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Star Wars: The Old Republic |OT| EA: "Let's blow this thing and go home!"

D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Anyone else share these concerns about endgame content?

http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2011/12/tortage-theory.html

I completely agree. From my 15 hours or so with the game so far, I can tell that it would be a shit-boring-ass game if it didn't have the conversations and story bits. I think this game will be successful, but I can't see how anyone but the hardest core of Star Wars fans would continue playing after they've seen most of the story content on a couple of characters.

This is why I really want a great, well put-together, polished sandbox-MMORPG with a focus on player interaction. Make the tools (the gameplay part) interesting and give players freedom to do interesting things and it will never really get boring.

When you put your focus on story-driven cutscenes, your game is only going to be interesting for as long as those cutscenes are fresh.
 

Alex

Member
I don't agree with that at all, it's a very fun game, the higher end combat and dungeon design is very satisfying but I still see it having that issue unless they take another avenue because people don't want another WoW end game of scheduling raids and sitting in queues. They put a good spin on a lot of things but thus far their plans for end game seem to include none of that spin.

But at the same time, I kind of think I don't care. Playing through a few stories, doing some dungeons and pvp to my fill then stopping until an expansion is probably my future with the genre unless, like you say, someone makes another UO-type sandbox. And I'm OK with that, I don't say it out of disdain, it's a great game I just don't think I'm going patch to patch on these things anymore.
 

Sanjuro

Member
Is there any sort of temporary access or guest account at the moment? I was hoping to test this out on my machine before I head out and purchase the product code.
 
More games should copy Rift's Chronicles idea for end-game raids.

Create a 1-2 player straightforward story zone with inferior loot so people can experience the content.

Of course, they can also take another lesson that Rift didn't learn properly - don't let power guilds beta test your raid shit for you.

A big reason why that game is now failing is that a lot of the player base quit due to the ramp up from one raid zone (the equivalent of Molten Core) to the next level (which, in its initial form, was probably the hardest raid zone ever designed - took 3 months for the first guild to beat it).
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
I don't agree with that at all, it's a very fun game, the higher end combat and dungeon design is very satisfying but I still see it having that issue unless they take another avenue because people don't want another WoW end game of scheduling raids and sitting in queues. They put a good spin on a lot of things but thus far their plans for end game seem to include none of that spin.

But at the same time, I kind of think I don't care. Playing through a few stories, doing some dungeons and pvp to my fill then stopping is probably my future with the genre unless, like you say, someone makes another UO-type sandbox. And I'm OK with that, I don't say it out of disdain, it's a great game I just don't think I'm going patch to patch on these things anymore.

I disagree that the combat and dungeon design is very satisfying, but of course, I still have only done the Black Talon Flashpoint. It was boring as shit outside of the conversations.

I'll reserve my final opinion about the combat for later on, but as of now the game consists of running through pointlessly huge bland environments and empty corridors, snore-fest combat that provides zero challenge, and some really entertaining conversation content. I particularly like how they did the group conversation stuff--very cool. It's too bad the other 2/3 of the game are so bland (at least at the start as a Sith Inquisitor). I hope things pick up later on combat-wise. I'm sure travel will be a bit less mind-numbing once I get a vehicle, too.
 

Alex

Member
I disagree that the combat and dungeon design is very satisfying, but of course, I still have only done the Black Talon Flashpoint. It was boring as shit outside of the conversations.

I'll reserve my final opinion about the combat for later on, but as of now the game consists of running through pointlessly huge bland environments and empty corridors, snore-fest combat that provides zero challenge, and some really entertaining conversation content. I particularly like how they did the group conversation stuff--very cool. It's too bad the other 2/3 of the game are so bland (at least at the start as a Sith Inquisitor). I hope things pick up later on combat-wise. I'm sure travel will be a bit less mind-numbing once I get a vehicle, too.

Yeah, you're pretty early but it is what it is to you. I've downed a few planets and flash points and such so far and I liked it because it is actually challenging, especially considering we're taking on most of it as a duo, but there's a shit ton of elite areas, genuinely rough ones as you go forward. We pushed through all our content as that duo + companions and it's been very satisfying. I do wish there was even more though, heck I wish there was a toggle to make the whole game as much for some greater reward.

Still, I really like the more compact questing style a lot of the fringe like the crafting type and companions and little quirks and aesthetics and shockingly the pvp system works shockingly well for leveling as well. I did a few queues, got an ass load of xp, a few pieces almost instantly and huttball was particularly fun, well, when the team worked together. Combat on Bounty Hunter is really fun, especially the tanking but I wish I had picked the Agent instead because I like the healing model in this game after it's shown itself properly. The resource management and pacing on it is really fun. The story and presentation is great, but I still wouldnt play it if I wasn't having fun with the mechanics or being challenged. I mean, the latter especially is why I quit WoW. Until standard raiding the hardest thing to do in WoW is log in.

So, I think it is a really great game but I will still agree that the world needs another good sandbox MMO and that the concept of patch to patch play in MMOs, for a lot of people, is likely going to decline if the same ol' focus on raiding and the other standard trappings is the sole focus.
 

StudioTan

Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
No offense, but you haven't seen 5% of the game yet if you only did Black Talon.

He had already made his conclusions about the game after playing for a hour.
 

Ketch

Member
Saw this commercial running on youtube, pretty cool. Sorry if posted already.

That is pretty awesome, being a huge star wars nerd I would have loved to see that in the flesh. I hope they had some way to get the music from the video playing in times square for real when it happened.
 

hgplayer1

Member
well I guess Im done with this game until I find out theyve resolved this error 9000 issue.

I cant stay in game for more than 10-15 mins.

I just got kicked off after forming a small group to do Hammer Station.

I dont understand why all of a sudden its an issue but they dont seem to know when its gonna get fixed. Never had any problems during beta and early access.
 
Just bought it and I had 2 questions.

1. Do i HAVE to add a credit card now and it wont bill me for the first month or do i get a 1 month game code i can enter and avoid putting my credit card in right now? (I bought it digitally)

2. What is the gaf server / faction as I have no friends :(
 

Spookie

Member
No LFG tool or Dual spec is making me a sad panda. The PvP is also woefully inadequate. Considering how fucking long they've had to make this how these features still aren't in makes me wonder what the hell they were prioritising.
 

StudioTan

Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
One really annoying thing about the game is that it resets my monitor configuration every time I exit the game. I have 3 monitors (all different sizes) with my main 27" on the right, a smaller 23" on the left and 17" up above the main monitor. Whenever I quit it puts them all in a row 27>23>17. Annoying.

I tried putting it in Fullscreen (Windowed) mode but it doesn't help. While I'm playing the monitor layout is fine, it changes it when it quits.
 

mcrae

Member
More games should copy Rift's Chronicles idea for end-game raids.

Create a 1-2 player straightforward story zone with inferior loot so people can experience the content.

Of course, they can also take another lesson that Rift didn't learn properly - don't let power guilds beta test your raid shit for you.

A big reason why that game is now failing is that a lot of the player base quit due to the ramp up from one raid zone (the equivalent of Molten Core) to the next level (which, in its initial form, was probably the hardest raid zone ever designed - took 3 months for the first guild to beat it).

there was a zone that took like 42 hours or something insane for a guild to beat. and the figure of 1.5 years is in my head too for the longest raid completion
 

KaYotiX

Banned
No LFG tool or Dual spec is making me a sad panda. The PvP is also woefully inadequate. Considering how fucking long they've had to make this how these features still aren't in makes me wonder what the hell they were prioritising.

Ummm there is a LFG tool......under the social tab you can flag yourself and add a comment about what your looking to do.
 

Renmei

Banned
Could I also get an invite to the Gaf Empire guild? Name is Type-moon, tried messaging a few online people but no response, don't wanna keep spamming pm.
 

falastini

Member
Ummm there is a LFG tool......under the social tab you can flag yourself and add a comment about what your looking to do.

You can flag LFG (and leave a comment), but I'm not aware of a way to search for LFGers. If they put that in, it would go a long way (kinda reminds me of the FFXI system).
 
No LFG tool or Dual spec is making me a sad panda. The PvP is also woefully inadequate. Considering how fucking long they've had to make this how these features still aren't in makes me wonder what the hell they were prioritising.

I will have to respectfully disagree about the PVP. The fact that CC is kept to a nice minimum and the fact that people don't die in 5 hits makes this one of the more satisfying PVP experiences for me.

Plus, I mean, fucking HUTTBALL, man!
 

Moaradin

Member
Just got some new armor for my Imperial Agent

jtqVXvrcuTnwr.png


They get some cool armor.
 

Jira

Member
Raiding needs to be a niche that has it's own rewards and it's own boons but isn't the be all end all of the game. This last branch of Everquest needs wither and die please, it's in such conflict with the evolution of the genre and it's flexibility. I don't want it to keel over, but it's an antiqued model and sees such little participation nowadays that it caused Blizzard to expedite the development of the raid finder just so they could bribe people into it with free loot and an easy look at the ending.

I think challenge is needed and it needs to be very satisfying to complete, be it through flashpoints or meticulous solo work I don't care. People are sick of scheduling their life away raiding and the LFR solution where it's dumbed down so hard so the general populace can polish it off their first time in a half hour because it's put the bar so low that chunks of people can afk, only auto attack and generally act like fools isn't a good solution, IMO.

It's funny that Blizzard focuses development of content that around 5% of people at most ever experience. Why not design stuff for the 95% instead? Makes more sense from a money perspective anyways.
 

border

Member
Raiding needs to be a niche that has it's own rewards and it's own boons but isn't the be all end all of the game.

Everyone will be able to do Operations as an 8-player group and the base difficulty is supposed to be puggable. I'm not even sure you can call it raiding, at that point.

Given such a low threshold in terms of group size and difficulty, I don't know why someone would demand that the story's conclusion be solo or 4-man. If you care so much about the story, then is it that hard to get an 8-player group together one time to see it?
 

Hawk269

Member
I cant even log into the account management right now. Ffffff.

I had no problems just now. I had to log into the site to redeem my code for my color crystal that I get for buying the Star Wars Razer mouse. I did get 1, error, refresshed the page and was able to redeem my code with no problems.
 

Jira

Member
Everyone will be able to do Operations as an 8-player group and the base difficulty is supposed to be puggable. I'm not even sure you can call it raiding, at that point.

Given such a low threshold in terms of group size and difficulty, I don't know why someone would demand that the story's conclusion be solo or 4-man. If you care so much about the story, then is it that hard to get an 8-player group together one time to see it?

You give the general MMO playerbase far too much credit, they're capable of failing at the simplest of mechanics.
 

Duesy

Member
I don't know if it's just because im playing a shadow and backstab is a directional move, but as always in MMO's it seems sometimes you have to be inside people or in a completely different direction to get it to go off.

I feel like sometimes the warzones combat doesn't feel very fluid at all because of the lag. I seem to get people that port 5 meters ahead after you stun them or backstab them.

Combat outside of warzones doesn't seem to have this problem though.

Also resolve is so broken. Doesn't work half the time. Seems you can have a full bar and still be stunned and other times it negates a stun completely.
 
It's funny that Blizzard focuses development of content that around 5% of people at most ever experience. Why not design stuff for the 95% instead? Makes more sense from a money perspective anyways.

The odd thing for Blizzard here is that they had a perfect method of dolling out loot to make raiding and non raiding people happy. The loot with Diablo 2 with a full party was so much better than solo play. It was much harder obviously, but if you wanted to just go for the best loot you could do that. If you wanted to just play solo to see some story and make some level progress you could do that too. You still had a chance at a cool item solo, but the odds were much higher with a fully party. Not sure why this has never been done with WoW. Stupid design decision.
 

Proc

Member
So I'm about 3 hours in...lvl 7 or so as an inquistor on imperial.

I've joined the Gaf server...I guess I'll put in a request at lvl 10ish?

Anyway...pleasantly surprised. If this keeps up, its probably going to be my personal game of the year next to Dead Space 2.

I really, really like it. I'm not a hardcore mmo player but I have tanked LFR in WoW recently. The polish is just incredible and the little missions I've been on so far have been involved and kept my interest.

Anyone on the fence, please give it a go. Even if you aren't a crazy Star Wars fan. If you like polished Mass Effect - esque RPGs, you will love this. The hot bar combat feels great too. Its my personal favourite way to play RPGs on PC. I loved it in Dragon Age Origins and I love it here. I lost interest so quickly in Skyrim but this game has me hooked.
 

Anno

Member
I broke down and got the game on the recommendation of several friends. Typically I don't really care for WoW-esque "themepark" MMOs, but I do like Star Wars and Mass Effect-style conversations. 7 straight hours later...yeah, it's pretty damned fun. Started a Jedi Consular, quickly decided she was going to be a power-hungry fanatic and now I'm progressing slowly down the path towards the dark side. Just finished
getting my first lightsabre. That shit was pretty awesome! I pull the thing out all the time now just to hear the sound of it whooshing around some
. Who knows how long they can hold this story well, but I'm glad that I gave the game a proper shot.
 
Okay, honestly, the biggest disappointment I have with this game is...

The space combat. I was hoping for some sort of Rogue Squadron sort of thing, not this Star Fox stuff.

I really hope they add a Freelancer-like expansion in the future. It would make the ship parts 1000 times more interesting.
 
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