Discovered this post today when I encountered the *exact same problem almost a full year later*. Unbelievable that this garbage is still broken...Especially for something that would literally lock your progress on the story, forcing you to skip over the entire rest of the Iokath/traitor storyline to start Ossus. I *did* ultimately find a way to cheese this though. If your character has access to a speed boost (not rocket boost as that will affect Theron as well), go to the very back of the train, the furthest you can get from the turrets to get Theron into the corner. Then run forward and use your speed boost to reach and trigger the door before Theron makes it far enough to aggro the turrets and get you stuck in combat. I was able to cheese it on Assassin with Force Speed. Bioware...it is literally so stupid that I had to do this to get past what would otherwise be a lock on story content that's existed since 2017. It's ridiculous and it's unacceptable. p.s. you owe me 80k credits for repairs....

I see what you did there, you sly duck...

I decided to try out a new race recently and went with Twi'lek. Generally, when they're standing still, they look pretty cool. However, every time I draw my blaster pistol, the left lekku starts...uh, vibrating... Is this some kind of graphics/physics problem on my end? Is it some ill-advised Twi'lek danger sense? Interpretive dance? Mating call? Or is it maybe, unbelievably, an annoying and stupid looking bug that's been in the game since launch? Don't say the last one, don't say the last one, don't say the last one...

Aha, didn't even notice there was an XP event going on. That solves it - thanks!

I created a new character last night, a Sith Warrior. I got to level 9 before quitting for the evening. Today, I decided to remake the character on account of having second thoughts about the name I'd picked. It had taken less than an hour to get to 9, so I figured no big deal. However, after following all the same steps and completing all the same quests, I've gotten to a point where I'm (at least) a full level behind where I was in the first, badly named incarnation. Last night, when I got the quest to go use the loyalty doodad on people outside the Sith Academy to identify traitors, I remember having the Ravage ability, which unlocks at level 8. Tonight, starting the quest, I'm just barely level 7. Somehow, I'm missing over 10K XP which, at level 7, is fairly significant. And to make matters more interesting, I've been under the effect of a major XP boost item since the second iteration was created, which should have resulted in me leveling 30% faster than I did last night (I wasn't using a boost for the first, abominably named incarnation). Just doing some simple math, I would have had to hang around the starting tombs area, killing close to 100 more of those silly slug things than I did in order to be level 8 at the start of the loyalty doodad quest (which I didn't do the first time around). Any ideas why I'm (relatively) so much lower the second time around? Was there some sort of XP event that ended last night? Is there maybe a bug with the XP boost items? I've run around the area and made sure I didn't miss any quests. At that point in the story, there just aren't very many quests even available to pick up yet. And yes, I had the map set to show exploration missions on both characters from the start.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm going to be talking about the quest [Weapons of Chaos], which is a seeker droid quest related to the dread masters. If you haven't done it yet and don't want to hear about it...go away. Ok, so I get the call from some sith lady who tells me the dread masters are being total buttholes and planting fear seeds all over the galaxy in what I can only assume is their own twisted take on the plot of Batman Begins. She gives me a fancy new archaeology - I mean seeker - droid and tells me to get to it. Alright, ok, let's roll. First stop: Hoth...err, hang on. Is that right? Let me check my...yep, it says Hoth. Hmm...and Tatooine...Taris? Ok, you get the idea. I imagine a lot of people's first thought when they looked at that quest was something along the lines of: "why am I going back to these terrible place?" I'll modify that for our friends on the RP servers: "why did the dread masters plant fear seeds in these terrible places?" It actually reminded me a bit of the first Austin Powers, when Dr Evil is outlining all his plans and #2 keeps shooting them down. Maybe something like: Dread Master: Finally...our long sleep is ended. The wretches of this galaxy shall once again taste true fear. We shall soak their bones with it - make them howl like broken beasts. It shall begin...with Hoth! Lackey: ...uh, Hoth? You know - I mean, no disrespect or anything - but Hoth is kind of...remote. It's really cold so, you know, not alot of people live there. I mean, it's pretty much just ice and stupid animals. Dread Master: ...yes...of course. That was a joke. Ha. Ha Ha. Laugh. Lackey: HAHAHAhahaahAHAahaHAHAHAAaauughgh...*whimper* Dread Master: No...it shall truly begin...with Tatooine! Lackey: Hsss...oooo...yeah, you see, what you did there? You kind of went to the other extreme. Because you know Tatooine, it's like...super hot...also, remote. You remember Hoth? Yeah, well pretty much replace ice with a desert that covers the whole planet, and you've got Tatooine. Dread Master: ...yes...of course. That was a test. You have passed. But seriously...our dark work shall begin...with Taris! Lackey: ... Dread Master: ...Taris? Lackey: *winces, shakes his head* Dread Master: Aww come on guys! Taris. That's like a city planet right? Cities have lots of people! Lackey: Yeah, but...remember? Taris was kind of...completely destroyed? Dread Master: So? That was like a million years ago! Lackey: Well...a bit more recent... Dread Master: Whatever. Haven't they rebuilt by now? Lackey: No, it's still umm...you know, still completely destroyed. Yeah, and the whole place is infested with these really annoying monsters. I mean infested...they're freaking everywhere. Dread Master: Oh. Well that's good then. Hell, how about we just plant one in Corellia. They're still big time Republic right? Lackey: Yes master...an inspired choice for sure... I guess we should really be thanking the dread masters for their poor choices. Oh, and the sith lady too for making a mountain out of a mole hill and paying me good money to wander around for a few minutes on each planet digging up goofy stuff. The affected areas certainly looked cool - especially the glow rancor on Corellia. But I tell you...those moisture farmers. They've got no idea how close they came to PANDEMONIUM!!!

Kubernetic, your argument that the contact doesn't accept holocalls for security purposes is understandable. And it can work to explain similar hoops the agent has to jump through for other questlines. But, I don't think it applies here, and my counterargument is equally effortless: "But he does." There are multiple instances throughout the Taris questline where that contact is perfectly happy to talk to you over the holophone. Furthermore, in this particular case, he doesn't provide any sort of confidential or delicate information, instead basically telling the agent to go where the bad guys are already heading and beat them to the [spoiler info redacted]. As for the operative/sniper choice - I'll admit that was a hard sell. For all the other classes I've played, one choice had always stood out as far more entertaining (in my opinion of course). I'd been playing a Marauder previous to this toon though, and the prospect of sniping enemies from super far away instead of wading into the middle of them was too enticing to pass up. Finally, maybe I'm being dense here, but what does CTIA stand for? Google didn't come through for me on that one. Okay, next up: lordspyder. You reference the opening scene of Episode 4 where the Rebel ship is captured by Darth Vader, however, if you think about that situation and compare it to the one I posted about, it becomes fairly obvious that they're fundamentally different. So let's break it down. Let me preface this by admitting that I don't have a solid understanding of how holophones function or how the Stars Wars equivalent to the Internet (hereafter the SWInternet) functions. I'd go look it up on the Star Wars wiki, but that prospect frightens me because I imagine I'd spend my entire day reading all sorts of Star Wars fun facts. From various dialog provided in game, I know that neither technologies are providers of instantaneous communications (like the quantum entanglement doohickies from Mass Effect for example). So the messages have to be routed to their destination. That's enough information for my argument. Okay, so Episode 4. In the hypothetical situation you provided, the Princess is holophoning/emailing Rebel HQ on Yavin 4. She's doing this inside a heavily damaged ship that's in the process of being dragged inside a much larger Star Destroyer. Assuming that the Imperials are complete imbeciles and haven't already destroyed the ship's communications array (I think that's actually one of the first shots of the movie - the Star Destroyer shoots a laser at their communications dish, blowing it up), its a safe bet they're jamming any communications the ship might try to make. But let's go at this from a different angle by asking the question: would the Rebels even use SWInternet at all? This is a galaxy wide communications network - a resource of immeasurable strategic value. And this is a galaxy ruled by a totalitarian regime that doesn't see anything wrong with destroying an entire planet in an effort to ensure compliance. You can bet every dollar/credit/whatever that the Imperials have that under lock and key. And in a universe where droids and planet destroying spaceships and hyperdrives exist, the computational power available would be similarly monstrous - certainly enough to provide impressive monitoring capabilities on the routers that facilitate the network's functioning. Even more so for communications carrying large attachments - say for instance the complete plans to a giant murder station. But let's dismiss that, and go from yet another angle. Accessing the SWInternet would provide a trivial means for the Empire to track down Rebel locations. Just follow the data requests. From the movies, we see that the Rebels enjoy making bases on remote, unsettled planets. Farming out data processing to droid intelligence, the Imperials could easily make a map of SWInternet requests filtered by star system and even planet. Cross reference that with known population centers - hmmm, it looks like some data requests are coming in from the *whatever system Yavin is in* system - Yavin 4 in particular. No registered settlements on Yavin 4, mark it for probe exploration. Now granted, when you account for smuggling, pirating, and the inevitability of incomplete records for a government that rules over a galaxy, there'd be a lot of false positives - a lot of probes being sent out to dead ends. But considering the lengths the Rebels go to in their efforts to remain undetected, it's likely they wouldn't take the risk. Now, of course, all of these arguments are only assumptions and you could easily throw the old adage of what that makes of the two of us in my face. But I think they're rational. So let's consider the situation I described in the original post. I'm on a planet that's largely been destroyed. There's no war raging. I'm not being hounded by agents of a galactic government. And I'm trying to communicate with someone who's on the same planet and within a short speeder ride's distance to me. Oh, and the topic of our conversation isn't galaxy shattering in importance. Oh, and the galaxy wide communications network is run by a third party desperately trying to maintain neutrality (not that SWInternet factors into this situation at all, but its worth mentioning). So...that was a lot of rambling on my part. One last thing. I've noticed many of the posts are along the lines of "well that's just how MMO's are", and as I pointed out in the original post, I understand that. To reiterate, the fact that I have to run back to talk to the contact isn't what bothers me. There are hundreds of quests where you have to do that - it's not fun, but it's shrug-worthy. What got me upset was that the quest just seemed a blatant example of the developers not even trying to leverage the Star Wars universe into the Star Wars game they were making. And as others pointed out, the game is rife with these kinds of moments. I suppose its a situation of the straw that broke the camel's back.

I remember when they added the option to go directly to your ship from the shuttle on the planets that didn't have spaceports. I got so excited - it was like Christmas morning. To put on the conspiracy theorist hat for a moment, maybe this was their plan from the start. Willfully implement a series of tired and irritating systems and then streamline them in future patches: ToR Patch Notes 2.0 -== General Changes ==- You know those orbital stations? The ones you were always like "Why do these exist?" Yeah, we totally got rid of all those. What, you want more than that? We're on vacation. Seriously, go away. -== ==- Honestly, just writing nonsense in a forum post was enough catharsis. After the post, I logged back in and finished Taris. And I must say, I enjoyed the Captain Planet villain overtones in several of the quests. Imperial Sociopath: "Marvelous work...the Republic scum are fleeing in droves. Now, go knock over those barrels of toxic waste." Player: "Sure, I guess. I mean, you're paying right?" Now, if only we could have just discussed that over the holophone...

Before I get started, fair warning: I'll be briefly discussing a class quest for the Imperial Agent on Taris. I'll try to make it spoiler free. So, the class quest I'm going to use as an example is [The Cult of Ki Sazen]. Without getting into details, I had just finished beating up some alien punks and getting information from them about their boss. I called my contact using my holophone or whatever. They weren't impressed with the information I got, and wanted some more. I told them I could go talk to another contact of mine that I'd met when I'd first arrived on Taris. Good deal, let's give him a call. ...or not. No, it turns out I can't just call him up on my holophone. I have to run back through the tediously lengthy Rakghoul infested sewers, take a speeder back to the starter zone, ride out to where I first found the contact, wade through another tedious Rakghoul infested building, and finally talk with him face to face. And what happens? He gives me some information. It's not on a disc or a card and he doesn't give me any maguffin to complete my next task. Words come out of his mouth into my ear. That's it. Let's break it down. Fighting my way back out of the sewers is fine. I'd have to do that anyways to get on with questing elsewhere, and by then its very likely that quick travel is off cooldown and begging to be used. But everything past that is, quite frankly, unacceptable. Why do I have to run all the way back to this guy when all that's necessary is a call from my holophone. It screams out as just a way to keep you in the game longer. I'm not saying that was the intent - I don't think the developers are sitting in their offices coming up with malicious ways to waste all our times - but when its this blatant, its hard not to get upset. So I got upset. I got so upset that I exited out of the game and started looking for a way to contact Bioware to tell them how upset I was. And when I couldn't find an email address dedicated to taking crap from whiny customers, I decided to write a forum post and whine to the community. And here we are. The time wasted on the long run and the grinding through trash mobs isn't the problem. I've played World of Warcraft for close to 5 years and I've been playing ToR since launch - those things aren't fun, but they're expected. It's hard to get upset by them when they're such a core piece of the experience. What makes me so upset is that the developers didn't seem to realize they were making a Star Wars game. They knew they were making a game. Games have quests. Easy enough. What do you do in quests (standard MMO style quests that is)? You go kill bad guys. Easy enough. What do you do when you're through killing bad guys? Well that's the best part! You go back to town and get your reward! Easy enough. But hang on. Aren't we making a Star Wars game? Yeah. Okay, so why do we need to run back to town to get our reward? Characters have holophones. They've got credit accounts. Why not call up the interested parties when the job's done? Maybe something like: Player: *calls up Freddy on the holophone* Freddy: Hello? Player: Hey Freddy, just wanted to give a shout out - those Jawas won't be bothering you anymore. Freddy: Is that a burning sandcrawler behind you? Is that screaming? Player: It was like that before I got here. Don't worry about it Freddy. Let's settle up. Freddy: Alright. I'll transfer some credits into your account - maybe a little something extra since you came through so quickly... Player: Thanks Freddy. You're good people. Easy enough right? I'm not saying every quest needs to be completed via holophone - the current method works for many quests in the game. It gives the sense of your character slowly earning a reputation in a given location as a problem solver - more quests begin to open up, people take note. And of course there's all the quests where you need to physically pick up the *insert techno-babble maguffin here*. But for those quests where all you're doing is running a great distance to talk to someone (of which I've noticed many), this would be a Godsend. And more importantly, it adds that much more immersion into the universe we all love. "Aww man, I'm done with these Jawas but now I've got to ride all the way back to the spaceport to tell Freddy." "No you don't man, just call him up on your holophone!" "Oh yeah! I've got a holophone!" "Hell yeah you've got a holophone! This is freekin Star Wars!" To borrow a line, that's all I've got to say about that. But I'm interested in what other people think. What are some other examples where you've seen proof that the developers didn't know (or maybe they just forgot for a second - let's not be too mean) they were making a Star Wars game? I'll close on a positive note. To be frank, these complaints are fleeting things - easily forgotten and readily forgiven. At the end of the day, I'll remember a far more enjoyable time. Prowling through a broken city - buildings like cracked ribs of a beast that died long ago. Hunting. Scheming. Such a small thing...that little red dot - seems wrong that it should bring so much death. I guess I closed on a melodramatic note. I won't apologize for that.