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

B

BattleMonkey

Member
frequency said:
NOTE: Keep in mind the bulk of my WoW experience was in Vanilla. I did play some TBC and WotLK, but that was coming back after quitting and only lasting less than a year.
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Thats the thing, WoW itself has changed greatly from the Vanilla experience, and it was Vanilla WoW that gave you the most freedom, even that game changed is the point being made. TOR is a new game that follows most modern tropes of linear zone design, so I wouldn't compare it to vanilla WoW which doesn't exist as it did before as that evolved as well to the more common form of leveling experience MMOs are using nowadays. Bringing up stuff like RIFT is simply because it was one of the most recent games of the same design of these MMOs and it's a very well received one at that. Vanilla WoW had lot of grinding in it though, you would do quests at a hub and usually have to grind always before being able to appropriatly move onto the next quest hub unless you played with others or had pet classes. I guess thats a case of the game like TOR being more casual/single player friendly with the leveling experience.

I still wish TOR had basically been SWG, but where the game actually worked and not a jumble of broken systems.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Tallshortman said:
IIRC AO soldier had a somewhat similar system, EQ and AC had similar systems though it was a mix of build up and magic (played these only a little), favoring magic more.
Click to expand...

The EQ warrior was really nothing like that. You had Taunt, Kick, Bash, and later on some /discipline commands that were only used in very specific situations (these were later turned into alternate advancement abilities, and more skills were added), but the EQ warrior is much different than the one in WoW.
 
B

Blitzzz

Member
If there is no personal single player storyline, then you can pick and choose where to level up since it doesn't matter. It would be quite difficult to give you 3 or 4 choices of same leveling areas while still triggering story events. Without level scaling like they can add in a single player rpg, you would eventually be way over leveled by the time you do the 3rd or 4th area.

I guess they could add non story grindy planets but again, by the time you pick up your questline, it will be too easy and new complaints would arise
 
G

Garryk

Member
In my experience thus far, being overleveled is important to being able to finish class quests alone. My sniper doesn't have much trouble with the Elites, but my Guardian gets taken to the wire by golds that are a couple of levels below him.
 
A

Anbokr

Bull on a Donut
KaYotiX said:
Yeah im a 47 jugg and i feel like i take WAY to much dmg in PvP and when i tank PvE and i have pretty much the best items i can have at my level (i love the AH lol). It needs a fix imo and hopefully kinda soon. I love tanking but if im squishy as fuck in PvP ill roll something else to PvP with (i dont want to do)
Click to expand...

Are you tank spec in pvp? Honestly, tank juggs are nearly unbeatable 1v1 in pvp and one of the most annoying guys to fight. I think the buffs directed at Guardian/Jugg is strictly for the dps spec survivability. Wait out those 3 levels--the gear makes a huge difference in pvp. I've gone from 150k damage average on my marauder to 250k average just off of a few pieces of gear (hoping for 300+k avg with a few more pieces!); just to show how much warriors scale.
 
F

frequency

Member
BattleMonkey said:
Thats the thing, WoW itself has changed greatly from the Vanilla experience, and it was Vanilla WoW that gave you the most freedom, even that game changed is the point being made. TOR is a new game that follows most modern tropes of linear zone design, so I wouldn't compare it to vanilla WoW which doesn't exist as it did before as that evolved as well to the more common form of leveling experience MMOs are using nowadays. Bringing up stuff like RIFT is simply because it was one of the most recent games of the same design of these MMOs and it's a very well received one at that. Vanilla WoW had lot of grinding in it though, you would do quests at a hub and usually have to grind always before being able to appropriatly move onto the next quest hub unless you played with others or had pet classes. I guess thats a case of the game like TOR being more casual/single player friendly with the leveling experience.

I still wish TOR had basically been SWG, but where the game actually worked and not a jumble of broken systems.
Click to expand...

I understand that it's changed.
And I know I'll never get what I want from a new MMO again. Look at what happened to Vanguard. There's no going back. There aren't enough people like me to sustain such a thing.

I guess my posts on the topic are pointless and really just come down to me saying "I wish for _______."

Blitzzz said:
If there is no personal single player storyline, then you can pick and choose where to level up since it doesn't matter. It would be quite difficult to give you 3 or 4 choices of same leveling areas while still triggering story events. Without level scaling like they can add in a single player rpg, you would eventually be way over leveled by the time you do the 3rd or 4th area.

I guess they could add non story grindy planets but again, by the time you pick up your questline, it will be too easy and new complaints would arise
Click to expand...

I guess... but SWTOR is more linear than even something like Dragon Age.

I hope that in expansions, they don't raise level caps maybe. Maybe instead, they add more story quests that give you the choice of where to go and when to go to gear up. Level won't be an issue since it'll still be 50 capped.
 
B

Bento

Member
frequency said:
I understand that it's changed.
And I know I'll never get what I want from a new MMO again. Look at what happened to Vanguard. There's no going back. There aren't enough people like me to sustain such a thing.
Click to expand...
Well using Vanguard as an example is extremely unfair to old school mmos considering what a piece of shit that turned out to be.
 
F

frequency

Member
Bento said:
Well using Vanguard as an example is extremely unfair to old school mmos considering what a piece of shit that turned out to be.
Click to expand...

Vanguard and FFXIV are the only ones I can think of that came out post-WoW that didn't follow the new formula.

I feel Vanguard, even though it was bad, has a better name than FFXIV around here. Maybe I'm wrong.
 
F

FLEABttn

Banned
frequency said:
I feel Vanguard, even though it was bad, has a better name than FFXIV around here. Maybe I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

When Vanguard released, it didn't have the expectations FF14 had, and it didn't have Londa fellating it.

If Vanguard has a better name here than FF14, it's only just barely.
 
J

JWong

Banned
Darklord said:
Do all companions have a storyline to them? I think all of mine are bugged because so far I've spoken to Mako once and the devaronian once in the last 60 hours or so and that's it.
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Your affection high for them?

It depends on class story progression and affection level. I talked to one of my companions 10 times in a row and pretty much completed his entire story in one go.
 
P

Patryn

Member
Do you think they'll ever take those modding benches out of the game? They really confused me, because until the Guild chat set me straight, I thought that was the only place you could mod items.

I'm really surprised that they're still in the game considering that I guess modding anywhere was put in during the beta.
 
D

Derrick01

Banned
Getting close to the end of the Sith Inquisitor line I think, it keeps being awesome.

(late story spoilers)
just used the Doombringer to eradicate a large republic fleet as well as an imperial vessel with a Darth on board. There was an option to help the Darth first but I chose to use the new super weapon to wipe them all out. Before that my guy, dressed like a true sith lord, gave a pretty good speech that felt in character which helped the badass feel.

Can't wait to see the end.
 
G

Garryk

Member
JK romance question:

If you pursue a relationship with Kira does it give you Dark Side points? Also, does she give positive or negative affection for flirting?
 
D

daoster

Member
Wow...Belsavis has been a difficult planet....I'm having trouble with my gunslinger trying to kill an elite that is 3 levels below me, and that's with either my healer, DPS, OR my tank. Damn Scourge Manslayers!

The problem seems to be that they're CCing my companion, so the damn elites can focus their attention on squishy little me...not cool. Anybody have any tips to fight these guys?

Also, character romance questions for fellow smugglers:

Who are you guys romancing? Risha or Akaavi? I dunno, Akaavi looks kinda scary, but there's something oddly attractive about her...

Which one is better?
 
S

SpudBud

Member
Garryk said:
JK romance question:

If you pursue a relationship with Kira does it give you Dark Side points? Also, does she give positive or negative affection for flirting?
Click to expand...

There is a way to romance Kira without get any dark side points. You have to skip the first flirt option which will be a DS option. Later on, you will have the option to flirt with her with out getting any DS points.
 
K

Ken

Member
daoster said:
Wow...Belsavis has been a difficult planet....I'm having trouble with my gunslinger trying to kill an elite that is 3 levels below me, and that's with either my healer, DPS, OR my tank. Damn Scourge Manslayers!

The problem seems to be that they're CCing my companion, so the damn elites can focus their attention on squishy little me...not cool. Anybody have any tips to fight these guys?

Also, character romance questions for fellow smugglers:

Who are you guys romancing? Risha or Akaavi? I dunno, Akaavi looks kinda scary, but there's something oddly attractive about her...

Which one is better?
Click to expand...
We should party up for Belsavis. I'm Vergil on KV.
 
D

daoster

Member
Ken said:
We should party up for Belsavis. I'm Vergil on KV.
Click to expand...

Word! Let's do some quests this evening then.

(and in case you didn't know..I'm Daoster on KV....:p)



DarthWufei said:
Man, I made a Gunslinger not long ago and I am just at a huge loss over what spec to take. Need to find one that works well for PVE and PVP.
Click to expand...

I've been doing just straight up Sharp Shooting for PVE...I hear that Dirty Fighting is better for PVP though, as you're less reliant on cover with that spec.
 
C

Carm

Member
D

Darklord

Banned
Looking at torstatus.net made me notice that the server I'm on is pretty low on the population list. Man! No wonder it's hard getting flashpoint groups. I should have joined The Swiftsure that's full every day.
 
C

cametall

Member
PVP between factions feels like it is lacking. Maybe it's because the game is new and the population will eventually even out.

But I feel like Bioware needs to do something to get people playing on the Republic side. Maybe PVP and/or PVE buffs related to population size or the capture of PVP objectives.

PlanetSide had something like this to attempt population balance and I'm sure other games provided buffs/incentives for capturing and holding open-world PVP objectives. I thought WAR's system worked well that required all level "brackets" to work in tandem to open up that desert zone.

At this point it doesn't feel like there is any tension between factions, as the game tries to build up. It feels like each faction has their side of the school yard to play in and for the most part, they stay on their side of the school yard.

I'm on a PVP server btw.
 
LowParry

LowParry

Member
BattleMonkey said:
And the next big update is going to have new Operation, flashpoints, and warzones. Cool. Wonder if thats when these new graphic options will make it in too then?
Click to expand...

I think Reid said that 1.2 would have these graphic changes. So they got time to get their shit together. New warzones would be great. Super excited about that.
 
T

TheDancingWatermelon

Member
CcrooK said:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/0...-hutts-with-swtors-gabe-amatangelo/#continued


1.1 coming on the 17th. Next big patch sounds like in March. 1.2 I figure.
Click to expand...

Nice to get a date for 1.1 and a somewhat tentative timeline for the next content patch. I kind of figured March or April for a "1.2" content patch, seeing as they were hinting the next one would be out before PAX East. New warzone(s) are nice, although I'll take a stab that it's going to be the same faction one they were alluding to in that new years pvp post.
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
cametall said:
PVP between factions feels like it is lacking. Maybe it's because the game is new and the population will eventually even out.

But I feel like Bioware needs to do something to get people playing on the Republic side. Maybe PVP and/or PVE buffs related to population size or the capture of PVP objectives.

PlanetSide had something like this to attempt population balance and I'm sure other games provided buffs/incentives for capturing and holding open-world PVP objectives. I thought WAR's system worked well that required all level "brackets" to work in tandem to open up that desert zone.

At this point it doesn't feel like there is any tension between factions, as the game tries to build up. It feels like each faction has their side of the school yard to play in and for the most part, they stay on their side of the school yard.

I'm on a PVP server btw.
Click to expand...

Those games were pvp oriented and designed around pvp, TOR just isn't. They dont have any plans for RvR like mechanics so things aren't really going to change. WAR had tons of population issues that never got resolved no matter all the changes they attempted. Population imbalance in a non pvp centric game likely doesn't promote the devs to really worry about it since it's not a focus of the game or have any meaningful benefit to players.

If anything it would be nice if they did like WAR did where they gave an exp bonus to those who made characters of a speciic faction on servers that were imbalanced... course again that never fixed anything and the populations stayed static

CcrooK said:
I think Reid said that 1.2 would have these graphic changes. So they got time to get their shit together. New warzones would be great. Super excited about that.
Click to expand...

I just hope that we dont have to wait that long or longer for UI customization options. Biggest peeve with the game
 
K

Ken

Member
daoster said:
Word! Let's do some quests this evening then.

(and in case you didn't know..I'm Daoster on KV....:p)
Click to expand...

Cool. I'll be busy until around 4 PM PST (so around 5 hours from now) but after that we can run through as many Belsavis quests as we can tonight, as long as we don't run into any misleading "Heroic 2+" quests again. Lol.
 
C

Castor Krieg

Banned
Can anyone give me an estimate how long does it take to go through raid content? The few flashpoints I played were over rather quickly (30-45min I guess), was curious about Operations.
 
Interfectum

Interfectum

Member
Some more info:

Next week’s update for Star Wars: The Old Republic is to be called Rise Of The Rakghouls, and plans to add some major new content to the game, focusing on story-heavy features. Senior Creative Director James Ohlen explained to us in an interview we’re posting very soon that along with “a lot of bug fixes and modifications”, there would be the titular new story-focused flashpoint, as well as expanding Karagga’s Palace to have five times as many bosses (five). And this is just the first of many updates they’re already working on. March promises a new planet, warzone, operation, guild banks… And then there’s the updates they’re already working on for next year. You can see the accompanying trailer below.


According to Ohlen, the entire SWTOR team is still working flat-out on content for the released game. Next week’s update is just one of many they’re currently working on, with another much larger patch planned for March. It will contain part two of Rise Of The Rakghouls, and an entire new planet containing an operation and warzone, as well as “the second half of the Legacy System, which is the real meat of it.”

March will also see the game update with guild banks and PVP ranking systems, and Ohlen promises another sweep of bug fixes and tweaks.

And they’re already working on updates we won’t see until next year, with the story written out. Ohlen didn’t want to reveal how many are currently planned, but he let slip they’re already working on the fifth. The voiceover work is already being recorded for next year’s content.

There are also plans for something called the Event System, for which details are not yet forthcoming. However, we did manage to prise out of Ohlen that it may include something relating to Warhammer’s social quests – where you unofficially group with whoever is around at the time to complete a non-instanced task – something that we were surprised didn’t feature in the game at launch.

As for whether SWTOR means we’ll never see another single player KOTOR game, Ohlen was tight-lipped. For now, he said, the entire Austin team is only focusing on SWTOR. But he did hint that after six years on the project, there’s a chance he’ll be wanting to do something new soon.
Click to expand...

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/12/swtor-updates-lots-of-juicy-info/
 
D

daoster

Member
Ken said:
Cool. I'll be busy until around 4 PM PST (so around 5 hours from now) but after that we can run through as many Belsavis quests as we can tonight, as long as we don't run into any misleading "Heroic 2+" quests again. Lol.
Click to expand...

I'm at work, so I probably won't be home till 6PM PST. And yeah...I hope the Heroic 2 are actually doable with 2....lol
 
P

Prodigal

Banned
I would imagine PvP balance will get better as time goes on simply from people with Empire toons wanting to try out Republic's story lines. Though whether or not they stick with those characters is another story...
 
D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
So, how should I be playing my Sith Assassin? I am still trying to get how I should be playing this char down.

Right now I usually stealth into a group and do the big ground pound move that sends everyone flying, then I just use my normal attack.
 
C

cametall

Member
BattleMonkey said:
Those games were pvp oriented and designed around pvp, TOR just isn't. They dont have any plans for RvR like mechanics so things aren't really going to change. WAR had tons of population issues that never got resolved no matter all the changes they attempted. Population imbalance in a non pvp centric game likely doesn't promote the devs to really worry about it since it's not a focus of the game or have any meaningful benefit to players.

If anything it would be nice if they did like WAR did where they gave an exp bonus to those who made characters of a speciic faction on servers that were imbalanced... course again that never fixed anything and the populations stayed static
Click to expand...

Bah, you're right.

Being an old SWG player I had hope there would be some kind of focus on getting the factions to battle each other, but what SWTOR does have feels slapped together to appease those who enjoy less-meaningful PVP.

I'm not even coming across Rep players while questing. Are there questing areas for both factions that overlap each other?

I wasn't expecting a SWG-esque game or experience coming in, but I was expecting there to be some small focus on getting the factions to battle on a small scale. I'm disappointed to see more focus on inter-faction PVP (a la hutt-ball WZs).

Maybe my kind are in the minority now :p

EDIT: Let me clarify, I do come across Rep players while I'm questing, but those Rep players are level 50 gank squads, not some random encounter with the opposite faction. Though even the gank squad encounters are rare it seems (too close to release I'd presume).
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
frequency said:
Vanguard and FFXIV are the only ones I can think of that came out post-WoW that didn't follow the new formula.

I feel Vanguard, even though it was bad, has a better name than FFXIV around here. Maybe I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

That's because Vanguard had a ton of really cool stuff an some really amazing potential. The game world is still pretty damn impressive. If it wasn't a technical mess at release, I think it could have turned into something amazing.
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
cametall said:
Bah, you're right.

Being an old SWG player I had hope there would be some kind of focus on getting the factions to battle each other, but what SWTOR does have feels slapped together to appease those who enjoy less-meaningful PVP.

I'm not even coming across Rep players while questing. Are there questing areas for both factions that overlap each other?

I wasn't expecting a SWG-esque game or experience coming in, but I was expecting there to be some small focus on getting the factions to battle on a small scale. I'm disappointed to see more focus on inter-faction PVP (a la hutt-ball WZs).

Maybe my kind are in the minority now :p
Click to expand...

SWG pvp just happened because it was so open and it's sandbox nature promoted people to create heir own game world. Theme park zone MMOs don't do it as well as the old days. People did pvp in SWG because they had to actively choose to join either faction, everyone started neutral and shared the same play areas, so joining a faction was always a unique aspect since you were all sharing the same "neutral" world. It wasn't till near the end of it's life did they actually put in meaningful pvp system into SWG with actual consequences and such, but before that players just did it for the fun of it, and they did it all the time.

In warhammer one of its biggest flaws was that a game designed for pvp, and no one really wanted to fight, because there was no incentives to open world pvp. It was always more beneficial for rewards to just do the scenarios. They had to constantly buff teh rewards for open world pvp to get people to do it, and it wasn't till over a year after release did people really bother with RVR.

Yea an issue with TOR is that lot of the planets have very few areas that overlap. Some of the planets from what I can tell have no overlap at all so no world pvp can happen on them. Nar Shadda has areas that overlap for example, but Taris from what I saw has no overlap as it's a starting planet for lower level republic players, and it's a higher level planet for Empire.
 
M

Manos: The Hans of Fate

Banned
I love this game so much. It's like a massive Bioware game that will keep getting expansions. Snarkily, I have no idea what the hell is multiplayer about it, but man that is not a problem for me.

Oh any good stat tracker, map and item drop, etc sites?


I should also mention I forgot my security code...like an idiot, BUT I had live phone support fix the issue in 5 MINUTES! I mean that's like Amazon time.
 
D

Derrick01

Banned
The previews for the 2 upcoming patches sound nice, as does the future stuff but I have one concern/question. When are we getting updates on this legacy shit? I'm intrigued by it but I want to know how it's going to play out, I mean I haven't even got my first guy to 50 yet and I'm already 3/4 through legacy level 4.
 
T

TheDancingWatermelon

Member
nataku said:
No update on the UI at all in there really sucks.
Click to expand...

Honestly as big of a deal as it is to so many, combined with Reid claiming they have a whole team dedicated to the UI, I wouldn't necessarily rule it out for March or sooner. Guess we'll see though.

Napophis said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJjMex_iEIw&feature=player_embedded

Trailer for next week's Flashpoint.
Click to expand...

Looks pretty good, I'm hoping it's a more story driven flashpoint ala Directive 7, as opposed to like Hammer Station or Athiss.
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
Derrick01 said:
The previews for the 2 upcoming patches sound nice, as does the future stuff but I have one concern/question. When are we getting updates on this legacy shit? I'm intrigued by it but I want to know how it's going to play out, I mean I haven't even got my first guy to 50 yet and I'm already 3/4 through legacy level 4.
Click to expand...

I assume we will hear more about it next month since they said the big March update going to have part 2 of the Legacy system.
 
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