I doubt they'd vigorously enforce something like this. It's probably considered part of the variation in gaming experience as a result of online play. Still, I can see how it would be irritating. Good luck.

Well, it probably has a cooldown for the same reason that there is a global cooldown: to limit the amount of queries sent to the server in bursts. But it could probably be a lot shorter and still serve that purpose. So who knows?

Good point. I'd say that a conservative Master would still react in a way similar to that described by Walsh, which would lead to interesting RP. As almost always, what complicates affairs is the OOC dynamic; that we, as players, don't trust other players to know what they're doing, and generally err on the side of assuming that the other player is ignorant/incompetent at the first sign of warning flags. Honestly, some of the "greatest hits" have led many to do this almost without thinking. I think that if there's one thing to take out of this thread (ignoring the mess in the last couple of pages), it's that we all have to be careful about letting the OOC apprehensions get in the way of IC. Generally, even disputes of this nature can be settled entirely IC; and if they can't, it's almost always better to walk away and whisper politely after a cool-down period than it is to jump OOC and start an argument in the heat of the moment / go to the forums.

I don't understand this notion. The game needn't be social, it's the job of the players to socialize if they want to. If people are not socializing without being forced to, that's telling you something about the playerbase, not the game. But I wouldn't be so quick to judge others... look within. MMOs these days are springboards for socialization... it's all about how you use them. This game has activities for people to do together, and it's pretty apparent to me that some of us are doing those activities, being social, and enjoying ourselves. Then you have all these posters that on one hand say they want the game to be social, but on the other ask for a tool that forms groups for them randomly. And some go as far as to suggest that the game isn't social enough unless you're practically forced to play with them. Huh? I think this all goes back to some stereotypes that perhaps have more truth to them than we'd like to admit. You're struggling to make friends and find people to interact with in a place full of people with a common major interest, with several activities in place for you to do together, and where you don't even have the potential downside of people judging you before you have time to sell yourself. I don't think the problem is that the game is anti-social. How much easier could it be for you? You're basically asking them to force people to interact with you, because you'd rather not have to take the initiative. Sorry if this last bit sounds harsh; but if you can't meet people and make friends with all the help this medium is giving you, it's not the game that's anti-social. It's you.

I know. I linked that, then started going down the link-hole. Half an hour later I'm like "OH GOD HOW DID I END UP LOOKING AT TWINCEST?!"

Walsh: On principle, I agree with your assessment that actions should have consequences, and that RPers who act unwisely in public are often unwilling to accept them. They just want the shock value and the cheap thrills. They want to play Karma Houdinis, which I'm sure is grand for them... but sucks for everyone else. By the same token, we don't have the right to force those consequences on them if they refuse to accept them. The only recourse one has against these people is to not play with them, and warn the like-minded to avoid them. Normally, I'd say we should try to offer constructive advice... but as you can see in this thread, many roleplayers value inclusiveness over all else. It's a valid perspective, even if I disagree with it (and I think you do as well, from what you've written). I'd recommend public RP in small doses and lots of social circle RP for the meat of your interaction. Since quality is a subjective metric, I try to have my meaningful IC interaction with people who share my idea of what good RP is. I'm sure someone will consider this advice destructive to the RP community because it encourages insularity, but I think it's far healthier for everyone involved to find a comfort zone and stick to it. Someone who values lore-compliance and a guy playing Optimus Prime on Star Wars won't mix.

It really depends. For Flashpoints, I'd probably ask beforehand on party to see if there's interest, or form the group as an IC run. As I see it, if a group formed to run a Flashpoint, the explicit purpose is running it. Roleplaying in them tends to slow them down, and can be outright detrimental if you run into one of those beacons of joy that roll in RP servers but hate RPers. Just my two creds.

What my leveling partner and I do is we RP out the class stories with each other, but have alternate backgrounds that aren't based on the class stories. Most of the interaction that can be transplanted, is. We were RPing our characters before SWTOR ever came and had story arcs we played out over IM and forums, so it wasn't really a big issue. As for the OP: Ultimately, no major MMO has had a cohesive story that can be adapted to roleplaying with other players without making major changes or ignoring major sections. I think your expectations are unreasonable. You're entitled to them, of course -- just understand that you're probably not going to find what you want in a videogame that is trying to tell a story.

Eh. I can see both sides. It's nice to be out and about and run into unexpected RP. But in a game as segmented as SWTOR, that's simply difficult, so people will naturally gravitate towards hotspots. I understand your frustration there. At the same time, I'm not sure I get what you want people to do. You come off as someone that strongly rejects circle or guild-based RP, or even anything organized, in favor of complete randomness. The problem is that random encounters are random, which means you could go a long time without one. And lots of people tend to find a circle they're comfortable with and take the meat of their RP there. To expect it to work otherwise is to fight against the current... it's how social dynamics go in real life as well. World RP as you seem to define it isn't dead... it's just exceptionally difficult to find if you're not lucky, and it might require you and others to be extremely proactive to let fellow RPers know they're looking for contact. Without add-ons that easily identify one as a RPer, it's just not that easy to know who's IC and who isn't. As an aside, Lord Adraas is full of RP, but most of it is found in hotspots (Nar Shadaa and the Fleet cantinas mostly). There are pockets here or there, but they're probably too structured for your tastes.

I agree that compared to RIFT's pace of fixes, BioWare has been very slow, and the patch notes are generally quite short. But I suppose it's just a matter of how complicated/tangled up the code is, and how easy/hard the fixes are. SWTOR seems like it's a much bigger/more complicated game. What puzzles me is when they say they fixed a bug, yet it's still there... or when a client patch to fix bugs introduces major bugs that require additional downtime. If I can reproduce a bug that's supposed to be fixed on patch day, or run into new bugs doing something as basic as crafting an item or doing a warzone, how did this not get spotted internally? Either way, I hope we'll start seeing some of the more requested fixes/additions showing up on patch notes soon.

Makes sense to me. I'm surprised someone at BioWare didn't think this would be problematic.

I still think the optimal solution to this is incredibly complex, because there's lots of issues that are just barely disguised by the system as it is now. But at a glance: Make all armor fully moddable. The armor itself (called 'shell' from here on out) is obtainable from specific missions, crafting, PvP, raiding. Spread the looks so that each activity at each level range rewards at least one set of shells. The only items with stats and without mods should be non-cosmetic pieces such as earpieces, implants, etc. Make missions rewards and Flashpoint/Op drops be Commendations and mods (and maybe rare shells). No green items; they're useless beyond level 10 anyway, since you start picking up moddable gear and rarely look back. In this scheme, the mods are the stat progression. Standardize mod availability. Commendation Mod Vendors should have blue mods for all roles (at a higher price, since shells would be common). Cybertech should get green versions of all mod types from their trainer, but the RE blue versions of those mods should be marginally better than the Commendation mods, and the epics should be the best outside of endgame and world drops. Tie Augment slots to the armoring. High-quality armorings (blue and epic) should have augment slots based on their relative power, with endgame armorings having the highest amounts. This would allow people to look as they please without sacrificing stat progression, and would keep rewards coming steadily without wasted options (seriously, I can't recall the last time I chose a green item over a Commendation that wasn't for a companion).

Either these are a vestige of something they wanted to do and didn't, or there is some technical reason why they need to slow down your travel time to the planet (maybe the planet keeps loading while you're running through the orbital station, this would give the impression of shorter loading times). As much as I'd love to see them gone, there has to be a reason why it is the way it is. It would be sadistic if there isn't. I doubt we'll ever know either way, since yellow posts that aren't PR or maintenance notices are rare as hen's teeth.

I agree that the Customer Service is atrocious. Especially when the competing product on the market has pretty much set the standard for the industry in that department, and has much larger customer volumes to deal with. There's also the fact that for better or worse, WoW has learned to communicate often and well, and be actively involved with the community. Getting a yellow post that doesn't sound like it got run by PR and legal 20 times in this forum these days is really really rare, and it feels like getting a straight or candid answer on big community requests is next to impossible. I disagree that it will be the end of the game, but it'll certainly create negative buzz about it if nothing changes. And sometimes, word of mouth and perception can be more important than facts and reality (and I'm not talking about the forums, those are almost always full of negativity and light on useful feedback). I think BW has a real opportunity here to up their game before WoW puts out new content and is in a strong position to try and lure people away from here. Which, despite what the apologists say, is a real possibility; lots of folks are here because WoW is in a pre-expansion lull. Once the cap is raised and new raids come about, I've no doubt that some people will consider going back, pandas or no pandas.

A definite improvement. I am pleased with this. However, there are still some fundamental readability/usability issues with this UI that need to be addressed, and letting us move elements around won't fix them. Here goes: Buffs/Debuffs are hard to see, debuff types are hard to identify unless you mouse over them. Durations are hard to see. Add a numerical countdown overlay (60m, 10s and so on), and add a white border to debuffs we can dispel. If that makes it too obvious in your opinion, at least color-code the borders by debuff type (blue = Force, red = physical and so on) so we can make the judgment call. Usability for healing is simply bad. It's usable, but cumbersome. Add mouseover functionality at least. Since healers can (and often do) DPS during encounters, an 'attack target-of-target' feature so we can target a friendly tank/DPS and attack more easily would be a welcome addition. It would even make assist trains easier. Allow us some macro functionality. Nothing automated, but at least the ability to tie more than one ability to the same quickslot (especially reactive abilities off the GCD). There's too many abilities that get constant use for some classes, and prime real estate on the UI is very limited. I'm honestly surprised that lots of this feedback didn't get back to you on the PTS. I just think that given the lack of pre-mades or transfers (and even selective beta testing pre-release), you're making testing your game way too difficult to get a proper sample size. I'll use myself as an example, since I'd rather not assume about anyone else. I don't mind helping you test, but I'm paying to play for keeps, not to play in half-empty test servers where my character could get wiped any second. You could get away with it when this game wasn't out, because I jumped at the opportunity to play the game to adjust my expectations for release. But now? You'd need to make testing a helluva lot easier/more convenient for me to hop on the PTS. I know I strayed a bit from the topic, but hopefully the overall feedback still reaches you.

Mostly non-answers, with a few nuggets of information here and there. I'm not sure why BioWare felt the need to do a Q&A if they're doing to throw out the same generic lines over and over; most of this could have been covered in a handful of yellow posts (and several answers had been before this Q&A). I'd like to hear something about chat bubbles, or sitting in chairs, or a clear answer on whether most of the Legacy perks will only be available for new characters. New characters aren't the only alts; to level up one's Legacy, one needs to alt. It would be incredibly dumb to restrict perks to new characters when the most progressed folks in the Legacy ladder already have several characters. I love this game, but the communication with customers (ESPECIALLY the Customer Service) is positively atrocious. If you really want to compete with WoW when it matters and not when they're in the pre-expansion lull, you're going to have to do better than this. If you don't, Pandaria's going to come out and you'll lose lots of people who are here only because they're bored with the content over there. I guess that's enough if you want SWTOR to be a vacation destination between WoW content patches, but that would be a colossal waste of an awesome game.

I'm a roleplayer, and I enjoy getting my characters in matching armor. I don't mind doing bonus series and the like for cool-looking sets, but what's been grinding my gears is how the Commendation items rarely match what you'll get from Heroic quests on that planet (and are almost always superior stat-wise). It wouldn't be so bad if I could find these pieces (or a matching look) from crafting or something... but nope! They're almost always world drops, meaning you have to rely on luck (in drops/boxes or the GTN) to get that look. So, my suggestions to alleviate this: Add the rest of the pieces of the Commendations set to the armor vendors, or Add orange patterns to crafting that complete the look of the Commendations set, or Add an item box to the Commendations vendor that specifically awards a random piece of the matching orange set, or Make Heroic quests drop the rest of the pieces of the Commendations set, so that if you complete a planet's heroics, you have a matching set. I think the last one is the most logical, but since I understand that it implies a significant change, I'd be fine with the others. I just don't understand why any designer thought it would be good or fun to make people stroll about in mismatching armor unless they get lucky or stick to an old set. I'm fine with putting in work to get a matching look, but there should be a way to do it that isn't completely reliant on RNG.

I agree with several of your objections, but you're taking out your frustrations on the wrong people. You're quitting... you've left your feedback, move on. Don't linger to demean people who still like the game and don't find minor inconveniences game-breaking. I find the travel in this game cumbersome (specifically traveling between planets, I don't mind travel within each planet). I think adding your ship to the list of Quick Travel destinations on all planets would go a long way towards solving that. Alternatively, a separate shuttle to your ship on a separate cooldown would do well too (maybe a 15-minute cooldown). As for the one-hour Fleet Pass, I think they should mail you one when you get your ship, along with a note from the Security Key vendor at the Fleet offering to sell you more. That way everyone knows they're there, and it's a way to encourage people to get a Security Key.

I don't hate it, but it's way overdone. The white frame on unavailable abilities is fine, and having a clear, visual counter when a cooldown is within 10 seconds of conclusion would be perfectly fine. As for the GCD itself, just lower the alpha on it, make it more low-key. Subtle, but visible. This is one of those areas where I really think you have to take a look at WoW and its most popular UI mods. This, and buff/debuff visibility and positioning. It's all terrible in this UI.

I agree, at least when it comes to (non-automated) macros. Each class in this game has lots of buttons, and some consolidation in one quickslot would be amazing to minimize UI clutter. Also, mouseover macros. Healing is functional here, but it's clunky. Having mouseover functionality and some basic macros (at least to tie off-GCD abilities to other abilities) would go a long way to streamlining play.

Wait. Which AC can heal itself and other players meaningfully and guard? As far as I know, if you take the ACs that can Guard, you don't get heals, and viceversa. And what's this "list of other buffs" that they get? If you're talking about things other players can do for the healer to protect them (Guard)... well, that's the whole point of them. To make it difficult for you to just burst down the healer. Classes providing these benefits sacrifice damage for utility. Also, what is a "well-built, specced Vanguard?"

The way I see it, in a game where companions are not used in full-group content, companions should automatically be second-tier in priority for gear from group content. Simple as that. You can get gear to solo in just fine from questing and crafting, or form groups to farm your companion's gear with that stated purpose. That said, people in these games are self-centered and couldn't care less about one another. So the best you can do is state loot rules immediately as the leader to weed out these people; if they disregard written rules and ninja the gear for their companion, you might have a case with a GM to get the item removed (at least you would in other games). A more elegant solution would be to have a Player > Companion > Greed loot option that a party leader can toggle. If gear does not have your primary stat, you can only roll Companion Need, or Greed on it. Don't want that system? Find a group that doesn't use it... at least then, they'll know where your priorities lie right off the bat and you'll be amongst like-minded fellows.

...then the OP and people like him play too much and are not (should not) be catered to. This game clearly is not tuned or developed to satisfy people like him. I don't see where the issue is here. The amount of people that play as much as the OP (or as efficiently) is tiny compared to folks that put in a few hours when they have a break from work/family obligations. This game never set itself up to be a sandbox, or hardcore, or anything of the sort. In fact, if you'd been following it pre-release, you should have known it was focusing heavily on the journey and not endgame. Choosing to play it anyway and complaining about what it's not is not just pointless, it's dumb.

Agreed. Especially since some classes are stuck with them for a little while. It's especially bad when the love interest of a class is utterly useless (I'm looking at you, Iresso).

I only sort of agree. I do think that social areas (think the main areas of Kaas City, Coruscant, and all their cantinas) should not be instanced... it's hard to meet new people when you can't even see most of them. I can see phasing being disastrous for finding RP. On the other hand, overcrowding of quest areas would be a huge issue if not for the phasing. I don't even want to imagine some of these 3-minute respawn timer mobs on an unphased world. I think that phasing does smooth over the playing experience, controls competition for resources and it even adds to the feel that you're not doing the same thing 246136135 people are doing. So yeah. Less phasing in cities, keep it as is in hostile areas.