True, masses of AI soldiers running around would probably not work at all, I don't think the game mechanics could really do it, but something along those lines could be workable to some extent as a RTS minigame type of deal. Thing is, having an army of minions is cool, but I think having an army of minions would be more satisfying if you could actually interact with them and see them in action, rather then them being solely decoration in a player's base or spaceship. I'm thinking a new gameplay element to manage and customize and work and spend creds on in the game for some sort of gameplay benefit to the player and kill some time as well. Just not sure how or if this would work in an MMO beyond something abstracted fluff like crew missions or a 'summon jumptroopers' type of ability like you mentioned, but even that would be kinda cool. I wonder how feasible randomly generated instances and such content might work. Not quite sandbox, but it would certainly be a nice alternative to running the exact same storied mission over and over. The game reuses set pieces and mission objectives revolve around very simple goals. Blow this up, kill this guy, fetch me 10 items, ect. Not sure how this would be handled from a practical standpoint, if the game servers generated a new one as a daily everyday for everyone and you downloaded it each to play it, or it is a single-player only deal, or the instance generator is on player's computer and perhaps it would be something that could be hacked or exploited. Randomly generated content would take the demand off the devs for new content and keep the game fresh, I'd think. Anyways, just some thoughts, I'm not a game developer of any kind so it's kinda pointless to think about such things.

Yeah, I think the game looks great, especially the toons and NPCs. Aesthetics and the game environment are not everything, but they are important enough to not completely ignore like with some other games. The color matching is a nice feature, leveling toons no longer look like a bowl of fruitloops.

I like OP's ideas (made it past OP's first paragraph or so) and was thinking of similar concepts myself. Especially advancing to an endgame point after all the class stories are about exhausted where you have minions and an organization to manage and perhaps the game becoming more open ended and freeform. Your trooper gets that promotion and general and leads an independent spec-ops company. This player army would tie into your legacy, perhaps and would be the main single player content outside of raiding and dailies and the such. Not sure how the nuts and bolts of this would actually work, perhaps like a sort of "Romance of the three kingdoms" gameplay mechanic where you have squads of faceless NPC soldiers you can dispatch and send and there and you run around the battlefield independently. but story wise, it seems a logical point of progression. Does need to be more sand-box elements for the end game. Maybe randomly generated instances and mission objectives, generic set pieces put together. Would not need to be extremely story focused, each random instance could be assumed to be part of a greater conflict that never ends, and focuses on some narrowly defined objective 'destroy the shield generators 0/5' and whatnot ect. Of course, this all sounds good, but I'm not sure how this would fit into an MMO like this how difficult it would be to create content like this or if anybody would enjoy that kind of gameplay. Maybe this end game content would be for paid subscribers only or have some kind of incentive so that not every level 50 toon is a great and mighty Sith Lord or general or mercenary commander, ect.

Yeah, these exact sorts of posts and complaints is a huge part of WoW's community too. Everybody has something to complain about. There is never enough content and classes are never perfectly balanced, every new patch ruins the game forever, ect. So I would not place too much weight on what all these timeless whiners complain about, some people are never happy. Relax, It's just a video game, guys.

Vanguard seems able to generate a lot of threat, especially for single targets even if their DPS falls behind. Harpoon and Neuro-shock and Ion Cell just work too good for keeping a boss's attention. The channeled AOE abilities are nice for trash mobs as well. I've never had a problem tanking with my Vanguard, even with crap gear and dubious builds and semi-mistakes. I can get everything to pay attention to me and can mitigate damage well enough. It isn't really 'ranged' tanking, though. I like to move around a bit, just to clear the melee-range AOE, and whatever else, I can spam Ion on the move, at a short distance and move in to stockstrike and move out on it's cooldown if it's a ranged boss. If it's a straight melee boss, there is no point in moving around even if I think I could kite them, it'd just throw everybody else off.

Yeah, I just don't think the code is as optimized as well as it should be. I have a decent laptop, but had to tone down the graphics because the how the hot air blasting out the side, I think, melted the laminate on my a desk a little and I was worried about my computer's health. Skyrim does the same thing, though, I just get bored and quit after an hour or so on that game so I don't think myself or my CPU notices it as much. That said, I imagine the game is spaghetti code, probably not as bad as Dwarf Fortress, in terms of CPU, but then the graphics get added on top of that taxation. On that note, how much bandwidth does the game use, I wonder? The internet monopoly here in Alaska sets bandwidth usage limits per month, so I have to wonder as a matter of financial concern.

I think a lot of the sense of 'where is everybody?' is that ToR isn't the same as other MMO's where everybody needs to warp back to the central hub to do anything. The number of people is similar, but they are scattered in a dozen+ different places and the areas themselves are much larger, less opportunity to see other players and this might be intentional. The fleet areas are less congested because nobody really needs to go there for anything because quest areas have all the same amenities as the fleet, everyone is strewn out around quest hubs. Also, this is a brand-new game, a couple months ago it was just beta players. It will take a period for things to get settled in as intended. BW reports more subscriptions, expects more players and says people typically log on for 4-8 hours a day and keeps adding more servers. I think the game still needs a LFD/LFG function and cross-server PvP. Maybe even cross-server LFG, especially for flashpoints and such, like I said, it's a work in progress, other MMO's have years of development and their devs have years of experiences with failures and short-comings ,ect , ToR just came out, they are working on it.

My vanguard is Contra, because of the classic video game of a running and gunning elite soldier mowing down hoards of aliens and treacherous humans, the similar concept with shadow soldiers funded by Reagan and all that. Made him a muscly guy with a blond high and tight in case anybody missed the reference. Also because it's simple to type when party members need to yell at me or whatever.

Seems alright to me. I had a memorable pug Heroic recently with all troopers, a veritable TROOPER HOEDOWN if you will, with 2 dps commandos a combat medic and a van and we rapidly bludgeoned through the Heroic with nary a hiccup. It sorta confirmed in my mind that troopers as a whole must have something right going for them for that to have been so quick and easy. Maybe combat medics are underpowered but it was compensated for because vanguard tanks are so good and OP? Maybe the whole paradigm falls apart with the more difficult or less straightfoward content? Couldn't tell you, but that's my testimonial anecdotal evidence, anyways.

Maybe they set their ship for maximum speed to intercept something, saw you, but can't slow down in time to get on your 6 because it's hard to stop something in space once it gets going. Since they can't do much about it besides try to swerve out of your angle of attack, they just stay in neat formation, because they are disciplined, if nothing else.

I'd be ok with having less important quests be conveyed by something like a text message on a monitor/ futuristic pager. It doesn't need to be a face-to-face conversation with an actual person, especially not in the future, if your boss needs you to go load 10 crates to Chicago, he can send you a text message and stuff still gets done without describing all details. That way "fetch me 15 boar livers" can have a paragraph or two detailing the rational for it, without half an hour of dialogue for it. I'm all for more 'important' quests and the better thought out side-quests having cut-scenes, it's a story-driven game, after all but for the tertiary grindy missions MMO fans love so much, they can cut the chatter and send an E-mail to the player character. Then again, if the devs did this, everybody would be up in arms about that too, "omg they are cheapening the game and ruining the lore, they gave up on the game, they obviously hate the game and everyone who plays it!" So, it's whatever.