Will we be able to acquire/modify crystals for sabers and guns that change the aesthetic appearance, a la "the force unleashed"?

Hey all, just thought i'd share some of my knowledge i've gleaned so far from murdering my way to victory in some good ol faction carnage. Some specifics regarding sent/mar, but a lot of the tips can be applied to anyone! I hope this helps, and if you have any other tips, feel free to post--i'm (we're) always down to know something i didn't before! Broken down by Warzone: Huttball-- 1) use your insta, 6 sec cloak when carrying the ball to instantly make it a "neutral ball", as you drop it when you cloak. this is INVALUABLE when setting up screens or confusing the other team's movement and orientation, as well as setting up your own team's offense. 1b) On a side note, use your cloak as a "forced" interrupt--anyone targeting or channeling you will be forced to de-target you. remember to use this right before the enemy player's cast ends, for maximum uptime of DMG output from yourself. this is a PRIME tactic to employ, so get used to it. 2) Use the Big Crate on the second floor scaffolding on either end of the map to hide-n-heal, disrupt casting/channeling, pop cloak to confuddle n00bs, etc. REMEMBER, any OBJECT blocking someone's LOS, or line of sight, that player will be untargetable! this is a GREAT defensive tactic--learn map awareness and plot out courses that allow you to weave in and out of "object LOS". 3) Save your leap/charge for quick access to second floor, or when carrying the ball for quicker lateral movement. Use it to stun in an acid pit, flame grate or with the knowledge of a "zerg" incoming. 4) Your master strike is the most versatile DMG ability you have. Here we go folks, gonna spoil the surprise for everyone: Use your master strike as a fast acting DoT, or as a quick way to put on fast DMG. The first two hits of the skill land near immediately, and combine this with scream/blade storm, riposte, choke/stasis, and you're looking at 50% + enemy health taken away, in a matter of 2-3 sec. Sentinel/ Marauder have some of the most underrated burst in the game--use this paucity of knowledge to your advantage. This is a great way to pick apart a healer, as it forces them to stop healing others and heal themselves.--which is the name of the game, distraction and annoyance. 5) First one in, last one out! You should always be wary of your health and CD's, but with that being said, you have the ability to be the first one to initiate battles, and this is another invaluable tactic, as tacitly, you will be the focal point for death (your kamikaze will scares folks) and this starts a chain reaction of battles, SO USE THIS TO DISTRACT FROM YOUR TEAM'S BALL CARRIER--cannot stress this enough. Battle for Alderaan-- 1) If you control sides, USE THE SIDE SPEEDERS for quick defensive access to your turret. this will save matches, trust. 2) Use the turret as a shield/wall. play a game of "who's the better mime?" and mirror your opponents movement to stall for time if defending/uncapped, as this will force an enemy to follow you around like herpes. on the note of turrets, just because the middle turret looks bigger and badder--it's not. one turret, a match does not win. cap[ing sides is an effective strategy and will split enemy forces and make it easier to pick em off. 3) THE NAME OF THE GAME IS TO STOP THE ENEMY FROM CAPPING, so don't give 2 ***** about your k/d ratio; just get in there and start swinging when you see that blue beam. play like a team, win like a team. 4) if trying to cap middle, make sure to roll in with a group, as diving and conquering tends not to work. on a side note, if there's a mega-battle in the middle, most likely the enemy's side turret will be defenseless/ 1 man defended, so when you see a veritable murder-rave going on in the middle turret, this is a clear sign that the SIDES CAN BE TAKEN-- a small strike team of 1-3 can easily gank a turret. 5) KILL HEALERS. can't stress this enough, they are your prime target in PvP in general, but specifically this map as well. Voidstar-- 1) Don't get sucked out or drawn away from doors when defending--this is the quickest way to lose your cap-ables. 2) if one side is getting heavily pounded, THIS MEANS THE OTHER DOOR IS DOOMED. make this a meme in your head, as this will force you to habitualize the need to go BACK AND FORTH to each door to ensure defense of bomb, or capping door. goddamn, THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT. 3) don't be a silly billy and fight on the bridges--not even gonna say why, as it will happen once and you'll know forever. just thought i'd remind people anyway! 4) when attacking, KILL THE CLOTHIES. they go down fast and they can dish out some crazy DMG if left alone. glass cannons are easily broken if they don't break you first! 5) let someone else cap the door if you can. use your charge and stasis/choke, aoe stun, slow (etc) to help out your team's capper. this is an INVALUABLE tactic, so learn it quickly. General Tips-- 1) make sure to buy and use stims that persist thru death, WZ only medpacks and defense stims, and normal medpacs--these can make or break a 1v1, 1v2, 1v3 scenario, IN YOUR FAVOR! 2) goddamit we have a lot of abilities and utility! use THEM ALL. learn them, love them! 3) read my signature and do what Roger Dodger tells ya! 4) If you're alone and have excess rage/focus, and are not fury/centering capped: Use sweeping slash/cyclone slash to bleed off some rage while building fury. Hope these help!!

that's kind of what i'm trying to goad out of the community--what IS raiding, what defines it, and HOW can we evolve it into something wholly novel. i feel we need to redefine what "endgame" is like how the internet redefined humanity. lol, i know: a tall order and maybe a little hyperbolic, but ultimately the best way to clarify our OWN needs and wants in endgame territory. perhaps user generated content? (obviously with some sort of checks-and-balance system in place, even that perhaps user generated) perhaps some sort of infinite, ever changing dungeon with interchangeable bosses--like a "set" of random bosses, mobs and scripted events but within a context of the unknown, randomly generated terrain and setting--perhaps when AI scripts become powerful enough, a truly UNIQUE experience at any/all times. these idea could work--only IF we break ourselves away from the paradigm of linear endgame or even gameplay. not saying TOR will/should/could even do it, but it's some brain chicken to munch on.

okay, let's unpack this loaded topic a bit. firstly, the raid progression in TOR is nearly identical to WoW, or really, any other MMO out there--that is to say, it progress linearly and has a finite amount of content. trash > boss > loot> repeat, in a (usually) hierarchical difficulty sequence. some call it the "treadmill", others call it "standard". i say let's call it "antiquated". i think we really need to find a new way to explore this idea of "raiding" and by extension the way to acquire power, perhaps more specifically gear. but man-oh-man, that's a daunting task--that's like creating a sub-genre; a new avenue of science; a new freakin' ninja turtle--it takes ingenuity, dedication, time and a crap-ton of different ideas or paradigms. perhaps a stronger question would be: "SHOULD we miss "proper" raid progression?" look at Diablo 3: it's trying to obfuscate what is "endgame" a bit by having the hardest difficulty nearly standard across all the chapters, as historically chapter 1's content isn't as punishing as chapter 4 or 5. this creates a world in which EVERY area, mob, event, scenario or boss is viable for endgame playing. a chapter 1 boss will just be slightly less difficult than a chapter 3 boss, but probably solely on the merit of mechanics, not stats or loot. not to mention random and non-specific events and extra mobs/bosses. this is the kind of paradigm i would like to see in more MMO's : have endgame content not be a treadmill; a linear, confined and shiftless world of 1 + 1 = 2, but rather make it more like a hamster ball; always mobile, never stopping; a new dimension to explore and play around in, by adding the ability to modify, on the fly, your "path of destruction"--much like our hamster friends and their plastic perforated balls. what could this mean? make everything, or nearly everything, viable for endgame content? obliterate the need to even identify something as "endgame", as it would not be sufficient a word to use in the given context? hyper-connectivity and multi-play experience? meta-games? the frontier of what defines raiding, and indeed "endgame" paradigms, is starting to curl into itself like a goddamn caterpillar in a cocoon: hopefully we'll see an emerged, beautiful butterfly soar above the dead, antiquated sheddings of past archetypes. the ideas of videogames are ever-changing--and this is a VERY good thing. (tl;dr)THESIS: what are your thoughts on how endgame content should be, or where we can take it into the future!

Hey it occurred to me last night while playing, that there a very minor but impactful ways of improving this game beyond the technical aspects. Most people yell for bug fixes and balancing issues (ahem, illum), but this thread is gonna be about little tweaks and additions to the game/game structure to make it smoother, more immersive, etc, etc. theses are just some of the ones i was thinking about. post your ideas if you have any. 1) Right clicking my portrait gives me the option to "mount vehicle" in addition to the other commands (no more wasting a space on the action bar) 2) toggling left/right mirrored stances when holding lightsabers/weapons. furthermore, perhaps each class (knight/war, consular/inquisitor) has a unique way of wielding their weapon. (a good way in PvP to quickly identify specs/classes beyond current limitations) 3) entering a FP or OPS, like choosing Hard Modes, I should be able to choose an option that lets me SKIP ALL DIALOGUE. after running these things 20+ times, and don't get me wrong i love the story and VO's, i get a little burnt out on the same dialogue. ...only so many times i can airlock release those engineering dorks... 4) being able to loop the overworld music, so i can ALWAYS hear that sweet John Williams in my head telling me to...do things. )>'.')> 5) BRING BACK PAZAAK! seriously tho, a way to battle other players for special rewards, server sponsored tournaments, pazaak skill trees (!), a new mini-game to sink time into; ladders and leaderboards. cantinas will be BUMPIN' again! 6) on 5's note, MUTILPLAYER (panzer-dragoon style) SPACE BATTLES. im pretty damn sure they've asked themselves (BW) this question, but ya, for sure, who wouldn't want to be able to co-op or even go against a fellow friend/player in some epic pew-pew space killin'? 7) no more K.K.K. looking gear for inquisitors...ok BW?...sheeesh <3 8) Q up crafting companion's missions. give em a list, then they do it. so instead of every 30-60 min having re-click on a new mission, they go all auto-bot and conform to the litany you gave em, like a shoppin list. 9) perhaps in the next expansion, or next-next-next major content patch, have the Codex Entries be VO'd, so i can listen to the great details and lore WHILE STILL KILLIN. sorta like a narrator, a disembodied voice. 10) a spell, an item, a way to teleport me to party leader. i mean if FF11 has it, surely we can too? plz?! well those are just some i was thinkin about. WHAT about all of YOU?