So everything that happens to one side should happen just the same to the counterpart on the other, all the time? Not like that wouldn't be a tad ridiculous and rather boring after a while. Riiiiight.

Ever heard of Dark Age of Camelot (DAOC)? It even pretty much specializes in the PVP aspect of the game. (Known for Realm-vs-Realm wars.) Been around a long time. Always had three factions. But that's a digression. We don't need more factions. We just need them to do the work and apply a tech they already know how to implement to the new companions. I'd really like to be able to customize their looks too! Edit: Oh, BTW, Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) too. I'm pretty sure there are likely more.

FWIW, I feel that the companions are a bit (said sincerely -- a little, but not that much, IMO) more powerful than they should be now. That said, I think they were really sad before and yes, pretty much useless as many have stated. Some (healers) were more effective than others (DPS), while some were totally ineffective (tanks) in their roles. But IMO, all of them were in need of a little love. So yes, I think they're a little overpowered now, but honestly, I don't feel that's as big an issue as having them be the weak things they used to be. At times (certain situations, certainly) they were even more liabilities than helpers. As the companions are primarily used when doing solo missions, very rarely in groups, and not at all in PvP, they really don't present much of a balance issue, IMO. First and foremost, I believe they should be useful/helpful to the player who wishes to do some solo play. Should they be 'nerfed?' That's a touchy subject. IMO, they could be taken down just a bit from what they are now -- but not a lot -- certainly not to the 'old level' they used to fight at. Given that I don't feel they really 'break the game' for anyone but the person utilizing them (if at all), I don't think it's a big balance issue that really needs high priority. I am frankly rather leery of BioWare's ability to adjust them without going overboard. Thus far, IMO, they've generally tended toward extremes and overcompensating, rather than careful, slight adjustments. (Which is kind of why they're too powerful now -- overcompensation.) If the devs could tweak them down slightly and carefully, not slamming things around from one extreme to the other . . . well, it might be a good thing. I just don't have that much faith in them though.

Thankfully, I don't have this problem to the full extent described -- I am getting the patch notes on my launcher (and via the website too) in German when I am set to English. But my game is still playing in English. So far anyway. Seems like someone broke some localization flags somewhere.

NYCC: http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/8dhh PAX Prime: http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/8dhg

http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/8dhf

I'm here too, due to the new storyline missions coming up! Very much looking forward to them. I got the $40 special in the spring (mostly for the expansion and CC -- I do still poke my head in now and then), figured I'd probably go back to Preferred status after my 60 days were up. But then they added an appearance tab system and I stayed on a bit, and now story -- that's what will keep me around, if anything will.

Generally speaking, no, it's not exclusive to TOR at all. It was, at least for some years, a blanket moratorium on Force-wielding wookiees made by George Lucas. (There had been 2 or 3, I think, before he made that call, then none, until a few have now started appearing again without any seeming explanation from Lucas. Of course, now that Disney has the reigns, it's anyone's guess.) See this page in the Wookieepedia, scroll down to the 'Behind the Scenes' section and you'll find this:

Honestly, for all the people who keep insisting, "Why not?" for non-humanoid, non-Basic-speaking species, the main reason is fully-voiced player characters. Sure, a Trandoshan (like Qyzen) may be able to learn to speak Basic. But seriously, can you picture Qyzen without the gravelly Trando voice, with say, the voice of the female (or even the male) Consular? Because that's the deal. They're not going to do a full set of VO from level 1 to endgame for a new race. No class has multiple different voices that swap according to race. You get one voice that's used on all characters of a given class/sex. With that in mind, I think it becomes pretty obvious why they limit the pool of available races they way they do. As well-liked as Jennifer Hale's voice-work is, do you really want a lady Trando trooper who sounds like the female Shepard from Mass Effect?

The bottom line, IMO, is that EA/BioWare should have addressed this ages ago by fixing their flagging system so that people are -only- flagged by specifically turning on their own flag manually. (And, it follows that no one without a flag would be able to affect, for either good or ill, anyone with a flag, and vice-versa.) That's at the core of every truly -consensual- PvP system. Every other game I've played (and I've played a lot of them) has done this. It's not rocket science. Why they refuse to do so is the big mystery, IMO. Those who keep claiming it's some kind of intricate work that would change metric tons of code are talking it up for their own ulterior motives, I expect. (Which is my opinion, not a fact.) Any amateur programmer, let alone a professional, would be used to coding in modules and subroutines. You don't write a new block of code every time you need to check for valid targets in another encounter. If they are, then they need way more help than I believe they do.

Seems like a point-of-view thing, to me. For those who don't PvP, it would improve the game, as all further resources would go toward PvE content. But for those who like to PvP, it would destroy it. At this point, with the game having PvP, I would say it's a bad thing to remove it. Shouldn't drive off all those folks who like that aspect of the game. Now would it work to design the game from the ground-up without PvP? Personally, I think it would. I would like to see more games designed solely as PvE or PvP games. I think it would avoid a great many of the common balancing/griefing issues that mixed games have, and if it were to become standard design, there would be enough PvE games and PvP games to go around for everyone to enjoy themselves. That, of course, is entirely a matter of opinion/speculation on my part though.

I do think that a few of the limitations are a bit much and could be removed. I agree with some here, that in the long run, happy F2P players can spend as much or more money on CM stuff than a regular subscriber. That's exactly what most F2P games count on, and it's been working for them just fine. Many games (STO, Neverwinter, TERA, etc.) don't gate content, and don't depend on subscribers for money. Heck, GW2 has no subscriptions, but they make plenty on cash-shop items. Subscriptions are NOT the holy grail of income for most F2P games. Some limits do need to remain, yes. Again, as others have already stated, the cosmetic limits are things that should remain as paid unlocks (titles, unify colors and such are fine as they are, IMO). The current unlocks for gear (artifacts) and access to content (FPs, Ops, Section X, and so on) are the things I would get rid of though. Also axe the lockouts on hotbars -- that's always been kind of ridiculous, IMO. Selling more storage space is fine though -- most games sell extra storage in the cash shop. FWIW, I would also say make a few cosmetic things, like tweaking your character's appearance, free to subscribers, but leave the CC charges in place for non-subscribing players. (Though race-change is a big one -- I could see leaving that as paid for everyone. But the per-slider charges? Should be free for subs.) As for some of the limitations on trading and mailing credits and multiple items -- there are aspects to those that I haven't seen folks mentioning here. These are not simply limits to encourage subscription or further purchases, IMO, but they are anti-gold-seller measures. Making it more difficult to move credits around between players makes it more difficult for a gold(credit)-seller to sell credits from a F2P account. Though I could see letting even F2P accounts mail credits within their own legacy. A gold-seller is going to want to move things from his/her account to others. Likewise, limits on communication also tend to hinder gold-sellers from spamming regular players with 'ads' for there services. Some of those, while being irksome, may be in place for more reasons than simply encouraging further sales for BioWare. A few further ideas -- I feel that the costs of 'changing clothes' in-game are way out of line (IE, moving mods around). I think those costs may already be cheaper for subscribers than F2P, but if not, a subscriber discount on them would be great. (Or even if they are different now, a bit larger subscriber discount, perhaps?) Ideally, I would really like to see an appearance tab, and that could be something that a subscriber would get a tab free, F2P would have to pay for in the CM. In general, make the content available to all, give F2P players access to the 'whole game' -- but extras that are either cosmetic or simply 'quality of life' type enhancements are the things they should have to pay for in the CM.

I'm completely in favor of an appearance tab myself. I think it sounds like the OP is suggesting that basically, yes. But if I'm reading it right, the OP is looking for an implementation a bit more like the system that DCUO uses. For those unfamiliar with it, DCUO has a page that looks a bit like a collections display page here. When you equip a piece of clothing/armor with a particular style there, it adds it to the 'collection.' From that point onward, that style is available to you. You can sell/delete the item that had the appearance, and you still retain the look in your collection. Then you can set your appearance using any of the stored looks you have available. It lets you keep a wide variety of cosmetic styles (as long as you obtained/equipped each of them at some point) available, while not filling up your inventory with a zillion bits of clothing.

Honestly, I think it varies a bit depending on the setting you're using it in. From a PvE standpoint, the cone has better control and can be used more tactically. But if you're in PvP, and getting focused on, you probably really wish you had the full 360-degree version to help get those attackers off of you. Sure would be nice if we could have either.

I am lucky enough not to have run into this glitch personally, but I have 2 friends who just recently returned to the game. We've recently been doing some Esseles and Black Talon runs to get new characters going and just generally to build up some Social points, and both of them get hit by the disconnect every time we play. Fortunately, I recalled reading about this bug ages ago, and was able to search and find the work-around for them, but it certainly hasn't given them a very positive 'welcome back to SWTOR' experience.