Dang. I was going to renew last week, but it took me that long to find my Security Key key-fob thingy. Oh well. Thanks.

Curious: Was this promotion for returns /just/ last night? Because I didn't renew until this morning.

This would be annoying. It's like living across the street from a billboard of a pretty girl I never asked out ... and who has moved away. A constant reminder of my failure to act at the proper time. Now, I have to suffer, knowing that most other guys have "played the content" I will never get to experience. How nice it would be if she just started letting guys "play the content" for a set price. I could just watch another guy "play the content" on Youtube, but it just ain't the same. I have Shroud of Memory. I have played Shroud of Memory. I have completed Shroud of Memory. I'm all for players buying the right to play Shroud of Memory. After all, the purpose of the subscriber rewards was to generate income. I see no reason (please, let's ignore fluctuations in currency valuation) why last year's dollars are worth more than this year's dollars.

Jenny: "Jenny collapses under the weight of her many myriad wounds, her essence draining from her limp form as her mind flashes sporadically across the timeline of her life until, at last, her eyes settle on the final image they will ever behold: the incompetent healer she so foolishly trusted in this ill-fated battle. A single tear traces across the dust and gore plastered to her cheek as she exerts Herculean effort to spit the words that would become her death rattle ... 'Damn you, Thor!" Thoronmir: "My bad."

I think I just divined the issue that most perturbs me in random groups: Critical rating. My Sage healer has a very high Critical rating, which I assumed increased his damage/healing when he succeeds in "critting" when using a class skill. Your post has illuminated the issue for me: A high Critical rating does not affect my Sage's skills. Rather, it increases how critical other players are of how I play him. Someone needs to parse the numbers, but perhaps Critical rating determines how much criticism healers and DPS receive? I should try slotting Absorption instead ... so I can more readily absorb all that criticism.

I was concerned at first when I logged into find 44 characters on one server. I was more concerned when, after deleting a level 1 name-holder alt, my 44/44 count fell to 43/43. I spent most of yesterday sorting out inventories and culling the roster. I discovered that my current maximum is actually 41, so I didn't have to delete too many. Still, deleting characters is like eating peanuts. Once I started, I couldn't stop. After making sure to transfer credits and any swag in their vaults, I ended up deleting 19 characters. My current roster count is 23/41. As an unrepentant altoholic, I had to overcome my urges and ask myself: "Do I really need three sets of capped crafters in all trades? Will I really ever play any of the myriad mid-level alts that transferred from the provinces?" I kept one capped crafter for each profession and all the capped gatherers. I kept all the guys over level 60. Most of the rest have joined the Force. I feel better with (a) fewer names on my character-select screen and (b) having plenty of space to start new alts if I ever so desire.

As the Official* arbiter of all things Role-playing, I agree that RP has no place in random groups. As an avid RPer, it would tick me off as well. That said, I can't recall a single instance in which I found myself grouped with such a player. But I've only been playing SWTOR since release. If I ever did, I imagine the vote-kick would be quick and unanimous. Like most fun social interactions, RP must be consensual or it's just wrong.

Three reasons why I oppose this suggested change: (1) As others have said, the current system greatly simplifies crafting. As someone who relies exclusively on his cadre of capped crafters in all trades to gear his characters, I prefer the single-stat approach. (b) Again, others have voiced the concern over loot rolls and silly stat combos. And sure, the tooltips and other game elements make it easy for a player to figure out his class's primary stat. But that's like saying that reading the owner's manual for your new cyclotron will help you avoid that nasty radiation exposure, and we all know that NO ONE reads the owner's manual. (iii) A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I created a collection of Legacy Armor (using the free sets we get) for each class. I was playing lots of alts back then. I made a set for each stat at various levels from 8 to level cap. Which meant about 15 sets of armor per primary stat. The change to Mastery greatly reduced the burden on my storage issues (as did the elimination of Companion gear). I now only need to keep 2 sets (one for DPS and one for Tank). That said, I'm open to tweaking the stat system. We could change "Mastery" to "Verisimilitude" ... or maybe "Stank" (my inner churl would enjoy seeing players in General bragging about how much "Stank" they have).

I'm closing in on my 40th anniversary as a role-player. We can wait for another time to discuss the party you all with throw for me. In the meantime, as someone who pretty much only plays MMOs for RP, I've seen players try to RP in General (or similar) channels. But, yeah ... they're doing it wrong. Gleaning a slightly different meaning from the post you quoted, I can imagine RPers who may be getting griefed taking their complaint to General (the whole "You're ruining my RP" thing). But I can see your interpretation as well. In my experienced and sagacious opinion, RPing in General should be (and maybe is) a reportable offense. It's certainly worthy of an /Ignore. And, speaking on behalf of all the RPers in my household (which includes myself and ... well, nevermind), I would never RP with anyone who so blatantly disregards non-RPers' public chat channels. Of course, perhaps there are players new to RP who just don't know any better. That's why I encourage new RPers to find a decent RP Guild (in this context, decent = willing to teach). That said ... I'd love to get a reserved RP channel.

Those were some very prudent precautions, Andryah. Unfortunately, until today, I hadn't logged into SWTOR or visited these Forums in nearly a year, so your sage advice (which is also suitable for Gunslingers and Bounty Hunters alike) did not benefit me. Fortunately, I have checked my characters, my mail, my vaults, my shared storage, and my dryer vents and discovered that all is in proper order (and the vents are lint-free).

They said there'd be no math on this test!

I'm curious as well. I have 43 guys on Star Forge and another 12 on Satele Shan. Thing is, I have millions of credits on SS that I'd like to move to SF. I'm still undecided whether to just strip bare my SS characters and ship all the swag to SF or keep a modest outpost on SS ... just in case.

I have no idea how many slots we have or how many I may have purchased over the years. I noted, however, on Star Forge (the detention camp to which most of my characters were sentenced) that I started with 44 active of 44 available slots once I re-subbed this morning. Having not kept up with SWTOR over the past year or so, I was surprised to discover the server merge had occurred. Honestly, the only reason I even logged in at all was (a) LOTRO was shut down for several hours of maintenance today and (b) my maid showed up at 7:30 a.m., so I vacated the living room for her. Having little else to do today, I decided to just get caught up on any SWTOR updates (like I said, it's been nearly a year). After the download finished, I discovered (1) server merge happened and (2) I was (expectedly) Preferred due to allowing my subscription to lapse. My plan was simply to purge extraneous characters from the two US servers (I had reserved my favorite character names on several servers and ended up with multiple "Thoronmirs" on Star Forge and Satele Shan. That was when I noticed that, after deleting a level 1 Thor-clone, my characters slots dropped to 43 of 43. I don't know how many slots I'm allowed to have, but I decided to just keep my flock of level 1 name alts (there are 7). They're all classes I like to play. That way, if I ever want to start a new guy, I have one ready and won't need to unlock another slot. I may or may not (eventually) delete some of the mid-level alts, especially the duplicate crafters. For now, my advice is to keep what we have.

True story: I've always been an avid crafter in every MMO I've played. I enjoy it. Sometimes, I delete a capped crafting alt just to make a new one. But my primary motivation has always been self-sufficiency. I am a rock. I am an island. I like not relying on other players to keep my guys clothed, equipped, fed, and ... well, implanted. When playing a new MMO, I usually start with whatever crafting skill seems most advantageous to the class I play: Synthweaver in SWTOR since I knew I'd play Sages, Woodworker in LOTRO so my Hunters had good bows, etc. Regardless how I start, eventually, I get around to mastering every trade. Sure, my Synthweaver kept my Sage dressed well, but before the time when Commendations became uniform and ubiquitous, I needed hilts and crystals ... so I made an Artificier. It wasn't long before I made a Cybertech to create mods and armor mods. My original Cybertech was a Smuggler (named Fillion ), so I needed an Armstech to make barrels and an Armormech who could make supercool shirt/vest combos. Biochem was the last member to join my Crafting Cadre. Most of those crafting alts have been deleted and replaced ... some more than once. The last wave of consolidation greatly improved SWTOR crafting. Both the increase in stack size and the reduction to two types of materials per tier resolved all my crafting storage issues. I'm content with the current state of crafting, but I wouldn't object to some further refinement. Changing the materials' names (e.g., "Desh" becomes "Metallic Substance 1" ... or whatever) might make things easier on new players who haven't yet memorized the names. I have no inherent objection to a recipe that requires: [4] Generic Power Crystal 3 [6] Ubiquitous Relic 3 [1] Universal Binding Compound 3 (the name I just made up for vendor-purchased Crew Skill materials) I'm unclear about the OP's suggestion regarding nodes. Are we discussing some mutated form of Omni-Node ... the "Shmoo" node, as it were? My Bioanalyst can farm critter guts and pieces from the same node that my Artificer gleans magic rocks and old bric-a-brac from Grandma's attic? I'm not sure I'd like that. Under the current system, my gatherer of critter guts and weeds need only compete with other Bioanalysts for nodes.

/muses /ponders /weighs pros and cons Okay, yeah. I'd probably pay for this. I hesitate to commit because watching my Sorcerer "seethe" is always fun. I already use the mount/dismount maneuver to auto-heal my companion when possible. But, as far as ideas for new Legacy perks go, this isn't the worst I've seen.