[Chat Bubbles and the Imperial Hat...]

1. Chat bubbles are a complete waste of developer time. If you want to see chat around you vs. general chat (etc.), create a 2nd chat window that only has the local chat in it. Far easier to keep track of conversations around you that way than with inevitably overlapping/hiding chat bubbles. I've done this in pretty much every MMO I've ever played as a matter of course.

 

2. They did say they had them in in Beta, but it turned out to be a major source of graphic lag/slowdown, so they took 'em out.

 

3. I *believe* they mentioned back in March (or thereabouts) that they think they figured out why it was causing the frame rate issues. Since I haven't heard a peep since then, I'm guessing they were wrong. Or, sensibly enough, realized they had far more important things to fix, and even spending 5 minutes on bubbles was pointless.

 

4. If they did make the mistake of wasting time adding them, they would have to add an option to turn them off, so that sensible people can.

 

5. Yeah, sittable chairs should be a MUCH higher priority than chat bubbles. Hoods down should be much higher priority. Companion head slot hiding should be higher priority. Companion color matching should be higher priority. Rain splashes/ripples in the puddles on Dromund Kaas should be higher priority. Having to take your toon to the bathroom every couple hours so (s)he doesn't make a mess should be higher priority. Heck, can't think of ANYTHING that would be lower priority.

[The little lock on left of the hot key bar]

Am I the only one who can't be bothered to hotkey...

 

- those 60 minute buffs

- saber forms / gas cylinders / etc...

- heroic moments

- emergency fleet pass + quick travel

- my DD Flaregun I use when I score in huttball

 

I never need to use them in emergency situation and I can be bothered to bind them, I'll forget them anyway.

 

I keep that lock locked at all times and have yet to accidentally unlock it though...

 

Nope. But I have all those abilities in the leftside bar nowhere near the unlock button.

 

'Course, since I keybind everything, I don't ever actually bother locking the buttons, Only time I'm clicking there is when I WANT to move stuff around.

[overcrowded worlds makes this game unplayable]

So undercrowding was an issue and now that it's fixed, overcrowding is the issue.

 

BW can never win with these people.

 

Presumably different people, if there were actually any complaining about undercrowding. To be honest, most of the population complaints I remember after the first merge were about overcrowding... including mine. I was already complaining about overcrowding BEFORE this latest forced merge. (and I was on a destination server, so had no say in the overcrowding)

[Name changes]

Considering that most of the other server were a)dead b)dying and were all frozen, the same logic still applies with the Aeroplane anaolgy...

 

Many of them may have been, but not all. My server (Droogas) was perfectly viable and thriving, and was a DESTINATION server in the original merge. In this forced merge, we magically became an origin server.

 

So sorry, still 2 flights being merged, not somebody else taking your seat halfway through the one flight.

[Imperial Trooper]

Because imperial troopers are cannonfodder scrubs, not main character worthy?

 

I'm relatively surprised the Republic trooper was a class. Not convinced it should have been. Think it was more created as a mirror for the BH than the BH was created as a mirror for the trooper.

[Name changes]

Oh, fwiw, I was force transferred (probably would have preferred to stay)

 

Kept the names on my two lvl 50's. (one of which was created before x-mas, other created a few weeks later)

Kept the name of my lvl 37 (created a few weeks after that.)

Lost the name of my lvl 27 (used to be Kyron, created same day as the lvl 37. Was unable to find that name on either faction, but that presumably only means not currently on. Took over 20 tries to find a similarish name that wasn't already taken, that didn't use funky characters)

 

Imp side, all of them created shortly before the first merge, kept them all (1 lvl 31, rest all lvl 17)

 

All of them extensively used for crafting, all of them with a fairly significant number of hours /played.

 

 

Oh, and fwiw, all my characters are loosely named after my favorite star wars character and his associates, names altered to fit racial (or at least, what I know of them) naming conventions, as well as to seem like they could be etymological ancestors of the names in question. (curiously, Kyron's new name is arguably closer to his namesakes)

[Name changes]

But the fact that they chose to use the names of thriving servers makes it difficult for those who were on those servers to recognize it as "new", because nothing for us has really changed. There is nothing physical that we can look at and say that's right I've been moved. It isn't that we're ignorant it is that we're human and most people in this situation would feel the same way.

 

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, the "server id" in the UI interface files changed, so even if you stayed on the "same server", you still had to reconfigure your UI, which would be that "something physical that you can look at and say that's right I've been moved".

[Am I the only PVE person unhappy with server merge?]

You must be. I have not seen any complaints around here at all since the mergers happened.

 

Then either that's sarcasm, or you haven't been looking very hard. I'll admit I haven't experienced the new servers yet (I do all my questing on weekends) But it was bad enough before this merge. (I was happy with the initial population on Drooga's before the first merge). I can only assume things will be even worse now. (yes, just this sunday on tattoine I was constantly competing against 4-5 other people for quest node/mobs on Tattoine)

 

and yes, I also have zero interest in flashpoints/ops/PvP.

[Fine welcome from "new" server.. NOT]

Aaand here it is. They officially confirm that the "new" high pop destination servers are simply upgraded old ones.

 

Upgraded = new hardware

 

new hardware = new server

[Fine welcome from "new" server.. NOT]

Just que for HMFP/Ops/pvp or quest away. Things will settle down.

 

Hard enough to quest before w/o stumbling over 5 other people. Not looking forward to seeing what it's going to be like now. Merges were unneeded and unwanted.

 

(admittedly, I don't go in for ops/flashpoints/PvP, so, I didn't think the FIRST round of mergers were particularly needed, though as I understand it my server (Drooga's) was one of the ones with an adequate population... this new round was definitely unneccessary)

[Name changes]

When naming conflicts occur due to the consolidation, players are given priority based on a variety of factors such as character play time and if they have already had to rename their characters as part of the first character transfer program back in June. Please do keep in mind that this does not encompass all of the factors taken into consideration, but those are an example of the major ones.

 

I'd hope having already renamed your character would LOWER your priority, not bump it up.

 

Presumably somebodies whose name is already a second choice and they've had for what , 3 months at most, would have less "right" to the name than somebody for whom that name was their first choice, the only name they've had for that character, ever since launch.

 

Since I thought the population on my server (Drooga's) was already overcrowded in competing for spawns/quest nodes, I'm sort of pissed at the merges to begin with. Isn't going to help if I have to also rename characters because of this idiotic merge.

 

I just hope the number of people in an "instance" has been dropped. I'd be perfectly happen to see 10 instances of Tattoine if it means I don't have to compete against 10 other players for quest nodes/mobs.

 

Considering you can't "auto fill-in" legacy members names of the opposite faction, I'd be willing to be that if any of my characters have to change names, I'll end up giving some lucky name thief a whole lot of really good equipment... and then complaining to CS about it... who likely won't do anything about it.

[Crew skills for 6 Chars at lvl 50]

fwiw, 8 chars (created in this order, more or less... imps were all around the same time):

(JK)Synthweaving, Archeology, UWT

(Sm)Cybertech, Scavenging, Slicing

(Co)Biochem, Bioanalysis, Diplo

(Tr)armormech, Scavenging, Slicing

(IA)Artifice, Archeology, Slicing

(BH)Armstech, Scavenging, Slicing

(IN)Biochem, UWT, Slicing

(SW)Biochem, Treasure Hunting, Investigation

 

IIRC, all the imps have companions with slicing crit bonus except warrior, so made sure they all got slicing, and thus moved TH/Investigation onto the warrior so the IA/BH could pick up slicing. Considering how many "basic" mats you go through REing the good equipment, all my crafters are self sufficient for those basic mats. The In/Sw only have biochem for the reuseables. (i'll admit, they had bioanalysis until they hit 400 biochem, then switched to their intended skills.

 

Slicing is (or was, I don't really play all that much anymore) pure gold. Augment mats & mission discoveries = $$$.

[What's the point of Armstech?]

IIRC, unless you have the skill that gives +9% mainstat and under the consular/Inquisitor buff that gives +5%, power generally gives you more offensive bang for yoru buck.

 

Admittedly, most people take that skill, and nowadays just about everybody can self-buff with that buff, so....

 

still, I tend to sell more power augs than mainstat ones, (and at a higher price) which could just be because there are fewer people making them.

[Should this have been single player?]

I'm unsure "end game raids" is what keeps MMO players. My understanding is statistics in most/every MMO tend to indicate a very small percentage of the population consists of end game players/raiders.

 

That being said, you reach "end game" rediculously fast in this game, and *that* is what I think is hemoraghing players, because most players *don't* do end game content.

 

I suspect bioware expected/intended most players to do all 8 storylines, and many/most of the players simply aren't. As such, 7/8ths of the effort they put into the game is being wasted for most players.

 

And, of course, the full voice, (which is completely unrelated to story content, as far as I'm concerned) meant there was less actual content as well.

 

'Course, I'm actually sort of unsure *what* most players actually want in an MMORPG, assuming the statistics of most not doing end game content is accurate, which is where most of the group content resides. I know my dad likes MMORPG's over regular RPG's even though he doesn't like any of the multiplayer aspects simply because it's one game, that keeps getting new content, lasts a long long, so he can play/enjoy it for a long long time w/o ever having to learn a new game system. I know others prefer them because it feels more... alive... when you see other people running around doing other things. And of course, there's those who really get into the roleplay social stuff, where it's practically just a singleplayer game with a big chat room attached when they want to do that. Me? Well, not particularly fond of MMO's. This one I would probably have preferred as a single player game, though I'll admit playing through the stories with my Dad is pretty fun... though, we did that with Baldur's Gate too, so that wouldn't really require it be an MMO. About the only other advantage of MMO's (to me) is that you can be OP by getting money through crafting to buy OP equipment that you wouldn't neccessarily be able to do in a single player game. In an single player game if you're having trouble, you just have to grind levels, which I don't tend to find particularly fun. 'Course, much/most of THAT advantage was ruined in most modern MMO's by putting level restictions/BoP on everything. Probably one of the reasons why I still think of the original EQ as the only MMO I ever REALLY enjoyed.

[Are schematics valuable]

orange weapon schematics (lightsaber and otherwise) are fairly worthless. lightsaber ones you can pretty much just vendor, armstech ones you may be able to get default price on the GTN.

 

Orange armor for chest/helm/legs you can probably get default price on the GTN if you put 'em up enough times. (I don't have enough GTN slots for 'em, so just vendor 'em), guantlets/boots probably a bit more, since they're newer schems. Wrists/Waists are probably still worth quite a bit, as the market for the products surprisingly hasn't bottomed out yet..

[Q: [Armormech] Returning Player and Reverse Engineering]

Certain end game purple gear that came out with 1.3 can be RE'd to learn either the custom version of that item, (if it's basically a custom item already, i.e. has the full mod slots) or the finished version. (if doesn't have mod slots)

 

Other than that, no. You can not learn custom schematics through RE. When you crit an item, you will create an augmented version of the item, (which is nothing new).

 

You can, if you want, always craft an item and fill it with mods yourself. As long as none of the mods are bound, you could then sell the final item on the GTN.

[Free-to-Play Q&A Thread]

Looking at the FAQ, it seems likely the majority of the funding is going to come by way of the operations/warzones/flashpoints, as those are the primary P2P features. While on one hand, this focus means that I, as a player who has little interest in those features, seem to have negligable negative side effects upon switching to the F2P model, I am more concerned that this means the development team will have FAR greater incentive to concentrate on balancing/developing/etc. operations/flashpoints/warzones, at the expense of the single player story.

 

And said single player story is the only thing I really care about. Any chance of flipping that whole thing on it's head, so story is what you have to pay for, and the op/flashpoint/warzone garbage is what's free?

[Please no more than 1 companion mission for F2Pers]

I'd be inclined to argue limit on GTN slots/inability to send items/money to other accounts via mail would solve the problem w/o impacting their ability to "legitimately" craft should they want to.

 

'Course, I'd be inclined to argue that F2Pers shouldn't be able to send any money/items to other players via mail, or even put money/items into guild vaults. (possibly even not able to join guilds, since they can't do ops anyways, and severe limit on warzones)

[Where's the artifice love? /angry about purple, white and cyan]

If they weren't planning on adding these, could they have at least mentioned it? So we could buy a few before they removed the vendor. I wish I would have gotten some for alts. But I figured I could just make them... but nooo. /cry

 

Not sure on Purple/Cyan, (which I believe *are* still available, though perhaps not crafteable), but they DID say White wouldn't be available any time soon once the 1.2 crystal guy was gone. (think basically said no plans to make it available at all at this point, though once past 1.5 or whatever they have designed for, it's always a possibility it'll come back))

[Should not allow follower to join outdoor pvp battle]

There's no such thing as good PvP in an RPG. It's always gonne tend to come down to who has the better stats. Whether that includes companion stats (and how they interact with the main's stats) or not. Either way it's only marginally going to be based on player skill.

 

So why bother doing any work to try to "fix" it?

 

(not to mention open up a heck of a way to grief. Start pestering lvl 50's with your lvl 5 by attacking them when they are fighting some elite or something. POOF goes their companion.)

[GTN pricing concerns.]

*shrug*

 

I don't see much difference between undercutting by a little, and undercutting by a lot. Undercutting by a lot just gets the point across faster to other undercutters that undercutting will eventually kill your profits.

 

I almost never undercut*. I almost always price-match lowest. However, if somebody decides to aggressively undercut, (i.e. shortly after I price match, putting up another version for sale to undercut his own "tied" price), then I'll (depending on item) be very likely to start flooring the market. Put a bunch of the item up for sale at what I consider the minimum price it'd be worth it to me to make the item.

 

*When there's a price I've been selling an item for at a decent enough clip, and somebody puts the same item up at what I consider a rediculous price, I don't really consider it undercutting to keep my own price. Particularly when it isn't a particularly rare/hard to make item. (i.e. non-augmented custom orange waist/wrist post 1.3)

[What happens when you get a critical on non-augment, non-modification gear?]

As stated, for *most* things you end up with 2. The only exceptions I can think of are spaceship upgrades and speeders. (no idea why, probably some broken logic like they are so expensive, getting an extra would be such a huge plus. But since it's all percentage based, it would still be the same *percentage* of benefit.)

[How does companion affection affect crew skills?]

IIRC, every 2000 points of affection gives +1% crit and +3% efficiency.

 

Crit for mission/gathering skills affects the quantity of mats you get, whether you get rares and, for some, whether you get additional goodies like schematics. (for some, getting schematics is apparently unrelated to critting)

 

Crit for crafting results in either an extra free item, (most things that aren't directly equipped) or an augment slot (things that are directly equipped).

 

I don't believe there are any rich grade 6 mat missions for any crewskill. (edit: There are rich grade 6 missions that give lower grade stuff like grade 5 companion gifts or first ait kits, etc.)

[Where's the money at now?]

so is there any way to make money with biochem at the moment?

 

At least on my server, implants of various levels have always sold reasonably well. Not get rich in a weekend well, but a decent profit unless the cost of mats has gone WAY up since I last checked. (I don't actually buy any mats from the GTN, as I consider them all rediculously overpriced, I get all mine via missions, so I'll admit it's possible I could be out of touch with the current mat prices)

[Not getting mission discovery missions]

And why the f!@# not? How else are you supposed to get them?

From any lockbox mission when it crits? If 340 missions guaranteed a 340 discovery, they'd be a tad OP. As is the purple mats they give are pretty darn nice.