Thanks for the replies! I suppose I'll go with the MX450 version if it has a bit of an edge.

I'm planning on buying a new laptop (specifically the Asus Zenbook 435 Ultralight with i7-1165G7 and 16gb of ram), and I'm trying to decide between the versions with or without a dedicated gpu. So I was wondering if anyone here can help me understand which one is better for swtor? (Or light gaming in general, I suppose). I generally only play solo stuff and I'm okay with medium-to-high graphics settings, so I'm not planning on anything too demanding. Specifically I'm trying to figure out which setup will cause the device to heat up more, and whether or not the MX450 even makes much of a difference in what the system can run compared to the Iris Xe.

Just finished the fight and the pillar workaround worked for me, so thanks to everyone who suggested/supported it. Specifically, I found that you shouldn't stay next to the pillar for the entire fight, cause he'll just cast his red whirlpool attack right where you're standing and you won't know whether to risk moving away from it; and you might end up taking damage from it right when he hits you with his hardest attacks and it'll be too much damage at once. So stay in the general area of the pillar for most of the fight, and if he casts the whirlpool move away from it towards the pillar; and only when he's about 1/3 or 1/4 health get right up next to the pillar before he casts his pushback attack.

While I'm on the subject, here's a shout-out to the choral version of the second half. On the game's soundtrack it was included in the track The Mandalorian Blockade; ingame it can be heard at the end of the Warrior story and when fighting Malgus, and in credits for KotET and Onslaught. Whenever I listen to the main theme I hear it back-to-back with this, and it's thrilling every time.

A lot of people have a lot of criticisms about 7.0, some of which I share and am beginning to feel first-hand. At the same time, I do want to express my excitement at one thing I've already really enjoyed. When I booted up the game today, my first time since the expansion came out, on a whim I left the volume on when the game loaded. And I was ecstatic to hear the original menu track start to play, instead of the new one that was added a few years ago. For the first time in who knows how long, turning on this game doesn't involve listening to obnoxious music I actively dislike, or simply turning off the volume. Instead of my least favorite song in the game, I was greeted with my favorite song in the game, and I gladly listened to it all the way through before logging in. So that, at least, was a lot of fun, and will continue to be fun.

It's honestly pretty amazing how easily it can hurt the eyes. The second time I looked at that side-by-side comparison, within seconds my right eye started to hurt from taking in the new inventory. (My left eye was in front of the old design and so had an easier time of it). Also, I haven't always been quite sure why there's so many little dots and lines and patterns on UI windows and such... but now I 110% get it. The old inventory has a lot more life to it, compared to the empty black boxes of the new one which just looks bland in comparison. Things like this are small touches that make a pretty big difference in how immersed you are in a game.

That... was not a very good trailer, to be honest. Kind of cliche and hamfisted and not very memorable. (And lightsaber battles are boring when they're too flashy and with too many gimmicks). But it was a very interesting look at where things are going. I very much like the idea that anyone can use the Force, so even if all this is is that more people can use the Force it's still a step in the right direction in my eyes. Sa'har looks like a character with some potential. And hopefully Malgus being passionate about freedom and such means he's getting a personality again.

Trooper > Sniper - I'm playing a soldier who uses a rifle, so it's pretty awkward that she can only fire it at very close range, and also punch people. I'll enjoy finally being able to fire from a distance. Agent > Scoundrel - finally get to be an agent with a handgun! Consular > Guardian, Inquisitor > Juggernaut or Guardian - these classes have lightsabers that are pretty important to the story, so I'd like to be able to actually fight with them at least some of the time.

I just recently read through a great thread about the same topic: https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=979629 There's a lot of cool theorizing from a bunch of people putting together bits of information to try and figure out during what years all of the events take place. And on page 12 Charles Boyd contributes his own approximation of when everything happens. (According to him it was 27 ATC in-game at the time; this was a year and a half ago, so that would make it 28 or 29 ATC right now.)

Wow. Ten years. I've only been here for about half of that or less, but even so I've experienced so much. I feel almost on the verge of tears. Thank you all for making this game and keeping it alive and growing. I just recently wrote about how I hope the team has a clear plan in mind for how everything turns out, so reading in Keith's letter that you do have a plan was really encouraging. I look forward to discovering it. Here's to the next ten! - First Inquisitor - headcanoning that she and Ashara were falling in love during her class story, and imagining their relationship. - First Consular - roleplaying her taking Nadia to different worlds to teach her about the Force and being a Jedi. - Knight, Warrior - letting them slowly run across the landcape during their class stories somehow helped me concentrate in studying for the bar exam. - Second Consular, current main - a year and a half ago, deciding that Taris had become her home of sorts; more recently, her doing some soul searching in the lead-up to Echoes of Oblivion, and the last hour or so of EoO as well. And not a moment but more generally, it means so much to me just how much this game has been there for me during some tough times in the last few years.

This is mostly how I feel (though I haven't played any later story yet). I do think they can still come up with something past it that's a fitting conclusion to the events of this era, even if it's somewhat of a postscript to the Tenebrae saga; something about how the conflict between the Republic and Empire turns out. But it's going to take a lot of work for it to not feel underwhelming, so I really hope they have a plan.

Yeah, I think if they were already wrapping up so many things at once they should have incorporated things that are related to each class. For example if the Mandalorians are involved because they're among the people that Tenebrae manipulated, which gives the Hunter a connection to it. Or some of the Inquisitor's force ghosts. It would be trickier to find something for the Smuggler and Trooper though...

I also played it for the first time recently, just last week. Overall, I loved it! I was building myself up to it for months, taking my new main through all of the expansions and knowing that this would be the big climactic moment at, maybe not the end of her journey, but the culmination of her journey. And for the most part it gave me what I wanted - it was moving, it was exciting, it was terrifying, and it wrapped up the saga of Tenebrae in a creative and powerful way. Now, once the dust settled I was able to see some more flaws in hindsight, but I still love it. Things I didn't like: - A lot of stuff didn't get enough development, whether it be certain characters and relationships, or more of how the plague is functioning. - Specifically, it's a shame that we didn't get a real ending, and didn't see anything of what happened with anyone involved other than Satele. So many characters should have been saying goodbye to each other or talking about how they were ready to move on. - I'm biased cause my main is a Consular, but I was sad that there was almost nothing dealing with the Children of the Emperor, or Kira being one, and no dialogue between Kira and a Consular character about it. I would have liked for it to be a major part of the story (for example if Tenebrae is able to reach out to the remaining Children and spread himself through them, or gains a lot of memory and strength from Kira and she ends up feeling like she shouldn't have come). - The mind plauge was a really cool idea, but they didn't explore it enough. We didn't get much of Satele and her students' minds merging, for example. - The segment on the ship was way too long, felt like we wasted a lot of time before getting to the really good stuff. - Satele setting it all up as a trap was a fist-bump moment in real time, but now it mainly feels like it robbed the story of a lot of its horror and sadness. Things I liked: - Overall the whole idea of Tenebrae's imprint and the way it comes to life was brilliant. It's a good way of bringing him back without bringing him back, cause it was a good idea to wrap up all of these plot threads but if it had just been "he's alive again" it would have been tiresome; this way he's not exactly alive, it's more like a memory of him. And that's really why I think it's brilliant, because it is so fitting that Tenebrae would find a way to make himself more than just a living being, to basically make himself into an idea. For me, it finally made his character truly fascinating. - Tenebrae is just awesome. Great design, great voice acting, great characterization. He's terrifying and memorable in a way that Vitiate and Valkorion never quite reached. - The way Tenebrae talked through Tenebrae, Vitiate and Valkorion was cool, though I would have liked it if there were some moments when it was just Tenebrae. - The design of the mindscape was haunting, really well done. - Seeing all those characters return was wonderful, even if most of them didn't get enough or any dialogue. - The clash of fanatics between the Servants and the Scions was a really cool idea. - I can't quite put my finger on it, but just the overall feeling of this storyline was this wonderful combination of horror, pathos and emotion. It really felt like an ending.

I also think this Yavin shot is really cool with the trailing ships, and the same for Hutta with the blaster fire. Great shots that have something unique to them that I haven't seen in any nominations so far. Everyone's pictures including my own are mostly or comepletely static, but these trails of light make yours come alive! I love the surreal feeling created by seeing that "floating" plateau in the middle of the image.

All of these are good and have a unique feel to them, I like how unconventional you went with them. But this one in particular caught my eye, something about the color contrast and the geometry makes it quite striking. I really hope so. People have taken so many awesome pictures, it would be nice to get to see the several best ones for each planet, rather than just one, and for those people to get recognized for it.