Great post.

- UO was "Hardcore" in that it allowed griefers to absolutely wreck you as opposed to mildly inconvinience. - AOC did have well developed pvp elements, but was hardly a PvP MMO. - EvE was *not* an MMO in the traditional sense. It was a sandbox. - By PvP MMO I mean exactly that - Rage (or whatever the hell it was called), Planetside, TR and the like.

You sound like a happy person.

I think you misunderstood me. I agree that some parts were too quick (40-50 especially) and would love to see them extended. Similarly, I'd like to see the early parts sped up, since those side quests are obnoxious without a speeder and an interesting companion. The toggle is a nifty idea too, I'd like to see it added...but while active pre-50 it increases loot/commendation drops and alignment/affection gains substantially.

So I am currently working on my 3rd alt and I realized something. As much as I like most of this game, it falls into the same trap that so many other MMOs have - feeling grindy. Now sure, grinds are a part of MMOs, as much as bad graphics, bugs, idiots on /general, loot ninjas and bedsores...but the trick is putting them in the right place. SWTOR stumbles here. The first 2 planets of the Imperial side and the second planet of both sides seem almost universally hated. They also *drag* by due to the lack of a mount (and sprint before 14). I'm sure that some Whenwe is going to pop in now and say something like "hurr when I was your age I walked unphill to Molten Core in the snow and I liked it!". And I'll replay that I have no problem with challenging, lengthy leveling. I have a problem with slog and grind. Ideally, an MMO should have a Top Heavy approach to leveling. The first say 25% of the leveling content is generally not as interesting, balanced or fun - and thus it should be gotten out of the way asap. The final 25% though is great - since we have lots of our skills it is allowed to be challenging and can prepare us for endgame. WoW (yes, burn me at the stake) has this down pat - mounts are given nice and early and the first 20 levels or so fly by. The final 15 or so however take quite an investment. SWTOR has this backwards, honestly. The first 20ish levels are an absolute drag, while the last bits flew by for me. A few reasons for this: - Until 25 or so, I had no mount. Sometimes I spent more time slogging back and forth between hubs than questing. - Until level 30 or so I have one companion. I already made a thread about this - but not only is this irritating when that first companion is someone you dislike both mechanically and story wise, but when you do finally get the one you want you feel like too much time has passed. - The class stories are almost all *far* more engaging after Act 1. - Classes are much more fun to play once they've unlocked their better skills. So - a suggestion or two: - Decrease the xp needed from 1-10 by 20% - Decrease the xp needed from 10-25 by 30% - Increase the xp needed from 30 - 40 by 30% - Increase the xp needed from 40-50 by 40% Between space missions and the overabundant zone quests, it shouldn't be hard to do. TL/DR: How did you feel about the leveling process? Too fast? Too Slow? Just right? Was there any parts that dragged for you? - NOTE: To those thinking I am asking for a nerf to leveling, please read the thread. I am asking for the obnoxious 1-30 grind to be sped up and the really fun stuff (30-50) to be extended.

I don't think that the leveling experience is too slow. I do think that the 11-25 section is, however. I'd rather see this sped up a lot and the 40-50 slowed accordingly.

Neither UO or DAOC were PvP *focussed*, they just had pvp elements. Eve...is an exception. It's more of a sandbox, griefing engine (seriously, the things that go on in that game are disgusting) and the gaming equivalent of /b than an actual MMO.

1) Yes, the game is playable as dual tank - sure. But how much better would it be if you could, you know, choose your healing companion earlier. On the other hand my healin　g merc would love it if I could get *anyone* but Mako to come along with me. 2) The issue isn't having companions that disagree with you. The issue is having a companion that you not only dislike but that actively *hates* you, and that being your only possible choice for your first 20 hours of playtime. 2) Again, the issue isn't really the lack of female companions, I maybe mistated it. The problem is mostly the rate at which companions are given.

World PvP is just gankage and zergs generally.

Actually I find that latency is often the decider in FPS games, as well as blind luck. Oh, and hacks. RTS is where *real* pvp occurs ^_^.

It's interesting then that pvp focussed MMOs have always collapsed in flames (Warhammer, Planetside, TR etc.) ^_^.

Or Baldur's Gate 2. Or Neverwinter Nights. Or ...well, choose your good RPG from the last 10 years.

Very good wishes. Listen to this individual. ...Except replace Togruta with Cathar. Rawr!

Which would you choose? Why? I've seen people saying "to hell with PvP balance, fix Pve!". I've seen people saying, "PvPers are the real players, nerf x class because PvE balance doesn't matter". Personally, I am pro PvE balance, but I would like both. *But*, if you had to choose only one which would it be?

By "into that" I was trying to express the idea of a non-straight guy without setting off the forum censor . No offense meant.

I like the furry cat people (not really into that stuff, but that Bounty Hunter from the Balmorra class chain...phwoar). I do see your point coming as a female player, but I still maintain that there should be much more choice, much earlier.

Yeah, oddly I predict that a lot of female players are going to be cool with romancing girls as a male character, while male players will be squicked out by romancing guys (well, unless they are into that). I would have *zero* issues romancing Vette as a female though... (goes to take a cold shower). Again, I certainly don't consider myself a bigot. I just find the idea personally distasteful.

> Also goes to girls playing male characters < Did you follow the romance side of your companion quests? Very curious. As a straight male player, while I have zero problems with relationships between any combination of genders IRL or ingame, there is something about playing a female toon and then romancing a male NPC that seems...icky to me. I could never do it. Does this make me intolerant?

Holy wall of text! I was not complaining about a total lack of female characters (except on certain classes). I was complaining at the lack of choice and I was mostly annoyed at the treacle-slow rate they are dripped out to you and how for the first 20+ hours of our gaming experience we are tied to a single companion. Yes - some classes get them a little earlier. Some don't. And again, standard (good) rpg practice is to not only give a player a *choice* from a wide pool of companions, but also to give you plenty of choices early in the game. From a mechanical perspective, it's obnoxious to be tied to a certain spec until level 30 due to my companion being a tank/healer. From an immersion perspective, characters develop in conjunction with each other. It's totally immersion breaking for my BH to keep Mako around, or for my Assasin to keep Khem around.

You are not female. There are no females on the internet. Do make us think anything else is just...cruel. . That said, I must disagree *strongly* with your post. Firstly, in terms of demographics - of course it's conjecture, but I think it's pretty solid conjecture. Fans of the original Star Wars are primarily males in their 30s (seems logical). Not all fans, but most of them. As far as MMOs go - again, I'd say mostly males of mixed ages. The game's subject matter seems tuned around a slightly more mature audience than WoW though (since it involves topics like sex, torture, murder, corruption of the innocent, brainwashing, slavery and other stuff) and thus I'd say your average target player is - Male. - In at least mid teens to early 30s. - Straight (since there are no SS romance options). As for rolling an alternate gender character and romancing guys...well, I am as open minded as the next person but that seems neither interesting or fun to me (actually it's a little icky). I get your point regarding Mako, but I was not saying that it's game breaking mechanically. I was saying that in terms of immersion and enjoyment, it's bizarre to drag around a companion that is totally unsuited to you and dislikes you intensely, as well as being virtually useless to your character due to spec. Why can my BH who is both moderately well known and wealthy recruit, say, someone like Kaliya? Finally - you are fine with playing for both teams. While I am not against this in theory, I don't think that it's everyones cup of tea (I'd actually say you are in the minority). Plus, if there were more options, you would still be free to do it - but a lot of other people would suddenly be free to play *their* way too. Why are you against this?

Yeah. 1) - JK/SW is fine in PvP. 2) - JK/SW is bad as a PvE tank. 3) - JK/SW is terrible as a PvE dps. 4) - JK/SW is an oboxious class to level.

Blah. Kalfear's wishes would literally turn this into a mob-grinding compulsory grouping Korean MMO. Yours: 1- Why? This adds even *more* overhead to the already clunky grouping system. 2 - ...Not instanced. You mean FF style "raiding = waiting for 4 hours alongside 200 extra people to try and tag boss first?". No thanks. 3 - This is interesting.

I wouldn't either, if we had more of a choice of which companions to level with. Those first 25-30 levels are a *huge* stretch and I have no idea why they thought it would be smart to give some classes only a single companion choice for this. Again, standard RPG practice is to introduce companion NPCs at a fair clip early on and then taper it off towards the end. Not give you one choice early on (which for many classes is the least interesting/useful one for their spec) and then start dropping them on you late game when it's almost too late to enjoy them. Very odd from a company like Bioware who has a ton of RPG experience. All I can think was they did this to force players to at least take the time to grind to the end of their class story.

No, it's a discussion thread. If suggestions come out of it, so be it. And I think that going to the trouble of typing that up reveals that I certainly enjoy this game enough to invest some time in talking about it. How about you actually point out the part you have a problem with rather than playing wannabe forum cop?

Mako? Nah. She's...not awful, but honestly compared to the other 'cute' companions (Vette, Ashara, Nadia) she is whiny and annoying. Vette wins hands down as character I developed a nerd crush on ingame.