I was thinking about ways to defeat a Jedi/Sith lightsaber via technology. I thought it would be rather difficult, if you were lacking something like say, another lightsaber, cortosis, Phrik, or Beskar. Yet... The real tech answer seems very simple to me, in fact, it's only a single component of a lightsaber: (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lightsaber/Legends) The Wookieepedia article on the lightsaber details the way a lightsaber blade is controlled, focused, and how lightsabers are able to block and parry one another, via use of it's magnetic field. This mechanic is also what allows lightsabers to deflect blasterfire of varied caliber. "Once focused by the crystals, the plasma was sent through a series of field energizers and modulation circuitry within the emitter matrix that further focused it, making it into a coherent beam of energy that was projected from the blade emitter.[40] The blade typically extended about a meter before being arced by the blade containment field back to a negatively charged fissure ringing the emitter, where it was channeled back to the power cell by a superconductor, completing the circuit. This containment field also caused the blades to make contact with other lightsabers blades without passing through like other forms of energy. This trait is seen when lightsaber wielders can block and parry other lightsaber blades" The containment field, created by the magnetic stabilizing ring, a subcomponent of the blade emitter, is capable of binding a lightsaber blade, while also giving the weapon it's formidable defensive characteristics. This of course begs the question: Why is this single component not adapted for defensive use in and of itself against blasters, and lightsabers? Clearly, the technology is both small, lightweight, and not power intensive, as it can be used in a man-portable lightsaber, a device that is in and of itself quite light to begin with. Therefore, I see no reason the technology could not be adapted into a kind of magnetic shield. In fact, I think this is what "Magnetic sealing" is. Yet... why are capital ships not equipped with such technology to reflect cannon fire? Why is infantry armor, or perhaps riot-shields (like the Zakuulian Knight shields) not equipped with this? This would possibly render a lightsaber useless against any armor/physical sheilds with this capability, nevermind the boons it would provide to resist small arms fire, which are substantially less powerful than lightsabers. (A lightsaber can melt through blast doors given time, feet thick, but a hand blaster could shoot it all day and maybe slag a small portion of it.) There is already a device that seems to project something like this, equipped on a droid from The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance book. (Spoiler alert!) http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Fastbreeder. The electro-mirror. Why is this technology not more mainstream?

As a huge SWTOR fan, I have long noticed something missing from TOR: A biography features. I understand that many players would find little desire to use this in a PvE/PvP server setting, but having the ability to type in a biography/physical description (As provided in RP addons for many other MMOs, and some have built in (Star Trek Online). This would be a big help to RP server players, and would add a lot of longevity to the RP community that TOR is currently lacking.

I agree on the refreshing bit- however, we are asking people to spend fuel credit costs, AND the time of multiple loading screens. THe fact is, there are a few hundred RPers, and hundreds or more possible RP locations. The Fleet is an RP hub, and tragically, few regularly leave that hub. Furthermore, many players are too low level to go to, or afford to go to, many other RP locations. (Many world RP events i've seen took place on like, BEslavis, or Corellia, but I'm only level 19! Soo, yeah. Huge money cost, aaand huge dying over and over. Very disruptive) It took me like, 30 minutes r more just to get to the RP place. Kind of depressing.

I understand there is some kind of arranged RP event on Tatooine of this sort, but I think it would be good to have a fight-club, IC installed somewhere on Vaiken, to allow for walk-ups, and advertising. I think it would be a good place to allow for "Friendly" spars and duels. I think it would be primarily a sith-on-sith thing, but I think it would be fun to have it be easily observable by the public. Thoughts?

Here is a thought I had. Why doesn't BioWare and/or EA host an option in game in the collections to vote, via collections tab, on their favorite equipment sets. The most popular entries are then tallied, and assigned a random number, and each month (Or with the release of each Cartel Pack cycle) that item set becomes for sale permanently on the Cartel Market Equipment page for the same cost as your average level 1 adaptive set.

As the point of the thread is comparing the vessels (Not so much their compliments of snub fighters, in which often the victory goes to the Rebels due to fighter superiority), the ISD has it for me. Historically, the one who can hit the hardest the fastest usually wins. And when it comes to capital ships, sublight speeds and maneuverability do not usually factor in to capital ship slugfests. i say this because a large ship is such a large target that it's speed and turning rarely transition into the ship itself dodging incoming fire. Therefore in a slugging match, it would play only a minor role. Also, an ISD would not be able to be outmaneuvered because their raw firepower at any distance where maneuverability woul dmater would overwhelm the Mon Cal defensive edge. That said, the Rebels' defensive mindset was not a bad one: Their purpose was to survive, and evade heavy imperial resistance, and the Mon Cal cruisers provided the firepower to slaughter smaller ships with ease, while being able to cut and run- and endure long enough to do so- once ships like ISD's showed up. They were never meant to fight one on one with ships like ISDs. They were meant to serve as meat-shields and carriers (depending on the chosen tactics involved), while their fighters, and just as critically, (likely more so), supporting ships. The Rebels philosophy relied on using multiple support ships to pin down and overwhelm isolated targets. They were not meant for protracted battle between ships in their own weight classes. So it's no surprise the ISD comes out on top as a battleship.

Malgus has already tried to usurp the Empire and was a traitor publically- the Empire would never go back on that. Marr said himself he had no interest in the office, rather prefering the battlefield himself, so he's very likely out. He also doesn't strike me as being powerful enough: He needed -Jedi- , mercenaries, and etc just to handle Revan in a fight. In short, I think the Empire may be emperor-less. The Dark Council has no incentive to allow someone to rise to the top because it would challenge their current state of hegemony. It can't really be said. The player characters are off the table. I'd rather be for a fun restructuring which would increas the politlca power of the Moffs and Imperial military in governance perhaps countering the Sith Order themselves. Admiral Ranken, FTW!

I can't, but If it does, They'll get 20-30 dollars of mine, if it's for 2 weeks.

Minor Correction relating to Jedi: Jedi and Sith are capable of precognitive responses to threats, as such, a droid cannot be as fast as a Jedi, since Jedi and Sith do not react during combat, but rather, are proactive in dealing with threats. It's also telling that Jedi who are not in an alert state, are only as fast as a droid can be, but are far superior to droids in it that they can react to something a droid does, before the droid does it, so long as they are conscious of the droids existence and ability to act. So IG-88 's reaction time is not, strictly speaking, on par with a Jedi, and I don't know that he very often attempts to redirect blaster fire. This may be kind of an author's liberty thing, not denying it, just saying for whatever reason, this isn't reflected in other sources and cases. Very impressive droid, either way!

I don't mind Revan getting defeated, given he couldn't solo Malak without spamming medpacks. And adrenals. Or did anyone else have a different experience? /joke. More importantly, the Sith tend to be stronger when there are fewer of them to stab them in the back before they hit their prime, out of ambition. And more kind of has a cheapness to it. Hence the Rule of Two was so successful. The best selected and trained and conditioned the best, to be the best. Instead of this stupid TOR policy of Just check out your stereotypical Sith who leaves Korriban. Arrogant, clumsy, bloodthirsty, and fairly unsophisticated. Just comparing my character as a Sith Inquisitor and Warrior to my Knight and my Sage, and I felt like my Jedi were far more mature, developed force sensitives at the end of their training-wheels day. Just never really -felt- like anything other than a sniveling, arrogant apprentice during the Sith story until the end game story... and then, in a sudden rush, I'm a Darth! Whoo! Go me! So I went from Apprentice to Dark Lady/Lord of the Sith in like, a year or two of events? Where's the progression? Where's the countless hours training and studying and -earning it-. Unless Zash and Darth Fatty (Sorry, genuinely forget his name because he's so forgettable), are supremely bad examples of Sith standards... they're both getting spanked by some wet behind the ears apprentice plus two years of combat experience. It's embarrassing. And when my Consular was given the title of Master at level 30, I... was... Pissed! I was like "Really, that's all I gotta do? Save a few Masters with a technique I picked up from a holocron? One holocron? Am I really ready to be a Master? What do I know how to do, really? Throw rocks? One cool technique? How about diplomacy- and by the way- during my -entire period as a full Jedi-, my Master was in a coma slash trying to kill people? A Jedi doesn't ascend to Mastery on their own! And the Guardian side of things is barely better- There's no sense of progression! Finally, how does this relate to TOR and Revan/Exiles legacy? Revan learned under Masters, and in a cinematic spent months at the Jedi Academy, nevermind training under Bastila Shan, and had the benefits of already having learned that in his previous incarnation. The Exile genuinely felt like she was being trained by Kreia, who did more than show her how to hold a lightsaber or throw rocks at bad guys. She taught her philosophy (or tried) and taught her about the mysteries of the Force. She -felt like a Master-. She had a real connection with her apprentice, and, in spite of her ahem, rather un-Jedi philosophies... she still taught enough that I felt like my Exile was growing- so that when I finally did have the power to be the ****** Jedi Master class I was, I really felt like the Exile had earned it, grown, and had a past as a Jedi in training. None of that is present in TOR. My first diplomacy as a Jedi Consular should not start at level 30, as a Master. If I'm a master and I've never done that- i'm missing a huge part of my training. And Shame on you, Satele Shan, for handing out the title of Master so carelessly! That kind of nonsense can doom an Order, I tell you!

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gray_Jedi Not all serve the Jedi Order, some act outside of and in disobedience to Jedi Orthodoxy and Council Authority. While they are not darksiders, they are, in many cases, capable of using the Dark Side without -surrendering to it-. Use of darkness is not the same thing as surrendering to it. Windu might be a good example himself, though he did fit into the type of Jedi mentioned above. But Revan, before the fall to the dark side, and adopting the Mantle of Sith, was a Grey Jedi. A Grey Jedi might be better defined as a Jedi who walks the line, who is perhaps in serious danger of falling to the Dark Side, but one who still stands mostly in the Light. So, after a fashion, many Jedi who fell gradually, could be called Grey while in transition, but that is not to say that the end result will always be a true fall to the darkside. As Lucas no longer owns Star Wars, and Grey Jedi are such a big part of the thinking and knowledge of many Jedi individuals and philosophies, especially among the community, I would keep it as a possibility. But as one that should be embraced sparingly due to the truly tentative nature of their status as non darksiders.

Let me figure out how to spoiler tag it, for convenience. I'm rather new to the whole forum experience.

Good day, Community! I personally have a hypothesis about the Old Jedi Order at the time of the Clone Wars, the months leading up to The Knightfall Tragedy, that it had become heavily philosophically and theologically corrupted. While I hate to point the finger at Yoda, who many revere as being the quintessential Jedi Grandmaster, I personally find myself to be increasingly critical of him, and the broader Order. We have canonical proof that Yoda, In spite of purported mastery of all 7 classical Lightsaber forms, in combat only chose to rely on one or two of them- Ataru, Ataru, Ataru, followed by , against a few droid battalions, a little Soresu/Shien for redirecting blaster volleys at them in TCW. In the movies, we see him fight in two major confrontations, and one minor: We have Yoda Versus Dooku, Yoda Versus Sidious, and Yoda Versus Two Poor Clone Bastards. (Bastards is technically correct, because all clone troopers are, by default, fatherless, and this is not, in fact, being used as a profanity). In all three cases, we see him go about his fights in identical fashion: he launches an immediate, unrestrained, ballistic-missile offense against his opponent in a puerile Ataru style. Flying, flipping, somersaulting, slashing, hacking, and tornado-of-death-ing against his foes. Against Dooku, this works fine, forcing a retreat, and after a limited attempt at Force based combat, Dooku disengages. Yoda wins a tactical victory, but chose to selfishly put the needs of two of his favorite pupils, Anakin and Obi Wan, over the good of the galaxy by stopping Dooku's escape. A blunder which, in hindsight, cost the galaxy at least a decade of war, millions if not billions of lives, and led to the downfall of the Jedi Order- at the hands of Sidious and Anakin Skywalker. Whom, if Yoda had not been philosophically corrupt, and had allowed the Jedi to sacrifice themselves for the Greater Good of the Republic, would never been able to betray the Order. Funny how that happens? On to Sidious: Yoda, in spite of his age and power and experience, chooses to engage a Dark Lord of the Sith, whom he has -NO IDEA THE SKILL LEVEL OF-, arrogantly and aggressively launches an attack against on his own, instead of taking Obi Wan with him as support, OR going with Obi Wan to handle the fallen Anakin- which in either case would likely have led to a very different outcome, given Obi Wan would not have been killed so easily. He does so, unforgivably, by predictably mimicking his exact attack pattern from his duel with Dooku- and fails miserably to pierce the Sith Lord's defenses effectively. All Yoda manages to do is wear himself out, allow the Sith Lord to take the literal high ground, and then beats a hasty retreat. His hyper-specialization in Ataru, the most aggressive of all Jedi lightsaber forms, failed him, failed the Order, and failed the Galaxy. Not once, but twice. Fortunately, his hyper-specialization did bring about one positive outcome: Yoda was able to decapitate, smoothly, two clone troopers who were triple his height on the Wookiee Homeworld. So, there's that. (So Impressive, Am I Right or Am I Right?!). Never mind this made no significant difference in the course of events, aside from Yoda being around to fail miserably shortly thereafter against Sidious. Props for Yoda for being around to train Luke decades later, and props to him for surviving Sidious- given how poorly Yoda fought against him, it's a true testament to his ability that he even survived. Or maybe Sidious just knew he didn't need to finish off Yoda, since Yoda was going to do... exactly what Sidious needed him to do after his disgraceful defeat. Flee into exile and abandon the hundreds of surviving Jedi to their scattered, confused, leaderless, existence and doing nothing to save the Order that was in his charge from it's fate... instead, choosing to hide out and gamble everything on one of two newborn babies. Against an Empire, and two Sith Lords that single handedly annihilated the Old Order. What is my point? The Jedi Grandmaster of the Old order was a hyper-specialized duelist, who, when it counted, was not confident in his varied skill set, and rather relied only on one. In conclusion: The ideological corruption of many Jedi, even the masters, lead to an Order which was fractured and to a large extent bloated and complacent. The very ideals of the Jedi Order were compromised clearly in not just the actions of the Jedi's leadership, but also their individual fighting styles. The end result was a crushing Sith victory, a high water mark the Sith had never before reached, save perhaps in the time of KOTOR II, and then, for far shorter a season. Thanks for your attention, and please leave any comments- assenting or dissenting, both are welcome! Discuss below!

Certainly: Every Jedi in the Old Jedi Order knew Shi Cho before anything else- it was their learners form. The Niman Discipline, later developed and based around Shi Cho, plus some improvements, actually was much more variety filled, so, Niman Itself constitutes changing the style to fit the situation. Jedi Masters, however, often specialized highly, and even hyper-specialized, to the exclusion of other techniques. While the O.P. is correct that philosophically, Jedi should not be given to hyper-specialization (that kind of extremism is in contrast to the dominant Nimanian school of thought which was foremost in Jedi theology), clearly, many Masters did not shy away from doing so. Kit Fisto specialized highly in Shi Cho- taking the basic form to new heights, Windu took Juyo so far as to create a sub-form of it, Vapaad. To develop a form further, one must specialize very much in it. I personally have a hypothesis about the Old Jedi Order at the time of the Clone Wars, the months leading up to The Knightfall Tragedy, that it had become heavily philosophically and theologically corrupted. While I hate to point the finger at Yoda, who many revere as being the quintessential Jedi Grandmaster, I personally find myself to be increasingly critical of him, and the broader Order. We have canonical proof that Yoda, In spite of purported mastery of all 7 classical Lightsaber forms, in combat only chose to rely on one or two of them- Ataru, Ataru, Ataru, followed by , against a few droid battalions, a little Soresu/Shien for redirecting blaster volleys at them in TCW. In the movies, we see him fight in two major confrontations, and one minor: We have Yoda Versus Dooku, Yoda Versus Sidious, and Yoda Versus Two Poor Clone Bastards. (Bastards is technically correct, because all clone troopers are, by default, fatherless, and this is not, in fact, being used as a profanity). In all three cases, we see him go about his fights in identical fashion: he launches an immediate, unrestrained, ballistic-missile offense against his opponent in a puerile Ataru style. Flying, flipping, somersaulting, slashing, hacking, and tornado-of-death-ing against his foes. Against Dooku, this works fine, forcing a retreat, and after a limited attempt at Force based combat, Dooku disengages. Yoda wins a tactical victory, but chose to selfishly put the needs of two of his favorite pupils, Anakin and Obi Wan, over the good of the galaxy by stopping Dooku's escape. A blunder which, in hindsight, cost the galaxy at least a decade of war, millions if not billions of lives, and led to the downfall of the Jedi Order- at the hands of Sidious and Anakin Skywalker. Whom, if Yoda had not been philosophically corrupt, and had allowed the Jedi to sacrifice themselves for the Greater Good of the Republic, would never been able to betray the Order. Funny how that happens? On to Sidious: Yoda, in spite of his age and power and experience, chooses to engage a Dark Lord of the Sith, whom he has -NO IDEA THE SKILL LEVEL OF-, arrogantly and aggressively launches an attack against on his own, instead of taking Obi Wan with him as support, OR going with Obi Wan to handle the fallen Anakin- which in either case would likely have led to a very different outcome, given Obi Wan would not have been killed so easily. He does so, unforgivably, by predictably mimicking his exact attack pattern from his duel with Dooku- and fails miserably to pierce the Sith Lord's defenses effectively. All Yoda manages to do is wear himself out, allow the Sith Lord to take the literal high ground, and then beats a hasty retreat. His hyper-specialization in Ataru, the most aggressive of all Jedi lightsaber forms, failed him, failed the Order, and failed the Galaxy. Not once, but twice. Fortunately, his hyper-specialization did bring about one positive outcome: Yoda was able to decapitate, smoothly, two clone troopers who were triple his height on the Wookiee Homeworld. So, there's that. (So Impressive, Am I Right or Am I Right?!). Never mind this made no significant difference in the course of events, aside from Yoda being around to fail miserably shortly thereafter against Sidious. Props for Yoda for being around to train Luke decades later, and props to him for surviving Sidious- given how poorly Yoda fought against him, it's a true testament to his ability that he even survived. Or maybe Sidious just knew he didn't need to finish off Yoda, since Yoda was going to do... exactly what Sidious needed him to do after his disgraceful defeat. Flee into exile and abandon the hundreds of surviving Jedi to their scattered, confused, leaderless, existence and doing nothing to save the Order that was in his charge from it's fate... instead, choosing to hide out and gamble everything on one of two newborn babies. Against an Empire, and two Sith Lords that single handedly annihilated the Old Order. What is my point? The Jedi Grandmaster of the Old order was a hyper-specialized duelist, who, when it counted, was not confident in his varied skill set, and rather relied only on one. We see this over and over with the Old Jedi Order: Windu only relied on Vapaad against Sidious- and it failed to deliver a victory, only a stalemate. Fisto relied on Shi Cho, and it got him killed. The great Jedi killer, Vader, knew more than just Djem So. He used Shien, Shi Cho, Ataru, Soresu, Jar'kai, and Makashi at different points, and had a custom, hybridized style. Obi Wan used Soresu to a fault at times, but he also frequently switched to Ataru and Shi Cho/ Djem So at times. I would also argue Shien, to an extent, as well. My point being the best used more than one, or hybridized, but the Order itself was rampant with two problems: Hyper specialization, or in the case of the broader Order- under specialization, due to the failings of Niman evidence by the massive Jedi losses at 1st Geonosis, and throughout the war. We often have Jedi falling victim to blaster fire in TCW, even Masters, and it goes to show they didn't spend enough time on blast deflection, as many of these shots came from the front from opponents they were physically aware of. - Which could be that Niman didn't spend as much time on the technique as, say, Soresu, Shien, or even Shi Cho's advanced disciplines. In conclusion: The ideological corruption of many Jedi, even the masters, lead to an Order which was fractured and to a large extent bloated and complacent. The very ideals of the Jedi Order were compromised clearly in not just the actions of the Jedi's leadership, but also their individual fighting styles. The end result was a crushing Sith victory, a high water mark the Sith had never before reached, save perhaps in the time of KOTOR II, and then, for far shorter a season.

DANGER: ESSAY INCOMING: DISCLAIMERS: Opinion, and Speculation. (For my Shien Versus Makashi, look here for an example of the type of fight I'm talking about happening- the point being how an Apprentice could keep up with a master like Dooku, who used Makashi, by using Shien's precise, fluid bladework and concepts). 1:43-2:12 ish. I'm not entirely sure what happened with Anakin at the end of this bit, but hey. More importantly to the point, look at two things: 2:00-2:05, see what just happened to Dooku's guard- how close that duel just came to ending very differently- and Dooku's facial reaction immediately after the fight is over with Anakin. It's very telling how far Shien blade work just pushed him. We also know that Anakin was not using Djem So here, or Ataru, due to the relatively planted footwork that remained mobile, and a lack of power attacks, mostly using tight, speedy, focused blade work. Shien against sabers, incarnate. Later, we see Anakin use Shien's principles successfully against Dooku on Grievous' flagship. 2:15-19. There, he switches from the direct power attacks of Djem So, to the blade-manipulation and exploitation of Shien, in order to end the fight. Geonosis: 1:43-2:12 Episode III: 2:15-19