I'm not sure that tracks, given that as soon as Revan is freed, he basically goes genocidal, dips back into the old Rakatan superweapons, and is well on his way to becoming Darth Revan again when he is rather brutally put down by Imperial agents who, shockingly, actually have the moral high ground on this one (Revan was planning to kill ANYONE who had Sith (as in Pureblood) genetic material... which worked out to over 90% of the Imperial populace. Civilians. Families. Children.) In the end, all of his character development in KOTOR is undone, and, as he says as he quotes Malak, "In the end, I am nothing" No, Revan got shafted just as hard as the Exile or Kreia.

I see the story as a back and forth, a way to keep the struggle interesting. At the start of most storylines, the Empire is on top. The Republic is struggling to rebuild, even decades after the war, insurrections and local civil wars plague it... Even on Coruscant, they've lost control of whole planetary sectors to gangs and paramilitary groups. Even Ord Mantel, the seat of the Republic military, can barely fend of Separatist attacks. Slowly, the Republic regroups. Taris is their first attempt to build morale... a backwater mudball in the middle of nowhere the Sith once razed. Rebuilding it is symbolic. They make some progress before the Sith show up and kick over their sandcastle. But at the same time, the Balmorran resistance finally gets some traction, and kicks the Imperials off the planet. The war starts to kick off. Initially, the Imperials try and be cute... drag the Republic to backwater conflicts like Hoth or Belsavis, get them to waste their strength on meaningless battles... and get mired in them themselves. Voss was a weird hiccup for both sides because... well, Voss is weird. Corellia was really the first big battle of the war. It illustrated both the lack of confidence many Republic member planets still had in the Republic, and the extent that Sith would co-opt incredibly vital battlegrounds and forces for their own power plays. Both Baras and Thanaton wasted tremendous resources in their domestic squabbles with their subordinates. The end result of Corellia was both sides losing huge resources, Corellia left in smoking ruin (But probably not as irreparably as the Empire would hope). The Empire gets rocked back, falls back to the whole 'Superweapon' strategy, making a play for the Adegan crystals on Ilum (cloaked fleet). Of course, one Jedi quite rightly points out why this is a stupid strategy, as after all the resources and effort are poured into developing this superweapon, the Empire never gets their money's worth before the Republic either devises a counter, or drops a proton torpedo down a ventilation shaft on it. In the end, neither needed to happen, as Malgus got impatient, and absconded with what had to be a sizeable portion of the Imperial forces. That whole mess was another Corellia for the Empire, while the Republic more or less walked away with a free win. The Republic by this point has built up some serious momentum, and is starting to steamroll the Imperials pretty hard. Makeb is the start of things swinging the other way. Darth Marr has stepped into the vacuum, and while he appears to be a reformist like Malgus, he possesses the patience and ability to play the politics that Malgus lacked. Makeb is a big win for the Empire, but it's not going into Superweapons, but into bolstering their defenses, and preparing for the oncoming Republic onslaught, and weather it well enough to find their own right time to hit back, wait for the Republic to overextend themselves. I imagine the Emperor himself has permanently lost his grip on the Empire. If he returns, it will be as another raid boss that both the Imperials and Republic get to face down (He's an omnicidal maniac on a galactic scale, and just this side of an eldrich abomination, who seeks to consume BOTH sides. Even the Imperials can't support that kind of evil)

Keep in mind, one technology that the Rakata were known to have (And found functioning on Belsavis) is a matter transporter. The Foundry is a gigantic Rakatan installation. Force nothing. Revan was, if nothing else, a long-term planner. He had an emergency teleport set up.

I hope so. But as for is the Empire losing? It's the ebb and flow of war. When the war started, the Republic was NOT in a good place. Coruscant was still in pieces, with whole sectors on the verge of being abandoned or seceding outright. Separatist movements were erupting all over the galaxy, even on stalwart Republic worlds like Ord Mantel. Alderraan had withdrawn from the Republic, and fallen to a tyrant, who was a former Republic war hero. The Republic was desperately focusing on Taris because they needed a victory, even if it was a 300 year late symbolic one. The Empire, on the other hand, was consolidating power, playing games with the Republic, and trying to goad them back into a war they were unprepared for. They held Balmorra, they were courting the Hutts, things were going their way. In the beginning, the Empire came out strong. Corellia fell (Well before the players get there). The Hutts stuck to their neutrality, but that was alright. Balmorra was further secured. Taris and all it's symbolism was crushed in the Republic's faces. And Empire-backed House Thul was starting to look good for the throne due to their superior military, and their acceptance of the burden of managing the Killiks. But then the Republic came back strong. The Empire lost Balmorra, which was a huge blow. Alderaan leaned more towards the Organas. Corellia was lost. Their attempts to cut off the Republic from its allies failed. But the Republic took hits too. Belsavis was a HUGE blow. A PR nightmare, the sudden release of some of the worst destructive elements the Republic had ever faced, all at once, and the Imperials getting their claws into a whole pile of Rakatta tech. The Republic lost it's only real safe Force-user storage facility. Hoth, Voss and Ilum I think were indications of a stalemate. The initial power ploys had been exhausted, the Empire was on the defensive now, but the Republic was too shaky to push into Imperial territory (Still got Separatists, Hutts, Crime Syndicates etc to deal with, and they seem to see the Republic as a WAY better target than the Imps). Superweapons on both sides had been built, tested, blown up and/or countered, and now they're back to the drawing board to try again.

Granted, and the Empire very nearly entered that situation in the first war, just before the Treaty of Coruscant. Supply lines are IMPORTANT, and the Empire was burning their resources faster than they could acquire them. Most of the Republic work to this point has been cutting off the supply routes of the Imperial Offensive into the Core, which did succeed in forcing them off Corellia and Balmorra, and the Empire has once again burned too many resources trying to grasp the Core Worlds. I don't think this is a defeat, though. I don't think the Republic has the resources yet to throttle the Empire, or to deliver a killing blow. They've got WAY too many messes to clean up domestically, with Alderaan still undecided, the Separatist wars flaring up all over, Belsavis and all it's dirty laundry being aired out and such. It means things are going to settle back into a back-and-forth struggle for contested systems, like Hoth, Tattooine, Ilum, etc. while both sides regroup and probe the other for weakness. We'll be just about ready for a major campaign, one way or the other, when the Hutt Cartel knocks things completely off the rails. I AM hoping that we eventually see some Imperial planets... actual Imperial worlds... and maybe see each side making some real gains into the others' territory (Maybe the Empire gets Alsakan? They're jerks anyway) The Sith are going to be running around for a few thousand more years, and a lot of Imperial culture and, specifically, the 'pure Dromund Kaas' accent, gets threaded into the core worlds, even nearly 4 millennia later, so I doubt the Empire goes away in anything as neat and tidy as a resounding defeat. More likely the saner parts of the Empire just get sick of Sith madness and side with the Republic to drive them to the margins.

You've all seen the posts. "The Emperor's Wrath vs The Hero of Tython" or "Darth Malgus vs Sataele Shan" or "Darth Baras vs The Atkins Diet". But we all know there is only one TRUE power in the Galaxy, and it is more powerful that even the Force. I refer to, of course, Khut Xien (Cutscene). Now, all the characters in the game have access to Khut Xien powers. Unreliable as they are, when they are unleashed, Boss-type enemies fall to a single blow, hordes of elites are felled with a flurry of strikes, and even a simple training vibroblade becomes capable of felling the mightiest battledroid with a single strike. However, two classes have mastered the ancient art of Khut Xien beyond all others: The Trooper and the Imperial Agent. Where all the others can infuse their weapons with the power of Khut Xien, only the Trooper and the Imperial Agent have refined their skills to the point where they manifest a weapon of pure Khut Xien power, the modest-seeming black blaster which appears at their hip. While this weapon might seem laughable when they have a stout rifle or even a massive autocannon on their backs, its might is not to be trifled with. Every shot is deadly with this weapon, every shot is true. There is no defense, no escape. This is the Chuck Norris of weapons, and indiscriminate use of it could destroy PLANETS. But which is the true master of Khut Xien?

Well, do keep in mind a few things: 1. Every victory the Republic has scored so far is to win back territory or positioning they lost in the first part of the war. Coruscant, Alderaan, Corellia, Balmorra... these are all things they had at the start of the war and lost. The Republic lost a LOT of ground. Even now, Alderaan remains neutral, Corellia and Balmorra are bombed-out messes that will take years to get their industrial might back in the game, and Belsavis is a huge, messy nightmare, both tactically and PR-wise. 2. With the exception of the Jedi Knight storyline with the attack on Dromund Kaas, NONE of the battlefields are on Imperial worlds. Looking at the in-game Galaxy map is deceptive, because it only shows Kaas and Korriban, but there are many more Imperial worlds, the Chiss Ascendancy, etc that are utterly untouched. This may change, but for right now, the Empire CANNOT be truly defeated as long as the fight remains in Republic space. 3. The Emperor is not dead, though he is rather comatose for the moment. This might not, in fact, be a bad thing, as his objectives weren't necessarily to WIN the war. However, those that now hold power very much DO hold that objective. The Empire has lost most of its heroes from the last war, but the thing about the Empire is they ALWAYS have replacements waiting in the wings. 4. If Revan DOES come back, he won't necessarily come back this time as a Jedi.

I've been gone from the game for almost a year, and only recently came back. I was sad to learn that both the Tirsa and Korrealis Speeders have been removed from the game. On my old account (since lost due to a security key issue) I saved up forever, and eventually got myself a Tirsa Prime on my Sith Inquisitor. It was a boat of a vehicle, but I loved it, even though people hated me for it given how much space it took up. Which, when i think about it, is probably why Bioware stripped them out of the game in the first place. My question is, are there any non-bike, non-podracer landspeeders left in the game that are currently acquirable?

Ebon Hawk Turns out I was bugged. As soon as I brought someone in to help me, he returned to his 'normal' behaviors and he was down in seconds. I've had this happen a few times, where enemies sometimes don't have cooldowns on their abilities. It's frustrating to have a non-elite healer-type mob suddenly become immortal because he can heal himself faster than you and your companion (3 levels higher than him) can damage him. Only happens while I'm solo.

Have played through both Sith Inquisitor and Sith Warrior, I'd say Baras, hands down. Thanaton did not play the Sith game well. From the perspective of the Sith Inquisitor storyline, he played it fearfully... His 'strong arm', Darth Skotia, was just a cyborg brute, who drew more strength from his cybernetics than from the Force, and who was defeated by an Apprentice. He knew Zash had maneuvered things somehow, but rather than do something about it, he sat on his hands until the SI took care of the problem for him. THEN he tried to take out the SI... who at that point was still loyal, and could have potentially been a useful pawn... by sending her into an old tomb to be killed by a Force Ghost. The same SI who had spent the first part of her career going into tombs filled with Force Ghosts, and coming out again. Granted, it almost worked anyway, but 'almost' gets you a pissed-off and powerful enemy. Thanaton seemed to be all about neutering his own underlings, ensuring that none were strong enough to potentially pose a challenge to him. His tactics weren't as much about making himself strong, as making anyone who might jostle his carefully arranged order weak. Baras was more about balancing strength. He solicited and encouraged powerful, resourceful, dangerous underlings. He fed their power... and at the same time, he created countermeasure and plans to deal with them should the time come. And when he dealt with them, it was never when their usefulness was exhausted, or they had betrayed him... He always plotted it out a couple of steps before. He fed the Sith Warrior's power, built them up... and at the same time, cultivated Lord Draagh as the counterbalance. Then, when the SW is well known as Baras' pawn, and is starting to realize Baras tends to cull his allies early, he cut him down. Even when the SW survived, it was difficult to convince potential allies against Baras he wasn't still working for him. Whereas the SI literally had allies Thanaton had screwed over throwing themselves at their feet in order to get in on taking Thanaton down. As far as personal power... Sith Lords seem to ebb and surge quite a bit in that department. Thanaton probably knew a lot more arcane and obscure paths to power, whereas Baras is more of a traditionalist. But ultimately, Thanaton is too fearful. When the fight went against him against the SI, despite all of his talk about tradition and honor, he cut and run, and tried to get the Council to kill the SI for him. He is, beneath all of the pompous arrogance and adherance to tradition, fearful. And as soon as the fight goes against him, that fear takes over. Baras would win on any front, I think.

I didn't have as much trouble with him as I expected from the testimonials here, but I think I kindasorta cheated. I'm an Immortal Juggernaut, lvl 50. See, I had already gotten my full Tionese gear for hitting level 50, and done a few Flashpoints and gotten a couple of pieces of Columni, as well as a couple of pieces of Tionese for Jaesa. First fight I lost (Barely) getting the mechanics down. Second fight I was ready, popped Heroic Moment at the start, and me and Jaesa pretty much curbstomped him. Jaesa went down near the end due to not being smart enough to stay out of his death circle, but aside from that he wasn't too hard. Though maybe they just nerfed him recently. I'm hardly a ****** at this sort of thing.

We need a bit more information to know for sure: 1. Are you a subscriber? Subscribers level significantly faster than Free players 2. Do you do the bonus series for the planets you're on? Many planets have an optional bonus series, some which kick in as soon as you're done the main series, some that become available after you've left, once you've hit a certain level. 3. Do you do all of the optional objectives for your quests, or just power through the required objectives? If you're F2P, I would recommend dropping the $5 necessary to get Preferred status (Just buy some Cartel coins, only gotta do it once), then buy some XP boosts off the GTN (I think they can be bought/sold there...)

Actually, I believe in an interview with a Bioware employee, they said exactly that. They found the playtesters, when given the opportunity to kill their companions, would take them, if just to see what happened. And then suddenly they had, and now they had no healer. That's fine in an offline game like KOTOR, where you can just reload the last save if you gakk up too severely, but in an MMO? It basically meant that, via dialogue choices, you could permanently and significantly cripple your character's ability to progress, and diminish your gameplay experience. Nothing else in the game has that permanence. Don't like you alignment? Grind diplomacy. Specced wrong? Respec. Dump Quin out an airlock?... well, have fun with that... The only way to make that work would be to allow you to 'draw and discard' companions, so you could replace ones you lost from an available pool. But that would hugely complicate the system, and make it tough to balance, and doesn't address the issue of lost forever companion questlines, as well as require a huge amount of recorded lines. So, it was easier to just avoid the issue, and not indulge our jerkass impulses to this degree.

I figure the way they have it now, they could really have fun with this. In the final fight, Revan was portrayed as walking the line... he served the light, but he was corrupted... he wanted to serve the Jedi, but he was falling back into his old tactics that lead him to becoming Darth Revan. And, from what Darth Malgus said, there are THREE Star Forge-class Rakata installations. The Star Forge, the Foundry, and... one more. So, let's say sometime down the line, Revan reappears on the Republic side. Amnesiac, memories scattered, fragmented... doesn't remember what happened on the foundry. Pub players start some quests to try and help him out. And... On the Imperial side, Darth Revan returns... likely during the power vacuum left by the Emperor recovering from the trauma caused by the Jedi Knight, and the death of Malgus and so much of the Dark Council. The Revanites flock to him, and rather than oppose him, Imperial players aid him in gaining recognition and approval within the Empire, as Regent. Then, at the end of the quest chain, both sides discover the OTHER has a Revan. And now the mystery begins. Which is the true Revan? Bioware could have a lot of fun with that I think.

Alright, this is probably old hat to a lot of people, but I've been away from the game for a year, and things have changed. I have no intention of being anything but casual, but being casual doesn't excuse being ignorant. I hate how most of the endgame gear looks. I've spent a lot of time putting together my orange gear and building my look, and I'm happy with it, and I've prefer it to wearing a radar dish on my head and tie fighter wing shoulder pads. That's subjective, of course. In the old days, you couldn't just run with Orange gear, and rip the mods out of your Tionese or Rakata or Columni, because of the Augments that gear had which made it inherently superior. Now we have augment slots, and I want to make sure I'm doing this right. If i get a piece of gear, say Rakata or Black Hole, and rips the mods and augments out of it, and place them into an equivalent piece of orange gear with an appropriate level augment slot, will it be the same stats, or is there something unrecoverable linked to that ugly, ugly armor shell?