Its not really a problem past Nar Shaddaa. By the time you hit Quesh its back to 20 or less most of the time. The early planets are all the folks trying for free....it is clear many are not making it much past 20.

I see the home PC experts are getting all whipped up into their standard post Windows OS new release frenzy. Windows 7 is a very good OS. Windows 8 is better. Windows 8 is not Vista. SWTOR will run at the worst equal to Windows 7 on Windows 8 but because of the way SWTOR is "optimized" most people will see an improvement on Windows 8. Windows 8 Pro is NOT a Tablet OS, though it is user experience is moving PC users towards a mobile frame of mind. The ARM version of Windows 8 IS a tablet OS and will not run on a PC and the PC version of Windows 8 (Pro) will not run on an ARM Tablet. Intel/AMD tablets will run PC Windows 8. The ARM Surface tablets that were released with Windows 8 are like Android Tablets. That is why their sales sucked. Windows 8 corporate customers want tablets that can be used in place of their laptop or workstations. The Pro Surface tablets come out in February. Those will not suck and those will sell a ton. Windows 8 sales will take off at this point. Windows 8 is Microsoft's first generation shift into OS centralization. That is the idea that your OS looks and "feels" the same on all accepted common use hardware platforms. Tablets, Touch Ultra-books and Smart Phones are now standards in the home and workplace. Microsoft is adapting to the...paradigm shift. Had to use the phrase because...it fits. Basic Overview: Windows 8 is like Windows 7 except when you shut off Windows 8 it is actually going into a form of hibernation. That is why it starts so fast. All the drivers, common system processes, services etc are stored in a large "dump file" that is loaded on boot. Because of this when you boot in Windows 8 it doesn't really speak to the BIOS anymore because it doesn't need to query the BIOS for hardware interface (driver loading) making it even faster to boot. It also stores commonly used apps (like a superfetch) in this "flat file" so it makes your hard drive behave more like a solid state drive (note the word "like"). Most of the "crashes" or bugs gamers have found is this mode moving files in and out of protected memory spaces in a manner that is different than has been used before. Games will ultimately benefit from this design immensely as their coders get familiar with the changes. Its resource handling is superior to Windows 7. Its security is FAR superior to Windows 7. Its driver interface is superior (though the hardware companies are as usual behind on getting full support in place but will catch up fast---was the same with Windows 7). It is a superior OS to Windows 7. The Metro interface is a bit off putting at first but when you realize two things you get used to it fast. 1. The Metro interface on a PC is nothing more than an exploded Start button in the form of a screen view. 2. The traditional Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, 95 Desktop is still right there...just click...Desktop. You can even put the Desktop short cut in your "Start Up" programs folder and skip right to the desktop after a 1-2 second glimpse of the Metro screen. The one mistake Microsoft has made was not keeping the Start button for PC/Laptop users. I get they are moving towards a new interface but Windows 8 should have been Metro under the hood vs the hood. People are stupid and change scares them. I would expect SP 1 to bring the Start Button back and Metro a part of the shell you can switch to. You can download "Classic Shell" for free from Source Forge and put it back now. Just Google it, works great and actually ads features Windows 7 doesn't which make Windows 10x better. For those who have Windows 8 and who might be getting the occasional crash with a game (or any app), simply right click the game icon and select properties. Go to the Compatibility tab, check the Compatibility mode "Run this program in compatibility mode for:", drop down the box below and select "Windows 7". Click Apply, Click Ok, start your game(or app). This will remove some of the Windows 8 resource improvement APIs from interacting with the game. Overall, Windows 8 is better than Windows 7 in every way but the change to the Start button and even that is easy to get over once you get familiar with the various ways Windows 8 does things. And remember, Microsoft is on a hard 2 year release schedule promise to their corporate EA/SA customers...Windows 9 will be here by early 2015. It will be moving even more to "Metro" look and use. Stop spreading false info. It is clear most of the people who are dogging Windows 8 really have no experience with API programing or deep level OS troubleshooting.

This game is in make profit where it can mode...no way in heck they give away free money. They won't refund cartel coin shop buys even when they admit the item is bugged. You certainly aren't getting free coins.

Just another example of staff shortages. It is clear as day they are down to extremely limited staff and the holidays has nothing to do with it. Just like every other F2P game, corners are cut to try and make profits and one main cut is staff to take care of these kinds of issues. I am just kind of shocked such a large company has fallen so fast.

Simply precious. They can't fix an item give away bug....or they won't.

Odd, smaller game companies with cash shops will often kick in 5 or 10 coins if you are close enough (provided you don't make a habit out of it). League of Legends does it all the time. Guess real companies with real customer service get the job done.

Yea can see a difference alright. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=564567 They can't or won't fix a major bug with their CE customers. They then post a half-baked work around as the fix. Seriously...if this doesn't scare the hell out of you as to what the future of this game is...then you simply have your head buried far to deep in the sand to ever be helped. They literally can't fix an item giveaway bug. Stunning.

Want to know why I know I am right about their either having no real QA or serious Dev staffing issues as it pertains to bugs but really content and everything else? http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=564567 They literally either can't or won't fix a major bug where paying CE customers won't get items promised to them. There happens to be a "work around" that users figured out for part of it but Bioware first ruled that to be an exploit....a week later they can't or won't fix it so they now sticky the "work around" as the bug solution. What company in their right minds does something like this? They literally post a half-baked work around for a bug? Easy, one that is on a skeleton crew and on cruise control to death somewhere not to far in the future. Honestly...I have never seen anything like this from even the most fly by night F2P games out there. Simply stunning. Defend that fanbois.

Yea thats what it means. Couldn't possibly be a correlation between FREE accounts and increase in spam.

That is actually a good point. Every game these days "borrows" ideas from other games and tends to improve on them. How does SWTOR "borrow" ideas and so consistently manage to make them worse? Legacy, Group Finder, Dailies, GTN....and so on and so on.

Because I was gullable and came back for a month to see if they had actually improved. They didn't so you get me filling in as truth police until the sub ends in 3 weeks. Some of us don't rely on technology for our brains. Yes, this means that sometimes a transposed pair of letters happens when typing but overall my spelling tends to work out just fine. Perhaps you could give it a Whril?

This is going to blow your mind. We tested it, found the bugs and fixed them. Then, and this part is REALLY going to blow your mind....We tested it AGAIN! And if it passed our rigorous QA process then it got to go on a pilot. Then and only then after being proved out via pilot (IE a Test Server) was it approved for go live. Shocking I know. Actually testing and then fixing and then testing AGAIN! Coding is not rocket science. Its following process.

Pretty sure with all the people who abused the legacy "poorly thought out mechanics" when it first came out there are plenty of Legacy 50s. It isn't that special.

Yea, because no Bioware person working on SWTOR has ever given an interveiw where they promised all sorts of things that never came to pass. Oh wait, its happened tons of times. Why are people so gullible in this game?

All anyone would have to have done on the QA team is play the patch for 5 minutes and this one would have jumped in their face. I am awestruck at how accepting of poor quality people are...damn I am in the wrong business. Our customers demand nothing but the best and if you don't give it, you are out of a job. I need to get you all as customers cause i could crap all over you and keep collecting a check.