Try this first.

Which launcher do you have, do you see a small ST in the lower left corner?

Certainty do exist, this guy has two of them, and there are quite a few on the Begeren Colony GTN.

Welcome back! First I'd suggest you take a look at the game updates announcements to get an overview of the major changes since you left, you can select the different patches from the bottom of the page. Of cause the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion if you haven't already got it. 1. The GF is a great tool and works very well to find you a group for level appropriate FPs, OPs and planetary quests. Of cause you run the risk of being grouped with new players that don't know what to do and experienced players that can't be bother explaining anything and want to clear it as fast as possible, your luck depends on the servers community but it is random. Recently we have been getting roleless story mode flashpoints so 4 DPS/tanks/healers or any combination of could run the FP together, but note that this is only for Story Mode. 2/3. The best thing to do is have a read of some of the end game gearing guides available. Here is the official end game gearing guide and here is one of the better player made guides. PvP - Patch 2.4 is soon to bring major additions to PvP like another tier of gear and Warzone Arenas in addition to new PvE sets, two new operations and a new planet story. Ilum has been changed into the base of the Gree Event which is a PvP oriented event that returns every so often. World PvP will depend on the server you play on but some of the new areas like the new daily zone do encourage some world PvP. (Info about recurring event can be seen here) Expertise had been changed significantly, basically all gear grants expertise, it works off bolster so how much expertise you have will depend on your level, the gear/mod rating etc. PvP gear still provides much more expertise and is therefore still preferred but the system is designed to give everyone a base amount of expertise to let everyone be somewhat competitive. Class balance is relatively good although there are some exceptions, Bioware have stated using Class Representatives to help answer the most important questions and balance issues.

September 10 – 17, 2013 http://www.swtor.com/info/in-game-events

That's quite sad but sometimes you get those types of people that just want to run through as fast as possible, I can't blame them I do too but I would never insult someone if they were new and wanted to watch the cutscenes etc and personally I've never seen it happen yet, but that maybe just the server you play on. So my suggestion is to join a friendly guild, you'll have a lot more fun running FPs with friends and guildmates and it's much more likely they will take the time to let you experience the story, explain the mechanics to you and be much fairer with loot and drops.

Well until that happens you can try a few things to improve your ping like Leatrix Latency fix, proxy services like WTFast (free to try for 30 days), or simply improving your network locally by not downloading large files or torrents while playing and using a wired connection. These things MAY help or they may make no difference, but they're free to try so nothing to lose.

Not yet, but probably in the near future as it has been allowed in the past.

In the center of the Cartel Bazaar area, you have to take the north most elevator on the Republic Fleet to get there.

Quoted from the Rules of Conduct.

That's basically correct, you purchase the set from the GTN or CM and then it is added to your Collections tab, from there you can unlock the gear (for around half of the original price on the CM, this can only be done with Cartel coins), once the set is unlocked in your Collections you can then make as many copies of that gear as you want on any character on your server.

Other than credits, commendations are the other main form of currency used with vendors, there are many different types of commendations such as Fleet Comms (which come from space missions), Planetary Comms (story missions), Warzone Comms (PvP) and end game comms (see here for a guide, these come from Flashpoints and Operations and so on.) You can find out what types are required by looking at the tooltip just under the name of the item. Also you have a list of all the types of commendations you have and where they can be used under the Currency tab in your inventory.

Most "good" looking gear will either be level 50+ end game sets or from the Cartel Market (keep in mind that you can buy anything you see in the Cartel Market from the GTN, which is the auction house or trade market, without using real money at all.) The Cartel Market gear, where ever you buy it from, will be empty shells so you can add you own modifications to change the items level and stats. Personally I would recommend that you check the GTN on your server and see if you can find any gear you like for an appropriate price, if not it's up to you to decide if you like it enough to purchase it via real money. Also note that if you are a subscriber you will be granted 500+ free cartel coins per month.

Before you reach endgame using gear or mods above prototype (blue) level is not necessary, of cause it helps but you don't NEED it to progress through the story, heroics and story mode Flashpoints. Endgame group content such as level 55 HM Flashpoints and operations will require you to be in better quality gear but as you progress through the FPs, PvP, daily planets etc. you'll get the commendations you need to purchase the higher level gear fairly easily anyway.

I think these two are already available through the interface editor, you just have to enable the target of target frame and for the number display on your bars you can select any frame like group, target or your own to show information text, just scroll down and select the box to enable the text. Also you can change the Cartel Market's icon alpha level to 0% and you can barely see it.

Could be many things from your PC to your ISP or the path to the actual game servers, of cause it could also be the server itself but I doubt that otherwise a LOT more people would be complaining. Are you downloading anything or someone else using the same network? Using wireless? Does it happen all day or only during specific times (like peak times), did it only start happening recently?

Scroll down to the bottom half of the elite vendor's list and you'll see Black Market gear, this is the equivalent of Arkanian in stats but does not come with the set bonus Arkanian provides. Black Market gear can be bought with elite commendations, while you'll need unassembled Arkanian tokens (which only drop in Operations and the last boss in the new HM Flashpoints) to be able to purchase the Arkanian gear.

Follow the steps in this thread, it should fix the problem.

Yes you can, see here.

Give it a try! I completely understand what your feeling, but it is completely unnecessary. Everyday there are many new people queuing up for the warzones so chances are you won't be alone in not knowing exactly what to do (most players when queueing with PUGs understand that you may be new and don't expect perfection). Personally I think the best thing to do is to learn from experience, it really does not take long to work out the objective (you can just follow the majority of the group and attack anything red) then after you learn the maps you can start going for objectives and tactics. Other than that don't worry about losing (some days your team may lose 10 in a row, others you may win 20 in a row). Just give it a try, nothing to lose and a very fun experience (most of the time).

Alphabetical order maybe?

Go here and tick those boxes under "Sign up for our mail updates".

Just add the line AllowColorRemapping = false under Renderer

Underworld Trading is the secondary mission crew skill for Cybertech, you'll get the additional materials for crafting the higher grade and more valuable items. The codex entries for each crew skill shows the recommended skills and explains what you can do with them too.

I have an old Q9400 on one of my PCs (it is overclocked to 3.6GHz with one of the better CPU coolers though) and it still runs the game very well, not as good as the new chipsets obviously but definitely playable. Usually it sits around 40-60 and 20-35 during 16 mans and very busy areas. Some general things to try to improve FPS, Try SWTOR Unleashed, it can make a huge difference in some cases. (Just don't add to much to the RAM drive.) Make sure all your graphics and sound drivers are up to date. Clean up Windows or better yet reinstall Windows completely, only keep the necessary programs and files, give C drive some free space and go through your startup tasks and programs and remove anything you don't need, keep as much of your RAM as free as possible. Also temperatures are very important to, especially when overclocking. Clean your case, try getting better ventilation and cooling, you'd be surprised that doing this can actually get some more FPS and reliability. Your graphics card is more than capable of handling the game so it would be your other components that are the bottleneck, maybe add more RAM, upgrade your HDD, even try a SSD.