We seem to live in a world built for giants. Practically every doorway, corridor and room is at least five meters high. This even applies to starships, which is the one thing where you'd think space would be conserved as much as possible. Various fixtures are installed really high, often above head level. Control panels and screens seem really unergonomic and uncomfortable to use due to the extreme height.

Another point of interest is the almost complete lack of external windows. When you do manage to find any, they are also installed at a height that suggest design for beings that stand at least three meters tall. I have to wonder how the pilot of the XS Freighter manages to fly the ship with any kind of agility, much less the complex patterns seen in space missions! The Theoretika's windows are also a very good example. From a distance they seem pretty normal, but when you walk to the window, you'll see that the windowsill is above your head, and you can't really see out of the window at all.

All this makes it seem like most of the world has been scaled up by a factor of about two, in some cases possibly even more. I wonder if there's a lore-based explanation for this, or if it's just to make the game easier to play?

All games that are not first person do this to various degrees. It's so that the camera doesn't snag on doorways or ceilings, and so you can see people around you without the camera hitting the roof of a building.

You see it in dragon age, mass effect, even KOTOR to a lesser degree. However MMOs let you zoom out further, so they increase the scale further.

If it's any consolation, it really annoys me too.

I have a totally-without-proof theory about that --

I suspect that speeders and maybe even sprint were added mid-developement, which meant that things needed to be spread out more to make those features useful. Instead of redesigning all environments from scratch, they just globally up-scaled everything except the characters.

Coruscant was always illogical. well, Tatooine buildings looks highly practical. Belsavis' mixture of republic buildings and creepy rakata stuff seems also legit. Voss are strange people, so no comment. Alderaan is planet of nobles, so you can expected some hedonistic styles. No problem with Balmorra buildings. Quesh and Hutta stuff was built by Hutts, so its similar like with Alderaan.

Only problem i have with Dromund Kaas. After hundreds of years, why there is still no decent road from spaceport to capital city? They built hi-tech ubercool city above jungles, and Siths must walk on mud and grass? ***?

I would appreciated design there more if 50% of map was full of city and metallic roads, and 50% was only jungle, temple etc.

That's dubious. If adding sprint and speeders resulted in too short travel times, it would indicate that those features weren't needed to begin with.

No offence, but you're thinking about it backwards. These features were created as perks for leveling players in the same way everything in these "Skinner box" MMOs is. "Problems" are intentionally created (like long travel times) so that the player can be tempted with the prospect of earning "solutions" to those problem if they keep playing long enough (and thus keep paying subscription money).

Of course, in the face of criticism about long travel times and gradual sub losses, sprint and speeders are now available to low level players, somewhat negating their original purpose.

Only problem i have with Dromund Kaas. After hundreds of years, why there is still no decent road from spaceport to capital city? They built hi-tech ubercool city above jungles, and Siths must walk on mud and grass? ***?

I would appreciated design there more if 50% of map was full of city and metallic roads, and 50% was only jungle, temple etc.

Not just DK, but Alderaan also has very few roads. My only theory here is that they invented speeders before the wheel

Not just DK, but Alderaan also has very few roads. My only theory here is that they invented speeders before the wheel

You joke, but that's literally what happens with these planets. When colonized, the people take all their knowledge of current tech, such as speeders, instead of starting from scratch and reinventing everything. So yeah, not much need for roads.

Even so, I do agree. I'd like to do more fighting in the underbelly of Dromund Kaas. There seems to be a great city in the backdrop but we never get to explore it, apart from the main square and the Citadel.