I'm hoping they fix the missions they've broken, which seems to be numerous. The entire class quest line for my Warrior has vanished part way through doing Alderaan, leaving only the planet quest line. Also did a mission with my Smuggler on Makeb in an instanced area, hit a switch to move to the next stage of the mission, which was to kill some boss NPC, but the NPC never showed up. I even reset the mission and did it again to see if I missed anything, but the NPC is still not showing up. Honestly, I don't think I've seen the game be this buggy since initial release.

So I used the wrong word. Okay, thanks for the correction. The story should be the incentive for progression in this game, but there's always going to be someone who isn't that interested in the story and just wants to level up, say for PvP or whatever. Under the current system where you stop gaining exp once you're a certain number of levels over the NPCs you're killing, the incentive exists to move on to the higher level areas if you want to keep gaining exp. With the proposed level sync system, someone could sit on the starter planet and grind away on the heroics and mobs, and the exp they earn scales up with their level. At least that's my understanding of the proposed system. This is a new feature being implemented to fix/replace the current system mentioned above, where you stop earning exp once you're a certain number of levels above the current area. The current system isn't broken, so why is it being fixed/replaced? Granted, there is probably still a lot we don't know about this new system. It could be that it only kicks in under certain conditions, such as when you reach x levels above the current planet, if you character started at level 60, or only if you bought KotFE.

Well, this is certainly an interesting development. Of all the stuff they mentioned in that announcement, there's really only two items I have any opinion on: level cap and companion changes. First I'll address the companion changes, specifically this: This will be a major help to players, as they no longer have to fuss around with keeping at least six sets of gear, including their own, leveled up. Now they can focus only on their own gear. This is something that I've always struggled with, keeping my comps up to date with the gear. For me, by the time I reached late game, there was always only one comp who had gear that was anywhere close to the appropriate level, but even then it was often lacking. There have been many times where I've needed to switch out my comp for one that fit the situation better, i.e. a healer or tank instead of dps, only to realize that the comp I'm switching to is still fitted with gear that's 20 levels too low. The companion changes will eliminate that, for which I'm happy. Now for the level cap. First reaction? Sounds like something a lobotomized Gamorrean would come up with. You're basically removing the incentive to progress to higher level, and therefore tougher and more rewarding, areas. Using the example given in the announcement of a level 60 coming down to a level 30 area, there should only be a few reasons for that: 1) You're interested in the story and want to experience it, 2) You're only interested in the credits, so you're there to farm, or 3) You're there to help someone in a tough situation because they asked and you're feeling charitable. Being level 60 and going down to a level 30 should never be about "Oh, I want the exp to level up," because you shouldn't be getting any. If you're level 60 and want to gain exp to level up, you should be doing level 60+ areas. That's the way it currently is, and it works pretty well. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Think of it this way: it's not so much of you scaling down (well, actually that's exactly what this is, you scaling down), but the exp reward from enemies scales up, which makes absolutely no sense. Of the three reasons I listed above for a high level player going down to a low level area, level cap only makes sense for one of them: the player is there for the story. Even for this rationale, the level cap idea is modified. Sure, keep the stat scaling, but remove the exp scaling. Imagine this situation: a player starts a character at level 60 in KotFE, then decides to go do the original game content for the story, before they get into the KotFE content, so they head to the starter planets (I guarantee this will happen because why not?). Under the currently proposed level cap system, everything about the player will be scaled down, except for the exp earned, which will supposedly scale up. This will likely result in the player hitting max level by the time they finish the capital world, if not the starter planet, therefore eliminating any future exp gains until the level max is raised again. So, in this situation, the exp scaling should be removed so the incentive of gaining exp to level up remains once the player returns to the level 60 areas. Also, level scaling should only apply in story areas, because that’s why the level 60 player is there, for the story. It wouldn’t be much fun in the story areas if the player could one-shot everything. For the other two reasons, the level cap system makes no sense at all, even with exp scaling removed. In both situations, it is in the player’s interest to be at their high level in order to expedite the process. If they’re in a lower level area to farm, they don’t want to be spending a lot of time there when they’ve got other things on their daily to-do list. And with the level scaling, they’d likely be forced to look for a group for the heroics, which they probably could have soloed at their higher level, and that wastes even more of their time. Then there’s the personal pride side of the equation: if I’d invested all the time and resources into leveling up and getting gear to match, and I go back to a lower level area, I don’t want my investment to be rendered pointless. I want to be the bad-*** I made my character into and do what I came to the lower level area to do – wipe the floor with the lower level mobs. As an alternative, or modification to the level cap idea, I’d suggest making it either apply to only story/instance areas, and/or be optional, with a toggle for subscribers and a cartel market unlock for everybody else. So, to recap, the companion changes are a great idea, the level cap idea not so much. Everything else about the announcement…meh.

Achievement Name: Slow Cooker Reward: 100 points + character title: Slow Cooker Description: In a single encounter, take an hour or more to kill a World Boss. I thought of this when my level 24 sniper teamed up with a level 40 Merc to kill Grandfather, the level 22 WB on Balmorra. It was just the two of us and it took forever to kill the beast, but we eventually did. Both of us agreed that we should have gotten an award for taking so long.

Hate to put a damper on your upgrade joy, but just as a heads up, there is a possibility that your old NVIDIA card won't work with the new motherboard. If it does work, it'll most likely end up being a big limiting factor on you overall PC performance, not just for SWTOR. In fact, I'm surprised you've been able to run this game at all on an 800MHz processor, considering the minimum required specs for the game ask for a 2.0 GHz processor. After upgrading to an i7, you'll certainly notice a drastic improvement in performance, and you'll wonder why you didn't upgrade sooner. As for the NVIDIA card, like I said, that's going to be a limiting factor. Your processor will be working at a much higher capacity and efficiency than your graphics card can handle, so you're likely going to be running SWTOR at it's absolute lowest graphics settings, if you aren't already, in order to have decent FPS. I recommend setting aside some extra cash and plan on getting a new graphics card to go with the new processor and motherboard. You'll have absolutely no worries about FPS once you do, even at higher graphics settings. Plus, new graphics cards come with their own dedicated processor, GPU, which takes a significant load off your CPU, and can be nearly as powerful.

Then yeah, with a card that old, a new driver is likely to have no affect on the performance or quality of SWTOR, I think. I have a GT 540M, and like I said earlier, new drivers likely stopped affecting performance for my card long ago. The only way to improve performance and quality for SWTOR, or any game really, at this point is to get a new card, rather than just new drivers. Of course, really the only way to know for sure if a new driver affects SWTOR performance or quality is to install the new driver then play the game, and watch for any changes.

Depending on what model graphics card you have and how old it is, it's likely that upgrading to a new driver isn't going to have any appreciable difference on performance. What it might do is ensure that the driver isn't going to crash on you if you download an OS patch that somehow conflicts with the old one, or if you get a new card, it'll ensure that you already have a driver that works with it. It's always best to look at the patch notes in detail about the driver and decide if it will have any real affect. My card is a few years old and I'm pretty sure new drivers stopped improving upon its performance a long time ago. It stopped being "Oh hey, your card needs this new driver to work better" and went to "Oh hey, here's a new driver and it just happens to be compatible with your card still."

Okay, having gone through this thread, I now this question has been asked already, but I'll ask it again, just with a different wording. Do subscribers, who already shell out the cost of this expansion on a regular basis, really have to pay extra for this expansion? I could have sworn you guys learned your lesson after the Hutt Cartel expansion when you made it free, but I guess not. I've been a subscriber since the game originally went live, heck, I even pre-ordered and took part in a beta weekend, and I gotta tell ya, I'm not feeling much appreciation in return. All I get for having pre-ordered originally is a unique yellow-black crystal that is only useful for a few levels, then need to replace, and if I want that color again, I have to wait till at least level 45 and spend a big chunk of credits to buy another one. Really not that great when there are crystals you can get from the Cartel Market, and from the GTN when someone's selling, that you can use at level 10 and they're still good even up to level 55. The pre-order bonuses for this are nice and all, but in the grand scheme, they're actually fairly insignificant and average. A statue of Revan to put in the strongholds? Okay, what else you got? Rise of the Hutt Cartel for free? Sorry, already got that. What else? 12x experience bonus on class missions up to level 55, effective from the time of pre-order to Dec 1st? As nice as that sounds, most of my characters are already level 55 and/or done with their class quests. Those that aren't are already over-leveled as is for the missions they're on, so what good is making that level gap even bigger gonna do? As Watto said in Episode I, I need something more real. What else you got?

What is happening?

Sure has been awhile since the last check-in for Arizona. Guess I'll check in again and provide an update. Still in the North Phoenix/Scottsdale border area, but now play on The Harbinger server, with 4 Republic characters and 1 Imp. If anyone from Az is still lurking around, come say hello!

I just bought a physical security key and it should be in my hand next week. As for the rest, I'm sorry. Probably should put this topic in Customer Service rather than here in the Suggestion Box, that way someone from Customer Service would be more likely to respond and address your concern.

I like the idea of the currency exchange for commendations. However, that is a different topic from the OP. In response to the OP, according to Star Wars lore, Republic Dataries, otherwise known as credits to the rest of the galaxy, is the currency standard for the galaxy (except in Hutt space, where they need something more real). Cred chips, or cred sticks, whichever you choose, are basically the Star Wars equivalent of real world pre-paid credit cards. They aren't an alternative to credits, just a means of carrying around amounts of money without a pocket full of cash. In the lore, cred chips or sticks can be loaded with a preset amount of credits and then handed off to someone else as needed. Each chip or stick essentially linked to an separate bank account that only had the desired amount of credits in it. A person could carry multiple cred sticks, each one with a different amount and use them as needed, while still keeping their main account separate. In game, attempting to implement cred chips or sticks would add a level of complexity that is entirely unnecessary, as some find it hard enough to keep credits in their character's pockets as it is without having to worry about sticks or chips as well.

It's a possibility, but I don't see how. It would completely mess up whatever formula is used to determine the stat increase gained from REing. Instead of using one formula that covers all of them, which is by far the easiest and simplest thing to do, it would require a separate formula for each enhancement. As much as I would like to believe otherwise, I'm pretty sure the devs would do whatever is the simplest and easiest thing for them to do. In fact, given that thought, it is possible that these redundant enhancement schematics are left over from when the game was still in development and they never bothered to clean them out. Case in point, there were some codex entries that were around in the beta that didn't make it into the release version, but yet the record of them wasn't completely removed, resulting in missing codex entries that could never be found. I'm not even sure if they've entirely cleaned up the codex yet or not.

If you're an Artifice crafter, you've probably noticed that at higher levels, the number of schematics for enhancements gets a bit...large. I haven't counted recently, but I suspect that there are at least fifty enhancement schematics for a single level available from the crew skill trainer. What I have noticed is that many of these enhancement schematics are redundant, having the exact same stats as at least one other schematic at the same level, just a different name. My suggestion is that the devs go through the list of enhancement schematics and remove the ones that are redundant, thereby cleaning up and simplifying the Artifice crew skill. When the devs do this, how about also refunding the cost of purchasing the removed schematics to those who already purchased them?

"I reprogrammed the ship's food dispenser to reduce the crew's caloric intake. Some of them were growing a bit thick..." "I marked the best escape pod for your sole use, Master. I will of course go down with the ship." "It is my upmost pleasure to serve you, Master. And I am not just programmed to say that." Trust me, the ship's droids are a lot less chatty than they were when the game launched. Yes, they are annoying, but they are less annoying than they were originally. You could be on the other side of the ship from them and they would still talk to you.