A way to put a little Strong Hold Biography. Perhaps one of those small signs you can click on that usually adds to lore, but instead a popup window with editable (by the owner) text. Just a way to inject a little personality into them and/or a background on themes.

1. The ability to adjust loadouts while in que. Since there is no matchmaking for GSF for light years in any direction, there really is zero reason to lock out tweaks while waiting for a match to pop. It would be a good use of the 10-20 (or more) minutes between matches.

Noticed this, although not Imp but same faction match put me on traditionally Imp side. I'm surprised that the first post about this (in this thread) was July 2nd and today is September 25th and someone can't take 10 seconds in their developer's tool kit to fix this? REALLY?

I like your approach. To wax nostalgic for a moment, it reminds me a little of First Fleet, from JTL in SWG, but that was a different time and players were different / had different expectations and levels of commitment in a game. You take more of a long view which is more rare than it used to be.

Near launch... when everyone was starting off on the same foot? Or do you mean the difference between those that had early access vs. those that got regular access? I was there at the very beginning, and EVERYONE who hadn't gotten invited into GSF's closed beta was Koiogran Turning into asteroids or Barrel Rolling into superstructures multiple times each match. Even those that had been in closed beta didn't start off with any better equipment on their ships than anyone else. As things progressed, there was a mix on teams where there were more and less experienced pilots with more and less upgraded equipment. Later on, there were some unbalanced matches but they were not interminable. But the pics I linked... that went on all day. I only took screen shots after about a half dozen or so when I finally got to the point of "Oh, come onnnn!" lol. At no time in Pre-launch, official launch, or until I took a break from the game, was it so unrelentingly disparate all day, for several days. It is undeniable that the idea of matchmaking has been completely abandoned, and if you end up with *a couple* of experienced and geared people on your team, THAT is the fluke, not done by any in-game mechanic. It's simply, whoever's the first to que, goes. I disagree that there is NO solution, or that there is even only one. I do like the idea of cross-server queues but they have told us "no" since the very beginning. They've claimed technical reasons, but I'm going to have to call BS. Rift had cross-server PvP queues since it launched (well before SWTOR) and they combined pvp and non-pvp servers. Now we're in an age where games are either launching with mega-servers (ESO, which also uses the Hero Engine, incidentally) or converting to mega-servers (Wildstar). I don't buy that "can't" be done. They just need to put down the moneybags from CCs long enough to figure out how to make it happen. If they refuse and want the cheap way out, they can either do nothing, and let it die (the path they're on) or bolster. That's all that's left.

Emailed in-game to put this here so... The reason the pops are high on Harbinger is that the devs seem to have removed matchmaking (with which it launched -- btw, when did its removal happen?) so now you get this, if today (a Saturday at Prime Time) is any indication: START: http://i.imgur.com/SpeBM47.jpg and FINISH: http://i.imgur.com/vprPkgc.jpg Aaaaand, that's why GSF is not going to attract and keep new players and therefore ultimately going to die. So if matchmaking was removed because of population/interest in order to keep pops regular, what ideas are there for improvement? Bolster? Not that I'm a fan of bolster per se, but it has been a staple of ground based PvP, both sub-cap and cap level (ugh) since inception, but also in PvE with the introduction of KDY.

I fully expect that matchmaking -- which WAS a thing -- which GSF launched with, was removed in order to keep the pops regular. No doubt. You acknowledge the situation but not that it's a problem and therefore offer no ideas for improvement or solutions. For any game system to have longevity, there must be a steady influx of new players. The way the PvE side has traditionally dealt with it is by having level appropriate content, until the introduction of KDY. With that addition PvE'ers were, in a NON-COMPETITIVE** environment, introduced to a mechanic very familiar to SWTOR's ground-based PvP community. **(I say non-competitive to make the distinction indicating that no one is bothered since the objective is to finish the instance). That mechanic? BOLSTER. If they decline to have matchmaking, that will be the option. Personally, I hate and have always hated bolster in PvP at cap level, but have been forced to suck it up regardless, in all of BW's multitude of iterations. However, the idea that you and your pack of "food eaters" will single-handedly sustain the game system, is short sighted and either BW will address it (with either matchmaking or bolster) or they, and you, will witness it's inevitable decline. Then, your fear of ever slower pops will become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Personally, I don't think GSF is a priority for them, so unfortunately it will probably be the latter which I will truly mourn because having even *remotely* competitive GSF matches is a blast.

The reason the pops are high on Harbinger is that the devs seem to have removed matchmaking (with which it launched -- btw, when did its removal happen?) so now you get this, if today (A Saturday at Prime Time) is any indication: START: http://i.imgur.com/SpeBM47.jpg and FINISH: http://i.imgur.com/vprPkgc.jpg Aaaaand, that's why GSF is not going to attract and keep new players and therefore ultimately going to die.

1. Sack the hook system. (See: Wildstar). Unless you're going to go with a system that allows max creativity and thereby individuality, innovation, expression, you're going to have pretty homogeneous (and ultimately boring) layouts. _______________________________________________ My case, and supporting examples: (Can skip over and still get the gist). SWG was the closest to free-form I've seen, although for years it was a labor of love requiring the chatbox to arrange things... "/move furniture forward 100... /move furniture up 30... /rotate furniture right 45" etc. However, the results were creative and could be stunning. (Later, they made it a little more friendly with a radial menu with a few preset options, but still allowing the full text flexibility). A couple examples: my "fish tank" inspired by other's I'd seen. A the base and top are multiple crafted end tables; the vertical supports, or "edges" of the "tank": weaponsmith crafted polearms; crafted plants and caught fish (there was fishing in the game... yep, when WoW was a glimmer in a dev's mind.) The main point being that items could be "lifted above the floor, placed inside each other for a new effect, even inside walls/ceilings/floors etc. http://i.imgur.com/QqkYkj9.jpg The other was a "radio station" that was in a guild city that actually ran a live, DJ'd internet radio station (though I can't remember the name). It's a mixture of crafted items, drops, and some "trash" or gray items, all of which could be placed in houses. The "DJ booth" is a combination of many items, rather than a single item itself from various disciplines (including a shipwright crafted starship engine in the front). http://i.imgur.com/dxIUvHO.png The closest thing I've seen since, in terms of flexibility, is the system in Wildstar although vastly more user friendly in terms of actually having an interface (google some of their community's more impressive and highly imaginative offerings)... and in some ways, exceed it with even the ability to apply atmospherics however I'm not suggesting to that extent. After all, you still want Tatooine to look like Tatooine, not like an underwater aquarium or jungle (though those could be future strong hold settings. ) ________________________________________ **SWTOR did right by us (I feel) with the flexibility of the interface editor for the UI it finally introduced. Something similar would open up the galaxy for design (like W*'s editor, or SWTOR's own adapted editor allowing FAR more positional choices in all axes and ignoring collision and proximity).

Perfect! Thank you!

Ahh, my apologies. In "crafting decorations" you mean "crafting" as an adjective rather than, as I took it, a verb. I follow you. And yes, some of the harvestable decorations (from conquests, and that are classified under "Utility" in the decorations window, as opposed to "Environmental" which are strictly ornamental plants/trees/etc) are obvious about what they yield, such as the "Rubat Crystal Formation." However, with Bioanalysis, (as is more likely to what the OP refers) often it is less clear or completely different. For example, "Fossilized Tendril" yields "Cosmic Trace Particle" which is a Grade 4 Biochemical compound. I have myself looked for any sites that show that kind of information but have yet to find any. I would find it also extremely useful in terms of purchasing from the GTN. For the cheap ones, I've just experimented, but for the more expensive/rare Bio utility deco, I'd really like to know first.

If you take a large wall space and change the Layout to the medium Column, you can put it on the lower one and slide it down to the floor level. http://i.imgur.com/iFOlvz5.jpg

In case you meant "take" instead of "give" this might help: http://tor-decorating.com/crafting-prefabs-dark-project/

I noticed those also (red and yellow danger signs) as well as a "charging area" sign (with speeder silhouette) and a "Do Not Enter" sign. When I noticed those items were on the walls of CZ-198 I ran around all over and checked every vendor in the place just in case those might be the "vendors," but no dice. :/ I posted on this originally about 1.5-2 weeks ago and hadn't yet seen any reply from a dev. I can't remember if I bug reported it in game also or not. I know all the circular class signs are so far unavailable (supposedly unintentionally), which a BW person did post about I believe, but didn't mention any others that are currently missing in game.

2. Holocall Kiosk

I was wondering about that also. Additionally, there are two more signs (one called "watch" which looks like the danger sign but in yellow, and another for a recharge station w/ speeder silhouette) that are also supposed to be on vendors, but are not -- Universal prefab vendor and decorations merchant vendor for credits, respectively.

I agree on this. Initially, the part I cared most about was that my companions lost their customization. I have some I particularly like such as one that came from the first Rakhgoul event. After reading the posts of others here, I agree that in addition, it would be nice if they were in non-hologram form for other reasons, such as also doubling as displays for rare armor/costumes that one isn't currently wearing on their respective characters. I have a companion wearing some old pvp armor that hasn't been in-game for quite some time, and still looks kinda cool (e.g. :beefy shoulder-launched rockets, on my Tanno Vik, making him the perfect "bouncer" at my... heh-hem... establishment).

I just found one in someone's stronghold and clicked it. There's no choice, it just plays, and sounds exactly like what you hear on any fleet/cantina jukebox.

So as to the answer to the question: can you confirm whether or not Overclock still includes the second charge to Tech Override or not, the answer is also "no"? Thanks for the thoughtful contribution. lol. I'm so glad I took the time to elaborate on my questions, concerns, and observations. :/ *edited to keep it simple since I don't want to blamed for self inflicted hematomas. (I've heard that a bicycle helmet can help with that)

Okay, you don't get satire, so I'll be serious. first let's make sure we're on the same page here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=7242534#edit7242534 Is this the same post you've seen? If there's some other post I've missed, link it please, but I'll run down what I've seen in the one I linked: In 2.7 Tech Override will have a base CD of 60 seconds which can be ultimately spec'd to 45 seconds with points in Overclock. Currently the base is 2m but w/ points reduced to 90 seconds. "In addition" and this is to what I referred in my initial post about the current ability, T.O. "has a 100% chance to yield a second charge making your next two abilities with activation time, activate instantly." Unless this was inadvertently omitted from Mr. Musco's post, there is no longer the double stack of T.O. Was this a mistake of leaving it out of the description, or is the net gain exactly the same except that you lose the front end burst of linking two cast, damaging abilities within the 15 second activation window (or alternately two Medical Probes in a pinch, for example)? Is anyone reading that differently? One ability every 45 seconds vs. 2 abilities every 90 seconds (front end burst/heal/etc)? *If* that double stack has been removed I'd consider it a nerf. Regarding Full Auto having 4 ticks instead of 3: "The total damage of the ability is unchanged, so each new tick of damage will do slightly less than before." This was something I saw requested in the community to have the first tick begin immediately, but again, the net gain is... well, equal damage. From what I gathered this was more of a fix than any enhancement to the ability. I'm all for fixes, but it's a little like getting your car back from the body shop after a fender bender and it looks like it should and all, but it's a little anti-climactic that it doesn't at least come back with some flames or something painted on the side (to justify the time and expense spent in the shop). Okay, I'll tone down the levity... Heh-hemm. Steadied Aim, if fully spec'd, will prevent "100% of pushbacks towards Full Auto, Charged Bolts and Grav Rounds." Currently, this is maxed at 70%. Okay, well unless the definition of "pushback" has been changed to mean "interruption" I can say that pushbacks in its current form, have not been the issue that interrupts have (at least for me), and certainly not to the extent that 30% additional mitigation will even necessarily be noticeable... at all. So net benefit....? Maybe on paper, but in the heat of battle, not so clear. For some reason, I was envisioning (maybe hoping for) something similar to a proc like Harnessed Shadows provides. Now, I will admit, moving Combat Shield down to tier 2 is enticing (although I don't know where I personally would select the pts reaching over from Gunnery). I would also like to know if the CD on the Reactive Shield will remain 2minutes, or shortened to 1min 45 secs (less?) like Sage's Mental Alacrity. I have no reason to think it would get shortened, just curious. "Curtain of Fire now has a 100% chance to occur when using Grav Round or Charged Bolts." I bet this is where you guys started getting excited, huh? Did you catch that "oh by the way, I forgot to tell you..." post from Mr. Musco that ended up in the Mercenary thread but not in the Commando thread? http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=7243082#edit7243082 It's past halfway down the page, so maybe you all did already, but it's the follow up post that says: "the Barrage proc can only occur once every 8 seconds. I forgot to mention that in the original post." Isn't Barrage the Merc's equivalent of Curtain of Fire? In that case, one won't be alternating between Grav & Full Auto as frequently at some seemed to think in initial reaction to the post, which was unclear (so not the fault of the hopeful). "Special Munitions...." and so on. Still excited? Are you there? All there in the head? Just checking. Some respectfully submitted ideas from the community included asking for help with in-your-face pressure. Some restored burst was mentioned. A request for 2/3rds of the Cryo Grenades range to be returned (I know, crazy for a ranged class to ask for a ranged ability back. Seriously, have you never missed it even once?). A root was suggested. It would be nice to find an answer to stealthers. I'm not sure the answer would even come from the commando side, unless it was some slight increase in stealth detection, either innate or something that could be spec'd into. As it is now, even if one has Combat Shield, how does that help you, in for example solo ranked WZs, against 2-3 Shadows/Assassins that can wipe you out in their opening gambit? (This is a common scenario on my server). But if I missed another post that has any of these items in it, I would consider it encouraging news indeed and I'd appreciate the link.

Wry, I'm not trying to make some over-arching case against Shadows. I have a Shadow, myself. The very first class I played in closed beta was an Infiltration Shadow (which only means I have a soft spot in my heart as my first). PvP'd with her too (which was rouuuuuuugh back when 10-50 was all one bracket but only the 50s could have PvP gear. lol.) With the exception of Sentinel, I have all the other classes (w/ some duplication of their mirrors) as well. This whole topic was started just to ask BW a simple question of why one aspect of one ability was nerfed (a stealth class knockdown) for one class but untouched for another. I just want to get a sense of where they're going with this. Ball's in their court Wry. Personally, I think the Shadow class will become a victim of its own success in its current iteration, but that is solely my opinion. It happened to the Sorcs, Ops, Marauders/Sentinels, and Powertech's before them. Devs are constantly tweaking and adjusting balance. It's inevitable if for no other reason than the longer a game is around, level caps are raised, new abilities are introduced, and sometimes they break things which cause players to migrate from one class to another. That might be to leave a broken class for a less broken class, or leave an okay class for a recently buffed and currently viewed OP class (FotM). I've been affected like everyone else and have ridden the ebbs and flows of dev-side balancing by alternately shelving and un-shelving classes for over two years. What's strange is, that's exactly what they want. They encourage players to play every class, on both sides. There are rewards and unlocks and titles for doing so. I'm sure they figure, the more people play and experience their much touted "story-lines" (one of their 5 Pillars), the longer people will play. Maybe.... Me, I like to PvP. As long as that's fun, I'm in. Is being forced to sit and watch your character stun-locked until dead considered "playing?" Is it fun? Not for everyone, I imagine. It all depends on whether or not BW thinks players will continue think so and how many. That's my guess why they nerfed the Shoot First knockdown for Scrappers, but I'd like to hear whatever it is from them.

I appreciate that. While the poster to whom you were responding clearly knows the difference between the skills and trees and was reacting like a petulant child to try to give me a hard time just because he didn't like the point I was making, it did however occur to me that my shorthanding of the topic might confuse ... I don't know ... someone who couldn't care less about this topic in the first place? ... so I added 3 letters for clarity. (BTW, I hope he *was* just giving me a hard time, because if he was *actually* confused about a 3-letter omission, he should never attempt the NYTimes crossword puzzle -- spoiler alert, Wry: *lots* of omitted letters. ROFL)

I don't know how many do or don't but really, the versatility of the base skill is more incidental (though not by any means irrelevant) to the basic question about the knockdown. BW has chosen to remove the KD from Shoot First (Scrapper tree). I ask them why one and not the other, since it's the exact same mechanic as Spinning Kick (just looking at the base skill -- the knockdown itself -- regardless whether tanks or infiltrators have put points into various aspects or not). Until they say, we can only maybe speculate from the perspective of the target which is to say, they are the same... and potentially worse depending on how many have jumped on you from invisibility w/o the ability to anticipate or react. And given the evidence (up to 50% of a solo ranked match participants, in my direct observation, vs. the relative rarity of dps scoundrels), what does that extremely high population representation indicate to you? I'll help here, why when the game launched was the Sorcerer population so high that it was nearly double the next highest population class (Dulfy.net probably still has the launch class metrics graphs archived somewhere) and therefore when you went into 8v8 WZs (that's all there were back then) there would be a sea of Lightning Storms with 6-8 Sorcs on the other team and literally nowhere to stand to fight? Why, pre-(1.2, was it, or a little later?) was the population of Operatives so high that it was guaranteed that you'd have at least 3 Ops and up to as many as 5 or 6 in every WZ, ensuring a win for that team since a lone Op could take a Civil War node against 3 defenders? Populations, both high and low, will tell you a lot about the state and balance of a game and devs pay a lot of attention to it. That's also why the lowest population class at launch (the Gunslinger) received a number of buffs (which necessarily was also given to their "mirror" class) even though there was absolutely nothing wrong with the class (albeit comparatively more complicated to play than the others); it was to attract more people to play them, i.e. boost their population. I don't know if *every* game developer manipulates their class balance using population as *one* indicator, but many do, and BW definitely has. That's why I asked a question directed at them. *note: when I mention "Sorcerers, Operatives, & Gunslingers" in reference to populations, I mean just those classes, separate from their supposed "mirror" classes. (In the beginning, the "mirror classes" were not equal among the factions and generally favored one over the other. This data can be found, many may remember first hand, but I don't want to dig up that old can of worms).

LoL. So wait, were you actually *confused* by the diction or were you just *playing* stupid to try to troll? hahahha.

It was incidental solely to demonstrate versatility and ability to customize from the base skill; Infiltration gets access to increased damage from all sources whereas Kinetic Combat (tank tree) gets to use it out of stealth but it still has the knockdown feature. This is particularly effective if there are multiple specs of Shadows working together since they can be chained to stun-lock the target while dealing damage the entire time. Spinning Kick has more comparative versatility than Shoot First since only the Scrapper tree gets K.O. (the knockdown), among Scoundrels. The knockdown is the core of BWs particular nerf regarding SF. I'm actually surprised I seem to be, based upon many of the reactions, the first person to be asking BW about this.