Again; it's great for PvE and the like. As for other aspect of game play it is a bust. I have other games I play that most content is level synced and its fun. Equally as fun is going through older content and having a go at it without having to worry as much about your health and such. Think I might just start quoting the OP

Then by the same token, people shouldn't be so blindly for it. Blindly following it without looking into how it will affect people is equally as negligible as being instantly up in arms against it without reason. As stated in the OP: I actually like the idea of having the option of level syncing for content or to group up with other players; I have played other games where that was part of it. I also see the downside for the community of people that use the game as a platform for their role-play; being that I am a member of this community as well. Yes, you can simply choose areas where there are no mobs; however, what would you suggest when your setting for the role-play is supposed to be a dilapidated ruins of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where you choose to not acknowledge the presence of Imperial forces on the planet (since other than for the class stories this would make no sense). However, all around you during your role-play you are forced to combat Imperial forces just to maintain your role-play...kind of break the immersion aspect there, yeah? FYI: I actually did a role-play similar to this once.

Haha, about the time you posted I was actually talking about immersion The problem is that the game is designed with the intent that most mobs are going to attack you. Just because you are in x-region does not mean that mobs will naturally attack you. Also as far as immersion there is nothing to prevent you from having to kill said mobs other than running away. As this isn't the case in all situations (Jedi have beast master, tranq darts for non-jedi, etc.) and not to mention breaking from your characters possible beliefs (perhaps your character is an adamant pacifist and would never raise their weapon against a creature that was only instinctively protecting its offspring, etc.), this can break the immersion into your character and often lead to ruining a role-play. Allowing yourself to sink into your character; who they are, what they stand for, the way they react to stimuli, etc. All these things are part of the immersion that makes up what role-play is. Hope that answers your question...though I know it was not directly aimed at me

This change has more of a directly detrimental affect on the players who choose to partake in the role-play aspects of the game above the other portions of the game. The option was thrown in that to prevent people from just unsyncing and going on a killing spree among other flagged members in the synced area is just that. If they unsync they could be required to move to the standard instance to prevent such a thing from happening. Realistically having the option to level sync is more appropriate to long time players and RPers than to lampshade the entire process and just say, "Yeah, all of you...you are all now going to have to sync to the level of the planet you are on and deal with the sh*t that you wouldn't normally have to worry about when doing _____." Rather than nay-saying and feeling that you have to defend the devs and other members of bioware (since im not actually attacking them) perhaps you can take a moment and imagine how frustrating it would be to try and role-play on a planet where you are trying to immerse yourself into a character and the story that you are developing. Only to have to stop midway through most sentences to fend off mobs that would otherwise leave you alone when not level synced. This is the reason for the option to toggle the sync on and off. As for those that would use the toggle to "face-roll" mobs; I'm good with that...sometimes people need that form of cathartic release of mindlessly mashing through mobs. I do it all the time on Oricon and higher as it is with my characters. I said before: I have no problems with level sync, and have even wished they had it before when people needed help with something but I didnt want to nurf their xp by helping. This is the intent for an optional level sync, because there are two sides to every issue...this time the downside happens to affect those that wish to use the planets, flashpoints and operations as backdrop to their RP scenarios and not to struggle through them or "enjoy the games content" in that manner.

Okay, let me preface this by saying that: I do not think level sync is a bad idea. That being said, Mandatory planetary level sync is. The option of joining a level sync instance or optional out of combat toggle for level sync would be a wonderful alternative (see I offered a suggestion for a compromise rather than just rip on the devs...how nice is that? ) forcing it upon the players (especially those whose primary focus and/or draw to the game is RP) is unfair. As it stands doing content on a planet without level sync is almost worthless when you are higher level (unless on a higher level planet) when compared to doing daily missions for; money, experience, comms, etc. Now adding an optional toggle for the upcoming release would be a better option as to not penalize a person who is on the planet for RP or other non-progression purposes. Also providing an instance that is specifically aimed at being a level sync free area would be an acceptable alternative. This is more so aimed at the light PvE and Role-play community; since those who are attempting to grind, level with friends, gear up, etc., will be preferential toward the level sync. This is to start a petition (not sure if there is one already circulating as the searches I have done on the subject did not show any), geared toward the prevention or quick revision of the decision to make a mandatory level sync for; planets, flashpoints, operations, etc., that can and are used for role-play purposes on a regular basis. (insert inspirational speech about declarations and freedom of expression, etc. here. lol.) In seriousness, there are a couple of servers dedicated towards role-play in its various forms, and I would love to see some consideration be sent toward them in the upcoming changes to the game. Yours, J.

I agree, just heard about this planetary level sync and my blood is still boiling because the only thing that has kept me in this game for so long has been the role-play. Being forced to sync to a level for the planets will create many annoyances for those who wish to use the different planets as backdrop for this intent. Taking and enforcing a MANDATORY level sync is absurd; i agree with those that posted previously that an OPTIONAL level sync would not be bad. The same should be done for the Flashpoints and Operations, these are again places that I am not worried about having a challenge from the mobs or listening and playing through the story for the flashpoint, I will often go in to them to: A) Blow off steam by mincing through mobs. B) Use them as a setting for a role-play that would otherwise not be available. Though admittedly I am used to the role-play community being sh*t on. Ideally instead of the wasted time and effort they put into some of the changes they are making they could have; made a better strong hold editing system, added a role-play area editor, etc., things that would have made a portion of the community that has been dumped on so much for so long (oh goody, so we have a couple servers for role-players, that are full of...PvPers that come a cr*p on our open world role-plays). Here's a nice quote for the people making these changes. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I mean if you want to let them get away with outlandish changes for POINTLESS things that make a big difference in one area, why not more? How about they just make one stat that dictates it all? We can call it A-hole stat. Seriously though, rolling crit and surge together is understandable to an extent since many classes (most of my characters as a matter of fact) don't add any crit into their builds due to auto-procs and what have you. However, changing the main stats around is a HUGE mistake...not because the gear drops or what not; the mistake is because of diminishing returns already present in the game. Having one main stat means that now your build is completely and utterly determined by your tertiary stats (defense, crit, etc.) If anything they should have opened that up to have all the stats affect each class differently. Ex. A Guardian tank that has high strength/endurance can now benefit from having more cunning; since as a defender you would have to have your wits about you in a fight, this would be an appropriate choice. This secondary stat would be separate from your main stat so that you could actually see more of a defensive return from putting stats into there. Then add a fourth slot to your gear for a secondary mod to add to this stat instead of taking away from anything (alternately they could keep the existing mod slot and balance the need for the secondary stat in your build). This would be a better option than rolling them all into one and dumbing down the gear system more than it already has been (however, this leads me to a whole comparison about how SW:TOR is not a game targeted toward; teens, fans of Star Wars, and MMO players in general, but mindless masses with an capability of a trained monkey to play the game that are impressed by a glowing stick, no matter how times they have to hit someone with it before they drop). Okay, so there's a hardcore stance to be taken and facts to be given other than personal opinion about the changes being horrid; that said, among the many issues the game has (and there are many), the one off level 30+ that hasn't learned which stats to put on their character isn't one of them (it's painfully obvious which gear you should go after when all your mission rewards give you gear tailored to your class already). To go through at this late stage in the game and change up something that is counted as more-or-less an MMO standard of having multiple stats to use, and change it to being one primary stat only is such a waste in time, energy and resources that could have been allocated to doing other things (developing new skills, creating a separation between pvp gear and pve gear, creating new species, classes, fixing glitched cartel gear, etc. (the list does go one a while about things the community wants/needs)), that would be more beneficial towards the betterment of the game as a whole. I think that more than the potential and likely result of this change that all classes will be; nurfed, made to feel less unique, etc., that people are frustrated with the fact that instead of fixing something that needs fixing they have wasted the time doing stat changes that are unnecessary. But hey, this is my opinion on the matter and I'm not even a gear crazy maniac like the hardcore prog players that have crunched stats for hours on end to pump out ridiculous hits...i would imagine that most of them are going to move onto a game that doesn't intentionally ram a red-hot poker up their butt every chance they get. lol. Yours, J.

Considering ones that speak basic, and wouldn't require them to add in a pitch control (which is a totally different discussion for how they could make character customization a little better), that could suit the standard body types 1-4 and are even likely to be put into play: 1. Diathim 2. Zeltron 3. Nautolan P.S. Is it just me, or would spiecial innate abilities be amazing?

More importantly it seems only the healing classes are getting screwed with this whole thing...so grats to us healers our job just got it up the butt! Cant really claim that noble sacrifice was a huge advantage other than it regenerated your force powers a bit at the expense of your health, so you would have to use your regained Force power to heal yourself back up as well. Wandering Mend was more of an unfair bolster to healers than Noble Sacrifice was. it allowed you to do large heals to numerous group members at once and pretty much made using other healing skills worthless. Instead of screwing with the other skills they should have just dialed back the healing output of wandering mend as it traveled from one person to the next, that would make the healer have to swap to a different target and give them additional heals as a sage (and their counter-part of the Sorcs), and thereby using more Force to heal the additional members of the group. Merc healers now do less healing than before, and they were already relegated to support healer instead of being a full healer, which is bogus. Since 3.0 launched pretty much all other healers other than Scoundrel and Operative got nurfed, hardest of which would easily be the Bounty Hunter and Trooper healers, since the Sorc and Sage got a potent group heal from it. I found that healing as it was, at this point, was more than adequately balanced for the most part...though the Operatives and Scoundrels had an advantage as DPS seeing as they could stealth, heal, and dps all in one grouping. So I can understand reducing the healing output of them and even Sage and Sorcs when in DPS trees...but increasing the cost of skills and slightly increasing the healing potential of the skills is stupid. But hey, could just be me. I think that these changes are a huge mistake.

I agree as well, there isnt enough RP specific content in the game to uphold the active RPers on either of the RP servers. This wouldnt effect the flow or balancing of the game either since its all based around RP. I like the inclusion that no monetary, experience gains, or item drops can come from RP instances. Think I also saw something about editing mob strength...that would be awesome as well, to be able to set how much of a struggle you want your RP participants to face when going against the mission you have outlined for them. As one that organizes RP events for a guild I would LOVE to see a feature like this added.

I agree with the point that the player should be able to make the choice to either have a character carry the same surname as the rest of the legacy or not. The benefits could be that it would open up numerous naming options for certain popular names, allow for more unique names (in that each character could have a full name that does not share a singular surname between them all, etc.). There are other games out there that have already implemented a naming system similar to what I think was mentioned before (FFXIV and GW are two i can think of off the top of my head). Taking it with a grain of salt, but there are some issues in the game that -should- get more attention than names at this late stage in the game...like the launcher constantly messing up for many players, (ERROR: List too long. lol). Again, just off the top of my head. Unique first and last names for each char would be nice, however, I don't see it as first in the laundry list of things that need work. Just my opinion though.