Gonna have to agree with what Corth said above, although I do like the gray areas as well. I much prefer the expanded Star Wars universe than the one Lucas created in the six films. It's cool to like the gray areas better, you just gotta accept that's not how Star Wars was originally/officially conceptualized.

It's all just really, really confusing. I've tried to hash it out with other people in a couple of different threads and couldn't come to much of anything conclusive except that it seemed to be that, in general, light-sided decisions are "merciful/good at the moment, regardless of implications" and dark-sided decisions are more often "chaotic/cruel/evil at that moment, regardless of implications." I say "at the moment" because there are some that are obviously done deviously or are evil in the long term, but are still light-sided because it involves sparing someones life at the moment instead of killing them, even if you are doing it for your own good, even if they would be tortured later, etc. I apologize, I can't remember who suggested this type of "classification" for light and dark decisions, but it was not an idea I came up with on my own, although I agreed with the person who posted it that it is most often true. One example of that, on Imperial Agent, was an instance where I went and drugged a resistance fighter on Dromund Kaas (I think it was Dromund Kaas) in order to get information out of him. Essentially, he's drugged up so he's not coherent enough to make his own decisions but he can still follow my orders and answer my questions. Anyway, at the end the choices are to kill him (Dark Side), spare him and tell himself to turn himself in to the Empire (Light Side), or tell him "I don't care what you do, the drugs will wear off and you'll be fine" (neutral, no LS or DS gain either way). Well, okay, obviously killing him while he's drugged and defenseless is dark-sided, that's pretty apparent. The light-side one bothers me though. My agent is very light sided with regards to preserving life (she always tries to be diplomatic if it is an option), even though she is loyal to the Empire, and I could not bring myself to choose the Light Side option in this case. You just know the man is going to be tortured (or just plain shot on sight) when you tell him to go turn himself in. (For those who are familiar with the companion Kaliyo, this is pretty much confirmed based on the fact that she gives +15 affection for this answer. Kaliyo is a crazy *****, she never approves of the "merciful" choice. She prefers chaos and, usually, cruelty. That basically confirmed for me that the implication of the option was in fact that you are sending a drugged and incoherent man to turn himself in to people who will most likely torture and/or kill him.) I ultimately had to go with the neutral option even though it means that the guy would probably go right back to his resistance fighting against the Empire when he sobers up and recovers from his wounds. My character is loyal to the Empire, but I just could not, in (my IA's) good conscience, send a man walking to his death or to torture when he was too drugged up to make a conscious decision of his own. Yet it is a Light Side decision, because I am choosing to spare his life at the moment instead of shooting him myself. Ultimately, the conclusion I came to is that, if you want to make a character that is deviously and wholly EVIL, you are going to end up with a character that has a handful of light side points (because to choose the dark side option every time would not result in the most evil character possible). And if you want to make a character that is deviously and wholly GOOD (or as close as you can get in SWTOR), then you are going to end up with a character that has a handful of dark side points or (in the case of my IA) one who turns down light sided options even though they exist because they are clearly evil by implication. If you pick the light sided options every single time (instead of certain dark side options or neutral alternatives) you will end up with a more evil character than if you had just settled with the neutral or dark side choice.

From what I understand, no, it's not possible. You're just too far away to help, and you don't have any option besides going to the specified location to progress your storyline. Poor Mako just can't catch a break with regards to her friends.

To be honest with you, all the Empire options for females seem far more appealing to me than the Republic ones, though I only really have personal experience with 2/4 so far. I've heard that Aric is quite good Republic-side, if you don't mind the warm-up and the fact that he looks like a cat-person. He's really the only one I'd be interested in rolling a Republic character for (with regards to romance, I'm tempted to do a Jedi Knight for the story).

Out of curiosity, which customization? I ask because I think he's downright gorgeous with his default appearance.

Didn't look through every post prior to this because I want to avoid spoilers if I can, but I liked this one from the first companion conversation with Kaliyo: (Spoiler'd even though it really doesn't spoil anything with regards to the story. Just didn't want to be a hypocrite. )

Really? Which option occurs if you are Light Side and which occurs if you are Dark Side? I was aware that potential for his character shift was available, but I didn't know the IA's affiliation triggered it. (IA is probably my next task after BH is finished, so I'm genuinely interested.)

I felt like a got a decent amount of flirt options as a female BH, though I don't quite know how it would compare to the male version of the BH. I didn't take any of them except for the companion romance ones, so I'm not sure how they play out. Some of them aren't really class-related at all, because a couple of them that I can think of were available to my Sith Warrior as well (the fat Imperial guy on Hoth, and the Sith guy from House Thul on Alderaan during the bonus series). As far as I can recall, none of them are people I would have wanted to flirt with anyway though, so... I totally would have broken every last bit of my BH's characterization to have had a terrible, alcohol-induced one night stand with Tarro Blood for the lulz. Or Gault, why couldn't I hit on Gault?! Although I am partially satisfied by the one time I come back to the ship and Gault mentions he'd been lacking my female companionship. (To which Mako responds: "Ew, Gault. Just ew." Or something like that.) Incredibly jealous of Sith Warriors (particularly male Sith Warriors) in that regard. On my BH's ship, Torian has more (potential) romantic options than I do.

BH does have some amazing companions. I can't comment on Skadge because I don't have him yet (though he seems like a gigantic *** from the one time I did see him on Belsavis), but all the others are very interesting and fun in their own ways. I ADORE Gault, had no idea he'd be as amusing as he is. Blizz is adorable, Mako's like a sister, and Torian is, well, Torian. I dig Mandos. It's hard to imagine anyone beating out Quinn, just because it's so damn amusing to make him uncomfortable with the flirts, but Torian does give him a run for his money. (Hey, he can cook right? Though Quinn does offer to play nanny with the kids; hmmm...) To be honest with you, I liked that flirt. But my BH is something of a smart-*** and likes to make glib remarks, so I guess it would depend on your character's personality. I can see how that would be very unappealing if you see your BH as someone who is quite serious all the time.

People don't like those two? Qyzen was the only thing I liked out of leveling a Jedi Consular for 15 levels. Well, apart from throwing rocks. I don't even have Skadge yet and I would already be willing to trade him for either one of the two you mentioned. Heck, I'd even throw in my ship droid. I'll just have to get my hot meals and foot massages elsewhere...

I essentially adore every single companion I've got as a BH. Well, except Skadge maybe. Though I don't have him yet, so I can't say for sure... I do know that I break into a smile every single time Blizz or Gault want to talk to me. And Mako's like the sister my BH never had. :') But yes, Torian is amazing. Dat Johnny Yong Bosch! Mandalorians are always cool though. And I daresay, female BH's first flirt with him is arguably the coolest flirt in the game.

If it makes you feel any better, that's the choice I ended up making as well. Even though picking House Thul serves the Empire, it doesn't necessarily have to be your character's intention. And if you pick the Dark Side option, your character basically says "I'll sell you peace...for credits, hand them over," which is pretty disgustingly evil if you ask me.

In terms of the OP's request, I just don't think it would be all that hard for the "no" option to have been an actual "no" option rather than a disguised "yes." Even if all it amounted to was Vette saying "Okay, okay, just don't forget about me, alright?" or something similar. I kinda thought OP was just saying that the situation didn't play out the way he'd hoped/planned based upon the response he gave. I know there have been times during missions/quests where I don't quite get the option to choose a response that suits my character's personality RP-wise, so I just go with the option I can rationalize the most to suit my needs. I assumed the OP's situation was more like that, and he just wanted to point out that it was silly that there were three options and all of them were "yes." I could be wrong. Someone did make a rather reasonable suggestion, which was to just imagine the "black screen" time as whatever you want it to be. That would be something akin to what I tend to do when the options given to me don't quite suit my tastes.

That's very true, though it's still more of a difference than you get in other MMOs, where your character's personal development (from an RP/personality standpoint) is entirely imagined, whereas you can actually somewhat act upon it in-game in SWTOR, even though it doesn't cause any groundbreaking changes. It would be exceptional if it did, but it's just not within reason from a game development standpoint. The changes are all very minor, but I appreciate that they exist, and they make the world feel ever so slightly more "real." It's certainly small, but I do enjoy how NPCs respond to me differently based upon race or sex. For example, my Sith pureblood is generally respected by any Imperial NPC I speak to, but a number of them will refer to my Chiss as a "filthy alien" or something of the sort. Or a situation where an NPC told my character "You're everything a woman should be. I wish I'd met you when I was still a man." (Sounds really strange out of context, I know, but he was referring to his dignity, not his actual physical gender.) That's something that clearly wouldn't have been said if I were playing a male character. It is a very minor and inconsequential detail, but it does help me feel more immersed in the world via my character. I like that I'm supposedly an important individual in a sense of the SWTOR story. The plot covers the "important" half of that and those minor changes in dialogue based on class/sex/race really go a long way to cover the "individual" part of it. In some other MMOs that I've played, it seems like the storyline is more akin to: "Amazing event occurred. Oh yeah, and Character was there too. (S)he's important, by the way." The SWTOR storylines actually make you feel like a central player, and less of a generic stand-in. Ultimately you're a stand-in either way, because there are hundreds of other Jedi Knights/Sith Warriors/whatever who went through the same exact thing, but perception is a powerful thing. The storyline at least gives you reason enough to perceive your character as truly being "the main character." Equally fair. I can see where you're coming from. That's how I've played every other MMO I've ever gotten into. And in WoW, at least there were one or two leveling area alternatives for a particular range (or PVP/dungeons if that's what you preferred). I wish there were an easy way to do that in SWTOR and still maintain the same cohesive storyline, because it does end up being incredibly linear as it stands. The idea of character progression (in terms of gear/"raiding" content) is part of what makes an MMO addictive, and I can see why you'd find SWTOR lacking in that department compared to other alternatives. Admittedly, the way I enjoy SWTOR so far is more like "a console RPG with other people running around" than it is an actual MMO. (Not that I don't enjoy the company of other players or participating in some group content, just that none of the points I made about my enjoyment of the game and its storyline reflect actual group/"MMO" content at all.)

No, I haven't. Although I have leveled the same class twice because I enjoyed the storyline and wanted to FRAPS it the second time around, and I actually enjoyed it both times, didn't skip quest dialogue, etc. I have another of a different class that's just about 40, so I guess I've done it close to three times. It hasn't felt like a chore yet, but could it at some point? Certainly. Leveling up every single class was a bit of a hyperbole, and not necessarily something I'd aspire to do. I just meant that I'd be fairly content playing it like a console game, and trying out the storylines of every class I have a significant interest in. (Jedi Consular is really the only one I feel like I'd be pushing myself to finish, from what I know of them as they are now.) I can't guarantee that I'd enjoy leveling everything, because I haven't done it, but I have a fairly good idea of what I enjoy and what sort of monotony I can put up with. The questing situation in WoW (with regards to story) has a lot less variation than it does in SWTOR, though I played and enjoyed 7 (almost 8, I stopped about 10 levels short on one in favor of re-rolling something I'd already leveled) out of the 10 classes to cap level. The variations in abilities and gameplay were enough to satisfy my interest that it didn't feel problematic to do the same exact quests over and over again.* As far as repetitiveness goes; I certainly see what you're saying, but that's pretty standard fare with MMOs, including the endgame. Even if the endgame is somewhat varied, there's only so much of it. And you end up doing it over, and over, and over again in order to get gear for your character (or multiple characters, which makes it even more repetitive). Everything in a MMO becomes that way. It kinda comes with the territory unfortunately. You do the same quests over and over again to get multiple characters to cap and/or you do the same endgame over and over again to get those characters developed. Though if it does entertain you, ~$12 dollars a month or so for entertainment is ridiculously cheap. I can't even go to a single movie at the theater for that amount (assuming I get anything to eat or drink). *Edit: It may or may not be worth mentioning that (with regards to SWTOR) I tend to play in a somewhat "RP" sense, in that I consider the characters to have different ideas/motivations/histories and the like, so some of the interest comes with integrating the imagined things (which I do myself) with the actual in-game events (which I'm paying Bioware for). That's part of the reason I think I wouldn't have a problem playing multiple alts. If I were intending to play SWTOR the same way I've played WoW and FFXI (almost purely level/gear grinding), then yes, I would probably become extremely bored.

Mandalorian society seems like the business if you can get on board with the whole "war for growth" thing. Socially, they seem really accepting of just about everything as long as you value their core beliefs. I'm sure there are exceptions somewhere, but from what I understand they essentially value and assess women and men the same way (for the most part), don't seem to discriminate based upon species, don't distinguish between biological/adopted children, and (I think) are freely accepting of same-sex relationships/marriages. Sounds like a sweet deal to me. Now, there's just that small matter of being a dedicated warrior...

I love my female body type 2 BH! Body type 1 is just a little bit too skinny for my personal taste, though the heavier armor does still look wonderful on them. The difference between the two seems to be like the difference between a runway model (type 1) and a swimsuit model (type 2). Type 4 for females is what I would actually consider your "average" body type (not fat by any means), with regards to the way real life is. Very different from the male type 4, who is more obviously on the heavy side. Despite what that may sound like, I'm actually a (mostly) straight female playing a female, so not in it for the ogling.

The occasions when my (or my companion's) cape "spazzes out" and doesn't behave properly in cutscenes. Cape, why are you flowing directly through my body?!

I agree, but to be honest with you: I love the leveling experience in SWTOR so much that, even if I were to only play the game up until the point where I'd experienced each of the different class storylines and then quit, I'd have considered my money and time well-spent, perhaps even moreso than the two years worth of time and money that I spent grinding (and yes, enjoying) WoW. (Not to mention the 7 or 8 years or so that I played Final Fantasy XI.) I'm sure that's not exactly what Bioware would want to hear from a financial standpoint, but nevertheless... If they could somehow make endgame as appealing as WoW's seems to be for a lot of people, then that would just be icing on the cake for me.

Honestly, I love LFG content in WoW (especially while leveling), and wouldn't mind it in SWTOR. It would be great to have a way to queue up for things like Flashpoints and participate in group content and spend time with other players without having to advertise and twiddle your thumbs hoping enough people are interested and in the zone to read it. It wouldn't kill off "manually" forming groups by way of a guild, but it would give an option to people who are often stuck playing alone. Oh my poor, poor social bar. The only problem I have ever had with it in WoW is that the relative anonymity can lead to rampant douchebaggery. (I recall one instance where someone actually told me they thought I was the "nicest person" they'd ever met in a dungeon group because I tried to give help/advice to another one of our teammates instead of shouting at him for being "terrible.") Though I tend to think that people who are jerks in LFG because they are anonymous are most likely people who are prone to being jerks otherwise. How do people derive any sort of pleasure from being actively antagonistic? It legitimately baffles me. Any reasoning I can come up with makes me sound more judgmental and presumptuous than I'd like to.

He's a great one to be with if you're a family-oriented person, regardless of race. Mandos are huge on adoption and family bonding, to the point where they don't really make any distinction between adopted children and conceived children. Bond trumps blood. I suppose it makes a lot of sense for a culture that is based entirely on shared beliefs/ideals rather than shared DNA. Really interesting, honestly.

Like some other people have mentioned, the companion conversations are "gated" by way of main storyline chapter transitions. If you are spamming your companion with gifts or using them constantly and they just happen to be very compatible with your way of thinking, you may end up getting a string of quests when you cross the chapter gate (from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2 for example). However, if you don't take advantage of gifts and tend to spread your companion usage during quest dialogues fairly evenly, you get a more "natural" progression of companion storylines. It's only if you're really exclusive about your companion usage or spam them with gifts that you run into the issue of it progressing too quickly. I noticed that issue the first time I tried to do a romance on my Sith Warrior. On my Bounty Hunter I avoid gifts and swap out companions every once in awhile and it feels a lot more natural that way.

It could be a bug, but it's also possible (depending upon where you are in your main storyline) that you have reached the appropriate level of affection for your next quest, but you haven't progressed far enough along in your story to actually start the conversation. For example--and these are not exact numbers, just using them for the sake of explanation--say your companion will give you 18 conversations total. You may have access to conversations 1 through 6 in Chapter 1, conversations 7 through 12 in Chapter 2, and conversations 13 through 18 in Chapter 3. You can hit the appropriate affection level sooner than that (and that's why they say they want to speak with you), but in order to get access to the actual conversation itself via the quest icon, you have to wait until Chapter 2 or 3. With my bounty hunter, I have gotten enough affection with Mako that she's telling me she wants to talk, but I don't actually get offered a quest on-board my ship because I'm still on Chapter 1 of my storyline. It's natural, presumably Bioware's way of forcing the companion quests to be somewhat spaced apart so that you aren't meeting your companion and marrying them within the time frame of a single planet. They want it to seem like a more natural progression of getting to know the person.

So I was just about to complete the quest on Alderaan where you turn the crown in to the Panteer captain, and either ask for monetary compensation (and, I'm assuming, leave the decision of Thul vs. Organa leadership to the Panteers) which is a Dark Side option, or request that the Panteers give the crown to House Thul, which is a Light Side option. Is taking the money and leaving the decision up to the Panteers Dark Side because it's selfish, and the decision to give the crown to House Thul Light Side because you're choosing not to "betray" the Empire for your own good (monetary compensation)? Or is there truly a good reason (in terms of what's best for Alderaan) to specifically request that House Thul get the crown? Would it lead to a swifter peace? I'm having a hard time making a decision from an RP standpoint, as I feel like I don't fully understand the implications of this particular decision. In terms of what's best for Alderaan rather than the Empire or Republic, what is the better choice, if there is one? From a personal perspective, I was just going to go with taking the money (even though my character is overwhelmingly Light Sided) since my BH isn't personally invested in helping the Empire reach its goals (and I assumed House Thul wasn't particularly deserving of the crown anyway), but she made some comment like "You can't put a price on peace, so just keep handing me credits until I say stop," which made me question whether taking the money was at the expense of a chance at peace for Alderaan. It has me a bit confused. Any insight?

Not necessarily. If you play as a SW, Quinn will only inform you of his "quests," but then he goes off and does them on his own. You don't accompany him anywhere the way you might for some other companions; it's completely contained within cutscenes. That may be the case with Blizz as well, but I can't say for sure, as I am not that far in the BH storyline.