I have played off and on since launch but life and events took me away re subbing and re loading now. but wanted to ask a few things

1. any major changes to the prodeedureal approach to the story?

2. is it possible to customize the launcher images?

3. I have heard there is discussion at the top about the future of SWTOR ...is the future secure?

4. hello to all and thanks for keeping the Journey Alive.

I look forward to revisiting many familiar places and seeing may new ones. I left just after the launch of the Hutt Wars.

I have played off and on since launch but life and events took me away re subbing and re loading now. but wanted to ask a few things

Welcome back!

1. any major changes to the prodeedureal approach to the story?

The mechanical aspects are essentially the same, *but* the amount of XP given for class story missions is significantly higher (like six times as much!) than before 4.0 came out, which permits you to stay at the "expected" level for the class story planets by just doing the class story missions and the <Story Arc> main planetary stories.

2. is it possible to customize the launcher images?

In-game loading screen images, yes (although it can cause issues during major updates), but the images in the launcher itself are provided from the web by BioWare to promote stuff (Cartel Market, new releases, etc.).

3. I have heard there is discussion at the top about the future of SWTOR ...is the future secure?

It's a largely futile question, in my opinion, since it's inspired by Things People Say On The Internet, which is a fancy way of saying "noise".

I ... wanted to ask a few things.

1. The main change would be that you can level up by just doing the main "class" story mixed in with a few FPs and Planetary Arcs. (No need to do the smaller quests any more)

2. Don't know, but probably not.

3. Unclear, the future is.

4. Hello to you. Welcome back.

The mechanical aspects are essentially the same, *but* the amount of XP given for class story missions is significantly higher (like six times as much!) than before 4.0 came out, which permits you to stay at the "expected" level for the class story planets by just doing the class story missions and the <Story Arc> main planetary stories.

Thank you all, i really appreciate the tie you all took and thought given to my questions. I just hoped to get a feel for any major shifts, i have been playing almost from day 1 but life keeps interrupting me and also I had to go to other MMOs to develop skills i needed ...

I started by warming up with a starting Padiwan mission and am enjoying it. I do love the look and feel of the game, it is like being in a painting and I like that feel.

thanks again and I hope to meet you all at some point in my Journey, if you see me go by say hi

thanks

Carn

Can confirm firsthand that you don't even have to do planetary arc to stay on level.

I created a new Commando to test just this. She just finished Hoth, only does class quests, not even bonus quests (unless enough mobs are standing between her and her goal to accidentally complete it), only uses XP boosts she gets as rewards and she's still always one or two levels higher than most mobs.

One major change that took me by surprise when I came back last month was...

You can pick your advanced class upon character creation, so you no longer need to go to fleet.

Also, I think subscribers get speeder mount training earlier then level 25.

Lastly, planets have something called level sync. So if you are above the max level a planet allows, it lowers your stats to imitate being that capped level so that you can still gain exp.

For example, you might have a level 31 Sith Warrior, but you can go back to korriban and still finish off side quests you didn’t get around to doing your first time through and still gain experience points.

One major change that took me by surprise when I came back last month was...

 

You can pick your advanced class upon character creation, so you no longer need to go to fleet.

That was done in two steps:

* In 4.0, you had to wait until level 10, but once you got there you could choose immediately without visiting an NPC.

* In 5.0, you choose at character creation, and in fact you *must* choose at creation - there is no way to be a plain Trooper any more.(1)

Also, I think subscribers get speeder mount training earlier then level 25.

Level 10.

Lastly, planets have something called level sync. So if you are above the max level a planet allows, it lowers your stats to imitate being that capped level so that you can still gain exp.

For example, you might have a level 31 Sith Warrior, but you can go back to korriban and still finish off side quests you didn’t get around to doing your first time through and still gain experience points.

It only lowers Endurance, Mastery, Power and Health, although there is some speculation that the lowered value of Health is not what your Endurance would calculate. In some cases, you can become slightly weaker when levelling up from planetmax to planetmax+1 (e.g. from 12 to 13 on starter worlds).

(1) That isn't quite true, but it requires that you had a plain old Trooper before 5.0 dropped, and that you Esc out of the "select an advanced class" popup. It is certainly impossible to create a *new* plain old Trooper. (And the same is obviously true of all the other classes.