I see no problem with people wanting to leave a WZ. I see no reason for a long debuff either. its better than them being afk in the zone or being miserable and bad and pulling the team down anyway. Every battle I have been in where there have been leavers we have had replacements turn up... and most of the time they have been far more effective than they guy who left. Does it suck when people leave and you are down players... no more than it does being down players for any other reason. I have a guildy that leaves Huttball as soon as they get in because they hate Huttball, the game hasn't started and they are quickly replaced. They don't want to spend 15 minutes playing a WZ they hate. Might be a little different if you could pick WZ's but until you can forcing people to play one they don't want to so they don't get a debuff that stops them participating in WZ they do want to play in is a really gaming model. Besides we seem to rarely get leavers... sometimes there are people I wish would leave because they con't seem to pass the ball or defend an objective. I would like to make it as easy as possible for those people to leave rather than frustrating me.

You prove my point. You ignore the argument on not every class has a decent ranged interrupt with a totally irrelevant point. You fail to say why a boring single button spam should be as effective as it is. Clearly you are a spammer.

I find this amusing. It is really sad when people say that only bad players are spamming this ability but worry that it might be nerfed as clearly they must be using it a lot themselves or else they wouldn't really be worrying about it. The problem is that while it may not take a lot of skill to LoS or interrupt (of course my interrupt is on a much longer cd than the lock out but nevermind that) it takes less skill to pick a high point and spam 1 button. There in lies the problem. A 1 button spec should not be as effective as it currently is. Whether or not it can be interrupted and locked out 30% of the time it is still too effective for 1 button spec. I can't believe people are defending such a boring playstyle as valid. I am not saying the damage should be nerfed I just feel like the spec is bad and too effective for 1 button gameplay. Tracer/grav round spec needs to be changed up a bit. As it is it is a really bad, turret, 1 ability spam spec. Its boring to play (unless you like seeing big numbers for little work) it takes no imagination or thought to play it halfway decently. Increase the cast time to 2.5 seconds and give one of their other abilities a chance to make it instant so they at least have to rotate it. That or change the buffs/debuffs from talents to work off other abilities. Force some kind of variance in skill usage and rotation to be effective. Compare tracer/grav round effectiveness to what it takes to be equally effective as a mara/senti. Those guys balance a hell of a lot of buttons and cooldowns to be good and I can tell the difference on my Vanguard between a good Mara and a bad one. I find it much harder to tell any difference between 1 spamming merc and the next.

Actually, last figures I saw on MMO Champ were they were down to 6 million active accounts. They might have 9 - 10 million accounts but only 6 million of them logged in over the month. They are bleeding players at the moment, still a very successful MMO but lack of real innovation and repetition of the same world/graphic style etc is taking its toll.

I don't think massively inflated gear progression is needed. Sure small increments but not enough to overcome skill. If you are using gear as a crutch you are bad. If you think you should have to grind to get the gear to be on a level playing field then you are saying that because you have more time for a time sink than you deserve to have a gear crutch and again are bad. I much prefer pvp based around skill and teamwork than gear. If you are pvping or gaming to get artifical gear rewards so you can stomp those that don't to inflate your ego... particularly because you can't rely on skill to do it... well that is just a little pathetic. What are people worried about if there is a much more level playing field in pvp? Are people that require massive gear inflation and prgression so they can feel like they are doing well worried that if it isn't there they will be beaten due to lack of skill? Seriously, the biggest online pvp game (yes it beats WoW with active players and active accounts) is League of Legends. Yes its a slightly different genre being a MOBA but the key principles apply, once you get to level 30 the only thing to buy are runes and it doesn't take long to get the ones you need. In that game it is all about skill, teamwork and communication which is exactly what pvp should be about. Needing gear to roflstomp those that don't have it yet is a very sad way to get a sense of accomplishment and self worth. How about rather than gear progression they work more on a rating progression like they do in games like League of Legends. You can still be elitist if you need to be but at least in that case it would be based on skill rather than gear.

You're ultimately wrong. If you want to include subs as part of the figure you need to add in all the xbox live etc subs for people that use it to play FPS. BF3 is the highest grocing entertainment media of all time. Its sales beat any other game, movie, song etc. It has made far more money since being released than WoW has or did in the same time frame. Yes WoW has made a lot of money but has a lot more ongoing costs than BF3. You also can't compare an income of 7 years over a few months sales.

I disagree. I like the city levels. I would like if you didn't have to taxi everywhere in them but otherwise they are more interesting in the fact that have mulitple levels and overhanging levels. If there was real world pvp they would be far more fun to play in than open lands like Tattooine. Thank said... more world pvp please. More street like environments with shops (even if they aren't really functional) as currently it feels like every city is unliveable for most people as gangs kill everyone.

/signed. Warhammer RvR was the bomb! Loved spending hours in a random warband running around the maps flipping zones, taking objectives. Loved seeing the same rivals time and time again... know that Evilchoppa was out there... and if he caught you... well you were probably dead. Building a community around taking objectives, communicating and working with people to flip zones or take castles. It would be awesome if SWTOR had some real RvR but its is unlikely as none of the classes were designed with seige abilities.

The OP is comparing features that took years to develop in other games to a new game that has different strengths. Give BW some time to add in more content. WoW shipped without battlegrounds, with no raids or endgame content and it took months to get all the extra stuff in, including numerous class rebalances. TOR will get more stuff, it has shipped with far more than WoW did and if you don't rush to endgame because WoW has convinced you that is what an MMO is all about and enjoy the levelling experience you won't be stuck doing 3 BGs till BW has the resources to put more stuff in game. BW needed to launch the game so that it could get more money for more development. It didn't ship with all the features it will have, no MMO does, not WoW, not Rift nor any other MMO you might play. If you are burned out from doing FP's, Ops and PvP, maybe you should play a little less each week or level an alt on the opposing faction to try out life on the other side. If you have done that then enjoy the social elements, go exploring, have you gotten all the datacrons? About the only thing I agree with in his post is that the communities on each server are a little small. I would much rather they halved the number of servers. I like smaller populations but there seems to be just a little too little population. The other features will come over the next few months. They have delivered new content last patch and I am sure we will some more new content in the next major patch. Maybe a new WZ. Oddly enough WoW only had 3 BGs for over the first year, Rift only has a couple. Complaining there are only 3 + Illum sounds like you are just whinging or looking for things to not be happy about. TLDR - OP has played the game non stop for 1 month and is bored because he expects the game to be released with features most MMO's don't have until they are at least 6 months old. OP needs to spend some time varying his hobbies and not be on a game 24/7 so this doesn't happen in future.

He's wearing orange moddable Jedi Guardian Armour. its not Trooper armour at all.

Agree. this would be a great direction to expand in and change the way these games are played. Imagine endgame Operations where you take control of a capital ship in space warfare. Or flashpoints where you and your party fly your ships into battle to beat bosses. A completely different type of group content that has not been done by other MMO's. Sure there are some vehicle stages in some other raids but a whole space mission could be great. Space pvp would also be awesome, they would need to redo the shooter on rails option a bit but it would be a great way to add in some change of pace content and mix up party dynamics a bit more.

So what I take from this thread is the OP is missing the sense of epicness MMO's had when we were all noobs, had endless time and hadn't lost 100's (literally) days of time playing MMO's. Hate to break it to those that look back on those games but that was mostly because it was new, not because it was epic. Content seems easy? That's probably because skills have improved... a lot of people though Super Mario or the original Zelda were hard too... then we developed better gaming skills and when we go back realise how easy these games were. The only hard thing about Vanilla wow raiding was putting up with 39 other people, most of which I couldn't stand to slowly crawl our way through Molten Core with endless toilet breaks and wipes because some guy didn't cleanse when he was supposed to or run out of the raid cause he was the bomb. While it seems some of the content is a little easy to get in SWTOR, particularly the pvp you can't judge the endgame content. Endgame content in WoW was only Black Rock Depths for a few months and that wasn't hard either. I would like to see a little more gear development, not old school 1 upgade per 30 odd hours work but maybe a little rarer in terms of epics. I do agree that epics are too easy to get in MMO's now and so epic is the new Superior. Otherwise I am glad most of the eliteness is gone. I am glad there are not meters, LFD/LFR garbage. Both mean i don't ahve to talk to people to find groups. I like grouping and do when I can, I even do it when I don't need to, my partner and I can solo most 4 man content but we will still bring people when we can because that is what the game is about. The only things that are really missing for me is more play created content and the RvR style battles of WAR/DoAC. I miss the days of running around in a warband sacking keeps and flipping zones.

had 8 v 6 Huttball last night. I dislike Huttball at the best of times but when outnumbered its pretty pointless. Hate uneven matches specially in small games. Makes a big difference. Then again I would love it if I could choose which battlegrounds I was queued for or just disable Huttball. Don't get me wrong, Huttball is a great concept if you have organised teams but when you are with randoms it is rarely fun.

Agree with the OP's post. Add fixing the delay on republic abilities due to bad animations and Republic might make a comeback. Jedi gear - bland at best, outrageous fashion idea or parade float reject at worst Jedi dialogue - humourless It feels like the Republic story was either rushed and was incomplete (there are parts of the story and dialoge that makes no sense. Alderaan has a few that don't follow at all). Or it was developed first as a prototype or a basic story idea and then Imperial story lines got all the embellished features of creative ideas once they saw what was possible and improved on it. I doubt these changes will happen anytime soon but they should have been considered before release... maybe if more of the art, class balance and storyline teams played Republic toons...

I agree. Currently it is really frustrating knowing that I have to follow a set path and at times have finished all the objectives along my preordained path and need to sit waiting for a minute ot 2 for something else important to shoot at. Free flight also opens up the options for more dynamic missions... say like navigating an asteroid field escaping from capital ships... actually having to steer through the asteroids. Also more secret zones or easter eggs for those that want to expore space. Might also make it feel like the docking stations meant something if you could free fly above planets surfaces and explore. At the moment they are a mild distraction. Not saying they are bad just thinking about how awesome they could be. Of course, this is low down my list of priorities... getting mirror classes to mirror is my top priority after major bugs such as broken operations etc.

I agree its bad... most of the Sage hats are worse than those worn by the flying nun... Please, I know some few peoply my think a landing pad on the head looks original but I can't help but think that BW intended Sages to be the but of jokes with that headwear. it is the worst of all the classes. While the artist may have tried to stay true to some weird outlandish hat(s) in a graphic novel or an extra in one of the movies, it is not aesthetically pleasing to have to run around with. This game is in a whole other era and could easily have invented better more practical headwear for consulars than what they were stuck with. I re rolled trooper to get away from the awful sage gear. While troopers suffer colour coordination problems at least here gear doesn't seem like failed fashion concepts or rags tied together. Supposed to be Jedi, respectable negotiators, counsellors and agents of the order. At the moment they look like anything but.

This is a problem with an unintelligent player, not with dual speccing. Not knowing the basics of healing was the problem. Using such an extreme example is hardly helpful. Also might be more relevant if you had talked about a practiced healer who knows when to use a big heal, when to hot and was good at gaging who needed to be healed first or when he should interrupt/cc or without losing focus on healthbars. Dual Speccing is helpful I play a healer, it would be nice if when I was questing or doing pvp or whatever else I change to suit the playstyle I prefer. Maybe when I pvp I like to dps, maybe when I do flashpoints I like to heal and maybe when I solo I would like the option of a hybrid playstyle? Does being able to pick between two options really hurt your playstyle for those of us who want it? How does enabling this feature for those of us who want it negatively impact you? Your shaman example being a poor example of how it might impact you as discussed above.

Guessing you play empire. And yes 1 sec can make a huge difference. 1 extra second to catch up to get in range of the huttball carrier before he gets over the line. An extra second to get away. The number of times 1 second makes a huge difference is phenominal in a game where gcd is 1.5 seconds. Enemy hits stealth before your project animation finishes... too bad they get away, not a problem for people using shock. Think before you type. 1 second in pvp matters. Imagine if Empire had 1 second delays on say their heal spells working... it makes a big difference.

Mostly I would just loe to have dual spec. I playing a ahealing sage and I don't respec due to costs and inconvenience of having to go back to the fleet if I want o act as a healer for a heroic area or jump quickly into a Flashpoint without having to redo all my characters talents. Means I am stuck questing as a healer, its slow, sure having a companion helps but it is slow. Dual Spec isn't easy mode. If you are worried about that just make changing spec not possible while in a Flashpoint or Operation without resetting it. Dual spec is sorely needed, that and UI customisation. The rest of the OP suggestions are just flavour I can do without. Nice if you have the extra resources but I would prefer they fix mirror imbalances and bad animations first.

Actually the mirror imbalances are really really bad and poorly done. They have acknowledged problem with Mortal Volley but not the other skills. Theyu need to fix full auto to properly mirror unload (or w/e the BH one is) since it is a bread and butter move and suffers from push back and huge delay. Lucky to get 2/3 shots of it off due to push back. Mortar Volley should be changed to something that makes sense. At the moment it is a really bad animation and buggy. A low arching very short ranged mortar animation is bad. Project and Shock are another case of things not lining up properly. Shock is instant, Project has more than twice the delay to do damage. Means if your target stealths or you die before the animation completes you don't do the damage. Glaring imbalances in mirror classes need to be fixed (this is the first step to fixing faction imbalance). Improving future Republic storylines to have a litte more flair or humour. At the moment the Jedi story and personality are a bit bland. Improve the consular early companions. They are stuck with Qyzen Fess for a ridiculously long time. Not to mention unless you are blood thirsty you aren't going to get much affection from Qyzen. Also can he be changed to actually be able to use more than 1 weapon type? Lastly (Consular vs Inquisitor) most of the companion crew skill bonuses up until the last companion you get aren't synergistic with the crew skills that your Jedi are likely to be using (unless you are fitting out your companion and not yourself with them). Basically the Republic side needs some balance fixes, a bit more flair/humour in future stories and more useful and personable companions (at least for consular). Republic stories outside of sumggler are a bit robotic. Priorities should be 1) Fix major game bugs 2) Fix mirror class ability balance 3) Improve crafting for Armstech, Armormech, Artifice and Synthweaving 4) New content.

Winning quote of the day!

Sadly I agree with the OP. More and more I get the feeling this is being run by someone who doesn't give a rat's arse about the community, only about ticking boxes and getting a pay check. The person that ran the SW:TOR project should be sacked and someone who actually plays games, cares about a happy community so it sticks around more than 3 months should take over. Fix the problems, bugs and class imbalance, then worry about medals that are weak weak carrots to get people to re subscribe. I can almost see the some no brain twit in an emergency conference that was called due to forum outcry over a terrible patch saying 'I know we can passify their rage and give them a medal or something with a title attached for being founders' and the next marketing genius 'Yes but we should say we are doing it in a few months so they have to stay subscribed so we can squeeze more out of this badly run and failed project so as not to tarnish our names and future employability too much'

Joy another patch... a medal and a title isn't going to make up for it. Get the core mechanics right, balance the mirror class abilities properly! Fix ability lag or at least acknowledge the problems and comment what you are doing to address them. Its like buying a product that has intermitant failures or doesn't do what it is supposed to do and when you complain to the vendor they say... well we will take it away to fix issues you weren't as worried about and if you are still paying to use it in 3 months we will give you a shiny sticker to put on it. BW will need to pick up there game and community engagement there is a lot of competition coming out this year. Its not like BW hasn't put out great games before its more a case of they need to fire the project and community engagement managers for being arrogant and incompetant and hire someone who at the very least has a passion for putting out a good and polished product. Someone that cares about customers not making the biggest profit margin. You are better off making slightly less money and keeping your good name in tact than giving share holders and investors another 0.01% dividends. Pay attention to your customers, stop being so arrogant in thinking a shiny ball will distract us from a half tested product. Heads of certain teams should be sacked, the guy responsible for making sure mirror classes functioned as mirrors for a start. Glaring differences like cd's for mirror classes not being balanced and animation issues should never have made it through to the live versions. Its not a small oversight and it is obvious. Please communicate with the community about how you are addressing issues such as faction imbalance, mirror class differences and ability delays rather than throwing useless titles and shiny medals at us. Most of us our not under the age of 10 and not distracted by shiny things.

... except for a lot of the bugs (or ability delay due to animation) only affect the republic mirror classes (Project, Full Auto etc) this will mean that those that want the best chance to do well in pvp will go empire. These 'bugs' are common knowledge to anyone that has been to the forums.

Its not the developers that need to be fired in this case. It is the game's project manager. Failure to communicate or listen to customer feedback and address issues, failure to properly test patch content etc. The game's project manager signed off on the development and design goals. He/she is the one responsible for failure to address player conserns or address bugs. The buck stops with them, not with a developer that probably wrote the code they were instructed to. It is not the developers that are at fault, it is usually management and Systems Architects (for performance issues) that are responsible.