It's not, when I first saw it I said I'd never own that damn thing. A year later my G5 died and I needed a new mouse. I was looking at some Razer mice and the Naga was only $10 more than what I was going to pay anyways. I play a lot of MMOs and it comes in VERY handy, couldn't imagine having another mouse at this point. Though it's a benefit in all games, having bindable keys at your thumb is amazing. The only complaint I have if you can even call it one is the placement of the 2 buttons next to the left click are horrible and I don't see how anyone could even use them. Overall it's very comfortable and very well made, add in the side keys and the best mouse software I've ever seen you got yourself one hell of a mouse.
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Star Wars: The Old Republic [Early Access: December 13th] Thread 2
- Thread starter Emitan
- Start date
- Status
It's not, when I first saw it I said I'd never own that damn thing. A year later my G5 died and I needed a new mouse. I was looking at some Razer mice and the Naga was only $10 more than what I was going to pay anyways. I play a lot of MMOs and it comes in VERY handy, couldn't imagine having another mouse at this point. Though it's a benefit in all games, having bindable keys at your thumb is amazing. The only complaint I have if you can even call it one is the placement of the 2 buttons next to the left click are horrible and I don't see how anyone could even use them. Overall it's very comfortable and very well made, add in the side keys and the best mouse software I've ever seen you got yourself one hell of a mouse.
Skel1ingt0n
I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
Meh, no, it's not going to kill anyone. I agree.
But that said, it *IS* a bit frustrating. Sure, I have friends I could hang out with, a GF I could spend time with, or heck, I could sleep the day away to rest for a lot of gaming. But the point is that I've waited for this game for many, many years. It's easily my most hyped game of all time. And so while I'm thankful for the extra early access, it would be nice if they could just give us even a 24 hour grace period; just long enough that we're not blocked out of the game the moment it truly goes live. Just sucks for those of us who are eagerly anticipating the official release, and have been for a long time.
It's like if they pushed Christmas back until the 26th, or delayed your birthday a day. No, it's not THAT big of a deal; but it's certainly a tad frustrating when the solution is so simple and obvious.
who is this directed at?
cartoon_soldier
Member
NeoGAF Official Thread
Thanks to: cartoon_solider
Release Date: December 20, 2011
Early Access begins: December 13, 2011
Operating Systems: Windows XP, Vista, 7
Minimum Requirements:
Story
Timeline
BTC - Before Treaty of Coruscant
ATC - After Treaty of Coruscant
BTC 311 - The Mandalorian Wars rage in the galaxy. Revan and Malak go against Jedi orders and intervene.
BTC 303 - Revan leaves (end of KOTOR) for deep space to search for a great evil - the expanding Sith Empire after end of the Mandalorian Wars and defeat of Darth Malak.
BTC 103 - Evidence of Sith Infiltrating the Republic and the Jedi uncovered
BTC 28 - The Sith Empire launch a surprise onslaught on the Republic. An "offensive of colossal proportions" an operation planned for centuries. The new great War had begun. Korriban falls to the Sith.
BTC 18 - Republic's first major victory in the battle after losing the outer rim to the Empire.
BTC 14 - Evidence uncovered that the Mandalorian Wars (BTC 311) was orchestrated by the Sith Emperor, Imperial Intelligence singled out a young Mandalorian to become the Mandalore. The Sith-Mandalorian alliance was formed.
ATC 0 - The Sith Emperor makes an offer for a peace agreement. Sith and Republic Senate meet on Alderaan to discuss terms. The Sith launch a surprise attack on Republic Capital of Coruscant, holding the entire planet hostage forcing the Republic to agree to the Sith Emperor's terms.
The Treaty of Coruscant was signed, the Republic gave control of several star systems to the Empire and new boundaries were established. The Jedi Council has withdrawn to their home world of Tython to meditate. The Republic seeks to rebuild its defenses by building and training a new era of Special Forces to work with the Jedi while the Empire seeks to increase its ever growing powers with a focus on recruiting and training force-sensitive users.
The great war had officially ended, but tensions between the two sides have remained high over the past several years. A return to open war is inevitable. Which Side will you choose?
Character Classes
Please note that your choice of class affects your storyline. At level 10 players will choose an Advanced Class that will determine their roles in combat. This is an important decision, as you cannot change your Advanced Class.
The Galactic Republic
Across the galaxy, the Republic's elite special forces drop into the harshest conflicts ready to do the maximum damage. Outfitted with advanced armor, huge weaponry and the best training possible, Troopers combine leadership with suppression fire, a variety of explosives and incendiary weapons.
Advanced Classes:
Leaders and warriors, heroes and champions, the Jedi Knights have stood at the forefront of every battle. They are masters of the lightsaber arts, kicking, jumping and flashing through the air and using the Force to clear the way in front of them.
Advanced Classes:
A master of the secrets of the Force, the Jedi Consular is both fighter and healer, teacher and student. The Force can be used to cloud the minds of the weak, restore strength to the fallen and hurl both opponents and objects through the air.
Advanced Classes:
Living life by their own rules, Smugglers are the galaxy's most unpredictable characters. They dress for ease of movement-with healthy dose of style-carry one or dual blasters and are always ready to shoot first, stealth up and sneak away after.
Advanced Classes:
The Sith Empire
A thorough professional, the Bounty Hunter trains mind and body for every possible job. Blasters, flamethrowers, missiles, energy shields, jetpack and the best armor money can buy-the name of the game is preparation and versatility.
Advanced Classes:
Behind every Imperial attack, each sabotage, all the great betrayals, was an Imperial Agent. Armed for stealth and assassination, Agents do the jobs nobody else can and as such are trained to use everything from sleeping darts to sniper rifles, stealth belts and knives to advanced probe droids.
Advanced Classes:
No one inspires more feat than a Sith Warrior. Born for battle, few opponents can withstand the rage-fueled blows from a warrior's lightsaber or penetrate a warrior's armor. If dual wielded lightsabers can't finish the job, there is always Force Choke to bring an opponent to his knees.
Advanced Classes:
Where a Sith Warrior is rage, an Inquisitor is cunning. A master of Force Lightning and arcane secrets, the Inquisitor can hold one enemy in the air and stun another all the while attacking with lightsaber moves designed for maximum pain.
Advanced Classes:
Crew Skills
Crew Skills is what would be known as Crafting in most modern MMO Games. In SWTOR, these are handled by your Companions:
Crew Skills are categorized into 3 - Gathering Skills, Crafting Skills and Mission Skills.
Gathering Skills allow you to as the name suggests gather crafting ingredients or lockboxes.
Crafting skills allow you to use the gathered materials to construct armor, weapons, implants, etc. They can also be used to create armor and weapon modifications and medpacks/stimulants, etc.
Mission Skills allow you to recover information such as schematics for crafting, companion gifts for more affection or rare crafting ingredients used to construct higher quality items.
You can only have ONE Crafting skill at a time
Available Skills
- Gathering
- Archaeology – the ability to seek out imbued items like Lightsaber crystals and ancient artifacts
- Bioanalysis – the practice of collecting genetic material from creatures and plants
- Scavenging – the art of recovering useful materials and parts from old or damaged technology
- Slicing – a skill in accessing secured computer systems and lockboxes to acquire valuable data and rare schematics. Only gathering skill that does not provide any raw materials used in crafting
- Crafting
- Armormech – Medium and Heavy Armor for Non-force users.
- Armstech – Non-force user weapons such as blaster rifles, vibroblades and weapon mods
- Artifice – Lightsabers (at high level only), Lightsaber mods and Relics
- Biochem – Adrenals, Stims, Medpacks and Implants
- Cybertech – Earpieces, armor and weapon mods. Also can craft speeder bikes.
- Synthweaving – Light, Medium and Heavy armor for Force users.
- Mission
- Diplomacy – Provides dark or light side points, rare Biochem materials and companion gifts
- Investigation – Provides rare schematics for all crafting skills, rare Armstech materials and companion gifts
- Treasure Hunting – Provides rare Artifice materials, lockboxes and companion gifts
- Underworld Trading – Provides rare Armortech, Synthweaving and Cybertech materials and companion gifts.
The game will recommend you to take certain skills together for inter dependency reasons. Below is a diagram that shows the same (Credit to Sithwarrior forums):
Reverse Engineering
Reverse Engineering is a skill everybody has access to and works like WoW's disenchanting. It provides few materials back from crafted items, but is also the way to discover better quality versions of the item or mod.
First pass at Crew Skills section. We really need someone who can work on section header images, so we don't have to bold them and make them stand out more.
Community
What's new in the NeoGAF SWTOR Community!
News
- (news goes here, PM Billychu to add community news)
GAF: North American Republic
Leader: CzarTim (CharName, Class)
Officer: Billychu (CharName, Class)
Officer: Trouble (CharName, Class)
Officer: The_Inquisitor (CharName, Class)
Officer: Jbird34 (CharName, Class)
The GAF Empire: North American Empire
Leader: fernboi (CharName, Class)
Officer: HarryDemeanor (CharName, Class)
NeoGAF: European Republic
Leader: Fonds (CharName, Class)
Officer: Schizoid (CharName, Class)
Officer: Tizzle-NL (CharName, Class)
Officer: Grimbi (CharName, Class)
Frequently Asked Questions
What's going to change in this post?
The Community Section will be the first section once the |OT| moves to Community, until then the classes will be first.
Are the classes mirrored?
Yes, each class shares a mirrored class on the opposite faction.
Jedi Knight = Sith Warrior
Jedi Consular = Sith Inquisitor
Trooper = Bounty Hunter
Smuggler = Imperial Agent
Which classes can be healers?
Jedi Sage/Sith Sorceror
Commando/Mercenary
Scoundrel/Operative
Which classes can be tanks?
Jedi Guardian/Sith Juggernaut
Jedi Shadow/Sith Assassin
Vanguard/Powertech
Are there off healers/tanks?
No. While a class might accomplish a role in a bit of a different way, they are ideally all viable at their role.
Where can I go for more information?
Official Site
TORHead - An excellent database website
Darth Hater - A great newsite and has their own database
Where can I see those amazing cinematic videos?
Opening
Hope (The Galactic Republic)
Deceived (The Sith Empire)
So what makes this game different from a certain other MMO?
At it's core, both games are very similar, but SWTOR has a much larger focus on presentation. Every conversation is fully voiced and most offer a Mass Effect-esque dialogue wheel to choose responses from. The companion system ensures that you always have an effective partner for solo play. And, well, it's Star Wars! SWTOR doesn't really do much to change what being an MMO is, but it doesn't try to. It's putting another layer of polish on a genre.
How do conversations work?
Using either the 1, 2, and 3 keys or clicking on the responses players can choose different responses from a dialogue wheel, not unlike Mass Effect. In certain conversations you can make long term decisions that can impact your personal class story or alter the way a quest plays out. For example, in a Flash Point your responses can affect which bosses the party faces. The responses you pick can also earn you favor with your current party member or loose their respect. In multiplayer each player rolls a number 1-100 and whoever has the highest roll gets to speak and make a decision. But don't worry, any choices you make that affects your alignment will affect your alignment in the way you intend, even if the group chooses another option.
What does your alignment do?
A character who heavily favors the Dark Side can become corrupted in appearance (this can be toggled off in the options menu). Certain gear can also be restricted to certain alignments although it should have a partner of the other alignment. As of now, there is no Neutral specific gear, so choosing an alignment and sticking with it is encouraged. Your alignment all draws from one pool so any Dark Side points you get will counteract all the Light Side points you have.
How does your space ship work?
The space ship is where you and your companions live. You can manage your inventories, send companions on missions, travel across the galaxy, or relax with your friends. When traveling across the galaxy you can engage in the space combat minigame.
How does space combat work?
Space combat is the minigame players can play in between planets. These are quests and reward XP. The missions play similarly to rail shooters like Star Fox 64 or Sin & Punishment. Completing space combat missions earns commendations which can be used to upgrade your star ship. The ship does not change in appearance and cannot be named.
Writing FAQs as I think of them.
Re-posting most up to date OT, keep giving feedback.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
For the people who were working on section headers/logos, I think we need them for the following:
Overview
Classes
Crew Skills
Companions
Community
FAQ
Media
I think we should add a Companions (just explanation of how companions work, important info) section and Media section (links only, no image heavy thing). What do you think Billy?
Skel1ingt0n
I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
Looking awesome!
A perfect mix of thorough without being too excessive.
EDIT: Woo-hoo! I'm a full-on member now! Yay! Like three years in the making, lol.
A perfect mix of thorough without being too excessive.
EDIT: Woo-hoo! I'm a full-on member now! Yay! Like three years in the making, lol.
I thought the Mercenary and the Commando could only wear medium armor. When choosing my advanced class that was one thing that stood out to me as it was clear that the dps/healer wouldn't be fighting for the same gear as the tank/dps as they wore different armor classes.
So many heated arguments with players.
Some want it to be same day beta access for pre-load guilds so they can experience the game together as opposed to being scattered about. You have people saying too bad and you should have pre-ordered blindly day one. Those who did deserve to be treated better.
Then you have some of those same people arguing that "Damage Meters/Recount" should never be allowed for the game because it inspires "elitist mentalities" and the game is supposed to be fun. Yet they were just being "elitist" themselves on their other statements.
Finally, you have a war of elitism going on over the "no grace period" mistake that Bioware and EA made. "Too bad, should have DD, or bought from B&M".
The community of this game is going to be horrible, and easily has potential to be far worse than WoW's, and I never thought that'd be possible.
Some want it to be same day beta access for pre-load guilds so they can experience the game together as opposed to being scattered about. You have people saying too bad and you should have pre-ordered blindly day one. Those who did deserve to be treated better.
Then you have some of those same people arguing that "Damage Meters/Recount" should never be allowed for the game because it inspires "elitist mentalities" and the game is supposed to be fun. Yet they were just being "elitist" themselves on their other statements.
Finally, you have a war of elitism going on over the "no grace period" mistake that Bioware and EA made. "Too bad, should have DD, or bought from B&M".
The community of this game is going to be horrible, and easily has potential to be far worse than WoW's, and I never thought that'd be possible.
I'm really tempted to convince my group to roll RP server to improve the quality of player interaction. Even if you don't RP yourself generally it dials down the derp levels quite a bit. But I don't think it's any worse than WoW's population, the forums are always the most concentrated place for that crap.
BattleMonkey
Member
So is there any advantage to playing the pure dps AC's besides DPS? Do they have any fun or unique utility abilities or such?
WoW has ruined the MMO audience forever. There is no going back, and yes it can only get worse.
LumpOfCole
Member
The guild thing is a player problem - the players who got in ahead of time can easily just wait for the rest of the guildies to get access. Why should Bioware have to fix that for preorder latecomers?
Damage Meters are important for high end self improvement. If you want to see which two builds or certain kinds of items are better, it's great to have a damage meter to refer to. If you don't want to be judged by elitist standards, then don't apply to elitist guilds. Plenty of room in this game for all sorts of players.
The grace period thing really isn't a big deal, is it? There's an extra 2 days of early access if you were foresighted enough to preorder, and the worst thing that can happen is that an online distributor will be a couple days late in shipping you out your game (a risk that isn't really foreign to anyone who preorders any game online).
The worst of WoW's community are all the entitled kiddies, and any popular MMO is going to have entitled kiddies.
From what I hear the pure DPS classes do have a slight edge but it not really big to the point where they are necessary to complete an objective.
During that open beta weekend, the community seemed just as bad as anything I remember from WoW. Of course, a lot of those people had no intention of buying the game. But I'm definitely approaching this one as a game to play for the "single-player" content and alongside like-minded guildies, while ignoring the rest.
Not a deal-breaker for me, but I do miss the communities MMORPGs had in the pre-mainstream years. (Dipped a toe in EQ2 recently after free-to-play kicked in, after a good two years away from MMORPGs. While the game didn't do it for me mechanics-wise, it definitely had a nice old-school community feel about it.)
erragal said:
If they exist, I may go RP-PvP.
Well there is that cover mechanic of course.
Funnily enough if they stuck with the 5 day early access and added a 2-3 day grace period there wouldn't be nearly as much backlash.
Jedi Sentinel/Sith Marauder are the only dual wield classes and have a toned down version of bloodlust/heroism which will likely make them invaluable for high end raids (5 minute cooldown but no lockout like post-BC Blust so watch out for stacking). Gunslinger/Sniper have the burstiest ranged dps, cover, and some nice exclusive buffs/debuffs as well.
Skel1ingt0n
I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
I would assume so, yes. But probably not as much as you're thinking.
Assume that being overseas will put you in 200ms range. I'd imagine varying where in the states the server is will only alter that base number by 20-40ms.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
AND HERE YOU SEE OUR STAR WARS HEROIC COMBAT IN ACTION
Yeah, I dunno, I have to admit I think it looks a lot better now. The client certainly runs better now on my machine than this 2 year old build seems to be running in this video.
TimHortons
Member
I am really torn at what I want to roll 1st, I am leaning towards a Trooper Commando healer since I know I'll always get a group. But I did have a lot of fun with a smuggler as well but dps is always a dime a dozen.
Nice looking layout so far Cartoon...
Nice looking layout so far Cartoon...
Smugglers can heal too
Giolon
Member
Well, you can explain that every class gets a companion who is:
* Ranged DPS
* Melee DPS
* Healer/Utility (CC)
* Ranged Tank
* Melee Tank
your ship droid, that can be used as a marginal healer, and depending on spoilers
HK-51, which is I believe a ranged DPS as a semi-secret bonus companion?
You can also put down that your companions can be sent to sell your junk while you're out fighting, and can be switched any time outside of combat. You can't ever lose/permanently kill a companion, and that Affection is generally only used for access to their class quest, but I do know of at least 1 companion who supposedly gains a new ability once you complete his quest.
NeoGAF Official Thread
*snips*
If you're willing to modify the crafting image or make a note that cybertech would be good for force users as well since cybertech no longer makes non-force armor.
I don't have bootcamp installed yet, lol.
cartoon_soldier
Member
Cybertech doesn't make armor, it makes mods and earpieces. And it makes mods and earpieces that a force user can use as I did last beta test.
Sniper McBlaze
Member
What class can you compare an Imperial Agent Operative to in WoW terms?
I'd also like to know this with the Bounty Hunter Mercenary.
I'd also like to know this with the Bounty Hunter Mercenary.
No my brother ran the beta on a similar system (Mac Mini 2010) and it ran on all High-Medium settings under W7 Bootcamp, his only had 2gb of RAM
I ran the beta on my Mac Mini i5 with the HD6630 card and it ran on all high settings
I don't know about the Mercenary, but the Operative is kind of like a Druid, minus tanking. They have a healing tree. They have a Stealth melee dps Tree. They also have a ranged dps tree.
It's not a 100 percent great comparison but the basics are there.
Operative isn't directly comparable to any class. It can be an excellent single target healer with good reactive healing (Best hot, best reusable instant heal), decent CC, stealth, and very mild medium (10M) range DPS with melee range burst dps. Can also be played very similar to a wow rogue with stealth burst DPS, decent CC, weak healing, and some decent medium range DPS. Resource mechanic is energy with an additional tactical advantage mechanic that is somewhat of a combo point system with a bit more tension. Very squishy though.
Closest comp would be a cat/resto druid hybrid that doesn't have to shapeshift.
Personally I'll be playing my operative hybrid a bit to have good single target healing and fairly effective burst DPS. It's an interesting class and having stealth as a healer (without the shapeshifting of a druid) will be fun.
Mercenary is a heavy armor healer/range dps hybrid. Has the single best aoe heal in the game but most stationary single target healing (And earth shield). DPS tree is missile themed (As is the aoe heal) but very single target oriented.
Sniper McBlaze
Member
I played WoW and I can see it being a little worse than that. HOWEVER, after playing League of Legends for a year and a half... I'm war hardened and ready!
Anoregon
The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Sentinel/Marauder have a dot-heavy tree, and the agent shared tree, lethality (and smuggler equivalent) are fairly dot-heavy. Assassin/Sage shared tree as well.
The sentinel/marauder option probably has the biggest DoT focus, though.
Add in the Gunslinger/Sniper Saboteur/Engineering trees as well.
vitaminwateryum
corporate swill
Has anyone high level from the beta done any write ups as to which up the gathering / crafting skills will be the most profitable? At the moment I'm looking at slicing / bioanalysis / biochem, but I'd like to read a bit more about them from people who've played the game more than I have.
theDeeDubs
Member
I'd like to follow the path of a Grey Jedi, but it sounds like it may be a while before they get armor put in for that. Also I don't know how to tackle quest choices without knowing the requirements for Grey armor. I'm assuming a lot of choices will be very black and white though and I will end up Light side.
In D&D games, I've always made characters chaotic good and they followed what they believed was right even if it didn't follow the law to the letter. In the Star Wars universe, I'm definitely not a Dark sider, but I also feel some of the Jedi teachings seem flawed. The idea of a Jedi who can resist the Dark without giving fully over to the Light's strict disciplines and philosophies just sounds more interesting to play for me. I'm just assuming most of the quests will be either [1. be a nice guy or 2. be a jerk] though, having not played beta of course.
In D&D games, I've always made characters chaotic good and they followed what they believed was right even if it didn't follow the law to the letter. In the Star Wars universe, I'm definitely not a Dark sider, but I also feel some of the Jedi teachings seem flawed. The idea of a Jedi who can resist the Dark without giving fully over to the Light's strict disciplines and philosophies just sounds more interesting to play for me. I'm just assuming most of the quests will be either [1. be a nice guy or 2. be a jerk] though, having not played beta of course.
Giolon
Member
That's my expectation. The mod market may be profitable at first for those who grind to epic quality quickest, but b/c there's currently no real method for removing mods from the system (they can be deslotted for a nominal fee and aren't soulbound), so the only long term sustained crafted items that are going to continually sell are consumables
At the moment, they only come from Biochem.
Slicing still makes decent money but nowhere near what it was earlier in beta.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. Most gear doesn't have an alignment requirement., even then it's not strictly better b/c of the mod system.
<3
What you guys think are going to be the highest played classes on each side. Also, we expecting the Republic to have more overall players?
I've played on US East during the beta weekend and it wasn't a terrible experience, but surely in PVP the difference would be more noticeable.
Guess I'll sacrifice the Gaf guild for better ping, forgive me.
Empire has more players by maybe 10%. Highest classes seem to be Sith Inqui (both ACs) and whatever the Republic version of that is.
Polls put Assassin and Shadow at the top, with more Empire players.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
I just have to say that I love how both TOR threads are on the front page, one thread away from each other.
Angelus Errare
Banned
Decided to roll Empire, I shall be joining the GAF crew...and we will rule!
- Status