Then don't adjust the loot tables, just let people buy the other weapon type and mod it with whatever your class uses. Take the Imperial Agent Companion Kaliyo for example, she's a Powertech Bounty Hunter, but she can be equipped with a Blaster Rifle. Everytime she gets a quest reward weapon it's a Pistol. So keep that, but just let Bounty Hunters use whatever weapon they want. I'm not saying dual-wielding assault cannons, but you get the idea.

I meant more along the lines of a Guardian/Juggernaut using a double-edged saber or a Bounty Hunter using a Blaster Rifle.

None of the things listed would affect you if it wasn't something that you wanted to do. You might not want to use Macros or swap AC's, great! You don't have to! However, there's a lot of people who DO want these changes.

I started playing during closed beta last June, so I've been playing the game for a little over a year. The game has come a long way since the first time I logged in, but there's a lot of things that still could be added or improved upon. During beta the test server forums were very active, lots of very constructive threads listed things people wanted to see the devs address by launch. Everyone could see that faction imbalance was going to be really lopsided towards the Empire. The extremely limited options in the character creator was a huge issue for people (this still needs work), and it seemed to many testers that the Republic race choices were very poor. This was further exacerbated by the Empire gear being perceived to be much cooler looking than what was available for Republic players. It was suggested repeatedly to allow for the "cooler" Empire races to be available for Republic players. Which was answered on the forums with*"If they do THAT it will ruin the game!" The spam in fleet and on every planet of people looking for groups to do Flashpoints or Heroic content was ridiculous. It was pretty clear that a LFG tool needed to be added as soon as possible.*Which AGAIN was answered on the forums with "If they do THAT it will ruin the game!" These two changes were asked for before the launch, and after retail release the requests came up over and over when these problems did seem to get out of hand. Now we have these changes and it has not "ruined the game." A lot of the feedback happens to be very positive. I believe that is because these are changes that allow more freedom to the players who want to take advantage of what's new, but doesn't force burdensome changes on the players who were opposed to them. How many other changes that would open up more choices to the player, but don't force other players to participate could be added that would be a huge benefit? A short list: Remove Weapon Restrictions Chat bubbles Dual-specialization Macros Swoop racing Add ons Barber Shop Swapping Advanced Classes Pazaak Player Bounties Secondary Professions Of course there are many other changes people would enjoy, but every single one of these listed is a change that people have asked for, and would be a change that doesn't force players to participate. However the response for some of these is always*"If they do THAT it will ruin the game!" There seems to be a lot of bad news and poor perception of the game currently. I'm not sure limiting players options right now is the best option, why not look for easy ways to generate some positive press and possibly bring back some subscribers.

When the game launched there were long queues and people screamed on the forums to open new servers. When they opened new servers and the population dropped off people screamed on the forums for server transfers. Now that they've begun this first phase of server transfers there's a problem with queue times again? The internet is making my head hurt again.

Sure, no problem. When you're reassigning keys in the key bind menu it will have the name of the action, let's use Inventory as an example, there are two slots to the left of it that say B and I. If you want to make opening your inventory Shift + B then you would click the spot where B is, hold down Shift and hit the B key on your keyboard. Now to open your bags you would hold down Shift and press B. The main thing about Key binding to remember is that all of this is make things easier for yourself. If it feels like it's not working, do something else. If you'd like a suggestion for "target nearest enemy" maybe try a key that's in the vicinity of what is "target NEXT enemy" which is Tab. Maybe try the ` key. A lot of what's helped me be successful with remembering all of the different key binds I have for all the characters I play, in all of the games that I've played, is to group like keys with each other and to keep combinations going for each game. For example: On my Jedi Guardian I use R for Force Leap, which is the same key that I used for my Warrior's Charge in WoW. You are very welcome, glad to help.

Thanks! I'm kind of bummed they moved it to New Player Help so fast though, this is something intended to possibly help players from 1 - 50.

This thread is for people who are curious about trying out binding their abilities to keystrokes instead of using their mouse to click abilities on their Quickbar. Hopefully people will not see this thread as a place to attack the way people play the game. A lot of the time the way this topic is discussed is pretty unhelpful. People can take a very strident stance that everyone who clicks their abilities with the mouse (clickers, keyboard turners, etc) are bad players. I've played with people who were high PVP rank "clickers" and also played with key binders who couldn't Heal if their life depended on it (usually it was my life first). To everyone that does click their abilities; I'm not saying I'm better than you, my e-stuff is mightier, that I'm a better dancer, or anything else. You might be very successful at PVE or PVP if you click, but what if... Maybe, just maybe, you might perform even better by using some key binds? MMO players can get pretty competitive and spend a lot of time doing whatever they can to give their character every advantage to win possible. Think of this thread as just a possible way to make your character better, not with loot, but with changing your playstyle. Part 1: Start Small I guarantee if you open up your preferences and key bind every single ability you have, when you've never played that way before, you'll feel like you've suddenly started playing the game with your feet. Try this very easy, very minimal step to see if you might enjoy key binding. You can keep playing the way you have, we're just going to change the binding of 4 keys: Q, E, A, and D. To change key binds hit Escape > Preferences > Key Bindings. For this example you also want to enable Bottom Center Quickbar which is located by going back to Preferences > User Interface > Quickbar. All of the keys we're changing are movement keys by default. These are under the Movement section of Key Bindings. Q - Left Strafe E - Right Strafe A - Left Turn D - Right Turn Don't worry about losing left turn and right turn, strafing and using your right mouse button to turn is going to become second nature very fast to you. Imagine that the mouse is like your characters head, and wherever you point it is the direction they're going to go. Here's what we're going to change our keys to: Q - Bottom Center Quickslot 2 E - Bottom Center Quickslot 1 A - Left Strafe D - Right Strafe Bottom Center Quickslot 1 and 2 can be found under the Quickslot section. Choose whatever two abilities you feel you use the most or want to hit as fast as possible. Personally, I use E as my basic attack or energy builder and Q is usually a more reactive ability, or an ability that I know I want to use a lot. Examples for each class: Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior Q - Riposte/Retaliation E - Strike/Assault Trooper/Bounty Hunter Q - High Impact Bolt/Rail Shot E - Hammer Shot/Rapid Shots Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor Q - Project/Shock E - Saber Strike/Saber Strike Smuggler/Imperial Agent Q - Vital Shot/Corrosive Dart E - Flurry of Bolts/Rifle Shot Part 2: Additional Binds and Modifiers Once you get the hang of moving with your mouse and feel more comfortable being able to fire off abilities with keystrokes you're going to want to consider adding more buttons. I would again consider just adding one or two at a time, that way you can become much more comfortable with remembering where your fingers need to be for what ability. The best keys to start this off are ones that are already set for you: 1, 2, 3, and 4. In these spots I usually make 1 an ability that has limited or no range so that I don't accidentally attack a target by right clicking. I currently use a 5 button Logitech mouse, but back when I used a regular mouse I used the following 12 keys for key binds: 1, 2, 3, 4, Q, E, R, F, Z, X, C, and `. Notice that I don't use 5 through = and that some of these keys listed have functions by default. R is Reply, C opens Character Pane, etc. However all of them are very close to WASD, as well as the modifier keys of Shift, Ctrl, and Alt that I use. I'm fine picking other binds for these actions. Backspace for Reply, H for Character Pane, etc. One thing that you want to avoid with keybinding is hitting the wrong key, like R and opening chat so that you broadcast to the zone that the last thing your character said before dying was "qqeeeeeqeeeeeqqqeeewwwwww!" Picking 12 keys and 3 modifiers gives me a total of 48 binds using just these buttons and modifiers. Now I can have an ability bound to 1, Shift + 1, Alt + 1, and Ctrl + 1. Modifiers also work with other keys that we're already using for other things as well like WASD. If you have a mouse with additional buttons, this opens up even more possibilities. It's took me a bit of practice, but eventually I was playing WoW and other games with my UI totally hidden (I don't suggest this on progression raiding). Part 3: My Layout This is probably all going to change in 1.2 Legacy when the UI customization is added. Right now though, the layout that I use in SWTOR is pretty simple and I use it the same way on every character. Even though every class has different abilities, I put like abilities in the same spot so that I don't confuse myself. My interrupts are in the same spot, my CC break, my out of combat heal, my Medpac, my Stuns, My Grenades, etc. Since I'm showing you my layout for my bottom two bars I will be including the fourth and fifth mouse buttons which are called M4 and M5 here. If you feel like you're comfortable with key binds up to this point feel free to use Z, X, C, or ` instead of M4 and M5. Quickbar 1: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | M5 | Shift + M5 | Alt + M5 | Ctrl + M5 | Shift + 1 | Shift + 2 | Shift + 3 | Shift + 4 | Bottom Center Quickbar: | Q | E | R | F | M4 | Shift + M4 | Alt + M4 | Ctrl + M4 | Shift + Q | Shift + E | Shift + R | Shift + F | _________________________________ Ok, well that's all I have to add for now. Hopefully this was helpful to some people who were interested in trying out Key binding, but we'ren't sure where to start.

SHHHH! Keep it down! They've kept the game a secret from him, otherwise it would be overrun with Gungans and Hayden Christensen doing VO. He can never know about this...