a select group of beta testers who can hammer at it that you can test (not the hack job elite guilds who discover exploits and hold on to them until production release). Instead we have an entire team dedicated to producing cartel market junk (which ironically is the most solid code they tend to put out with the fewest critical bugs). Sounds like this problem was pretty obvious once they dropped it into production. How does something so glaring obvious making through even the most basic of system testing? The answer, because they don't do even the most basic of system testing. Hence why they're so generous with the "early access" to subscribers. Why pay people to test their code and find their mistakes when they can get loyal paying customers to do it for them?

The one problem this game has is content...or lack thereof. BW is far more concern about milking every penny out of the cartel market that they aren't producing any viable new content. Putting out nightmare modes of existing operations isn't new content, it's just recycling old content. When they do come out with content, it's sparingly and for limited engagements. The new nightlife stuff being another good example. This stuff should have been built into the game from day one as a mini-game. Throwing it at us now and pretending that it's something new and exciting is one thing. Do it it for a limited amount of time then take it away, that makes no sense for a game that has a lack of content problem. The same thing could be said for the new "Expansion Pack" which isn't really an expansion pack. Housing and guild ships aren't content, nor do they make up an "Expansion Pack". Again these are things that should have been in the game from day one as features. Instead they're throwing it over the fence to us trying to appease us for a few more months so they can grind up a few more color variations on dancer dresses and ridiculously large mounts...no real content. Another thing announced in the thread, if not the specific post was questions about the Chevin event. Another stunning example of having content ready made that they can just turn on which they have no plans to bring back, labeling it as a "one time only" event. Why? What's the point of that? If they aren't willing to develop new content then at least make the existing content available to people so they've got something to do. You've got the Chevin event, the Gree Event, the Bounty Hunter event, The rakghoul event (the good one, not the ****** one), and you've got the ****** rakghoul event. But for some reason they don't want to make these available on a regular (i.e. constant) basis. Instead they're going to bolster 50-55 story mode ops? Why? You know how easy it is to get the gear you need to run these? And for what? Because you'll be in the 50-54 range for all of two days maybe? They give away freaking comms to buy end game gear like candy..and they're going to be making it even easier to get them in the next patch. So what's the point of bolster? And what are they going to break in the process of bolstering these operations? It's not like they've got a proven track record of having a viable bolster system in PVP, it's so screwed up there's no point even getting PVP gear in the first place. Instead, why not drop the requirement for elite gear from 55-50 and give elite comms instead of useless classic comms? What this game needs is a real Expansion Pack. Not the faux XPac they released with ROTC, which was really just a DLC pack. They need to do the following to make this game viable. 1. Kick up the level cap more than a measly 5 levels. Say a cap of level 80 2. Continue the class story quests with a new story line. Not some pitifully planned out and thrown together unified quest line 3. They need to add at least two new species. And I mean real species that people want to play. Who the hell thought to come out with the Cathar as a playable race? That was just stupid. Give me a Droid Race and another recognizable race like Wookiee, Rodian, Jawa, Nikto, Bothan or something that the average person has seen in the movies or appears in the game regularly 4. New planets. I'm not talking about just a dailies grind like Oricon I'm talking a real planet with real quests and unique locations. And make it something people are familiar with. Give us Yavin, or something like a Naboo or some other planet people are familiar with and how us what it looked like back then. And don't be afraid to give us more than one if you're going to bump the level cap more than five levels (like it needs to be) 5. We need a compelling story line. Not another dread masters story that drags on forever with the same tired theme. Albeit they had a good ending, but up until then it was a bit of a snore-fest. Give us something we can sink our teeth into. 6. Stop patronizing us with stupid **** in the cartel market. We don't need 10 of the same dress in different colors, or 12 mounts that look the same except for the colors and what about the freaking toothpick? I mean really...a toothpick? Come on guys that's just insulting. If you don't do some, dare I say all of these things then the subscriber base is going to drop out (again) and you're going to be left with people they are just trying to nickle and dime to death with the cartel market. And even the most gullible person is only going to stay around so long with no real content to show for it.

My apologies in advance if I'm the wrong thread for this or if this has been answered already. But how does one attend one of these events on behalf of their guild?

THE EMPIRE NEEDS YOU! No..not that Empire, The Second Sith Empire. A community focused guild with active PVP, PVE, & RP members. Family friendly & player focused,. looking for all races, classes & roles. Check us out at thesecondsithempire.com.

Yeh I'm in the same boat as you. Which is kind of why I wanted to get more info on what the criteria is and whether I'm even close to it.

I can't argue with any of your points. Though I suspect this isn't something that we'll all get told about. It would seem it's a very exclusive club that one must buy their way into with Cartel Coin purchases, and it already exists from my understanding. I was hoping some additional information would be made available, such as the threshold/criteria for becoming a member of the club. Or at the very least a public acknowledgement of it's existence.

The information comes from an exceptionally reliable source who is highly placed at BioWare. I have no reason to doubt it's authenticity.

Can you provide us more information on the details of the Cartel Concierge Club and what the criteria is to be part of the club?

Had this been the system in place from day one I wouldn't have the problem. However, these weekly caps were just introduced with the 2.0 update and put a restriction in place that wasn't there before. That is what I have a problem with. You want to put weekly caps on the reputation system, that's fine. Those caps don't hold me back from advancing in game. However, when I invest the time in the game that I do and run the content that I do and I basically have those efforts wasted when the comms are stolen from me when they never were before I take exception to that. I think it's wonderful that you're comfortable with the restrictions and that they don't impede your play style. I suspect there are a number of players in the same situation as you. However, these restrictions cause a negative impact on me and the way I play the game and I don't appreciate having such restrictions placed on my account when I'm paying to play. Thank you for your reply, I can certainly appreciate your perspective on it. I'm afraid I just don't share it.

The most recent major update to the game has introduced the absurdly poor idea of weekly caps on the number of commendations you can earn. This accomplish the follow immediate effects on subscribers such as myself: 1. Frustrates us at not being able to progress through the latest gear grind as fast as we'd like 2. Discourages us from playing the game once we hit our caps for fear of wasting effort on lost comms 3. Provides a clear indicator that Bioware/EA doesn't value their subscriber base as much as they do the nickle and diming they get out of their microtransaction system What is the point of capping subscribing players and discouraging them from wanting to play the game, and from paying for a game they are all of a sudden restricted in? Wouldn't it make more sense to put such a restriction on Free to Play and Preferred status players, thus encouraging them to pay for a subscription to alleviate the restrictions? I find this weekly cap intolerable and am forced to rethink whether or not I want to put any more of my hard earned money into a subscription for a game that is basically robbing me of the commendations I've earned in game. I certainly won't be making any additional cartel coin purchases while this idiotic system is in place. If it becomes too burdensome I'll be happy to take my business to another MMO that values it's customers more. SWTOR isn't the only game in town, I'd have thought they would have realized that by now.

What is this crazy idea that BW actually test the stuff it puts out? Who came up with that idea?

In game I play the character Yum'kimil and I am the GM for The Second Sith Empire. I'd like to personally apologies for the obviously inappropriate conduct of our guild members during these instances you mention. It is both contrary to our guild policy and completely against what our guild stands for. I'm embarrassed that this type of behavior is happened and thoroughly dissapointed that it is attached to our guild and has jeopardized a reputation that we've worked diligently to build since our inception. While I obviously can't correct past behavior, rest assured moving forward it will be stressed much more vehomently that this type of behavior is unacceptable and that we have a zero tolerance policy for such inappropriate acts. I wish you the best of luck in your guild search and hope to have a chance to game with you in the future. - Joseph Whalen (a.k.a. Yum'kimil)

Is there a comprehensive list of ALL emotes including the original emotes, expanded emotes, cartel pack emotes and voiced over emotes listed anywhere?

So I have enough shards at 50 to make two cubes. I also happen to have two slots in which I can use cubes. And with the shards I have there are enough to make two cubes that would significantly improve my characters abilities. Yet for some reason we can only craft one. I'm not disagreeing that this is by design. Nor am I disagreeing with the idea of one cube design best for each class. I just think it could have been implemented better for the end game players if they could craft and equip two cubes after going through all the effort to collect all the shards. But alas, I'm just whining at this point I know.

Being able to craft two cubes would be nice. Equipping both would be even better. But I can't even craft more than one because every time I do I get an error that says I have to disassemble the existing cube before I can assemble another.

What is the point of going through the hassle of collecting all the shards if you can't only make one cube at a time and use one cube at a time? Seems rather pointless since apparently that's all the shards are good for. Am I missing some magical reason for getting those datacrons?

I started out upgrading my keyboard to the Logitec G510. I found the bind keys a little lacking for the number of binds I need for Sith Sorcerer. So I went and picked up a G13 and it was perfect. It's got a comfortable fit, ergonomic design, the button patform is concave slightly so the buttons are intuitively placed and it's extremely comfortable on the hand. I just got the Naga shipped in yesterday. I usually run my lower binds on the G13 and the upper binds were run on the keyboard. I picked up the Naga to run the upper binds so I wouldn't have to touch the keyboard during battle. Unfortunately as soon as I hooked up the Naga my G13 stopped working. I seem to get no power to it, no lights, no LCD but Windows still sees it properly when plugged in. I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling both the hardware, software and drivers. I tried switching USB ports and nothing. Logictech in their famously lacking customer support has yet to get back to me yet. So hopefully I can get it working again soon. From my perspective this is the best of both worlds for me. I have to say though, my hands feel rather large on the naga, making the control of the thumb buttons difficult. It does come with stick on "training" pads so you can put points of reference on the buttons. I haven't resorted to this yet, but then I haven't had a chance to utilize the way I intended. Just my two cents.