I disagree that it is useful as a gameplay requirement to have high level armor look very exclusive (except for your enemies, perhaps). I would always choose the aesthetics look in the scenario you present here, for roleplay reasons... and I would argue that making that choice is also a better gameplay mechanic. Strategically, you don't want to give away your advantages by giving the enemy information about your capabilities. I would far rather look like I'm dressed in plain, unassuming robes for PvP than to give away that I'm walking around with the "uber chestpiece of flashy pwnage" which increases my crit by 25%. It's also far more consistent lore-wise for Force users. If I can create some doubt about my capabilities, that gives me some protection (because a reasonable opponent will approach more cautiously), and it allows me to keep an ace-up-the-sleeve, so to speak. I'd actually like to hide levels entirely to opposing faction... because you generally can't make the assessment of how good someone is by glancing at them from a distance - you have to watch them for a bit. I think it would make PvP far more interesting if you couldn't see someone's effective rank (level or gear) if they decide to disguise it.

Just going to point out that Knyght's evidence on this issue has been vindicated by the devs. See the PTS patch notes for 1.1.4 here, under Alderaan warzone: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=307048 There was a bug that caused the East turret to fire twice when captured by the Imperials under some circumstances.

Go read my post one page back... you are lying. I have quotes from the actual company reps during the conference call, with source links. Financial statements are through the end of 2011. Subscription numbers and sell through units are from the date of the conference call, and they make that very clear in multiple statements. 1.7M current subscribers as of Feb. 1st, counting only people on paid plans and in their initial 30 day trial that haven't "opted out" by cancelling. They also talk about their Q4 spending for the next 2 months... are you going to claim that those figures are only through the end of 2011 too?

Couldn't even read 3 pages into this thread, eh? Or are you just hoping that other people didn't? (I'm getting tired of reposting this....) If you attended the conference call, or read any of the many reports or transcripts from the call, you know that your estimates are a bald-faced lie. The financials are as of EA's Q3. The numbers reported about sales and subscriptions were current as of the day of the report (Feb 1, or as near to that date as they could gather numbers) and the projected budgets were about Q4 spending (since Dec. 31, including the last 30 days and the next 60). All of those things are routinely covered as part of informing investors about a publicly traded company's earnings. In case you are actually ignorant, rather than maliciously lying in hopes that people don't check on your facts, here are some of the key points from the subscription numbers: From the Q&A: Q: When we will start to see the effect of the 1.7 million subscribers? What’s the impact of on-going R&D for providing the new content? A: It's still very early. It is hard to extrapolate where those 1.7 million subscribers lead or mean, but it’s a great start. We have huge plans. Lots of end-game content and even expansion packs. It will involve R&D post launch and we took care of some of it pre-launch. It’s a little early to identify what those all will specifically be and what our goals will be. as mentioned, we will be increasing marketing support. Q: Are these 1.7 subscribers paying? A: Active subscribers means anyone paying or in their trial period. Most of those 1.7m are paying at this point. ****** Even if you try to ignore the "to date", "since December", and "currently" terms, it's pretty clear that they are talking about subscriptions numbers from the day of the call, or from a few days prior, if "most of the 1.7m are paying at this point." None of them would be paying as of Dec. 31st, as everyone would still be in their trial period. There are other financial articles that quote John Riccitiello as saying that the numbers were 1.7M subscribers and growing (though I haven't been able to find the original interview or comment where he said that, so I'll say that's unverified for now). If you're really that desperate to try to prove that the game is going to fail - I'd suggest following the rest of your peers and starting to argue that the numbers are about to tank for any of XYZ reasons. Insisting that the numbers are old, rather than "current" or "to date" at the point of the conference call is only demonstrating ignorance, obstinacy, or an inability to read and comprehend English properly. Quotes are from the EA prepared comments, available here: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/1670728299x0x539144/d895626f-e715-4f00-bd50-31bf095027fd/Q3_Script_-_20_2112_1251pm.pdf Q&A from the conference call are transcribed by Darth Hater (who attended the session live, to transcribe it for us). They did all the work to pull together the relevant points... I'm just quoting them to stop the rampant nonsense claims by desperate naysayers. Darth Hater's summary (with more details) is available here: http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19915-electronic-arts-q3-fy12-earnings-call There's also a transcription of the Q&A available here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/333912-electronic-arts-ceo-discusses-q3-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=qanda

You need to do some math, and consider average login times. The loads that you're seeing on the servers are perfectly consistent with a 1.7M active subscriber base. Working with averages here (we know there will be fluctuations higher and lower for peak and off-peak hours)... We know from the SEC filing a couple of days ago that there are an average of 1M accounts logging in daily, for a period of approximately 4 hours. So... a bit over half the current subscribers log in each day, for 1/6th of the day. A random sampling over a long enough period of time should therefore show an average of 166,667 players online at any given time. Now take and divide that online user count by the number of servers. What's your population number across both factions? If it's 215 servers, then your average online server population is 775 (going up for peak hours, and dropping for off-peak). Now divide that number of players by 19 zones. 40 players per zone, average. If it doubles during peak hours, that's 80 players per zone, average. If you want to argue that they should merge servers to bring up that average online population number, fine... but you're only indicating that you can't do math by claiming that 1.7M, with 1M unique account logins daily for 4 hours, isn't possible with current server populations. Source for population numbers: Quote is from the EA prepared comments, available here: http://files.shareholder.com/downloa...112_1251pm.pdf There's also a transcription of the Q&A available here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3339...ipt?part=qanda

Oh for... you people just don't give up, do you? If you attended the conference call, or read any of the reports or transcripts from the call, you know that is a bald-faced lie. The financials are as of EA's Q3. The numbers reported about sales and subscriptions were current as of the day of the report (Feb 1, or as near to that date as they could gather numbers) and the projected budgets were about Q4 spending (since Dec. 31, including the last 30 days and the next 60). All of those things are routinely covered as part of informing investors about a publicly traded company's earnings. In case you are actually ignorant, rather than maliciously lying in hopes that people don't check on your facts, here are some of the key points from "those numbers": From the Q&A: Q: When we will start to see the effect of the 1.7 million subscribers? What’s the impact of on-going R&D for providing the new content? A: It's still very early. It is hard to extrapolate where those 1.7 million subscribers lead or mean, but it’s a great start. We have huge plans. Lots of end-game content and even expansion packs. It will involve R&D post launch and we took care of some of it pre-launch. It’s a little early to identify what those all will specifically be and what our goals will be. as mentioned, we will be increasing marketing support. Q: Are these 1.7 subscribers paying? A: Active subscribers means anyone paying or in their trial period. Most of those 1.7m are paying at this point. ****** Even if you try to ignore the "to date", "since December", and "currently" terms, it's pretty clear that they are talking about subscriptions numbers from the day of the call, or from a few days prior, if "most of the 1.7m are paying at this point." None of them would be paying as of Dec. 31st, as everyone would still be in their trial period. There are other financial articles that quote John Riccitiello as saying that the numbers were 1.7M subscribers and growing (though I haven't been able to find the original interview or comment where he said that, so I'll say that's unverified for now). If you're really that desperate to try to prove that the game is going to fail - I'd suggest following the rest of your peers and starting to argue that the numbers are about to tank for any of XYZ reasons. Insisting that the numbers are old, rather than "current" or "to date" at the point of the conference call is only demonstrating ignorance, obstinacy, or an inability to read and comprehend English properly. Quotes are from the EA prepared comments, available here: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/1670728299x0x539144/d895626f-e715-4f00-bd50-31bf095027fd/Q3_Script_-_20_2112_1251pm.pdf Q&A from the conference call are transcribed by Darth Hater (who attended the session live, to transcribe it for us). They did all the work to pull together the relevant points... I'm just quoting them to stop the rampant nonsense claims by desperate naysayers. Darth Hater's summary (with more details) is available here: http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19915-electronic-arts-q3-fy12-earnings-call There's also a transcription of the Q&A available here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/333912-electronic-arts-ceo-discusses-q3-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=qanda

*shakes head* Might as well start addressing the blatant lies early in this version of the thread... Reposting this info for some people who apparently can't read, and don't know how to use original sources (or have an agenda). Actual quotes that are relevant here... the data is actually quite clear: From the Q&A: Q: When we will start to see the effect of the 1.7 million subscribers? What’s the impact of on-going R&D for providing the new content? A: It's still very early. It is hard to extrapolate where those 1.7 million subscribers lead or mean, but it’s a great start. We have huge plans. Lots of end-game content and even expansion packs. It will involve R&D post launch and we took care of some of it pre-launch. It’s a little early to identify what those all will specifically be and what our goals will be. as mentioned, we will be increasing marketing support. Q: Are these 1.7 subscribers paying? A: Active subscribers means anyone paying or in their trial period. Most of those 1.7m are paying at this point. ****** It's pretty clear that they are talking about subscriptions numbers from the day of the call, or from a few days prior, if "most of the 1.7m are paying at this point." Quotes are from the EA prepared comments, available here: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/1670728299x0x539144/d895626f-e715-4f00-bd50-31bf095027fd/Q3_Script_-_20_2112_1251pm.pdf Q&A from the conference call are transcribed by Darth Hater (who attended the session live, to transcribe it for us). They did all the work to pull together the relevant points... I'm just quoting them to stop the rampant nonsense claims by desperate naysayers. Darth Hater's summary (with more details) is available here: http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19915-electronic-arts-q3-fy12-earnings-call There's also a transcription of the Q&A available here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/333912-electronic-arts-ceo-discusses-q3-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=qanda

*sigh* Reposting this for some people who apparently can't read, and don't know how to use original sources (or have an agenda)... Actual quotes that are relevant here... the data is actually quite clear: From the Q&A: Q: When we will start to see the effect of the 1.7 million subscribers? What’s the impact of on-going R&D for providing the new content? A: It's still very early. It is hard to extrapolate where those 1.7 million subscribers lead or mean, but it’s a great start. We have huge plans. Lots of end-game content and even expansion packs. It will involve R&D post launch and we took care of some of it pre-launch. It’s a little early to identify what those all will specifically be and what our goals will be. as mentioned, we will be increasing marketing support. Q: Are these 1.7 subscribers paying? A: Active subscribers means anyone paying or in their trial period. Most of those 1.7m are paying at this point. ****** It's pretty clear that they are talking about subscriptions numbers from the day of the call, or from a few days prior, if "most of the 1.7m are paying at this point." Quotes are from the EA prepared comments, available here: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/1670728299x0x539144/d895626f-e715-4f00-bd50-31bf095027fd/Q3_Script_-_20_2112_1251pm.pdf Q&A from the conference call are transcribed by Darth Hater (who attended the session live, to transcribe it for us). They did all the work to pull together the relevant points... I'm just quoting them to stop the rampant nonsense claims by desperate naysayers. Darth Hater's summary (with more details) is available here: http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19915-electronic-arts-q3-fy12-earnings-call There's also a transcription of the Q&A available here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/333912-electronic-arts-ceo-discusses-q3-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=qanda

My guess would be that it's simply that they changed the budget (i.e - went over their previous budget estimate), between last February when that quote was reported, and this last earnings call. It's not that they lied then... but the truth changed between those two points.

No... he said explicitly that 2M units were sold to date, and he also said explicitly that there were currently 1.7M active subscriptions. The difference between the 2M and 1.7M was described as: That means that more than 1.7M have activated accounts (because some of those have opted out after activating their accounts), but less than 2M have activated accounts because some sold units haven't started playing the game yet. Active subscriptions for the 1.7M figure were defined as: There are two groups not in "active subscribers": 1) purchasers that "opted out" and are no longer in their trial period, nor do they have an active subscription; 2) purchasers that haven't activated their retail sale yet. Those are all considered "the rest" of the sales between 2M and the 1.7M active subscribers. More complete quotes available in my earlier post on this page: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=2421449#post2421449

Actual quotes that are relevant here... the data is actually quite clear: From the Q&A: Q: When we will start to see the effect of the 1.7 million subscribers? What’s the impact of on-going R&D for providing the new content? A: It's still very early. It is hard to extrapolate where those 1.7 million subscribers lead or mean, but it’s a great start. We have huge plans. Lots of end-game content and even expansion packs. It will involve R&D post launch and we took care of some of it pre-launch. It’s a little early to identify what those all will specifically be and what our goals will be. as mentioned, we will be increasing marketing support. Q: Are these 1.7 subscribers paying? A: Active subscribers means anyone paying or in their trial period. Most of those 1.7m are paying at this point. ****** It's pretty clear that they are talking about numbers today, or from a few days ago, if most of the 1.7m are "paying at this point." Quotes are from the EA prepared comments, available here: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/1670728299x0x539144/d895626f-e715-4f00-bd50-31bf095027fd/Q3_Script_-_20_2112_1251pm.pdf Q&A from the conference call are transcribed by Darth Hater. They did all the work to pull together the relevant points... I'm just quoting them to stop the rampant nonsense claims by desperate naysayers. Darth Hater's summary (with more details) is available here: http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19915-electronic-arts-q3-fy12-earnings-call

There are a few threads about this already, but I'll agree with the sentiment. Put out a security app for WP7 please.

+1 here also. Please create a WP7 authenticator for TOR.

+1 here. Please create a WP7 authenticator.

Georg, I think this sort of exploration content is one of the best parts of any MMO, especially when you get a bunch of people in the community working together to solve some mystery hidden in the world. I'd vote for adding a ton of content like this. Those of us that like the Consular/Inquisitor storyline and lore will be all over that kind of content. I'd love to see that sort of exploration progression made into a complete endgame system if there's an interesting way to build complex scenarios (similar to what Earth and Beyond had way back in the day, for those that remember it). --VelJharig