Considering SWG implemented it 'correctly' in their mouse and keyboard MMORPG for Jump To Lightspeed about 13 years ago... the entire argument of "it cant be done" is pretty much null and void. I tried the GSF, and went ... nope, not gonna care. Its no better than SWTOR's original 'space flight on rails' garbage they released with. Just... off the rails, so to speak. Since this entire game has been pushed towards the solo-play-easy-casual-market... its really no bother. I won't ever be resubbing or paying for anything in this game due to the clear lack of improvements over the last 6 years.

Need a forum category for 'returning player help', because a lot of things have been changed (so far for the worse) since opening day. One thing that hasn't changed, is all the obvious bugs we all reported during beta, which still plague the game. From what I saw in a brief 7 day return, every issue and problem that existed in 2011, still exists today. What have they been doing? Nothing has improved, skills are a mess, companions are a mess, and the game is chock full of 'buy this with cartel coins' flashy items for strongholds or more oversized speeders clogging up fleet station. Sorry, back to the point... new player help? 1 - Anyone care to explain how one unlocks all these exploration map achievements in their legacy when their level 50 characters have all uncovered every planet map that existed? I go to a planet, and it wont fix the legacy achievements. Does this mean I have to make a whole new character, and run through every bloody planet all over again to discover everything I've already discovered? 2 - What is "Archive" for under skill crafting, when its all the things I used to make, but multitudes of the same stat items (just different names). And if I try to reverse engineer any, it just gives "Crew Skill Error"? 3 - How come every shuttle point on the maps are unlocked, if I've not been to them on that character (this was on starting a new character... to figure out the map exploration issue)? 4 - So, every companion is just the same bot, but a different skin basically? Doesnt matter who you have out, they do the exact same things depending on 'role' choice? 5 - Does influence even matter to finish a companion chain of conversations now? 6 - How long is this 'bounty hunting' thing going on for? 7 - Why is everything so easy now? Did the millennials really win and strong arm the developers to make the game a faceroll cakewalk for people not interested in an "M"MO? 8 - What was actually improved since 2011? Anything?

(slight necro, not really) Yeah, returning after 5 years, first thing I noticed was how darn easy everything was. Started up a new character... cannot believe how simple things are, and already hit level 32... mid second planet (been ignoring warzones, not my bag). So, someone above says there is a device you can use to kill the rampant xp gain? Is this some cash-grab cartel-market purchase item BS, or is it like 50c in-game creds? And someone says to enable veteran mode, does this apply in open world, or only flashpoints? And if you want to co-op content with a friend (this _IS_ supposed to be MMO afterall, not soloplayer RPG)... is there actually any way to get any sort of challenge in the open world?

I don't know if this is a bug, or something intended (stupid if its intended), but my suggestion is as follows: XP SHOULD STOP if you are too far above the level. Its how it used to be many years ago, but now on a level 50 character on a starter planet, I'm just slaughtering heroic 2+ beasts and raking in XP (both character, and legacy). The XP gains should be based off your 'real' level, and not the 'lowered' level. -- After playing a new character the past few days (after returning from before this easy-cheese update was introduced)... I have noticed that in various areas my level will be 'reduced' to the cap for the area. This is good, right? It is supposed to stop over-leveled characters from having it too easy there? Was that the intention? Sadly though it appears you also get XP as it thinks your high level character, is really level 12 fighting level 12 mobs. Bug? Or intentional? I find it stupid whatever it is, and suggest it be adjusted. Its already too damn easy to breeze through areas, even with the level reductions... but now my 'new' character is already level 32 and only halfway through Dromund Kaas!!!

My brother and I used a referral ... he was totally f2p when he used it. And I was an old 4yr-expired subscriber. My brother - F2P: Basically not gotten much of anything except the item in the mail, which he says has not helped in any way to unlock anything useful that is annoyingly barking at him at every turn. He cannot even /group chat to me when we play (but no bother, we use Discord anyhow). Such insane restrictions in place and the referral link did nothing to encourage him to actually buy the game. For me - Preferred Return: I was bumped back to premium, but not really. I am stuck at level 50 on all my characters, and cannot do anything new, not even Rise of the Hutt items (rewarded by chapter 2 story npcs) can be equipped. I did get an inventory increase item in the mail... as well as three 'unlocks' which do not work (maybe they will at the end of 7 days). As for if these items show up for NEW characters made after the 7 day period where you drop back to F2P or Preferred... unknown, but others say they do. However I read so many conflicting reports, I personally cannot be so sure. Its also misleading that accepting a friend referral will bump a F2P account to Preferred. It does not. Which is something else I read from some old thread somewhere. Again, so many conflicting reports about what it does.

Amazing this thread is still going. Although I am (was) a full supporter for chat bubbles, to increase RP immersion, as well as encourage players to talk to each other face to face outside of a jambed global chat box........ ...I do have to say, after returning after all these years, I would rather their last 2 developers spend much needed time on fixing all the outstanding quality of life issues that still plague this game. Issues even reported during beta. Its appalling to see other games built by indie devs, who can manage to fix qol issues like nothing, yet a AAA company cannot even muster any effort to clean up all manner of obvious qol issues. This doesn't mean I disagree with this thread of chat bubbles, I just find it hard to believe they will ever bother at this point, and if any effort should be made, it should be towards the many problems that are existing.

Lets make it even more unreadable than before. Hire someone who has actual former experience in layout, readability, and web site design. This new design (apart from the forms you actually type in) is the worst thing I've seen since myspace pages. Great example of how terrible it is to read something important: http://www.swtor.com/test-center/patchnotes/313976 1) Jambed boxes of varying colored text, with no box definition. 2) -- nevermind you fixed the indents and navigation -- Then you have the actual forums. Each forum listing of topics is just this horrible string of tiny text on black background colors. Super serious ultra-dark gray is no better than black. Nothing has definition, it all looks like it is floating in a sea of text links and words. Margins are screwy, some things are so close together then some have double spacing. Who ever learned that black backgrounds were 'right'? Eye burn is not what I wish to endure just to read the dev tracker. Oh, and lets look at that mess of jumbled up text shall we? http://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php 1) Ultra tiny quotes in gray. 2) Huge gaps between quotes and super bold burning gold text on black. 3) Lacking margins between postings, making things ram together. 4) Indents gone on walkabout. Then we can jump over and take a look at this mess: http://www.swtor.com/blog/dev-tracker-summary-april-10th-2012-–-april-16th-2012 1) Simply enjoy how every page appears to have its own spacing definitions. 2) Learn to add margins. 3) What ever happened to readability being #1 goal for a website? I have to say. This 'new design' is the worst thing I've seen in a long time. Thank you for making me never return to the forums! Goodbye. PS: Well, at least you didnt use #00F for text links. I'll give you that.

I was wondering if it would be at all possible to add an 'upgrade module' to purchase off some vender somewhere, which will alter the STAP vehicle to go 110%. This would make that special vehicle useful for level 50 players. The module can have a purchase restriction of level 50 to prevent too early of upgrade. Personally, no other vehicle is worth my creds. They all look like arse (and the big two-seaters are just laugh-mobiles ). So I'd love to be able to buy some sort of upgrade to my STAP to get it up to speed. Thanks.

Apparently they are for use indoors where vehicles are not allowed. However since the devs have been adding more and more vehicle use indoors, the boots are growing useless as a result. They should have been going in the other direction. Removing vehicles from indoor locations, and requiring people to get speedygonzolasboots if you want to move fast indoors. Oh well, another poorly thought out issue with regards to vehicles (boots now included).

If they don't exist by the time my renew is up (and a couple other issues still persist by then), I wont be renewing.

What was your reasoning behind allowing vehicles in inappropriate places like indoors and fleet station? Fleet station is now a jumble of over sized speeders and all the nonsense associated with that in confined spaces. You now opened up more indoor locations with the coming update 1.2, yet still have not addressed speeders in outdoor tunnels like the Dune Sea tunnel? I guess my question is: is the guy in charge with speeder use allowances not actually playing the game to see how messed up it is?

Full 3d control space battles + large scale capital ship battles in full 3d space control It was the single most thing that kept me playing StarWarsGalaxies for all those years and years, as I knew when the ground got boring, there was always space where real skill mattered, and not what gear you looted off some raid boss somewhere and pressing i-win buttons over and over. It is after all, star wars. My star wars NIGHTMARE: Dance Offs as Jabba the Hutt.

Oh, geez. Hmm. Well, it was a long time ago, in beta forums when this issue kept coming up. They had discussed why they set each planet at a specific time. Mainly because they wanted to control the initial ambience of a situation on entering new areas and places on a planet. For example when entering Coruscant for the first time, you are at sunset, with that incredible ambience of the huge looming sun, and the towers, and the lighting of the moment. But if they had night/day cycles, and if you happened to arrive on Coruscant at night, you would have not witnessed this 'setting' upon first arrival. These settings are why Bioware wanted to lock in time, and NOT do a day/night cycle. Whether their view on this has changed since then, I do not know, they seem to skirt the issue when its brought up now. We all know its not about 'how' they could do it. Its been done before in an older game. Its all about 'why' they wont/will do it.

True, but lets not derail this thread

Whats funny is... SWG had a better mail system in the game, and no one ever complained about it. Out of everything people complained about, mail in that game was not one of them (you could even do colored text! and mail waypoints! and send to mail lists! imagine such technology! lol). And guess what, despite no 'mailboxes', that game had the most social interaction in hubs than this game, and pretty much any other mmo. So apparently the tired excuse of "Mailboxes create social hubs" is false. Whenever I saw mailboxes in other mmos outside of SWG, all I saw was a glob of people huddled around a box not saying a word to each other. Yeah... great social center there. Oh... and for the OP: There are mailboxes in cantinas. Least, all the cantinas I can recall at the moment. But since no one seems to hang out in cantinas, I don't really hang there or pay much attention to them.