OK, I don't PvP much and am very much into RP, and I love the stronghold on Rishi. Yes, cleaning up the piles of garbage makes sense. It adds nothing to the PvP, and any party living there would probably get rid of it pronto. I would also like more hooks on the exterior of buildings for vines, fountains, whatever. That would go far to making it a place that the jungle is reabsorbing. Greenery covers a multitude of sins. It will never be an elegant palace (and I yearn for something like Vaylin's), but it is the sort of place one can imagine members of the dissolved Alliance retreating to in order to regroup. What I especially like is its flexibility. It is not just a stronghold, but a venue for events as we choose. I think this is a wonderful addition to the game and hope that additional features will be included in SHs in the future. Re the mounts and companions--is there any way to tie their disappearance in with the shutting of gates on the PvP areas? I am a bit bemused by people insisting we only get smaller SHs. You can have a smaller one simply by leaving areas shut. Or not decorated. Speaking of decorations, are they going to be added to Collections? That would make decorating large SHs much more appealing!

This is all good, but to get more participants, something will have to be done about the tutorial! GSF uses basic skills not found elsewhere in the game, so the learning curve is incredibly high at the very start. Even if your group is highly tolerant, you know you are letting them down atrociously. The two most basic skills--control of the ship and hitting a moving target--are the ones most in need of a tutorial. To be most effective, tutorials should start with the practice of ship control by itself. Separating the skill will make for much faster learning. Maps could be taken from the game itself. Targets could be placed in spots of varying difficulty to hit, rather like the boosts available in matches. Another should be hitting targets that are both stationary and moving at various speeds with changes of directon. Perhaps this could provide some areas without obstacles so that single skill could be isolated by the user for quicker mastery. Other areas should include obstacles in order to combine both fundamental skills. Yes, there will still be loads to be learned only in real matches. But places to work on the fundamentals without dragging a team down with you would make GSF something I, at least, would avidly pursue. As would many of the people I talk to about it.

Once per alt repeatables are the only way a small Guild can try to take on a larger planet and make the conquest target. Yes, big guilds will use it to win on a lower-ranked planet, but hey! They are going to win there anyway for the achieve or just for the sake of seeing themselves as No. 1. Humans are a competitive species. And some of us prefer to compete by taking on a challenge (trying for a bigger planet with a small Guild) rather than by going for an easy win. Please indulge us heroic souls! One benefit of making repeatable missions on a per alt basis is that more people will be playing for longer as they work their ways through their alts. Without that, well, many of us will get one alt through and just go play somewhere else. Wouldn't it be better for the game as a whole if we spent more time on it?

I totally approve of getting things right even if it takes a bit longer--or getting more things right at the very least! But please clarify what will happen to conquest that week. It's very hard to push and earn conquest points only to have them wiped out in a reset that you didn't know was coming. Better to just shut it down those two days if necessary! As for Theron's hair--no! Don't bring it back! He was a walking, talking Kewpie doll. Taking him seriously that way, well, I never quite managed it. I wanted a kill option for his stylist.

And plants! More plants, please!!!!! I do like the Direct Sales. After you've been in the game for years, the chances of getting something you want and don't already have in the crates is slim, and I find putting the unwanted items on the GTN is tedious at best. Thank you for expanding this feature of the Cartel Market.

Alas, no decorations except the chance decoration cubes. Please have direct decorations sales! Especially now that we don't have to cram all sorts of random items into our strongholds.

Have a brilliant Saturnalia, too!

The greatest difficulty I had was due to my companion being only Level 1. I had enough bribery and corruption in my Cartel Stash to gear her up to 10 without exiting the FP. After that, it was manageable. Difficult, but not at all impossible even without referring to guides for the mechanics. The special droid would have been useful as would the ability to exchange Temple for my usual Level 50 companion. Or Temple should have been given to us at level 20. Putting us in a solo FP with only a Level one companion for support was a bit more of a challenge than I expected. Perhaps more than the developers intended? More story is always welcome IMHO, but I was very interested in this brief look at how the Chiss live. The cut scenes also gave a lot of implied information about their society. I would love to see more of them.

Pretty please??? 1) plants and tree decos All of them, readily available. SH rooms stuffed with chairs are the pits. Fill them with plants, and you have a beautiful garden! 2) Stuff from vendors who demand a currency that is no longer current. I don't care if these are drops or if you allow, for example, credits as an alternative to Cartel Certificates. 3) The following emotes are eternally grey and unavailable when the screens are called up in the chat box. I want them!!!!!!!!!! Fist Pump 2 Sit Cold Sit Hot Think Arms Crossed Head Bang Joy Running Man Sneak Typing Cantina Fight Fisticuffs Pretty please with sugar and cherry on top?

Regarding the raised stronghold cap--does this allow people to purchase a second (or third or fourth) Yavin 4 SH if they want (or any other). Or are duplicates only allowed if you had them on separate serves that are now merged?

Why not keep the cap at 150% across all legacy strongholds, regardless of how many strongholds there are. Each stronghold could have a maximum decoration limit, but if you have more than six, you can spread those decos more thinly across your strongholds. Apart from the cap itself, this wouldn't change the way things already work. People get some conquest bonus points from partially decorated SHs already. I, for one, would greatly appreciate not having to cram decorations into an area that would look better with some open spaces!

Removing passes from FTP players for ops, etc., may be the worst decision the developers have made to date. The FTP players in our Guild would love to subscribe if they could afford it. Most subscribe whenever they can. We now are losing some of our most avid and able ops players because they can no longer purchase passes. This, in a small Guild, means the loss of ops for us all. And most Guilds are small. As many of our Guild members value the group content (especially ops) over all other aspects of the game, That probably will mean that SWTOR will lose more paying Guild members. If, at some point, the Guild collapses, you could lose us all. The pity is, I believe that your new approach to the game--communicating with and listening to your players--will make this a wonderful place to spend more time. But playing with friends is something no game content can replace. Don't cut us off from our friends this way!

The learning curve is not only steep, it is downright punishing. The tutorial is useful in learning how to avoid objects. But stationary targets aren't at all the same as the moving ones in a match. So, you go out there in a flimsy, underequipped ship to try to hit targets which are entirely different from the few you practiced on--and which strike back. You are fighting players who live and breathe GSF. Not only will you lose (which is OK in my book), but you bring down your team (which is decidedly not OK). There is a lot to learn, and the entire experience is discouraging and bewildering. I periodically try GSF for weeks at a time, then give up. I really hate damaging my own team and, until I get the knack of even the simplest maneuvers, my presence is a handicap, not a help. In Guild chat, the inability to master the elementary fly-and-shoot aspects of GSF are always cited as the reason for not participating. A serious effort to make a truly effective tutorial would do much to turn participation around. People want to be able to enjoy it, but they can't if they can't manage the essentials. Perhaps a series of tutorials could double as space-mission quests? I know that this sort of solo content isn't what you've been concentrating on building up, but my guess would be that mastering these mini-practice-quests would lure a good few players into the GSF arena. I know that the Zakuul Eternal Championship did much to encourage me to try my hand at ops and more advanced FPs. Something similar would be very useful to GSF. I do want to compliment those GSF enthusiasts who have taken my ineptitude with grace or, at the very least, silence.

Thank you!

Conquest wins are largely determined by Guild size (except on crafting weeks when a smaller Guild can trounce the huge Guilds--at great effort, expense, and with a lot of prep, but it's possible). So, although my Guild has a chance at Iokath, we are completely cut off from Rishi and Yavin 4 by two large Guilds who prearrange to invade one each. The result? We simply don't put much effort into Conquest anymore. Doubt if this is the result you want, but why should anyone put in a lot of futile effort? Could various tiers of Conquest be available, determined by Guild size? Or the planets available on each conquest event be shuffled occasionally? Right now, it might not be worthwhile to you, but Conquest isn't worthwhile to us!

This is a wonderful idea. I am constantly amazed at the time, credits, and effort all of my Guild buddies put into getting the look just right on their character, whether or not they take part in rp with other players. I think we all rp in our heads--why else are we playing Star Wars, right? We all create our own story and try to get the images on screen to fit into it. The near-human option would be brilliant as would simply more choices! And, if you have some spare time, a Nautolan to play would be absolutely fabulous!

In game rewards for simply playing (random drops) can be an effective way to keep people doing just that. Operant conditioning and all that--variable rewards for the behaviour you want (playing the game). But the rewards are no longer, well, all that rewarding. We soon have many copies of whatever armour is currently available. Also, the rating of the armour is usually much lower than what our character needs. Companion gifts that seemed worthwhile when you only needed to get to Level 10 are pitifully insignificant when you are aiming at Level 50. Why not occasionally toss a decoration into the mix? Preferably one from the world the player is on. There are loads of items that have never made it into cartel packs--and it wouldn't matter if the drop had done so at some point. The item would be highly rewarding to the player (especially if not bound), but it would be artwork you already have on hand. It would be best if these drops were truly random. Not just boss battles or champion foes--they already grant special rewards. That way the entire gaming experience is enhanced.

I agree that this crate was most disappointing. Only two sets of armour available? Our characters have character. Variety is important because not all armour suits them. I don't mind if some outfits are reskins, especially if that reskin is constructed by removing some exaggerated feature such as a shoulder pad that looks like a giant hedgehog! Moderated OTT gear would probably be very welcome by many of us--maybe reinstate it as bronze? If your designers can't come up with such, start a forum thread in which players ask for alterations. Decorations should be in every pack. After all, there is no legacy unlock for them. If we want a set of chairs in our personal SHs, we must acquire each one individually. With only one or two decorations of any sort in a hypercrate (my experience this time), this is just not going to happen. The return of cartel certificates would also be welcome.

I didn't know that about the f2p restriction. I do feel for them, but, alas, have been unable to come up with a globally effective suggestion. Rather surprised I came up with this one. Unfortunately, most of that headgear seems to be face-hiding as well. There's a simple headband on your Republic alts which transforms to something hideous on an Imp character. I couldn't find a headband that works on Imp side. If anyone knows of one, please share that knowledge with me! Much appreciated.

(Sorry. Tried to delete earlier version of post and couldn't find how.)

If some head gear can make hoods disappear, can't you create a covert head gear that does the same? Then, if a player wants to "raise" the hood, they need only click on "hide head gear", right? Intuitively backwards, but perhaps a do-able way to accomplish what so many players want? At the very least, please design more headbands that hide the hood for both Imp and Pub side. I am tired of cursing hoods every time a new cartel pack comes out. And hearing so many other players doing the same. There is so much armour I'd love to buy except they have that Hood-That-Balds-You!

Over and over again, we see hooded armour we love apart from the hood. We try it on our alt, anyway, who has been carefully crafted with a sensual cascade of billowing hair, and--hey presto!--our character is bald. One of the most powerful attractions of a role-playing game is that our characters have a character. Getting the look just right is very, very important to us. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't sell many Cartel Crates. And the hood problem is widely shared. Look at the Tor page, for example, that identifies the headpieces that get rid of it. Unfortunately, most of them also cover the face in weird and wonderful ways. We want our characters to live in our imaginations as we play or why bother with them. And we work very hard to convey who they are through their appearance. If the hood can be made to disappear at all, can't it be made to disappear with a simple piece of covert armour? That would give an automatic semblance of a hood up/hood down (OK, disappeared, but we do have some imagination) by toggling the usual on/off headpiece option. People really, really want this. Either in a Cartel Pack or (preferably, IMHO) through direct sale. If you love us at all (and you do, don't you?), please, Pretty Princess please!

I actually enjoyed doing the Nar Shaddaa heroics for the umpteenth time yesterday because they were rewarding. Not outrageously rewarding, but somewhat rewarding. Now they will return to being no more than a grind. Rather than damage the enjoyment of the many, why not either just acknowledge that not many people are compulsive enough to grind to cap for 17 hours a day, and that you are catering to the vast majority here--or should be. Downgrade some of those elite NPCs to strong in those mobs even if you don't change the character's abilities. This will make farming less rewarding without spoiling the rewards for others. If you absolutely *must* nerf, why not down to 5? 1 is just insulting. Remember, removing rewards is a form of punishment and punishment decreases the activity--when you do that, you drive away players. Once again, I urge you to please, please, please learn a bit about operant conditioning! You don't want to drive your players away by punishing them!

Hi! My name is Sidhe. Maybe you'd find the company more consistent in a Guild, even in this lull-before-the-new-stuff period. I'm a Storyteller for the Thirteenth Legion (Republic side with an Impish sister Guild, Vindicta). It's a Guild aimed at adult professionals (i.e., college-aged and above, reasonably mature if sometimes inane sorts). We try to facilitate group activities such as ops and rp for our members, but participation is strictly voluntary. No one is forced to do PvP or to RP. But there are groups that gather for activities such as ops and flashpoints. RP sessions are held three nights a week. Members of our Guild are friendly and helpful. We like our drama in the rp stories, not in Guild chat! Have a look at our website at: http://xiiithlegion.enjin.com/

Hi! My name is Sidhe and I'm a Storyteller for the Thirteenth Legion on the EH server (Not to be confused with the more recently formed Thirteenth Battallion). We are a Guild of adult (college age to older-than-dirt) professionals. Most of our members are in the United States, but we also have a couple in the Far East and a few in Europe (I myself am in Ireland). This does mean most group activities are scheduled rather late, but smaller impromptu groups are called together regularly. The new Uprisings will without doubt encourage more of this! In any case, the Thirteenth is a Republican side Guild with a sister Imp guild, Vindicta. I find that there's usually a few people on early in the day (my time) with increasing numbers in the evening. We are a Guild that organises activities without requiring participation in any of them. For example, we run ops, but you don't have to do them. Members sometimes join up for PvP, but no one is require to set foot in a warzone. We are a Guild that does RP, but not an rp Guild. The members of the Guild are friendly and helpful. Courtesy and a sense of fun are the qualities we value most in our members. Why not have a look at our website at http://xiiithlegion.enjin.com/ and see if we might be what you are looking for.