/signed Master Strike/Blade Dance and Death From Above are (were) two of my favorite moves in any game, ever.

Yes! Please! I've got Treasure Hunting as one of my gathering skills and I want to sell companion gifts at competitive prices on the GTN. Being able to filter gifts by rank (or at least as a separate "gift" category) would make this a lot less time consuming. It would also let buyers see what's available more easily, giving myself and other treasure hunters a much better chance at making sales.

The point you make about rewards varying depending on your choices during the quest is a good one. What if for missions where that is the case, you can't see the rewards ahead of time? As to your point about immersion, I feel the opposite way. I'm playing a bounty hunter, and a somewhat heartless one at that. I have a hard time believing this guy would accept any mission without knowing how he'll profit from it.

This afternoon I posted this in General Discussion. I meant to post it here in the Suggestion Box. Sorry about the repost! Three people have already responded positively to it, so I wanted to make sure the right people see it. Here's my original post: About a year ago Cayse_Harker posted the following. I'm quoting him/her because this was well said. Nothing seems to have come from that post and I'd like to bring it back to the dev's attention. I'd love to have this feature. What do the rest of you think? What are the pros and cons of this? I know some people like to be surprised by quest rewards, so how about an option in the Mission Log that would reveal the rewards for each quest. Particularly given the state of the online databases, having a little extra info in-game would be fantastic. (By the way, I'm not criticizing those who do run the online databases! I'm sure it's a ton of work and something is better than nothing, especially http://dulfy.net/ which seems to have accurate lists of rewards for Heroics and Flashpoints as well as quite a lot of other info.)

About a year ago Cayse_Harker posted the following. I'm quoting him/her because this was well said. Nothing seems to have come from that post and I'd like to bring it back to the dev's attention. I'd love to have this feature. What do the rest of you think? What are the pros and cons of this? I know some people like to be surprised by quest rewards, so how about an option in the Mission Log that would reveal the rewards for each quest. Particularly given the state of the online databases, having a little extra info in-game would be fantastic. (By the way, I'm not criticizing those who do run the online databases! I'm sure it's a ton of work and something is better than nothing, especially http://dulfy.net/ which seems to have accurate lists of rewards for Heroics and Flashpoints as well as quite a lot of other info.)

I have to admit that this example is a very strong argument against what I have been saying. Thanks for the education Warshades. Really, I mean that. Having a specific example of how easily this could be abused helps me to accept the current state of things a little better. Still, that does leave us with the possible option that I and a few other people have proposed, namely asking players to make a one-time choice at character creation as to whether or not they want to participate in PvP prior to level 50. Earlier in the thread somebody mentioned that this would be akin to selecting your class at the beginning of the game. You know that once you make that choice you have to live with it. Although this option would probably be taken by a only a minority of players, the activity on this thread indicates to me that that minority might be large enough that the devs should take a serious look at this. I definitely would take the option to opt out of PvP prior to level 50 if it meant I could lock or slow my XP gain while playing through the story and side quests.

No, I'm sorry, but this still doesn't solve the problem. I'm glad you brought up the challenge level because this is certainly a concern and one which hasn't been mentioned in this thread so far. But you're saying that in order to maintain the challenge level I have to carry around extra sets of armor and weapons? Store up higher levels of weapons from quest rewards to be used later? That's going to take up a lot of space in my inventory and cargo compartment. It also doesn't solve the problem of me having to regularly avoid fighting mobs while running around in the game world. Constantly sneaking around them simply to avoid XP gain is something that I really hate doing, especially if the only reason I'm doing it is so that I can come back and kill them later when they're too easy to kill. A couple of times in this thread I've mentioned gamer psychology. I think we've all had this thought while playing games: "this is great but I just wish they'd change this one thing and then it would be so much better!" What "that one thing" is is clearly different for each of us so I'm not surprised that not everyone can see why this is an issue for me. I'm sure there are things about this game you'd like to change that I don't have any problems with. But to help you better understand where I'm coming from, let me illustrate some of the thought processes I regularly have while playing. Example 1: I've got several quests in my log of various skill levels. I'm on my way to a quest location and I see a node for one of my gathering skills. It's surrounded by 3-4 mobs and I have to decide, "Do I kill the mobs and get the node, gaining XP that pushes me towards a higher level and making several of my quests less relevant, less challenging? Or do I skip that node and try to find one that is unguarded?" Example 2: I'm doing a quest and a bonus quest pops up saying 'Kill 30 droids'. I have to ask myself, "do I kill the droids in order to get extra credits and gear, and hopefully work my way through several stages of bonus quests in order to kill a boss who might drop some high quality prizes? Or do I skip it and never know about the great rewards I might have missed?" At issue is gameplay style and the perceptions of the gamer. Now with regard to the first example, you might say "most nodes ARE unguarded" and "killing a few mobs here and there has minimal impact on your XP gain". And you'd be right. But because of my preference for doing as many quests as possible I'm constantly looking for every way to limit my XP gain and therefore feel the need to avoid even these little slivers of experience so that they don't add up over time. If I find myself in these situations on a regular basis (and I do) it detracts from my overall enjoyment of the game. Why? Because like most people, I enjoy improving my character. I like getting new equipment and abilities. This, along with a solid storyline, is what makes RPG's so enjoyable for me. What I don't like is having to hold back simply because I'm afraid of getting too good to play parts of the game that I might otherwise enjoy. Because of this problem I can't enjoy so much of the game precisely because the whole time I'm worried about the problem. This is the key point: Instead of coming up with strategies on how to improve my gameplay, of how to keep myself alive and finish the quests, I'm instead strategizing ways to keep my character from becoming too powerful. This is exactly the opposite of what I want and, I believe, exactly the opposite of the gameplay experience the developers are trying to create.

Maybe, maybe not. I don't want to argue against my own ideas too much, but bear with me through this. I did suggest this very solution earlier in the thread, that you could make a one time selection to not engage in PvP until level 50. The problem with that of course is that you might get to 20, 25, 30 and decide that you want to try PvP earlier, but now you're stuck. I'm all about options so I could understand why this could become frustrating. The next solution I proposed seems more promising: making the option available only during PvE. Players could still enter PvP but would always be gaining XP in that mode. There would be no way to halt or slow XP gain in PvP matches. The idea here is that people at 49 wouldn't be able to continuously play PvP against lower level players because eventually they'd hit 50. Now some people have mentioned that this might not work; that there already seem to be work-arounds that people are exploiting. Having played very little PvP I can't say that I understand how they do this or speak to how to solve it. Can someone break down the problem for me?

Well I certainly can't argue with this. Improving the existing features of the game should take priority over expanding into new territory. That said, in this thread my position has been referred to several times as belonging to a minority population. I'm sure that this is true. We probably are a minority. But I'd be curious to know exactly how small (or large) this minority is. Outside of posting on the forums, or chat spamming (which is awful), is there a way to poll the general population of the game?

The problem here is that I don't want to avoid playing large sections of the game. I don't want to constantly have to find ways to work around the game. This isn't fun for me. I'm certain you can agree that the ultimate point of playing the game is to have fun. I recognize that my preferences differ from yours. I'm looking for a way to play such a great game without having to hold back. Again, I'll refer you to the Sid Meier's interview on gamer psychology: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27654/GDC_Sid_Meiers_Lessons_On_Gamer_Psychology.php#.UQfyJb9EGSo The article mentions suspension of disbelief. Creating an environment where this is possible is critical to keeping players engaged. Every time I have to avoid something simply because I know it will keep me from exploring other parts of the game, I am pulled out of the game world. How a player is thinking and feeling while playing the game is what determines whether or not they keep playing. In a game this large there will always be conflicting opinions regarding the maximization of enjoyment. But if reasonable solutions can be found (and I believe several have been posted in this thread) then they deserve to be pursued. By the way, before this discussion strays too much farther into our diverse philosophical outlooks, does anyone else have other solutions to the original question?

Thank you MGriffith! Please, everyone, I hate whining too. If I sound like i'm whining I believe this has more to do with the inherent difficultly of trying to convey emotional intent in a text-based on-line forum. In a democracy (a Republic!) ideas are generated through public discussion. I see a problem. I'm looking for a solution in whatever form. That is all. Yes, I'm trying to win this debate, but not only for myself and those like me. I want us all to win. I want us to confront and defeat the problem, not each other, in a way that satisfies all the concerns raised here. Is this not, after all, the spirit of cooperative gaming? Hugs and high fives to everyone who participates in this discussion, even those who disagree with me.

Unfortunately for me and mine, you continue to make good points. I've read that making these kinds of changes can involve considerable costs for the developers. That aside, you quoted an idea which I somewhat recanted in a follow-up post. What do you think (ignoring, for the moment, the cost) about the proposal to have XP gain always on in PvP? Hopefully this would eliminate the problem of certain players taking unfair advantages in warzones.

Actually having read this post again I think I understand this suggestion better. This could be an option while playing PvE, but once you enter PvP there would be no way to disable or slow XP. That is to say: you could have this option active while playing PvE. You would still be able to play PvP (contrary to the idea from my previous post), but you would have to gain XP in PvP mode. Inevitably, people at level 49 playing PvP would gain experience and thus be forced into the upper tier.

I see your point, and it is completely valid. Here's another possible solution building on what mastirkal said: Disabling or slowing down XP gain could be an option on PvE servers, with the caveat that using this option would disallow players from participating in PvP Warzones until they reach the level cap. Some may find this extreme and many probably wouldn't take it. I for one would. I'd also like to keep looking for a more general solution, but perhaps this gets us part of the way there?

Thinking about this some more, I definitely don't want to ruin the game for those who enjoy PvP. I, however, enjoy PvE more and I play on a PvE server. What about limiting this option to PvE servers? Is this possible? Would that satisfy some of problems you all have suggested?