Star Wars: The Old Republic (dev posts, news items, fan sites etc.)

[Blackjack]

Couple informational sub-site links from Darth Hater:

Introduction to Space Combat
http://www.darthhater.com/articles/feature/19819-guide-introduction-to-space-combat\
*I remain stumped as to where you turn in Fleet Commendations from space combat. You'd think at the Fleet Hub, but nothing specific to this type of commendation seems to be there.

Wiki SWTOR
http://www.darthhater.com/articles/site-news/19818-introducing-wiki-swtor
Actual link's over here:
http://www.wikiswtor.com/SWTOR_Wiki

[rshetts2]

That Darth Hater vid shows you where the starship upgrade vendors are.  One of them takes commendations.  They are in the trading hub.

[ydejin]

IIRC you can also use Fleet Commendations to buy a Luke Skywalker classic pilot suit -- all Orange components so good all the way to level cap.

[raydude]

Looking over the screenshots thread I realized that Blackjack's Corso Riggs isn't the default look. Not as I remember him from beta anyway. Was that a companion customization thing? If so, where, when, and how do I customize my companion?

[Teggy]

Looking over the screenshots thread I realized that Blackjack's Corso Riggs isn't the default look. Not as I remember him from beta anyway. Was that a companion customization thing? If so, where, when, and how do I customize my companion?

When you get the companion, you get a quest reward that allows you to customize their look (at least for some - I don't think I had that option for Jorgan, but I did for Mako).

[Blackjack]

Looking over the screenshots thread I realized that Blackjack's Corso Riggs isn't the default look. Not as I remember him from beta anyway. Was that a companion customization thing? If so, where, when, and how do I customize my companion?

The CE vendor offers a customization kit too, but I prefer Corso with a close-cropped hairstyle. The CE version is a bit too shaggy for my tastes.  

Corso's getting better armor than me in quest rewards for a while now, including a very cool caped one that seems more out of City of Heroes/Champions Online. But hey, Lando had a cape, I guess anyone can, right?  

And right as Teggy mentioned, there's an early quest reward for the companion that has a little inventory item that you right click to put on him. I believe Ctrl/Left Click lets you "try on" stuff in a visual window to see how things will look.

[Chordian]

OldRepublic.NET
Lots of nice information to be found at OldRepublic.NET too. Guides, skills, planets, you name it.

[Gryndyl]

There's also a special items vendor that I ran into on...Balmora maybe? He was in a cantina. Had about 6 custom heads for each companion. I assume there's a Republic equivalent. They weren't cheap; 12,500 each.

[Chordian]

Things I wish I knew...
Here's a forum thread at MMO-Champion with lots of tips.

I've extracted some of them below. Some are old news already, but there are a few gems as well.

You can have your companions craft or run mission simultaneously, and the mats can be in your cargo hold, not just your inventory.

Any class can rez a dead person in their party when you right click on them (out of combat of course).

At the end a Flashpoint, you can exit the area by clicking the "Exit Area" button above the mini-map.

Everyone has an ability in their "spellbook" general tab called EMERGENCY FLEET PASS.

Pick an option in a cut-scene which you hate, or was not quite what you expected your character to say? Press ESC to exit the convo, nothing is saved and you can start it again and pick another option without any consequences.

Target of Target is Alt T (look under the Key Bindings Tab). This one has come in handy many times.

When your UI is frozen and you can't press any functions on it just press ctrl-u twice and it will fix it.

DON'T CLICK THE DEAD JEDI. IT'S A TRAP! No seriously. Don't.

Spoiler for Dead Jedi:

"Mysterious Dead Jedi".. it's in the general "zone" where you receive the Enclave Raid quest. If you find him, do not, for the love of god, click on him. The mob spawns a World Boss or something. He hurts. Bad!

Spoiler for Tatooine:

[This] goes hand in hand with if you are on Tatooine, out in the Dune Sea and see a clickable skull, click at your own risk.

The mount vendor on your Fleet sells 2 level 25 mounts. The mount vendors on Tatooine sell 6 different level 25 mounts that generally look nicer.

Spoiler for Tatooine:

There's a speeder vendor at the first flightpath on tatooine.

When playing Huttball, you can throw it. Really. Didn't take me long to figure out but it seems like no one knows.

Your companions can craft up to five items at a time, simply click the craft button over and over.

Pressing ctrl + shift + f (I think) shows you your FPS in the lower left corner.

Companion that comes together with your first ship is actually a healer and can be summoned. (Your first dialog with him suggests his not suitable for combat.)

You do not have to return at your ship every time you leave a planet, your ship will follow you everywhere.

Cancelling a companion mission or craft, gives you back the mats used or credits, but if you are in combat, your pet will not re-appear.

NPC enemies bumped from high heights will die, unlike wow [and Rift].

You can set some of your companion spell on an automatic use. You can only do that by using the extended companion bar and right clicking on the spell you want to "auto-use" (dos not work in the spellbook or the little companion bar).

Selling things on the auction house is always nice, but if you dont sell your item, you get your deposit back ! If you cancel the item (because you accidentially put it up for 1499 instead of 499 (damn "1" bug thing)), you will lose the deposit.

Spoiler for Deposit:

In WoW, the reason for the deposit was to control you into putting realistic prices onto your sales, if it didn't sell, you lost the deposit. Also, the deposit was fixed to the base value of the item, not the sale value.

Ultimately you ended up with 100s of single auctions for enchanting materials since they had 0 deposit and it was really annoying to try buy anything w/o the aid of an addon.

In SWTOR, you have a limit on the number of auctions you can have up at any time (30 I think) so they don't need to punish you for putting up hundreds of bogus auctions. Instead the deposit is just there to stop you from pulling an auction before it finishes, this was REALLY annoying in WoW when someone put an item in AH that usually sells for 5k, but the bidding only had gone up to 2.5k and the owner pulls it before the end (losing a 10g deposit) because they were not happy with how the bidding was going. If in SWTOR the deposit is based on the BO value, then you are much less likely to cancel an auction if you don't like how bidding is going.

I'm still a bit (trying to find the right word) saddened?disappointed? (too emo) I dunno, but I wish they had put in a system like in EVE, which allowed crafter to put up a Purchase order (WTB) on the AH so that they don't have to spam trade looking for something, or be forced to buy at offering prices. Instead they could ask for 100 cloth/metal etc for price X, and hope that people want to make quick money by selling it w/o wanting to wait for an auction to complete.

Don't rush thru your class-story past Coruscant - do some side-quests to gain some additional levels first. Final boss fights can be a pain in every cell of your body.

Jumping while moving results in you moving slower. So jump bunnies from WOW/CS need to learn not to jump, it actually imparts a disadvantage.

If you knock down an enemy from heights and it does not die, it tends to use pathing to get back to you instead of magically climbing the cliff - and also bring the nearby friends with it.

I´m not sure if it has been posted, but while in a warzone, you can not only receive your companion back from a gathering mission, but also resend him, even though they are "dispawned" in the pvp zones. It´s a good way of matching up your skills during a time when you won´t be able to use him!

If [your] companion dies, don't rez him. Dismiss him and resummon returns him in less time and he comes back at full health.

If a flashpoint or quest says HEROIC 2 or HEROIC 4, that number includes companions. I haven't found a single HEROIC 4+ or Flashpoint that I couldn't two man with someone and our companions.

If you're healing, do yourself a favor and find the option that allows you to use the operations UI instead of party UI.

If you're using a pet you want to heal, ALT+F him to set him as a focus. You can then set a focus modifier, to use skills on him without targeting them.

You can access your ship's cargo hold before you have a ship. I just found this out, and it's going to help for me storing mats. You can deposit them in the Fleet. And I assume some other places as well, like Coruscant.

If your bags are full and you aren't near a vendor you can have your companion sell of your grey items for you.

[Blackjack]

Cool tips. Repeating is good -- some of the more non-intuitive tips we only learn through repetition.  

Isn't that Fleet Pass crazy? They tuck it in the middle of our Passive Skills list as if you'd ever have any idea it was there. I only learned of it because I was combing through my passives list, saw it and thought "What the HELL is that thing?"   I'd put some simple min-quest that requires people to use it, so you'd at least have one time where the game pointed it out to you. If it's in the Tutorials, I turned that off after a while.

At the end [of] a Flashpoint, you can exit the area by clicking the "Exit Area" button above the mini-map.

Oh man, this teammate pointed that out at the end of that grisly Hammer Station Flashpoint I've been going on about. You could hear my "'DOH!" across the galaxy.  

I've repeatedly helped other players figure out that if they closed their quest or crew-gathering/crafting rewards window, there's a tiny "pending" blinky reminder in the upper right far corner of the HUD, to get the rewards at your leisure (you can multiple pending rewards windows saved there). Most of us have widescreen monitors, and who's gonna look up there?

[Chordian]

Isn't that Fleet Pass crazy? They tuck it in the middle of our Passive Skills list as if you'd ever have any idea it was there. I only learned of it because I was combing through my passives list, saw it and thought "What the HELL is that thing?"  I'd put some simple min-quest in that requires people to use it, so you'd at least have one time where the game pointed it out to you.

I'll check it out too next time I log in, but I heard it has a whopping 18 hours cooldown.

Oh man, this teammate pointed that out at the end of that grisly Hammer Station Flashpoint I've been going on about. You could hear my "'DOH!" across the galaxy.  

LOL! I thought I heard a Homer outburst here in Europe recently. I thought maybe it was my neighbor.

[Soulchilde]

Things I wish I knew...
Here's a forum thread at MMO-Champion with lots of tips.

I've extracted some of them below. Some are old news already, but there are a few gems as well.

You can have your companions craft or run mission simultaneously, and the mats can be in your cargo hold, not just your inventory.

Any class can rez a dead person in their party when you right click on them (out of combat of course).

At the end a Flashpoint, you can exit the area by clicking the "Exit Area" button above the mini-map.

Everyone has an ability in their "spellbook" general tab called EMERGENCY FLEET PASS.

Pick an option in a cut-scene which you hate, or was not quite what you expected your character to say? Press ESC to exit the convo, nothing is saved and you can start it again and pick another option without any consequences.

Target of Target is Alt T (look under the Key Bindings Tab). This one has come in handy many times.

When your UI is frozen and you can't press any functions on it just press ctrl-u twice and it will fix it.

DON'T CLICK THE DEAD JEDI. IT'S A TRAP! No seriously. Don't.

Spoiler for Dead Jedi:

"Mysterious Dead Jedi".. it's in the general "zone" where you receive the Enclave Raid quest. If you find him, do not, for the love of god, click on him. The mob spawns a World Boss or something. He hurts. Bad!

Spoiler for Tatooine:

[This] goes hand in hand with if you are on Tatooine, out in the Dune Sea and see a clickable skull, click at your own risk.

The mount vendor on your Fleet sells 2 level 25 mounts. The mount vendors on Tatooine sell 6 different level 25 mounts that generally look nicer.

Spoiler for Tatooine:

There's a speeder vendor at the first flightpath on tatooine.

When playing Huttball, you can throw it. Really. Didn't take me long to figure out but it seems like no one knows.

Your companions can craft up to five items at a time, simply click the craft button over and over.

Pressing ctrl + shift + f (I think) shows you your FPS in the lower left corner.

Companion that comes together with your first ship is actually a healer and can be summoned. (Your first dialog with him suggests his not suitable for combat.)

You do not have to return at your ship every time you leave a planet, your ship will follow you everywhere.

Cancelling a companion mission or craft, gives you back the mats used or credits, but if you are in combat, your pet will not re-appear.

NPC enemies bumped from high heights will die, unlike wow [and Rift].

You can set some of your companion spell on an automatic use. You can only do that by using the extended companion bar and right clicking on the spell you want to "auto-use" (dos not work in the spellbook or the little companion bar).

Selling things on the auction house is always nice, but if you dont sell your item, you get your deposit back ! If you cancel the item (because you accidentially put it up for 1499 instead of 499 (damn "1" bug thing)), you will lose the deposit.

Spoiler for Deposit:

In WoW, the reason for the deposit was to control you into putting realistic prices onto your sales, if it didn't sell, you lost the deposit. Also, the deposit was fixed to the base value of the item, not the sale value.

Ultimately you ended up with 100s of single auctions for enchanting materials since they had 0 deposit and it was really annoying to try buy anything w/o the aid of an addon.

In SWTOR, you have a limit on the number of auctions you can have up at any time (30 I think) so they don't need to punish you for putting up hundreds of bogus auctions. Instead the deposit is just there to stop you from pulling an auction before it finishes, this was REALLY annoying in WoW when someone put an item in AH that usually sells for 5k, but the bidding only had gone up to 2.5k and the owner pulls it before the end (losing a 10g deposit) because they were not happy with how the bidding was going. If in SWTOR the deposit is based on the BO value, then you are much less likely to cancel an auction if you don't like how bidding is going.

I'm still a bit (trying to find the right word) saddened?disappointed? (too emo) I dunno, but I wish they had put in a system like in EVE, which allowed crafter to put up a Purchase order (WTB) on the AH so that they don't have to spam trade looking for something, or be forced to buy at offering prices. Instead they could ask for 100 cloth/metal etc for price X, and hope that people want to make quick money by selling it w/o wanting to wait for an auction to complete.

Don't rush thru your class-story past Coruscant - do some side-quests to gain some additional levels first. Final boss fights can be a pain in every cell of your body.

Jumping while moving results in you moving slower. So jump bunnies from WOW/CS need to learn not to jump, it actually imparts a disadvantage.

If you knock down an enemy from heights and it does not die, it tends to use pathing to get back to you instead of magically climbing the cliff - and also bring the nearby friends with it.

I´m not sure if it has been posted, but while in a warzone, you can not only receive your companion back from a gathering mission, but also resend him, even though they are "dispawned" in the pvp zones. It´s a good way of matching up your skills during a time when you won´t be able to use him!

If [your] companion dies, don't rez him. Dismiss him and resummon returns him in less time and he comes back at full health.

If a flashpoint or quest says HEROIC 2 or HEROIC 4, that number includes companions. I haven't found a single HEROIC 4+ or Flashpoint that I couldn't two man with someone and our companions.

If you're healing, do yourself a favor and find the option that allows you to use the operations UI instead of party UI.

If you're using a pet you want to heal, ALT+F him to set him as a focus. You can then set a focus modifier, to use skills on him without targeting them.

You can access your ship's cargo hold before you have a ship. I just found this out, and it's going to help for me storing mats. You can deposit them in the Fleet. And I assume some other places as well, like Coruscant.

If your bags are full and you aren't near a vendor you can have your companion sell of your grey items for you.

I don't know if everyone know this but you can send your companions on missions before you log off.  When you come back the mission should be completed.  I always send my companions on mission prior to logging. 

[Blackjack]

Is there any way to keep Corso from constantly deciding to start using his grappling hook? I must turn it off a dozen times daily (via the expanded companion hotbar) and he always -- no real rhyme or reason -- starts using it again at some point. I thought maybe it was based on him resetting skills after dying/resummoning, but I really think it's just totally random. I mean, if I could remove it from his expanded hotbar altogether I would, but there's no option to do that afik.  

P.S. I do right-click it to disable it and make sure the little 'toggle on' light is off. I dunno. Maybe there's some secret click combination to make sure he never uses it.

I never did think to use my Droid companion simply as a healer, that's something to try at some point.

[Blackjack]

Back in the news category: Telephone Technical Customer Support is kaput!
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=650525#edit650525

The Customer Support telephone lines are currently unavailable, and we are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience. Please watch this thread and the official SWTOR Twitter account for updates and information.

We didn't just breaks the Internet! We brokes the phone system too! 

[Purge]

I hate you.

Now I want this.

[Blackjack]

Because Technical Support is kaput?   They did "resolve" that earlier today, fwiw.

Lots of stuff happening, including a Public Test Server:

Welcome to the Public Test Server!
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=657351#edit657351

The Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Public Test Server is in place to test future game content and bug fixes and is available to all players with an active subscription. The server should be available the majority of the time and as with our other servers you can monitor it on the sever status page.

Because development is ongoing during testing, it should be noted that all changes and updates listed in the patch notes should be considered incomplete and are subject to change or removal before release to the live servers. The Public Test Server patch notes will be provided in English. The final release notes will be provided in English, French, and German when the content is moved to live servers.

To access the Public Test Server:
    Log in to the Star Wars: The Old Republic launcher using your username and password.
    Click the Settings button (gear) in the bottom left corner of the launcher
    Under “Enable Public Test Server Access”, select “Yes”
    Click “Save”
    Now the bottom left corner will have two buttons: select the new button next to settings
    Under "Pick an Environment" select "Public Test"
    Click "Next" and you will begin patching on the Public Test Server*
    Click "Play"

*Please note that the initial patch download will be very large, as you will be installing an additional version of the game client. Any future patches will be significantly smaller.

At this time players are not able to copy characters from the live servers to the Public Test Server, but we plan to include this feature in the future. However, any new characters on the Public Test Server will be persistent and will generally not be removed at the end of any testing phase. Extremely rare instances may require character modification or removal, and under those circumstances, we will notify players via this forum and on the Community Blog.

At this time, we will not be providing Customer Support for the Public Test Server. Attempts to file in-game will result in an error and will not be processed. However, we encourage you to use these forums for feedback and bug reporting. All gameplay policies are still in place; inappropriate or abusive players will not be tolerated on the Public Test Server, and we ask that you please report this behavior to Customer Support here.

Sorry, Bioware, my time on the live servers is too precious to spend doing any more free testing for you!  

[Blackjack]

Aaaand they have Public Test Patch Notes (you may want to peruse for the inevitable nerf... um, balancing that'll occur):
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=657279#edit657279
The notes are waaaaay long, so I've tucked the paste in spoiler code below:
1.01 Patch Notes

Spoiler for Hiden:

With this update, the first of many for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, we have addressed several high-priority bugs. We’ve implemented fixes for those players affected by performance issues on Taris and have corrected the problem preventing some pending mission rewards from being accepted. Additionally, the issue that could cause some gathering nodes to appear unharvestable has been addressed, and you’ll notice several bug fixes relating to Flashpoint and Operation content. We’re committed providing the best possible MMO experience, and will continue releasing fixes and updates on a regular basis. Thank you for playing Star Wars: The Old Republic!

Note: The Public Test Server patch notes will be provided in English. The final release notes will be provided in English, French, and German when the content is moved to live servers.

1.0.1 Patch Notes

Classes and Combat

    Combat Bug Fixes

        Fixed a bug that could cause the global cooldown to display incorrectly in the UI.

   Imperial Agent

        Operative

            The tooltip for Acid Blade now displays the correct information.

Companion Characters

    Companions

       Kira Carson

            Fixed an issue that could cause Kira’s affection progression to become blocked.

    Bug Fixes

        Companion Character dialogue now plays at the correct volume.


Crew Skills

    Bug Fixes

        Corrected an issue that could cause some gathering nodes to appear as unharvestable.

Flashpoints and Operations

   Flashpoints

        Mandalorian Raiders

            Crowd control immunity has been removed from several members of the Enemy Boarding Party.


        Colicoid War Game

            An issue that prevented some players from mounting turrets in this Flashpoint has been corrected.


        The Red Reaper

            Darth Ikoral now uses his abilities correctly.


        Directive 7

            Mentor now resets correctly if he defeats the player group.

    Operations

        Eternity Vault

            Fixed an issue that could cause players to instantly die when affected by Soa’s knockback.
            Turrets in Normal Mode no longer behave as turrets from Hard Mode.
            Players are now able to properly obtain loot from chests.
            The Ancient Pylons now spawn enemies at the correct intervals.

        Karagga’s Palace

            Players no longer need to reset this Operation if they do not defeat Bonethrasher.
            Corrected an issue that caused some players to become stuck at the throne room door.

   Bug Fixes

        All players in a group who have a daily Flashpoint mission now get credit for completing that Flashpoint.


Missions and NPCs

   Missions

        Imperial

            A New Master: Defeating Teeno no longer causes him to surrender on top of Phyne, making him difficult to interact with.
            General Faraire: All of Khourlet’s Elite Guards are now accessible by the player.


        Bug Fixes
            Fixed a mission-related issue that could cause poor performance and client crashes on Taris for some players.

    NPCs
        Bug Fixes
            Corrected several instances of non-interactive NPCs appearing and disappearing from the player’s view.

PvP
    Warzones
        General
            Rewards for winning Warzones have been increased.
            Warzone completion rewards have been decreased.

    Bug Fixes
        Voidstar
            Corrected an issue that could prevent some players from entering the Voidstar.

UI
    Bug Fixes

        Fixed a bug that could prevent players from accepting pending mission rewards.
        Targeting a friendly player no longer occasionally displays incorrect text for the character’s name.
        Corrected an issue that could cause some auction expirations to behave incorrectly.
        The splash screen no longer displays longer than the “accept changes” dialogue when changing resolutions on some computers.
        Master Looter now works correctly for items being looted from chests.
        The server select screen no longer displays over the character select after being disconnected for being away.
        Corrected an issue that could cause mission mapnotes to disappear when a new mission is obtained.


Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
    Special characters no longer display incorrectly in the French credits.
    Remaining baby names have been added to the credits.
    Corrected a link that displayed in French and German versions when the servers are unavailable.
   

>>>>>>Remaining baby names have been added to the credits.

Whuh???? 

[Blackjack]

Darth Hater added its own Dev Tracker feature, which pulls/pastes everything someone from Bioware responded to (the actual dev tracker at Bioware's forum doesn't include posts related to moderation, i.e., closing threads etc.). I'm not entirely sure how useful it is since I don't really wanna wade through 17 moderator posts shutting down threads because they slam/praise/hypothesize about WoW, Rift, Guild Wars 2, Parcheesi etc. instead of actually talking about SWTOR.

Darth Hater's Dev Tracker
http://www.darthhater.com/devtracker

I had to LOL that after all the wailing and hair pulling about server wait ques, there was a thread complaining "is the game dead already?" presumably because hey, now there aren't server wait ques, and what's up with that! DDOOOMMMM! F2P next week!" Which is a joke I'd been yakking about it in General Chat the other day.

[Blackjack]

Wee update on Wait Ques:
http://www.swtor.com/blog/working-reducing-queues

Hey folks, as you may likely have seen in the last 24 hours, we've been redoubling our efforts in optimally managing the time it takes to get into Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

The BioWare Live Team has been carefully watching the influx of players into the game and is addressing with surgical precision the longer wait times on the small number of servers that were having longer wait times previously. We've also being doing our best to get every little bit of possible performance on our servers to increase capacity: we’ve “turned them up to 11” to do our very best to get you in and playing as quickly as possible. As a result - you should now be seeing significant improvement versus waiting times at the end of last week.

We're also addressing the concerns about losing your place in line if you happen to disconnect for some reason before getting into the game. We've been working very hard on this and are performing final testing on potential solutions.

Thanks for your patience and we really appreciate your enthusiasm for Star Wars: The Old Republic. We’re absolutely dedicated to ensuring you have a great experience both inside and outside the game.
Greg

fwiw, I haven't had any the last couple days or so now. I've not had the disconnection issue last couple nights either, though it looks like it's common enough they'll need to do some sort of fix.

And some mushy love notes from Bioware Austin:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=681255#edit681255

While the community never sleeps (which means the Community Team rarely sleeps!) today is the last day in the office before Christmas, so we thought it was a good time to say 'Happy Holidays' to all.

Thank you for enjoying Star Wars: The Old Republic and for being with us on this wild ride so far! We've got loads more to share with you in 2012, but for now enjoy the holidays... whether you spend them at home with family or in a galaxy far, far away.
-Stephen Reid
==================================
Happy Holidays everyone!

It's an exciting time in gaming history and we're thrilled to have you all here to experience this journey together. Safe travels and happy hunting in all your in-game adventures!

^_^
-Eric Campbell
==================================
The best gift we at BioWare could possibly receive this season is to see you all in the game and enjoying it. It's been a fantastic journey getting to this point, and the game wouldn't be what it is without the support of the fans and the community. So thank you all for being with us in this adventure. Happy Holidays and May the Force be with you.
-Rob Chestney

[ericb]

I really like those notes...99% bug fixes and no class or crew nerfs.  That's the way it should be this early.  They really (really) need to work on the UI asap though...even if it's just a scaling option.

[Blackjack]

I really like those notes...99% bug fixes and no class or crew nerfs.  That's the way it should be this early.  They really (really) need to work on the UI asap though...even if it's just a scaling option.

I wanna be able to move my inventory and vendor windows adjacent to each other. I'm really tired of trying to point my eyesballs to the far side of my 23" widescreen (and others no doubt have wider screens).  I can't think of a smiley that expresses that. 

[Blackjack]

Lotsa and lotsa updates today. If you don't wanna read the whole wall of text, here's the highlights:

Yesterday was quite a day here in Austin. We likely had the largest one-day subscription account registration process in MMO history – over one million people are now registered players of the game, and the number is growing rapidly.
-Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk
===========================
Next month we're going to be releasing a new Flashpoint and an expanded Operation. The new Flashpoint involves a plague that could have significant repercussions across the galaxy. It takes place on a brand new world and involves some pretty epic battles. I can't go into much detail, but be prepared for something different.

The expanded Operation [raid] takes the existing Karagga's Palace scenario and more than triples it in size. It includes three new boss monsters and some pretty epic set pieces. You won’t believe the last boss, so we’ve provided an image as a tease.
-James Ohlen
=============================
We've known since the start that we would need to have major characters (Players, companions, certain NPCs) returning to record new content for many, many years. From a business end, yes, this is planned for. We have no desire to change voice actors for existing characters, nor any intention of "writing out" a character because the actor becomes unavailable.
-Alexander Freed [sound guy I assume?]

The Unexpurgated versions.......
=-=================================

Thanks for Playing
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=691378#edit691378

Yesterday was quite a day here in Austin. We likely had the largest one-day subscription account registration process in MMO history – over one million people are now registered players of the game, and the number is growing rapidly.

As you might imagine, this presented a huge strain on our infrastructure and systems, but the good news is that we seem to be through the worst of it now thanks to folks working hard all day to serve our community. And as Greg mentioned in his earlier note, we've also been working hard on resolving queues – those being another side effect of the huge demand for Star Wars: The Old Republic over the past week. We were definitely anticipating a very high load but if anything the demand for the game has only exceeded our expectations!

We're very appreciative of your support and we look forward to surprising and delighting you throughout the journey ahead. To that end, we plan on letting you know soon about some cool upcoming content planned over the next few months.

On behalf of the SWTOR team, Greg and I want to thank you very much for your support, and also your patience yesterday as the team worked hard to process through the huge volume of players trying to register.

Thank you,
Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk

A Sneak Peek from James Ohlen
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=691631#edit691631
*Not really much more than I pasted in above.

VO and new content - how will it work?
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=692033#edit692033

For obvious reasons, I can't give out details of our contracts with the voice actors! However, I can offer a few assurances:

We've known since the start that we would need to have major characters (Players, companions, certain NPCs) returning to record new content for many, many years. From a business end, yes, this is planned for. We have no desire to change voice actors for existing characters, nor any intention of "writing out" a character because the actor becomes unavailable.

From a practical standpoint, of course, unexpected occurrences do happen. This is where a bit of foresight helps--we're writing dialogue long before that dialogue ever shows up in-game, so we've usually got a pretty good window during which we can do VO recording. In other words, if a voice actor is unavailable for six months due to an emergency (or something planned!), well... if we're ahead far enough, we can still make that work. We'll adjust the schedule, record everything else we need and bring that actor in toward the end.

It's also worth noting that voice recording doesn't necessarily add much time to the content creation process. Recording is done in parallel with other tasks--while artists are art-ing and designers are building quests, we've got voice actors simultaneously coming into recording studios.

Good question -- some of us here were wondering about it. I can say from my AoC experience, where much of it was voiced in Tortage and than then virtually nothing was after you left that area (at least at launch and for most content since), that spoiling players with voice and then taking it away later was really disheartening for me (though I quit AoC for various other reasons).

So it's good to know they planned for the future as far as keeping up the voice work and not being a "one and done."

[ydejin]

Cross-posted on Qt3

There's a rather lengthy interview with Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer care of Giant Bomb.  Among other things he talks about technically how the servers work and hints at a Chapter Four in progress.  He mentions that the writers and artists finished the work that's currently in the game long ago and have been working on future SWTOR work for quite some time.

One thing he mentions that I didn't realize is that apparently there is supposed to be quite some time between the chapters.  He didn't mention how long, but my impression is that it would be something like -- end of chapter one, chapter two starts with "ten years later" or something along those lines.  Which I guess makes sense.  In the movies I think there's supposed to be some time between Episodes 4 and 5, and Episodes 5 and 6.  And for sure there's enough time between Episode 1 and Episode 2 for Anakin to change from an annoying little kid to become an annoying semi-adult.

[Blackjack]

Aaaand they have Public Test Patch Notes (you may want to peruse for the inevitable nerf... um, balancing that'll occur):
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=657279#edit657279
The notes are waaaaay long, so I've tucked the paste in spoiler code below:
1.01 Patch Notes

Spoiler for Hiden:

With this update, the first of many for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, we have addressed several high-priority bugs. We’ve implemented fixes for those players affected by performance issues on Taris and have corrected the problem preventing some pending mission rewards from being accepted. Additionally, the issue that could cause some gathering nodes to appear unharvestable has been addressed, and you’ll notice several bug fixes relating to Flashpoint and Operation content. We’re committed providing the best possible MMO experience, and will continue releasing fixes and updates on a regular basis. Thank you for playing Star Wars: The Old Republic!

Note: The Public Test Server patch notes will be provided in English. The final release notes will be provided in English, French, and German when the content is moved to live servers.

1.0.1 Patch Notes

Classes and Combat

    Combat Bug Fixes

        Fixed a bug that could cause the global cooldown to display incorrectly in the UI.

   Imperial Agent

        Operative

            The tooltip for Acid Blade now displays the correct information.

Companion Characters

    Companions

       Kira Carson

            Fixed an issue that could cause Kira’s affection progression to become blocked.

    Bug Fixes

        Companion Character dialogue now plays at the correct volume.


Crew Skills

    Bug Fixes

        Corrected an issue that could cause some gathering nodes to appear as unharvestable.

Flashpoints and Operations

   Flashpoints

        Mandalorian Raiders

            Crowd control immunity has been removed from several members of the Enemy Boarding Party.


        Colicoid War Game

            An issue that prevented some players from mounting turrets in this Flashpoint has been corrected.


        The Red Reaper

            Darth Ikoral now uses his abilities correctly.


        Directive 7

            Mentor now resets correctly if he defeats the player group.

    Operations

        Eternity Vault

            Fixed an issue that could cause players to instantly die when affected by Soa’s knockback.
            Turrets in Normal Mode no longer behave as turrets from Hard Mode.
            Players are now able to properly obtain loot from chests.
            The Ancient Pylons now spawn enemies at the correct intervals.

        Karagga’s Palace

            Players no longer need to reset this Operation if they do not defeat Bonethrasher.
            Corrected an issue that caused some players to become stuck at the throne room door.

   Bug Fixes

        All players in a group who have a daily Flashpoint mission now get credit for completing that Flashpoint.


Missions and NPCs

   Missions

        Imperial

            A New Master: Defeating Teeno no longer causes him to surrender on top of Phyne, making him difficult to interact with.
            General Faraire: All of Khourlet’s Elite Guards are now accessible by the player.


        Bug Fixes
            Fixed a mission-related issue that could cause poor performance and client crashes on Taris for some players.

    NPCs
        Bug Fixes
            Corrected several instances of non-interactive NPCs appearing and disappearing from the player’s view.

PvP
    Warzones
        General
            Rewards for winning Warzones have been increased.
            Warzone completion rewards have been decreased.

    Bug Fixes
        Voidstar
            Corrected an issue that could prevent some players from entering the Voidstar.

UI
    Bug Fixes

        Fixed a bug that could prevent players from accepting pending mission rewards.
        Targeting a friendly player no longer occasionally displays incorrect text for the character’s name.
        Corrected an issue that could cause some auction expirations to behave incorrectly.
        The splash screen no longer displays longer than the “accept changes” dialogue when changing resolutions on some computers.
        Master Looter now works correctly for items being looted from chests.
        The server select screen no longer displays over the character select after being disconnected for being away.
        Corrected an issue that could cause mission mapnotes to disappear when a new mission is obtained.


Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
    Special characters no longer display incorrectly in the French credits.
    Remaining baby names have been added to the credits.
    Corrected a link that displayed in French and German versions when the servers are unavailable.
   

>>>>>>Remaining baby names have been added to the credits.

Whuh???? 

fwiw, this 1.0.1 patch went into place during maintenance this morning. I thought it was "another" patch, but it's the one I referenced above.

[Destructor]

Aw, they 'adjusted' Slicing. I've heard that it's both ridiculously overpowered (especially once you get multiple companions to send off on constant missions to just make money) and balanced (you're using that money to buy things as you're now an 'incomplete' crafter). We'll see how in line it is whenever it goes up today.

[Blackjack]

On the Darth Hater dev tracker, I should've pointed out you can use the "sorting links" (the little blue ones just above the "All Topics" headline, to sort dev posts by subject matter, by dev author etc.). I find it odd they don't have combat designer Georg Zoeller, given how often he posted, but maybe it's a work in progress.

http://www.darthhater.com/devtracker
*The default view is "all," which makes the forums look like a ghastly, unhappy place. Sort them out by subject, and you can usually more often find useful information.

I did notice one locked post that wanted to start an Occupy SWTOR "protest." Great. 

[Blackjack]

Momentum Surges for Star Wars: The Old Republic During the Holidays
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111226005040/en/Momentum-Surges-Star-Wars-Republic-Holidays
*Yes, these days, companies brag about an 88/100 Metacritic Score!   And no doubt lots of people would dispute the "smooth service" phrase in the press release:

The Old Republic has been lauded for bringing innovation to the MMO genre by adding fully voiced characters and placing a true emphasis on story and player choice. These new innovations, combined with highly polished gameplay and a smooth service, have led to a number of incredible gameplay achievements from the rabid community, including:

   Over 60 million in-game hours – roughly equivalent to watching all six Star Wars movies over 4 million times
    Over 850,000 Sith Warriors and over 810,000 Jedi Knights created [would be curious about other classes]
    Over 260 million quests completed
    Over 44 million PvP battles
    Over 9 million space combat missions completed
    Over 3 billion NPCs killed [poor NPCs  ]

[Blackjack]

SWTOR community manager Stephen Reid is doing a Q&A for Reddit with fans later today (about 2 p.m. Central ST):
http://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/nokr6/stephen_reid_ama_wednesday_december_28th_2pm_cst/
*I wouldn't expect anything too revelatory -- Reid's the guy who generally has to slap devs upside the head if they start revealing too much in interviews.  

===================
This dates back to Dec. 20, MSNBC had an interview with SWTOR writer Daniel Erickson:
http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/20/9569126-old-republic-writer-discusses-60-man-years-of-work

Besides the sheer scale, Erickson said the "Old Republic" writing and development process was more also difficult than that for a single-player game because the team had to control for the potentially disruptive actions of other players.

"As soon as we started testing, people would find out exactly where they had to stand in order to photobomb people's incredibly important conversations -- jumping between them and the quest-giver, taking their pants off and dancing around, and so on," he said. "You're continually surprised by the ingenuity of the community and the players for mischief."

Sounds about right. 

"Are you really dark enough to be the dark side?" Erickson asked rhetorically. "All right, go ahead and shoot this guy in front of his kid, and [we'd] watch afterwards as people clearly felt remorse from it and stopped going in that direction. Are you really going to be super light side? All right, we're going to dangle this giant, giant carrot in front of you. Can you stay in the light? That's one of the ones that did come purely from watching what the statistics looked like."

So far my Smuggler has been maybe 80% light side and 20% dark. On occasion I'll just say WTF, and shoot some enemy rather than letting him move on. I might well be missing some content because of that, but I like the option.

"The pattern we used for it all when we were planning in out was the original [Star Wars film] trilogy," Erickson said. "So what is a 'class story'? Well, we've got Han Solo and he's got problems with Jabba the Hutt and bounty hunters going after him and people who want to turn him into a wall decoration, and we've got Luke and he's trying to be a Jedi and do his thing."

"But for most of the movie, they all come together and they try to do the big story which is, 'Hey, we've got to go off and fight the evil empire and we're fighting this war. That's really the same model the game follows," he said.

I'm hoping Blackjack gets frozen in carbonite at some point, and my companions have to rescue me. Maybe on Hoth? 

[Roguetad]

"You're continually surprised by the ingenuity of the community and the players for mischief."

That's a really nice way of saying that lol.  I guess they couldn't say, "We're continually surprised by how many jackasses play our game and enjoy f'ng with other players out of the pure joy of f'ng with another player." 

[Blackjack]

fwiw, as mentioned earlier, here's Bioware's Stephen Reid answering some Q&A via Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/nty9d/im_stephen_reid_senior_community_manager_for_star/

If that mess makes you crazy, try the "just his answers" thread:
http://www.reddit.com/user/StephenReid

And this guy tried to compile as much Q&A as he could (at least the shorter ones):
http://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/nty9d/im_stephen_reid_senior_community_manager_for_star/c3bxds9
*Crazy long, so I've pasted it in spoiler code below:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Short Question Short Answer

Q: Ability Delay. Have you guys discussed this internally, and if so, is there an ETA for a fix on this issue?

    Hey! It has been discussed internally, and we'll talk about it publicly soon. It's not a simple issue so we don't want to issue a quick, off-the-cuff response.

Q: Can you tell us what your plans are for guild banks and guild capital ships?

    Guild banks and guild 'housing' (of some type; ships are most popular as people know) are both on the list for future development. As always it's a question of priorities and so on, but they're definitely discussed. I will say that guild banks are higher priority.

Q: What is your favorite MMO (besides this one)?

    Used to be City of Heroes - first MMO I worked on.

Q: Any idea if the space sections will expand to include PvP or grouping?

    I have an idea. Can't share it though.

Q: What aspect of your job is most entertaining/disheartening?

    Entertaining: Interacting with fans in person. Disheartening: Random anger over things I have no control over. I always want to help more than I can.

Q: Can I have a job?

    Check bioware.com/careers

Q: I'd love to know tons more about the legacy system.

    We absolutely know people want to know more about the Legacy System and when the time is right, you'll know.

Q: How much of a priority is the Mod API to bioware?

    The UI team is going to work on improving the existing UI first before we look at modding it. Modding may happen, but we have no ETA on 'when' that we can share right now.

Q: Any thoughts of letting us play "sabaac" or "pazaak" against others or a house for credits?

    Those games are fondly remembered by many team members from KotOR.

Q: Lots of PVP questions for you Stephen:

    Gabe and his team are working hard on PvP and have plenty of tweaks and changes in the works. We're going to try and share some of their thoughts and objectives soon if we can. Also while I know it's a pat answer - please do post feedback like this in our Forums. We read them and the development team reads them.

Q: Can we please get a more functional AH/Galactic Trade Market?

    Improvements will come to the GTN in time, definitely.

Q: are there plans to add more vanity pets and non-mechanical mounts to the game? [There are "non-mechanical taxis," as in those flying creatures in Alderaan-blackjack]

    More pets - yes. Non-mechanical mounts - maybe, it's a technical challenge, I've been told.

Q: Will there be the ability to raise/lower hoods on Jedi Robes via a command?

    We know this is wanted, but it's more work than you might expect. It may come in the future.

Q: What will it take for us to get offical server forums?

    Send a stack of unmarked bills to... We were talking about this just today; it's still under discussion. From our perspective there's no easy solution but we have ideas.

Q: Do you know if the Devs currently feel Huttball is balanced?

    I haven't asked specifically but if the devs felt that Huttball was unbalanced I'm sure they'd look at that as an issue; I haven't heard much on that, but they still look at metrics very carefully.

Q: Any updates on improvements to the LFG system, or an ETA on when we might see them?

    No updates on that.

Q: Any updates on this 'secret' improvement to Space combat or any hints you might want to 'accidently' drop?

    No (although see another answer above). I don't 'accidentally' drop hints.

Q: What upcoming feature are you most excited about that you are allowed to talk about?

    Legacy System. Well, I'm allowed to say I'm excited about it...

Q: I was wondering if you could shed some light on neutral gear

    As I understand it neutral gear was harder to implement than first thought, and was unfortunately moved out of the launch window. It's not 'dead', and James Ohlen brings it up as something he's a fan of quite often, so.. chances are pretty good it'll make it in someday.

Q: The camera doesn't have an option to disable the auto-follow function

    No insight on that beyond what you already know, but we (Community team) are aware that it's a request/concern, and we'll raise it as such.

Q: How do you feel about being the bulwark (as the manager of the community team) against which things like bugs and game complaints come to?

    Being the bulwark (AKA 'Chief Whipping Boy' which is what I signed on a box at our launch event in Austin) is just part of the job. Some days it's fine, other days it gets to you. The latter days involve beer. Nonetheless, it's an important part of the job, so we spend a considerable amount of time reading, noting, assessing and performing triage on bug or game issues. Unfortunately with all the development team power in the world we can't fix every bug instantly, or make every change everyone wants, so it's always got to be a matter of priorities. We try our best.

Q: Also, what adjustments have you had to make since you arrived in America?

    I have adjusted in many tiny ways I guess - I did change my spelling pretty early on, to ease confusion through email with people who didn't know I was English. I also added about 20lbs.

Q: Has there been much discussion of implementing an "Armory" like website?

    We're aware of that sort of thing.

Q: Is community management entirely managed by you and your team or is Lucasarts involved in some capacity?

    We work closely with LucasArts as our partner, so we talk a lot. On-the-ground decisions, day to day, are generally made by us, but they have a voice in many discussions.

Q: It's been a bit unclear on what the future of space combat in SWTOR is.

    changes to space combat will happen over time, we're sure, but don't expect a whole new game to suddenly appear in a matter of months.

Q: Ability Delay & Character Responsiveness / Empty Maps While Questing / UI / Camera / Graphics / guild window ...

    I will say that there isn't much here I haven't heard discussed, or that the development team is unaware of, but I can't give you ETAs. Why? Because development is complex, things change over time, and giving out ETAs just leads to RAAAGE when we don't hit the original suggested date (as people tend to forget what the 'E' stands for in 'ETA'). Anyway - everything you say we're aware of, that much I'll say.

Q: hopefully that will get some wheels turning at BW if they aren't already.

    Well, so far I'm seeing many of the same questions we get on the Forums, and that's fine. I assure you that wheels are always turning here!

Q: Are there any plan on updating the website, bringing it out of the design it had three years ago into a more modern design?

    Yes

Q: And is increased website interactivity (posting as your character on the forums instead of a screen name, Armory features, etc.) anywhere on the horizon?

    maybe!
[CONTINUED, Part II]
Q: Emotes? [question got cut off-BJ]

We're interested in stuff like more emotes with animation, different sit animations, being able to lounge in a cantina, etc. We also like to plan RP events and love large, open spaces that can hold lots of people.

    It's very possible that some or all of what you're asking for will potentially be put into the game... but as you can tell I have no ETAs on that. I hate to be vague, but it's always going to be a matter of priorities.

Q: will there ever be galactic-scale events in the game

    World events might happen at some point, but not, say, by next month.

Q: Many if not all AAA MMO's have server forums

    Replied above; it's still being discussed.

Q: Can you tell the people who worked on the timelines and stuff on the website they are super awesome?

    They already know. Thanks tho'!

Q: What is your european strategy? Will you keep putting maintenence on day / primetime for europe?

    The unfortunate reality of maintenance windows is that someone, somewhere, is always going to be affected.

    Our European prime-time - which is when we have our highest PCUs across all servers - has actually not been impacted by our current maintenance windows. It's later in the evening, not during the day.

    That said, this week we did overrun, and we know that many EU players were on holiday too, so that wasn't good. We're taking steps to address that.

[Blackjack]

Here's a new complaint -- "Leveling's too fast! Where's the grinding?" Hello, McFly???  
http://www.darthhater.com/devtracker/topic/38055-too-fast-levelling

My experience so far is limited as I have only levelled a BH up to 26, but I have a strong feeling I am levelling up too fast. Havent done any grinding at all, just completed all quests and heroics, flashpoints, done a bit of pvp and played a couple of space missions. The result is I have just left Balmorra at level 26 and headed to the next planet which is supposed to be for 20-25 so the quests im facing now are not challenging at all unless I try to solo heroics...

Is it just me or levelling should take longer?

In other words, he's playing the game the way Bioware hoped he would.  

btw, the number of "I quit!", "I'm going back to WoW!" and "I'm canceling subscription because of X" posts is rising, at least according to Darth Hater's dev tracker. Perhaps this will help remedy the login que situation? 

[Blackjack]

If you want to see all available companions at a glance (AND you don't see that as spoiler-ish), check out TORHead's Companions List:
http://www.torhead.com/companions

NOTES:
-You might find the "likes/dislikes" esp. useful. For example, Corso:
Likes: Protecting the weak, being nice to ladies, punishing bad guys
Dislikes: Hurting for profit, hurting women no matter what they did, working with Sith or Imperials
(That info might well be in the Codex, but it's nice to be able to access it quickly from that TORHead page)

-Their lists are alphabetical, not by level they become available to you.
-The mostly useless medical droid on the smuggler's ship (or does every class get him?) isn't considered a companion per se, so he's (it's?) not listed here, even though you can bring him along on missions and he can do all the crew skills stuff that regular companions do.

My smuggler's 33 and only has two of the five companions listed, so I guess a lot happens in the last 17 levels?

[ydejin]

-The mostly useless medical droid on the smuggler's ship (or does every class get him?) isn't considered a companion per se, so he's (it's?) not listed here, even though you can bring him along on missions and he can do all the crew skills stuff that regular companions do.

C2-N2, the obsequious C3P0-like droid?  Yeah, all Republic characters get him.

[Blackjack]

-The mostly useless medical droid on the smuggler's ship (or does every class get him?) isn't considered a companion per se, so he's (it's?) not listed here, even though you can bring him along on missions and he can do all the crew skills stuff that regular companions do.

C2-N2, the obsequious C3P0-like droid?  Yeah, all Republic characters get him.

That makes me feel better, actually.  

Hey, responses in this thread about huttball seem to confirm:
Please remove Huttball - Request of 80% of the players
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=875392#post875392
*Everybody hates Huttball
*Everybody loves Huttball
*Everybody thinks Huttball should be removed
*Everybody thinks the game needs more Huttball-like PVP zones

One again, the Internet brings clarity and consensus to a situation!    

[Blackjack]

We just got word in game they're bringing servers down for maintenance in a few minutes.

I suspect it might be related to this "emergency patch" mentioned at forums:

Loading Stopping At 50%. Won't Move.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=912451#edit912451

I wanted to give you folks an update on this. We currently have something in the works that should alleviate this issue in the next Emergency Patch, which will be going out soon.

I'm not certain though. "Soon" may mean a few days, not a few hours.
*This is about an issue where the initial loading goes a certain % and then stops.

Lot of people still having Error Code 9000 disconnects (I get one or two of those a day), and they're supposedly trying to figure out a fix:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=911491#edit911491

And Guild/Party chat is still messed up for some (worked for us in the GT Heroes guild tonight), with "log out/log back in" as the workaround for now.

[ydejin]

We just got word in game they're bringing servers down for maintenance in a few minutes.

I suspect it might be related to this "emergency patch" mentioned at forums:

Loading Stopping At 50%. Won't Move.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=912451#edit912451

I wanted to give you folks an update on this. We currently have something in the works that should alleviate this issue in the next Emergency Patch, which will be going out soon.

I'm not certain though. "Soon" may mean a few days, not a few hours.
*This is about an issue where the initial loading goes a certain % and then stops.

Lot of people still having Error Code 9000 disconnects (I get one or two of those a day), and they're supposedly trying to figure out a fix:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=911491#edit911491

And Guild/Party chat is still messed up for some (worked for us in the GT Heroes guild tonight), with "log out/log back in" as the workaround for now.

Apparently the server going down message was a false alarm.

[hepcat]

That's one way to handle overpopulated servers...

[Blackjack]

I've been too busy playing (Blackjack's up to L39 now) to post much here. Some things of note...

SWTOR Face is another fan site worth bookmarking (http://www.swtorface.com/), as it seems more thoughtful/analytical than most.

SWTOR Face Looks at the Slicing Nerf:
http://www.swtorface.com/2011/12/swtor-slicing-post-nerf.html
*Their analytical take is that while companion crew slicing is no longer very profitable, just running around and slicing nodes in zones remains extremely profitable.

If you gather lockboxes and safes as you quests, there is a lot of money to be made. On average from the planet Voss, we were pulling in around 2K per minute just by flying around a loop and gathering the nodes. If I was to start a new character and not worry about my crafting skill till later, this would be a great way to make money by just gathering. So, from a crew mission point of view, this is no longer worth doing, but from a questing point of view, go for it.

Bonus Series Mission Tips:
http://www.swtorface.com/2011/12/bonus-series-missions-tips.html

What a lot of people don't realize as they're advancing through the levels is that some planets offer a bonus series of missions. At Alderaan for instance, there are a level 40 series of missions that provide some sweet epic loot upon completion. Hoth has a series of missions that are unlocked at around level 47 and Belsavis has a level 50 bonus series mission line that gives you daily commendations. Although some of these missions to go back to the planet are based on your fleet space station, the Hoth one for instance, is only found by travelling back back to the planet once you've reached level 46/7. If someone hadn't told me about the Alderaan and Hoth bonus missions, I would have never known they were there!

*It's very easy to miss out on the Bonus Series of quests on a given planet. Apparently on most it starts up when your class quests on a given planet are complete, although I've perceived it more as if I've done all the non-Heroics in a given zone, the bonus series seems to kick in. Note this isn't the same as the updating "bonus objectives" on many quests. It's a series of quests in succession, that will have a separate quest objective labeled "Bonus Series" or "Bonus Series 1" if there's more than one series on that planet.

It's confusing in terms of where you get them. I don't remember doing anything special to get Tatooine's Bonus Series, and it had an exceptional completion reward item at the end. For Alderaan you apparently have to get all the way to L40, find the correct contact at the Fleet hub and then journey back to Alderaan. Balmorra had a pretty epic one, including that nasty Sith boss battle that wiped the duo I was on (plus companions) repeatedly -- it turned out that was just a "bonus objective on the Bonus Series," so I skipped it.

So if you see folks waaaay beyond your level in a given zone, chances are they're working on a Bonus Series quest chain or class quest there.   And if you think you're all done with a zone but haven't done a Bonus Series quest chain there yet, you're probably not done afterall.  
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There's a pretty big patch going in Wednesday, and servers will be down 2-10 a.m. CST for maintenance. The patch notes for that currently up are from the test server, and Wednesday's patch notes may be different. Still probably worth checking out:

1.0.2 Patch Notes (Public Test Server)
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=958025#edit958025

Flashpoints
   Taral V
        General Edikar now has the correct loot in Hard Mode and no longer enrages in Normal Mode.

I'm thinking, if it's the boss that wiped my Taral V team out about 10 times over the weekend, that this "Enrage" in Normal Mode might've been why he was pumping out more damage than we could heal or overcome.

[Blackjack]

If you're like me, and still find yourself mistakenly thinking a Jedi Sentinel can heal (it's melee DPS) or a Jedi Shadow's a tank (it's also melee DPS), or are otherwise confused by the various advanced class titles, this SWTOR Face list is a handy cheat sheet:

Class Info (aka, what does that name mean?)
http://www.swtorface.com/p/class-info.html

[Blackjack]

The first gold-farmer, Terms of Service violation account suspensions/bans took place recently. Some of it just plain old heavy duty credit-farming, and a smaller number apparently due to some clever, repeated exploitation of the Ilum zone:

Recent actions against some customer accounts
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=1060894#edit1060894

First, action was taken against a number of accounts for what's commonly known as 'gold farming' - or in our case, credit farming. These accounts were found to be exploiting the game in a variety of ways to maximize their credits in order to sell them to other players. Our Terms of Service team took action against these accounts and removed them permanently from the game.

Second, a smaller number of accounts were warned or temporarily suspended for exploiting loot containers on Ilum. To be completely clear, while players may choose to travel to Ilum earlier than the recommended level (40+) and may loot containers if they can get to them, in the cases of those customers that were warned or temporarily suspended, they were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced.

None of these accounts were banned for their actions and no accounts have been banned for travelling to Ilum while still relatively low level. By comparison, the number of accounts that were warned or temporarily suspended was considerably lower than the number of accounts banned for 'credit farming'.

The loophole seems to be there's nothing to stop a, say, L12 toon from picking up L50 loot and then selling it for a fortune. The game has "level minimum requirements" or class restrictions for equipping something -- that doesn't prevent the L12 from grabbing L50 items and selling 'em for a fortune on the AH, which seems to be what was happening there.

Reid said they don't plan to level-restrict Ilum. So I suspect either they're going to adjust AI "swarms" to make it next to impossible for low level toons to exploit the loot loopholes there, or they'll have to find a way to restrict what levels can pickup the max-level loot there.