I cannot understand the criticism of the current system. The ability to speak to other players from the opposing faction is amazing. So what if you can't emote? I agree that it should be included, but they got the important stuff out first. In World of Warcraft, you could emote all day long...but not speak. 7+ years later and you're still unable to communicate across factions. So I'm tired of emotes, personally, and I'm so happy the /s is there for us in this game. On a related note, this is one area where PvE and RP realms shine. You have interaction with the enemy, you can talk, RP, get into arguments, and either duel or both flag for /pvp to resolve disputes. On a PvP server, just try getting close enough before you're fighting to have any of that. I do not think friends lists should include members of the opposing faction. Oof. What sense does that make? Why have different factions at all? We already have cross-faction trade markets and the ability to speak to them when we meet them. I like feeling as if each side has its own thing going on. One idea I could support, if you must speak to a member of the opposing faction when they're not around, is some type of communications portal. Make it separate from the mailbox, design it only in certain places, like the cross-faction trade market, and maybe be able to send a message. A holocomm unit or something. But integrate it within the storyline and environment. Because, yes, technically an Imperial could hail a member of the Republic somehow, but they weren't doing it just to shoot the breeze. That's why I'd make it unique, somewhat limited, and nothing like using the common mailbox.

QFT. I saw this a lot in WoW, on RP-PvP, especially Horde side where you find some of the most angst-ridden kids looking to "faceroll nubs" as you say. It's true. I didn't believe it, years ago, but now I see it's a reality. In WoW, Horde-side players were mostly real life baddies who sought self-esteem playing "bad guys" in a video game. Thus, why play as a team, or be any good, in the game? You're a "destructive force"...screw teamwork. Result: Alliance crushed Horde. Same is playing out here...a lot of Empire bads, no teamwork, and looking to faceroll "the good guys" and all they need to do is show up. Result? I'm sure you've seen on Ajunta Pall - Imperials plain suck at PvP. One thing I'll mention anew is Latency. I'm on the East Coast. I didn't think it was much of a problem at first, playing somewhere like Ajunta Pall/West Coast and have 100-ish numbers, but it's getting higher (maybe as the server gets more populated?). It's starting to become annoying. Meanwhile, Ebon Hawk, East Coast, I'm seeing Latency in the 20s and maybe 30s. Around 1/3 to 1/4 the Latency from the other. It may not seem like a big deal now, but if this game survives, and you've got an eternity poured in to your characters, and if the Latency creep continues upward with higher population...well, just something to keep in mind. Perhaps picking from RP servers in your time zone will help narrow down the choices ;-)

Hmm, Lord Adraas...I'll have to give that a try. I always see that in the list. I've tried, in earnest, Ajunta Pall and The Ebon Hawk. I like both for different reasons. Ajunta, well, there are just tons of Imperials. It's really one of the more populated servers. This has made it easy to find groups. But we're talking RP in this thread, and sadly it's not very RP-oriented. For instance, I ran into someone last night with the Legacy surname: Mommas-boy. Let me repeat, his fixed, unchangeable, server-wide, last name choice...was Mommas-boy. That's Ajunta Pall in a nutshell. The Ebon Hawk is very Light on population, otherwise it seems filled with nice players who are genuinely fans of the KOTOR series. If you're a KOTOR geek, or a Star Wars fan in general, and you don't care about population that much, I think The Ebon Hawk is going to fit you nicely. Sadly, it's just not very populated so that makes grouping more difficult than it should be. I've met so many players who chose it "just for the name" (i.e. the KOTOR history) and that's cool, but we need more of them (or you). My experience here is with the Republic side. A final note, I tried rolling on Begeren Colony, and my oh my...what a bunch of elitist ---- I ran in to, at least on the Imperial side. I may have just encountered a bad bunch, but they were the types who are rude to newcomers ("because we're Sith"). Ugh. Yes, you're Sith, but you're also in the starting area and new RP'ers are trying to warm up to your server (i.e. grow it, thus making your dreams of being rude to everyone more and more possible). Needless to say, I've never been back.

One of the main issues we have is that servers are dustbowls, by far and large. You're never going to run in to many players when so few are even online. You are on Jung Ma, I take it? That's less populated than Ajunta Pall where I'm playing. And I have no idea what the Republic/Imperial balance is like there, but it may be tilted against you finding people. On Ajunta, the population is pretty even, with a slight edge to Imperials. Ajunta is one of the highest populated servers and it still feels really empty. It's RP-PvP as well. The devs need to do something, soon, or more people are going to stop playing this game. Merging servers has to happen. Free transfers and such. Like I said, I'm exposed to one of the most populated servers and I can't IMAGINE what it's like with any less. I rolled some alts on a bunch of servers to compare, just to try it out, and there were literally, in some cases, less than 10 people in a starting planet. Geesh. What were the devs thinking creating so many damn servers? In any event, I stand by my comments and I think RP-PvE is the best option if you want RP. When you include the PvP line in a server, you get mostly wanks with bad names, based on trendy humor, and they don't care about RP at all. In fact, most just blast it and troll the channels with nonsense. When you go RP-PvE, you know players are there for RP, if not simply less likely to give us grief. They should rename RP-PvP servers to PvP-RP: that would be more accurate.

Beware any server with RP-PvP. Let's be clear: PvP servers are ganking servers, nothing more. When RP is combined with PvP, gankers will dominate the server population. These are the players with awful names, who troll channels, make fun of RP, and thumb their noses at the idea their names or characters should have any meaning beyond awful, trendy humor. On the subject of PvP, if you're a roleplayer seeking it out in the world, forget it. It doesn't matter if once or twice you experience "open world" PvP. 99% of the time, the purpose of rolling on a PvP server is to gank, and ganked you will be. What do I mean by gank? It means a player spotting a member of the opposing faction questing, or unaware, then waiting for his weakest moment and engaging him in combat. If you don't do it, prepare to have it done to you. And worse, high level characters always seem to find their way to lower zones to pick on people just trying to level up. In my years of MMO'ing, I've found more open world PvP on NON-pvp servers. You can flag for PvP any time on a normal server. If you want to fight while out in the world, you can challenge an enemy player to a duel. That's one option. Another, if you want to be vulnerable to ganking, just flag yourself for PvP and let the chips fall where they may. What you do NOT get, is the ability to ambush weakened, unsuspecting players (i.e. gank). On normal servers, RP guilds who want to put together large scale assaults, or events, PvP-based, are more than free to do it. Again, just flag for PvP, schedule it, and the fun begins. To boot, by avoiding the jackals who infest anything with -PvP, you have a much better chance of finding an enjoyable community.