1) I wasn't getting mad or whining at anybody, but ad hominen all you want; and fyi, I probably "realize" a lot more about the mechanics of of how this works, but I won't hold that against you, since that knowledge isn't necessary to the discussion at hand. 2) OP set the topic as how to deal with players who apparently can't deal with not getting the names they wanted, I just suggested a possible solution to the problem. 3) There may be some people that actually want the non-English characters in their characters names because those characters exist in [their preferred] languages. I don't find that *as* annoying as people obviously looking for "workarounds" to not getting the name they really wanted, but it still causes problems. 4) Just because the characters can be displayed doesn't make them a part of the English language, nor does it impart knowledge of how that player wants those characters pronounced (assuming the player isn't really just hoping the non-English character will be ignored and the name will be pronounced "correctly"). 5) The issue I brought up, which is "meta", is that the non-English characters cause *additional* (and, IMO, undue) burdens to people reporting the character with the non-English characters for ToS violations. Tbh, I can self-correct for players with names I dislike for whatever reason by ignoring them (/ignore or otherwise), but I cannot self-correct for other people's bad behavior. If their ability to behave badly is enhanced by using non-standard characters, it is valid to question whether this enhancement (exploit) is sufficiently damaging to players to justify removing the ability from non-exploiting players.

I try And I haven't found anything you (or almost anybody in this thread) has said to be actually rude. To be clear, I don't mind typing "foreign" characters per se -- if I enjoyed playing with somebody whose character name has a foreign character, and for whatever reason have to type /friend + name or something, I have no complaints. I may grumble about the inefficient and inconsistent character code systems, but I don't actually mind typing it in any more than I mind typing in characters with longer names than shorter ones. And usually the player will tell me the ALT code to use (like I'm Náme, use ALT-whatever), so I don't even have to look it up. It's when I "didn't enjoy" my experience with a player that I have a problem, and to be honest if the in-game reporting system, copy+paste functionality, and ability to keep the character (with name) in my target screen long enough to report before the character zoomed away were better, I probably wouldn't feel like the fact that the character had non-English characters made as much of a difference. Anyway, thank you all for being polite listeners, you probably don't play the characters that cause me problems anyway.

People playing Dark Jedi or wearing skimpy clothing doesn't interfere with my ability to report them if they are violating the terms of service. People using nonstandard characters in their names does. And I'm not "raging" or being *passive*-aggressive -- IRL, I am a software engineer, have had several projects which required work with different language/code sets, and (in general) it's a topic which interests me.

Since I already brought it up [subtly] a few times, maybe I should be more clear. I'm all for people using names decoratively however they want -- like how many email programs allow your friend to set his Display name, and how a "John Doe" can set his Display name even if his user id is johndoe87326. But that's not how SWTOR works -- character names aren't just decorative, they're functional. And it's not unreasonable to make some *decorative* trade-offs for increased functionality. Personally, I doubt that BW added support for international names, I suspect that what happened is that it was already built into the toolset, so when deciding whether or not to implement a separate user name / display name system themselves, they just figured that it was easier *for them* to let people use all the special characters without caring about the problems it would cause. Also, re: your friend. How would it make him feel to know that when most people see his character, they think, "Lulz, dude wants to be Inigo Montoya, pick something original next time."?

/facepalm

Bad analogy. Books aren't real-time *interactive* media, and nothing in my experience *reading* those books requires me to have the ability to *write* those names. Furthermore, while awkward to type, none of the characters in the name "Emily Bront%C3%AB" require the use of special characters

I don't think that wanting to play a game in whatever language you want is selfish. What I think is selfish is trying to force your desires on other people. The facts are that (a) BW/EA only offer SWTOR in English, French, and German, and (b) most English-language players (including the OP) find using the non-English characters difficult. If the only drawback to the OP using non-English characters was that some other players ignored his characters or excluded them from group content because they didn't want to deal with the difficulty, I would say that's ok, the player should be able to make the call as to whether or not the name is worth the tradeoff. But, since there are times when other players may *have* to use the a character's name (such as in reporting inappropriate names or behaviors), and that the difficulty of the typing the name can be a key factor in that player avoiding penalties for such actions, that the player's personal desire to use the non-English characters in the name should give way to the community's need to be able to accurately identify offending players. [Yeah, I've ran into this a bit recently, it's annoying to have to take screen shots and then try to describe the names of offending players to CS, and I don't have a lot of confidence that the CS is actually equipped to deal with such reports, so I assume the offending actions don't actually get investigated like the canned email attempts to assure me actually happens/]

"Super-rich" to buy Speeder Piloting 3 whut? Speeder Piloting 3 is limited by level (I think you can get it at 40 now in some cases, it used to be 50), not money.

As subs, we already get coins every month, so no need to call that out specifically to us. The pet and speeder are what's "special" about this promotion, and they did specifically call them out and say we would be getting them also, probably with the hope that none of us would feel the need to complain about new subscribers getting "more" than we current subscribers do.

Of course that begs the question as to why one would want to use non-English characters on English-language servers. So far I've ran into a whopping two cases: 1) Players can't deal with not getting the name they actually wanted & don't care that such selfish behavior pollutes the name space. 2) Player wants to make it difficult for other English-language players to report offensive behavior. Maybe there is a valid reason for using the non-English characters, I just haven't seen one yet. OFC, I'm 100% for BW allowing duplicate [first] names as long as the "full name" can be easily obtained for reporting purposes.

Uh, thanks for the feedback? I didn't think I was asking for much. 1) I want Hidden Strike / Backstab combined so that if I press one key, and I am in stealth and behind the target I get the Hidden Strike effect (no change). If I am behind the target (but not stealthed) I get the standard Backstab attack. The only "changes" are that I'm more likely to not lose an attack and that I get a keybind freed up. Nothing would change about the positional requirements or damage. 2) Currently Hidden Strike generates TA, so if I use Hidden Strike then any other attack, I know I have a TA for the second attack. I would like the combined HS/BS attack to leave me with a TA regardless of whether or not I was considered stealthed or not (maybe a check of whether or not I was stealthed or not "recently", so that it's only available on opening, not every Backstab). There are plenty of other suggestions (some of which I support) that would increase the effectiveness of our opener, but (in this suggestion) I am truly aiming for just a QoL improvement.

What I'd like to see done with speeders & companions is something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0NEct7ucB0

Why? You still won't have the name "Darth Virtus". You'll just be Darth "somebody who wanted to be Virtus" (or, Darth Virtus, the 'i' has an umlaut or whatever).

Tbh, I'd be overjoyed if BW forced everybody [on the EN language servers] with non-EN "letters" in their PC names to pick new names for those PCs. It's hard to report [some of] these characters for ToS violations when you can't spell them, and it's not reasonable to expect EN-speaking (and typing) players to be able to easily identify and reproduce letters from a different language's alphabet. Not that players intending to violate the ToS would do anything to purposefully make it harder to get reported or caught. (And BW should do the same for the other language's servers, allowing only the letters in those languages' alphabets).

Up until Oct 24th, I had been thinking that allowing Hidden Strike to be used from Cover as well as Stealth might be a good idea (possibly restricting the knockdown to Stealth-only). As a QoL fix, I'd like to see Hidden Strike and Backstab combined into one ability (knockdown when used from stealth). Right now, due to engine, lag, etc., a lot of combats start out for my Conc Op as: o Approach target in Stealth from Behind. o Something (AoE, Advanced Stealth Detection, Lunar Phase) breaks my stealth but client is not updated (or I just lose the race condition between ability activation and update) so I don't know this until... o Use Hidden Strike -- fails (Must Be In Stealth To Use This Ability) o MOB moves slightly (no actual "back" indicators, so I can't always tell, especially if my team is dropping a ton of AoEs so all I see is explosions) o Use Backstab -- fails (Must Be Behind Target) o Start using other abilities, but I'm already down about 2 GCDs and have lost my opener and initial TA If Hidden Strike / Backstab were combined, I'd still get a decent opener (Backstab) instead of nothing for the first few seconds. As a plus, the redesign could make it so that the "optimal" opener had a second attack that was optimal regardless of whether the first attack was stealthed or not.

Just b/c I remembered, it was Game Update 2.4: The Dread War (http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes/2.4.0/dread-war) General Dye modules can now be added to most Adaptable (Orange) Gear, including Lore-based pieces and crafted items below level 15.

You have to complete the level 50 quest on 1 PC to unlock access to him for your legacy, then you can either pay to unlock him for other PCs (regardless of level) or run the level 50 quest on your alts to get him for "free". Unlike Treek (which is an account-wide unlock after the initial acquisition), HK-51 must be unlocked for each PC in your legacy separately.

Ok, but going forward, please not that it is note *my* stance In general, I oppose making ACs switchable, just as I oppose all of the changes making changing Spec point allocations cheaper and easier. BW has started to roll some of that back (in PVP), I'd love to see them roll it back from Flashpoints and Ops as well...I think being able to freely reallocate your Spec points during an FP or OP simultaneously reduces the challenge for experienced players and increases the challenge for newer players, which creates an artificial barrier to entry. To the extent that it's done at low levels, and as a method of allowing players to explore the two different aspects of their class before committing, I support some changing of ACs.

I didn't say it wasn't. I am saying that DPS to Heals is *also* a huge difference. Yes, and this thread is a discussion about changing that, or at least has been since the OP. Please try to keep up. 1) You are correct, playing 55 levels as a DPS OP has taught me next to nothing about how to be a Healing OP. I have a couple of abilities (but not the HoT people want an OP healer for, since that requires 11 points into Medicine) on my quickbar, and I use them very infrequently. I'm pretty sure most Healers would be offended if you told them anybody could replace them just by swapping a few key binds and practicing for an hour. 2) I have no clue where you get the "less than one hour" statement from, it wasn't anything that I said.

Just 'cause I'm tired of all the stupid, not just you specifically Glowrod, but: Why would changing from Balance (Shadow) to Balance (Sage) be "like a pro wrestler suddenly wanting to be a surgeon", but changing from Balance (Sage) to Seer (Sage) not be? Also, to everybody: the devs originally envisioned Specs to be "semi-permanent", as changing was non-trivial (you had to visit a vendor, so not possible during PVP or an FP/OP) AND cost a progressively larger amount of Credits each time you did it in the same week. Now it's free to Subscribers and can be done almost anywhere at any time (down recently from anywhere at any time). Personally, I'd like to see AC respecs allowed/free between levels 11-20 (or so), so that players can experiment a bit without having to reroll, but that at some point, have to commit. I also wish the devs would reconsider how easy respeccing trees is -- I find it offensive when people ask me to switch from dps to heals and just assume I'd know what to do if I did (55 Conc OP main).

LOL @ "reticle" -- I know what it means, but if I used that instead of "target" or "sight", I'd expect a lot of "***?"s. Just saying, your "obvious" might not be everybody else's obvious. Not that people really use CC, target markers, or call out Kill Orders much anymore, but that's a different problem. Unless you count CC'ing a mob as marking the first DPS target, in which case, everything appears to be working as intended.

Hey, Eric, I checked my Inbox, and I still hadn't got my invite yet...could you look into that for me? kthxbai

but, see the following:

Make a 3rd (independent) Faction Move BH and Smuggler to this faction. Stories & ability trees remain the same. Rep Agent gets SIS/Dead Eyes ACs, mirror abilities with new name/flavor as IA/Smuggler, and a new Rep-based story. Imp Trooper gets two ACs that mirror Rep Trooper / BH abilities and a new Imp-based story. * Add new "Fleet" type location to Nar Shadda (Smuggler's Moon) for BH and Smugglers, BH and Smugglers don't get regular access to Imp/Rep Fleets, but everybody can still access NS GTN. Plenty more ideas, but those popped off the top of my head. OFC, things could be much more entertaining on a [OW]PvP server.

Let's take a step back. When a new player logs in, or an existing player goes to the Select Server screen, there are two tabs - North America and Europe. If you select North America, you see the NA servers, which includes Jung Ma (labeled as RP-PVP). If you select Europe, you get the Euro servers, which doesn't include Jung Ma, and has no RP-PVP servers listed. BW should be able to either create a third tab labeled "World-wide" (or equivalent) and move the Jung Ma connection to that tab, or add a "Jung Ma" entry to the European tab. Neither of these solutions would change Jung Ma's physical properties (location, ping time, etc.), but it would make the existence of the server more visible to people looking for servers that were only looking at European servers (such as new European players, or people wanting to play during Eurpoean peak hours). If that's all that is being requested, I think that it's worth BW looking into (just because the interface change seems simple from our side doesn't mean that actually making the change would be "cheap" enough to justify for the perceived gain, but it's at least worth asking a dev to spend a couple of minutes considering the issue).