I never said I was quiting over it, but I do think it is mildly rediculous that they still haven't sorted it out given that a lot of their customers are asking them to. I'd rather my toon not perpetually have his head stuffed in a burlap sack. Sorry if that doesn't jive with your priorities. Perhaps it's because actually DO play table top as well that I care.

One thing I find odd, when you control-click to preview many of the chest pieces you find or synthweave, the preview image shows it without a hood on/up. That means they already have the graphics for the hoodless option rendered. Given that there's not some huge backlog of armor graphics to be duplicated in hoodless variants, and that they already have a working head-slot toggle mechanism, what's the hold-up on the hood up/down toggle?

Hi all, I've found this to be a very interesting conversation. I'm playing a Watchman Spec'd Sentinel. I've got roughly 2 points I'm still cheweing on where to spend, and found this end-game perspective quite useful. I'm currently running with only Master Focus (2) in the Focus tree. In Combat I've got Dual Wield (3) Defensive Forms (2) - for the centering bump, and Jedi Crusader (1) which over 30 sec seems to pretty much guarantee me a bigger focus boost than Focused Leap (2) in the watchman tree. (Though admittedly at the opening.) I'm playing PVE, so in my primary (Watchman) tree, I've opted NOT to take Infalammation. Nor do I use Riposte enough to make Recompense seem worth it. (Though I wonder sometimes if one could make Jedi Crusader (2) and Recompense (2) into a focus generator + defensive worthy of the 4 pt cost.) I flipped a coin between Force Fade (2) and Focused Leap (2) and came down on Fade for the greater utility. (Again, I'm not having too much trouble with focus generation (albeit at lvl 46) - and initiating most of my fights with Rebuke up and Jedi Crusader (1) seems to keep it that way. I have (or will have) everything else in the Watchman tree maxed out. That leaves me with 2 points to play with. My current plan is to drop both in Defensive Roll for that 30% guard on AOE. Steadfast (2) would certanily make sense. I could also put it in Focused Leap to ensure that extra bit of focus, but that's not a lot of bang for 2 pts. (Please disabuse me of that misperception if that's not the case!) Some argue for Swelling Winds (2), but I don't make a ton of use of Force Sweep or Cyclone Slash outside of clearing out trash. I suppose I could gimp Force Fade 1 pt, and try out that Jedi Crusader (2) + Recompense (2) option - if anyone's found that to be particularly useful. The thing is I've heard that having 6 seconds of Force Cammo with +20% speed can be very useful in endgame fights. I'd love to hear people's thoughts. Thanks in advance.

I wonder if they've considered keeping the crafting skills useful in end-game by allowing those folks to greatly modify the appearance of standard gear per the "thousands of options" comment above. Got a piece of excellent purple mod-able gear that's only drawback is being totally futt-bugly? No worries. Just pay a lvl 50 expert (400) synthweaver to give you access to a magic gear appearance cusomizer and make it look just as you like?

I've several linked questions related to our ability to customize our characters' appearance: 1. When will it be possible to cusomize how the gear we create LOOKS? For example, shouldn't a skilled synthweaver have some control over the color, design and overall appearance of the robes he/she crafts (irrespective of the gear's stats)? I just got the purple material to make the purple version of my next level's medium jedi robes and was horrified to discover that they're this awful orangeish brownish color. I also received some very cool mod-able robes, which look much nicer, but they just don't have the stats my new purple ones do. I've played other games where one has quite a bit of control over how a crafted item will look. 2. Similarly, wouldn't it make sense to allow crafters at 400 to modify the APPEARANCE of end game gear? That there allow a lot more individual looks out among the 50s (again separate from gear stats). Crafters being able to offer this as a service-for-hire to other players would also keep crafting skills useful to players in the long-run as well. Perhaps you could add a cusomization slot to gear where you could drop in a pre-designed appearance (or perhaps just skip the umpteenth slot and create a mechanism to allow any character to tweak any bound gear). Just a thought. 3. Next, why on earth does almost every pair of medium armored leggings for Jedi look like spandex? 4. Finally, and this is more of a vote of support than a question, please allow us to a) unify colors and hide head gear on companions, as well as b) toggle hoods up and down on jedi robes (my wife would kill me if I didn't mention that one).

For what it's worth, I've not had any que time since that first night, so I'm hopeful that I've seen the last of that issue. However, I have noticed that theres a lot more lag/choppiness these days (on a brand new high-end machine) when playing in group settings (heroice/flashpoints). I'm worried that may be due to going from my original light server - past medium, normal and heavy - straight to the new very heavy/full. Still, at least I'm not coping with these long cues. My hope is that by now most, if not all, of the rest of you are seeing the back of that as well.

I start getting testy at waaaay shorter wait times than that, but I'm still quite hopeful that this is a temporary, or at worst episodic, problem. On the broader server population issue, I frankly don't know why they didn't just collapse sets of a few light servers into a smaller number of medium population servers (unless they reeaaallly need to dial back their costs to keep this game alive). Under a light to moderate shift, BW still gets a more managable number of servers and players get a less drastic (more enjoyable) change. If folks on light servers wanted to play on a heavy server, they would have started on a heavy server. My hope is that this is just an unfortunate, short-term issue. Despite tons of people on Jedi Crusader after the transfer, I've only just started encountering the log-in wait time problem. Everything was AOK for the first week or so (except for the aforementioned roving hordes). Perhaps it will all even out soon.

Rather than go from the light server I picked (where I could log on whenever I liked, but did have a harder time finding folks to run heroics, etc.) to a more balanced medium population server in the recent transfer, my only option was to go directly to the other extreme (i.e. very high/full) with wait times and vast roving hordes of players thundering through my missions. The fine print may (per earlier comments) say that my money doesn't buy me guaranteed access, but the same fine print also says I can choose to quit sending money and go elsewhere if these waits become annoyingly long and/or frequent. Let's not compound earlier population loss problems by over compression. For the time being, I think we ought to be good sports about this, hoping the issue is just a short term/occasional ironing out of server transfer and update wrinkles, but if this becomes the new normal...

Best: "Mintberrycrunch" (in the Cupcake Unicorns guild). Worst: "Mywifehatesmeplayingthisgame-butIdowhatiwant" (guild...no clue whatsoever). Guild name suggestions: * PETA (People for the Ethical Torture of Ewoks) * I LOVE LAMP!!!

This sometimes makes me crazy too. I've got one blue belt schematic that I've made and RE'd at least 20 copies of...still no love. Last time I had the schematics and couldn't get a purple material drop to save my soul (nor find it on our ghost-town GTN). This time I'm awash in materials, but I just can't get that 10% roll. GRRRRR!!!

My wife's Jedi just passed the end of Chapter 1, which allows us to check out your legacy system. I looked through the forums and saw folks recommending that you take a single character to that point before creating any alts, or you lose out on any experience those earlier alts have earned. The problem is that I have a Jedi close behind hers and we have both been helping our son play his trooper (he lost his mind when he saw the pre-release Alderaan cinematic). I would hate to see our legacy hamstrung because we've got multple concurrent characters. Has their been any consideration of adjusting legacy level calculation to include the levels of alts already in our account when the first character unlocks our legacy? Also, looking forward to a time when we've got more than one computer and would like to play together as a family, is there any consideration of "family accounts", which would naturally cost more than a single player account, but perhaps less than 2 or 3 individual accounts?

First off, DDSS, thanks much for opting for the thougthful (i.e. non-douchy) resonse. I realize that, in trying to gauge whether PvP is something I can enjoyably dabble in, I am wading into rather unfamiliar waters, so I appreciate candor and forbearance. I didn't realize that PvE gear would give someone an overwhelming advantage in PvP. I would think that one ought to be able to find equally good gear through whichever mode of play one prefers. If that's not the case, then that is something the game designers ought to fix, otherwise it again creates an either/or choice between PvE and PvP. Having said that, I had not considered the PvE mob-scaling issue you raise. If I understand you correctly, PvE gear is designed to allow a player to prevail over PvE opponents (mobs, bosses, etc) that will have far more HP than opponent(s) in PvP will. The damage and defense boost provided by the Expertise stat then is an attempt to even that out. However, I would have thought it simpler to just have the damage and defense bonuses from any gear apply differently in PvE mob/boss vs. PvP duel environments, rather than even it out via a whole new stat. (In essence having the Expertise even-out function as a passive background thing, rather than a stat to grind up.) I agree that we want lots of gear options to suit individual play styles, rather than one set of "gotta have it or your dead" uber-gear (or one set each for PvP and PvE for that matter), but I think that's a broader issue. Thanks again for shedding some light.

I don't get why we want to have a stat-based firewall between PVP'ers and PVE'ers. Coming from KOTOR (i.e. this is my first MMO), I have only played PVE thus far. I'm curious about checking out PVP - and fully expect to have my rear end handed to me by veteran PVP'ers for a while if I do - but I would expect that to be due to their greater skill and experience operating in the PVP environment, not because they've got some hard-wired stat bump that one can only get via grinding PVP. (I can see how alternate gear sets and talent specs might be desired though). I should think that PVP, at its core, ought to be about whether Player X knows PVP tactics better, has spec'd and geared his character more appropriately, makes better use of terrain vs a live opponent, and ultimately combines all that to take down Player Y on otherwise equal terms. Expertise, as a stat, seems to work against that by. How about giving us two tabs on our character sheets, one each for PVE gear and PVP gear preferences (perhaps even including the same gear item with two alternate sets of mods), combined with 2 alternate skill builds (again one for PVE and one for PVP). They could even make us buy these like storage vault bays. That would ENCOURAGE PVE'ers to jump the fence and try out PVP play, and vice-versa. I could also see value in using experience level and Valor to group players into different pools for PVP; to keep things competitive for veteran PVP'ers and give novices a kiddie pool to train up in. As with heroic missions, if you're too far below level you can't get in. If you're short but close to level, you can and are rewarded for punching above your weight. If you're way over level you can play, but get no real exp/Valor pay out for slaughtering small fry. Long-story-short, I'd vote "No" for Expertise. A standard set of stats, plus the Valor ranking system, ought to do fine. Anything more than that makes this two games and sets of players rather than one game and one community.

My question relates to the PVP system. Coming to SWTOR from KOTOR (i.e. this is my first MMO), solo play with companion(s) is my norm. That said, having found a good guild, I've grown to enjoy group play (heroics and flashpoints). While I picked a light PVE server (to avoid roving hordes of people crashing through the same area I'm in), I am curious about PVP and have started looking into it. This has led to 2 concerns and my question. First, I see that there is a new stat (Expertise) that appears to only be built up via continuous PVP (like a PVP-only form of experience). Second, I see that there are whole separate sets of gear that one appears to need for PVP. Taken together this seems like a "PVE'ers need not apply" message for engaging in occasional PVP. Why don't we just have one set of stats/mechanics and gear? For example, I hear that Expertise replaces Critical and Surge in PVP. What's wrong with just having Crit/Surge. I realize that veteran PVP'ers are going to have an edge in PVP, but that comes from real "hands on" experience in that play environment. Magnifying that by adding a PVP-only stat/mechanic on top of that seems to put a pretty high wall up between PVP and PVE players.

Oh, yeah Spungey. You raise an interesting point on Steadfast. I've seen folks saying that later in the game the +3% accuracy isn't worth the 3 points given all the gear with the option of accuracy bumps. Could you elaborate?

No offense taken Stealios. There have been a number of times I've run missions, or even Flashpoints, with a Sage or Shadow Jedi and either a Gunslinger or a range dps Trooper. In those instances (or when I'm just running with Kira) I do wind up tanking a fair bit myself. Sometimes the boss I'm piling on leaps away to clobber one of the others, and since I don't have Guardian-esque taunting powers, I have to chase after them. Usually I can just force leap back on top of them, but whoever they were rushing over too has to scoot. I could see how slow might be worth something in such instances. My basic quandry is that, to get to tiers 6 and 7 I have to take 2 points between Recompense, Inflammation, Focused Leap and Force Fade. * Rebuke is nice, but I rarely use Riposte, so like most folks, I'm inclined to give Recompense a miss. * Pre 1.2 I thought I'd put both points in in Force Fade to get the damage reduction, but now you just get +2 seconds. I don't know if that's worth it. Is that 2s really key to getting clear of a boss handing you your rear? * Focused Leap is an easy, but "meh", choice, but I don't know if +1 focus on every force leap is worth 2 pts. (I'd put them in Jedi Crusader and get +1 every 3s whenever Rebuke's up if they didn't have to go in Watchman.) * Then there's inflamation, which seems clearly geared to PvP (which admittedly I've not experimented with yet). Still, I thought I should at least consider it, and see what folks on the forum thought. Thanks for weighing in with your thoughts...and for the tip from you and Spungey on slow not effecting Ops Bosses. Is that the case for ALL bosses, or just Ops?

So is Inflamation truly a PvP-only ability? For example, is it really better to have a 100% chance of +1 Focus from Force Leap by putting 2 pts in Focused Leap than it is putting those 2 pts in Inflamation? I've still got a ways to go before I can get Tier 6, but at some point I'll have to choose between the two. Alternatively I could also put one in each (getting 50% chance of +1 focus on leap and 50% chance of slow on cauterize), but that may be watering them both down too much. Thoughts?

Well, mystery solved. I've been on the other end of the coin. I'm crafting Synthweaving purple armor, gloves, belts, blah blah blah, with Augment slots, and was clueless as to when I would ever find a vendor selling Augments. Looks like it may be a peer to peer direct trade (via in game mail) or GTN deal. I'll go look tonight. Thanks! Artano Telos Restoration Project

Okay, so now I'M confused. I bought the game AND a 60-day pre-pay card at the same time. The new computer arrived on 2/20. I loaded the game that night, redeemed the product code from said copy of the game, and redeemed the 60-day prepaid card right then and there. So, I've done both things well prior to the March deadline. My assumption was that, once my now active account goes past the first 30 days, the email delivering my well deserved Founder title would be generated. I don't expect to see that email YET, as they explicitly say you have to do X (register game) and Y (pay them for more play-time), AND the wait for Z (the first 30 account days to pass) before the founder title email will be generated. I DO however expect to see that email come my way after 3/22.