They don't even fit

I still find it hilarious that the clone troopers in The Clone Wars have a New Zealand accent as imagined by American voice over actors who only know that it’s kind of similar to an Australian accent.

And they have Jake the Mus’ face on all of them…　

Tips for new Star Wars: The Old Republic Players

Character Creation

• At the moment, there is no in-game way to change your character’s face/body-type, hair, gender, class, faction or name.  Choose carefully!
• Classes are less rigid than in many MMOs, and in most cases you’ll be able to fulfill at least two of the three “Holy Trinity” class types (tank, healer, DPS) regardless of which class you choose, although this isn’t locked in until you choose your Advanced Class at level 10.  Read the class descriptions carefully.  
• There are a bunch of gameplay options in the Preferences menu that are turned off by default: auto-loot, area loot, hide helmet, etc  Check them out when you start and experiment to see which options work for you.  Some options (such as “Activate quickslot on key press”) suit some classes more than others, so try them out every time you create a new character.
• The planet you start on is determined by your class choice, e.g. Jedi Knights and Jedi Consulars start on Tython, while Smugglers and Troopers start on Ord Mantell.  You’ll end up on the capital world of your faction at level ten.
• Your faction determines whether you are Republic or Empire, but you can still choose the “opposite” moral choice as an individual, so you can be a Jedi Knight who is completely Dark Side.  Initially there is little impact of these decisions on your gameplay (except Dark Side characters tend to get more stuff and piss more people off) but this changes later in the game.  Light/Dark is a spectrum, so it’s possible to reverse your alignment later on through a bit of hard work.
• If you’ve previously played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, you’ll already be familiar with many of the concepts and places in the game.  TOR is set about 300 years after KOTOR.

Questing and Grouping

• Missions tend to be fewer in number but more involved than you might be used to from other MMOs.  Most missions will be “gated” by previous missions, and as a rule you should be able to pick up all the missions for a particular area of a zone so you don’t need to retrace your steps into the same area more than once.  
• Most missions are intended to be soloable, but they can be easier in a group.  If a mission is marked “Heroic”, “Group” or “Flashpoint”, you’ll need two players or a group (4 people) to complete it-it will tell you which in the mission title.  As a rule of thumb, you should be able to complete Heroic missions for 2 players solo at around 5-6 levels above the mission level, higher for Group missions.  All Heroic/Group/Flashpoint missions are optional, but give good rewards (and are generally pretty fun.)  Most group quests are repeatable.
• In quest dialogue, it is possible for multiple people in the group to make different dialogue choices.  You’ll have to try this out to see what the effect is, but basically the choices you make will generally affect only you, except in a few cases (e.g. starting a fight.)
• Your Class Quest is your main quest, and is the quest chain that grants you all the “extras” for your class: advanced classes, companions, your ship, etc  All Class Quests are soloable, but you can bring others along if you want. Your class quest is the same level as other quests in the area it sends you to, so it should be a good guide to where you should be questing next.
• As far as I am aware, there is no limit to the number of quests you can accept. EDIT: Whoops, this is incorrect!  It’s 25 quests, but I’ve never hit the limit even when I’ve accepted every quest I’ve come across.  
• Quest dialogue is where you make most of your Light Side/Dark Side choices.  There is an option in your Preferences to turn on the display of which choices affect these ratings.
• Grouping with other players will also allow you to rank up your “Social” attribute, which grants you access to some fluff items and some not-so-fluff gear.
• Companions count as players for the purposes of groups (so you can have a maximum of two players + two companions in a group, or three players + one companion, etc.)

Companions and Crew Skills

• You get your first companion at around level 8 (as a “guest”) as part of your class quest, and pick up additional companions as you progress through your class quest (this varies significantly by which class you play.)  
• Companions make the game significantly easier, and it is generally assumed that you’ll have a companion with you on every quest.  Most companions will have slightly more health than you and will do as much or more damage as long as you keep upgrading their gear.  Companions will generally fit into one of four categories: tank (most first companions), crafting (your ship’s crafting droid/steward), healing, or DPS.  
• Companions have a range of skills, and get more as they level up.  You can enable or disable their use of any and all skills through the UI.  Most will have two “modes” via toggleable buff skills (e.g. a tank mode and a DPS mode) but will generally do best at their main role.
• Companions have their own preferences as to which choices you make in dialogue, and your affection rating with them is influenced by the choices you make while they are present and by the gifts that you give them.  Unless you’re on your ship, only the companion you have with you will react to your dialogue choices.  It is much easier to gain affection than lose it (i.e. affection loss is usually only -1 per disapproval and +15 or +40 for approval.) Your companion has a Codex entry (accessible via your mission log) which lists their likes and dislikes.  Increasing your companions’ affection past certain thresholds at certain levels triggers their companion quests.
• You can change the appearance of your companions with a slottable item.
• You can only have one companion out with you when you are away from your ship.  The others stay on your ship, but are available for crafting. You can swap your companions out via the Crew Skills window any time you are not in combat.  You can also send your active companion back to base to sell your junk items (takes 60 seconds.)  Your active companion can also be commanded to craft, but this removes them from your side while they work on your command.
• Once you get more than one companion (i.e. when you get your ship) you’ll be able to command both of them to craft at the same time.  The number of companions you can have working on crew skills increases as you level.
• “Crew Skills” is the catchall name for crafting/gathering/mission skills.  You can have one crafting skill, and then two gathering or mission skills.  Crafting skills can be queued as long as you have all the required items (up to five items at a time) while both you and your companion can gather from nodes in the world.  You can also send your companions on gathering-related missions to obtain more materials, or on their own missions (Investigation, Diplomacy, Underworld Trading, etc) to obtain special items.  These missions cost credits, have a chance of failure, and take several minutes to complete.  (You cannot queue Crew Skill missions but you can have multiple companions on missions for the same crew skill.)  
• You obtain your crew skills at level ten, at the same time and in the same place as your advanced class decision is made.  
• Crew skills continue to count down even when you are offline, so you can queue skills up before logging off for the night and they will be complete the next day.  
• If you have enough credits and time, and complimentary crew skills, you can theoretically level your skills to max while sitting by the crew skill trainer.

Gear and Mods

• Most gear follows the White->Green->Blue->Purple schema of most MMOs.  There are additional “ranks” beyond this, which you’ll learn about in game.
• Some items have “modification slots”, most just one or two, but “legacy” items (with orange-red names) have 3-4 mod slots depending on the item type.  Because these items change level based on the types of mods that you slot in them, they will level with you throughout the game and can be changed on the fly.  (To remove a mod without destroying it, CTRL + Right Click on the item, then drag the mod out of the slot to your inventory.  This will cost credits.)  As a rule of thumb, you should hold on to all legacy items because you’ll never outlevel them.  You can modify items anywhere, not just at a modification station.)
• Your companions can equip a range of items-check their skills (in the Powers screen) to see what they can use.  Quest rewards are often companion-specific items.

Ships and Vehicles

• You get your ship around level 16, when you complete your class quest on the second planet you visit.  This comes with a crafting droid and the ability to fly anywhere.  It also has a storage space, which is shared with all “cargo hold access” banks on all planets.  You can store crafting materials in here and they will still be available for crafting.  
• You also start getting access to space missions when you get your ship.  These are “on rails” (i.e. you do not choose the direction you fly) but you control the weapons and skills of your ship.  More open up as you level and most are repeatable.
• You can upgrade your ship from a Starship Upgrades Vendor. These have level requirements, but you should upgrade your ship as soon as you can afford to-they make most space missions much easier.
• You can also purchase a speeder for 8,000 credits, but you do not get the skill to use this until level 25.  The skill costs 40,000 credits, so start saving!  (Selling stuff on the Global Trade Network is a good way to amass the credits.)   Speeders work like mounts in most areas.  Until then, you’ll need to rely on the “Sprint” skill (obtained by all classes at level 14) to speed up your travel time.