Ok, so all of our stats are going away, what does this do to the many Datacrons scattered throughout the various planets? I personally like getting them, some people don't and I can understand that. Are they going away, reduced to two per planet (Mastery, Endurance, Presence and Matrix Shard), or are they going to stay for story background/codex entries only?

^This! They were such an integral part of my rotation to clear weak mobs after fighting strong/elite...I miss them!

One thing that I didn't mention in my earlier post, but someone did allude to is card length. Before you buy a card, make sure it will fit in your case. Most modern cards in the mid-range are right around 10 inches in length. This means you will need 10 inches minimum between the back frame of your case (where your monitor/TV will connect) and most likely the hard drive cage inside your case. Keep in mind that you'll also be plugging in one or two 6 pin power connectors to the card. Some cards have these connectors extending out the "back" of the card, which means they'll point toward the front of your case and most likely toward your hard drive cage. Others have the connectors pointing up, or toward the side of your case. Personally, I check every card before I buy for orientation of the power connectors. I prefer the top connectors which point toward the side of my case. Easier to plug in and out, but harder to route the cables for a clean look/uninterrupted airflow. Most importantly they don't extend the length of the card, which can make or break a mid tower install.

Do you mean new gear? Bring up your character sheet and there is a tab for "Companion." With the Companion tab selected, bring up your backpack and you can add gear just like you'd normally add it to yourself.

According to Gateway's site your model has a 300W power supply. You'll definitely need a new power supply to run just about any current or last gen video card. I'd recommend getting a 650W or so if you're only planning on running a single video card. The video card may only call for a 500W, but you want some room so you're not running at more than 80% for optimal efficiency. The TV won't really make a difference in performance, it's still only 1080P or 1920x1080 resolution. Regardless of the size of the display. If you go to Anandtech.com or Tomshardware.com they both have comparison charts so you can check the performance of various cards at your resolution. For 1080P, as mentioned before, a GTX 560Ti or better will work for Nvidia, and for AMD cards a Radeon HD6850 or better will work. Some people will tell you that a lower card will work for your resolution, and it will for open world stuff but anything lower will start to crawl in PvP. Here's a basic rundown that mostly holds true for every generation of video card, by manufacturer: (The higher the "x" number is, the more current the generation. Current gen for Nvidia is 6 and AMD is 7.) Nvidia: GT or GTS is low end, not suited for serious gaming at high resolutions GTX x50 is considered low end for gaming, will struggle at 1080P unless in SLI (2 or more cards) GTX x60/x60Ti is mid range and will perform well at 1080P GTX x70 is Upper mid range/low high range and will support multiple monitors or resolutions higher than 1080P (1440P, 1600P) on a single monitor GTX x80 is high range/enthusiast range and will do everything the x70s do only faster GTX x90 is upper enthusiast and will just about run any rig you want AMD/ATI: HD x650/x670 is low end, not suited for serious gaming at high resolutions HD x750/x770 is considered low end for gaming, will struggle at 1080P unless in Crossfire (2 or more cards) HD x850/x870 is mid range/lower high range and will perform well at 1080P HD x950/x970 is high range/enthusiast range and will support multiple monitors or resolutions higher than 1080P HD x990 is upper enthusiast and will just about run any rig you want

No, the damage scales up as you level. I'm not logged in right now so I can't tell you what my Lvl 33 Sent does in Ataru form, but it does increase.

It really depends on how you define success. It would take a genre changing new MMO to unseat WoW and even that may never reach the number of "subscriptions" that WoW has. We have to keep a couple of things in mind when talking about WoW's numbers. They aren't entirely honest in their counts, and they've really gone beyond being just an MMO. WoW is a social event wrapped around RAIDs. That's their only real appeal now, and I'll guarantee you that a lot of their subscribers are people who aren't active but keep their account open to socialize with their friends. As for generic success, it should only be measured by the need for x number of subscriptions to be profitable. If SWTOR maintains that number, they're successful. There's lots of MMOs out there hovering around 100k subs which are still running and still producing content. Now, SWTOR probably needs 250k+, but that's maintainable. Will they ever match the mythical 10 million of WoW? No. But that doesn't mean they're a failure either.

I'm actually one who has mentioned a third faction before, and this is my reasoning. 1) I'm an old DAoC player and I loved that you could make temporary alliances with another faction to take down the third. Once the third was down, yours and your ally would eventually turn on each other. This really only works for open world PvP, but my original idea was to add planets like Ilum to the mix with the goal to seize the planet for your faction. Once your faction controls a world, you get a bonus. 2) To me, Smuggler and Bounty Hunter are misplaced. Sure, Han Solo worked with the Republic in the movies, but not all Smuggler types did. By definition they play both sides to their own benefit. Same with a Bounty Hunter. Again, in the movies Boba was working with the Empire mostly, but he also worked for the Hutts. 3) The Voss would be a perfect example of a neutral force sensitive race/class which could be developed. There are others as well. In summary, take the BH and Smugglers and attach them to the Hutt Cartel. Develop the Voss into a true neutral force sensitive class, other races could of course choose to not follow either the Jedi order or the Sith. They could become "mystics" or some such. A little of both. To flesh back out the Republic and Empire, develop a Republic Agent and an Empire Trooper type. Now you have three factions. Three way Realm Vs Realm was awesome in DAoC because it could always change dynamically based on the player base's alliances.

Are you referring to the little Rakghoul pet? That pet was only available during the Rakghoul outbreak on Tatooine. It was a special event back when 1.2 hit.

***, BioWare? I haven't played a lowbie Jedi in a while but I started one after 1.2 launched on another server just to feel out the population. Imagine my surprise when I get to the Jedi Temple and realize that Master Muheeda has had a race change! Was this even in the patch notes? I don't remember it if it was. How can you do something like that? Are Rodians just not going to be acceptable NPCs anymore?

Yeah, it's really annoying when my Jedi Guardian tank gets chain stunned by an Imperial Agent sniper who then takes me out! Oh wait, that's what they're designed to do? Surely not. I demand all classes be equally balanced! It matters not what role you are "supposed" to have! (For those who can't read sarcasm...^^^that's sarcasm)

Currently I look at Space Combat as a mini-game. I run them when I have my companions out on gathering missions and I don't want to just sit around. I do enjoy them though and would like to see more.

Still playing, still having fun and will be having more fun post 1.2. Of course, I'm an altaholic and I still haven't reached 50 on a single toon, but I have unlocked my legacy. I classify myself as a casual gamer, even if I do log on most days. It's only for an hour or two, but I do log on. Some days I do nothing but gathering/crafting with one of my alts. Other days I'll run a couple of space missions or PvP a bit. When I know I can dedicate 2 or more hours to the game, I'll complete quests/class missions. I honestly understand why people who blew through the game to 50 in the first few weeks can be bored, but that's their problem, not BioWare's. Everyone in my guild is having fun still, we are still engaged, enjoying PvP, FPs and Ops. Those people who do not like this game will move on to another game, blow through the content and be unhappy with that game too. Nothing will ever satisfy them because they are expecting more from the game than the game was designed to deliver. Whose fault is that?

Buy yourself a Razer Nostromo. I was never a clicker, I've always used keybindings, but I decided to finally splurge. Now that I'm using the Nostromo, I'd never go back to just a keyboard. Short of that, play a Juggernaught. I think that's the mirror to the Guardian. Limited number of abilities and even less that you'll use on a regular basis.

In your SWTOR install directory is a SWTOR.exe and a Launcher.exe. What they are saying is make sure you're pointing to the SWTOR.exe with this application.

Yes, I use an entire 2TB drive for backup, I have a lot of ripped DVDs for streaming and don't want to lose them! As for the swapfile, I realize you don't really need it anymore, but the OS enables one by default. It's usually easier to get people to move it than to convince them they don't need it. I still run one out of habit. As for the i5 vs i7 debate, yeah Hyperthreading might be awesome for some tasks, but I don't see a difference. I run three VMs in the background and game on SW:TOR with graphics on High. Of course, I'm running at 4.4GHz which helps.

I'll second this post! Go for the i5-2500K unless you do video editing, folding or other number crunching intensive tasks on a regular basis. The only real difference between the two is the i7 has Hyperthreading which basically turns 4 cores into 8. You'll have no problems running this game with your listed components. I'm currently running the following: i5-2500K @ 4.4Ghz 8GB DDR3-1600 HD5850 @ 825/1150 2x 2TB 7200RPM HDDs (1 - OS/Data, 1 - Backup and Swapfile) You don't need SSDs if you get either 7200 or 10K RPM drives, just make sure to get two drives. Setup one for the OS on a dedicated partition, partition the rest of that drive to be your primary data storage. Setup the second drive to be a backup target and the location of your Windows swapfile. You will get much better performance with your swapfile on another physical drive rather than on the OS drive. A different partition on the same drive won't make a difference. Also, when setting up your system the first time, make sure your BIOS is set to AHCI mode for disk access as opposed to IDE Legacy.

Ok, just got it. Zoomed in, facing ground, autorun, jump repeatedly while pressing both P and I. I think the real trick is to do whatever it takes to lag into the single digits. Using P alone I'd get to the mid 20's, B gave me mid teens, P and I did the trick. Once I saw my framerate at 6 FPS, I was through.

In all fairness, when the alert was broadcast on the Mind Trick server I alt-tabbed to check the System Alerts. Nothing was posted. It has now been updated, but you'd think they would post the System Alert before announcing in the servers.

Word! I don't know about the rig that guy from DarthHater is running, but I just logged from Alderran and I get a pretty respectable 50+ FPS. Granted, that's at 1680x1050 and my rig is an i5-2500k @ 4.4Ghz, 8GB DDR3-1600, HD5850 @ 825/1150. So I guess I fall under the category of a modern rig with overclocking. Although, my 5850 is getting long in the tooth. I'm just waiting for the 7870/7850 to hit the market.

This has been bothering me for a while now. I'd like to know what happened to the launcher sound as well. It has been out for me for a while now. What's up Devs?

Personally, I'd like to see a Kinect type interface on the computer. That's the biggest change, short of holographic displays that could be a game changer for the entire industry. Let's face it, the computer has been shackled to pretty much the same input interface for a long time. Let's innovate that side of things.

Nice case, but how many fans do you actually have in there? Why not take a case temp reading while you're playing. Oh, and just because you don't have a problem with other software, doesn't mean you don't actually have a potential problem. Does SWTOR stress your components, yes. More than some games, yes. Does it in itself cause hardware damage? No. Poor cooling solutions and aggressive overclocking can though.

Ok, so Aion doesn't stress your hardware as much, look at your CPU utilization. Which translates into less heat being exhausted into your case, which in turn means the ambient temp in your case is lower so the GPU can be cooled better since your video card's cooling system relies on your case air instead of drawing it in on its own from outside of your case. I'm just saying, logic works, try it sometime.

Hmm, I have an i5-2500k @ 4.4GHz, 8GB DDR3 and an HD5850 @ 825/1150 (Asus) inside of an Antec 300 case with 1 front intake fan, 1 top exhaust, 1 rear exhaust which is also the fan for my Corsair H60 cooler. CPU temps max at 53 degrees, just checked last night due to a similar post. Video card runs at a near constant 99% and only gets up into the 70s. I'd have to say that either your CPU cooler was not installed properly, or you didn't use a quality thermal grease. I use Arctic Silver 5, still one of the best. For the video card, since you're on an air cooler for the CPU, your case interior is going to get hotter, which in turn limits the cooling on your video card. You need to check your case fans to ensure they are up to snuff and make sure you're getting good airflow. The problem is your rig, not the game.