Gotta say, this is probably the best advice in the thread. Sure... There are certainly some issues with SWTOR that need to be fixed... But many (most?) of these complaints are either with the MMOG genre in general, or with specific design decisions that make SWTOR the game that it is.

I'm about 90% sure KOTOR had an appearance change associated with Light Side choices. Well, I guess I don't know... And it would sort of depend on what the goal is. I think the current model (Dark Side choices make you pale and give you spooky eyes) is a bit shallow. We've already got races that start out with spooky yellow or red eyes by default, which makes that particular DS visual change pointless on those races... And there's plenty of complaints that the paleness looks stupid unless you're a human. Are DS choices supposed to make you look scary? Or sick? If we're aiming for scary, maybe humans get red eyes and pale skin while True Sith turn darker and darker red? And maybe the horns on a Zabrak get pointier? And then LS choices could make you less scary... Maybe make Zabrak horns smaller, brighter-white, more like ornamentation. If we're aiming for sick, we could incorporate the complexion slider. Start everyone out with at least a few freckles and blemishes... And then DS choices make your skin worse - more wrinkly and pited; while LS choices make your skin clearer and healthier.

While we're on the subject - why is there no visual change associated with Light Side ranks?

There's three big problems with what you're attempting... First: Folks don't even get their sabers until roughly level 9 or 10 - right about the time they're leaving the planet. So most of the folks who're actually still on Tython don't even have a lightsaber to stick a crystal in. Second: At that stage of the game, folks progress quickly. It's not unusual to gain a couple levels in an hour. Gear is quickly outdated. There isn't much point in spending money on equipment that will be out-leveled in a couple hours - especially when it can easily be replaced/upgraded with an assortment of drops and rewards along the way. Third: There are two types of folks rolling up new characters, and neither of them is a good candidate for buying low-level crystals on the starter worlds. If it's a genuinely-new player, they don't know what the hell they're doing. It'll be another few levels before they've got the hang of item modification and actually go looking for a color crystal... Assuming that they don't abandon the character or re-roll or something like that. If it's an established player rolling up an alt, they've probably got gear stashed for them or money set aside to buy equipment from the GTN.

This. Class balance in an MMOG is a moving target. One class will be perceived (correctly or not) to be too weak, or broken in some way; and it'll get a buff. Some other class will be perceived (correctly or not) to be too strong, or overpowered in some way; and it'll get a nerf. And then... A few days/weeks/months later... The same thing will happen again - maybe even to the same classes again. Aiming for whatever is the current statistical winner is only going to be rewarding if your idea of fun is graphing data in Excel. Play what you enjoy. Pick a class because it's easy to get groups... Or because it looks ******... Or because you've got a neat RP background cooked up... Or you enjoy a specific gameplay mechanic... Don't pick a class because this week it's doing 2% more DPS than everyone else.

I can certainly relate. I was cursing Skavak's name all across Coruscant... Muttering constantly about how I was going to catch him and kill him. Muttering even louder every single time he stayed just one step ahead of me. By the time I actually got my ship back, my wife was snickering every time she heard his voice. Knowing that I was about to start cursing at any moment. Anyway... Even though you really want your ship back - 12 is a little low. There's an arc to these missions... And you're really not supposed to finish up on Coruscant until somewhere around level 15. So, if you're just 12, you can't really expect to be getting your ship back yet. If you slow down a little bit and do all of the side-missions that are offered, you should have absolutely no trouble getting up to the right level. Or, as has been suggested, you can engage in a little PvP. Or just find someplace interesting and start a fight with the locals.

I do believe you mis-posted this... This. Sith apply a charge to their sabers, which causes some unique effects or abilities. Like adding damage with every swing, or a small heal, or whatever. Jedi switch to a different technique, which causes unique effects or abilities. Like adding damage with every swing, or a small heal, or whatever. Same result - different name and/or appearance. Just like how Sith hurl lightning around, and Jedi toss large objects instead. ...it's like every fashion designer in the galaxy went to over to the Dark Side...

Except that #1 also automatically binds to right-click... And a lot of folks are apparently spamming right-click to attack. Understandable, I suppose, since it's a common mechanic in ARPG's like Diablo & friends. But I think this points out one of the big problems with #1 automatically binding to right-click. It isn't obvious. There's a disconnect between hitting buttons down at the bottom to do cool things, and right-clicking to simply "attack" someone. A lot of folks don't realize that #1 is their right-click-to-attack slot... And wind up putting something inappropriate in there, or pulling it out entirely. I've seen a good half-dozen threads about this exact same thing. Which illustrates why we need some kind of macro support. I know this sentiment is unpopular around here... And there are plenty of people who'll claim it takes "skill" to play TOR as opposed to hitting a single macro button in WoW... But the fact of the matter is that it's just plain unreasonable to expect people to make efficient use of 36 (or more) buttons. Seldom-used and/or conditional abilities will get moved to make room for more commonly used abilities... And the fact that they're now out of reach will make them even less frequently used. I'd kill for a basic castsequence macro, just to consolidate some of my abilities into fewer buttons.

One of the rewards you can choose for completing a mission is almost always a commendation. Commendations will also simply drop off of mobs like any other loot. As you work your way through a planet's missions, you'll easily come up with 20-30 commendations without even trying. It takes about 13 commendations to completely upgrade a piece of equipment... But, honestly, not every planet has really nice commendation mods for your class... And you can likely pick up some mods as mission rewards or drops along the way... And you can "trickle down" your mods from one piece of gear to the next... The end result is that it isn't hard at all to keep four or five pieces of orange gear upgraded as you level. Personally, I pick my crew skills to match my character. Something like cybertech or underworld contacts on my smuggler... Synthweaving and archaeology on a Jedi... Things like that. Personally, I'm a big fan of orange gear, in case it isn't obvious yet. It really makes it easy to keep your gear upgraded. One of the first planets you visit should have a huge assortment of orange commendation weapons. I'll typically grab one of those to get my companion started. I generally avoid "real" rewards from missions, and grab commendations instead. I'll use those commendations to buy myself upgraded mods, and pass my old mods down to my companion. Then it's just a matter of picking up orange gear for myself and my companion wherever possible - which isn't nearly as hard as it sounds. There's usually some halfway-decent orange gear on the commendation vendors... And there's all sorts of orange drops in flashpoints. And if you wear light armor, you can grab a complete set of the social stuff. I'm usually wearing almost entirely orange gear by level 20 or so.

Crew skills come in three flavors in TOR: Crafting, Gathering, and Missioning. The gathering skills allow you to literally pick stuff up out of the game environment as you wander around, as well as sending your companions off to gather stuff. The missioning skills allow you to send your companions off to collect stuff for you. And the crafting skills allow you to actually build stuff. Both the gathering and missioning skills can be a decent source of income. The crafting skills, in my experience, generally wind up costing you more money than you make - at least until the higher levels. Moddable gear acts like a cosmetic shell that you put stuff into. Say you get a nice-looking lightsaber... But after a couple levels it just isn't any good any more - doesn't do enough damage, not enough bonuses, etc. So you have to sell it and use some dorky-looking thing from a quest reward. Moddable gear is an alternative to this. You can keep using the same item, and just swap out the mods to keep it competitive. You don't have to use moddable gear... But, in my opinion, it makes things much easier. Don't have to agonize over random drops and quest rewards... Just slot in new mods from time to time and you're good to go! A flashpoint is TOR's version of a dungeon. They're instanced. They've generally got a storyline of some sort associated with them. There's usually a conversation or two along the way. They are repeatable. There's generally a decent amount of XP to be had, and social points, and some nice gear. There is no good way to queue for them - just basically stand around, shouting that you're looking for a group. Depending on the time of day, it can be very hard to get a group together. Warzones are PvP battlegrounds. Regarding group activities for PvE types... At high levels you've got "operations", which are basically TOR's version of raids. Really-big flashpoints. And, along the way, you'll run into some "heroic" missions - which are basically just group missions. Find a couple buddies and go kill something big. There's also "world bosses" here and there... Random, really-big mobs just standing around in the open, daring you to attack them. They generally need a decent-sized group to take them down.

The term "instance" pre-dates WoW. Hell, it even pre-dates MMO's and MUD's. It's a generic programming term for spinning up another item instead of re-using the one that already exists. For example: Old-school MMO's like EverQuest had just a single, shared world. If you walked into some random dungeon, you were sharing that dungeon with whoever else happened to be in there. You were competing against them for loot, kills, etc. More modern MMO's like WoW and TOR create new instances of dungeons when you enter them - providing each group (or individual) with their own copy of the dungeon. This alleviates some of the competition for loot, kills, etc. A flashpoint is an instance. Any time you walk through one of those glowing barriers and a big ol' name appears at the top of your screen, you're in an instance. Considering the setting, and the personality of some of the companions, and the various ways people play their characters... I'd suggest that "pet" is a generic enough term to make its usage at least as appropriate to the game as "companion". Is a droid really a companion? Or are they property? While the game mechanics don't actually allow us to buy and sell them, they are bought and sold on a regular basis. If you're playing a Sith, do you actually consider these "companions" your equal? Or are they your underlings? Slaves? If you're romancing one of the companions, are they still just a companion? If you're just grabbing a specific companion because you need a tank/DPS/whatever at the moment, and you've never bothered to build up their affection at all, and you don't actually like to use them most of the time - are they a companion? Or are they hired help?

Purely-cosmetic issues like this are going to be pretty low on the list of priorities... I'm sure it'll be fixed eventually, but they've probably got better things to do at the moment. Once you get to roughly level 10, and pick up a lightsaber, it won't be so bad. Sabers are worn at the waist, and only activate when drawn, so you won't have something on your back all the time. However... You'll still run into the occasional graphical glitch where a saber doesn't deactivate properly, so you've got a powered-on saber stuck to your side and slicing through your body/leg/whatever. Or sometimes it'll get stuck to your hand in an odd way.

All MMO's have some mechanic in-place to make death undesirable. If you think TOR is extreme, you obviously haven't been playing MMO's for long. EverQuest required you to run back from your bindpoint (which might be on a different continent) to retrieve your body. And, unless your gear was soulbound, it stayed on your body - so if you couldn't get back to it, it was gone. And you lost XP when you died, which could actually de-level you. That was a bit extreme. Seems like every new MMO I play, the pain of death is decreased. In TOR, everyone has a rez ability. So you don't even have to have a dedicated healer around to get you back on your feet. Yes, if you die a lot then the rez timer can get a bit long... But if you release to the nearest medcenter it re-sets that timer. And there are medcenters all over. You probably won't be running all the way from your bindpoint. And if you have to re-enter a flashpoint you'll frequently be taken to the last boss you killed, rather than the actual start of the instance. If you were waiting 10 minutes to stand back up, you were doing it wrong. You could certainly have run back from the nearest medcenter in less than 10 minutes.

Personally, I'd like to have the ability to put my hood down... I remember all the way back in DAoC we had a /hood command. Would love to see something like that implemented.

Meh. You want an uber-fancy speeder? Grind the credits. Can't be bothered to grind the credits? No speeder for you. It's that simple. We're talking about virtual luxury items in a video game... Trust me, nobody is going to die if they can't get their hands on a purple lightsabre.