Does your darksider have corruption enabled? My DS Zab has a skin tone that is impossible to get in the character creator due to being max dark and having corruption show.

I'd love to see this as well as a mount preview.

From my previous experience in EQ2, a game where the betrayal mechanism allowed the same type of cross-faction race outcomes as the legacy system will, your estimations are pretty solid. I ended up with both a dark elf paladin and a high elf shadowknight in that game. On my server, dark elves made up about 2% of the paladin population (far outnumbered by humans, high elves, barbarians, gnomes, etc...) and high elf shadowknights were so rare that my character was the only one that I ever saw in 4-5 years of heavy play. I'm sure there were others, but the population was so diluted that that character felt truly unique when I played her. Additionally, the barrier to getting a cross-faction class in EQ2 was a relatively long quest line - generally 1 week of play at low levels and about 4-6 hours of play at higher levels. That is far less of a barrier than having to level a character with the correct race and faction to 50 before being able to create a completely new character at level 1 in your desired class/race combination. The biggest difference with the two approaches is that in EQ2, you can keep playing your main as the new cross-faction class. With the legacy system here, you will have to shelve them and start over. Due to that, I would wager the numbers of cross-faction races will be even lower than what was observed in EQ2. In reference to the OP's original argument, he concedes that free will can lead a minority of a race to take a non-traditional route, but he contends that the fleets will be flooded to a point where the cross-faction races will outnumber the traditional races. I think the analysis I quoted above nicely illustrates why that will not happen, and I thought adding my own observations from a different game where this mechanic was available would help add credence to said analysis. The only way I see it potentially going the "slippery slope" route that the OP is concerned about would be a result of people being massively bored/dissatisfied with their existing faction. Since imperials currently outnumber republicans by ~3:1, you could see a bunch of new toons created when the feature goes live. So, there may be an initial surge. Even if that comes to pass, it will die off and normalize over time. Additioinally, I doubt the surge would ever create a majority of cross-faction races because others are now playing correct faction races in order to make their future cross-faction toon. Case in point, I started a Mirialan sage becasue I want a Mirialan assassin in the future. tl:dr - Quoted analysis is valid based upon my experience in another MMORPG where a cross-faction race mechanic existed.

I really doubt the sky will fall. EQ2 had a mechanism called betrayal where you could play a "wrong side" race. For example, I started a dark elf shadowknight, but decided he was an anomoly amongst his poeple and had a sense of justice. This made him uncomfortable with the choices and expectations foisted upon him early in his career. So, through the betrayal quest mechanism, I was able to take him out of his home city and eventually resettle him in Qeynos (the home of the "good guys") and retrain as a paladin. This mechanism was/is available since launch, and no, opposing races do not dominate over native races at all in the player populations. The game developers even coded NPC's to respond differently to you if you were a "wrong race" to add to the immersion. Random Nerakan Dark Elf NPC to my newly-betrayed high elf: "A high elf in Neriak? We've won!" The legacy mechanism being introduced here is similar except instead of a betrayal quest for your original character, you make a new character after hitting 50. Given years of experience where this sort mechanism was available in a similar MMORPG, I doubt the Republic fleet will be completely overrun with Sith/Chiss or the Imperial fleet with Mirialans/Mirakula. I further think this legacy implementation adds an interesting roleplay dynamic because you can have families split along loyalty lines in the war. Finally, regarding canon, there are numerous examples of members or even minority factions of races joining opposing sides of major conflicts. The all or nothing argument simply does not hold.

/signed

That's the correct idea. You armor soak more damage from a lower level mob and less from a higher level mob.

/signed Please have companion mission rewards always go to the pending notification by default. The OP succinctly outlined the major frustrations associated with the current implementation. I hope the upcoming UI scaling patch will allow us to have more than two windows open at the same time. That would alleviate a good deal of frustration as well.

I'll have to disagree with the OP heartily. Crafting in SWG was by far, the most fun I ever had in an MMO. I played a bioengineer, tailor, and armorsmith extensively. Tailoring was fantastic for the ridiculously wide variety of clothing, the ability to choose from a myriad of colors, and the ability to personalize items by having control over their name. I still remember creeping up on my first rancor as a BE, nervously praying it would not turn around and eat me before I got a DNA sample. Then, with twisted joy, infusing that rancor DNA into the template of a durni in my laboratory. Muwahahahaha, the ability to create life and make Megadurni! The early King Kong vs Godzilla fights in front of Coronet spaceport with krayt-DNA infused monstrosities - oh the joy..! What other game would let a player who had selected a pet class custom-design their pets at the genetic level? Ah yes, poking in every nook and cranny of the galaxy for resources and rare crafting ingredient loot... Updating and checking SWGCraft like a rabid 9 yr-old girl on the Bieber fan club twitter feed... I quite fondly remember using my "adventuring" toon to hunt for rare components like GDK scales, Woolamander Harrower bones, and Peko Albatross feathers to make one of the first RIS armor sets... That first set of resist-capped Krayt scale-enhanced heavy (so heavy that massive doc buffs were needed to even equip the stuff) composite to come out of my crafting station... The satisfaction that came with putting it all together and making the highest quality goods on the server - there has never been a crafting system to come close since. The interdependent relationships I formed with other crafters and adventurers in SWG to keep my operation running still persist as real life friendships today, a decade later. /endwistfulramble The EZBake oven system in TOR is alright as a sideshow. But in the grand spectrum of MMO crafting, it is pretty shallow.

I have been traipsing all over Balmorra trying to get the TD-03A jacket (purplish hue Imperial uniform) and pants with no luck thus far. Does anyone know if a certain boss tends to drop them or if they are from a heroic mission?

Я соглашаюсь!

Is the purpose of social points/perks to encourage people to group? I think that is what the social system is for. If people are grouping to do content, they get social points. If they choose to do Black Talon/Essles ad nauseam, that's their business. This is nothing like node flipping on Ilum. In that case, opposing faction players have to cooperate, ie not fight each other. Opposing factions cooperating in a designated PvP area is unintended. That is way different than people running a repeatable quest over and over.

They look like fleshy muppets.. fluppets.

Additions: Almost No Work (already in as NPC/Companion and human-like): Togruta, Nautolan, Gran, Nikto, Duros, Rodian Relatively Easy (not in or slightly irregular body features): Sullustan, Mon Calamari, Bothan More Work (highly irregular body features): Wookiee, Ithorian, Trandoshan, Taz Suggested Change: Remove cyborg as a race and instead make it an optional 4th talent tree for each class. That way, you spend skill points to get functional implants instead of window-dressing on a human model.

I'd have to agree about the preview window needing a rework. Even at the highest available gfx settings, equipment on my character still appears with low res textures when previewed. This somewhat defeats the purpose of the preview window. Other suggested modifications: Preview of weapons as mentioned above Zooming within the window as mentioned above Being able to preview mounts Being able to preview the appearance of items (armor weapons, mounts) from item schematics

I think the best solution would be an A-Tab and a dye set option along with the current mod system. That way, you can tweak your stats as needed but can still have the look you like. The current implementation is too hackneyed and ends up forcing undesired compromise at both ends of the extreme. Purple drops currently do not have their core functionality modded to preserve loot progression. This means there will be an army of clones at end game. Yes, purple armoring mods will drop, but only from zone bosses, making them both far more rare and in more demand since people who have a modded appearance set will want one for every slot. A possible solution to this would be to make an specific legendary armoring mod for each slot. IE, raid boss 1 drops a belt with a "belt only" armoring while the zone boss drops a chest piece with a "chest only" armoring mod. With this approach, people could at least keep their preferred look while progressing through content.