Certain abilities may also help the underpowered classes. Of course it depends on the class and the ability in question, you have to take it on a case by case basis but combined with them unlikely to be a classes most powerful and signature abilities, balance is not likely to change much. The potential is there though as you have pointed out, just as I said, needs to be taken on a case by case basis.

I had to go back to Sky_walkerPL's comment cause it is so special and enlightened. I felt the need to emphasize Samy_Merchi's point. What if you have brown hair and want to play a blonde character? Green eyes and hazel? Cacausian or Asian? You a smuggler in real life? Pretty good bet most players are neither Jedi or Sith. All of those things, including gender, are completely irrelevant superficial details and have no need whatsoever to match up with the person behind the keyboard. It is really sad how many people still today still have an issue with something as stupidly arbitrary. It isn't even enough that people should be 'ok' with it. It shouldn't even be as issue or a second thought.

Then don't have your characters pursue a bi/homosexual relationship, problem solved. You don't have to even turn anything off and those who do want it do not effect your game at all. People also need to understand SGRA's are a politically contentious issue. They shouldn't be, it completely isn't in my opinion but unfortunately with this being a high profile game, and a family one (again that shouldn't be an issue) at that and Bioware are also beholden to EA and Lucasfilm. Implimenting them, even commenting on them isn't as easy as some people seem to think. Also all the people oppossed to crit crafted orange, considering the mods of raid and pvp gear will all be removable and superior to others, the main thing crit crafted orange gear will give everyone is choice in appearance. Those superior mods will still give you better gear than other players if installed in crit orange. However, if you want to leave the stuff in the raid gear then you will miss the augment slot which is why I am advocating all raid armour come with augment slots.

So your solution would be to ban the Ferrari F1 car, let them take a Maranello, and force the Merc to drive an SLK so the R8 driver can compete. Not much of an F1 race is it. What they need to do is make entry level gear quick and easier to get ahold of so you can get more and more competitive and I believe that is what they are doing. Word of advice btw, spend less time insulting other people's intelligence and examine your own reasoning a little more.

I believe there was some mention of shared personal cargo holds though with my memory, I may be mistaken. I also seem to remember it was NOT going to appear until after 1.2 and the guild cargo holds. QFT

In addition to the point the OP raised I would argue that being 'fundamentally different' could be used as reasoning FOR a an advanced class respec. People could want a change to something 'fundamentally different' for a number of reasons.

I believe they intend to let you change appearance but that is not schedualed for 1.2. I have already rolled my alts, I would have gotten bored between then and now. However, if you have waited this long so far it probably is an idea to wait until 1.2.

Conducted a poll did you? So in a game where factions are competitive they should give bonuses to one side? As a side note, anyone who reguarly plays against their own faction, have you ever had an issue with trash talk?

I'd like to know that too. I am all for it, undoubtly at least one of my characters would utilize that but I am not sure the question is worth stubbornly asking again and again and being petulant when it isn't answered again and again. The raid gear still offers a different appearance, not something for everyone but if the raid gear has some kind of inherent bonus that can not be transfered than it could compare to crit crafted orange. Maybe raid gear could even have augment slots themselves, I think that would be one of the most ideal ways to handle it. Even if it didn't it doesn't make the item without it's mod worthless simply because it isn't the best.

I don't raid atm but I am dieing to get into it (I have raided for years in other games). I also like crafting, enjoy being able to make stuff. With that in mind I hope I am something akin to objective when I say; The challenge of raiding should net you better rewards. If crafting that item involved similar difficulty (probably also need some form of rare drop or bop to limit it's proliferation) then yes, I could see it being comparable. As a side note, difficulty does not have to scale linearly with number of people. There is no reason a heroic can not be as hard for 4 people as an op is for 8 or more. The partial exception to this is that it is usually harder to coordinate more people, but not enough that it makes a fallacy of the above. Edit: I just though of something, the fact that you would need those mods from the raid gear to put in that crit crafted orange does mean in the end, raiders will still have the best gear.

No they decided to try to inconvenience as few people as possible and as the majority of the players are in the US so that is why they get priority. They are not out to screw you, they are not discriminating it is purely about numbers. All the theories of hate and discrimination are akin to conspiracy theories. It would be political and financial suicide for a company to practice such morality. Unfortunately currently all servers have to be done at the same time which means even on individual servers which may have a majority in another timezone (the Euro servers), they still have to take a back seat to game wide majority in the US timezones. So please get off your high horse. It is unfortunate but unavoidable. Further more frivolous use of the hate crime catch phrase is disgusting as it damages true cases of disrcimination. And if you think I am biased I am East Coast Australia and it could not be worse timing for me. Btw it is a little vindicating that Bioware explained how hard it is to do the servers seperate when I brought that point up a month ago and my intelligence insulted because of my detractor's inability to comprehend that 'work schedule' does not inherently mean 9 - 5. On an unreleated topic, why do so many people believe that forum posters make up a fundamentally inacurate representation of interests? Is it purely because it makes a convenient counter to someone's stance? Not there aren't people who do just claim (from the wrong end) to be speaking for the majority.

Ironically you can do that, you can meet up and have a drink in a cantina. But you are not allowed to mail which does not even have a basis in real life. In the World Wars for example mail still got through to the other side, though it was usually diverted through a neutral entitity and it was all opened and read. So the 'they are enemies' excuse is just that, and a flimsy one as well. In the end, even if it was against the background (which it isn't), some things in this game should concede to background, others should concede to out of character concerns. This is one area where it hampers gameplay more than it promotes immersion and as such it should move aside for the player's convenience. Seriously uneeded inconveniences like this give me the impression they resent us playing their game and wish to make it inconvenient to do our in game business.

The point is appearance slots override appearance. As you are asking for is an animation or appearance change, this is the same concept. Assuming they had appearance slots it would give you the desired animation change without making an entirely seperate mechanic. You would simply place your chosen style of saber in your weapon appearance and that would determine your fight animations. Simple and intuitive.

The cost does get very prohibitive. The intention is to keep a market for the modification makers by making them semi consumable. Allistair, yeh that was my idea too. Mod stations decrease the cost. Varnie, yup this system to be blunt is an attrocious replacement for appearance tabs.

I don't need to repair every time I die. It doesn't add challange, it adds frustration and a blatant time sink. On HM BT we had three group members die on the last fight and due to a rez bug they had to revive and consequently were not allowed back in to loot. That alone is reason enough to change it. If it is working as intended than the intention is off the mark and short sighted, to put it mildly.

Why does it have to be one or the other? Why can't it be inbetween? OP, give them time, if the demand is there they will almost certainly address it. These are servers physically based over here so it is a significant venture to set this all up and I don't blame them one bit for taking it one step at a time. Too many servers and it is a large waste of money. It would be far wiser for them to start small and build up according to demand.

Sorcerors can counter everything I can do, and do it all better. Even playing mostly against Pubs, I still think I have died more to sorcerors in Huttball than any other class.

I agree. If we had appearance slots for everything including weapons this would almost take care of itself. Yet another reason why the custom system is inferior to appearance slots when it comes to looks. Edit: it would probably require a few specific ability animation changes as class abilities will usually be based around a certain saber style.

Yeh it makes it frustrating when armour is on one side and you want to know if its appearance is acceptable on your other faction alts. Also arbitrarily cuts the number of appearances any one character can have massively. I'd love for my Consular to dress in black but apparantly it is passe for a Jedi to wear black.. Apart from in Luke Skywalker's day. I would love to see them just disable the alternate appearances. for all existing gear we get a one time option to pick either Empire appearance or Pub for any item and it would turn that item into the appropriate version. Near as I can tell it is because they wanted a signature look but imo players choice on what they look like should have far, far greater priority. It's even a little offensive that that choice was removed.

Armourmechs and synthweavers would be perfect for these perks, being able to make colouring/texture consumables. They could do with some more perks (as could a lot of crafters).

I assumed you would get a choice, that is how fundamentally obtuse the current restrictions are. Shouldn't have been surprised though Bioware are pretty infamous for being draconian with prereqs. Thing is unless it is purely an animation switch it could change balance.

You don't have to invest twice as much. There are 14 slots and most classes have to put something in the offhand slot anyway so the only time you will need to invest any more time is the mods for a custom off hand saber. Big deal. Keep in mind you also get the slot to further customize your stats. I'll take that any day but then, maybe I am an abberation but I consider gearing out a kind of mini game in of itself. The 2.5 mil crystals are not a baseline and you can easily get by on a 30 - 100k crystal. My main is a marauder btw.

I want to make a side note here, something to help people with perspective. Most of the opposition I see against your vision of space combat simply assumes people like you and I are arguing for a hard core sim. There is no need to go from one extreme to the other. While I would like a xwing/tie style sim (which wasn't even really hard core) there is still plenty of room for freedom in flight control and in design, inbetween the extremes of the arcade theme park ride it is now and a hard core sim. I think if people don't polarize the issue this discussion will be much more pleasant for both sides. You do know you can use WASD to move your ship to a degree which allows a small (but very effective) ability to fire independant of your ships direction?

The curve for social points is spastic. I would support anything that lessens that curve, to an extent of course. It shouldn't be trivialized which i feel I need to emphasize less a giant strawman come shambling out to oppose me.

I have to ask, does me mailing my Pub alts affect anyone elses immersion? If anything these artitcial restraints force you to think in 'gamist' terms either because of the unrealism or in an effort circumvent them and that detracts from my immersion. Cormey had it right up above me. Considering that huttball is often played against same faction and I have yet to get a whisper or mail from someone abusing the ability to communicate, I think the whole misanthropic smack talk excuse is a little thin.