I wouldn't mind seeing some of the lesser-known planets make appearances. Something like Bothawui, as mentioned before, or Brentaal, or Sullust. (forgive my spelling, its 7 am and the coffee hasnt kicked in, yet) One of the issues, though, with more well-known planets (as in, shown in the movies) is that people will expect to see what they saw on the big screen. Go to Dagobah, and someones going to want to see Yoda's hut and a sinking X-wing. Go to Kashyyyk, and there better be a bunch of wookies fighting imperial troopers, somewhere. Yavin IV or Endor, and you better believe people will complain if there isn't a Death Star or Death Star under construction visible in the sky.

Slow down there, cowboy. I never said exact numbers on operations, flashpoints, and warzones. I know they're going to be in there. Never said how many. Nor did I say anything about arenas and player housing....what have you been reading? I also said that Pandaria had those costs when IT WAS RELEASED. How about this...Ill work in getting better facts and you work on reading.

Just a quick point of contention, here. DDO IS a free to play system, but the expansions for it dont unlock everything. You may get a few 'free' quests with the expansion, but the rest you have to pay for. It would be like the F2P system in SWTOR giving you the class quests ONLY...if you wanted other quests to get more experience and more loot, you would have to buy them individually. The follow up argument to this is: How many Cartel Coins do you need to purchase the expansion? 2,000? 5,000? 500,000? Set the number too high, and youll have the subscribers getting the game, while the F2P guys scream and complain and leave.

First off, $10 for an expansion?! Great Yoda's Ghost, how can you pass that up? Granted the F2P guys have to pay $20, but they get a bump up in their 'subscription level' from Free to Preferred. Even at $20, thats still cheaper than the latest expansion for That Fantasy MMO. One thought that occurs to me is, What if the first 4 chapters were just a prequel, of sorts, to what is coming? Much like Ord Mantell, Hutta, Tython, or Korriban, what if the first 4 chapters of our character was just the 'starting point'...laying the background to get to where we are now. Ive already pre-ordered the expansion because I want my Sith Marauder cathar....I want to see whats on Makeb...I want to see what kind of story is going to be written/told/portrayed in RotHC...I want what Star Wars has always been good at: Telling a story. Would I love to see class-specific stories again? Yes. But realistically, thats going to take a LONG time for Bioware to make. Think about it. How long was Star Wars in Beta before it was released? How long was it in Alpha? How long was it being written and voice acted? The Rakghoul event was pretty simple to make and release, when you think about it. A few canned responses from your character to an NPC voiced by an in-house person doesn't take much. But to hire and schedule the original voice actors to come in and lay down new voice tracks? That's going to take time and effort and money. While I wait for something like that, Im going to buy the expansion, pay my monthly subscription, and maybe even buy some coins on the cartel market. Some of the detractors will tell me im wasting my money, that i shouldn't spend one lead cent on the "Bioware Boondoggle". To those people, "Guys, the door is right over there. Im playing my game, thanks."

Already pre-ordered and waiting. A quick thought, though... I fully expect there to be bugs and glitches in it. Its a first expansion, and those things never go well. I don't care who makes them. The first expansion for That Fantasy MMO had more than a few gremlins in it. I was there, and i recall how Blizzy would release a patch on tuesday...spend wednesday through friday cranking out hotfixes as fast as they could...things would work for a couple days...and then start over again on tuesday. Oh, and with the occasional 'EMERGENCY SERVER SHUTDOWN NAO!' because some hotfix actually caused more problems than it solved. I also expect any fixes to take some time. Ive worked with computers and coding and such. Despite what some players may think, there's no key on the programmers keyboard labeled 'Fix all problems now'.

Ive heard a few things in the expansion. Yes, new planet. Yes, new level cap. Yes, new gear (that supposedly doesn't look too goofy looking...eyes on YOU, Black Hole gear). Yes, new Flashpoints and Operations. Potential new race: Cathar. As for one planet not being enough, stop thinking about the dozen-ish missions you did on Tython or Hutta or Ord Mantell or Korriban to get your first five levels. Makeb isn't going to give you those 5 levels in 20 minutes, kids. You're going to have to work for them. As for the price, all i can say is "Seriously?". $9.95 for an expansion is pretty damn impressive. What did the latest expansion for That Fantasy MMO go for when it released? $50 for the basic and $90 for the collectors edition, or there about? "Its not a big expansion you pinhead!" i can hear some of you yelling. To that I say, "Its not a big price". If you want to get the expansion, go for it. Ive already pre-ordered mine. Just one thing though...Don't start whining when people get the expansion and you get left behind because you would rather hold on to a principle rather than part with $10. Its just tacky.

Looking at the posting on the website, here, I believe if you pre-order the expansion by January 7, then you will get the expansion 5 days before anyone who didn't pre-order. Thus, if the expansion is scheduled to drop on Spring 5th, 2013, you would be able to play it on or about Spring 1st, 2013. As to what you get...well, first theres the planet and planet missions themselves. I saw a video clip, earlier today, where one of the SWTOR guys talks about new ops and flashpoints. I don't know that he mentioned anything about warzones, but compared to planets, warzones are probably dead simple to put in to play. I wouldn't be at all surprised that if the expansion didn't have at least one at release, then they would have one within the first month. Hey, you gotta give them time to get things in place, first.... The rep also made mention that, after doing the math for all the new gear and such, a five level increase was just about right to keep the vanilla SWTOR ops and such still viable. Meaning you can get the five levels, and some spiffy new gear from the new ops and flashpoints...and hardmode and nightmare Eternity Vault still has a fair chance of kicking you in the Jawas if you aren't careful. Kudos to that. About someone griping about a one month subscription to go along with it: Yeah, good luck with that. I spent $90 for the collectiors edition expansion to That Fantasy MMO...care to take a guess how many free months subscriptions came with it?

*Whips up Hyperspace Wings, Dagobah dogs, onion rings, bantha steaks, nerf burgers...pours tequilas, Timbiqui Dark beers, Gamorean thudrud (smells and tastes like a rotten cow on fire...but packs a PUNCH), Mon Calamari Gold Coast Blend coffees, and makes more than a few Bothan Banana splits" "....and the Frogdog ball carrier is hit and hit HARD on the play. Ooo...that ain't never gonna heal right..." -the Holoprojectors. As an aside, I wish we could get some screen vids of Huttball games, and make a 'season' out of them. Just a random thought.

Two Jawa Juice and a Bantha Steak, coming up. One Blue Plate special and lots of water. *quickly whips up the orders for the customers, then writes the specials on the chalkboard* Kashyyyk Key Lime pie. Chiss Cheesecake. Nerf-burger. "Alderranian Swiss cheese with sautee'd mushrooms" Taris Tequila. *One Tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor* !!Huttball special!! 50 hyperspace hotwings, onion rings, chili-cheese Dagobah dogs, and 3 pitchers of Dantoine Draft. This weekend only!! Games in High Def-Hologram!!

Well, the first thing I noticed when I checked the specs on the laptop, is that, while it has a dedicated card, Im not seeing how much memory the card has. Checking a couple websites has given me two different numbers...so its possible that the card doesn't have enough memory to really run flat-out. If turning down (or off) some of the detail improves your performance, that makes me suspect your card isn't gutsy enough to give you the detail and framerates you want. The the processor speed is also barely adequate to do the job. I realize that procs and video cards dont often have much to do with each other, but its something that could/would force your system to work just a bit harder to run the game. That having been said, with the populations on some servers going up through transfers, you're bound to get some lag. I have a PC with lots of memory, a solid video card, display settings not maxed out, and a dedicated gaming NIC, and even my systems has to 'hustle' when Im on Fleet.

*Sets a mug of some foamy blue something in front of Cynoman...the glass mug beginning to warp and melt* Good Luck. I saw a Wookie manage to drink that once. Once. *smirks and writes the specials on the chalkboard* Fizz-wizz "Not THAT kind of wizz...cheese wizz" Tuskan TareTare Bothawui Bagels with Cream Cheese Blend. Garden salad with Moisture-ranch dressing. Jawan Jerked beef. ".......no...not that kind of...oh for Force's sake..."

Some food for thought with SWTOR and/or WoW. This is not a bash or praise for any game...just a few points that occurred to me. Viewer discretion advised, void where prohibited, rated M for Mature, not valid with any other thoughts, your mileage may vary.... These are only my pointless thoughts...agree or not, whatever Disturbs your Force. 1. Graphics. Whenever a company releases a new game/program, they tend to assume that you are upgrading your system, and keeping it up to date. Time and progress march on. Inevitably, no matter what you play, you will have to get a new card. 2. Not available for Mac. Apple is notorious for ensuring that only THEIR stuff runs on THEIR systems. If it wasn't created by Apple, or vetted by Apple, you're out of luck. Your friend could run BootCamp...but really, if you're going to do that, just get a PC. 3. Companions. Dood...even Jesus had disciples. 4. Easy to Progress/Gear up. Lots of MMORPGs are doing this. Heck, one or two practically GIVE you a max level, fully geared character just for signing in. 5. Classes. Ive played some MMORPGs in the past where you spend hours, if not days, figuring out what your class does, and how to do it best. Kids don't have that kind of attention span, these days. 6. Story time. Spacebar = Fast Forward. 7. Load screens. A couple of the other MMO's I play have long loading times. Even WoW can drag on. 8. Simple Bosses. I've heard several Hardmode and Nightmare bosses called several things. "Simple" isn't usually one of them. 9. Auto Swing. Auto-swing = Auto-pilot. If you're using it, I dont want to be in your Ops group...i like my Ops groupies to be awake at the keyboard. 10. No addons? See #9, above, for this one. 11. Item Mods. Some like it, some dont. If you dont like it, dont use it. 12. Changing Items with Mods. You dont like mods, but you go hog wild for transmog? Ill take the mods, thanks...theyre more useful than a new coat of paint on the body armor. 13. Gear Augments. Because every little edge in the Nightmare modes helps....kind of like enchantments in That Other Popular MMO. 14. Legacy bonuses. Because I want a bonus unique to me and mine. If you dont like it, dont use it. 15. The Fleets look the same. ......seriously? 16. Classes/Advanced Classes. Yep...becasue an Alliance Marksman Hunter is VASTLY different than a Horde Marksman Hunter. 17. Light and Dark. Yep...because a blue light side fortitude crystal was radically different than a red dark side fortitude crystal. See #16. The Other Game 1. Engaging Boss Fights. Try some of the Nightmare Boss fights. And before you say "They're too hard!", no...they're engaging. 2. Arenas. Okay, this one i havent had much experience with, so I'll leave it alone. 3. More to do when 'capped'. And eventually, you will tire of those, too. Its the nature of the beast. 4. Dual Spec. Done right, you can switch specs without spending to much. And I can switch my spec in the field, too. 5. Unique mounts. You mean like the mount I got off a HM Ops boss...kind of like how your ashes of al'ar drop from a boss? 6. Immersive World. I have several immersive worlds...Tatooine, Taris, Balmorra.... You have....? 7. Easy Interface. Drag and drop on my AH, too...and my bank...and my guild bank...same as you. 8. Transmog. Again...a fresh coat of paint does what better than a mod? 9. Gemming, Glyphing, reforging.... Yep, because my lightsaber crystals arent gems at all. Nope. And Enhancements aren't anything like enchantments...no way. Legacy perks? Like Glyphs? Nahhh.....nosirre.... 10. Talents. I prefer to have choices. 40 choices over a level 50 character, to be precise. MoP will have how many over a level 90 character? 11. Pandas/Monks. Okay, Ill grant you that the Monks could be pretty impressive. But...teddy bears? They went from the Lich King and Deathwing to....teddy bears, as their next Big Thing. 12. Time and Gear. It takes me a while to get fully geared, but thats because Life keeps me away from the game, sometimes...and not every drop is something I can use. 13. Auto Swing. See Auto Pilot, above. 14. Jumping into new classes. It comes down to learning curves....The Other Game gives you a bunny slope of 90 levels and nerfed bosses. This game has a learning wall....fewer levels, and tougher boss fights. 15. Easy Graphics. See Graphics, above. The Other Game is older, so it will run on older cards. Even a Model T can manage the 25mph residential speeds. Again, this is not meant to be a support or attack on one game or another. This is just my silly random thoughts that came to me as I read the original posts. Your mileage may vary. If you don't agree with me, Cool! If you do, Just as Cool! I wanted to play the game because I knew someone who was beta testing it. I was starting to get bored with some of the other games out there, and wanted something less fantasy, and more sci-fi. This fit the bill perfectly. It has lived up to the expectations I had. Even the glitches and hiccups that first bedeviled it. Not to sound like a total dweeb, but I understood and accepted that a new game was going to have errors, no matter how much or how long they beta tested it. For the most part, I think BW has done a good job of ironing out the worst of the bugs, and adding on to the play at the same time. Its been worth the money, and I keep playing because, as I said earlier, its something other than high fantasy. I can play a class that doesn't rely on a +2 Mace of Disruption, or a +4 Buckler of Swashing, or an Unnatural Axe. Its new, its different enough to be refreshing, and its still in the Vanilla stage. Its going to be fun to see what the first official expansion is.

Story arcs for each class, interesting companions, challenging Operations, hilarious conversation possibilities, no gnomes or elves, no "Hug a (insert race here)" posts in the threads, the opportunity to be a righteous Jedi, or a complete [CENSORED] Sith, new content in the works/on the way...whats not to like?

1.3 was never intended to be a content patch. From the teaser vids, they made that abundantly clear. 1.3 was about quality of life, which I think has been implemented fairly well. If your friends want to go back to WoW, let them. They're probably just looking for an easymode MMO anyways. And 'modern feeling boss mechanics'? The mechanics in SWTOR are going to be the same for just about any MMO, I would imagine. The only difference being that TOR hasn't nerfed the bosses in to giant pushovers.

So you're going to quit a game because you can't have the names you really really like?