If it was easy for me to get the expansion, I'd get it. But there are still countries (quite a few in asia) where CCs aren't the norm. I can't even ask a friend to help me with theirs (we tried and all sorts of problems paying through paypal from a different name). Maybe in a few months I'll have organized a cc, but for now - if I can't buy it physically or from Amazon, I can't buy it.

I've looked into this exact solution but apparently there are *all* sorts of problems using the prepaid cards from asian countries.

Thanks! So there is still stuff to do at 50 if I want to continue...good to know.

Well I am still subbing... Not quite sure what your point is to be honest. I mean - are there still raids to do, gear to acquire etc?

So I'm looking to get back into the game after a long absence. However I am unlikely to have access to the new expansion for some time (living in a country where credit cards are rare and not issued to non-natives). Is there still a fair bit to do at 50, or should I just not bother and level alts or something? Thanks .

That seems to be a fairly popular choice for some reason. Honestly I'm not sure why we didn't have more races at launch since they are basically the same model reskinned.

...Huh?

This is a response thread to: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=271484

Here is a better solution. So - let's summarize the four dominant complaints about leveling/xp in the game. 1) "Leveling is too easy, I'm always overleveled for things". 2) "Leveling is a pain in Act 1, but fine once we have speeder/better companion/cooler story/planets that don't suck". 3) "Game is over too early". 4) "In MY day leveling took two months, 3 pints of blood and 8 RL friends living in the basement with me. Every game should be like this until the end of time. Raargh frikking casuals get off my lawn!". So, since no one cares about type 4, how about this as a compromise. XP Needed for Level 5-10 reduced by 25% XP Needed for 10-25 reduced by 30% XP Needed for 30-40 increased by 50% XP Needed for 40-50 increased by 50% This would have the net effect of: - getting through the dead boring, bland, grindy, lonely Act 1 faster. - allowing us to access our more interesting companions earlier. - faster Speeder access. - Leveling process is slightly extended, but this extension is at the most interesting parts of the game (Act2 and 3). Thoughts?

With the armor models in this game, you would end up mangled.

...What?

Still - why does 'rigid adherence to rules even when it means being whiny, self-righteous tool' mean light side on Jedi while being honorable or merciful give me dark sometimes and light sometimes? Meanwhile on my Sith, if I am honorable, merciful and decent I get lightside points and if I am a psychotic mongoose I get dark?

Please no Ugnaughts :| Unless you can play 5 of them driving a mech.

I wanted a Togruta Marauder, but after playing the Bounty Hunter story I now want a female Cathar (phwoar). How about you?

Sith Inquisitor is worse, trust me (although Jedi Knight is an abomination). Oh, and speaking of races...I *really* want a playable Cathar ^_^.

I am also a sufferer of Special Snowflake Syndrome! But Smug and Operative just do *not* appeal to me for some reason.

Warning! This is going to be a little TL/DR. So, when I first started playing I rolled Republic. I thought that this game would follow the usual MMO pattern - roll good guys if you want to pve, roll bad guys if you want to pvp (and wait in long queues to do it). I was amazed to find that on my server (one of the biggest PvE) this was not the case - both PvE'ers and PvP'ers were rolling and rerolling on Empire. I was surprised, but after a while I found myself doing the same. Why? Well, here are a few thoughts. Keep in mind that most of this is going to be rather subjective. 1) Perception. From the start there has been a strong perception that the Empire side is just better - and for a long time it was correct. Skill differences and mirror imbalances made Empire the smart choice for min/maxers. And where the min/maxers go, others follow - and where the majority goes, well, most people are included. 2) Characters <Note, this may contain mild spoilers. Will tag biggies, but it's going to be a mess if I tag all of them, so if you are worried skip ahead to 3 please). I started as a Jedi Shadow, looking forward to a campaign of diplomacy, 'good' assasinations, spying and infiltration. What I got was a bland story designed for a female healer. I slogged though. I then rolled a Trooper, got to Tatooine and got bored. I then rolled Jedi Knight and enjoyed it a little more, until I hit mid coruscant (see later). I then proceeded to go Empire and rolled a Juggernaut, an Inquisitor and a Bounty Hunter, two of which were *amazing* in comparison and one was just better. One of the big problems for me had to do with the Dark/Light choices in this game. To be pure Dark as a Jedi I needed to be a swaggering bully, an absolute moron and a coward. To be pure Light (which I would expect would be the majority here), I needed to be bipolar. For example - So, a little later, On the other hand, my Sith Warrior and Bounty hunter were played pure Light/Dark respectively, which felt not only natural at both sides of the spectrum but was generally believeable and enjoyable. As a Jedi, playing naturally ended up as a neutral 'grey' which is all well and good, but since the Neutral perks/gear do not exist this was rather a pain in the posterior. 2.5) Immersion This leads to big immersion issues regarding my character. I am not a roleplayer, but in a game like this I do like to at least become attached to my avatar. On my Jedi, I found myself choosing the 'correct' answer to boost my alignment score. On my Sith, I found myself playing the class naturally. Eventually a put it to a test. I took my Shadow and my Sith Warrior and tried to (as a wonderful reviewer of the Star Wars films put it) "tell myself what I knew about them without talking about their powers, appearance or job". My Shadow, at level 50. - He is a Jedi. - He is some kind of spy or infiltrator, even though he spends a lot of his time doing a healer job. For some reason. - He...is a bad Jedi (since he took a romance option). And there I fell short. My Warrior, at level 30. - He is a gifted pupil who had a hard life before graduating as a Sith. - He has a something of a death wish and dislikes his master intently, often goading him. - He has a vicious temper when riled, but for the most part is honorable and does not kill unless he has to. - He despises bootlickers, cowards and sadists. - He has a soft spot for the weak, especially when they try to stand up for themselves. - He also has a soft spot for Vette. I could keep going. Why is it that my Sith, from playing him naturally, feels much 'realer' and human? And why is it that I could play him totally the opposite alignment and *still* have him feel real? Also - see 6) 3) The Ilum Fiasco. Others have put it well enough. A big problem occurred whereby Empire pvpers were able to gain a big gear advantage over Republic players on several servers, leading to a snowball effect as they won more games, causing more players to cross over. 4) Coruscant. I don't know if I am alone in this one, but the 10-25 stretch on both sides was horrible. Lots of fluff, waaaay to much walking around. However, while the Empire's choice (Kaas) was bland and boring, Coruscant was abysmal. It was lame. It was tedious. It was ugly. It was way too big. Missions were grindy as hell. It was a rabbit warren. I have never been so relieved to get off a planet (included Taris and Nar Shaddaa). 5) Companions. Again, subjective to me, but on my three classes from each side the NPCs were much more interesting to me - in particular the *most* important companion - your first one (since Bioware thought it would be smart to stick you with one companion for your first 25 hours). On Empire, Vette was a cute, sassy Robin to the brooding Batman of my Juggernaut. Mako was a touch annoying...but having a healer as my first class was just AWESOME and her storyline got *very* interesting down the line. Khem Val was ghastly, but at least funny from time to time (and Ashara...phwoar). On the other hand, Qyckymart (the big lizard guy, whatever the hell his name was) was boring and dumb. Kira was cute but nowhere near as interesting as Vette. The cat guy on my trooper (even forgot his name) was...flatline in terms of how much impression he made on me. Our characters develop alongside our companions in RPGs, and when they aren't interesting it's much harder to 'get into' things. 6) Huttball. This was a great idea in theory. Long pvp queues due to faction imbalance? Well, go and break some skulls in a same faction BG. The only problem is that on most imbalanced servers in other games, queue times at least help the situation to self correct to a degree (as once they get to a certain length some people cross over to avoid them). Now there is no reason *not* to play Empire. Some solutions: I personally think the situation has gone beyond the point where it will resolve itself naturally. There needs to be some kind of intervention and incentive for playing Republic. I don't want to see the game imbalanced, but some kind of reward for playing the underdog faction would be nice. For example: A % buff to Commendation/gear drops, PvP token gains, xp gains and cash drops on the underpopulated side that scales according to the degree of imbalance could help matters. Honestly, I can't think of anything better. TL/DR Why did you choose the faction you did? What can be done to equalize the numbers of players on Empire/Republic? Is this something that Bioware should concern themselves with?

Lack of competition does not a good game make.

I have no idea why Bioware is resisting adding a LFG finder to this game in order to preserve "community". This thread is a perfect example of why this community, by and large, has already gone toxic and needs to be purged with fire.

This was the reason that DCUO pvp (which was actually excellent in theory) was stillborn - no ingame macros gives people who shell out for hardware a massive advantage.

Well, to be fair a lot of us will not be sticking around (and cannot say so since any post mentioning this is pruned by forum droids), but still have some time left of the account. It's not that we don't like the game, it's just that right now it's not worth a sub.

Sigh...the good old "community" defense. Well, I've got a bit of time so let's see if I can tackle this. 1) In all but the smallest MMOs there is no such thing as a server community when it comes to instances. 2) "Community" requires people being social. However, this is a game. For the most part we do want players to be polite and friendly, but trying to get to know one another in an instance is the wrong situation. People want to get in, do content, get loot, get out. If they want to be social, they go to guilds or chat. It's analogous to a pickup football or cricket game - if you join it and stand around chatting to people I will ask you to leave. If you are polite, friendly and do your job well - you may get to know us better in the pub later. 3) Server community does not stop ninjas. No one cares. The only difference is that the ninja is now also free to grief you or make sure you never get a run again (via having his guild bash you over /1). 4) "Community" is not something you can force. You make it by adding incentives to cooperation (server events, social points, easy LFG options), not by making it the *only* option. Trust me, as a high school teacher by trade, I can tell you exactly what happens when you *force* people to be social. 5) No LFD does not make a good community. LFD does not make a bad one. DCUO has an excellent community and an automated cross server LFD system that allows access to every single instance in game. This game's community is already poison on my server without a LFD tool.

Will there ever be a way to access or choose companions earlier? Depending on class I may be stuck with a companion that I dislike, is a poor spec for me or is the opposite alignment to me for the first *half* of my leveling experience.

So - What is your squeal point? What are some things that Bioware could do in the short term that would make you subscripe for life? A few rules: - Keep it clean. - This isn't about "lol QQ if you don't like it get out" or "if you are quitting why do you care?". - Elaborate on your ideas as much as you like, but keep it realistic. - Don't white knight or troll. As for me: 1) Add a cross server group finder. Yes yes "oh noes, the community". But for those of us who do not play at peak time, do not play on big servers, cannot or do not want to find a guild with the same interests as us it can be a matter of pure luck finding a group (or the old game of "did you roll the right class"). I don't believe server community ever exists in big MMOs and even if it could, fun and convinience should always come first. 2) Allow us to access companions earlier in our class quest. I hate being stuck with Khem/Qykymart and certain others for the first *half* of the game. Come on Bioware - you know RPGs better than this. 3) Reduce xp needed for 1-10 by 20% Reduce xp needed for 10-25 by 40% Increase xp needed for 30 - 40 by 30% Increase xp needed for 40 - 50 by 50% Sound crazy? Well, this means I can get speed earlier, access my companions faster and enjoy the better parts of the game (Act2 and 3) for longer. 4) High-Res textures and some better graphics. Anything else?

Honestly, I do like it but not enough to justify a subscription. - The lack of a cross server group finder makes offpeak grouping a nightmare. - Class balance is appalling, even while leveling. Why can my Merc take his pick of companions and roll through mobs, while my Juggernaut either *must* have a healer or downtime after every fight? - Companions are introduced way too late into the class story. Normal practice in good RPGs is to give you a choice early and introduce a few later. - Crafting is meh. - Endgame is meh. - PvP is fun, but needs substantially more maps and an alternative to Huttball. - Graphics, particularly textures on landscape and gear are abysmal. Game has potential, but we are honestly playing a Beta right now. Running down the month now, may be back in the spring.