My server had really long Qs tonight as well.

Don't worry, they'll implement Xserver BGs and you'll be able to PvP with all those players who have been able to farm valor and commendations non stop since release, maybe even some Ilum exploiters, too! That's going to be fun! Of course, the longer it takes to implement, the farther ahead they get! Great PvP system.

I'll try to be concise. And you don't need to know the MMO's I've played. And yes, I think SWTOR is a game that deserves to be in the 5/10 to 7/10 range. I would have abandoned the two faction system. This may not have been an option for BioWare. If I was Lead Designer, I would have fought tooth and nail against it. Eight different stories spread out between two different factions spread it out far too thin, and the MMORPG elements between just aren't interesting enough. One strong story could have had more different branches to go down, the ability to acquire different companions based off of your playstyle, less need to slow down the player with SWTOR's not so innovative take on MMORPG questing, more meaningful and polished BioWare romances (if I decided to include them at all, which I probably would since there would be room for them) and probably would have encouraged more re-playability rather than less. While each class might have their own segue into the main story, eventually everyone would start at Point A and branch off from there. This would have allowed areas in the story where players would have had to have gathered together to win a war or beat a big boss, blending together single player game elements with massively multiplayer ones. I would have abandoned the mirrored classes. I would have released with Knight, Consular, Trooper, Bounty Hunter, Agent, Scoundrel, Doctor, and Engineer. Having mirrored classes and tying them into stories just makes it too difficult to add interesting new classes and stories down the road. In an expansion, I could easily add new classes like Creature Handler, Teras Kasi, Assassin or any kind of quasi-Force sensitive I could think of. Each new class would require just a new starting area, then rejoin the main story, allowing for a focus in expansions on expanding the story on the top end. Not mirroring the classes allows more interesting class mechanics. Bounty hunters could have had their powers linked to gear slots in their power armor, allowing for flexibility and customization. Troopers could have evoked more of a FPS style of play with a player controlled resource system and strong personal armaments skills. I won't go into what my personal ideas for each class operation should have been, though, suffice to say I think the current crop of classes feel too homogenized and have boring mechanics. I would have made dark side/light side an exclusive feature for Force sensitive characters. A bounty hunter isn't going to go Palpatine on us because he got paid to toss a grenade into a school. Whether you were dark side or light side would have effected what Force powers you could use effectively. This would have functioned more like how DS/LS was implemented in the original KOTOR. A dark side Consular would play more like an Inquisitor, a light side consular would have heals, buffs, some telekinesis, but would rely on a revamped lightsaber combat system for personal defense. PvP servers would have been FFA with a Red/Blue/Grey alignment system that would have had serious consequences on DS/LS for Force sensitives. End game PvP would require players to choose between one of three factions to support; linked it to resource control; and control of these resources would accumulate and result in your faction's capitol in acquiring new resources and buildings. I would not have allowed "flagging" on PvE servers except in designated PvP End Game areas (where it would be mandatory). If you want PvP with your leveling experience, play on a PvP server. That's what warzones are otherwise for. End of discussion. These factions, I don't think I would choose Republic, Empire or Hutt Cartel like it would seem to be the most obvious. I would keep the fate of the Republic and the Empire linked to the main SWTOR story. I think I would have had a branch of the Hutt Cartel, perhaps a secretive Jedi order and I guess something that would end up feeling like the Empire but wasn't quite it. In addition, I would have added a skill system to the game that would allowed players to develop their character further, that would work hand in hand with each class' unique characteristics. Some classes would have unique skills, like the Force sensitive classes. Your class would determine how expensive a certain skill was to raise. The skills could be used to impact the story, such as slicing or persuasion. Trade skills and crafting skills would have relevance instead of being a freebee. In terms of the game world, I would have made the Republic feel less like the Rebel Alliance and I would have made the Empire feel less like... well, Palpatine's Empire. This game just doesn't feel like The Old Republic. Space combat? Well, what needs to happen there is pretty obvious. Character creation? I would have tried as hard as possible to add more iconic Star Wars races for release, even if I had to preface the character creation menu with a warning that said "There are no wookiee romance options in the game. We do not plan on adding them either!". The graphics... I dunno, I actually like the graphics. Just need the hi-rez character models. PvE end game? The flashpoints and the operations are a good idea. There's a few ideas here that I have, but it would probably require their own posts. There's a lot of improvements BioWare could make in iterms of implementation, to be sure. Thanks for reading.

I'd be much more encouraged about the prospects of this game if it sounded like the developers were playing the same game I was. Really, I wish the game was designed in such a way that I didn't need a companion character to enjoy it. It was nice once, but it gets tiresome on my alts. The stories were spread too thin, and only exacerbated the need for a linear playing experience. The illusion of choice requires too much willingness from the players to accept that their decisions are effecting the outcome.

Let's compare WoW of 2012 with SWTOR of 2012 instead, because that's the only relevant discussion to the consumers of 2012.

I dispute the fact that any aspect of Warhammer Online worked well out of principle alone.

I would have loved to have been in the discussion room when the most experienced PvP team ever assembled decided to get together with no doubt one of the most experienced PvE teams ever assembled to discuss how the various classes were going to work. I would have had a bunch of good laughs, I'm sure. Hey, Guild Wars 2 removed the holy trinity... SWTOR combined them all into one class. Good job, BioWare!

Getting rid of expertise isn't the solution because people with 500 expertise are dying in seconds from one or two opponents.

And yes, PvP damage output right now is really too high. Expertise should have a -% chance to be critically hit and a -%critical hit damage aspect to it.

This post pretty much demonstrates why GW2 and it's decision to remove the holy trinity is going to result in the best PvP experience in an MMORPG to date.

That's not a good idea unless you knock off time from some of the AoE CC's already in game.

I held one of the side turrets as my scoundrel just by respawning and throwing my shrapnel bomb each time.

Without guard, the tanks could have been the heavy CC class, with the stuns and the knockbacks, and heals wouldn't have needed to have been nerfed by 30% for PvP. Tanks could still have utilized their "taunt" abilities to reduce incoming damage, which would have been preferable since it requires more skill and an actual choice on part of the tank, instead of "I premade with this healer and now I'm going to guard them and these scrubs with no expertise gear aren't going to be able to touch either of us!". Instead they gave heavy CC to just about every class, scale burst damage higher than heals per second, and force healers into full expertise gear.

A few imps leave, a few imps reroll republic and suddenly you get balanced sides and an actual two faction game that can actually survive, maybe even thrive, in the post WoW era. If the status quo continues like this up to the point where GW2 gets released, you risk having the game collapse, at least if the long term plans for SWTOR include any kind of two faction PvP plans that require mutual cooperation.

Right after they release the next same faction warzone they are going to call the game SW:TOE.

I'll third this.

Well, I mean, because Luke, Obi-Wan and Mace Windu and all the other jedis weren't like warriors not in heavy armor. That was actually what made the Jedi cool... I'm an old man in a beat up brown robe, and when I get mad, I pull out a blue glow stick, and all the blasters in the world can't save you then.

Yeah I wish my sage had 5k crits. I mean, I 5k crit on my heals with the 2.5 cast time... sometimes. But not when I go DPS.

I think the Sentinals/Marauders scale too well with end game gear.

I really don't know how many more people are going to be subscribing to this game. World of Warcraft was such a phenomenal success that it had incredible market penetration. People who want to play SWTOR MMORPG aren't going to wait around- right now, it's a retention issue facing BioWare, not a "find an untapped portion of the market" issue. And yeah, the end game does suck. Karagga's Palace and Eternity Vault was so full of "Why should I even care?" moments. I mean, if my character didn't just save the galaxy on three separate occasions on his way to 50 maybe the whole "Have to save the galaxy from yet another terrible threat!" angle would have worked. I mean, I did like parts of it, don't get me wrong... I just don't see myself engaged in it like I was when I was raiding in WoW. It almost feels like once was good enough. Maybe because it was just too easy? Felt kind of pointless? Anyways, yeah, the end game for SWTOR is really bad.

If the point of the power was to apply the debuff it wouldn't need to hit so hard. It would be a move that you would work into your rotation and reapply as necessary to keep the stacks from falling off. Right now, it hits so hard that it's the go to move, and all the other attacks are merely there for the rare few mercenaries that have the "ability" to hit a different button during the four seconds if anybody... God forbid... interrupts their move. Here's an oldie but a goody. Someone needs to do the SWTOR mercenary version and have a little brown turd dump out their back end every time they do that ridiculous squat.

That's actually a pretty good point, especially since... oddly enough... my PvE gear seems to have more Endurance on it. That being said, some people out there just won't PvE to save their lives.

How much expertise do you have? And oddly enough, I've heard guardians on this forum complain about all the defensive cooldowns that sentinels get.

I think most MMO players would prefer six months of competitive PvP play as opposed to 1 month of getting your butt whooped every game. I've played League of Legends for over a year now... I know they are different games, but if you enjoy the experience and feel like you have a chance every game, then it's something you can keep coming back to and enjoying. I'm not saying that every game of LoL is one that I am happy or have fun with, but every LoL match at least starts with the potential to be fun. SWTOR PvP can't even do that, because of RNG gear, faction imbalances, and a host of other issues. It's like, they should have had a monthly PvP quest and that's it, and every month that you complete it, you get to select a piece of gear. Beyond that, you do PvP because you enjoy it, want to purchase the implants, stims, medpacks or adrenals that would be made available on the side to assist with your game or you want to get better or you just go do something else that you find more fun, but at least everybody would be able to gear up at around the same pace. The no lifers of course would hate this because they have nothing better to do than grind warzones every day, and taking away the gear advantage and forcing them to play against casual players on even footing is their kryptonite. And of course, they'll be the first group to rush off to Guild Wars II when that gets released, after already souring the taste of PvP for SWTOR's best chance at a long term subscriber base.

See, if that's how they wanted the game to play, they didn't really need to bother using the Star Wars license.