First off, this is just my opinion. I know yours is probably different, and I respect that, but this one is mine. Maybe I played too much JTL in the old Star Wars Galaxies MMO....maybe I played too much X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter as well (yes - I'm dating myself), but those games felt like Star Wars. It wasn't just the look or sounds - by comparison the graphics on those games were primitive - it was everything about the experience. I felt like I was flying a fighter in a Star Wars universe. This feels like...I'm not sure what, but it doesn't feel like Star Wars to me. Make me defend a capital ship, assault a space station, fly past a blockade to get to a planet. But GSF could just as easily been branded under "Battlestar Galactica" with some graphical tweaks - and probably feels more like that anyway (at least to me). Not exactly like that, but more like that. And it isn't the control scheme - it took me a few times to get used to it, but I've made it work. It's just the experience is not Star Wars. To those that like GSF - I'm happy for you. I'll continue to try it, but it feels like to me like experiencing a celebrity by going to a wax museum instead of the "real thing".

I played Galaxies for several years until the "Let's all be a WoW clone with lots of Jedi" update, and yes did go to Cantinas, but by the time I left it was mostly bots/macro'd players and the rest biding their time for the buffs. I think having player towns run by guilds did much more to build the social element. Rather than implement this I'd prefer to see Guild Capital Ships that players could quick-pass to.

I must say I am impressed by the number of people able to solo or with just one other player do the Heroic 4 missions at level. I am not one of those. Probably a combination of good (but not great) gear and average command of some classes. My play time is erratic - an hour here, an hour there, depending on work and real-life commitments. I'd love to experience more of the content, but even using group finder I've had to wait upwards of 60 minutes to get a group for those heroics on leveling planets. I don't see any harm in scaling heroics, or even FP's, with reduced rewards. I'm not looking to be uber-geared without the effort the hardcore put in with groups; I am more interested in gaining enjoyment from experiencing the content. Keep the best rewards for those who group and have the time to play more often, but let the casual players see more of the story - that is the reward we most want.

I think that is the bigger issue. I died too many times on my first playthrough just by being knocked into new mobs. Sometimes I handled 2...but knew once I got knocked into a 3rd mob just to sit there and die - there was no winning at that point. No fun in dying because of this poor combo of layout and knockbacks. Best strategy for me was to wait for someone else to take a mob, and then me try and get the next one before they got knocked into it. Stupidest way to "encourage" coop.

Yes and no. At times leveling my Jedi Sage Healer felt like I was doing too little damage to advance as quickly as I wanted, but I do enjoy the class and being a Healer means never having to wait long to join a group. I just wish I had more character slots. I have 7 builds going, but none of them using any of the advance classes that have stealth capabilities (saving my 8th slot for a new race for now). I enjoy each of the classes I play but in different ways, and have come to appreciate the difference in play-styles. I may never be a great tank, but I have a tank know the fundamentals of playing that type of toon. More importantly I have a much greater appreciation for the people who play as tanks and play them well.

I am curious about the cost of repairing gear, particularly in the end-game. When I die, I find that the cost to repair my BH's gear is just under half what if costs my Jedi Consular (and they are similarly geared in tems of level of gear). Likewsie, my Smuggler falls somewhere in between the two. Again, not a scientific sampling, but it seems like Heavy armor sets are cheaper to repair than Medium armor sets which in turn are cheaper than Light Armor sets. Why wouldn't repair costs be the same across the board for similar level gear? It seems to favor certain classes ecomomically over others. And if this is truly the case and not some weird aspect of my particular gearing, are there plans to address this issue?

Agree 100% with the original poster. I don't expect them to give me anything. But wouldn't it be nice if you saw fireworks going off occasionally on the planets, or something relatively simple and purely cosmetic in-game tor recognize Star Wars day. It is a disappointment.

In the early days of SWG there was a weekend that the game pretty much was down for over 60+ hours (yes - occasionally up but would crash after an hour or two) and Sony did a roll-back. Gave everyone 3-extra days of credit. Funny how no one mentions *that* incident. And I was an SWG player from Beta 2 until the NGE (yes - I survived the CU). It was a grand experiment - and would be amazing as a sandbox with tools given to players to create content - but something we probably won't see or ever see again. Minecraft is about as close as you're going to get to that these days.

Nice post, but in many ways the cybertech crafters are their own worst enemy. I am good enough as I progress to do the missions I get *without* level 2 parts or level 4 parts that are crafted. I wouldn't mind the extra power they deliver, particularly "between" levels, but I can survive without them. On my server, people are charging over 100K for some level 2 parts. What player in their 20's can afford that unless they have another higher-level toon supplying them? Rather than waste my money on that I just wait until the level 3 become available, and the same from 4 to 5. Maybe my server is abnormally inflated, but if the prices were reasonable I definitely would by the equipment. Call it Economics.