Always in motion is the furniture...

Here is the actual link. It's a drop down from the Forums menu.

:P Someone moved it and gave you the wrong link.

Okay... just rereading that, I had a bit of a personal revelation...

Did Yoda's species write the codes or something? ;-)

(Meant purely as humor)

Well, I just tried the link and it does not exist according to the net >_>. Anyway, I would love to chat with fellow members sometime. BTW I keep getting distracted by the STO ships people have as their banner, makes me want to drool and paste them all as my wallpaper!

XANDER!!! Nice to see ya! I agree the IRC chat isn't as busy now. There are a few reasons, one is that the STO ingame channel kind of took over when the game when live, and the second is that, thanks to Nick, we now have a much better website that doesn't rely so much on the chat channel. Our original website was a lot more basic and so the IRC channel was how we talked. I'd love more people to use the IRC chat channel though, especially the SW:TOR members so we can gossip about everything, just like we did pre-STO!

FYI We hope to get some sort of group or register together shortly after launch for those who want team-mates for PvP like Huttball. Naturally everyone will need a few days or weeks to level up, get their characters how they like them and explore the game a bit. As soon as anyone wants to start getting teams together for PvP we will start helping to organise for them.

Episode 414 - Deep Space Nine - "Favor the Bold (Part 1)" - 10/27/1997

http://www.allstepisodes.com/megvid.php?n=3605

Learning of thousands of Dominion reinforcements gathering in the Gamma Quadrant, Sisko initiates a plan to retake Deep Space Nine and secure the wormhole before the minefield is detonated. Odo's loyalty is caught between the female Changeling and Kira.

Enjoy!

I am looking at Jedi Consular (debating Shadow or Sage still) for my main, but also like the Sith Inquisitor too. Still trying to decided Jedi or Sith. But I am sure I will make one of each as I like to play alts.

I'm thinking either Scoundrel (heals) or Jedi Shadow (dps/tank)

RT uses that for most games, just tweek a few things and toss it into their guild description. It is kind of cute. lol

I do like DakonKor's suggestion, it sounds like something that fits in nicely with the Star Wars galaxy.

Episode 413 - Deep Space Nine - "Behind the Line" - 10/20/1997

http://www.allstepisodes.com/megvid.php?n=3604

Sisko creates a risky plan to disable a critical Dominion sensor array, while on Terok Nor, Kira, Jake, Rom and Odo seek to undermine the Cardassian/Dominion Alliance.

Enjoy!

Quote by Liastnir

I rather like Xcentric's "Diversity, yet unity"

I like this theme as well. If it needed to be "beefier" you could reword it to fit into BioWare's version of the Jedi and Sith Codes...

"In our Diversity, there is Unity" or some such.

Well, if we're gonna be Friday silly, how about,

"No, those aren't blasters in our pockets."

or

"These are the queers you're looking for"

or

"Feel our force flowing through you... Giggity!"

Did I cross a line? I'm still half-asleep myself...

Quote by Van

You guys are all to soft and fluffy.

How about - We leave no witnesses...we kill everyone.

Believe it or not that was a motto our healers used in WoW during MC days. Ah the days of 40 man raids. B)

Sorry I couldn't resist it's Friday and I've not had my pot of coffee yet. :) Please take this in jest and fun.

Episode 412 - Deep Space Nine - "Sons and Daughters" - 10/13/1997

http://www.allstepisodes.com/megvid.php?n=3603

While on General Martok's ship Worf is reunited with his estranged son, Alexander.

Enjoy!

You guys are all to soft and fluffy.

How about - We leave no witnesses...we kill everyone.

Believe it or not that was a motto our healers used in WoW during MC days. Ah the days of 40 man raids. B)

Sorry I couldn't resist it's Friday and I've not had my pot of coffee yet. :) Please take this in jest and fun.

I like the their thought process on AC. In any mmo I play I always lean towards the healing class, WoW = Priest/holy, Rift = Cleric/warden. I also like that we all start out pretty even and as you level up you refine and define your role. For sure now it's going to be a trooper healer or smuggler healer...okays so maybe I've not figured out which class but I do know the role I'll end up. :P

Quote by Odioshi

Okay, so I looked up the Huttball video on youtube to get a feel on what it is and how it is played and I am left confused =/. Anyone mind explaining the objective/rules of it pleaze?

I don't know if you've seen the leaks sites, they have videos of Huttball and everything else. But be careful, I've seen them all and now it makes waiting for swtor to come out even worse. I'd reccommend alterswtor.com as the best for videos, betacake.com has some info too

Not quite sure if I will be into the pvp thing. I would certainly like to check it out, though. Not sure if I will have what it takes to make your elite squad do dedicated pvp :)

weasel sea (=we shall see)

from http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9672671#edit9672671

"Just to chime in about our class design philosophy here. We've explained this a number of times already during development, but now that we've been running large scale testing for a while and have solidified a lot of the design, I think it's time to explain what we're doing and why.

In regards to class roles, we do things differently than some other games which people might be used to. That creates some anxiety and questions, so let me explain.

Of Class, Advanced Class, Roles.

Unlike other games where you pick a class and that defines your role, class in Star Wars: The Old Republic defines your overall story, your possible roles and your visual style / gameplay style (e.g. Force user vs. Tech user).

Due to the nature of the Advanced Class system, every character starts out in a DPS role at the start of the game, and they're about equally good at it.

By the time you reach level 10, you get to make your choice for Advanced Class, which narrows down which roles you could play, and yes, some Advanced Classes (Gunslinger / Sniper / Marauder / Sentinel) only have damage type roles available, while other Advanced Classes have access to two roles (e.g damage or healing).

What actually defines your role in our game, in terms of traditional MMO gaming, is how you distribute points in your skill trees. Specialize in the 'Combat Medic' tree and become a healer, specialize in the 'Vengeance tree' and become a DPS character.

By spending that first skill point at level 10, you start developing your character into whatever role you want them to play in the long term. Since it's your skill choices that define your role, it is a gradual process. You don't become a healer at level 10 or 11, you're growing into becoming a healer over many levels.

Our content is designed around that. The first Flashpoint assumes the group has only DPS roles. Even if you bring a healer, he'll have only a single heal available at that level as he has just begun his journey into his role, so there isn't too much of a spread in balance.

Over time, the game becomes more firm in the roles it requires for content like Flashpoints, but additional tools like companions still make it more flexible than many other MMOs in regards to what group mix can run group content.

That progression is quite different from how your characters work in other games, and we've certainly seen our share of people being surprised by it in testing ("I just took the Sage Advanced Class, but I don't feel like I'm a great healer").

Hybrids

Ultimately we don't do hybrid roles. You can do them (by mixing different skill trees), but by design, all our classes are meant to be fully capable in the roles they fill. The 'hybrid' tax would be the fact that you won't be able to get the top tier talents in one skill tree if you spread yourself too thin into others.

At high level, all roles have the same capabilities, in our game all healers are 'main healers' provided they are specced accordingly, etc.

Common Questions

So, what's the point of playing an AC that has only DPS options available?

That is a question you have to answer for yourself.

In a traditional fantasy MMO, if you play a thief or a wizard, you're locked to one role as well, so it's the added role flexibility that SWTOR brings to the table that is giving you second thoughts. I would look at it like this:
If you really like the flexibility of non DPS roles and feel comfortable with taking on other roles, you might want to play an AC that has that option available.
If you know you only enjoy DPS roles in a game (and based on our research, a sizable faction of players falls under that umbrella), a DPS only AC means you will get a three different styles of dps gameplay to select from.

So why do we do this? Why not go for a 'this Advanced Class only can DPS and therefore they are the best at it' approach?
Because we want people to pick the class they want to play and reduce the likelihood of them getting told 'sorry, can't participate in this group because we want only the best DPS in game - that is a Gunslinger'.
Likewise, we don't want the fact that a specific tank or healer AC is not available at a time from becoming a stopping point for getting on with your group content.

The truth is, not everyone is comfortable playing every role and shouldn't be expected to.

Players, as they get more familiar with the game, will no doubt find interesting ways of proving the superiority of a specific specialization in a specific situation, that's expected. With different gameplay styles and utility come different strength and weaknesses.

Should things outside our comfort zone be discovered in testing or after launch (e.g. Operations ending up requiring that one specific healer AC because they are deemed 'the absolute best and a must'), we will adjust the game accordingly. We want player skill to be deciding factor in your choices, not which class they picked hundreds of hours ago. That's pretty standard for MMOs.

TL;DR

Q: 'Why would I play a DPS only Advanced Class if I can play an Advanced Class that can respec to fill other roles?'
A: If that is your main concern, you shouldn't play that Advanced Class, because you are going to be unhappy about the fact that you cannot switch roles.

Q: Since I can only fill a DPS role, I should do the absolute best damage in the game!
A: Not in SWTOR. We give you get more variety in your DPS gameplay. We maintain balance between all ACs that can fill a role.

Q: What ever happened to being 5% better thing for pure DPS classes?
A: Given class utility and other considerations of why you might want to have someone in your group, 5% is not considered 'significant' for the purpose of this conversation.

I hope this clears things up a bit. I'm sure there'll be plenty of different and, of course, dissenting opinions on this topic, but at least everyone will be on the same page as what our design goals are in this situation and how we approach balancing classes."

Switching gears.. how about an actual quote from the movies like; "Luminous beings are we."