I'd have to agree with may previous posters on my decision to roll Empire as well. Sith Lore is all about power, challenge, struggle, and Supremacy. The very inherent natures of all living things. Jedi are all about suppression, denial, dispassionate detachment, and dogma. As is statetd by the Sith Inquisitor while building a relationship with their companion Azshara: "There are more ways to be Sith than there are to be Jedi." When playing my Jedi, I feel like Im stuck in a catholic school with some berating, babbling, religious idiot threatening me with hell-fire and brimstone, simply for feeling, and in fact, being what I actually am: A thinking, feeling, creature. To quote Lucifer from Devils Advocate: "Its the goof of all time. Look, but dont touch. Touch, but dont taste. Taste, but dont swallow." When Playing my Sith, there is a definite Darwinian air to everything you do, and a reinforced sense of survival. The whole Sith society is bursting with loads of competition and dominance, with the "You aint nothin but a space slug until you PROVE yourself otherwise." If youre strong, you survive. If youre intelligent and clever, you will out-wit your opponents. If youre passionate about LIFE, you will bring death if necessary to maintain your own. If given the choice to prove what one can do to survive and achieve greatness versus listening to some celebate, boring, dogmatically detached machine who has a clear case of denial, I'll choose the former any day. Just because youre Imperial does not mean you have to be sadistic. Just because you choose the Dark Side as your power focus, does not mean you cant balance yourself out and actually do "good" with it. Spawn anyone? My point is, there is more acceptance and room within the Empire for ALL Arch-types, as long as you dont Fail at whatever the empire/council tasks you with, and as long as you have the intestinal fortitude to accept that others within the empire, Sith and non-force users alike, will almost always do whatever is necessary to promote their own goals, even if that means eliminating the weak. Just because the Imperials dont show compassion or mercy by and large, doesnt mean they cant. Its just not wise to do so, considering that showing mercy to an enemy typically (but not always) results in jeopardizing ones future security due to retaliation, or repeated resistance caused by cross-purposes. In nature, compassion is just as viable as greed. This isnt disputable, since our entire civilization is built upon greed, and ascended from greed and fear. If this were not the case, we wouldnt be using a monetary system, nor would their be class stratification or warfare. Compassion however requires acceptance of less than ideal circumstances, and a large quantity of patience, all gambled upon the assumption that undesirable situations can be improved upon and resolved through team work and with minimal suffering. The darkside simply takes the opposite approach: "I'll help you, only if it helps me, either in the immediate or eventual." This is an intelligent approach, since expending effort to help others which does not yield some immediate or eventual benefit for oneself, is nothing more than wasted energy. Jedi would have you accept that helping others is somehow greater for everyone, always. Thats simply nonsensical. Helping others is only conditionally beneficial, because it assumes that nature intrinsically cares about its own, which has already been proven is not the case. Whatever promotes survival and the increased likelihood of survival will always dominate. The only primary difference between the Sith and the Jedi, is that the Sith are proactive about it. They SEEK power for its own sake, the passive Jedi do not. The Sith will do whatever is necessary to further their own goals, and they, too, make plenty of errors in judgement with excessive narcissism and existentialism. Simply put, there is more appeal to ascending the ladder of power through ones own merit, than there is having it handed to them on account of some wildly flawed and outdated concept such as "Democracy." The Neutral Sith Philosophy: "Reliance upon others is weakness for the strong, but strength for the weak. Wisdom and balance lie in knowing your own nature over time." Jedi are tought to reject their natures and control themselves, for the Jedi are AFRAID to embrace their passions because they do not believe it is possible to balance them. This attitude is a WEAKNESS, not a strength. "...But beware. Anger, fear, aggression. The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny." -Yoda This very statement assumes that one ALLOWS themselves to be "dominated" by traits that while seductive and addictive, are guaranteed to impose a weakness "...forever will IT dominate YOUR destiny" upon its user. This is the primary reason why Luke does away with alot of the "Old Jedi Order" and its nonsense when he rebuilds the New Order later. Anyhoo, I think the best evidence to support the Imperial Attitude is to just look at nature: The bacteria which infect your wounds dont give two bantha poodos about you. Their goal is to multiply, period, regardless of whether that inconveniences or kills you in the process. Your choices are simple: Either adapt to them and use them, or eradicate them.

Diplomacy seems to be worthless compared to solo'ing low-level Flashpoints, skipping all the mobs, and simply choosing whatever story-line alignment choices that are desired. Esseles/Talon for example offer 200 points per completion, and almost 99% of the mobs can be completely skipped. With Alignment options like that, why waste hours upon hours of companion missions when you can easily go from Neutral to Tier5 Lightside/Darkside within a few hours? Seems utterly worthless to me.

I personally HATE this one. I'd post a screenshot, but apparently this is not needed as many have verified it as well. Currently, Im looking at my screen and I see a total of 4 "Color Crystal" Archaeology missions. So srsly, I have to run 3 of those before a mission that I need; Artifact Fragments for example, actually appears? Yeah, thats a complete waste of my time. I agree, there should be at least one of each category, preferably more, or a choice option. I dont care what kind of mission title is given: "Doom of the inept developer", or "The blind-sighted Creative Director's end", et al. It would be far more appreciated if we could not only select the level-range of the missions, but the desired "category" as well. Honestly, this would also alleviate the need for excessive mission count, as there are typically only 4 types of each mission: 1) Base Moderate Yield 2) Abundant Yield 3) Rich Yield 4) Bountiful Yield So lesee...a simple dropdown box for category would be sufficient, e.g: Companion Gifts Lockboxes or Artifact Fragments Color Crystals Power Crystals etc... Hell, if you wanted to be really spiffy, you could put in a "remember preference" checkbox so that each time you click on said crew skill, it defaults to whatever you chose the first time for category.

Unfortunately, this is not an viable solution. Players want to enjoy the content NOW, and get the Modable items which they can keep throughout their leveling adventures NOW, not have to come back 5+ levels later and solo the entire dungeon. This is also not useful, since many players will elect to ignore other players, other than buffing them for courtesy sake and helping them out in a pinch (if the player is about to die) if they are able to. I do both the former and the latter all the time, but I rarely ever invite other players for Heroic 2 or 2+ zones, since thats what my companion is for. If I am unable to complete said quest via attrition, then I simply move onto the next quest and do it later, 1 or 2 levels adjusted. This is not an issue for quests, but becomes an issue for flashpoints, since the whole point behind a flashPoint is to have a group to do it with. While Im perfectly fine with solo'ing or dual-boxing everything (where mathematically possible) by myself, (the end-game is my goal, not the leveling) most people play this game for the social aspects. The goal is to make grouping "optional", not required, with the exception of course being the the end-game Raid encounters.

Heh, you responded while I was appending my previous post. xD

I can understand your perspective as a Tank, however almost any Heal-capable AC can solo most of those "heroics" with their companions once they are +2 or +3 levels adjusted above the flashpoint. In some cases, they can solo it entirely by themselves. What I dont understand is the general concept of "Must have a full group." nonsense, which is simply that: nonsense. I dual-box two accounts and characters simultaneously, and I have no difficulty duo'ing every flashpoint without a full group, regardless of what the "Recommended for <x number> of players" warning says. The real issue in this instance is not being able to choose which "type" of companion you get at level 10, not the fact that people are unwilling to group with you. Consulars/Inquisitors get a "Tank" Companion right out the door, which means they dont have to tank at all, even though they both have an AC which is designed for this. The other classes dont have the same options, as their starting companions arent all heal-types that can work with the Tanking AC's at that level. A solution would be to allow the player to choose the given roll for their Companion, if not have both types of companions available from the start. Honestly, I see no point in creating two "sets" of companions for both Warrior/Inquisitor and Knight/Consular, as all the companion "types" do the same things, regardless of which NPC is assigned to each class. A more effective method would be to let the player decide which of two "Types" of companions they want at level 10, and them simply switch the existing ones to make up for it as the character levels. For example: All Classes get either a Tank or DPS type companion when they reach level 9-10. This is only conducive for classes that have heal-capable AC's until the next companion is unlocked. For players who choose Tank/DPS classes and AC's, their companions are either tanks, (useless) or extra DPS, which is also more or less useless. This makes solo'ing content or minimizing flashpoint group sizes restrictive, as those players MUST have a heal-capable member in their group in order to survive the Elite/Boss/Champion encounters. The only way around not having a healer for the lower level flashpoints is to simply out-dps the high-health targets via attrition: Kill them before your player/companion "Tank" dies.

My bad, I should have said: "Deluxe Edition" Preorder. The item list is valid for that version: Includes 5 Additional Digital Items Flare Gun Training Droid HoloDancer HoloCam STAP In-Game Vehicle However, if I have to completely log out of the game and restart it, EFF that with a capital EFF. Not waiting 2+hrs in queue. The items can wait.

I entered my code and have received no mail. Even relogged to see if that would make a difference. Nope, Chuck Testa.