So it's a new MMO, this time by Bioware. And as we have seen in just about every other case, mistakes are being made.

It's just the way it is, launching an MMO is setting it on wheels and it starts rolling. And as a dev there´s not much you can do but run alongside it and try to push and shove to get it to stay on track.

I think Bioware has done alot of good with this game, and then they have done some things wrong.

Some of the wrongs are;

1) People are infuriated (don't worry dev, they are also infuriated when the jam doesn't spread out on the whole sandwich) with the new looks of the tiers. Here's the deal. It's a legacy (...) from former MMO's that from 100 meters away, you are to be able to identify a certain class and character. Which has lead to the concept of silly shoulders and silly hats. A menace that slowly grows as each tier tries to outdo the former, in sillyness.

But with SW:ToR, you have the lightsabers and have done a good job of making certain classes stand out. One saber, dual-blade and 2 sabers. Maybe it is important to adress the gamers sense of aesthetics, and not make visual identification priority. Frankly, I don't care if I jump a Sith and don't see if he is wearing tier 2 or 3 pvp armor. I get whooped, I learn.

I just did Maelstrom Prison, and there you meet Revan. Revan is wearing the coolest Sentinel Armor in the game. Why? Why is an NPC outdoing us by such a large margin. Or it's a Guardian armor for that sake. And here is the winning touch, he has a good old fashioned brass plate beneath his vest protecting him, it looks great. Starwars is knights in swordfights. Maybe old fashioned style armor fits in much much better than some electro gizmo looking like a backpack?

2)crafting, I think it's has strong sides and some weak sides. Firstly, it's very difficult to get a specific schematic as it's pure chance based. So if thats what you are trying to do (hello Aspiring Knights Vest), then it's pretty painfull. On the good side, I liike that I can gather mats without having to physically travel, and do it passively. I like you crafting system tbh.

3)The new event. As an MMO Vet I am already getting mighty tired of these cc you force upon us. And exploding suddenly. Lost a tank in a flashpoint boss fight today, it's getting too invasive.

4)You flashpoints aren't the best. The defending the door ones is one big res and run spamfest. You never get some good 1vs1 or 2vs2 there. The cannons shooting the ships is your best. Hutball annoys me it is too easy to knock people down. The new one is decent, except the commentary driving me crazy, and once again you start very close and it's perpetual spam. Arathi Bassin (In WoW) had 5 points, and travel with mounts. You got many more interesting fights this way as you weren't always fighting on top of both sides spawnpoint. You best pvp flashpoint is a weak remake of Arathi I think.

5) Flashpoint balance isn't too good, they have turned out to be way too easy while levelling. Then they become boring. Lost a player in Maelstrom, finished it 3-,man and then it was fun.

There are many good things in your game, and it's a worthy 2012 template, I hope you learn from your own experience, and not just cater to experienced hired help who insists on sticking to supbar game mechanics.

Oh and if you can, develop a tech that will make you be able to merge servers on the fly, such a tech is sorely needed in MMOs. It's not a sign of an MMO losing subs, its the road ahead.

On the part about looks, I have to agree with the op. I was looking at some this gear and I nearly broke out laughing. In swtors defense wow has done this too at times, but never this sorry stupid like. This being said there is some good looking gear in the game. Take example the battle master pvp gear for trooper. If there was a armor that represented a trooper perfectly that armor would have my vote. When you make new gear simply look at your own trailers. The hope, the Deceived, and the return trailers. New players who watch those vids and get the game are going to expect to have there Jedi knights, Sith warriors, and troopers looking exactly like that. Another fine example of this is synweaving on empire toon, you get to the point were you can make a mask that covers your whole face, but you can not have your hood covering the mask like in the hope and deceived trailer.

You don not need to get cute or fancy just look at the trailers, to come up with something that resembles them closely and it will look good.