They need to reduce the need to credit farm in general; they're so keen on money sinks (do they think it'll keep people grinding and subscriptions up? surely not?!) that despite the fact that by now I am thoroughly fed up of the dailies, I still have to perform them just to have enough money to do menial tasks - such as sending companions on crew skills, buying stims and doing repairs (which can be tens of thousands of creds at a time on high level gear). Seriously, credit farming and ridiculous sinks to keep us all grinding are getting really annoying.

Got to say, whenever I read your posts they usually seem interesting and valid, but the purple font is... Annoying. I get that you like purple, but is disinclines people to want to read what you're saying because A) it's damned hard on the eyes to read against a black background and B) you look to be... trying to be different? idk.

Absolutely brilliant shout by OP - especially the server-wide repercussions as a motivation to go out and fight for your faction. Imagine realising that you're at a generalised disadvantage, and the crowds of players on the fleet grouping up to go and try turn the tide?

It'd be nice to have customisation options in general for ships - both aesthetically, internal setup/content and things like names and even hangar setups. Legacy did a few (massively overpriced, though I suppose they apply across characters) addons but they're not very impressive generally. To be honest I'd like to see a much widened starship part of the game; including (when they come) specific hangar setups and ground teams on the Guild Capital Ship, more customisation of the equipment and combat stats (instead of just a series of more powerful upgrades to every area) and even generally the possibility to invest in different (or even multiple - a personal starfighter also?) ships... But these would only really be worthwhile with PvP in space and a more free space control system and new, non-on-rails missions. Ship names would be a great start, but internal customisation and setup of ship systems should come soon too really.

I suppose he fits the generic Jedi stereotype of the era, but yes I'd love to see some new loading screens... Especially different sets depending on the average force alignment of your characters; given basically all my characters are lightside, it'd be amusingly fitting to have my loading screens Jedi/Light Side -themed.

Giving GM free reign to do events on servers would be nice... But I agree, I think involving some of the community in building and expanding the galaxy would help a LOT. The game as it stands lacks the feel that you're in a living, MMO universe because the planets are just static Super Mario levels that you clear and move on from... Bringing in help to expand the game world to be more than just a set of enemies would be brilliant.

Took the words right off my keyboard/out of my metaphorical mouth.

Guilds absolutely need taxation, and probably deserve an interest system that works to bring in a fraction based upon the amount in at the end of each week tick. The taxation is simple; at the moment money depends on people donating out of charity, they have no reason to want money in the bank. The interest wouldn't be game-breaking either - it would require cash to be left in the guild bank over time, and would only really begin to be effective when larger amounts were stored... But it'd also give A) guild banks some usage besides just a cash dump and B) encourage people to keep money in it as there's technically a reward. I'm also amazed that the ledger lacks a week/all time total in/out/net section, and I have to look at each of my guildies' submissions individually to assess the cashflow this week. Other desirable features include ability for Guild Leaders (and authorised officers) to send wires of cash from the bank-account to players in the guild (and similar restriction/limit options for the senders), and: PUT GUILD BANKS ON PLANETS ALONG WITH CARGO FOR PEOPLE TO ACCESS!!! What use is having guild vaults and accounts set up if your players all have to endure multiple loading screens just to get to the fleet and run to the one single location to use the bank?

Content for all and expansion of the game to stop bleeding subscribers before giving more special goodies to the CE subs, plzkthx.

Something oceanic - Kamino might not be fitting, but Mon Calamari is definitely out there given the number of Republic military men and officers you see who are Mon Cals!

They keep jacking up the price of the content - take all the Legacy abilities having ridiculously huge pricetags - I suspect sadly it's an attempt to keep people grinding towards what is largely just decorative unlocks, and to drain money from the market. It's just... a nuisance. Using high prices as an incentive for people to stay and grind is not fun and does not work; there's only so many days one can trawl one's dailies in a row without feeling suicidal. The actual worth of money seems perversely skewed at different points in the game.

How am I DEFENDING BioWare?! Why do I care what other MMOs have done on launch? I'm talking about the game here and now, and for whatever reason it's bleeding people because people are not finding themselves wanting to keep playing, and this occurs especially so when they reach the endgame because of the general emptiness of the galaxy. Whether or not other MMOs have or haven't doesn't bother me in the slightest, we're talking about the state of swtor and what's actually going to be there in the foreseeable future.

Indeed... All the planets just feel like levels from Mario - you clear the quests and enemies, and that's it. No need to explore, no non-combat features, nothing to discover, vendors are just generic planet-sets, one major settlement and numerous speeder points - sub-levels. It's just depressing on how the game isn't a universe to play in, it's just a series of lifeless levels... Once cleared at level 50, there's nothing left in the universe.

Nope.jpg Didn't rush, and that's still not it. Enjoying the journey is no substitute for a fully developed end-game, and neither should it be the only facet in a game that's meant to stay alive by subscription... The RPG facets are lovely, and I love RPGs. What the game lacks is the MMO component that makes it so you can stay and explore the galaxy and do things on a daily basis even when the RPG parts start to run out - if it was just about the RPG part, it wouldn't be worth having it massively multiplayer and subscribing to.

What a great idea, make all mods, crystals, enhancements, hilts, barrels et cetera useless until level 50. /sarcasm This is not the problem at all. If anything, this would just scrunch up a whole load more stuff up at level 50 where people will still just be getting the super-rated Ops gear anyway, and leave most of the game without proper trade and under-powered.

This is a good point. As an addendum, and something of an echo of others; the galaxy doesn't seem to have much purpose beyond the story content. And don't get me wrong, I love story content, but I'm subscribing to play an MMO, when what's currently in SWTOR is a series of different 'levels' - i.e. the planets - which one clears and moves off from to follow the story. And at the end, what then?... ...The group content is mostly fun but there isn't that much of it, and with the excessive server numbers causing low populations it's hard to properly access. Guilds have no real functions at present other than guild chat and extra cargo space (without an interest system and taxation, the bank system is largely superfluous), and there's only so much fun to be had from dailies. The economy (a whole other issue) is, on most European servers, non-existent and crafting is largely a waste of time except for making über alts; endgame crafting is always inferior and pointless compared to just running an Operation... Most importantly though, I feel, is that the galaxy is not an MMO galaxy. As I said earlier, the planets are basically just a series of 'levels' that one progresses through like a game of Mario. Once they're cleared of missions, there is precious little reason to ever return there - exploration is largely fruitless, there are no unique vendors (just generic sets of 'Weapons Vendor'; 'Light Armour Vendor'; 'Equipment Commendations Vendor' that have a product list generic to the planet in question), nothing really to interact with in the environment except enemies... The entire galaxy is pointless once you've been to a planet and cleared its enemies/quests - having your own starship, having a squad of guild-mates et cetera is largely of no use or fun when the entire 'galaxy' might as well not exist because there's nothing of value on these places. What's essentially lacking, I feel, is an MMO universe where there are things to do other than just kill your way to level 50, and reasons to travel, explore towns and their vendors/cantinas, craft, interact, et cetera. As it stands, there's a series of levels, each with their own cantina and set of shops at the beginning, after which you go around killing everything before 'LEVEL CLEARED' and moving on... And it's just a bit like a game of Mario.

You can't just pretend that the problem is that commendations and quest rewards are too good, either. Many servers don't have the populations to support a proper market even if crafters and buyers were being savvy; removing the availability of mid-level (because the blue-quality gear from commendation vendors really aren't that amazing) gear rewarded by quests will effectively just make it inaccessible for many who don't have a higher level alt to craft it for them. When there are so few people around, the effect on the economy isn't proportional; the reduction in supply is even greater than the reduction in demand due to the lack of profits to be made, the pain using the GTN and the general anaemia of the server, and this is extremely unhealthy because it has a detrimental effect on new players who would otherwise be adding to the server population and economy - not only is there little for them on the GTN, but they also sink into the same habits and attitude towards crafting and the GTN because of the status quo. The end-game economy is particularly non-existent except trade in certain rare commodities for e.g. speeders, special colour crystals (of which there are nowhere near enough for lvl 400 artificers, let me say with disappointment) et cetera - it's always easier just to get dragged through (or with some gear already, participate in fully) Ops and HMs just to pick up all the equipment which is always superior to crafted items which tend to follow pathetic 2-step upgrade lines instead of multiple steps and even trees. The range of reward-based end-game equipment is very low, generally is far superior to anything craft-able and by-the-way the BLOODY PAULDRONS LOOK AWFUL... I'm not a warlock or whatever you play in WoW, my Jedi shouldn't have pauldrons twice the size of his head hanging on his robes. Back to the point; there's very little reason to craft any end-game level gear whatsoever... So nobody does. I agree that both crafting and the GTN need widespread expansion and enhancement, but it really isn't as simple as just making xyz quest items rarer, harder to get or weaker; and server population has a large effect on it - especially on European servers which rarely ever get beyond 'light' populations.

Introducing micro-transactions on top of the subscription is likely to reduce the existing playerbase, if anything; unless they went for a hellish F2P model.

As if we don't pay enough not to have advertisements already...

Microtransactions, what the hell? We pay a monthly subscription - it's not free to play, I can see no excuse for any microtransactions whatsoever. An expansion pack would be one thing, but even that at the moment would be a bit much considering the deficits in the game and its population problems.

As it stands, the economy isn't sufficient - for all of the GTN's failings and the fact that on most servers (European ones are virtually all 'light' populations at all times) means that there is no real trade, no constantly shifting market with both goods and raw resources... There's the occasional top-levels selling Boss-drop crafting rewards and occasional high-level purple-rarity mission crew skill rewards that sit there if you're lucky.. Otherwise nothing.

Despite the frequent panning as the 'worst', I think the story that underlies the Consular questline could be really good and a fitting epic - unfortunately its implementation in-game is painfully repetitive, and despite its potential for varied aims and methods is always just the same kill-kill-kill as any other class, which spoils it.

As it says on the Launcher... 12PM (Midday) BST.

Barely, and rarely will this happen. The point of light is that it's light, which isn't conducive to having fun in what is meant to be an MMO.

Overpopulation is preferable to the graveyard of perpetually 'light' population servers (basically all European servers) that often struggle to boast more than 100 people online in all instances even at good times... Feels more likely Minimally Multiplayer as opposed to Massively Multiplayer!