Personally, fleet during peak hours is far more infected with idiots spouting non-sense in general chat. Maybe because there is no easy "cure". Nearly every MMO out there has had to struggle against virtual currency traders on a persistent basis, much less actually managing to completely cured itself of it. Even text filters can be worked around and for the developers to keep pace with the ever evolving advertising methods of the traders, some man hours must be allocated for monitoring duties on a regular basis. Note that I'm not saying that BW shouldn't bother with making *any* type of effort towards curbing these types of activities. Still, the way you have gone about your "fix it" demands is anything but realistic. In fact, I can only think of two plausible methods that have the potential to seriously hurt if not eliminating nearly all currency trading activities in a MMO. 1. Eliminating the virtual monetary system entirely and make every piece of equipement bind on pick up so even items can't be traded for real currencies. 2. The developers can start selling in-game currency themselves or at the minimum sanctioning specific 3rd parties with that task. A flexable pricing structure would also have to be included so regular adjustments could be made to undercut unauthorized traders. I doubt either of these options are palatable for the vast majority of MMO players out there, not to mention the second option would certainly have some regulatory and legal hurdles to clear.

My ability animation change wishlist is more.... general. I personally would like the ability animation for all lightsaber classes to be changed in a way so when we chain multiple combat abilities together it would look more fluid. Alas the complexity and amount of work involved in that would be tremendous thus I'm not exactly holding my breath for it to be implemented either.

Not sure where you have been for the past decade but the leveling process in MMOs in general hasn't exactly been "challenging" since the first (late 90's EQ, AC, UO, Lineage) and second (early 2000's FFXI, DAoC, Lineage 2, etc) generations of MMOs. There is no MMO in the U.S. market right now (that I know of) which has a leveling pace that even remotely approaches the degree of grind associated with those above games. If you thought leveling in TOR is too easy and not challenging enough, you must have not played DDO or CoH/CoV during its final 2-3 years prior to its shut down.

I'm pretty sure you could've made your points without going *there*. Maybe you're quite young and haven't set your priorities straight just yet so here's a life lesson. Bragging about online/virtual achievements or how you're better than someone at a game (where no professional gaming option is even available) is akin to the real life equivalent of "my dad can beat up your dad". It is a pointless, intangible, and abundantly immature statement in layman's terms. Tone down the e-peen level and focus your energy on achieving something in the real world where income, recognition, awards and professional achievement actually have tangible effects which in turn can vastly improve one's standard of living. Not exactly a novel idea but I have personally found that such reminders are sadly needed quite often in this internet age we live in now.

Are you referring to removing weapon proficiencies so any class can wield any weapon? If so, I'm really not sure where you get that above assumption from. Just imagine a Marauder dual wielding... blasters? Now imagine what that Marauder's Gore, Rupture, Battering Assault, Dual "Saber" Throw animations would look like......

/signed I know we have housing coming but that doesn't mean BW can't add more functionalities to the interior of our ships which were technically designed to be a form of portable housing to begin with. If we had a mobile home and a permanent residence, there is no reason why we shouldn't have access to friges or toilets in both. I'd like to be able to eat and poop in both places tyvm.

I guess this is one area where SWTOR actually follows real world logic to a certain extent. Armor protection is generally more intensive around the vital areas of the body, mainly head, abdoman and upper chest areas. Damages done to the head, neck, heart, lungs, stomach or thighs (assuming it severs the femoral artery) are exceptionally dangerous where as losing an extremity is far less fatal.

Are you new to MMOs or something? Even if the queues do take a little bit longer, this can simply be explained away by each time there is a new playable content release (DF/DP NiM and the new FPs in this case), people tend to gravitate toward them for the first few weeks. With more people doing those things, it is rather obvious that the queue for the old content (PVP/GSF/HM FP/etc) is going to suffer as a result. Unless the game population is growing at an exponential pace, the above is actually quite close to a "zero sum" game in other words. Give it another week or two and queues will gradually return to normal, it wouldn't be the first time this has happened. Yes because "respect" coming from people you have never technically met and likely will never talk to again after quitting actually means something. You speak as if it is some badge of honor when in reality it is just a contrived notion of how people perceive *you* which is something that can't really be quantified or measured in a tangible fashion. That is unless you actually go around asking people "do you respect me?" as if you're doing some sort of poll for youself which would be exceptionally vain and petty beyond all reason. You naive idealists make me lol. This is precisely why people shouldn't take your "perceptions" regarding the game seriously.

Once a month is way too much. Players would just partake in the event 3 months in a row, acquire enough helix to grab pretty much everything at the rep vendor and never bother with it again. After 6 months the event would be dead. Perhaps once every quarter (3 months) is more reasonable and realistic.

BW should have dumped the mod/armoring/hilt labeling system (30, 31, 34, etc) and kept the one that was already being displayed in the character sheet (66, 72, 78, etc). For example, instead of seeing guardian armoring 34, we'd see guardian armoring 78 instead when we pop open our gloves, boots, etc. That change would have made the least amount of impact on the players while still serving the simplification purpose and yet, BW chose the facepalm method instead. With that said, what's going to happen in 2-3 years when level cap is increased to 65 or 70 and several new tiers of gear are introduced? Our character sheet will then be flooded with 260, 308 or some other ridiculous triple digit numbers. I'm just waiting for the day that "666" shows up Funny thing is, the 69/72/78 system was also the most popular option so why did BW decide to ditch it? Intentionally trolling the player base perhaps?

BW did this to artificially create "gear grinding" so people won't be able to get a full set of ulti comm gear within a mere month of release. Thus, people who care about min-maxing or doing hard mode ops can expect to spend an extra 300-500 ultis (depending on advanced class) to swap out the undesirable mods/enhancements. On the other hand, people who don't care about that can just acquire the stock pieces and be done with it while still being able contribute just fine in story mode operations. Ulti comm gear is already easy enough to get when compared to their equivalent gear in other MMOs so I don't particularly understand what all this fuss is about. It is really "much ado about nothing", to quote a certain English playwright. ------ As for the OP's suggestion of buying the armoring/mods/enhancement off the GTN is somehow faster or more efficient than actually running the operations for ulti comms, that's just absurd. If you don't run operations then you won't be able to obtain the mats. As such, MMGs are going for 700-800k on Shadowland right now (last I checked) and 2 of them is required to make those mods. Assuming that you have enough basic comms from grinding dailies to buy all the iso-5s you need, there's still the cost of EEEs (300-400k for 8 or 40k-50k each) to take into consideration. All told, that's nearly 1.8-2 million credits for just 1 armoring/mod/enhancements or 5-6 million for all 3 to fully slot a piece of gear. Even after the prices come back down to pre-2.7 level eventually (350-450k for MMG and 30k for EEE), it would still cost about a million in mats alone for each armoring/mod/enhancement. There is only so much time in a week for dailies or playing the GTN to make credits. In contrast, someone who runs about 8-10 operations a week (not including TC) on various level 55s will acquire enough ulti comms to purchase at least 3 pieces of ulti gear. This is not to mention they will also get to keep their credits to buy other goodies such as mounts, emotes or what not off the GTN. Of course I won't preclude the possibility that there are people out there who can make 10-20 million credits a week without breaking a sweat so they could conceivably afford to go about upgrading their gear through the GTN. Still, that is simply not a realistic option for the vast majority of other players out there. P.S: Operations also give an abundance of elite comms which I (as an example) use to outfit companions, fresh level 55 alts or alternate role gear. This is something that the "GTN purchase method" also won't allow.

Would be interesting for sure. Signed.

Which makes perfect business sense considering OS X usage share worldwide was a mere 7.5-8% (all versions) as of last year. This rather limited user base is certainly not enough for most game companies to commit significant resources towards. Mac users should have been resigned to the fact that they are simply not going to get what they want when it comes to computer gaming options by now. After all, it's not as if this is a new revelation either as Macs were *never* popular gaming machines since the genre opened up during the early 90's. This isn't Apple bashing, this is just the facts which most likely will retain its status quo for many years to come considering Mac price point is anything but "mass market" ready.

Animation. If BW allowed Marauders to use double-bladed sabers, they would have to re-do the animation for every Sith Warrior combat skill as well as the unique ones under each of the 3 Marauder talent trees. As examples, rupture or battering assault would look absolutely ridiculous if we simply replaced the 2 sabers with a double-bladed. The same goes for Assassins wielding 2 lightsabers as half of the combat moves would look like the Assassin is impaling himself with 1 of the sabers. That's a whole lot extra work for a minimal amount of tangible benefits or busy work if you will. If you were running a business, busy work is the last thing one would want to spend energy and resources on. It's done, gone, kaput, adios. You should have arrived at the 5th stage of the grief/loss process long ago so yes, it is very much time to move on. That kind of "purist" sandbox MMO is simply not going to survive in today's far more competitive MMO market, supported by a customer base with shorter attention span and lower tolerance level for menial time sink content.

I'm fine with the fact that the items were limited time only and rotated through out the day but really? On a Friday? The criticism in this case is perfectly justified. To the people automatically going for that cliche "entitlement" argument, at least try to utilize some business logic for a change of pace. For starters, just what do players use to purchase SWTOR cartel coins? Real life currency or disposable income if you will. How do players come up with that disposable income in the first place? Through working. And what is typical working schedules for most types of jobs? Monday through Friday, somewhere between 7-8am in the morning all the way to 6-7pm at night. With all of that in mind, just how in the world does starting the CM sale on a Friday morning make any sense at all? It's not as if the real life example of "Black Friday" could be used as a legitimate argument considering a lot of folks (and companies/agencies) actually take that day off as a consequence of Thanksgiving. Or perhaps BW/EA was trying to cater to the college students and teenagers who have far more flexible hours? [sARCASM]Oh yes, those groups without a doubt have significant income of note that they could burn on the CM.[/sARCASM] Secondly, even if this "sale" was a promotional stunt designed to counter the launch of ESO and keep the attention of existing TOR players, it still doesn't change the fact that this target audience would have to wait until they got off work on Friday before deciding whether to hop on ESO or TOR. As such, starting the sale early on in the day actually didn't have that much of an impact on that decision process thus from a marketing standpoint, it was a poorly thought out failure as well. If BW/EA was indeed attempting to grab at TOR gamer's attention with this sale, they would have been much better served by starting it on Friday evening and have it continue all the way to Saturday evening. There is no retail rule stating that sales can't overlap two separate days of the week. I really have to wonder if it was EA that pushed this idea onto BW. If true, that would make this curious sale timeline much more logical as anyone with a financial background would know, EA is pretty incompetent (to put it mildly) when it comes to business analytics and public relations during recent years.

OP, let us establish a couple of things first. For starters, the vast majority of MMO players (including TOR) are not what you would call "hardcore" roleplayers. In fact, the extent of "roleplay" which most TOR player would expand their energy on are as follows; picking the appropriate light/dark side options, choosing character outfits, or "oooh look, a flagged pub/imp. KILL!!!" Basically what I'm saying is that the truly devoted roleplay population in TOR is rather small when compared to the more numerous PVE or PVP crowds. With all the above in mind, I think the method you chose to present your ideas (which were extremely geared towards hardcore roleplay) is precisely the reason behind why you have received quite a few negative reactions. Essentially you are insinuating that BW should devote an entire major game update specifically or solely for RP purposes and added a release schedule to boot. Let us rehash the items included within the past few 2.x content updates really quick. 2.3 New CZ daily area, FPs, Bounty week, Treek and bunch of new CM items. 2.4 New Oricon operations, daily area, gear tiers and WZ Arena. 2.5: GSF early access and tons of class balancing changes. 2.6: GSF launch, KDY, a lot more class/ability balancing changes. Needless to say, each of those updates included a lot of content and changes to the existing system. With tha said, there is simply no way to justify devoting an entire game update that will only cater to the small number of devoted roleplayers, not if BW/EA has any business sense at all. In any case, had you made your suggestion in a more generic list format with a more fluid schedule stretched out to several content updates, your ideas might just have been more well received.

Female Cathar, white fur, body type 4 wearing Hollowed Gothic headgear. Eh, I don't really care if people wants to dress like Hello Kitty or any other way for that matter. It would actually be kind of amusing if someone ccould put together an outfit (sans headgear) to pull off that look. To each their own.

See, the one thing I think you are forgetting about is that the Sith Empire is basically a collection powerful individuals, each having their own personal agenda in mind. Granted, the collective goal of the Empire is to crush the Republic and dominate the galaxy but the presence of that overarching aim does not preclude the existance of individualistic goals whether it is that of the Emperor or Dark Council members. That's the foundamental problem I have with playing Republic characters because no matter what they do, it still feels like they are just a cog within the grand delusion of so-called Republic goodness and justice. You might be a hero to the Republic but in the end, you are still forever bound to do someone else's bidding. I mean let's face it, the bureaucracy of the Republic is far too much for one individual to overcome or even ignore. All of that is in contrast to the Empire side where you actually have a vested emotional interest in seeing your character's rise through the ranks by advancing their own goals. Now I'm not trumpeting individualism or anything like that but when I am working my way through a work of fiction, that kind of vested interest in the development of my characters is very important when it comes to entertainment value. Yeah I have read that many years ago. It was pretty good series and like you, I was rooting for Thrawn as well.

And this was just one story of formerly Republic members who then changed sides to collaborate with the Empire. Too late, I have already served in the military and minored in military history in college which is precisely why I am taking you to the cleaners in the military strategy portion of our discussion. Secondly, don't presume to know "me". You are neither qualified or educated enough to make that bold presumption. If I am a sociopath then you are just plainly ignorant. Finally, every side in a war commits "war crimes", even the supposed good guys. War by nature is inhumane and has a negative effect on the human psyche. You naivety about war and the ugly nature behind it is showing. Just... stop.

No, obviously not though I do respect directness and determination in achieving ones goal, whatever it may be. I don't respect wishy-washiness, naivety or fake facades. And frankly, your comparison of the Emperor's goal to a real life equivalency is utterly invalid.

Well of course it is not going to match. The game has to adhere to the established lore which is that the Republic won the war. You can't have the Sith/BH/Agent start running around offing every core Jedi Master, General or Senator the Republic has which will then beg the question "so how did the Sith Empire lose the war?" In essence, the Empire story lines were hamstrung from the beginning because it has to operate under the condition that the PCs can't do anything *too* significant that will turn the tide of war clearly to the Empire's favor. It would confuse the audience to no end and make no sense in the grand scheme. Still, given the inherent limitations placed on it, even you can not deny that the Empire PCs has incapcitated quite of few important Republic figures during the process of reaching that ending you spoke of.

If you wish to quote me, at least do so correctly. I said that that "Empire" was direct about embracing its philosophy which is to get rid of the Republic and dominate the galaxy by any means necessary no matter how ruthless. In that light, yes, even the Emperor is embracing that philosophy quite clearly.

Umm, no. There were several major reasons why the Vietnam War was such a fiasco and lack of proper guerilla warfare training for our soldiers was only one such reason. 1. Lack of popular support back home. As the war dragged on and became a quagmire, war fatique in the general populace is bound to set in. 2. The South Vietnamese leadership was disinterested, incompetent and far too reliant on the U.S. to carry the fight. On top of that, the South Vietnamese people didn't even really want the war as many of them saw the foreign U.S. soldiers being as much a threat as the North Vietnamese. 3. The political will to execute the war was never there. The war was fought under a limited scale philosophy thus we were never able to commit our full force to the conflict, save for one or two aerial bombing campaigns (Linebackers). Anyway, the war was fought this way in order to avoid antagonizing the Soviets and China even further which will then prompt their direct entrance into the war. In essence, political leaders were handcuffing the military leaders and making their decisions for them. See the battles of Midway, Guadalcanal, "Taffy" engagement of Leyte Gulf, Gravelines and Trafalgar to see the error of your ways. Numbers is only one factor in any battle and hardly the deciding one that you are so keen on espouing. /facepalm I see that you need more education. During the first war (which you said the Empire should've been crushed), the Empire didn't just have the advantage of tactics. They had the element of surprise. They had a shorter supply line. They had smaller theatres of action to concetrate their forces on. In effect, they had the full initiative and were dictating to the Republic where the engagements would take place. In contrasts, the Republic were caught flat footed, wholly unprepared for a conflict of that size. You said that the Republic had a lot more soldiers than the Empire, well Sherlock, that's because the Republic has a whole lot more territory to defend. As such, the Republic defense line was quite long thus their forces were spread out thinly. Finally, there is also the fact that the Emprie was winning the propaganda war which caused a lot of defections among many Republican planets. This is hilarious, you speak as if the Republic leaders or officers are competent? Here's a news flash for you. War is ugly and requires a certain amount of ruthlessness and inhumanity. Anyone who has actually fought in a war will tell you that much which is why so many suffer from PTSD after returning from combat tours. The naive idealist ways that the Republic NPCs/PCs are often portrayed as (light side options at least) is NOT the way to fight or win a war. Given your rather amateurish and rudimentary understanding of military knowledge, history and discipline, I don't think you have the room to call anyone "dumb".

You just keep on harping that obtuse "Sith players are actually evil in real life" non-sense". In fact, I encourage it because by doing so, you are proving via your judgmental nature that you aren't exactly such a "good person" yourself. Yes, just keep maintaining that "us vs them" or "I'm good, they're bad" mentality. I'm sure that's going to serve you oh so well in your daily life. Follow up question: Who are you to define what is "good" or "evil" in real life anyway? What you may perceive as an "evil act" in real life may in fact be observe by others as neutral or even good. Oh and the study you linked only mentioned virtual avatar may affect real life behaviors, as vague as that terminology is. It made no mentioned of good or evil actions what-so-ever unless you believe that chocolate=good and chili sauce=evil. Your argument has not even a shred of foundation to stand on.

How do actors get their start normally? I doubt the vast majority of our actors/actresses in this world are the products of acting schools such as Juilliard or California Institutes of the Arts. Heck, we "untrained" people act on a consistent basis as well such as putting up a "good first impression" for a date/job interview or pretending to be "fine" when in actuality you are upset. In my opinion, the level of empathic ability a person has is far more important than any form of training when it comes to playing a role.