The Olog-hai who are claiming this will remove choice from the progression process haven't even read the Dev post. Skill trees only give the illusion of choice because some skills are either situational or objectively worse than others. There's no choice; to choose something the number-crunchers haven't approved is to nerf yourself. The notion that low level players will become as powerful as endgame players is equally ridiculous. Endgame players will still have greatly more power and bonuses that Bolster can't match, and will still have something to show for their progression. The worst opinion of all being voiced is that new characters should have to grind for 30 levels before they break out of an amorphous early DPS role into a Tank, Healer, or proper DPS. I despair that some people actually think this. Like many, I'm looking forward to the removal of an antiquated and unsustainable system with something that will, once the teething troubles have been ironed out, benefit everyone.

Guess that solves the mystery of where most stuff will be available from. Even if some can be crafted by players (I'm stockpiling all kinds of mats already) the schematics will probably come from the CM, or the reverse-engineering of items from the CM. We have had loads of great suggestions so far! Some ideas keep cropping up: the blood pool mentioned, along with lots of other Sith/Dread Master stuff; many suggestions of plants; starfighters, either in hangars or patrolling outside; mannequins to display armour, and weapon racks/showcases; junk piles and things to make the Strongholds feel 'lived in'; trophies of all kinds; things to modify our Strongholds with, such as movable walls and customisable floors; the ability to display our other characters as well as companions; more options for guards, servants, followers, workers, etc. and all kind of devices that do damage or simulate combat so a Stronghold can become a real combat or training area. Would be great to get a Dev response to some of this- maybe confirming things which are already in development, or things we could give more detail on, such as items from specific missions. Here's another, less likely thought: the ability to purchase outside backgrounds, so we could choose whereabouts on the planet our Strongholds are- so there's a difference between a Coruscant apartment near the Senate District and one in the Justicar Territory, and a difference between a Nar Shaddaa palace near the Promenade and one in Network Access.

Oh wow. Where do I begin? First thing that springs to mind is KORRIBAN. I've always loved the aesthetics of the ancient Sith ruins on Korriban, Athiss, and Dromund Kaas, and would love to see as many decorations themed around them as possible: pillars, masonry, relics, urns, sarcophagi, ancient warblades, statues, bones, altars, suits of armour... What I'd really love is a Stronghold on Korriban, that could look like a combination of modern Sith Academy and ancient tomb. That's probably a while off, though (as Tython and Korriban have some serious repair work to be done). Themed decorations like this could be arranged in a number of ways: a Sith Ruins pack, containing the items mentioned above; and a Sith Academy pack, containing bookshelves, desks, torture racks, holocrons, weapon racks, training dummies, and perhaps some Dark Honour Guards. Or there could just be one large Korriban pack containing both ancient and modern items. You could do a similar thing with Voss. More things as I think of them. +1 for armour mannequins.

Mandalore, I think.

Being a frequent GSF player (pretty much all I do these days) of (dare I say it?) moderate skill I am troubled by the way the design of new ships is going. Firstly, there's a divide between 'Dogfighter' ships, the Scouts and Strike Fighters, and the 'Support' ships, the Gunships and Bombers. It isn't a gap that needs bridging. One poster put it very well when they said we don't need Scouts that do the Bombers' job. BW seems to be running out of ideas, badly. Secondly, BW can't just keep reshuffling the existing pool of components and expect new playstyles to emerge. We can see this with Proton Torpedoes on the Dustmaker/Comet Breaker Gunships- they don't need Thermite Torpedoes to work, but a new 10,000m weapon, possibly some kind of Ion Torpedo, perhaps with lower cooldown. Likewise, new ships need new Major Components to bring about new roles and styles- not Interdiction Drives on Scouts. Thirdly, there's a problem with the artwork. The models of the new Imperial ships are actually the models from which the Rycer, Quell, and Blackbolt are derived- with the result that they look like a merger of these ships which is more powerful than the originals. They aren't. Making one ship look clearly superior to the others will just lead to the 'low-experience player choices' which will wreck PUGs. BW really should take these ships back to the drawing board for a serious overhaul and rethink of their design philosophy. Failing that, I fully intend to fire up my Mangler and start firing. Soon I'll have an awful lot of targets to choose from.

Only the War Hero [Rated] oranges have a Rating. Ordinary War Hero and old Battlemaster gear still has a Valor requirement. As the Rating requirements have been removed, this means that everyone can wear [Rated] War Hero oranges, but normal War Hero gear and Battlemaster gear still is still restricted by Valor ranks! So the supposedly more exclusive stuff is now universally available, whereas the normal stuff is still not available to those who haven't got 60 or 70 Valor?! Where is the design logic in that? This is a ridiculous change. BW should listen to players' complaints and remove ALL Valor and remaining Rating requirements. It's bad enough that it is difficult to obtain the old, popular Centurion/Champion/Battlemaster gear and impossible to get the Tionese/Columi/Rakata sets, let alone their Belts and Bracers.

I've noticed an increase in character ouches, but my companions seem to have even more sensitivity to pain recently and exclaim more often when hit, particularly Talos and Elara (although these are the main ones I've been using recently, it may occur in others). Speaking of companions, Yuun doesn't seem to be saying anything in combat anymore- I can hear his voice but nothing in chat. And as he doesn't speak Basic, I've got no idea what he is or isn't saying. Has anyone else noticed this?

/sign Bring back the old PvP stuff as well and make sure all of it is moddable (Including belts and bracers).

No, most old endgame sets were completely removed. If you got the Battlemaster or War Hero schematics while they were available, you can still craft those, but these did not include the belts or bracers and there is no way to get the old endgame PvE gear. This is the sort of thing that the Cartel Market is for, and it is surprising that this idea hasn't been considered before.

My suggestion: Make old endgame armour sets, such as Rakata and Battlemaster gear, available on the Cartel Market as sets of moddable orange shells. Many people, myself included, miss some of the old endgame gear that is no longer available, and we would certainly spend some Coins on orange sets of it (Belts and bracers included) especially as the newer armour sets are not popular with everyone. This is a fairly easy idea to implement- no new stuff needs to be designed, just added to the Market for reasonable prices. Post below if you agree; a dev response would be ideal to let us know if this is possible.

This thread is just made for me. The philosophy I have always had with my LS Sorcerer is that the Empire hasn't done much for me, so I don't see why I should care about it. Taking Lightside options on the Imperial side always feels more rewarding, because LS on the Rep side is pretty much a given. One example from the Inquisitor story (Still my favourite class story, including the Agent) is the plotline on Alderaan. The Lightside path is a yarn of cunning political and social manipulation, ending in a fantastic ideological and physical duel with Master Organa. Don't recall all the details of the dialogue then, but something like: By contrast, when I took my Darkside Assassin there, I found that the DS path was just about killing everyone between you and your goal. Which was truly dull. I take a DS choice here and there on my LS Sorc, but mainly when I've been wronged and I lose my temper, such as with Lord Cineratus and the Sith on Korriban who uncovered Kallig's Countenance. These are rare, though, and I am usually LS. The best Lightside choices are when you help people who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, such as Darth Skotia's Trandoshans or Mila Escalus, as someone with the Inquisitor's background can relate to them easily. The LS and DS choices you make throughout Chapter Two seem to affect the choice you are given at the end of Chapter Three. So on the whole, I loved the LS story, and I get annoyed when I see the community refer to the Inquisitor as "Darth Nox" despite the way that you can play a kind of LS philosopher-Sith, with less interest in the war or the Empire than in the secrets of the Force, and get out of it a better storyline and a more interesting, less stereotypical character. Just my thoughts.

Actually, I do think that this is constructive, especially in the way that you suggest that the Focus buffs could be applied to an ability like Blade Storm as well. Yes, it is mainly Tanks who get smart AoE, but as the entire Focus spec revolves around one move that could quickly release a CC'd enemy, I am still slightly uncomfortable when using it in group combat (Especially CC-dependant Heroics like Chasing the Shadow). Perhaps I have simply been unlucky, or perhaps these problems arise from Force Sweep not having clear targeting, as opposed to a move like Mortar Volley. Thanks to everyone who replied, gave some good ideas.

Before I begin I want to say that I respect BW and their actions, and this thread must remain constructive, no matter what. I play a Sentinel, whom I levelled on the Focus skill tree. This wasn't easy. Aside from the fact that my DPS was somewhat lower than my Watchman and Combat allies, I also got questions from them regarding why I didn't play Watchman or Combat. I replied that I could offer something different to other Sentinels: Mainly immense burst AoE damage. But, mainly in group content, the Focus spec had another major problem, and despite the buffs in 1.4 which significantly improve our DPS and ability to compete with the dreaded Juyo and Ataru forms, it is a problem which we still have. Our entire spec revolves around an AoE move. It is not compatible with CC. During group content in Heroics and Flashpoints, I could not use my Force Sweep because we had CC'd an enemy nearby and Force Sweep would break the CC. This severely limited what I could use in those situations, because no matter how many stacks of Singularity and Felling Blow I had, I could not unleash them because it would break the Force Lift/Mind Maze/Concussion Round that a groupmate had used, and an Elite would probably be let loose upon the group. Although I greatly welcome these new buffs, they do nothing to help this problem. But there is a solution (Said that this thread was going to be constructive) which has already been used with sucess on other AoE moves that were essential to a rotation, and it can be applied to Force Sweep as well. Give Force Sweep smart AoE. This means making it not damage sleeping, lifted, or incapacitated enemies. It has already been done on moves like Guardian Strike with sucess, and if it is not done on Force Sweep, the effectiveness of Focus will still be greatly limited. It does not have to be a passive change: A skill tree point could additionally add smart AoE to Force Sweep, or it could be added to Felling Blow (i.e. Force Leap and Zealous Leap have a 50% chance per point to grant Felling Blow, making your next Force Sweep and automatic critical hit and making it not damage sleeping, lifted or incapaitated enemies). I post this in the hope that others will echo my concerns and solution about Force Sweep and the Focus spec, and perhaps ultimately get a response from one of the BW staff as to whether this can or cannot be done and why. Thanks for reading, and post thoughts here!

No, you still have Quesh and Hoth to go before you run into any known major bugs. While I usually respect BW in their efforts, this is not the first time this has happened. My Jedi Consular got two class story bugs; the first one had a workaround but the second was a game-stopper. They took a while to be fixed, during which time I couldn't do much with that character. Now my Imperial Agent has the invisibility bug; and although it may not stop progression dead in it's tracks, it is still quite an inconvenience. Being invisible is fun, I suppose.

Any estimated time of arrival for extra character slots? Some of us would like to level more than one character of each class, but that isn't possible right now with only eight slots allowed per server.

1. I play Focus. Most people struggle to believe why I would play Focus, and that is part of the reason why I play it. They think Combat or Watchman is better in any situation, and they may be, but I continue to play Focus because I can offer something different to most other Sentinels. In all my time of PvEing, I have only met one other Focus Sentinel. 2. This spec has two major advantages and two major disadvantages. First, the advantages: You can put out a massive amount of AoE and burst damage, provided that you have timed your cooldowns correctly and have the correct buffs stacked. I have wiped out whole mobs at a time with a Felling Blow and Singularity-charged Force Sweep. If you time them badly, however, you can end up using Strike to pass the time, or worse, just standing there waiting. The disadvantages: The two main ones is that Force Sweep is the most important skill to use here, yet is has a long cooldown (Even after talents) and is not resource-cheap. The other problem is that there is not enough resource to go around, as most of your moves take up Focus and Zealous Strike also has too long a cooldown. Again, you end up using Strike to build up resource and losing out on DPS. Some of the moves are also difficult to learn to use; Zealous Leap has to be balanced between moving around, dealing damage and granting buffs, and Singularity is of little use before you get Force Exaustion because yet again, Force Stasis has a horrible cooldown. Overall, this spec isn't all bad news: You can fiddle around with talents to get up to 7% damage reduction on your Shii-Cho form, and similar balanced techniques, but in order to stand up to the Watchman or Combat specs it needs to be less dependant on a few chosen abilites with painful cooldowns, such as Zealous Leap and Force Sweep, and needs to be able to do something while waiting for these cooldowns to finish and not dealing burst. Try giving us more resource to play with, or another ability in the fifth tier which builds resource and deals damage.

So my Tank Juggernaut has just unlocked Backhand, an Immortal skill tree move that deals damage, stuns for 4 seconds and generates threat. I put it in the action bar next to Pommel Strike, so that I can use them in quick succession on hard enemies, as Pommel Strike requires an incapacitated target. But when I stun enemies with Backhand, Pommel Strike is still greyed-out and gives the text: "Target is Lucid" even though they are stunned for the 4 seconds. Is this a glitch, or am I doing something wrong? Any help appreciated.

Yes, there wasn't enough politics or subversion, and the other problem was that there were no chances to be good. I play an evil Warrior and a lightside Inquisitor, and the Warrior storyline is littered with chances to be good that you don't get in the Inquisitor storyline. But you know what? I loved it really, and look forward to the next chapters. The Developers could really benefit from reading this thread, especially when deciding the next events- Take some inspiration from the Warrior storyline, some more politics and less "collections", perhaps even some holo-newsflashes about our actions, and a healthy dose of ancient tombs and dark power. But even if this becomes the most unpopular class, I am still a die-hard Inquisitor, and I'll follow the storyline to the end.

Have you not realised that this is sarcasm? Especially at bits like "amazing new feature that is in no way a joke at all" and "the very serious subject of the Ship Droid Experience!" It's so obvious that the devs are messing around here and people have taken them seriously. Well, considering the amount they do for the game we probably owe them their occasional joke. But there are some ideas here- Companion-to-companion relations, and minigames. We've all wanted to know what the droids get up to, and perhaps we will have more knowledge on this. Next year, don't take them so seriously.

This is very elaborately done for a joke. The only problem is that in the last video the option: "Go scan rocks in the Outer Rim" would be lost on anyone who has never sent their companions on long crew skill missions.

Any ETA on when the Class storylines will progress into Chapter 4? I appreciate that this means new worlds, companions, crew skill levels, abilities, skill tree points, etc. But do you have any idea of when this could happen?

I was disapointed at first that certain species would be class-restricted, but then a Miraluka Sith turns up. Wish this was included earlier, much earlier. Still, I'm one of the few who don't hate the Legacy system, but what if your chars are all different species? How is this working?

Unlike the Colicoid broodmaster, it is harder to bring someone else because the toxic vault was in the middle of a major siege, wheras this is somewhere in the Alderaainian wastes. There's no one to help. My tactic is to let Khem go first and heal and shield him from a safe distance, throwing in Force Lightning or Crushing Darkness now and again. It was working until he died unexplainedly and the Jedi flattened me somehow. I'd try summoning the Force but it generally dosn't work as a panic button and I don't want to get knocked out and have to wait for the half hour cooldown. Same with medpacks. I might try with Andronikos but as a ranged attacker he might make it worse. In fact, if we just asked Khem where Tulak Hord's trinkets are, we'd save about a lifetime's searching.

So as a Sorcerer, I have noticed recently that Khem Val has started using a new skill in battle where he hits all enemies and heals himself and me for a small amount. I have heard of crew gaining new skills and wish to ask: Is this because we levelled up recently, or because I bought a collection of trophies which increased his affection? Or both? Does this also happen with other crew? I thought I'd ask more experienced players. Thanks!