I see RotHC as a logical, fluid, minimal-effort place to include it first. They already had to call in voice actors and have the writers plot out a whole planet...what better time to add in a few extra flirty lines toward NPCs? I daresay this is the easiest, quickest, and cheapest way they could have done SGR (excepting not having it in the game at all). They didn't have to go out of their way to call people in to work on stuff out of schedule; they came in for a planet, and maybe stayed a bit longer to get both SGR and OGR flirts. I can't think of anything else that would've taken less time and effort, except maybe if they added two companions similar to HK (no story interaction, minimal dialogue, a single questline for each--or just buy them, and bypass the acquisition story), but even that would probably have to be more of a concentrated off-schedule effort, and fewer people would get something from that. Just about everyone who buys Makeb will almost definitely have content they will play, and potentially enjoy. Two new companions have a high probability of sitting on ships and crafting. Useful, sure, but the companions themselves wouldn't offer as much diverse content as a planet.

You're right, I shouldn't post on lack of sleep, haha. Forgive me if this ramble isn't terribly coherant, but...it's absolutely possible they are, in addition to having to record the dialogue, working on a way to reset companion conversations. Oh, may I hold out hope it's a function released for all, with a free optional reset via a mailed item or some such? One that leaves them at their current affection, but allows you to redo their conversations up to that point, without gaining affection (to keep it balanced). I missed out on a few screenshots with my first character.

I believe only class story quests ever have companions make commentary. Makeb has no class story quests, so the companion voice actors probably wouldn't have been called in for it. That said...it could be why SGRs are taking so long. Optimisctically, the VAs are just busy and can't come in. Less optimistically...they might have personal reasons they wouldn't want to, and negotiations have been in the works.

You're not, but there is the hope that it's...only for a short amount of time, and that by the time Makeb comes out, they'll have other SGR flirts ready to put in place. EDIT: "...we are adding SGR with some NPCs on Makeb..." is pretty clear, as far as whether they're likely to be available for free yet.

I think what he's saying is that the first run of SGRs won't be companions, because that's taking a long time (I can't help but wonder if there's an issue with voice actor(s) here...what else could be so much more complicated than the other romances?), and that the first run will be NPC flirts, instead. Good news for 50s (who buy the expasion), they haven't missed out on anything...yet. Hopefully they'll have the time to go back and add flirts to 1-50 content, though, in addition to getting around to companions one day.

I haven't (and probably won't) pre-order Makeb, since I just started an Agent who probably won't get to fifty until after it comes out, and I figure I'll just play her until I see what all the planet has to offer. I'll probably get it eventually, since I like soloing but want to see the endgame flashpoint stories and-- Wait that wasn't on-topic at all, let's try that again. I've got one foot in the same boat as many of the posters here. I have several characters I've made (over the course of many years, and rather painstakingly, because I have a lot of trouble coming up with new characters), and I am rapidly running out of ones who fit into classes I want to play and are straight. Heck, the Agent I just started is a character I made specifically so I could play the class before SGRs get added! Once she's done, if cathar isn't out so I can see whether my asexual agent would be one, I won't have any characters left to play. If SGRs aren't out with Makeb, that might give me another small chunk of playtime with the few characters I have so far (assuming they also give us more character slots by then), but if it's not out by then... Gosh, there is a whole awful lot determining how much I'll be playing the coming months, and nearly all of it comes back to whether we have SGRs. I don't think I realized just how much the lack of it will stop me after I'm done with my Agent until writing this just now. I mean, I have a few pansexual characters, but without knowing which companions will be available for SGRs, I can't play them, either...what if they give me an SGR that character would prefer over their OGR? What if they add flirting with questgivers, too? If I play a character that would flirt with anything that has something resembling two legs (and anything that doesn't), I run a high risk of missing out on potentially rather amusing flirts. I play this game like a single-player RPG--I don't PvP, I almost never touch space missions, I don't raid, I tried doing dailies to save up some credits but quickly lost interest--without as much variation as absolutely possible in class and planet stories, playing alts (as I so dearly enjoy) grows rapidly stale. SGRs will allow me both variation in some story elements, and allow for more alts to be played (and more character slots to be bought, I will shell out a ridiculous amount for character slots above almost anything else).

Okay so technically it's not actually an option, but there is a starship upgrades vendor on the Republic fleet you might be interested in chatting with: Captain Gek. Notice the dialogue in the chatbox. There was another in Section X for Imps, but their dialogue was switched to match their visible sex last I checked. I am also on board for removing gendered clothing, and perhaps allowing people to choose whether certain tops are midriff-baring, instead of having it automatically happen (so frustrating, it usually removes some of my favorite pieces of that armor). Also, yes please, I would love to have a thread to discuss trans* possibilities for this game (my posts about it in here keep getting deleted), but don't feel confident enough to start one, myself. Rather...thinking about it, that might get even worse bashing than LGB stuff gets. Maybe it isn't the best idea, or perhaps should be something kept in a quieter forum if we want have a meaningful, level-headed discussion with minimal interruption.

Gonna step in real quick and restate something I recall seeing quite a ways back--DarthRamette, I apologize if this isn't something you want reposted, please feel free to report this post for deletion if you'd like it taken down (it'll probably be faster then sending me a pm, I don't check here very often and I almost never check my messages). Guys, Ramette has said before that they don't like OGR romances, either, and would have preferred this game have no romances at all. I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that if this situation were reversed--that SGRs were available and people were rallying to get OGRs included--their opinion would be exactly the same. If that's true, then no, there is no discrimination there...just someone who didn't want romance in-game to begin with upset that Bioware would put in even more. And again, romances are far from their only beef with the game, which I think we can agree is perfectly understandable. Heck, even some of the people who want SGRs in have this as their own straw to break the camel's back, just in reverse--its lack of inclusion being why they'd leave. So please, I know it looked at first to be discrimination, but it isn't. Not from Ramette, at least.

Yeah, more information on this would be REALLY fantastic. I'm now seriously hoping for the chance to reset companion conversations as well as a gender switch. Jedi Knight rambling ahead: SO YEAH. Conversation reset, and gender switch because playing a knight was a miserable experience for me (despite the good story, Republic makes me cringe and I cannot stand melee), and I never want to go through it all again.

There was someone else who had a problem with a Cartel Market chest piece changing from red to brown when they equipped it, but it had been red in the preview window (and happened to also be red on their character sheet).

"Some old events"...there have only been two, unless there was something they did in beta...so unless he actually meant "events" in the singular, the Rakghoul event should certainly be coming around again! I AM SO EXCITED. I didn't have the chance to grab an extra rakling to give to a future alt last time around that would be perfect for it. Oh man, I might even be able to get that alt up high enough to grab the red one, too, if we have enough warning (or I start it soon). I am very pleased with this turn of events. 8D

A thousand times seconded! I'm making due with the red top from Tatooine, but it'd be nice to have more options available. Also, wide-brimmed hats that aren't restricted to Scoundrels. I have a character I've made in several games, and have yet to have access to black (or just dark) wide-brimmed hats for him in the race/class combos he otherwise fits best.

This is a good guide for the event, and has all the available rewards (so far) listed, with screenshots. http://dulfy.net/2012/08/13/swtor-live-event-chevin-grand-acquisitions-race-coverage/

Welcome! Soloing shouldn't stunt anything, from my experience. I've gotten two toons to fifty, and another is early forties (when I have pretty much never had a max-level character in any other MMO before), and I can probably count the groups I've been in, which never lasted long, on one hand. It gets a bit harder once you reach the mid thirties, but you can solo everything (except most heroics and flashpoints, unless you're quite over-leveled). I suggest getting one of your characters through their chapter one story if you haven't, though, as that unlocks legacy (and I don't think the experience is retroactive). Oh, and pick a legacy name you like, because they currently don't have any way to change it.

Consider, though, the credit cap for F2P--depending on how low it is, that has the potential in itself restrict what people can do (unless they're terribly efficient at farming credits and turning them back around on several characters). If it doesn't, I agree that a restriction to two companions at once should be enough to curb farming, but still allow for some efficiency with crafting.

"To keep the Service a compliant, fun, fair and safe gaming environment for everyone, you may not engage in any of the following behavior: 17. Exploit any bug in the Service to gain unfair advantage in the game and/or communicate the existence of any such bug (either directly or through the public posting) to any other user of the Service." Once again, in yellow. The event is technically over, but the effects are going to linger*, so them announcing the glitch now (unless they've added a fix in a patch today) would be them going against their TOS. *"Update #2 April 23rd: We wanted to warn players that the effects of the plague may linger after the event is over. Vaccines will still be readily available." ...You know what, you're right. Most of the posts in this thread (if not the whole thing) will probably be deleted once the mods find it, if the exploit wasn't fixed in maintenance. I will concede this point to you, good sir, and cross my fingers that they've fixed this.

"To keep the Service a compliant, fun, fair and safe gaming environment for everyone, you may not engage in any of the following behavior: 17. Exploit any bug in the Service to gain unfair advantage in the game and/or communicate the existence of any such bug (either directly or through the public posting) to any other user of the Service." We aren't allowed to share the existance of exploits, because it would educate others who might decide to try it out before it's fixed. Bioware telling us about it before they roll out a fix would have the same effect (or possibly a greater one, as it would be an official, attention-grabbing post), and thus be something they would avoid doing. It's not that it would make people do it, it's that it would spread the knowledge of it, essentially enabling more exploiters.

Please oh please do bring him back. I know I am not the only one who had saved up DNA samples and didn't manage to get back to him by the time the server kicked me off, and with you guys leaving the effects to continue for a bit, it sounds like more samples are going to be collected. Just blowing steam, but I'm a bit miffed that this event happened to fall during the busiest week I have had in a very long time. I'm inclined to agree with a previous poster that events should last at least two weeks, instead of just one, especially if you intend to repeat the locked-daily system. At the very least, with the way this event worked, the dailies should have all been unlocked for the last day or two of the event, but honestly, I don't believe they should be restricted to updating from when you first pick up the quests. It'd be better to have them unlocked universally as they are released, so say if someone were to start on day three, they would be able to do the dailies from day one to day three, without having to wait two days to catch up and risk not just falling behind, but also being unable to complete the event if they didn't get the chance to start until too late into the event.

Hey, guys, I was curious if anyone knows whether it would be okay to link to an offsite petition that is in support of the game. To be more specific about its content, apparently EA is being attacked for allowing Bioware to do as it usually does in regards to adding SGRs, and the petition is a support letter to go forward with the SGRs and not give in to the boycott campaign. These two points in the Rules of Conduct are specifically what have me hesitant to link (or, as I'd prefer, to create a topic for) the petition.

Yeah, I never had my helmet turned on with my BH, so I didn't even realize until after completing a full playthrough and a half. Trust me, my fingers are crossed that we'll be able to use this to figure out something, even if it's not consistent throughout all the classes (and, certainly, not all the SGR programming might be semi-activated, there could be a number of bugs, etc. to make anything we glean potentially incorrect, but still). EDIT: Teach me to read, I just realized you said your helmet hasn't been removed...but that's just in cutscenes, yes? On planets in normal quests and the like. I meant the companion quest conversations you have on the ship, specifically (where you have the chance to eventually kiss them, leading to helmet clipping issues). Sorry if that wasn't clear in my other post.

I realized something recently that may or may not actually have any effect on anything... Oh my SI, in on-ship conversations with Andronikos, my helmet is removed, but with Khem Val, it is not. Is it possible, perhaps, that romanceable companions' conversations remove the helmet, to avoid issues in the later ones? While fish-facing on a helmet would be hilarious, it'd offer a rather different mood than they're intending, I'm sure. I can't remember what happened the few times I spoke with Ashara, and being female, I can't very well just go buy her some stuff to convince her to talk to me again. (Well, I can, but I'd really just be better off questing somewhere she'd gain affection, instead.) Now, this could be affected by a number of different things. If we're very, very lucky, the state of your helmet is designated by whether the companion is romanceable by your character's gender. If we're less lucky, it just applies to romanceable characters, regardless of gender--but this would still allow us to deduce which companions would be available for SGRs, assuming the coding is already in-game. Alternatively, this could be influenced by your companion's appearance--for example, since Khem Val's appearance is static, it is not necessary to turn off his helmet to watch him speak, so they don't bother turning yours off, either...but since Andronikos does show the gear he wears, the helmet needs to be removed (usually, I did have him in a circlet for a time) to show expressions, so they turn off all helmets involved. Or, this is all completely off the mark, and I just wasted a bunch of breath on hoping we might be able to figure out who we might get to romance once they roll this stuff out.

If you just want a general idea of the sort of decisions they like to see you make, you can check their codex entries for their personal likes and dislikes. You also have the option to press escape (and subsequently, carefully, use the spacebar to fast-forward through conversations) to test as many conversation options as you wish, to single out what will give you the most affection for your current companion. I find that usually only the on-ship conversations will affect multiple companions, as they're all technically present. If you'd like to absolutely get the most from conversations without having to go through them yourself with each companion, and don't mind alt-tabbing to your browser, there are two sites I have found that usually have affection gains and losses for quests for you to check through. Torhead and DarthHaterDB are generally useful resources that don't have every conversation perfectly compiled, but they have enough to make it pretty easy to figure out if you should bring a particular companion into a particular quest conversation to max out their affection. Also, each new companion you get gains slightly more affection than the last. Where your first companion would get 15, your second companion gets 25, your third gets...40, perhaps? I forget the exact numbers, but it's made to balance out the lack of conversation affection chances, since you acquired those companions later on.