Star Wars: The Old Republic

[rei]

i had hit 5000/10000 affection with vette and never got any conversation waiting 'let's go somewhere private' reminders. when i went aboard my ship, i'd gotten 1 or 2 to get a level 30 companion quest. later after i finished act 1, i got like 5 in a row for 10k exp each.

[Michael Fortson]

edit edit: i tried it on the imperial fleet and even with the conversation icon up (it disappears randomly still, although a bit less than i remember), when i enter my ship my companion doesn't want to talk.

Everything I've read about that disappearing-icon bug suggests that it's just a false-positive UI issue, and that your companion doesn't really want to talk to you. Usually once you advance the story to the point where they will be triggered (at the end of an act, for example), everything works fine.

There is another bug affecting companions, separate from that one, where making a dark-side choice can cause the companion quest line to get stuck. One of those (an Imperial quest one) just got fixed. Kira is still broken. It's possible to get the false-positive UI bug along with an actual stuck companion, but they're unrelated, as far as I've been able to tell.

I have the stuck Kira (and have shelved my Guardian as a result, until they get around to fixing it).

[Teiman]

It only interrupts casting. Mobs can still hit you with normal attacks. Most mobs use only (or mostly) normal attacks. Find some mob that casts a lot to try it on.

Or don't. You might get banned for dancing in a non-designated area.

What can be possibly be more awesome than get banned for that?

I mean, I would order to print a t-shit with "I got banned from SWTOR for dancing on a non-designated area". Ibiza is only 7 hours to the south-east from my city :D

[rossm]

I have the stuck Kira (and have shelved my Guardian as a result, until they get around to fixing it).
I've also shelved my guardian because they need a lot of work and scoundrel is rad. But on the off-chance I pick her back up, where in the story is this bug located? My guardian is dark side.

[Scott F]

I don't have a bugged Kira (fortunately), but I have noticed that some of her randomized "normal" dialogue can make you think that she wants to talk later if you click on her. She will say things like, "Let's talk later; feels like we ought to be saving the galaxy right now," and so forth. She doesn't want to talk (and you get a completely different audio clip when she actually does), but if you hear that you could be forgiven for thinking that she actually does want to talk later.

I don't doubt that there are bugs. There are clearly serious problems with companion affection, cut scenes, and side quests triggering across many classes and companions. This being said, it seems to me that Bioware is not helping things by the sometimes confusing things companions say in the random "click on them and hear them say something" dialogue rotation.

Every time I have had a "talk to companion" mission, I've done it on the ship (never in a cantina), and the companion has always had a quest icon floating in the air above them indicating that they want to talk. YMMV.

[ibdoomed]

They still haven't fixed the weapon holstering bug. I'm constantly running around with my lightsabers out and Z (or whatever you have changed the holster key to) does nothing. Not game breaking like all the companion bugs but it's jarring.

[ibdoomed]

i had hit 5000/10000 affection with vette and never got any conversation waiting 'let's go somewhere private' reminders. when i went aboard my ship, i'd gotten 1 or 2 to get a level 30 companion quest. later after i finished act 1, i got like 5 in a row for 10k exp each.

Heh, I can barely keep her affection positive.

[Black Isis]

Everything I've read about that disappearing-icon bug suggests that it's just a false-positive UI issue, and that your companion doesn't really want to talk to you. Usually once you advance the story to the point where they will be triggered (at the end of an act, for example), everything works fine.

There is another bug affecting companions, separate from that one, where making a dark-side choice can cause the companion quest line to get stuck. One of those (an Imperial quest one) just got fixed. Kira is still broken. It's possible to get the false-positive UI bug along with an actual stuck companion, but they're unrelated, as far as I've been able to tell.

I have the stuck Kira (and have shelved my Guardian as a result, until they get around to fixing it).

If that's the case, what exactly do you need to do to get them to talk to you? Because I have affection at over 2000 for Kaliyo on my agent and she says she wants to talk to me...but then she doesn't.

[Jason Townsend]

I don't have a bugged Kira (fortunately), but I have noticed that some of her randomized "normal" dialogue can make you think that she wants to talk later if you click on her. She will say things like, "Let's talk later; feels like we ought to be saving the galaxy right now," and so forth. She doesn't want to talk (and you get a completely different audio clip when she actually does), but if you hear that you could be forgiven for thinking that she actually does want to talk later.

I'm pretty sure that's (perhaps one of a few) generic "We're in normal mode, we'll talk some other time" response that you get when you accidentally click on a companion. Happens when you go to loot and get the companion by mistake, and I had it with various chars.


Every time I have had a "talk to companion" mission, I've done it on the ship (never in a cantina), and the companion has always had a quest icon floating in the air above them indicating that they want to talk. YMMV.

I think the idea was that the little "conversation head" icon superimposed over the companion cameo is meant to be the solid indicator that they want to talk (with or without an unprompted audio-cue) but unfortunately it's A: currently giving false positive and B: different characters have Kira-bug-analogues, though I have no details for any besides her.

Also I think if you have crewmembers on missions it may not always be possible to do shipboard conversations with them. But it seems to vary.

[Brian Seiler]

So, what's this about players getting banned (http://i.imgur.com/HnKp7.jpg) for dancing in non-designated "dance zones" to exploit bosses? :D

I know that I'm supposed to hate them for this, but I kind of love them. Because now anybody caught battle dancing will be arrested and sent to jail. For reals. I find it so incredibly difficult to hate that.

Still won't be getting on this game for a while, though.

[walTer]

How does someone even figure out this type of exploit? And if the first guy did it completely by accident, does he get banned too?

[MrPerson]

BW has confirmed this is fake. Hilarious, but fake.

[rossm]

BW has confirmed this is fake. Hilarious, but fake.
Just the image, right?

[Kevin Grey]

I've also shelved my guardian because they need a lot of work and scoundrel is rad. But on the off-chance I pick her back up, where in the story is this bug located? My guardian is dark side.

It's after the story event she participates in after Nar Shadaa. When the event is over, you have the option of selecting a Dark Side flirt. If you select it then I believe her quest is bugged and will not progress. The solution, if you want to romance her, is to wait until after the next conversation with her where you have the option to do a non-DS flirt.

The whole Kira stuff is weird because I don't believe that any of her conversations will trigger until after Nar-Shadaa which is pretty along so before that it may seem like things are bugged since you can get over 2000 affection points with zero feedback.

[rossm]

It's after the story event she participates in after Nar Shadaa. When the event is over, you have the option of selecting a Dark Side flirt. If you select it then I believe her quest is bugged and will not progress. The solution, if you want to romance her, is to wait until after the next conversation with her where you have the option to do a non-DS flirt.

The whole Kira stuff is weird because I don't believe that any of her conversations will trigger until after Nar-Shadaa which is pretty along so before that it may seem like things are bugged since you can get over 2000 affection points with zero feedback.
Thanks. I assume that since my guardian is female, I won't get the flirt option?

[Kevin Grey]

Thanks. I assume that since my guardian is female, I won't get the flirt option?

I would assume so. I don't think same-sex romances are in.

[Murph]

As I understand it, same-sex relationships are planned for later on down the line, but they made it sound like it would come in the way of new followers, not enhancements to existing ones. So, probably not.

[Brad Wardell]

I'm currently waiting another 5 minutes and 6 seconds for the medial probe. Is that sad?

[ydejin]

I'm currently waiting another 5 minutes and 6 seconds for the medial probe. Is that sad?

Ouch! Is that a fourth resurrect in a row?

[Brad Wardell]

Ouch! Is that a fourth resurrect in a row?

Let's just pretend it's not.

[Murbella]

I'm currently waiting another 5 minutes and 6 seconds for the medial probe. Is that sad?
Did you try using the force?

Anyway, to me the conversation icon bug is nearly game breaking. It doesn't matter if it is a false positive or a real disappearing act. Every time i see that icon pop up, i stop what i am doing and head back to my starship. Then i get there and more times than not my companion changes their mind. Then i head back and 20 minutes later the process repeats.

[Brad Wardell]

Did you try using the force?

Look kid, I've been from one side of the galaxy to the other. I've never seen any sort of "Force" you speak of.

[rossm]

Anyway, to me the conversation icon bug is nearly game breaking. It doesn't matter if it is a false positive or a real disappearing act. Every time i see that icon pop up, i stop what i am doing and head back to my starship.
Quit doing that? You don't get anything from the conversations anyway except affection and experience.

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this." :P

[Murbella]

I can't help it. When i see a sparkly i need to open it up to see what it is inside.

[theborbes]

Not understanding the Coruscant comments. I agree with the general point that sometimes the planets outstay their welcome, but in terms of flow they work better than almost any MMO I've ever experienced, especially Coruscant. You have your class quest, plus the main quest for the area, and as you move through the area doing those two quests you come across local quest givers. If you do all the quests in the area, you retrace your steps back to the beginning of the zone, handing in the quests in reverse order as you go. Simples. The map is extremely helpful in this regard (especially the fact that you can move with it transparent and get your overall orientation).

OTOH, if one is looking for a more "wander around randomly and see what happens" type of gameplay (like Bethesda, say), then you aren't going to "get" the quest flow in this game, which is very definitely on rails, but none the worse for what it is.

As to the lots of walking around thing - try ACTUALLY WALKING across Tattoine (especially if, like me, you're so useless at making and managing your money you can't afford speeder training or a speeder yet). I did a bit of that the other day. Wonderfully immersive.

I love walking in games. I used to walk around in LOTRO a lot too - ahh, the country air, the atmospheric music! :)]

I don't understand your coruscant comments. I'm talking about spaces where there is actually nothing to do. A fancy room is fun to look at once for a couple seconds. I've had to run through the empty senate chamber multiple times, and it's all wasted space. There aren't even senators.

I'm glad to hear that it gets better after Coruscant but I'm finding it very hard to be motivated when the bulk of my time in this game is running around. If you think the flow is better in this game then that's fine and your opinion and all, but I just can't agree. WoW does it a lot, lot better. There's a lot of boring running in that game (especially when mounts were only lvl 40+) but you only do lots of running in between cities/zones. Do a large cluster of quests, move to next zone. In this game it's like I'm running from Stormwind to Westfall just to finish my cluster of quests.

I'm finding it very hard to play this when I have Skyrim, Zelda, and Saints Row to play as well. It's a shame that the planets past Coruscant are better because I think my free month will be up before I get the gumption to run out of that senate chamber where I logged off.

[ydejin]

I don't understand your coruscant comments. I'm talking about spaces where there is actually nothing to do. A fancy room is fun to look at once for a couple seconds. I've had to run through the empty senate chamber multiple times, and it's all wasted space. There aren't even senators.

I'm glad to hear that it gets better after Coruscant but I'm finding it very hard to be motivated when the bulk of my time in this game is running around. If you think the flow is better in this game then that's fine and your opinion and all, but I just can't agree. WoW does it a lot, lot better. There's a lot of boring running in that game (especially when mounts were only lvl 40+) but you only do lots of running in between cities/zones. Do a large cluster of quests, move to next zone. In this game it's like I'm running from Stormwind to Westfall just to finish my cluster of quests.

I'm finding it very hard to play this when I have Skyrim, Zelda, and Saints Row to play as well. It's a shame that the planets past Coruscant are better because I think my free month will be up before I get the gumption to run out of that senate chamber where I logged off.

According to Bioware the Coruscant main Senate area is deliberately jumbo size to allow congregations of hundreds of players for server-wide events. The same thing is true of Drumond Kass on the Empire side.

[Kadath]

Don't count on it for the near future.

Yfultdh,tdcjgc,HTC,hut,!

[Sean Tudor]

Has anyone noticed some popular well known games sites and games bloggers falling over themselves to brand SWTOR as a complete failure? I am sure there are journos breathlessly anticipating the latest sales and subscription figures for this MMO in the hope they can report something negative.

[jpinard]

My Mom and I are playing together. I have the digital deluxe, and when I got it for her for Christmas, I was unaware that buying her the boxed edition (non-deluxe) would negate her from some areas I can go into (lounge). Is there a way to purchase an upgrade for her account to add this option?

[ydejin]

My Mom and I are playing together. I have the digital deluxe, and when I got it for her for Christmas, I was unaware that buying her the boxed edition (non-deluxe) would negate her from some areas I can go into (lounge). Is there a way to purchase an upgrade for her account to add this option?

I believe you can purchase a pass for the lounge for credits, but it's very expensive. Also there's nothing up there anyway.

[gurugeorge]

I don't understand your coruscant comments. I'm talking about spaces where there is actually nothing to do. A fancy room is fun to look at once for a couple seconds. I've had to run through the empty senate chamber multiple times, and it's all wasted space. There aren't even senators.

I'm glad to hear that it gets better after Coruscant but I'm finding it very hard to be motivated when the bulk of my time in this game is running around. If you think the flow is better in this game then that's fine and your opinion and all, but I just can't agree. WoW does it a lot, lot better. There's a lot of boring running in that game (especially when mounts were only lvl 40+) but you only do lots of running in between cities/zones. Do a large cluster of quests, move to next zone. In this game it's like I'm running from Stormwind to Westfall just to finish my cluster of quests.

I'm finding it very hard to play this when I have Skyrim, Zelda, and Saints Row to play as well. It's a shame that the planets past Coruscant are better because I think my free month will be up before I get the gumption to run out of that senate chamber where I logged off.

Honestly, my experience of most SWTOR levels (including Coruscant) is:- navigate through map to class quest marker and/or main zone marker, exploring all the nooks and crannies on the way. In doing this, you pick up local quests that usually involve killing the very mobs you're having to plow your way through to get to the main quests, plus there are bonus quests that are revealed as you are killing the mobs. By the time you get to the class/zone quest markers, you've finished most of the little side quests and bonus quests, you then retrace your steps and hand the quests back in reverse order till you get back to the start of the zone (or there's some other cutsceney way of getting out, or you can fast travel out).

IOW, you're running around a lot of the time, yes, but you're usually running through groups of mobs that you have to kill to fulfil class/main/local quests, so you're very seldom running around to no purpose. Nor are you ever at a loss as to what you should be doing next.

I agree that there are large areas with nothing to do like the Senate, that you sometimes have to run through to turn in the mq or whatever - but I don't find that happening so very often, or being so irksome (since the zones are usually beautiful and immersive to stroll around in anyway, and there's always fast travel).

Another way of saying this: in WoW and many other MMOs, the quest structure is something like "blob of radial quests - move - blob of radial quests - move" etc. Whereas in SWTOR it's more linear, it's like "aim for MQ, hoover up and and do quests as you go, do the MQ at the end, finish".

Or, again, you could say that the same "quest blob - move - quest blob" structure is in SWTOR, but it's scaled up to the level of the planets being the "blobs", and the "blobs" themselves aren't blobs but little linear paths, or at most "quest fans", and the "moving" betwen them is done by spaceship.

[Michael Fortson]

If that's the case, what exactly do you need to do to get them to talk to you? Because I have affection at over 2000 for Kaliyo on my agent and she says she wants to talk to me...but then she doesn't.

Generally you just need to finish the act. It has more to do with where you are in the story than what your affection is, if you haven't gotten far enough along yet.

[Michael Fortson]

I can't help it. When i see a sparkly i need to open it up to see what it is inside.

Just use emergency fleet transfer, and since it only works once a day, there's your built-in limit :P

[Sean Tudor]

My Mom and I are playing together. I have the digital deluxe, and when I got it for her for Christmas, I was unaware that buying her the boxed edition (non-deluxe) would negate her from some areas I can go into (lounge). Is there a way to purchase an upgrade for her account to add this option?

Some of my guild members wanted access to CE so they purchased the CE version and added the CE key to their existing standard version account. Not exactly an upgrade though as it incurs extra expense for a game they have already purchased once.

[idrisz]

Some of my guild members wanted access to CE so they purchased the CE version and added the CE key to their existing standard version account. Not exactly an upgrade though as it incurs extra expense for a game they have already purchased once.

OOOOOR, save a million credits(not hard at all) and buy the silly vip wristband from the cantina vendor on the fleet.

[Wolff]

After leveling most classes to about twenty I can safely say there is a fair bit of Imbalance in regards to speed of questing and ease of play. Guardian/jug have it the worst by far. BH/Com have it the best by far.

I can't speak to any other class past 36 except jug. Every time I level on my jug it feels it takes longer and longer to kill enemies as any of the 3 specs.

[TheWombat]

Bounty Hunters are PvE killing machines, 'tis true. Healing pet, AoE damage, CC, you name it.

[theborbes]

well I guess your definition of immersion is different than mine, because the senate chamber (yes im harping on one relatively small part of the game) is so boring and empty that I usually just run with my map up. It's a series of big empty rooms with no one in them including npcs.

anyway, lots of people are enjoying the game and that's great, I don't want to be too negative especially when i'm not very far into the game.

[Murbella]

My jug had an easier timer leveling than my operative. Although now my operative finally has the Heal over time (which lasts a stupidly low 18 seconds) so maybe things will get better.

[Mike Cathcart]

According to Bioware the Coruscant main Senate area is deliberately jumbo size to allow congregations of hundreds of players for server-wide events. The same thing is true of Drumond Kass on the Empire side.

Yeah, that's great. Just don't put quest NPCs on the far side of that giant open space and force me to run back and forth through it several times while I'm on the planet. Same thing with all of the stupid hangar/orbital station/spaceport stuff. It's like FFXIV levels of annoying running in this game. And for no friggin reason because I would gladly play the game for the same amount of time, anyway. Jesus, Bioware, you made a fun game, just let me play it.

[Ultrazen]

Wow...I went from 'this is pretty fun' ...to...'god damn this is boring' ..in a really short period of time lol.

The things that started off as inconveniences have blossomed into full blown annoying. The endless running, the random/braindead placement of things like trainers, class trainers, respecs, etc. The fact that I haven't had guild chat for 5 days, or party chat. The sameness that is 3-4 mob spawns, 20 feet apart........man...

I think they really screwed the pooch with the loot system as well. BW has always had realllllllly boring loot, but the orange loot/replace mods system is probably one of the biggest fundamental flaws in MMO design history. Knowing that the quest reward you're going to get is worse than what you have on, before you get it, every time, is a massive motivational failure. I just couldn't be more bored to receive a quest reward, or loot a mob. I *know* with 100% certainty, that what I have on is better.

/shrug. I gotta say, I think this game is going to tank, and tank hard. I can't see many people playing this for more than a month or two. Granted, my tolerance level is probably lower than a lot of peoples, but I just don't see it. Once you get past the voice acting, this is a seriously shallow and flawed MMO.

[rhinohelix]

/shrug. I gotta say, I think this game is going to tank, and tank hard. I can't see many people playing this for more than a month or two. Granted, my tolerance level is probably lower than a lot of peoples, but I just don't see it. Once you get past the voice acting, this is a seriously shallow and flawed MMO.
I don't see that at all. Of the 4 classes I have played past level 10, between the class mechanics and the stories I could see playing them all the max level, something that never crossed my mind in previous MMOs. I can imagine that guild chat UI issue is certainly draining but I don't see any way this fails in traditional MMO sense.

To echo the above, there seems to be a level of harshness to the criticism that I just don't get. So not the best MMO all time at launch=failure/tanking? Having played it previously in June of this year and then almost not at all until an hour during the last beta weekend, the game made such huge strides in most areas I have great faith they will begin running these things down. Knock on wood, I haven't had any of the major bugs and actually very few of the minor ones, really. Occasionally stuff happens, sure, but unless its a show-stopper, just move on.

As far as how large some of the areas are, once you get a speeder few areas feel that big at all. Also I can't help but think it was done for loading purposes to spread out players inside of the most trafficked 'bubbles'. That is just me guessing, though.

[Diana Baba]

I totally get Ultrazen's frustration. I don't know if the game is going to tank because of it, but I'm pretty unforgiving, myself. Things that start as annoyances, become full blown thorns in my side, and I start getting resentful. (I paid good money for this, and I expect things to work dagnabbit!)I'll deal with the constant running and massive empty spaces, even though I think its poor design, but partner that with the GTN, the bugs, low world population (seriously, 28 people on Tatooine last night over 2 shards, and on a heavy server that still has queues? I mean, WTF.) It is difficult to find groups, for heroics, and there have been many a time ive seen the same person spaming fleet for flashpoints. I only assume that the Empire side is so overloaded that its causing the heavy server designation and the queues. Also, getting wtfpwned by 50's during the warfronts, and the constant unrelenting, cc and knockbacks is seriously pissing me off. They may only be irritants to other people but to some this leads to nerdrage, cancelled accounts and the darkside. If the game was everything I ever wanted, I would put up with this, but I am also getting bored.

[rossm]

I totally agree. I can't really speak for the people who enjoy Bioware-style games, maybe it's a good one of those, but it's certainly not a good MMO. Not in its current state anyway. I'm willing to see if the pace they improve things is sufficient, and I also plan on at least getting one guy to 50. But that's only 2 months or so. I imagine a lot of people who were looking more for an mmo and less for a star wars game or a bioware game will feel similarly.

[MrPerson]

I'm pretty much in the same place as Ultrazen. I'm only playing because a lot of guildmates are, and won't be sad when they tire of it. I enjoyed my questline, but it's just not a great MMO.

[nomaar]

I totally agree. I can't really speak for the people who enjoy Bioware-style games, maybe it's a good one of those, but it's certainly not a good MMO. Not in its current state anyway. I'm willing to see if the pace they improve things is sufficient, and I also plan on at least getting one guy to 50. But that's only 2 months or so. I imagine a lot of people who were looking more for an mmo and less for a star wars game or a bioware game will feel similarly.

I went in wanting to play an MMO and I'm loving the game. I like the way the story lines and quests are weaved together and I find the world interesting and very Star Wars-ish. The PvP needs some work, but what's there is engaging and fun. The people I play with pretty much feel the same way. I could see why some people might be put off by the style of play, although I find some of the complaints to be odd in that they could be said of pretty much any of the big name MMORPGs out there.

[DKDArtagnan]

Their latest update on PvP changes:

Fellow PvPers, thank you for taking on the challenge of player vs player combat in The Old Republic!

In the first week after launch there were over a million Warzone matches played, with nearly half of all players participating in Warzones. Bad news for Republic players, though - the Empire currently leads overall, having won 53% of all Alderaan Civil War and Voidstar matches (across all servers). Huttball has been played the most, accounting for 39% of all matches – and yes, we’ll be adding a new same faction vs. same faction enabled Warzone in the future.

We are all really excited at the tremendous volume of participation we’ve seen in PvP thus far. Your interest and demand dictates what we’ll be delivering in the near future. I wanted to give you some insight into where we are with PvP development and where we are going.

First and foremost here is what we are addressing as a top priority:

Level 50 Bracket Warzones: Level 50 players will have a bracket of their own, playing in separate Warzone matches to lower level players. This is something we have wanted to do for some time and now that there is an increasing number of level 50 players we will be implementing the feature in January.

Open World PvP on Ilum: The planet of Ilum currently allows for open world PvP even on a PvE server, but the mechanics and incentives of the planet are not in as intended yet. We’re working on longer term goals for the planet and for other PvP areas, but expect to see some interim adjustments in January - such as more respawn points to focus conflicts, restricting Companion Characters from the area, and revisions to rewards. Ilum will also become a major source of Valor. Valor buffs will increase and decrease based on the objectives your faction owns. These buffs increase the amount of Valor you receive per player kill. However they do not give anything in and of themselves, so players will still need to defeat other players for significant Valor rewards. Additionally, daily and weekly missions will require player kills to complete. Player kills for quests and Valor credit will have diminishing returns per player killed. So, the more players that are fighting other players, the better it is for everyone.

Combat Gameplay: You’ll see several optimizations come online in January, and we are going to continue to tune this as time goes on.

We also have other exciting features coming in the near future including Ranked Warzone Matches, PvP Stat Tracking, Open World PvP Loot Drops, more Warzone medals for different objectives, Guard Optimizations and Target Optimizations.

Additionally we’re looking at ways to enable team vs. team, more level brackets and the ability to choose which Warzone you want to play in.

This is not a complete list of everything we’re working on that’s PvP related, but we have to keep some surprises for later! Thanks again for all your feedback and please keep it coming. We read as much as we can then cross reference with metrics to take action on features and tuning the game to ensure an enjoyable and competitive PvP community.

Gabe Amatangelo
Principal Lead PvP, Operations & Flashpoints Designer

I quite like what I hear, and it's more than I expected this soon. I hope they actually do what they say in january - but at least they're aware of the current issues.

[hong]

I also plan on at least getting one guy to 50. But that's only 2 months or so.

You can tell when an MMO player isn't having fun, because he'll only play for 2 months or so.

[The Mad Hatter]

I don't think it's going to tank but there are some major structural flaws in the game. Some is pure Bioware - the large empty spaces and all the running around is straight out of their solo games. Other things though are even more significant. I haven't gotten any orange gear myself but if it's true that the stuff you buy off vendors and then just upgrade via slots is better than all the drops....that eliminates the carrot in front of the mule. Eventually the mule is going to stop. The lack of a real LFG tool, the interface problems, the terrible auction system, all must be fixed along with the gear levels to prevent a serious loss of players over the next few months. I'm encouraged that they're looking at major changes to PvP already.

Bioware does have one major advantage over past MMOs, in that I think WoW ennui is so high right now that even people getting sick of SWTOR aren't planning their return to Azeroth. I know I haven't done more than login to WoW since this game launched. Right now I'm not playing either game. I want this one to be better, so I'm willing to wait a while to see if they will make it better. I won't wait forever though.

[Ranulf]

So yeah, I guess not being able to play this game for over a week hasnt been so bad after all. I can barely stand wow these days but no guild chat or party chat? WTF? It was bad enough that the guild leader couldn't see chat...

Maybe I really am burned out on mmo's.

[Ultrazen]

Yah I really don't mean to be a hater, and I have a lot of fondness for Bioware in general. I guess it just irks me when I see what I feel are major blunders design wise. I can put up with bugs etc, heck I expect those. Honestly I feel SWTOR was a pretty good release MMO-wise. As someone who played Anarchy Online at release my standards are pretty low lol.

I also don't want to give the impression that I'm putting anyone down that's enjoying the game, far from it. Different people have different tolerance/enjoyment levels, for different things. I really wanted to like this game, and have been following it for a long time.

I'm a sucker for improving loot games, it's one reason that I can still fire up a new game of Diablo 2 to this day and play a character for a while. The removal of the carrot is just such a huge blunder, and I think once more of the player base catches onto what oranges are really all about, it's going to hurt the game in the long run. I just feel it's a horribly thought out design choice and it bums me out. If this game had an engaging loot system, I'd probably play 4-5 characters to max level.

Anyway, just wanted to say that I didn't want to leave the impression that people that liked that game were "wrong" lol. There is plenty to love in SWTOR, I'm just a jaded old gamer.

[ydejin]

So yeah, I guess not being able to play this game for over a week hasnt been so bad after all. I can barely stand wow these days but no guild chat or party chat? WTF? It was bad enough that the guild leader couldn't see chat...

Maybe I really am burned out on mmo's.

Supposedly the current downtime is to apply a patch to fix Guild chat.


We are working on getting a patch deployed to address the issues that some players are still experiencing after 1.0.2 including:

Fixing an issue that causes in-game chat channels to stop functioning for some players.

We’re currently testing this patch, and we hope to have it deploy sometime in the early hours of the morning tomorrow (CST), but if we experience any issues with this patch, we may hold off its deployment until tomorrow night.

All servers were shutdown about 20 minutes ago, so that's presumably why.

[Cal]

I personally love the game, although the single biggest flaw is how empty the game feels. My server has queues every night, yet i barely see a single other player in my 2-3 hour play time. I have had to skip most planets heroics as finding people for them wastes an hour or so of my 2-3 hours playtime.

Fix the appalling LFG system, and its a start, although im not sure how they can make the worlds feel less empty of people.

On the plus side, as i rolled a republic char so my PvP queue times are non existant

[idrisz]

I hope they put in cross realm pvp before they put in the bracket, but wait 30 minutes for a queue sucks.

[DKDArtagnan]

I really hope they can stay away from cross-server technology, as I find it hurts the community too much. Naturally, if the only alternative is long queues - then it's a compromise I suppose most would prefer.

Since I'm really only interested in world PvP - I'd just do that instead, but I guess most people really enjoy playing the same warzones over and over and over.

[idrisz]

I really hope they can stay away from cross-server technology, as I find it hurts the community too much. Naturally, if the only alternative is long queues - then it's a compromise I suppose most would prefer.

Since I'm really only interested in world PvP - I'd just do that instead, but I guess most people really enjoy playing the same warzones over and over and over.

world pvp is a zzzzz-fest in WOW and in SWTOR is free daily pvp bag + 3 weekly bag with 0 pvp because everyone just trade capture on ilum because imperial overwhelm republic 4 - 1 and we don't want to scare off the one republic who is actually brave enough to capture stuff.

the whole hurting community argument is so overrated, most of the people don't even interact much with non-guildies.

[rossm]

I haven't gotten any orange gear myself but if it's true that the stuff you buy off vendors and then just upgrade via slots is better than all the drops....that eliminates the carrot in front of the mule. Eventually the mule is going to stop.
This is sort of true. Orange gear's stats can be removed and replaced with new ones as you level, but they won't always strictly be better than drops you get along the way. It depends on the drop and how much you've been keeping up with replacing the stats on your orange pieces. Mainly the orange pieces are so you can keep a visual look you like while remaining effective.

All this changes at 50, where the mods you can put in orange gear no longer compare with the drops you get in pve and the pvp gear. And the mods in those are locked in place for some reason.

So they let players pick their look from 10-49 and stick with it. But then they have to abandon it at 50 and look exactly like every other player of their class. People are really gonna like giving up their character's look when they hit 50, let me tell you.

[MrCoffee]

What do you mean locked in place?

[The Mad Hatter]

world pvp is a zzzzz-fest in WOW and in SWTOR is free daily pvp bag + 3 weekly bag with 0 pvp because everyone just trade capture on ilum because imperial overwhelm republic 4 - 1 and we don't want to scare off the one republic who is actually brave enough to capture stuff.

the whole hurting community argument is so overrated, most of the people don't even interact much with non-guildies.

What he said. The sense of community that a small minority of players might feel is a lot less important than everyone else being unable to find groups. Like I said before, this problem is only going to get worse once the initial flood of users subsides, especially for those under max level.

[idrisz]

So they let players pick their look from 10-49 and stick with it. But then they have to abandon it at 50 and look exactly like every other player of their class. People are really gonna like giving up their character's look when they hit 50, let me tell you.

easily solvable by either have social armor like lotro, or transmogrification from wow.

Also they already lock most of the classes in to a certain look, since social armor are consider light armor only, only consular and inquisitor actually are able to use those even in leveling. occasionally you have BH dress like a Juggernaut but that's really the extend of the customization.

[rossm]

What do you mean locked in place?
You can't remove any of the mods that come in end game gear (to place them in orange gear you like the look of, for example). Basically skipping the mod system altogether.

[MrPerson]

Appearance is one of the many areas in which they (seemingly willfully) dropped the ball. They could have simply copied LotRO's best-in-class solution, but instead they came up with their own "solution" that is more complex and less effective.

[ydejin]

This is sort of true. Orange gear's stats can be removed and replaced with new ones as you level, but they won't always strictly be better than drops you get along the way. It depends on the drop and how much you've been keeping up with replacing the stats on your orange pieces. Mainly the orange pieces are so you can keep a visual look you like while remaining effective.

All this changes at 50, where the mods you can put in orange gear no longer compare with the drops you get in pve and the pvp gear. And the mods in those are locked in place for some reason.

So they let players pick their look from 10-49 and stick with it. But then they have to abandon it at 50 and look exactly like every other player of their class. People are really gonna like giving up their character's look when they hit 50, let me tell you.

Here's the explanation (http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19766-item-modding-clarifications) on what's going on with the end game mod gear:


- End game artifact quality (purple) gear is now partially moddable. Why moddable? Because that allows the players to customize stats such as critical, etc. to their exact desire. Why only partially? Because mods are now extractable... Think of it this way: it is easier to defeat the first boss from an Operation than the last boss. So we want to reward the players with the best possible loot for defeating the last boss and that loot is typically the Chest piece of a set. The first boss drops less interesting stuff, say boots. This may sound old school, and it is. But by doing so, we ensure that both players that get rewarded by looks and those rewarded by stats are properly rewarded for taking on the most difficult challenges.

Now, if purple gear was fully moddable, players would simply farm the first boss, acquire 5 pair of boots, extract the armoring, mod and enhancements from the boots and slots them in their favorite Custom items. That actually sounds cool, but it really isn’t. Letting players extract the armoring mod from the purple items would trivialize end game gear progression and stop rewarding successful and dedicated players for their efforts.

So, instead of letting that happen, we prevented the Armoring, Hilt and Barrel from being extracted, but we also made sure of dropping purple Armoring mods of equivalent power as Operation loot. This means that players going the mod route can still take their favorite orange armor and make it as good as a operation purple armor (with some temporary caveats).

From the post sounds like they know there are still some issues with Orange gear and they are working on trying to find a good solution.

[idrisz]

I think before people complain about not able to mod high end loot, they need to fix master looting in operation..

[MrPerson]

I think before people complain about not able to mod high end loot, they need to fix master looting in operation..

Listening to my guild raid the other night was hilarious because of this. I'm not sure how it's possible to fuck up a loot system so badly. It's beyond the realm of buggy, and is instead simply surreal.

[idrisz]

out of 4 bosses loot, we were only able to loot the first 2 boss, and even then the game magically roll the loot for us.

the 3rd and 4th boss is in the box which none of us can use.

[hong]

Listening to my guild raid the other night was hilarious because of this. I'm not sure how it's possible to fuck up a loot system so badly. It's beyond the realm of buggy, and is instead simply surreal.
Does this mean you're also only going to play for 2 months or so?

[ShivaX]

I think before people complain about not able to mod high end loot, they need to fix master looting in operation..

Is it true they decided on the hated "Vanilla WoW" method?


out of 4 bosses loot, we were only able to loot the first 2 boss, and even then the game magically roll the loot for us.

the 3rd and 4th boss is in the box which none of us can use.

Thats just unforgivable, especially if they went the "everything is instantly Soulbound, mistakes and bugs are for suckers" route.

[idrisz]

Is it true they decided on the hated "Vanilla WoW" method?

err no. vanilla wow stuff at least let the group decide who get what instead of looting the body to find out all of the loot already bound to a character.

I said Vanilla wow stuff is about 5 times better than operation loot, and the funny part is that they have the need/greed/pass system for normal group yet they fail so bad for operation. If anything, they should have master loot and NBG system working as well as allow drop item to be traded among the operation.

Instead we get stuff like emoting while on mount, and fail to fix the graphic setting where it's stuck on medium no matter what setting you set to(they claim they fixed in the latest patch, but it was confirm broken). that's why armor texture looks like crap normally, they only use the high res model during cutscene.

[ShivaX]

err no. vanilla wow stuff at least let the group decide who get what instead of looting the body to find out all of the loot already bound to a character.

I said Vanilla wow stuff is about 5 times better than operation loot, and the funny part is that they have the need/greed/pass system for normal group yet they fail so bad for operation. If anything, they should have master loot and NBG system working as well as allow drop item to be traded among the operation.


Holy crap, thats so horrific it boggles the mind.

[ydejin]

Servers are back up. Patch includes:


Fixed an issue that could cause in-game chat channels to stop functioning for some players.

[Teiman]

Is people looting in combat? then go back to MMORPG schooll. You don't loot until all the mobs are dead, so people can focus on combat and not "he.. do I need this purplez?".

[Murbella]

Is people looting in combat? then go back to MMORPG schooll. You don't loot until all the mobs are dead, so people can focus on combat and not "he.. do I need this purplez?".
Good luck with this.

The only time this worked in wow was if you were in a serious raiding guild and they had a policy that if they saw you looting while the fight was still going on, you didn't get any loot/dkp/punished in some real way. People want to know what dropped NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW.

[walTer]

Just as a reminder...it seem that the queues have basically disappeared from The Harbinger so if anyone is feeling lonely on their servers, the Navy (oh and that evil Sith guild too I am sure) would love additional peeps. We seem to have 10 to 14 a night right now. Our levels are a bit spread out but it looks like doing 4 mans is not too hard, but would certainly be easier with more.

Anyway, it is still early on, we are all still making alts so even if you need to start a new toon, you won't be too far behind.

[Mark Asher]

So does it look like the endgame is going to a gear grind? By that I mean when they introduce new content, will they introduce new, better gear?

I'm tired of that in WoW, though I admit it does tend to give me goals to strive for. It's just that I also know that each piece of gear I get is going to be outdated at some point, so it's sort of silly. Why not just cancel and sit out for awhile and skip a level of gear and then work towards the subsequent level gear that will be inevitably introduced?

These games really do turn us into hamsters running in place.

[rei]

So does it look like the endgame is going to a gear grind? By that I mean when they introduce new content, will they introduce new, better gear?

I'm tired of that in WoW, though I admit it does tend to give me goals to strive for. It's just that I also know that each piece of gear I get is going to be outdated at some point, so it's sort of silly. Why not just cancel and sit out for awhile and skip a level of gear and then work towards the subsequent level gear that will be inevitably introduced?

These games really do turn us into hamsters running in place.

Of course. This is all that is there to do.

[MarchHare]

Why not just cancel and sit out for awhile and skip a level of gear and then work towards the subsequent level gear that will be inevitably introduced?


In WoW, at least, it was usually required to have the previous tier's gear to beat bosses in the next tier. Eventually (I think around the time of the Sunwell patch) Blizzard made it so you could farm gear of similar quality to the previous tier's raid items from daily quests or new 5-mans, allowing players who hadn't been raiding to "catch up" and run the latest content without a huge gear disadvantage. I have no idea if SWTOR intends to follow a similar design (i.e. create a new, easier way to get gear equivalent to what you currently get in Eternity Vault when the next operation is released).

Of course, I think if someone is playing these games just to get the best gear, they're sort of missing the point. If you don't enjoy raiding for its own sake (friendship, camaraderie, teamwork, and cooperation required to defeat a challenging boss), then you can expect to burn out on this style of MMO pretty quickly.

[Nephrinn]

Of course, I think if someone is playing these games just to get the best gear, they're sort of missing the point. If you don't enjoy raiding for its own sake (friendship, camaraderie, teamwork, and cooperation required to defeat a challenging boss), then you can expect to burn out on this style of MMO pretty quickly.

SWTOR's endgame will be a bit different than other MMO's because you'll be continuing the next act of your character's story, which is the real reason I'll stay subbed. The loot and extra flashpoints/operations/PVP is secondary as far as I'm concerned.

[rei]

SWTOR's endgame will be a bit different than other MMO's because you'll be continuing the next act of your character's story, which is the real reason I'll stay subbed. The loot and extra flashpoints/operations/PVP is secondary as far as I'm concerned.

This part interests me most and makes me sad it's a $60+$15/month game. I'd prefer this to be a pay once Guildwars-style game but Bioware/EA needs to put money in the bank.

[Oghier]

Appearance is one of the many areas in which they (seemingly willfully) dropped the ball. They could have simply copied LotRO's best-in-class solution, but instead they came up with their own "solution" that is more complex and less effective.

They have the same issue in PvP. The key mods are not extractable from the level 50 sets. Also, the level 50 sets are generally terrible in terms of cosmetics -- they look like the leftovers. So Bioware develops an overcomplicated-but-workable appearance system, then dumps it at the level cap. What the heck is their core design principle?

In too many cases, Bioware has chosen to reinvent a perfectly good wheel, and done so badly. The primitive UI provides an even better example. Whether this is ego or ignorance, it's likely to drive a huge retention problem.

[Mark Asher]

This part interests me most and makes me sad it's a $60+$15/month game. I'd prefer this to be a pay once Guildwars-style game but Bioware/EA needs to put money in the bank.

I guess it really depends on how fast they can roll out new content. If they can roll out a new act for your level-capped character each month, that might be worth the $15. If it's once every three months, then that's $45 just for a new act.

I guess people could unsub and then resub when there's a new act. It's a bit hard on guilds, though, to lose active members with frequency.

[MattKeil]

I guess it really depends on how fast they can roll out new content. If they can roll out a new act for your level-capped character each month, that might be worth the $15. If it's once every three months, then that's $45 just for a new act.

Only after I've finished all 8 classes' stories, which is going to take quite some time.

[ibdoomed]

I guess it really depends on how fast they can roll out new content. If they can roll out a new act for your level-capped character each month, that might be worth the $15. If it's once every three months, then that's $45 just for a new act.

I guess people could unsub and then resub when there's a new act. It's a bit hard on guilds, though, to lose active members with frequency.

This just goes back to how they view this game as a single player cash cow, not a real MMO. If they cared about guilds, they would have fixed the chat bug everyone alerted them to during beta. Wars are won on stomachs and information, without being able to adequately pass information (ie guild chat), you've lost.

[rei]

Only after I've finished all 8 classes' stories, which is going to take quite some time.

You can just watch it on Youtube.

[idrisz]

You can just watch it on Youtube.
maybe I play the game twice, one on each side, but playing it 8 times is somewhat crazy consider 4/5 quest is generic quest contents, just so I can play that 1 story quest.

[RobotPants]

Honestly, I don't think the orange gear needs to exist. Moddable gear is neat and all, but if the goal is to give flexibility on what your character looks like, this isn't really the way to go. EQ2 figured out appearance slots years ago and I'm not sure why more MMOs didn't just copy that system. Even WoW's recently added transmogrification thing, while decent and still better than what SWTOR's doing, is unnecessarily complicated.

[Adam B]

This just goes back to how they view this game as a single player cash cow, not a real MMO. If they cared about guilds, they would have fixed the chat bug everyone alerted them to during beta. Wars are won on stomachs and information, without being able to adequately pass information (ie guild chat), you've lost.
It's a bummer they were too busy adding voice acting.

[MarchHare]

It's a bummer they were too busy adding voice acting.

I will never get tired of these jokes. :)

[JFrazer]

So, I finally finished chapter 1 on my Sith Sorc last night. I'm an alt-aholic so I kept making other characters, getting them to around 20th, and starting others.

A few comments on the Legacy "system":

1 surname per account per server. WTF is up with that? My surname for my pure dark-side Sith Sorc doesn't make sense when applied to my light-side leaning cyborg bounty hunter. I understand the idea of a legacy, but there are way better ways to present it. A unique surname per character along with a tag (similiar to a guild tag) would seem to work better.

Since the legacy is a surname, and that legacy is unique, it also causes problems. My wief and I play MMOs together and she's been big into us having the same surnames since the EQ days for characters we play together. But we can't have the same surname due to the "unique" issue. Again, I completely understand wanting the legacy to be unique so people can be identified by their own legacy, but again, using a surname for this seems wrong.

The lack of the fully legacy system also feels...bad. I would rather it not exist until it's done. "Your Legacy is now unlocked! Let me tell you, there will be some cool things here. Just wait, it's going to be awesome. Unique character customization options, unique skills, you'll love it. Today? No, you won't get that today. Today you'll get the same surname for all your characters! We promise though, you're going to love this whenever we get it done. Trust us".

On a non-legacy rant, they really need to fix the orange armor system. As pointed out already, there is no real carrot for loot anymore. I have orange boots, helm, chest, legs, and gloves at level 31. And they all came from drops or commendation vendors. There is 0 reason to do armortech or synthweaving, other than for fashion-oranges. It also makes Cybertech almost a mandatory tradeskill if you want to keep your armor up to date but don't want to spend a fortune on the terribad GTN.

Honestly, the orange system should have been limited to weapons, chest, legs, and helm. Or, better yet, having a fashion item interface similiar to EQ2 or WoW transmorgs.

[rossm]

On a non-legacy rant, they really need to fix the orange armor system. As pointed out already, there is no real carrot for loot anymore. I have orange boots, helm, chest, legs, and gloves at level 31. And they all came from drops or commendation vendors. There is 0 reason to do armortech or synthweaving, other than for fashion-oranges. It also makes Cybertech almost a mandatory tradeskill if you want to keep your armor up to date but don't want to spend a fortune on the terribad GTN.
Assuming you do most of the quests on a planet (and thus outlevel the planet quite a bit), by the time you spend your commendations on mods for your orange gear the mods are pretty outdated compared to the gear you can make with synthweaving etc. I'm cybertech and I update my mods every 5 levels or so with new blue ones, but my fiance is synthweaving and excepting when I make her some new mods, the gear she crafts often beats her orange gear because most of her mods come from outdated commendations or quests.

Also, since you often can't find orange gear for your companion at the same rate as for yourself, synthweaving/armormech is great for making them gear too.

I agree the system is pretty bad. I just disagree that synthweaving/armormech is as bad for levels 10-49 as you're making it out to be.

[JFrazer]

I may have over-stated the death of armormech/synthweaving. But compared to Cybertech (armoring/mods/ship upgrades), Armstech (for barrels/weapons for some companions), and Artifice (hilts, gems, enhancements), the armor/synth skills look much less attractive.

Speaking of orange items.. My wife got Jeasa (however it's spelled) last night on her Marauder and promptly dressed her in full orange slave-girl gear from the social vendor on Nar Shadda. It's fun but silly

[Soapyfrog]

Crafted blues are superior to modded oranges I think, especially if you crit.

[Sepiche]

Speaking of orange items.. My wife got Jeasa (however it's spelled) last night on her Marauder and promptly dressed her in full orange slave-girl gear from the social vendor on Nar Shadda. It's fun but silly
I've been trying to convince my girlfriend her inquisitor would look much more intimidating in that outfit, but so far no go. :P

[Wolff]

I may have over-stated the death of armormech/synthweaving. But compared to Cybertech (armoring/mods/ship upgrades), Armstech (for barrels/weapons for some companions), and Artifice (hilts, gems, enhancements), the armor/synth skills look much less attractive.

Speaking of orange items.. My wife got Jeasa (however it's spelled) last night on her Marauder and promptly dressed her in full orange slave-girl gear from the social vendor on Nar Shadda. It's fun but silly

Which is light armor unfortunately..huge rant on how only my sorcerer gets to be cool and effective in her imperial dancer outfit

[Miramon]

Crafted blues are superior to modded oranges I think, especially if you crit.

Oranges modded with crafted purples? Crafted purples may be superior, though, to any kind of modding, except inasmuch as they themselves may have augment slots.

[idrisz]

you can have augment in crafted green and blue too, also operation boss drop schematic for end game purple as well.

the ones for cyber and biochem is bind on pickup, the one I got for cybertech is shitty compare to the purple one I discover myself.

[MarchHare]

I wouldn't stress too much about gear and mods while you're leveling up because you will typically replace your items very quickly. I certainly wouldn't spend any money on the AH to buy gear or mods. I suggest just finding a set of orange gear you like the look of and enhance it with the blue-quality mods you get from quest rewards and commendation purchases. Using that method, you'll always have gear appropriate for the next planet, and it won't cost you any credits. You absolutely don't need top-of-the-line gear to go from levels 1-50.

Once you're at the level cap, though, spending money on purple-quality mods or gear makes a lot more sense as you're likely to use items for much longer.

[Teiman]

What I want in this game just now, is to take my ship, and just do some low orbit bombing in areas with mobs. I don't feel like getting too personal with the mobs. Why make things easy to the enemy?.

Something very interesting happened the other day!.

I have made a realization, and suddenly Star Wars made more sense to me as serious science-fiction (minus the jedi-thing, that is unavoidable magic nonsense).

So we have a civilization with vehicles that levitate, so don't need things like roads. All the roads are just mud, because nothing else is needed. And you have magic, so intelligent people is a bit spoiled because some people "cheat" and make things possible, that would need a lot of effort doing it using physic rules. Everyone has weapons because more than the 99% of the civilized "land" is really colonies with very thin law enforcement, so is a big wild west wo... universe. You need weapons because in this big "wild west" like world there's a huge bandits problem that nobody can really solve. A law force may maybe patrol a single planet, but can't patrol the stars, clouds, asteroids, etc. Law is not enforceable on the galaxy scale.

Theres the whole "decadence of the roman empire" thing in background, but now I think is just background. After exploring a lot of planets, and compare the technology now and in the time of the movies, it seems that is a galaxy mostly stuck on a technology level, stuck... not moving back or up, just using the same techs again and again, maybe losing something and reinventing it again.

The empire is maquiavelo, "real politic", fascism, and alpha macho culture. The republic is "design by commite", "low common denominator", underachieving, sending heroes to save 5 slaves from the dickwolves (not saving all the slaves and solving the whole dickwolves problem, just healing the wonds temporally, really fixing nothing at all). So is basically our society, the worst of it, divided in two.

[walTer]

Sith get all the cool stuff.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CAU4sO6uodE/TwXdopMQEEI/AAAAAAAATSo/ApNxCeBtWeE/s1600/f8eacbecbf40bc17b5be311f2e0fab6e.jpg

[Miramon]

Sith get all the cool stuff.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CAU4sO6uodE/TwXdopMQEEI/AAAAAAAATSo/ApNxCeBtWeE/s1600/f8eacbecbf40bc17b5be311f2e0fab6e.jpg

Can I just get the salad please?

[nomaar]

The orange customization doesn't bother me at all. Once you hit level 50, the whole loot dynamic changes anyway, so it's inconsequential. People complaining about the "sameness" of the epic armor seem to forget that's how it was when WoW first started (you don't notice it now because of all the tiers they've teared through).

Besides, the customization of the orange armor works well. It lets me re-outfit some of my stuff for my companions or when I want to change my spec.

[ibdoomed]

It's a bummer they were too busy adding voice acting.

Exactly! I've been saying this forever.

[ibdoomed]

So, I finally finished chapter 1 on my Sith Sorc last night. I'm an alt-aholic so I kept making other characters, getting them to around 20th, and starting others.

A few comments on the Legacy "system":

1 surname per account per server. WTF is up with that? My surname for my pure dark-side Sith Sorc doesn't make sense when applied to my light-side leaning cyborg bounty hunter. I understand the idea of a legacy, but there are way better ways to present it. A unique surname per character along with a tag (similiar to a guild tag) would seem to work better.

Since the legacy is a surname, and that legacy is unique, it also causes problems. My wief and I play MMOs together and she's been big into us having the same surnames since the EQ days for characters we play together. But we can't have the same surname due to the "unique" issue. Again, I completely understand wanting the legacy to be unique so people can be identified by their own legacy, but again, using a surname for this seems wrong.

The lack of the fully legacy system also feels...bad. I would rather it not exist until it's done. "Your Legacy is now unlocked! Let me tell you, there will be some cool things here. Just wait, it's going to be awesome. Unique character customization options, unique skills, you'll love it. Today? No, you won't get that today. Today you'll get the same surname for all your characters! We promise though, you're going to love this whenever we get it done. Trust us".


Too true. Because of this shared last name crap, I can't bring myself to participate. One last name doesn't work for all first names, it's just stupid.

[idrisz]

Too true. Because of this shared last name crap, I can't bring myself to participate. One last name doesn't work for all first names, it's just stupid.

au contraire..

coco-nuts, bust'a nut, wall nuts(my tank's name honoring PvZ), republicsuck nuts(republic alt i set up to tell the cowards to go capture points on ilum).

[Adam B]

Saw Balls'deep as a legacy name last night.

Le sigh.

[Jason McCullough]

Oh come on, that one's damn funny.

[ydejin]

1 surname per account per server. WTF is up with that? My surname for my pure dark-side Sith Sorc doesn't make sense when applied to my light-side leaning cyborg bounty hunter. I understand the idea of a legacy, but there are way better ways to present it. A unique surname per character along with a tag (similiar to a guild tag) would seem to work better.

You can actually do that. There's a per-character setting to either display it as a last name or as a tag similar to a guild tag. So if you had two characters Luke and R2-D2, one could use it as a last name and one could use it as a Legacy tag. They could be displayed as:


Luke Skywalker
The Royal Tatooine Navy

or


R2-D2
The Skywalker Legacy
The Royal Tatooine Navy

(Assuming Droids could actually be player characters.) The setting is on the "Social" Tab listed as "Legacy Display."

[ibdoomed]

It's a bummer they were too busy adding voice acting.

So I turned the sound on for a few minutes to see what all the fuss was about. The blaster and lightsaber sound effects are very impressive but the second time the droid came back from a crafting mission and went on and on about how he failed and I shouldn't deactivate him, I couldn't take it, that's just way too annoying. I'm guessing he yammers all the time since I'm a bit into the skill and have been using him a lot since they fixed companions yesterday.

[Greg417]

The orange customization doesn't bother me at all. Once you hit level 50, the whole loot dynamic changes anyway, so it's inconsequential. People complaining about the "sameness" of the epic armor seem to forget that's how it was when WoW first started (you don't notice it now because of all the tiers they've teared through).

Besides, the customization of the orange armor works well. It lets me re-outfit some of my stuff for my companions or when I want to change my spec.
Can I complain about the "sameness" of the game in general? World of Warcraft was great at what it did (and a victim of its own innovation), but SW:TOR is yet another me-too game. Sure, it's got some things that are innovative for an MMO, but at its core it's Warcraft with Jedis.

[Erik J.]

Can I complain about the "sameness" of the game in general? World of Warcraft was great at what it did (and a victim of its own innovation), but SW:TOR is yet another me-too game. Sure, it's got some things that are innovative for an MMO, but at its core it's Warcraft with Jedis.


I agree with you as far as mechanics go, but the story telling is obviously way different. Probably why I'll stick with it longer than I did WoW.

[RobotPants]

So I turned the sound on for a few minutes to see what all the fuss was about. The blaster and lightsaber sound effects are very impressive but the second time the droid came back from a crafting mission and went on and on about how he failed and I shouldn't deactivate him, I couldn't take it, that's just way too annoying. I'm guessing he yammers all the time since I'm a bit into the skill and have been using him a lot since they fixed companions yesterday.

Is this post for real?

[Sepiche]

Is this post for real?
Sadly yes.

[Greg417]

I agree with you as far as mechanics go, but the story telling is obviously way different. Probably why I'll stick with it longer than I did WoW.
I do like the class quests. Unfortunately I have to wade through a slew of pirates, gangs, and outlaws to get to those quests. And everyone needs your damned help. I truly wish that I had named my character Michael, and (assuming I got there) given him the legacy name of Westen. With my trusty sidekick Sam 'Corso' Axe and ship floozie Fiona Risha.

[walTer]

So I turned the sound on for a few minutes to see what all the fuss was about. The blaster and lightsaber sound effects are very impressive but the second time the droid came back from a crafting mission and went on and on about how he failed and I shouldn't deactivate him, I couldn't take it, that's just way too annoying. I'm guessing he yammers all the time since I'm a bit into the skill and have been using him a lot since they fixed companions yesterday.

Why do you pay for the electricity to run your computer to run this game. You have said you hate it, you will not renew, you took 3 weeks off from your 1 month of included playtime...yet you still go on and on about the game and how much it sucks...and now you tell us that you play WITHOUT SOUND?

IB, please...you are making me laugh out loud at work and I might get in trouble here!

[JFrazer]

You can actually do that. There's a per-character setting to either display it as a last name or as a tag similar to a guild tag. So if you had two characters Luke and R2-D2, one could use it as a last name and one could use it as a Legacy tag. They could be displayed as:



or



(Assuming Droids could actually be player characters.) The setting is on the "Social" Tab listed as "Legacy Display."

Holy crap, thanks, I didn't know that existed.

There are some nice customization options buried in them thar menus

[flyinj]

Personally, I don't turn the sound on in games until I've played it for a few days to gauge whether it's enjoyable enough while silent.

Then, if the sound sucks, that's it. I'm done.

[Adam B]

So I turned the sound on for a few minutes to see what all the fuss was about. The blaster and lightsaber sound effects are very impressive but the second time the droid came back from a crafting mission and went on and on about how he failed and I shouldn't deactivate him, I couldn't take it, that's just way too annoying. I'm guessing he yammers all the time since I'm a bit into the skill and have been using him a lot since they fixed companions yesterday.
I love this so much. SO MUCH.

[RobotPants]

Yeah, same. I also plug my ears for the first 20 minutes or so of a movie when I'm at the theater and put a clothespin on my nose when trying food I've never had before.

[Miramon]

Games have sound? Maybe I should plug in those speakers after all.

[Dawn Falcon]

To be fair, Skadge's voice is SO annoying I'd rather send the droid slicing than him.

[ibdoomed]

Why do you pay for the electricity to run your computer to run this game. You have said you hate it, you will not renew, you took 3 weeks off from your 1 month of included playtime...yet you still go on and on about the game and how much it sucks...and now you tell us that you play WITHOUT SOUND?

IB, please...you are making me laugh out loud at work and I might get in trouble here!

I've actually said I love it numerous times although perhaps not here, sometimes I get forums mixed up. Anyway, I'm loving the game for what it has that rocks and that's why I'm so distraught by the problems. I want it to be perfect. If I didn't care, I'd simply stop playing and not bother with this thread at all.

I didn't take the three weeks off like I planned because I was having so much fun.

To everyone:
I can't typically play games with sound since my wife is very sick and I need to be able to hear her call for help. If I'm watching a movie right next to her, obviously I'll know if she needs help and we can have the sound on. Geez you guys are crazy.

[ydejin]

I've actually said I love it numerous times although perhaps not here, sometimes I get forums mixed up. Anyway, I'm loving the game for what it has that rocks and that's why I'm so distraught by the problems. I want it to be perfect. If I didn't care, I'd simply stop playing and not bother with this thread at all.

I didn't take the three weeks off like I planned because I was having so much fun.

To everyone:
I can't typically play games with sound since my wife is very sick and I need to be able to hear her call for help. If I'm watching a movie right next to her, obviously I'll know if she needs help and we can have the sound on. Geez you guys are crazy.

You've got your forums mixed up. I don't think you've had a single positive thing to say about the game on Qt3. Glad you're at least somewhat enjoying the game.

As far as wanting it to be perfect, the good news is it's an MMO, so it will get better. With the resources EA is throwing at it, presumably it will get a lot better. We'll have to see how quickly that happens, and whether they emphasize what each of us wants (which no doubt is quite different with some preferring PvP, some PvE, some Raiding and Flashpoints).l

[The Mad Hatter]

Games have sound? Maybe I should plug in those speakers after all.

All this game ever did was beep at me. Beep! Beep!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8b/M%26MI.jpg

[walTer]

I've actually said I love it numerous times although perhaps not here, sometimes I get forums mixed up. Anyway, I'm loving the game for what it has that rocks and that's why I'm so distraught by the problems. I want it to be perfect. If I didn't care, I'd simply stop playing and not bother with this thread at all.

I didn't take the three weeks off like I planned because I was having so much fun.

To everyone:
I can't typically play games with sound since my wife is very sick and I need to be able to hear her call for help. If I'm watching a movie right next to her, obviously I'll know if she needs help and we can have the sound on. Geez you guys are crazy.

IB, your posts in this thread do make me laugh...and on a more serious note, I recall you mentioning about your wife, and I am sure that is very difficult for you. As for me, please know my ribbing is in jest...that said you ARE funny. :)

[Kadath]

So if I choose slicing instead of one of the two gathering skills I need to compliment mt chosen crafting skill I can buy the missing components from vendors and other players right? Does it work out ahead for you cash and time wise?

I can get why you would choose to slice if not interested in crafting but not to do both otherwise.,,

[idrisz]

right now I'm placing treasure hunting ahead of slicing. simply because you get green/blue/purple item from the lock box from treasure hunting. you can always sell the green item for money too.

the real money from slicing now is from unlocking lockbox in the field.

[rossm]

I still have slicing, along with scavenging and cybertech. You don't strictly need any of the underworld trading items to level cybertech, and I imagine this is true for all of the crafting skills. However, to craft anything worthwhile (blue items and up) you would need items from that third skill. You can buy them on the GTN, but they're extremely pricey.

If I was starting over right now, I don't think I'd take slicing.

[Brad Wardell]

I finally got a good taste of how important it is to reverse engineer the things you craft.

I have a Might 11 item I crafted (green). Disassembled it and learned how to make a blue one. Dissambled that when I made it and got purple.

[pyrhic]

Ya, but has your sad devotion to that ancient Jedi religion helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you enough clairvoyance to find the rebels' hidden fortress?

[pyrhic]

One thing i couldnt believe, is that Spike TV was running a star wars marathon at least one day last weekend, and i was a little surprised that TOR didnt have an advertisement....really?! They didnt see the possible connection?! really?

[Brad Wardell]

Ya, but has your sad devotion to that ancient Jedi religion helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you enough clairvoyance to find the rebels' hidden fortress?

I find your lack of faith..disturbing.

[Reldan]

I started with Slicing, Underworld Trading, and Cybertech. Slicing made me a ton of bank before the nerf, enough to bankroll the buying of the Scavenging mats I need for Cybertech. Now Cybertech is at the point where it's pretty self-sufficient - I can make enough selling high-end ship parts to cover the cost of the mats and then some.

So Slicing worked out at least as well as taking Scavenging would have, but if starting fresh I don't think I'd do it now because the missions themselves are pretty crap in terms of returns, and the ability to get Augments is like some sad joke (considering purp max level augs are abundant and selling for all of 2k on my server). The money is only decent now when you open world lockboxes, and those are tied to the level of the zone you're in, so until you get into your 40s all the lockboxes you find will have only a few hundred credits in them which is a big whoopty-doo.

I do think Underworld was a better deal than Scavenging would have been. I've made a ton off of selling extra metals I didn't need, and once you hit max level it's the metals that are much rarer and more expensive to get than the Scavenging supplies. A single Promethium (Grade 5 purp metal) sells for 12k - nothing Scavenging provides even comes close to that and I much rather buy my Scavenged mats for 100-200 apiece than have to pony up tens of thousands for the Underworld stuff.

[gurugeorge]

Honestly, I don't think the orange gear needs to exist. Moddable gear is neat and all, but if the goal is to give flexibility on what your character looks like, this isn't really the way to go. EQ2 figured out appearance slots years ago and I'm not sure why more MMOs didn't just copy that system. Even WoW's recently added transmogrification thing, while decent and still better than what SWTOR's doing, is unnecessarily complicated.

I think there must be some definite reason why they're not doing it, as I'm pretty sure I'm remembering correctly that in one of the earlier betas I was in, they had something like a cosmetic cozzie tab much like LOTRO's.

[Michael Fortson]

Ya, but has your sad devotion to that ancient Jedi religion helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you enough clairvoyance to find the rebels' hidden fortress?

You got it all wrong. It's a hidden fortrACK...GRG...AK....

[ridge]

Someone in SWTOR's general put on their pretend i-banker hat to bash the game. That forum has some real flakes. He goes on to give "investment advice". He is the first i-banker to find time in his 18+ hour work day to make a level 50 in two weeks.

The game overall is really good. The Star Wars feel is very immersive. I love some of these flashpoints. I love Huttball. We had some people try to spawn camp and we scored twice on them.

[Sean Tudor]

The game overall is really good. The Star Wars feel is very immersive. I love some of these flashpoints. I love Huttball. We had some people try to spawn camp and we scored twice on them.

I love SWTOR. It has that awesome Bioware flair for storytelling. It is the best MMO I have played since the original WoW vanilla release.

[Teiman]

I love SWTOR. It has that awesome Bioware flair for storytelling. It is the best MMO I have played since the original WoW vanilla release.

*critics against wow removed to not attract the ire of the wow hivemind*

[Sean Tudor]

Maybe WoW is like facebook, counter-strike or fotball manager; a social phenomenon and not a gaming world phenomenon. A lot of people play WoW, because other people play WoW, and because WoW for some reason appeals to no-gamers. MMORPG are glorified chat clients in a wallet garden, and Facebook is a glorified blog system builtin a wallet garden.

At a basic level you could describe WoW as that. For me though it was my first MMO and coupled with the world building and the social aspects of guilds it was an amazing experience. I met some of my best friends via WoW and even travelled to Canada for a friends wedding whom I met through WoW.

I think the social aspect of WoW is a very important factor for why people continue to play the game.

[DKDArtagnan]

It's always interesting when people try to categorise other people based on nothing but their own subjective tastes.

I'm as dedicated/passionate/enthusiastic a gamer as can be, and I've played nearly all MMOs since UO and a ton of MUDs before that. I've played games intensely for 30 years, and yet I think WoW vanilla was a masterpiece.

It doesn't mean that people who didn't "get it" or didn't "like it" are bad players or they don't know how to play and enjoy games.

They probably just like different things, and they probably wanted something else from WoW. If you think raiding Molten Core with 40 players didn't take "MMO skill" or if you think competing with the best players in PvP with the best and most responsive combat system in any MMO didn't take "MMO skill" - then that's your business.

Can't say I agree, though.

[Teiman]

I don't know how you guys do it.
To me was too terrible simple.

But.. he!, more power to you!.

One nice feature of wow is that with soo much people, and good LFG tools, seems easy to create a group for a dungeon.

[Sean Tudor]

Teiman did you raid the original BWL? :)

[DKDArtagnan]

I don't know how you guys do it.
To me was too terrible simple.

But.. he!, more power to you!.

One nice feature of wow is that with soo much people, and good LFG tools, seems easy to create a group for a dungeon.

How much of WoW vanilla did you play?

Be honest now.

[Teiman]

Not much, I got bored. Thats is not a indication of the game being bad. But I never find anything interesting in the game and was too simple and sameish everywhere. Also changing "race" fixed nothing, as the races and experience was a clone.

[Aceris]

One thing I'm finding interesting is that groups in swtor at low levels are so much more competent than groups at WoW launch. I'd say 50% of people know what they are doing, and 25% don't but are willing to learn.
Soresu form really annoys me though. "I know, when someone is tanking we should force them to mostly use the same 2 crappy attacks". I'd prefer an across-the-board damage debuff.

[ydejin]

Soresu form really annoys me though. "I know, when someone is tanking we should force them to mostly use the same 2 crappy attacks". I'd prefer an across-the-board damage debuff.

What level are you? At 47 I feel as if I have a wide array of tools that I can bring to the job -- some require focus, but others do not. It's definitely not just two attacks. My bottom two toolbars are full, and I use everything down there along with actions filing the lower halves of my two sidebars.

I haven't been out on the Official Forums, but the JK range of abilities is getting a lot if props on the Penny Arcade SWTOR tanking thread.

[Aceris]

What level are you? At 47 I feel as if I have a wide array of tools that I can bring to the job -- some require focus, but others do not. It's definitely not just two attacks. My bottom two toolbars are full, and I use everything down there along with actions filing the lower halves of my two sidebars.

I haven't been out on the Official Forums, but the JK range of abilities is getting a lot if props on the Penny Arcade SWTOR tanking thread.

Level 25 but dps specced. I can see that the tank spec makes the focus situation a bit more bearable. I'll take a look at what penny arcade has to say.

[Balasarius]

I love my trooper. I love running around like retard and firing off that grenade-like ability you get a level 4 (or whatever). It's awesome. And instant.

My bounty hunter, however, has the same ability... but it's not instant. He sticks out his left arm, aims, and then the projectile fires. Takes about a second. There's no "cast bar", I can keep moving, but it's not instant.

Ruins the whole experience. Why Bioware, why?

[The Mad Hatter]

Not much, I got bored. Thats is not a indication of the game being bad. But I never find anything interesting in the game and was too simple and sameish everywhere. Also changing "race" fixed nothing, as the races and experience was a clone.

So basically you don't know what you're talking about then. Duly noted.

[ydejin]

Level 25 but dps specced. I can see that the tank spec makes the focus situation a bit more bearable. I'll take a look at what penny arcade has to say.

Tanks generate focus by getting beat on, so it's generally not in that short supply. Penny Arcade is mostly people talking about how they like the JK tanks, along with some people saying they have too many abilities.

AIUI the place to go to actually learn more is SithWarrior.com.

[Mike Cathcart]

One thing I'm finding interesting is that groups in swtor at low levels are so much more competent than groups at WoW launch.
Why do you find that interesting? Most of the people playing it have been playing WoW for years.

I love my trooper. I love running around like retard and firing off that grenade-like ability you get a level 4 (or whatever). It's awesome. And instant.

My bounty hunter, however, has the same ability... but it's not instant. He sticks out his left arm, aims, and then the projectile fires. Takes about a second. There's no "cast bar", I can keep moving, but it's not instant.

Ruins the whole experience. Why Bioware, why?
Yeah, the same thing happens with the Consular AoE knockback. It's also confusing because if you cast it while moving the source of the knockback seems to be where you were when you started casting.


Tanks generate focus by getting beat on, so it's generally not in that short supply.
You also get talents to reduce the focus cost of some abilities and a talent that increases your rate of focus gain from the stance.

[Aceris]

Tanks generate focus by getting beat on, so it's generally not in that short supply. Penny Arcade is mostly people talking about how they like the JK tanks, along with some people saying they have too many abilities.

AIUI the place to go to actually learn more is SithWarrior.com.

Tanks generate 1 focus per 6 seconds by getting beat on. This helps, but is a small fraction of focus generation through strikes.

I don't see vanguard or shadow being so limited in their ability use when in tanking form.

[Wolff]

Soresu reduces the rage you generate through attacks by 1. Unless you are tank spec you really shouldn't be using it

[Erik J.]

I love my trooper. I love running around like retard and firing off that grenade-like ability you get a level 4 (or whatever). It's awesome. And instant.

My bounty hunter, however, has the same ability... but it's not instant. He sticks out his left arm, aims, and then the projectile fires. Takes about a second. There's no "cast bar", I can keep moving, but it's not instant.

Ruins the whole experience. Why Bioware, why?

I kind of like the slowness of it. The enemy can see their imminent demise as the rocket slowly travels to target. Digging my BH so far. Around level 21 or so now, power tech.

[Aceris]

Soresu reduces the rage you generate through attacks by 1. Unless you are tank spec you really shouldn't be using it

Are you saying dps-spec Guardians shouldn't tank (even in easy content)? Because that seems to go against what I thought Bioware were saying and what I think would be a sensible design.

[ydejin]

Tanks generate 1 focus per 6 seconds by getting beat on. This helps, but is a small fraction of focus generation through strikes.

I don't see vanguard or shadow being so limited in their ability use when in tanking form.

Fully Tank speced Jedi Guardians gain 1 focus every 3 seconds, with additional opportunities to reduce the timer to zero. This combined with starting a fight at 6 focus using Saber Throw and Leap combined with Combat Focus giving another 6 instantly provides a solid amount of focus to work with. Besides many of the most valuable interrupts such as Stasis don't take focus, other abilities can have their focus needs reduced to 0 or 1 depending on how you spec.

[Aceris]

Fully Tank speced Jedi Guardians gain 1 focus every 3 seconds, with additional opportunities to reduce the timer to zero. This combined with starting a fight at 6 focus using Saber Throw and Leap combined with Combat Focus giving another 6 instantly provides a solid amount of focus to work with. Besides many of the most valuable interrupts such as Stasis don't take focus, other abilities can have their focus needs reduced to 0 or 1 depending on how you spec.

I guess higher level tank specced guardians are ok, yes.

This is not WoW. Sub-max level content is relevant. I don't see any of the other tank advanced classes facing the same difficulty in trying to tank off-spec.

[Murbella]

Are you saying dps-spec Guardians shouldn't tank (even in easy content)? Because that seems to go against what I thought Bioware were saying and what I think would be a sensible design.
This depends on your definition of easy content.

If you can go dps spec and tank all of the content just by being a couple levels higher, what is the point of being tank spec until level 49?

Personally i dont think tanks are survivable enough in swtor. In every other mmorpg a tank had more health than a non tank, but because of the way gear stats are handled, this is not the case, or at best barely the case in swtor.

Probably the most noticeable advantage tanks have is the shield but for some stupid reason, shields don't seem to improve in base defensive stats as you level (at least until 36). Yes, you can get bonus stats to defensive stats on your shield but this isn't an assured or huge progression. Certainly nothing like a shield improving as you level in wow.

Armor class isn't really different with many non tanks running around in the same level of armor.

AS a jug, from skills i get:
Soresu form: -4% damage & +6% ranged/melee defense
Shield chance (without special bonuses and with talent): 24%
+4% elemental damage reduction
+4% internal damage reduction

Sonic Barrier Buff: This is barely noticeable against hard content, but VERY nice while soloing. Not sure how good this will end up being at max level with high supporting stats (i think it was willpower) boosting it.
Retaliation Buff: +6% ranged/melee defense
Smash Debuff: -5% enemy accuracy

Compare this to wow where nearly at the start of the game, defensive stance gives them a straight -10% damage, nearly better than the bonuses an end game jug gets.

This is likely going to cause serious problems end game due to tanks not being THAT much more survivable than normal party members in survivability.

[ydejin]

Are you saying dps-spec Guardians shouldn't tank (even in easy content)? Because that seems to go against what I thought Bioware were saying and what I think would be a sensible design.

Bioware has always said that the advanced classes have two possible roles they can fulfill (other than the two DPS only advanced classes). That has always been presented as an either-or choice not a DPS-and-Tank or Healer-and-DPS choice. They have never said or implied that someone specing an advanced class for DPS should also make a good healer or tank. Moreover they have specifically said that while hybrid specs are possible they aren't as good as someone who is fully speced for a specific role.

This all makes a lot of sense to me. Why would someone spec as a tank if they could tank just as well while also specing for DPS? Of course a dps-spec Guardian isn't going to make a great tank. Will they make a better tank than say a Gunfighter or Commando? Of course, but they won't be anywhere near as good as a tank-speced Guardian or Vanguard.

[Aceris]

Bioware has always said that the advanced classes have two possible roles they can fulfill (other than the two DPS only advanced classes). That has always been presented as an either-or choice not a DPS-and-Tank or Healer-and-DPS choice. They have never said or implied that someone specing an advanced class for DPS should also make a good healer or tank. Moreover they have specifically said that while hybrid specs are possible they aren't as good as someone who is fully speced for a specific role.

This all makes a lot of sense to me. Why would someone spec as a tank if they could tank just as well while also specing for DPS? Of course a dps-spec Guardian isn't going to make a great tank. Will they make a better tank than say a Gunfighter or Commando? Of course, but they won't be anywhere near as good as a tank-speced Guardian or Vanguard.

What about dps specced Vanguard? They seem to tank pretty well.

On the original point, I just think a tank mechanic that makes tank form less interesting unless you are high up the tank spec (and most of your "it's fine with tank spec" arguments only really cut in over level 30) is bad design.

[rossm]

On the original point, I just think a tank mechanic that makes tank form less interesting unless you are high up the tank spec (and most of your "it's fine with tank spec" arguments only really cut in over level 30) is bad design.
This complaint isn't limited to tank classes. The skill trees and ability levels seem to have been poorly designed with regards leveling. Most ACs are a mess until they hit certain key levels. It kind of sucks.

My world flipped, turned upside-down when my scoundrel learned emergency medpack. Just from putting that single skill point in my tree, my HPS doubled from the level before.

[MarchHare]

This complaint isn't limited to tank classes. The skill trees and ability levels seem to have been poorly designed with regards leveling. Most ACs are a mess until they hit certain key levels. It kind of sucks.

My world flipped, turned upside-down when my scoundrel learned emergency medpack. Just from putting that single skill point in my tree, my HPS doubled from the level before.

This was largely true for Gunslinger too, in my experience. DPSing felt really stale and boring (really just pressing 2-3 buttons over and over) until I had access to Trickshot and Speed Shot, then combat became much more interesting and reactive.

[Adam B]

I've talked with several people now who are frustrated with their JKs/SWs in their late teens/early 20s. I was definitely right there at that point too. Right around 25 is where the class sort of comes together, or at least it did for me. Getting Force Grip (don't have to channel Force Choke any more) and Backhand (pimp slap a dude into stunned insensibility for 4 seconds) made a huge difference, as does all the layering on of awesomeness to Sundering Strike and Retaliation.

At this point (41 tank-spec Juggernaut), my health pretty much doesn't move in combats against anything but weirdly unbalanced mobs (there were some DoT-using dudes on Quesh that just ruined my shit) or multiple elite pulls. I typically use Quinn as my companion for the healing, but leave him in his damage stance because Med Watch is overkill. I don't feel like I kill terribly slowly or anything, either.

Tanking for groups can be dicey threat-wise, and I definitely feel like I have to be on top of my game for at-level content, but that's okay. If I want to play a laid-back dps character, I'll roll up a Sorceror.

[gurugeorge]

Someone in SWTOR's general put on their pretend i-banker hat to bash the game. That forum has some real flakes. He goes on to give "investment advice". He is the first i-banker to find time in his 18+ hour work day to make a level 50 in two weeks.

I read that post! Funny as hell. One of his main self-bolstering arguments was that he "predicted the demise" of Vanguard, FFXIV, Aion and WAR.

Well duh, who didn't? :D

[MrPerson]

This complaint isn't limited to tank classes. The skill trees and ability levels seem to have been poorly designed with regards leveling. Most ACs are a mess until they hit certain key levels. It kind of sucks.

I expect we'll see a complete overhaul of the skill trees before a year is up. They're a lot like vanilla WoW trees, which (among other problems) basically didn't work for some specs until level 40+.

[inkai]

Just completed the Colicoid War Games Flashpoint.
Man, that one was hella hard until we learned how to properly play the turret phase.
Not to mention the knockbacking Elites near the forcefields.

Made the whole experience more fun knowing we could die even though we had some wellgeared peeps on it (44 tank, 42 healer, 43 dps and me the 40 mercenary who can't decide between dps and heal)

I just the repair costs weren't that heavy but can't have it all :-)

[Brad Wardell]

There is something a little unnerving walking the floors of Stardock seeing people sending their minions on missions in a window.

I, of course, wouldn't do that....I have a third monitor for handling that.

[gurugeorge]

Nice post from devs (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=141027) talking about the responsiveness issue. There's also mention of the fps-on-high-end-systems issue on another thread. These seem to be the two biggest genuine problems that have been highlighted since the game went live. (Some people are saying the responsiveness was flagged in beta 11 months ago, though.)

As always, it's nice to hear from the devs that they're working on it. Even though rationally one knows that it's highly unlikely that they're unaware of a problem like that or not working on it, somehow it makes a big difference to have just a few coherent, not-too-PR-ey words on the forum confirming it.

[rossm]

I've thought about installing it at work as well. I've managed to avoid putting any games on my work computer thus far though. I don't know if I want to venture down that path..

[idrisz]

There is something a little unnerving walking the floors of Stardock seeing people sending their minions on missions in a window.

I, of course, wouldn't do that....I have a third monitor for handling that.

As the overlord, you should lay down a 30% tribute from all your employees who gather during their workhour.

[Kadath]

Via Ask A jedi, 1.1 is on public Test now!


Patch Notes: 1.1 (Public Test Server) – New Flashpoint, Kira Carsen And Anti-Aliasing

BioWare has just pushed a new build of Star Wars: The Old Republic to the Public Test Server for players to get their hands on. They’ve been doing quick and furious patches all this week, but this one is a bit more meaty!
Some of the highlights are a new Flashpoint, the Kira Carsen bug fix, and the re-addition of the anti-aliasing preference!
The patch notes can be found below.
Star Wars: The Old Republic Patch 1.1
General
Anti-aliasing is now available and can be enabled in the preferences menu.
Classes and Combat
General
Healing caused by crowd control abilities no longer generates threat.
Tooltips for abilities modified by skill points now display correct damage values.
Guard
This ability now transfers to a new friendly target without requiring deactivation on the previous target.
Activating this ability while targeting a guarded or invalid target will still toggle the Guard ability off.
A distinct visual effect is now present on characters using Guard on another character, and another effect is now present on the guarded character if they leave Guard’s range.
Taunt
A new visual effect has been added to the user and the target of the Taunt ability for the duration of its effect.
Jedi Consular
Project: This ability no longer shakes the screen of onlookers.
Shadow
Battle Readiness: Now allows Combat Technique to trigger once every 3 seconds.
Combat Technique: Healing received through Combat Technique has been increased, scales properly at higher levels, and can only be triggered once every 4.5 seconds.
Slow Time: This ability’s damage has been increased by 15% and it now slows the movement speed of all affected targets.
Jedi Knight
Force Leap: This ability no longer functions on Portable Holo Dancers.
Sith Inquisitor
Assassin
Dark Charge: Healing received through Dark Charge has been increased, scales properly at higher levels, and can only be triggered once every 4.5 seconds.
Overcharge Saber: Now allows Dark Charge to trigger once every 3 seconds.
Wither: Damage has been increased by 15% and it now slows the movement speed of all affected targets.
Sith Warrior
Intercede: This ability no longer functions on Portable Holo Dancers.
Shatter: this ability’s tooltip now correctly reflects its damage; damage from this ability has not been adjusted.
Imperial Agent
Bug Fixes
Corrected an issue where activating cover, using Explosive Probe, and then using Snipe could cause Snipe to be interrupted.
Bounty Hunter
General
Incendiary Missile: This ability is no longer misclassified as an Area of Effect ability.

[Kadath]

Part duh


Companion Characters
General
C2-N2 and 2V-R8 no longer vocalize crafting commentary during combat.
The Carbonized Stream companion ability no longer breaks prematurely.
Companions
Kira Carsen
Fixed an issue that caused players to be unable to progress in Kira’s affection conversations. Players previously affected by this issue can now speak to Kira and progress normally.
Bug Fixes
Companions will now sell trash items when requested, regardless of group size.
Companion healing abilities no longer apply a permanent green effect on the character.
Fixed an issue that caused Companion Characters to sometimes have the incorrect appearance in cinematics.
Crew Skills
Bug Fixes
Corrected an issue that prevented recently completed Crew Skill missions from showing up in the next list of available missions.
Fixed a bug that could cause Crew Skills a character didn’t have to appear in the Crew Skills window.
Players can no longer loot harvesting nodes they do not have the appropriate Crew Skill for after a group member harvests (but does not loot) a node.
Flashpoints and Operations
General
A new level 50 Flashpoint, Kaon Under Siege, is now available for play in Normal and Hard Modes!
The Gav Daragon and the Ziost Shadow have been expanded to accommodate the Kaon Under Siege gateway.
The difficulty of some non-boss enemies in Flashpoints has been adjusted.
Enemies now drop credits more frequently in Flashpoints.
Flashpoints
Cademimu
General Ortol’s rocket fire damage no longer occurs when the rocket is not active.
The Black Talon
Some enemies in this Flashpoint are no longer invisible.
The Foundry
Corrected an issue that could cause the final boss to become stuck at 10% health.
The Battle of Ilum
Krel Thak’s Allied Weequay Pirates have had their toughness reduced in Hard Mode.
The False Emperor
The Sith Entity’s affliction ability now properly deals damage in Hard Mode.
HK-47 now has the correct amount of health in Normal Mode.
Operations
Eternity Vault
Players are now able to successfully loot the chest after defeating the Infernal Council.
Perimeter Defense Cannons have been re-tuned and have improved targeting behaviors.
Soa’s Mind Trap and Force Throw abilities no longer target the same player multiple times; they now target every player in the group once.
Ball lightning enemies summoned by Soa deal damage in a smaller radius.
The Annihilation Droid’s rocket burst attack no longer deals double damage in 16-player Operations.
Soa now summons fewer ball lightning enemies during the final round in 16-player Operations.
Karagga’s Palace
Four new bosses can now be battled by players in Karagga’s Palace!
Players no longer get stuck attempting to exit the Karagga’s Palace phase.
Bug Fixes
Flashpoints
Corrected an issue that prevented some enemy NPCs from spawning in Flashpoints.
The correct error message now displays when a player attempts to enter a different Flashpoint than the rest of the group.
Flashpoint gateways no longer display as orange in incorrect circumstances.
Fixed an issue that prevented Flashpoint difficulty from being set properly.
Fixed an issue that caused mapnotes directing players to some Flashpoints to not appear correctly.
Corrected map issues that made locating mission objectives on the Gav Daragon difficult.
Fixed an issue preventing some players from opening a chest after a boss fight if the group was previously defeated by the boss.
Items
General
An Item Modification Table has been added to the Supplies areas of the Republic and Imperial Fleets.
PvP
Battlemaster Gear Tokens have been converted into Battlemaster Commendations, which can be used to purchase any Battlemaster gear. This allows players to purchase any piece of gear instead of requiring them to purchase the piece indicated by the token.
Battlemaster Bags now contain Battlemaster Commendations instead of Battlemaster Gear Tokens. They still also contain Champion Commendations.
Missions and NPCs
General
All Bonus Series missions and their required missions can now be abandoned.
Certain Wampas on Hoth that were preying on lower-level characters have had their level reduced.
Missions
Imperial
Pressure Points: The Lerantha Lurker no longer engages players in combat before completing its spawn sequence.
Geroya be Haran: Objectives related to this mission now glow when selected.
In Cold Blood: Enemies that use Armor Piercing Cell during this mission no longer each stack a debuff on the player.
Shadow Spawn: The Sith Spawn no longer knocks players down for longer than intended.
Thuggish Behavior: Corrected an issue that could cause the player to remain stuck in combat during this mission. The required kills to complete this mission have been reduced.
Republic
Climbing the Ladder: A conversation related to this mission no longer ends prematurely.
Droid Clean Up: Corrected an issue that caused the bonus mission to persist in the player’s mission log.
The Summit: The difficulty of the encounter with Sidone has been reduced.
Vivicar Awaits: Lowered the amount of enemies that attack the player during the step “Find a Way Past the Force Field.”
NPCs
Bug Fixes
Jilcoln Cadera’s abilities now correctly take into account whether a player is immune from knockbacks.
The “Primal Destroyer” World Boss on Belsavis is now “Overwhelming” as intended.
The World Boss “The First” on Dromund Kaas no longer inhibits Bounty Hunter’s Rapid Shots, and Imperial Agents will no longer be knocked out of cover during combat with it.
PvP
General
The shuttle room in Dorn Base Command Center on Hoth is no longer considered contested territory.
Ka on Voss is now a PvP Sanctuary.
Warzones
Level 50 players now participate in their own Warzone bracket and will not be matched with lower-level players.
Ilum
The daily and weekly mission objectives in Ilum now require defeating enemy players and/or collecting armaments from the center objective.
Players now gain increased Valor from player kills in Ilum.
Players now gain increased bonus Valor for kills based on the number of objectives controlled by their faction.
Increased bonus Valor is now granted for player kills when defending an objective your faction owns.
A notification is now displayed when a player gains Valor.
Three new respawn points have been added for each faction.
Companions are now restricted from the PvP objective area on Ilum.
Notifications are now displayed when enemy players are close to an objective.
Bug Fixes
General
The scoreboard value for “Highest Protection Per Single Life” now functions correctly.
Players who have left a Warzone can no longer receive an MVP vote from teammates.
Your PvP status will now be toggled automatically upon leaving a PvP region.
Additional feedback is now provided when a player attempts to toggle their PvP flag.
The Bolster tooltip now more accurately represents the buff’s effects.
Huttball
Corrected a rare issue that could cause the Frogdogs to be declared the winner in a 0-0 match even if the Rotworms held the ball last.
Ilum
Mountable turrets in Ilum no longer deal damage to targets behind them or outside their range.
Turrets no longer immediately dismount the player after use.
UI
Maps
Fixed a bug that prevented the minimap title from displaying when loading into the game or refreshing the UI.
Corrected an issue that caused some mapnotes to disappear from the minimap when other mapnotes were updated.
Items
Item hyperlinks now display stats for crafted research items properly.
Item hyperlinks no longer display erroneous additional information relating to schematics when examined.
Attempting to place a non-mission item into the mission inventory now displays an error message.
Dragging equipment onto the character paper doll no longer prompts an item deletion notice. Items dragged to the paper doll are now equipped if possible.
Item set bonuses now appear on the tooltip when viewing an item on a vendor.
Items that can be modified now display with the correct loot color in the loot roll window.
Comparative tooltips now correctly display stat differences when mousing over items in the Crew Skills window.
Bug Fixes
Fixed the tooltip display for ability cooldowns over one hour in length.
The interface for splitting stacks of items now displays correctly.
Servers that are online now always display on top of servers that are offline in the Server Select screen.
Corrected a typographical error in the “Additional Commands” context menu option.
Players nearby a player who achieves a new Legacy level no longer receive the Legacy level-up notification.
Legacy name display preferences now persist when travelling between planets.
A new confirmation dialogue now appears when submitting spam reports in game.
Sorting now works correctly in the Guilds tab.
Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
The owner of a holocall conversation is no longer shown in the last frame of the cinematic.
The spacebar button is now recognized when a player presses it to progress after a loading screen even if the spacebar button has been re-bound.
Additional issues that could impact performance on Taris have been addressed.
Vanity pets can no longer be considered targets for any abilities.
Corrected an issue that could cause some preferences to reset to defaults upon area transitions.
An Aim Datacron on Ilum is now accessible and no longer repeats its initial cinematic once used.
A Datacron on Coruscant is no longer blocked by unintentional collision.

[Brad Wardell]

As the overlord, you should lay down a 30% tribute from all your employees who gather during their workhour.

I like your thinking. Maybe a new Speeder or something. ;)

[Kevin Grey]

From the notes:


General
An Item Modification Table has been added to the Supplies areas of the Republic and Imperial Fleets.

Do these actually do anything? I heard that they drastically reduce the fee for removing current mods but that didn't seem to be the case when I tried it.

[idrisz]

From the notes:

Do these actually do anything? I heard that they drastically reduce the fee for removing current mods but that didn't seem to be the case when I tried it.

I believe it wasn't intentional that you can remove mod/add mod anywhere, it should be only at work table. They even remove the hint text on item about ctrl+right click to remove and add mods.

[Kevin Grey]

I believe it wasn't intentional that you can remove mod/add mod anywhere, it should be only at work table. They even remove the hint text on item about ctrl+right click to remove and add mods.

I heard that they changed the mods to anywhere after receiving negative feedback on only using the workbenches in the early betas.

[Murbella]

This complaint isn't limited to tank classes. The skill trees and ability levels seem to have been poorly designed with regards leveling. Most ACs are a mess until they hit certain key levels. It kind of sucks.

My world flipped, turned upside-down when my scoundrel learned emergency medpack. Just from putting that single skill point in my tree, my HPS doubled from the level before.

I think operative is just a late bloomer. Until i got the HoT my healing was really so-so. Even with the HoT it is still troublesome to keep tactical advantage up and will likely be so until i get the talent that makes the HoT give tactical advantage.

Sith warrior isn't nearly as bad as people say though. It is true that tanking before around 15ish is REALLY horrible because you have almost no tools to support it yet, but after that it is fine.

From around 15 to 36 my sith warrior has never really had major problems in groups keeping agro, even with people insisting on dpsing multiple targets at once.

Keeping alive is another matter. it seems about one in ten groups has us doing so well (on around even level content) that i don't have to use at least one cd on every pull. Maybe i just played wow too long where i didn't expect to use a 2 minute cd abilities every pull and this is how it is meant to be though.

It could also be related to the fact that i basically never see anyone using any form of CC or focus firing. I hope to change this a bit with my operative who has quite a nice CC.

[Mike Cathcart]

I really wish the medals in war zones gave more incentive for actually playing the objectives of the map. It's cool that protection gets medals and shows up on the score screen, but how about a damn medal for scoring a point in Huttball? Or disarming a bomb in Bomb the Doors Map? It would be nice to see the people who try to win the game show up higher on the leader board.

[ydejin]

I'm currently waiting another 5 minutes and 6 seconds for the medial probe. Is that sad?

I ended up waiting over 10 minutes for a Medi-Probe this afternoon. I was deep in a Corellian Factory full of Sith Assassins and Sith Masters. I was having a rough go with them. But I really did not want to have to restart the whole thing. I finally got to the end boss and he pummeled me in the first round. So I waited 10 minutes for the Medi-Probe, fortunately he went down in the second round.

[Brad Wardell]

I ended up waiting over 10 minutes for a Medi-Probe this afternoon. I was deep in a Corellian Factory full of Sith Assassins and Sith Masters. I was having a rough go with them. But I really did not want to have to restart the whole thing. I finally got to the end boss and he pummeled me in the first round. So I waited 10 minutes for the Medi-Probe, fortunately he went down in the second round.

I play the game in a window so when that happens I can forum surf or do code review or blog read or whatever. Thank goodness the game is so well behaved in a window. ;)

[Michael Fortson]

If you alternate between resurrect and respawn, the timers are much shorter. Usually it doesn't take long to get back from the nearest respawn point, either.

[idrisz]

I really wish the medals in war zones gave more incentive for actually playing the objectives of the map. It's cool that protection gets medals and shows up on the score screen, but how about a damn medal for scoring a point in Huttball? Or disarming a bomb in Bomb the Doors Map? It would be nice to see the people who try to win the game show up higher on the leader board.

just because you walked the ball into finish line doesn't mean you deserve a medal, what about the person who passed to you, or the person who heal you, or the person who gripped you to the finish line.

[Nesrie]

Up to xx second mezzes blow. If they don't want viable crowd control... leave it out. I hate watching worthwhile skills get nerfed.

[gurugeorge]

I ended up waiting over 10 minutes for a Medi-Probe this afternoon. I was deep in a Corellian Factory full of Sith Assassins and Sith Masters. I was having a rough go with them. But I really did not want to have to restart the whole thing. I finally got to the end boss and he pummeled me in the first round. So I waited 10 minutes for the Medi-Probe, fortunately he went down in the second round.

I'm actually finding the medi-probe timer a good mechanic. It really disincentivizes me being slapdash, makes me careful and thoughtful, but is forgiving enough for a couple of errors.

[ydejin]

I'm actually finding the medi-probe timer a good mechanic. It really disincentivizes me being slapdash, makes me careful and thoughtful, but is forgiving enough for a couple of errors.

I agree. It's a good mechanic.

[Mike Cathcart]

just because you walked the ball into finish line doesn't mean you deserve a medal, what about the person who passed to you, or the person who heal you, or the person who gripped you to the finish line.
That was just one example. I'd definitely be for a medal to someone who completes a pass that makes good forward progress or bonus medals for people who shield/heal the ball carrier. Sure, there would be cases where a forward pass wasn't beneficial but there are plenty of cases where killing people away from the objectives isn't beneficial, either.

I guess what I'm saying is that I wish most of the medals were unique per war zone and had something to do with the objectives.

[Brad Wardell]

BTW, quick poll, is there anything morally wrong about forcing your sons to play the game long hours so that they can craft things for you?

But social services says there is.

[Jason Townsend]

Up to xx second mezzes blow. If they don't want viable crowd control... leave it out. I hate watching worthwhile skills get nerfed.

Looking over the patch list I couldn't see this mentioned? This would indeed be quite a bummer for me given how I built my consular. But bear in mind, EQ1 chanters didn't also have mad DPS/Healing whatever... 60 second CCs, and AOE 60 second CC, are in fact pretty OP. If it were "guaranteed to 30 seconds, very likely to 45s" etc I could certainly deal.


BTW, quick poll, is there anything morally wrong about forcing your sons to play the game long hours so that they can craft things for you?

But social services says there is.

It's probably the more responsible option.

http://i.imgur.com/Ws6Np.jpg

[Michael Fortson]

just because you walked the ball into finish line doesn't mean you deserve a medal, what about the person who passed to you, or the person who heal you, or the person who gripped you to the finish line.

I think the overall point stands, though. It may be hard to correctly reward people for participation, but that can be tuned over time, and it's a lot better than not rewarding them, especially if the games have prevalent issues with people not playing / knowing how to play / caring about the outcome.

[Nesrie]

Looking over the patch list I couldn't see this mentioned? This would indeed be quite a bummer for me given how I built my consular. But bear in mind, EQ1 chanters didn't also have mad DPS/Healing whatever... 60 second CCs, and AOE 60 second CC, are in fact pretty OP. If it were "guaranteed to 30 seconds, very likely to 45s" etc I could certainly deal.



It's probably the more responsible option.

http://i.imgur.com/Ws6Np.jpg


I don't think it was in the patch notes. The counsular in my group noticed her description of her mezz changed from 60 seconds to something up to 60 seconds. We're in the process of testing if this is indeed one of those hated random mez skills that everyone loves. We'll get a better idea when he do a flashpoint this evening when those mez skills are fully tested. They already have pretty strict limits on who/what you can mez or can't... don't see a reason for them to add to that.

[Skorin]

I don't think it was in the patch notes. The counsular in my group noticed her description of her mezz changed from 60 seconds to something up to 60 seconds.

As a data point, my two CCs as a level 23 Operative both still say flat 60 seconds.

[Nesrie]

As a data point, my two CCs as a level 23 Operative both still say flat 60 seconds.

She says Whirling Wind, up to 60 seconds.

[Gendal]

I just blew 14 commendations on the wrong thing. Was so excited to pick out a new chest piece for my Agent and bam, I just bought a duplicate that I had gotten for my companion earlier.

I don't care enough to figure out why the interface in this game is so terrible, but there it is. I screw up the shopping and selling so often it can't be just me, no other game prompts such frequent interface snafus.

[rei]

After you switch an item into an item slot from your inventory, why is the cursor still the item you've swapped out? Why also, when you choose to place it 'back' elsewhere in the bags, it does not go there to that spot but instead swaps places with what you just equipped? Or, while the cursor is still of the item you swapped out, it's possible to destroy the item by clicking outside of the bags?

This problem also exists with moving around non-existent quest items and skill buttons off action bars.

Also Galactic Market screen constantly replaced by the return of companions from their crafting missions.

I hate this game's UI.

[RobotPants]

I've accidentally deleted ability buttons while trying to move them to a different spot on the bars about twice as many times as any other MMO I've played.

[JetLagger]

I'm stuck in patching hell. The game launchers continually wants to re-download 11Gig worth of assets over and over again. Fine I have a bad downloaded file, replace the individual file not the whole 11 gigs.

Seriously Bioware this patching system was designed by fucking clowns.

-Tim

[Dawn Falcon]

It's getting parts of the file. They did a blue post on it, the patcher isn't clear what it's doing. This is still 1000% better than most MMO patches outside Sony's...

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=1274311#edit1274311

Do an ipconfig /flushdns first

[ibdoomed]

I'm having money problems now. I couldn't afford speeder training and all the other training at 25 and bought what I could on the fleet ship to the point that I didn't have enough money to fly anywhere else... oops. Had to sell some pet armor to get to tatooine.

Womp rats yay!

[distauma]

I'm having money problems now. I couldn't afford speeder training and all the other training at 25 and bought what I could on the fleet ship to the point that I didn't have enough money to fly anywhere else... oops. Had to sell some pet armor to get to tatooine.

I was having money issues also, but then I started putting my scavenged materials on the market instead of boosting my crafting. Some of the rarer materials can be posted way above the recommended value and get you some nice credits. It took me till lvl 24 to get 40,000 credits and then till lvl 26 to get another 50,000.

[dogbert]

I'm stuck in patching hell. The game launchers continually wants to re-download 11Gig worth of assets over and over again. Fine I have a bad downloaded file, replace the individual file not the whole 11 gigs.

Seriously Bioware this patching system was designed by fucking clowns.

-Tim

A buddy had a similar problem & it was his firewall software getting in the way.

[rossm]

Somehow in the last hour I went from 250k credits to 110k. I have no idea where they went. I assume cybertech training around 380 was expensive? Or maybe it was my new skill at 36. I should pay more attention to my money disappearing.

[Murbella]

Ok, i got my operative to 23 now after taking a break from my Juggernaut because i got tired of the blinking conversation icon.

I liked playing my jug a lot and really can't say i had any problems leveling, but operative is CLEARLY MUCH STRONGER at soloing. The way operative skills are designed, i can keep medium heals going on my tank companion while doing medium dps. I only expect this to get much better when i get the talent that makes my hot ticks give me tactical advantage.

Being able to CC an organic for 60 seconds and CC droids at will is also a huge advantage one fighting small groups of elites. Either of my characters would find it impossible to fight 2 even level elites in most circumstances (unless they are melee elites that i can kite forever while a ranged companion slowly kills them), but being able to CC one while i kill the other makes the fight winnable.

Stealth is another huge advantage. I basically never kill trash mobs unless there is a quest to kill them. This saves a ton of time. Stealth also allows me to do missions that require me to use/get a mission item sometimes without even fighting (toxic bombs earlier).

All of those things combine to allow me to solo most 2 person group missions.


I am liking cybertech a lot, but it is probably not as overall powerful as biochem. I would NEVER NEVER NEVER be any sort of tank without being biochem. Constant access to the best health packs and buff stims is simply too required for a tank.

Cybertech lets me always keep my ship upgraded with the latest equipment which has had me trying my hand at more space missions. Later on I expect it will help when/if i start messing around with some combat droid companions.

In a couple levels i will be building my own custom vehicle if everything works out.

[rei]

I'm stuck in patching hell. The game launchers continually wants to re-download 11Gig worth of assets over and over again. Fine I have a bad downloaded file, replace the individual file not the whole 11 gigs.

Seriously Bioware this patching system was designed by fucking clowns.

-Tim

i complained a few pages back last week and my isp got blamed instead of ea/bioware shit patch servers.

sorry if this was covered previously but apparently high-rez textures aren't being used? http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=140954

[idrisz]

I got 12 medals in one warzone.. it's insane.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v203/idris/12medals.png

[TheWombat]

Somehow in the last hour I went from 250k credits to 110k. I have no idea where they went. I assume cybertech training around 380 was expensive? Or maybe it was my new skill at 36. I should pay more attention to my money disappearing.

One thing I found out was that I was wasting lots of money buying ever crafting recipe when it became available. I stopped that and now only buy the few items I either 1) want to use for me or my companions, or to sell, or 2) that I will use to level up. You don't really need all those recipes, the vast majority of which are for items no one will ever use. And if you do find you need one, you can buy it later anyhow. Saved me a ton of credits.

Also, and I'm sure everyone knows this, keep an eye on the mission costs when you send your companions out. I've found myself all too easily pissing away tens of thousands of credits mindlessly sending out a companion to get crappy gifts or something at 1200 a pop.

[Charlatan]

Somehow in the last hour I went from 250k credits to 110k. I have no idea where they went. I assume cybertech training around 380 was expensive? Or maybe it was my new skill at 36. I should pay more attention to my money disappearing.

Do you normally buy all the patterns at each level of cybertech? If so, I think you're crazy!

Training at 36 would be, I would guess, around 8-10K per skill, which would be maybe 3 or 4 at most, so I am betting you spent most of it on cybertech patterns.

I havent' had any money issues, but I knew I'd need the speeder training at 25, so at 20 I stopped spending money on anything. So I think I had around 60 or 70K when I needed 25. Now at level 40 I have around 300k - though to be honest I do have slicing and I power-sliced about 70k before the nerf. So if you back that out I would have 230K (and I haven't picked up my level 40 speeder training, which is 210k). I have also been leveling Cybertech (currently around 360) but I only buy one or two patterns per level (and I usually scoop up some older ones too, so I don't need too many lower level patterns.

[Marcus]

I blew through 100k going from 340 to 370 diplomacy.

[divorced]

I blew through 100k going from 340 to 370 diplomacy.

I really don't understand how any of crafting or diplomacy works. What's the best site out there that'll give some solid pointers to a knucklehead like me?

[Wolff]

Official forums have some decent stickies

[inkai]

Buying a purple investigation mission on the GTN (galactic trade network) and letting Torian do it because he has most inv skill and he fails !!

And to make things worse, he says he did well!
Where's the flogging option when you need it.

[bandidoquest]

I'm planning on starting to play this really soon and I'd like to know if there's a specific server in which the Qt3 folks are playing and also if there are Qt3 guilds to join? I know this has probably been covered already but I couldn't find it with a quick search...

[MrCoffee]

The Harbinger server is where most of the Qt3 people are on, there is 1 guild on each side which have their own thread here.

[bandidoquest]

Thanks for that!

[RobotPants]

Did I mention how awesome it is that you can't add a friend without them being online?

[Nesrie]

Did I mention how awesome it is that you can't add a friend without them being online?

The UI leaves a lot to be desired. I feel like I can't customize anything, and when one of windows winds up covering something I need to see... can't move it either. I've got my theories, but for now its just a pain to use.

[rei]

Don't forget chat disconnecting and missing messages when transferring between ship and worlds.

[Gendal]

Never played evil before but I am enjoying it so far. Sometimes I feel genuinely bad, but the min maxer in me can't pass up the opportunity for more dark side points.

But then I get a choice like this and all is forgiven:
3. Idiot. [Shock him]

[Mike Cathcart]

I need to hurry up and get off of Voss. Two minutes after I landed someone said "Like a Voss" in general chat so now I'm on verse 500 of the song I've been singing since then.

[rei]

You know what SWTOR needs? Raphael Sbarge. Hah.

[idrisz]

so bioware hates fat people.

there are some datacrons that you can't get if you choose the large body size...

[MrCoffee]

bioware hates idrisz

[divorced]

so bioware hates fat people.

there are some datacrons that you can't get if you choose the large body size...

Heck I've only been able to find one datacron. I've seen 3 others, but stopped trying to figure out how to get to them after a couple of hours.

[ibdoomed]

I need to hurry up and get off of Voss. Two minutes after I landed someone said "Like a Voss" in general chat so now I'm on verse 500 of the song I've been singing since then.

Like a Virgin?

[Mike Cathcart]

Like a Voss (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c)

[The Condition]

This thread is impossibly large, so apologies if this has already been mentioned, but:

Are any of you having a problem with texture popping? I'll start the game and things will look fine but the textures pop in and out at low res but soon enough settle on low res. Looks very bad and only solved with restarting the game.

[pyrhic]

Just cancelled.


The SP and cutscenes work for me, but just arent worth a monthly fee.
'ship combat' is on rails and not very compelling
Many (if not all) of the MP functions need some work (things like the auction house, grouping, etc)
While I don't consider myself hugely motivated by the lore, i find the 'crowd-pleasing' elements theyve added have detracted from my enjoyment of the game. Hoth? A mission to free someone from carbonite?
Increasingly irritated by the fact that my dialog choices dont mean anything to the game world.
General UI annoyances


In short, unfortunately, this wasnt the game i was looking for.

[Soapyfrog]

The lore and fanservice is truly ludicrous (of course smugglers get a wookie companion!). But then... I played WoW for a long time so not sure I can really complain.

[DKDArtagnan]

Cancelled as well.

Basically, I like the game well enough. But after pondering the formula: time invested vs reward - I've let my brain win.

I find that even though I'm entertained by an MMO with decent content/gameplay, it's not the kind of entertainment that's worth the insane amount of hours. Most of it is about waiting for that special something, and you "work" to get there.

For me to dedicate that kind of time, the game needs to be more than SWtOR. Maybe if I had more free time, and I didn't have a job/GF - but even then it'd end up being a waste.

Nah, I need to do better things with my life.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this post... It's not the game so much as it's me ;)

[Teiman]

Cancelled as well.
...
It's not the game so much as it's me ;)

Do the form to unsubscribe allow to write the reason?.

I am sure a few of the reasons your listed will finnaly be fixed, but probably in a rather big timeframe, like maybe a whole year. But I will be interesting to see what changes introduce the next "real" patch. If this game have real patches. I have see these balances patches, and are not very interesting. I can't care less for balance in a PvE game:
"Our data shows that everybody is using the skill X, that is powerfull and fun, and not the powers J,K,L that are ugly, boring and bland. We are going to nerf X to force players to use J,K and L more". <--- this x 50 lines.

[DKDArtagnan]

Do the form to unsubscribe allow to write the reason?.

I am sure a few of the reasons your listed will finnaly be fixed, but probably in a rather big timeframe, like maybe a whole year. But I will be interesting to see what changes introduce the next "real" patch. If this game have real patches. I have see these balances patches, and are not very interesting. I can't care less for balance in a PvE game:
"Our data shows that everybody is using the skill X, that is powerfull and fun, and not the powers J,K,L that are ugly, boring and bland. We are going to nerf X to force players to use J,K and L more". <--- this x 50 lines.

Yes, I wrote my primary reasons for cancelling in their formula.

However, I don't think the game CAN change enough to really be what I'd need it to be.

It's more like a realisation that I needed to make, and this is coming from someone who poured a lot of hours into a black hole called WoW years past. I told myself I could enjoy SWtOR casually, but I made the mistake of joining a guild - and I could just "feel" that I'd either have to commit or not really get much out of the game.

I thought the game would work as a singleplayer game, but there are too many MMO trappings, and I know I'd never be happy to just end it after the storylines finished.

I'm very much driven by progression and "achievement". I need to experience the "endgame" of any game to feel like I've seen it all, and I need to see my character perform with the best gear etc. To stop playing SWtOR as my main reached the end of chapter 3, would be like storming through the Skyrim main quest - without ever experiencing the best gear or all of the world/stories. So, I'd have to invest SO many hours to get that feeling, and it'd never come - because by then they'd have released more content.

You can't get that sensation of finality in an MMO (not even SWtOR) without a huge time investment, and it's something I should have known going in. Maybe I did, but I guess I'm too easy :)

[Sean Tudor]

You can't get that sensation of finality in an MMO (not even SWtOR) without a huge time investment, and it's something I should have known going in. Maybe I did, but I guess I'm too easy :)

The SWTOR formula is no different to WoW's. A highly addictive treadmill. ;)

[DKDArtagnan]

The SWTOR formula is no different to WoW's. A highly addictive treadmill. ;)

Essentially, it's not as addictive as WoW - because it's just not as good as WoW was upon release - and it's WAY too familiar to catch my fancy on that level.

I'm thankful for that.

Though the reason I got addicted to WoW was not "just" that the game was better - but also because I had a GF who was just as much a fan of the game - and we could play together. Also, I had a lot more free time to dedicate to the game.

That, coupled with the fresh take on the genre and the supreme craftsmanship of pre-WoW Blizzard, got me seriously hooked.

I won't get into how I let it take over my life for a long while, because that's on me - not the game :)

[Wolff]

I for one (baby wife job) am finding this to be a great paced mmo. See how I disagree with you without being insulting? The content while leveling is the most interesting of any mmo I've ever played. I get my own cult seriously!!!

[DKDArtagnan]

I for one (baby wife job) am finding this to be a great paced mmo. See how I disagree with you without being insulting? The content while leveling is the most interesting of any mmo I've ever played. I get my own cult seriously!!!

I'm not sure we disagree so much as we're just different people wanting different things.

Overall, I think SWtOR is one of the best MMOs to come out in years, but it's just not for me in my position. The genre is not evolving in the way I want it do - and I must learn to not spend time doing things I don't enjoy enough to warrant the time lost.

Also, without being insulting? Why would you be insulting?

[Razgon]

I'm thinking of quitting as well. Nothing wrong with the game, it just doesnt grab me at all anymore.

For some weird reason I want to go back to WAR but I guess that ship sailed a long time ago as well.

[DKDArtagnan]

WAR had such potential..... Then again, so did a lot of MMOs that "failed".....

[Wolff]

Sorry probably just my haven't had coffee yet sensitivity to this boards (and the internets) lean on commenting on games. Stuff in the realm of...you might enjoy this if you have no life or are a simpleton

[DKDArtagnan]

Sorry probably just my haven't had coffee yet sensitivity to this boards (and the internets) lean on commenting on games. Stuff in the realm of...you might enjoy this if you have no life or are a simpleton

No worries, and it's certainly not what I was trying to say ;)

[Balasarius]

Just cancelled.


Increasingly irritated by the fact that my dialog choices dont mean anything to the game world.

In short, unfortunately, this wasnt the game i was looking for.

This. It's become a meta game for me - say the most stupid, annoying, insulting thing I can to the NPC, only for them to continue right along giving me the quest or the reward after one line of retaliation.

I wanted KotOR 3. Bioware promised KotOR 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. All we got was a WoW reskin. Not even the good WoW like Cata, it's obvious they froze their design around the launch of Wrath. The talent trees are horrid.

[Brian Rucker]

I'm good. The story I'm playing through is entertaining as hell. The NPCs are mostly colorful. I've got a Wookiee. Say what you will about me but I guess as an old timer Star Wars fan I'm loving the fan service. I am being well served. Is there a tip jar?

The game itself, in terms of what I do and how I'm playing it, is utterly generic. But we all kinda knew that going in right? What it isn't is a pain in the ass to actually play like most MMOs. It hasn't gotten boring yet for me. Sure missions are essentially repetitious, generic MMO style, but the scenery varies and I've usually got a new toy, companion or skill to try out on the bad guys. If I want variety I've got space, crafting or roleplaying (and others also have PvP and daily raids).

This isn't the ultimate MMO for me. That's still going to be an MMO that does for roleplayers what Eve Online did for PvPers. Bioware may be a bunch of roleplayers but it's clear to me that roleplayers aren't close to being an interest of theirs in terms of design. We don't have any of the tools we're accustomed to these days.

But they do tell, compared to any other MMO, good stories and it just goes on and on and on (at least for Smuggler, and my first time through the game, I'm having a ball). I'm seeing lots of pickup RP on my server and my big concern, the quality of the playerbase, at least on Lord Adraas, isn't a worry. The vast majority of players are cool, mature and helpful types. RP or not. The atmosphere reminds me even more of LoTRO's Landroval, purely PvE and with a high proportion of mature Tolkien fans, than SWG's Starsider which could vary in player quality quite a bit due to the high admixture of PvP elements.

[Chris Johnson]

Essentially, it's not as addictive as WoW - because it's just not as good as WoW was upon release - and it's WAY too familiar to catch my fancy on that level.



We must have been at two different releases because SWTOR is much more refined than WoW was at release. I do agree with the "on rails" complaints and hopefully Bioware is listening. I was a hardcore raider in WoW (still part of a raiding progression guild after all of these years), but I am having fun in SWTOR leveling essentially by myself and at my own pace. I am MUCH more engaged in the SWTOR universe than I ever was in WoW. In WoW, an expansion comes out and we all race to get to the level cap so that we can down raid bosses and be a top guild on the server. In SWTOR, I don't care about that because I want to enjoy the story. We've on many times cursed somebody out that has revealed plot lines at higher levels (my WoW guild has a SWTOR branch).

[DKDArtagnan]

We must have been at two different releases because SWTOR is much more refined than WoW was at release. I do agree with the "on rails" complaints and hopefully Bioware is listening. I was a hardcore raider in WoW (still part of a raiding progression guild after all of these years), but I am having fun in SWTOR leveling essentially by myself and at my own pace. I am MUCH more engaged in the SWTOR universe than I ever was in WoW. In WoW, an expansion comes out and we all race to get to the level cap so that we can down raid bosses and be a top guild on the server. In SWTOR, I don't care about that because I want to enjoy the story. We've on many times cursed somebody out that has revealed plot lines at higher levels (my WoW guild has a SWTOR branch).

Aren't you forgetting what the genre was like when WoW was released?

I'm not saying that WoW vanilla can beat SWtOR in this way - but I'm saying that WoW vanilla "got me" - because it was the first MMO that I played more than a few weeks. Oh, I tried ALL of them before WoW (UO, EQ, DAoC, AO, and others) - but WoW was the only one to really grab me for an extended period of time.

Also, at the core, I'm very much a gameplay/mechanics dude - and SWtOR can't compare to WoW in this way, but that's also subjective.

I'm talking about the flow of combat and the overall responsiveness of the core gameplay. Something that can't even be written down in a design document, that takes a tremendous amount of skill/craftsmanship/insight to get right. Blizzard did that, and as far as I'm concerned - WoW is still the most fluid and responsive MMO in terms of controls/UI/combat and so on.

If SWtOR had come out in 2004 - things would be very different, obviously.

For the record, I have much more admiration for the "design" of Ultima Online than that of WoW. Ultima Online is my kind of design, and WoW is my kind of core gameplay.

SWtOR is far superior when it comes to the narrative/lore/story presentation and such - and if they'd combined it with the fluidity of WoW and a similar coherent/masterful art direction, I'd be more likely to still play it.

But even if they did, it would still be too familiar. So, it's not the game that's bad - it's me that's become incredibly demanding.

For the record, these are the aspects of WoW that impressed me enough to hold my attention:

1. Combat system/fluidity/responsiveness
2. World aesthetics and diversity (Every area was like stepping into a high production value movie in terms of atmosphere/mood)
3. Sound design. Every single location had its own set of sounds, and every single ability was CLEARLY distinct in and out of combat.
5. Instance/dungeon design (Before that we had huge empty halls with spawn camping)
6. Class diversity (every class was its own and felt completely unique in all ways)
7. Talent trees. I hadn't seen that in an MMO before, and the impact of them grew as you learned more and more about the game.
8. The Rogue class. The class was basically written for me.
9. UI customisation.
10. The combination of a VERY accessible game that eventually became as hardcore as you wanted it to be.

I could write a longer list with SEVERE problems I've had with WoW, and especially since TBC and onwards. But that was later on.

[ibdoomed]

Like a Voss (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c)

Yeah right, like anyone is crazy enough to click on a youtube link. I'll keep an eye out if you want to post a link to a safe/reputable website.

I've had "Like a Surgeon" stuck in my head since I read your post. Or was it "Like a Sturgeon" ?

[Soapyfrog]

I agree the game is not as smooth and responsive as wow; though even wow is no longer as smooth and responsive as wow anymore ;)

[The Mad Hatter]

I'm sticking with it for now. Not playing much, but that's because of Dark Souls rather being burnt out on SWTOR. I've cancelled the second WoW account I had active, so SWTOR will take its place for now. I'll give them time to address some of the major flaws, and we'll see how it goes.

[aganazer]

I'm not sure we disagree so much as we're just different people wanting different things.

That is really the crux of it. Everyone has different criteria for that they enjoy in a MMOG and since MMOG's try to appeal to such a wide range of people, its going to be hit or miss.

My case is very specific. Coop with the wife. We don't chat in text at all. We are always on the same missions and the same step of those missions. We don't PvP. We don't interact much outside of our group. My wife is practically allergic to reading so spoken dialog is a must. For this narrow way of playing, SWTOR is the best MMOG ever. Its the most fun we've had since Borderlands.

It also seems a little funny talking about the smoothness of WoW considering that its a tab targeting hot bar cooldown gazing button mashing type of game. I always considered that to be the opposite of smooth and favored the more visceral combat in games like Tabula Rasa, D&D Online, and Spellborn. I figure if I'm going to compromise on a crappy EQ/WoW style combat system then the game may as well have something to look forward to like fully spoken story driven missions.

[ibdoomed]

Just cancelled.


Increasingly irritated by the fact that my dialog choices dont mean anything to the game world.




I actually had the opposite reaction just this weekend.

Spoilers involving sith warrior story related dialog on nar shaddaa.

There's a point where another sith lord is trying to horn in on Baras' action on nar shaddaa and you're sent to take care of some imperial lackeys. When you get there, the imps are fighting some republic scum and after you take out the imps, you talk to the republic. If I remember correctly, there was an option in the choices to attack but I chose to let them live and owe me a favor. Much later during the fight with the sith lord (rathas?), I called in that favor and the republic scum came to help out during the fight. I don't know if choosing the attack option would have just got me to the point of beating them into submission or if they would have died and then they wouldn't be there to help with rathas? But it felt like I made a choice that actually changed the story and that feeling is all that really matters.

[Chris Johnson]

Aren't you forgetting what the genre was like when WoW was released?

I'm not saying that WoW vanilla can beat SWtOR in this way - but I'm saying that WoW vanilla "got me" - because it was the first MMO that I played more than a few weeks. Oh, I tried ALL of them before WoW (UO, EQ, DAoC, AO, and others) - but WoW was the only one to really grab me for an extended period of time.



I will agree that WoW was much more evolutionary upon release than SWTOR. Blizzard took many familiar elements from other games and made them more accessible and "fun". However, the spoken dialogue in SWTOR is what makes the game more interesting to me than anything in WoW (other than raiding for the sake of raiding and downing bosses).

I am not saying that SWTOR in its current form is a WoW-killer, but I've played just about all of the MMOs that have been released since WoW and this is the first to pull me away in any significant way. It has plenty of warts and issues, but I am willing to give Bioware six months to see how they progress.

[Scott F]

There are a number of places I've found where choices have meaningful impact to the Jedi Knight storyline.

There's a mid-planet boss fight, for example, where you're confronting a gangster and his group of thugs. The option is presented to do the Jedi mind trick on them. It doesn't work on the boss (he shakes it off), but the adds all decide to "rethink their lives" or somesuch and go away. A very difficult fight with the adds becomes a cakewalk with just the boss.

There are a couple other storylines where you can use the Jedi mind trick to avoid combat entirely (or not use it and end up in combat). There's one such small side quest of that sort on Coruscant. I chose the Jedi mind trick there thinking "this will never work" and was surprised to find that it resolved the quest entirely and immediately.

There's another place on Nar Shaddaa where your allies are ready to flee. You can let them go, persuade them to stay, or Jedi mind trick them to stay. I used the Jedi mind trick. They stayed. Later on, one of the characters (after showing up after the end of a boss fight as late reinforcements arriving) complained about me messing with his mind, telling me he didn't like something I was doing, but knew better than to try and stop me or refuse to help, since I'd clearly just mess with his head and force him to do it anyway.

I'm not sure what would have happened if I had taken the other paths. I assume that they could have been persuaded to stay. If I had let them go entirely, maybe they would have had second thoughts and decided to come back and help. Who knows. I do know that the dialogue element involving the Jedi mind trick would have been different.

There are also various places where you have off-screen assistance, and you choose whether they should keep fighting (as a distraction) or not. The subsequent interactions reflect the outcome of your decisions in the storyline tree; sometimes the off-screen assisting force is wiped out, for example, or if you don't send them there are (apparently) additional spawns in your storyline area. You basically choose whether to spend the lives of your allies to make your own mission easier, or not. Some such choices are LS-DS scored; some are not.

Another one I found involves a late-game discovery of a romance between two other characters present in the storyline. If you're romancing Kira (or presumably the male companion romance option if female) and the romanced companion is present, their reaction to how you deal with that romance (exposing it to the Jedi Council or not) is shown on screen. There's an option to say something like "I don't agree with the Council's stance on romantic relationships" or something, and Kira snarks, "Understatement."

And the tone of how that particular conversation goes is itself, apparently, somewhat related to at least one of your earlier interactions with one of the romatically-involved Jedi (you have prior interaction with both, one of which had the potential to be quite contentious).

There are a number of LS-DS choices by the Jedi Knight that apparently have impact (sometimes off-screen and seen only in post-quest followup emails). Kill this person versus spare this person. Expose this versus agree to cover this up.

On Voss, there's a culminating decision at the end of the planetary quest line that can go several ways. I chose the obvious goody-goody choice, but I'm curious what would have happened had I not, particularly since some of the verbiage for the bonus quest for Voss appears to imply a return to the planet to deal with fallout from having made the goody-goody choice. Maybe the interactions of the bonus quest are slightly different if you choose the other path; I'm curious to know.

However, this all being said, there were earlier points on Voss where you're trying to be diplomatic and improve the Republic's standing with the Voss and make the Sith look bad, and pretty much anything you say at any conversation choice (I always took what appeared to be the most diplomatic option) appears to be taken and twisted by the Sith ambassador, and the Voss don't seem happy with some of what you say either. Presumably there was no good way to be successfully diplomatic there, but it was irritating to try and have it come to nothing.

You can't get too far into the tall grass away from the main storyline; this is a computer game, after all, and there are practical limitations to how large the decision tree could be given that voice actors are involved. But there appear to be various paths toward the end goals shared by players, and various decisions that can have impacts later on.

You're on rails, it's true, and there are stations along the way that everyone has to check into. But you can get yourself diverted onto various tracks along the way on your way to those stations.

I sort of think of it like driving between two cities. I'm going to get there eventually. But I might stop and eat on the way (or not). I might speed and get pulled over (or not). I might text while driving and have a wreck (or not). I might pull over and help a guy with a flat tire (or not) and doing so may incline him to help me out down the road (or not). But the convention of the game is to go to the destination city eventually. There's no going somewhere else as a destination instead.

[Teiman]

Do chossing your XO as commando as any effect on the long term? I chosed elara whatisisname because is the companion i need to fight hard mobs. But i feel. Like i have betray the dogface dude, since he lost his position has boss because of me ( or because the others havoc dudes )

[razarok]

Im feeling very conflicted regarding the game.

This is the first mmo that, since WoW vanilla, gave me that "brand new experience" feeling. However, in parts this honeymoon phase is fading.

Still, I don't regret the purchase at all. Even a month of fun makes this very good value!

My biggest problemis that I feel hot/cold regarding the game.

I really LOVE the story sequences on my dark side-every time Sith Inquisitor. I can't remember (m)any games where one can be such a jerk, which is why I'm taking the opportunity to play as one in this game. Seriously, I just killed the target of a rescue mission, then the rescue mission giver and a colleague of the rescue mission giver - ha. And must I mention being able to zap people in conversations? Brilliant!

However, on the other hand, there are many instances of clunkiness, some very fast respawn timers, lots of "kill ten rats" quests etc, which are making the honeymoon phase fade a lot faster than I would have wanted.

Still, a very fun game, although I'm not sure if I will subscribe or not. At the moment I just turned 20 (started around a week ago) so I might make it to 50 in my remaining 3 free weeks.