To spell Republic, it takes two less letters than Sith Empire. Therefor it is more convenient for Republic players to say which faction they play. HATE CRIME! Oh wait, I can just say Sith..

Then I and others would call you a prude. There was nothing gratuitous about how those games portrayed it. Not that I agree this game needs more. A suggestive comment with the characters wandering off and then a black screen is enough. This is a family game and I think it is fine as it is. I agree fade to black is fine for this game. I just can't agree that the tame scenes in ME and DA are something to object to. Btw Captain_Zone, awesome sig. At the risk of going off topic, there has always been double standards with game content compared to movie content. Even though the content portrayed visually and in audio, they are of course EXACTLY the same. There is still a large prejudice against games in society. It is that thinking that has prevented Australia from getting an R18 classification for games when movies do have them.

There was a few dissapointments but on multiple levels the space combat is what was the biggest letdown for me.

Q: Can we look forward to being able to change things like hair style via a barber shop? Looks are actually quite mutable in real life. In the Star Wars Galaxy and in this game, they could potentially be even more so. Being stuck with one tattoo, one hairstyle, one hair colour, all of that should be an rpg anachronism. There are multiple reasons from graphic inconsistencies to possible legacy options to just plain changes of opinion to have a barber shop, and no good reason not to. I can understand if race and gender may not be mutable but surely hair at the very least.

Minor spoiler in this reply if you care. Or you are a forward thinking Sith Warrior. It's called the dark side, not the douche side, though they do cross over far more than they should . My Sith Warrior gave polite platitudes, I smiled as I worked out where was the best part of his back to put my saber through. He is a power and it would be senseless to piss him off for the sake of pride and to exercise a desire for misanthropic discourse with superficial insults. Like HBNinjax, I got a little more provocative over time as my power waxed and his eventually waned.

No, even practically doesn't cover it. That is still ludicrous. You get double combat xp capped at the current level total. You don't gain gear, you don't finish quests, you don't progress. There is no practically at all. If people are being 'picky' it's calling you out for a massive exaggeration. I also resent the idea that levelling to 50 to do end game content is somehow a less valid way to 'play' the game. Personally I enjoy both. I didn't rush, I did a lot of the quests though not all and I am currently enjoying end game content and levelling alts. If I find I am levelling too much I can delibertly aim for grey quests and being a few levels over the content hasn't affected my enjoyment of them at all. I have noticed getting rested xp even when logging out outside of a rest area, to confirm it I just logged in my Smuggler who has been camped in the middle of nowhere for over 2 weeks. He does appear to have gotten some rested xp but it is barely 30% of a level. At the very least the rested xp earned is a fraction of what I would have had. Serious question, is this still too much for most of you? I am actually in favour of the idea of you being able to disable rested xp, I wouldn't ever do it but I respect that limiting your xp to take longer is also a valid form of play. Unlike Lauski's intollerance of faster (not needed) xp*. I just felt the need to address some of the blatant fallacies here. As another example EQ2 had xp disabling options. Again I never used them but I know a lot of people did utilize them. I would be very suprised if this option is not implimented at some point and I would be all for it, it just isn't a priority. *To be fair Lauski you did list "Yeah, I'd be fine with that. Everyone has their reasons for wanting it fast, slow or the way it is." which is at odds with earlier expressed opinions. It makes me think you at least understand the other preference.

Let me guess, you are the vanguard of the Bioware haters assault force? See how condscending that is? Here is a novel idea, try taking any argument at face value, debate the points instead of denigrating the person and their stance, think for yourself instead of dropping the fashionable 'fanboy' bomb and generally just act like an adult. For the record, rather ammusingly I have been called both a fan and a hater so both 'sides' are guilty. Outside of the polarized ad hominems and in the real world most people believe there are good points and bad points about this game. If you exist at either end of this spectrum then chances are, you are either a hater or a fanboy but labelling someone because you see them raise one point in defence or attack of Bioware is ignorant at best. Just to clarify, I do believe having a LARGELY positive or negative opinion of this game is valid, I am talking about more extreme than that. As for the main topic, if you boil a quest down to such fundamentals you can describe the majority of every quest in every game with such a simple description. I actually find ToR very good on having variety in quests. Is it perfect? Hell no, but it is better than any other mmo I have played. I find it hard to see how people can get the reverse impression.

My question: Are there plans to prevent returning crew missions from closing active UI windows or for the UI to support more than two open windows? As it is, it makes we want to punch kittens.

I think some people fool themselves here. They get gear, it gets easier, of course it should, that is how it works for any class. On the other hand it does stand to reason that some classes could be more gear dependant (if only because of itemization) and the balance may change but that is far harder to gauge and I seriously doubt most people are fit to judge that.

I agree. I wasn't posting it as a solution. My point was they already can disable hoods so if a dev did say it was difficult, well he may have been telling the truth but it has been done so extending it to a toggle is not very hard, and in that respect he may have at least wrong. As for them commenting on this topic, this goes for every element of the game. They have to be careful what they say because even if they say "we MIGHT LOOK at this", people hear "We promise you will have this" because they are stupid. If it was up to me I would say suck it to the idiots who need to learn how to hear the actual words said, but then maybe it is a good that I am not a pr person. Sortis, EQ2 did it too but doing one thing with one game engine does not necessarily mean it would be easy to do in another though I do suspect you are right.

The concepts, while perhaps not readily apparant, should be easy enough to understand in hindsight (other games) and widely enough known for anyone in the industry to know what you are talking about. Unfortunately I am not sure that is the case here. I am a little bitter about that actually because I come from a game where the current dev team is infamously anti melee, or anti scout to be exact. Still, maybe because it is such a big problem in 'that' game I am finding the imbalance here in TOR rather tame in comparison. As a side note that is usually harder for a melee dps to do their class it can breed a type of elitism (and I do not exclude myself from that). Sometimes at least, I take pride in the fact that I have to work hard to do the same job as others. It does offer a small measure of comfort if you can find it. My suggestion would be yeh, roll a ranged dps and see if you like it however, don't give up on your Marauder yet. You may be 50, but you probably aint geared yet (and I don't mean that derisively). With better gear some of your problems will be alleviated. Apart from the odd fight the Marauder is very capable in pve. Your dps will come over time with gear and experience, not the second you hit 50. PvP is something else..

On my Inquisitor who is a Twilek a lot of the helms cut the Lekku off. I empathise so I just wince and think ouch.

The answer about the legacy system seemed to imply many (though not all) of the features would only be applicable to new characters. Are we in essence to be punished for already having made characters which will now miss out on options we may have otherwise chosen? From what I understand many of these perks are appearance options (which a species largely is) so wouldn't a barber shop alleviate a lot of these issues? For arguments sake say all perks were already implimented. It seems very short sighted that most of these perks you want for character creation have to wait until you get the legacy level on characters who obviously have to have been already created. In light of that surely a barber shop or some way to utilize these options has to have been considered. This is further compounded by the fact that the character you may want most to have these options is likely your first character too.

Hoods are already disabled for Twileks and for when the helm overwrites the hood appearance so the 'option' already is there. It only needs to be changed to a toggle option, one that disables the hood as if you were displaying the helm, but does not render the helm as if you were wearing nothing in the head slot. The mechanic is there so I can't see how it would be 'difficult', relatively speaking of course.

DarthDemens, The problem is PTS is always going to be weighted towards level capped players looking for something to do. The people at that level would tend to still be working on their live toons. Your premade character suggestion though is intriguing.

As opposed to a shirt that 'magically' makes you stronger.. Wearing clothes for appearance, not much of an abstraction is it. I do admit that getting the benefits of one type while looking like the other is an abstraction but certainly no more so than the stats you get from custom and non custom gear alike. So only orange and purple gear will somehow 'magically' be as flexible as being able to use any item, white, green, blue, orange, purple that you can normally use to simply overwrite the appearance of any stat gear you have. There are 5 item types. You want to explain to me how only being able to use 2 of those 5 item types offers the same flexibility of being able to use all 5 essentially in the same way? How is one tab for stats and one for appearance clunky? It's intuitive and simple. Certainly more so than modifying an item with up to 4 different components, not that that is especially esoteric. There seems to be a disconnect in what you are saying and what I know. Some things are subjective and I can understand if you just plain prefer the current system but how is something that is more complex and less flexible a step foward? Again I emphasize even if you like it as is, I can't see how those points are in contention. If the current system is enough for you, yeh that is subjective. That appearance slots are more flexible and simpler to understand, that is just a fact as far as I can see (not trying to be as condescending as that sounds sorry). For the record, I actually like being able to build up my stats and I hope they keep that. Basically an appearance tab would simply open up ALL items to essentially be custom gear. Whatever item is in your appearance slot would be the base item for looks, and whatever is in your stat slot can be built up with mods or it can be an unmodifiable item that has the stats you want. No compromise on looks or stats whatsoever. The two can be as linked or as seperate as suits your tastes.

Sorry Georg, I just can't agree or embrace it. While orange custom gear does give you some room for customization the majority of the gear in the game is still stats or looks for most people compromising on one or the other. Take most of the pvp/rakata/columbi gear for example, love the stats, despise the looks (for the most). The current system simply does not go far enough. Please consider appearance slots as such a system is simpler and more powerful than the current implimentation. As an added bonus this would also make lower stat gear with different looks less redundant if people could still utilize them. As a side note if appearance slots were introduced I would like to see the different quality gear (premium/prototype/artifact) have different textures with artifact tending to look more vibrant or deeper colours, more expensive looking textures. Again this would improve the utility of gear across the board.

Appearance slots would only kill the current system because they do everything it does and more. It is simpler, it is more powerful, it's just plain better. As a side thought I love the crafting crit system. Instead of just crafting a bunch of identical gear, I always look forward to going through and seeing if I was lucky enough to get a better version. It also adds another level of customization.

I really like that idea, a nice armourmech perk. That would help counteract the usual mmo malady of "I'm a master crafter but the best stuff I can make is scrub rags compared to raid gear." However, you can not invalidate the achievement of raid gear by allowing a crafter to proliferate it at will. If crafting any raid gear required a raid drop mechanically equivalent to getting the original raid item then it has possibility.

It was. Werefox is the only one I see mouthing off here. You raised a valid point though I can't say I agree on the incentive. If you factor in lost income it as anything but inexpensive. However I can not agree more that we need to be able to 'beta buff' our characters. Forcing people to level test characters is very shortsighted and a lot to ask. That is a massive time investment they are asking for just so we can help them. I have no doubt that is extremely limiting testable content. Copied characters would be a step in the right direction but I also agree it would not be enough. That still severely limits what any one tester can accomplish. Combine with a small test population and you will still see vast level ranges inadaquately represented. Pretty much everything short of endgame infact. The population will mature which just further compounds the issue when it is mostly the people who have reached endgame that will be looking at test. Tbh, I naturally assumed there was either a copy or beta buff feature because something like that is so incredibly fundamental. We all know how important testing is but they are simply not giving us the tools we need to help them.

Yeh and I am also pretty sure with the advanced tech they could dye their hair and cut it as well.. There are multiple reasons to have it and I have seen nothing but arbitrary excuses why it shouldn't (apart from that it shouldn't be top priority which I do agree with). I can only suggest people who want it post their support in each and every thread on the topic like I am doing right now.

I did see a lot of that too which suprised me. I went in with the intention of being as helpful as possible with a secondary motivation of wanting a sneak peak and getting some experience on my character on a toon who didn't have to live with the consequences of messing up. It just never occured to me that I 'deserved' the chance.

I have seen them come up early more than I have seen them have to extend dt. It's a new game, lots of issues, the maintenance has yet to be refined. It will get better, have no doubt.

Really? I have generally been positive and supportive of this game but I couldn't score it that high. Still, I can't wait to see what it is like given another year or two of development. It has potential, but a lot has to change. As for the main topic, I love how people, usually with not a shred of industry experience (and even if they do, they have no first hand experience with this project), think they can make the judgements seen here. Maybe there has been waste, maybe there has been embezzelment but a project of this size has a mountain of costs that are not being reported here. I heard they outsourced a lot of the art which could explain how some of the art is really good and some of it is atrocious. I wonder if they actually saved money doing that.

For the record I posted a thead not long ago defending peoples right to complain, asking people not to ouright dismiss complaints as invalid, except to take them on a case by case basis (as there are both valid and invalid complains in abundanace here). I'll thank you not to tell me what I do and do not understand. Whether it is your concern or not it doesn't matter. It IS their concern for good reason. Are you one of those people who go to a foreign country and demand they speak your language? I didn't insult you but that didn't stop your petulant snide insulting reply to me. Wait a minute.. Does that count??