Yes, our society is still very sexist. No, neither SWTOR nor videogames in general are an exception. In fact, video games and geekdom are even more sexist than our society in general. The main reason why female player characters are equal in almost all ways to male characters is balance. There's no reason to alienate the minority of female players, and male players play female characters too. Now, why do they do that? Sure, for some it's roleplay, but the reason I hear most often is, in the words of somebody who was, at least, honest: "If I'm staring at somebody's *** for hundreds of hours, it might as well be a hot ***." Objectification 101. Equal in almost all ways, I said. Contrary to male player characters, female characters are always (potential) sex objects. Slave girl bikinis, bare midriffs on armor that is perfectly normal on male characters and other sexy outfits, D-cup breasts as the absolute minimum of what's tolerated, even on the "juvenile" body type 1, the list goes on and on. If a game lets you play a female, it's always a "hot" one. Compare male and female body type 4, please. Then tell me how many female 3s and 4s you actually meet ingame. NPCs show the sexist thinking in character, as well: a plethora of stereotyped damsels-in-distress, scheming evil witches and others do nothing if not reinforce the woman as the helpless victim, willing sex object or the evil usurper of male power. Exceptions are rare. Add to that the treatment of women in gamer culture. In an MMO, she has to either pretend she's a guy or she'll be harassed out of her mind. Obviously, she can't play anything but a healer, and if she does, well, everybody smiles and tries not to tell her that, being a girl, they don't have high hopes for her. At conventions, she is either naturally pretty/cute, dresses in a ****ty (objectifying) cosplay outfit, or nobody will be interested. I'm not saying everybody is like that, but video games are a very strongly male-dominated social sphere and developers catering to the "***** single teens" market with Lara Croft and her Double-D-Legacy did not improve things.

The issue is still valid on German keyboards, and that is a supported language. Aside from that, it's not an issue with the language, or with other countries using different keyboard setups. Of course we could just switch our keyboard layouts with Windows, but then we'd have to press Z when we want to type Y all the time. This is 2012, by now the news that other countries have other keyboard layouts should not be news anymore. And the news that hardwired keybinds are really sloppy should not be news anymore, either. Certainly not to a company the size of BioWare. Heck, the only reason I never played through Baldur's Gate 2, and I kid you not, was that it had hardwired keybinds that permitted me from playing it with the same controls I used for Baldur's Gate 1! It was driving me nuts pressing the button for something I'd done a million times before, only to realize that "Oh, right, they don't let me do that anymore for no good reason whatsoever." I'm sure not everybody is the same, but to me, the controls and UI make or break a game. If I feel like I'm fighting the input system more than the enemies in the game, then that kills the fun. The key between ESC, TAB and 1 is a very important key for many people playing MMOs since it is very close to the "Hot Zone", as it's been called, the area around your hand, where you can easily and quickly reach. It is also important because you might accidentally press it when trying to press any of these three keys, all of which might happen during combat. That key should be mappable. At the very least, it should not be hardbound to something that kills you in PvP.

WoW lets you set a set of "default" keybinds. So you set those up, THEN you check the "unique keybinds" checkbox when you make character-specific changes. From then on, all new characters will use the "default" keybinds you specified. You can change those keybinds by making a new character. It's not ideal, but it's way better than having to set them up again every single time. WoW also lets me use addons for my UI, especially the action bars. Since those are made by the users, every serious UI addon has a "profiles" section. Because the users want those. Meaning after I've set up my UI once, I won't have to set it up for other characters anymore. I just import the settings. Oh, and nowadays, they keep the settings through patches, too. So no more mess on screen after a patch/expansion and new versions of addons. But it's not just keybinds, although they are the biggest part. Any change you make to the preferences has to be done again and again for every character. The same goes for chat windows. Now, assuming that, at some point, they'll fix the bug where your chat windows reset when you're creating alts, it would still take me about 5 minutes to set the keybinds, preferences and chat windows up. Those 5 minutes start adding up. I would like to, at some point, play through all the classes' storylines. They are, to me, the biggest strength of this game. So that means a lot of alts. It's happened in the past that I made a character, played a few levels, then realized I'd rather have him on another server, because I want to do different things with him, or play with friends I know over there. So that means more alts. I also like to RP and so sometimes I have to go and "try out" a character. Do I like the looks with the voice? Does the skin color look weird ingame? Does the hair do weird stuff when I move? How does he/she look when zoomed out? So I end up redoing characters a lot. By now, I think I've created about 20-30 characters in total and set up preferences, keybinds and chat windows for almost all of them. I don't even want to THINK about how often I've had to set up the chat window settings on my characters because the game simply reverted them to "standard". I would very, very, very much appreciate a profiles function.

I wrote these posts when I was angry. I should not write posts when I am angry.

I wrote these posts when I was angry. I should not write posts when I am angry.

I wrote these posts when I was angry. I should not write posts when I am angry.

I support this thread. This is a horribly broken mechanic. I am on a PvE server, not flagged for PvP, thus not wanting to PvP. Yet, another player can force me to do it, against my will, by stealthing into my AoE attacks. This is griefing and has to be disabled. Either that or remove PvE servers so we all at least know what we're getting into.

I fully support this. I have played other games on PvP servers for years, but I've decided to mind my own business in SWTOR for now, so I rolled on a PvE. I do NOT want to do world PvP UNLESS I flag myself. While I understand that buffing or healing a flaggd player HAS to flag me, I do not understand that: - An unflagged player's AoE attack can hit flagged players - An unflagged player's AoE heal can heal flagged players - An unflagged player can ressurrect a flagged corpse Please remove these functionalities to prevent griefing. Only direct heals/attacks should trigger the PvP flag. If it's easier to just make the game give us a red "You are not flagged for PvP!" warning even for targetted attacks, then sure, go ahead, do that. Attacking a flagged player out of an unflagged state is cowardly anyway. Also, you clearly have code that decides who I can attack (I can't attack friendlies) and who my AoE abilities hit (AoE attacks don't hit friendlies, AoE heals don't heal enemies), so it should be relatively simple.

I like that so far. The only thing that scares me is that, so far, I haven't seen additional quickbars. I mean, it's nice that we get to scale and move interface elements, but I SERIOUSLY need another quickbar or two, or some other fix to the whole companion quickbar issue, where I can only use the first four spells of him/her unless I expand the qb, and then it covers one of mine which I can no longer use.

My main is 34 Powertech, my alt somewhere around 15 Juggernaut I think. I level the main as a tank and am very, very glad for the companion system. Solo leveling tanks or healers is a pain in other MMOs and I find it quite fun here. The only annoying thing about it is that channelled CC Mako does, and which I can't turn off because zoning turns it back on again. But I think they'll fix that in 1.1 The alt (also tank) I only play with a friend who is on a 15 Sorcerer (heal). She dislikes her companion and sends him on missions or just hides him, except when we're 2manning 4man content. I like my Vette and the fact that the extra dps makes things go faster, but I could just leave her out, too. We do all class quests together and it's fun to see her story. Also, we get a ridiculous amount of social points that way. It IS possible to level to 50 without a companion, as has been said. For soloing, you'll have to outlevel, which will happen automatically if you do all missions on all worlds. Add some Flashpoints or space missions if you're still having trouble. Don't know about endgame solo PvE, though, I have to admit. But if, by then, you still have nobody on your friends list to do content with, you're doing it wrong. Grouping is also very viable and very fun, especially with the conversations, the fact that you can indeed come along on class missions, and the social points you get for it all. Sure, if you never want to talk to another player and only want to do yellow and orange missions, then you'll have to use a companion. If that's not an option for you, well, I hear there's other games out there. Have fun.

Am I allowed to bump?

I'm just gonna shamelessly plug my thread with a suggestion that should help calm everybody down a little right here: Link Skywalker Go there and make a post to bump it and bring it to BW's attention if you think this is a viable short-term solution: High Res textures for my character and my companion, please. Atlas map the heck outta everyone else, I couldn't care less. It's hard being heard in this mess of a thread, so bump it for constructive feedback!

I posted that in the long thread, but seeing what a hatestorm that is turning into, I thought I'd make a thread of my own. It's a serious suggestion that, I think, might solve a lot of people's issues with the textures. Please, if you feel the same, let your voice be heard in this thread. It does seem to me to be a viable option until they've sorted out whatever keeps them from letting us use high-res textures for everything: High Res textures for my character and, if possible my companion, please. Atlas map the heck outta everyone else, I couldn't care less. Out in the world, I'm running around, shooting stuff up, there's force lightning and explosions, droids roughing me up and Vinecats wanting to eat my ghoulies. I'm not looking at texture quality on player models there. I'm zoomed out to max to see all the stuff that wants to EAT me! I am also so amazed by how awesome the look, sound and feel of my abilities are (hell yeah I'm playing Bounty Hunter!), I don't have time to look at other people! Even less so in PvP! While I'm playing it, this game looks pretty good! But when I zoom in on my char and/or companion, whether in combat or out of it, when I look at them in the char menu or armor preview, I want to see the new gear I got. Not a blurry approximation of the gear. Not a hint at what my gear might look like in cutscenes. I want it to shine and sparkle, right then and there. Gimme! Pretty please.

I'm not gonna read through 61 pages, so even if it's been suggested already: High Res textures for my character and my companion, please. Atlas map the heck outta everyone else, I couldn't care less. Out in the world, I'm running around, shooting stuff up, there's force lightning and explosions, droids roughing me up and Vinecats wanting to eat my ghoulies. I'm not looking at texture quality on player models there. I am so amazed by how awesome the look, sound and feel of my abilities are (hell yeah I'm playing Bounty Hunter!), I don't have time to look at other people! Even less so in PvP! But when I zoom in on my char and/or companion, when I look at them in the char menu or armor preview, I want to see the new gear I got. Not a blurry approximation of the gear. Not a hint at what my gear miiight look like in cutscenes. I want it to shine and sparkle. Gimme! Pretty please.

I think this is not just an issue of "where do we want GTN terminals". A point that keeps coming up is how long it takes to get anywhere. Sure, a lot of us are spoiled by wow. Almost 500% flying speed (all in all), portals, well-placed zones and capital cities, plus 15-minute hearthstone, and that's for classes without additional teleports. But it really is quite a pain to have to get to the spaceport, then run (on foot) through the spaceport, have a quick loading screen for getting to your hangar, run up to your ship, have a not-so-quick loading screen for your ship, fly to the fleet, have another loading screen for landing, run out, take the elevator, mount up, go where you want to go. And then the same procedure in reverse order to get back to where you were! I don't even wanna think about what that's like on a slow computer! GTN on my ship? Sure, that's just 2 loading screens AND running to and from my ship AND getting to and from the spaceport. It's not good enough until I can quicktravel to my ship. Possible ideas (not without problems of their own, I know): a) The fleet pass and especially the quick travel cooldowns are too high. Make it an hour or 30 minutes for fleet and a maximum of 10 minutes for Quick travel and you don't have to add a single GTN terminal except on the worlds that don't have one yet. b) Don't give us worlds without GTN terminals! That's just horrible! c) Too many loading screens. Give us an option to travel from planet to planet without actually seeing the inside of the ship if we don't want to. d) No speeders in spaceports. Seriously, that has to go! e) Link Nar Shaddaa with either the Hutta-neutral or the faction GTNs. Pu-leeeze!