That might be a valid argument if your ship couldn't zip across the galactic disk in 3 seconds. Making people walk everywhere doesn't make the game feel epic, it makes it feel boring. For those who are having difficulty telling the difference: Epic:circumnavigating right around the world in Star Wars Galaxies to get back to your starting area as a newbie because you got lost, and having to run away from every high level creature that is out trying to rip your spleen out. Boring: wading through any number of trash mobs on the way to trudge though the same reskinned spaceport twice for the fifth time that say in The Old Republic.

To be honest, I think the game is at odds with itself. Long treks from A-B are a feature of the sandbox genre, not a focussed story RPG. If it doesn't serve any purpose to the story, it shouldn't be in there, not least of which because the gaps serve to keep us seperated from the other players we want to be playing with, which is incredibly dumb design for what is supposed to be a social game. What we've got is an uneasy mixture of a sandbox game without any sandbox, and an unfocussed story driven game.

I think the problem is that Bioware grey-box all their quests during the design phase. The walk probably isn't actually all that long when they're testing.

There doesn't have to be enough space on one planet. They can add more planets as instances if one starts to get full.

The thing about more difficult travel, is that it keeps players clustered together around safe zones. Note that I say "difficult", not "longer". The problem with the travel times is that they are simply time consuming. They offer little or no threat or challenge, especially if you're travelling to a lower level area. If one chooses to set out towards a destination to help a friend, they are a fait accompli, aside from the travel time. If you are travelling to help a lower level friend, the journey will be time consuming. And it will offer you, personally, exactly nothing, except the chance to very slowly retread areas you've already completed (over and over).

I don't disagree with the idea behind the security keys - I'd have added one if it was practical for me to do so. But travel passes in exclusive vendors who are often in relatively awkward positions doesn't seem like a great way to go about it. And 1000 credit consumables seems like a fairly lousy perk. Lets fact it, cosmetic colour crystals would automatically be more appealing. Give the passes to either medical bots or speeder vendors.

b) will probably come. I suspect that they'll make it impossible to remove already fitted mods without a workbench. So you can install new mods [destroying any existing mods in the item], or you can wait till you encounter a workbench to remove the existing mods first.

It's kind of built in. By splitting your points among many trees, you can't reach the best powers at the top of the each tree.

There's already a fleet pass. Apparently it's an 1000 credit consumable, but in a fit of madness, Someone decided that it should be restricted only to those who have attached a security key to their account, because they're not available outside security key vendors. In view of these, the 18 hour cooldown on "Emergency Fleet Pass" is acceptable. The normal fleet passes just need to be made more widely available. (Perhaps medical droids could stock them?)

To be fair, the fact that many people haven't actually noticed the shuttles probably says something about the travel times and visual design. No-one wants to stick their nose off the straight and narrow because of the travel times, and fleet shuttles don't exactly stand out as points of interest (exception: The one on Dromond Kaas I remember being fairly obvious.) Of things that need to be hidden in the world-design "basic methods of travel" really shouldn't be among them.

Just at level 50? I wish.

That's kind of what I'm saying though: In these particuar days, things are a bit more loosey-goosy. Different crystals are currently more available than they have been in the past, and far better than they will be in the future.

Bear in mind, it's the Old Republic: The standards which reign in 3000 years may not be established yet. I do think that green and red sabers should perhaps be restricted to higher ranking light and dark siders, though rank 3, perhaps. (Blue should be tolerable to either faction, I think).

Well, to be fair he's not actually DUE to get it out of commision for about 3000 years.

I hear Bioware are planning an MMO specifically based around these crucial features, and have actually cancelled Mass Effect 3 solely so they can bring you "Airlocks and Orbital Stations Online, Forever".

It's EA taking it's revenge on Switzerland's support of IP piracy. (I jest, just incase it were not immediately obvious... You can never be too sure with those customer support droids...)

Personally, my issue is with the load times and the redundant spaceports. But I did feel I should speak up in defence of the emergency fleet pass, which is largely fine as it is, 18 hours cooldown and all (since it is, after all, an emergency fleet pass).

I don't think anyone here has seriously suggested that we remove any kind of planet exploration or instant travel outside of anti-travel reformers and their strawmen arguments. Most of the people in here have been concerned with suggestsions for tightning up on unnecessary travel that you noted exists in your own post.

"the approach will not be easy. You are required to maneuver straight down this trench and skim the surface to this point. The target area is only two meters wide. It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port." "Get in there, you big furry oaf! I don't care what you smell!"

Assuming one has an iPhone or an Android phone. And I've already explained my reasons for not using the Android app. I've seen little discussion of how it works, and I'm not going to tie a security key to my account if theres a chance I'll have to call customer support any time I upgrade the system software on my phone.

As a consular, I have to say I could quite comfortably disable many aggressors without ever igniting my saber.

Which aren't available in Europe. In any case, I'm arguing FOR not changing the emergency pass system in favour of making the normal fleet passes more widely available. I grant that security key owners might feel a little aggrieved. Maybe they could give something more interestng to the security key vendors?

quick, people are posting in a topic and having a discussion about the game on this discussion forum, quick, ban them!

You obviously use a different definition of the word "instantly" than I do. And I'm not sure that 1000 credit consumables are what I would consider a "perk".

Both ways. with at least one, possibly two loading screens in the middle. It's the same hugging spaceport on virtually every world, and it's dead air.